They’re tree-mendous
What are plant creatures?
The life of an adventurer in the D&D universe is brought with danger. While dragons and monsters are expected hazards, it’s those things that are least expected that can cause the greatest dangers.
Faerun and beyond are home to a terrifying array of intelligent flora. These creatures are plants in nature, whether they be fungal, flowers or trees; but also have a measure of sentience, perhaps even acting like a creature as a myconid or treat might do. These creatures may have arms and legs and think in relatively intellectual ways.
Other plant creatures may act in more or less the way you’d expect, being reactive rather than proactive. Yes, they might be dangerous in the way they protect themselves, and sometimes deadly, emitting spores and poisons; but at least they won’t hunt you down. Of course, the innocuous looking fungi might not need to hunt you down, it needs only look safe enough to have you drop your guard before bursting with deadly toxins.
The message here is, don’t underestimate plant creatures and their utility in D&D. A clever DM will use plant creatures to unleash ambushes on unsuspecting parties who will never brazenly march through a patch of fungi again!
Types of Plant Creatures
Below are all the types of plant creatures found in the D&D universe:
Corpse Flower
CR 8
Plants that grow from the remains of powerful necromancers or undead. These creatures are eventually able to uproot themselves and feed on corpses.
Gas Spore
CR 1/2
Balloon-looking, toxic fungi that look similar to a beholder.
Myconid
CR 0-2
Peaceful, bipedal, fungal creatures that live in dark corners of the world.
Blight
CR 1/8-1/2
Plants that have been tainted with evil, becoming a dead-looking creature similar to the plant from which it was formed.
Spore Servant
CR 1
Dead creatures can be reanimated through the use of a myconid sovereign’s animating spores which take over control of the creature’s corpse. These beings are called quaggoth Spore servants. While they retain physical characteristics of the reanimated corpse, they don’t retain the mental characteristics.
Shambling Mound
CR 5
A large, predatory creature made up of strong vines.
Shrieker
CR 0
Fungi without the ability to move, but will emit loud, screaming noises to capture their prey.
Treant
CR 9
Sentient tree beings with the ability to walk.
Vegepygmy
CR 1/4-2
Spawned from dead humanoids through the spores they emit, vegepygmys are sentient creatures.
Violet Fungus
CR 1/4
human-sized mushrooms with vine-like appendages that can attack passers by.
Wood Woad
CR 5
Powerful, humanoids turned into guardian plants hosting the soul of a creature that has given up their life to perform an eternal duty.
How to use plant creatures in you campaign
Plant monsters make great unexpected enemies. Once you’ve surprised a party with one unexpected plant monster, they’ll never relax in forests or around fungi again!
Consider using plants in boggy water to grasp at players ankles. Fungi work well in caves and especially confined areas where they can spread their spores. Perhaps the players have climbed a tree, but it turns out they climbed a treant instead. Players getting too close to a corpse flower might get gobbled. The traps can be fairly endless.
Of course, not all plant creatures in D&D 5e are instinctive flora, some are more like fauna and can provide a deeper roleplaying experience. Consider using myconids protecting their territory or their morally dubious use of corpses filled with spores as foot soldiers. Blights, vegepygmys, shambling mounds and wood woads are all plants with a streak of the humanoid in them and can be used in interesting ways.
You might also use the elements for natural puzzle solving. Plant creatures may love light but be fearful of fire. Likewise, poison may be an excellent tool for some plant creatures. Plants are also great at causing conditions on characters too so don’t be afraid to perform a bit of crowd control with their abilities.