D&D 5E Playable Plant People

[Minigiant]

The plant race in my game are magically enhanced mutant amphibians infected with a plant symbiote to boost their intelligence and wisdom to sapiency. Gator-toads with vines and leaves coming out their bodies. They actual hate other plants for "stealing their sunlight" and burn trees larger than them unless they plan on building a house from them.

Small sized. Bark over scales is +2 AC. And each long rest they can "grow" a net, whip, spear, trident, or quarterstaff.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I think vegepygmie PCs would be awesome. Imagine a character who considers eating a blooming onion to be cannibalism.

My first thought was a vegepygmie as well

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Count me as another who likes plant & fungal sophonts. I had a 3.5Ed post-ELE hombrew in which elves all had the plant template (whatever it was called). One of my 3.5Ed PCs in someone else's campaign was a Geomancer, and all the Drift elements I took were of the planty variety.

IMHO, good planty/fungal types should have immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities that clearly set them apart from their fleshy counterparts. The trick for playable versions is, of course, balance vs other PC races. One way you can do this is with not frontloading too many of their advantages. If your plant people are treelike, perhaps it takes time for their bark to grow sufficiently tough to affect their AC. If they're more like cacti, perhaps their needles take time to grow & harden before becoming significant threats. Carnivorous plant types' acids would be weak, initially. Spore or pod attacks would be for mature individuals of the races, only.

Perhaps they're all slower-moving than similar fauna; more vulnerable to fire and dehydration.

Etc.

 

[Jester David]

The Unapproachable East campaign setting book for 3.5 Forgotten Realms included a write up on the Volodni.

Which tends to be the other problem with "new" races: names that look like someone headbutted the keyboard. If you tell someone you're playing a "volodni' their response isn't going to be "oh a plant man".

I have jack o' lanterns: animated pumpkin vines wound into humanoid shape, generally wearing clothing stuffed with straw so they don't look freakishly thin. Minor agricultural spirits created to help and protect mortal farmers, they are very friendly and down-to-earth, and can most often be seen as farmhands in isolated rural areas. But urban folk tend to view them with superstitious fear, so they avoid cities and areas with a lot of traffic.

Okay... that's pretty cool.

 

[Marandahir]

My biggest problem with that Vegepygmy write-up is that a mold is a fungus, not a plant.

A fungus shouldn't have any moral qualms with eating an onion. In fact, fungi eat plant matter all the time; it's why we throw out our old food that's rotting or molding.

Vegepygmies have history with the game, but unfortunately its a history that completely denies anything we know about fungal and plant biologies. Yes, we used to loop mycology into botany because people originally couldn't tell the difference. That doesn't mean the fungus shouldn't be able to tell the difference, though.

As a side-note, Iserith's Mario encounter convinced me that Myconid would be a fun race to play. It's still not a plant person, though, even if the 5e MM still can't tell the difference between a plant and something more closely related to a human than to an Ent.

 

[Sacrosanct]

My biggest problem with that Vegepygmy write-up is that a mold is a fungus, not a plant.

A fungus shouldn't have any moral qualms with eating an onion. In fact, fungi eat plant matter all the time; it's why we throw out our old food that's rotting or molding.

Vegepygmies have history with the game, but unfortunately its a history that completely denies anything we know about fungal and plant biologies. Yes, we used to loop mycology into botany because people originally couldn't tell the difference. That doesn't mean the fungus shouldn't be able to tell the difference, though.
.

The game has reptiles with boobs, and chimeras and beholders, but this is where you get hung up on biological accuracy?

 

[Marandahir]

A plant is a lot more different from a fungus than a reptile is from a mammal.

And Chimeras are a Wizard did it while Beholders are eldritch abominations from the far realm. So they don't really count. Myconids are natural fungus people, native to the feydark and the underdark.

 

[fuindordm]

I think of warforged as plants, personally. At least, the majority of their bodies are "living wood".

I could play a WF as Groot-in-armor.

 

[Sunseeker]

Sylvari were the first thing that came to mind. Of course many of them qualify as "fantasy hot chicks" too, right down to the tragic pair of cute lesbian Sylvari in high positions of both the "good" and "bad" factions.

Hmm... League of Legends' Zyra is also a plant and a fantasy hot chick. Go figure.

Well, at least with the Sylvari they can be anything you want them to be and they're not quite as overtly sexist portrayls as:
the Houri: Elf/Nymph

Spring Child: any humanoid/Dryad

Woodwise: Elf/Treant
couldn't find an image, but they're basically 8ft-tall elves with leafy hair.

So, while I expect my fantasy people (men and women) to generally be attractive by normal social standards I do not invision a plant-race being and more or less physically attractive than regular humans.

Pathfinder 3PP has the "oaklings" which I think is along the lines of some people's comments on a more tree-like race.

Honestly I see a plant race as being somewhat more flexible in appearance than typical humanoids. There are far far far more species of plants than there are sentient humanoids in any given world, so understandably a plant-race could reflect that with tall, hearty, tree-like members as well as short, flexible, shrubby members or lithe and delicate flower-like members.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I'd play a groot like plant guy anyday!