#Spore servant 5e full#

In both cases, remove the vulnerability to fire damage and add a trollвЂ™s regeneration a yellow musk creeper is still weak against fire (and acid), though it doesnвЂ™t manifest the same way. For a more powerful monster, add an abolethвЂ™s enslave attack to a treant.

#Spore servant 5e full#

Any creature who spends a full 24 hours charmed gains the spore servant template from the myconid entry, except it also becomes eternally loyal to the yellow musk creeper. To mimic this, use an awakened tree and give it a dryadвЂ™s fey charm attack. Those who survived the process became yellow musk creatures, slaves to the creeper, and its primary means of defense and reproduction. The 3E Field Folio had the yellow musk creeper, a plant that released pollen to enthrall creatures, draw them close, and steal their mind. And nothing says you canвЂ™t mix and match these as your campaign warrants.ДЇrom the Vault: Zuggtmoy isnвЂ™t the only creature that controls others via spores.

The application to horror is obvious, but even a light-heartened comedy campaign can use Zuggtmoy by saying her control manifests as a simple mushroom on a creatureвЂ™s head a la Earthbound. If you want tension, they spread quietly, and she maintains just enough control over her thralls for them to seem completely normal until they strike*.

If you want set pieces, they spread dramatically, filling the area until itвЂ™s not clear whatвЂ™s mundane and whatвЂ™s an infected creature until the party is already on top of it. If you want mystery, they spread only at designated times, and the party must find the carrier in a busy city before he infects dozens of others. If you want combat, her spores spread rapidly and they can turn any creature into an aggressive beast within minutes or seconds, forcing the party to fight their way through. ItвЂ™s unclear how ZuggtmoyвЂ™s spores spread, so you can decide they work in whatever way suits your campaign. Plots: The nice thing about ZuggtmoyвЂ™s spores is their intentional ambiguity. Only certain types of elemental seem completely immune-it would take a special kind of spore to take hold in a creature made entirely of fire. Infested golems wouldnвЂ™t be followers per se but they do give her a different sort of minion. An intelligent undead may have goals in line with hers and may not interpret the loss of control any differently from being a slave to its own needs. She probably has fewer than a dozen such followers in any given campaign setting.ДЄ weirder, but possibly more interesting option, is letting her spores infect creatures without metabolism. Both are valid tragic villain archetypes when done right, but strawman disappointments when done poorly. They generally fall into two camps: the people insane enough to think a world without animals is a suitable price for a world without society, and the people stupid enough to think they can maintain their identity when she controls their every movement and thought. ItвЂ™s a perfect fit.ДЄtypical Followers: Intentional followers of Zuggtmoy are much, much rarer. IвЂ™m trying to avoid using any 5E material beyond the core rulebooks and the demon lords themselves, but I have to give a special mention here to the Circle of Spores archetype for the druid. Anything with a metabolism can be home to spores that control its body and brain: a human, a goblin, an elephant, a beholder, anything. Typical Followers: Almost any creature can be an unintentional follower of Zuggtmoy. The bodies themselves are just a useful tool, spreading her sickness far and wide, increasing her reach until nobody can escape her authority. Instead she uses spores to infect, destroy, and control anything and everything she can. She does not intentionally attract worshippers, because anything capable of worship is probably anathema to her. Her methods are even more insidious than those of other demon lords. She seeks a world cleansed of all animal life, leaving only plants and fungi as part of a single universe-spanning organism.

She has no set form, no race who pledges its undying loyalty, no meaningful creatures on the Material Plane because creatures mean nothing to her. Her inhumanity rivals that of any demon lord, an amorphous mass that only occasionally deigns to present itself as somewhat humanoid.