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Let's Read: Volo's Monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="Charles Rampant" data-source="post: 7021661" data-attributes="member: 32659"><p>The <strong>Wood Woad</strong> is a really interesting monster, who offers a lot of versatility to the DM, and can be used as both ally or enemy. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=76279&d=1460988797" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The Wood Woad art in the book is nice; it manages to be both charming and threatening at the same time. I also really like how the shield is actually formed from its arm.</p><p></p><p>So the Wood Woads are plant creatures that are brought into being by a ‘primeval’ ritual, in which a living sacrifice has their heart cut out and their body and blood used to anoint a tree. A short while later, one of these will grow and become a guardian spirit, obedient to the commands that it is given. The text notes that this does not need to be evil, if the victim is willing; I mean, I wouldn’t describe it as <em>good</em>, even so, but I can see the logic behind it being an act of sacrifice undertaken by primitive communities. This means that you can have the Wood Woad be created by Good Druids, or by Evil Druids, either of which might be jolly helpful for your storyline. I always like the idea of Druids, but they can be tougher to bring into a storyline than a Wizard, if only because they don’t tend to hang around cities and hand out quests. </p><p></p><p>The Wood Woad is a Lawful Neutral protector spirit, which will show no free will and no mercy in protecting its assigned target, usually a grove, forest, or person. They are also immortal, powered by the soul of the person who died, and this can lead to them outliving the thing that they were assigned to protect; at this point, they will take to wandering around, seeking out a nature-themed individual or thing to follow. That gives you an obvious way to have one of these turn up in your game; I used this myself already, when one player’s downtime featured him and a group of woodland creatures taking on a hag who was poisoning a forest. The Wood Woad is a really nice NPC option, being mostly but not entirely silent, and having an innate desire to find something new to protect; good if your storyline features a grove being attacked, and the players can help avert the damage. Alternatively, they can make good allies for an evil druid; note that there is a CR 12 Archdruid in the back of Volo’s.</p><p></p><p>So, the statblock for these guys is another one of the simple-yet-interesting ones in Volo’s. It’s commonly noted that the monsters in the Monster Manual were poor at moving and attacking; for example, the Balor can either attack <em>or</em> teleport, not both. The Wood Woad is much more nimble, able to exchange 10ft of movement to teleport between trees, once a turn. This is a really nice and characterful ability, and in a forest will let you make the players afraid of the trees. They get <em>Plant Camouflage</em> and <em>Regeneration</em>, the latter of which is surprisingly strong at 10hp per round, but unlike most monsters in the game the Wood Woad is actually Vulnerable to Fire, so don’t expect them to last long if the party includes an arcane caster; a Fireball would take 2/3rds of the HP of the Wood Woad off in one go, by my quick calculations. Meanwhile, the Wood Woad gets two club attacks for plenty of D4 damage, so is no slouch in the damage department. </p><p></p><p>The Wood Woad is another good entry from Volo’s. Plenty of narrative material to use here, a cool and characterful image and backstory, and a statblock that gives you a simple but memorable and unique combat routine.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charles Rampant, post: 7021661, member: 32659"] The [b]Wood Woad[/b] is a really interesting monster, who offers a lot of versatility to the DM, and can be used as both ally or enemy. [img]http://www.enworld.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=76279&d=1460988797[/img] The Wood Woad art in the book is nice; it manages to be both charming and threatening at the same time. I also really like how the shield is actually formed from its arm. So the Wood Woads are plant creatures that are brought into being by a ‘primeval’ ritual, in which a living sacrifice has their heart cut out and their body and blood used to anoint a tree. A short while later, one of these will grow and become a guardian spirit, obedient to the commands that it is given. The text notes that this does not need to be evil, if the victim is willing; I mean, I wouldn’t describe it as [i]good[/i], even so, but I can see the logic behind it being an act of sacrifice undertaken by primitive communities. This means that you can have the Wood Woad be created by Good Druids, or by Evil Druids, either of which might be jolly helpful for your storyline. I always like the idea of Druids, but they can be tougher to bring into a storyline than a Wizard, if only because they don’t tend to hang around cities and hand out quests. The Wood Woad is a Lawful Neutral protector spirit, which will show no free will and no mercy in protecting its assigned target, usually a grove, forest, or person. They are also immortal, powered by the soul of the person who died, and this can lead to them outliving the thing that they were assigned to protect; at this point, they will take to wandering around, seeking out a nature-themed individual or thing to follow. That gives you an obvious way to have one of these turn up in your game; I used this myself already, when one player’s downtime featured him and a group of woodland creatures taking on a hag who was poisoning a forest. The Wood Woad is a really nice NPC option, being mostly but not entirely silent, and having an innate desire to find something new to protect; good if your storyline features a grove being attacked, and the players can help avert the damage. Alternatively, they can make good allies for an evil druid; note that there is a CR 12 Archdruid in the back of Volo’s. So, the statblock for these guys is another one of the simple-yet-interesting ones in Volo’s. It’s commonly noted that the monsters in the Monster Manual were poor at moving and attacking; for example, the Balor can either attack [i]or[/i] teleport, not both. The Wood Woad is much more nimble, able to exchange 10ft of movement to teleport between trees, once a turn. This is a really nice and characterful ability, and in a forest will let you make the players afraid of the trees. They get [i]Plant Camouflage[/i] and [i]Regeneration[/i], the latter of which is surprisingly strong at 10hp per round, but unlike most monsters in the game the Wood Woad is actually Vulnerable to Fire, so don’t expect them to last long if the party includes an arcane caster; a Fireball would take 2/3rds of the HP of the Wood Woad off in one go, by my quick calculations. Meanwhile, the Wood Woad gets two club attacks for plenty of D4 damage, so is no slouch in the damage department. The Wood Woad is another good entry from Volo’s. Plenty of narrative material to use here, a cool and characterful image and backstory, and a statblock that gives you a simple but memorable and unique combat routine. [/QUOTE]
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