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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 1512189" data-attributes="member: 2067">It's a problem with niche and motive, not with design.As it sits, they seem to be "marauding, stealthy predators." And low-level characters already have a glut of those to fight, invisible or not. Animals that stalk them, goblins with rogue levels, bugbears, whatever -- what's the difference, in the mind of flavor, to invisibility and a really good Hide score? It fills the same niche in the adventure design. If a DM thinks "I need a stealthy ambush attack," they've got a lot to choose from. And a phantom fungus has really *nothing* other than that to offer -- it's stealthy, sneaky, and well, I guess a plant....Beyond being a common type of 'design' of monster, they're plants. Plants. Plants aren't evil, they aren't corrupt, they don't want to steal your treasure, they don't want to eat your family. Not like goblins do, certainly....not like a fiendish stealthy predator would. At best, they're the tools of something more intelligent, but who uses plants? Well, except for druids I guess. There's no great evil gardener threatening the city -- though there are evil undead, evil demon-summoning wizards, evil warlords. But evil shrubbery? Most plants are Neutral, and those that aren't tend to be Good, ne? Who fights fungus?So there's the problem. They're a common trope of monster, and they hardly are a common type of monster to use. You can solve it by giving them more tricks (a poison, a spell-like ability or two, maybe a fear power), or by making more plant-based adventures......but most of the ones in existence have already been stated. There's evil druids, there's waterfalls, there's mushroom forests, there's giant trees........and here, with one exception, no one is 'sicing' them on you.I guess there's nothing about the phantom fungus that says "I'm your beastie!"......at least, nothing that goblins and jaguars don't already do. This is compounded by their "one-trick-pony" status......they're invisible.....so?</blockquote>

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