Living Grove
Level 5Attacks
Abilities
Tremorsense allows a monster to feel the vibrations through a solid surface caused by movement. It is an imprecise sense with a limited range (listed in the ability). Tremorsense functions only if the monster is on the same surface as the subject, and only if the subject is moving along (or burrowing through) the surface.
The living grove can Hide in natural environments even if it doesn't have cover. While Hiding, its root system is safely covered in dirt, granting the grove a +3 status bonus to AC. A critical hit cracks this protective layer of earth to disperse in the wind, ending the effect.
DC 22 reflex, 5d8 bludgeoning damage, Escape, Rupture 10 A creature Engulfed by the living grove must also attempt a DC 22 fortitude save as it's battered between the thin, tightly packed trunks. Critical Success The creature is unaffected. Success The creature is Stunned 1. Failure The creature is Stunned 2. Critical Failure The creature is Stunned 4. The monster Strides up to double its Speed and can move through the spaces of any creatures in its path. Any creature of the monster's size or smaller whose space the monster moves through can attempt a Reflex save with the listed DC to avoid being engulfed. A creature unable to act automatically critically fails this save. If a creature succeeds at its save, it can choose to be either pushed aside (out of the monster's path) or pushed in front of the monster to the end of the monster's movement. The monster can attempt to Engulf the same creature only once in a single use of Engulf. The monster can contain as many creatures as can fit in its space. A creature that fails its save is pulled into the monster's body. It is Grabbed, is Slowed 1, and has to hold its breath or start suffocating. The creature takes the listed amount of damage when first engulfed and at the end of each of its turns while it's engulfed. An engulfed creature can get free by Escaping against the listed escape DC. An engulfed creature can attack the monster engulfing it, but only with unarmed attacks or with weapons of light Bulk or less. The engulfing creature is Off-Guard against the attack. If the monster takes piercing or slashing damage equaling or exceeding the listed Rupture value from a single attack or spell, the engulfed creature cuts itself free. Effect: Engulf and Swallow Whole A creature that gets free by either method can immediately breathe and exits the swallowing monster's space. If the monster dies, all creatures it has engulfed are automatically released as the monster's form loses cohesion.
Description
A living grove is a singular connected entity, with dozens of genetically identical trunks united within the same root system. At rest, a living grove resembles nothing so much as a small arboretum of birch and aspen trees, though oak and redwood varieties that are significantly larger and tougher exist as well.
At first glance, wood elementals might not seem to have the same destructive potential as their cousins from the Planes of Fire, Water, or Air, but don't be fooled. The woods can be a dangerous place.
Though some resemble animals, the elemental beasts presented here are still plants, and their life cycles reflect it. Vegetable lambs grow on rooted stalks, from which they can't be removed until they've matured (or perhaps ripened), leaving them dependent on their immediate surroundings for food. Moss sloths are little more than lumps of green fluff for the first century of their existence, only gaining limited mobility once they can grow their defensive wooden claws.
Wild But Unwild
Many wood elementals are created by kizidhars and other powerful creatures on the Plane of Wood and placed in rote roles. Populating nature preserves and sprawling estates, they can be unsure how to behave if released into the wild. They're essentially born domesticated and will likely act far differently than the wild creatures they mimic, even in natural environments. Their natural predators are few, putting the elementals at less risk, although they're still sometimes eaten by giant termites or captured by some as pets.
A Brain By Any Other Name
Even if Lady Shumunue taught the wood elementals' ancestors to mimic animals, a wood elemental's consciousness is contained not in a brain but in its root system. Entities like nursery crawlers, living groves, and carved beasts use this to their advantage. That an elemental's wooden body can be carved and crafted, apparently without lasting harm, implies that they might not feel pain so long as their roots remain undamaged.