Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[Beni-Kujaku]

Boneleaf

What makes something a plant? The cambridge dictionary tells us that a plant is "a living thing that grows in earth, in water, or on other plants, usually has a stem, leaves, roots, and flowers, and produces seeds". A boneleaf grows in earth, has stem, leaves and roots, and may have seeds, since we have no idea how it reproduces outside of vegetative reproduction by rhizomes. (Also, it's almost indistinguishable from a plant so it may have fruits and seeds to complete the illusion) This may be an aberration, but almost any biologist would tell you that this is in fact a carnivorous plant, using illusions to lure humanoids the way Saracennia uses sweet nectar to lure insects.

Also, this creature is among the less discussed ones in d&d as a whole it seems. There has been no official text even mentioning it beyond HoH. We know absolutely nothing of the thing except the one paragraph in Heroes of Horror, and even that doesn't answer much, like how it reproduces or how it came to be (however, how it hunts and how it feeds is extremely well-described, which is honestly what you need for such a monster, so I can't really throw the first stone). Even on the internet, I've seen exactly two websites mentioning it, beyond simple creature lists and translations of the first two. That is, GitP, with the LA assignment thread and another thread asking what happens when you wild shape into one, and a confused guy on RPG Stackexchange who asked how to kill it, and whose question was copied on a few other websites. That is absurdly low, so let's give the guy a bit more love, and maybe let some of you play it to rekindle some interest in the weird plant thing!


-You are an aberration. Let's be honest, that's not good. A plant would have been much better. Also‚ you're litterally several white bushes grouped together‚ using vines to attack. I have no idea how item slots work in that case‚ but you'll certainly miss a few.
-The boneleaf has average stats for a Large melee 7 RHD monster, with +14 Str, +4 Dex, +12 Con, -2 Int, +6 Wis, +2 Cha (not having awful intelligence is a nice change of pace in this thread), with +8 natural armor (that will help balance out the difficulty to get an armor adapted to your body shape).
-You also get 4 natural weapons, of which you can only use 2 per round. Your two slams have higher damage than your two tendrils, which have greater reach, Improved Grab and Constrict. Constrict uses your slam damage. That's not half bad. Your strategy will be pretty simple: grab two people with your tendrils, then pummel them with your slams.
-Plant immunity are really good, with notably mind-affecting immunity. The rest is less useful, but it will come into play once in a while.
-You can create Major Images that last 1d6+1 rounds. That will only be useful to amuse children, since the duration is so short, but that's a fun ability for RP moments.
-The real problem here is your speed. 10ft land speed is really low. Even with a level of barbarian and the Burst power, you'll struggle to move around.

In the end, the boneleaf will be an excellent grappling Psychic Warrior, with stats very well-fit for this role, but you'll have a lot of trouble with your speed. Your first goal should be to find something that allows you to fly with a fixed speed. Owlfeather armor (if you can find a blacksmith who will make one for you), or a winged vest (if you can afford a standard action at the beginning of each fight, which you probably can't), or a standard continuous Fly item (supposedly 27k gp).

You have much better stats than the shambling mounds, better natural weapons and reach, but worse type, worse body shape‚ slightly worse immunities and skills, and half its speed. I think the boneleaf is still slightly stronger, especially with that good Wis, but not enough for one more RHD. I suggest 6 RHD and DLA-1.


That one actually wasn't that bad. However, this is only a respite before next time. We'll have another of those monsters where WotC assumed one of their subsystem would be successful enough to have some support, then they didn't print any. See you then for the Corruption Eater!