Iceroot Devourer

[Joseph Kellogg]

This tree sways silently in the wind, its scraggly branches swinging from side to side as if searching for prey to seize in its clutches.
Iceroot Devourer CR 3
XP 800
N Large plant (cold)
Init-1; Senses blindsense 30 ft., low-light vision; Perception +0
Aura silence (20 ft.)
----- Defense -----
AC 14, touch 8, flat-footed 14 (-1 Dex, +6 natural, -1 size)
hp 26 (4d8+8)
Fort +5, Ref +0, Will +1
Defensive Abilities plant traits; DR 3/slashing; Immune cold
Weaknesses vulnerability to fire
----- Offense -----
Speed 20 ft.
Melee 2 claws +5 (1d6+3 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (1d6 cold), seeping chill (DC 14)
----- Statistics -----
Str 17, Dex 8, Con 14, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 5
Base Atk +3; CMB +7 (+11 to grapple); CMD 16
SQ camouflage, snow step
----- Ecology -----
Environment cold forests
Organization solitary, pair, or grove (3-6)
Treasure incidental
----- Special Abilities -----
Aura of Silence (Su) Iceroot devourers deaden the sound around them in a 20-ft. radius, as the silence spell.
Camouflage (Ex) Because an iceroot devourer looks like a normal tree when at rest, a DC 18 Perception check is required to notice it before it attacks for the first time. Anyone with ranks in Survival or Knowledge (nature) can use either of those skills instead of Perception to notice the tree.
Seeping Chill (Su) Whenever an iceroot devourer deals damage with its constrict attack, the target must succeed at a DC 14 Fortitude save, or else become fatigued. If already fatigued, the target instead becomes exhausted. If already exhausted, the target gains a temporary negative level. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Snow Step (Su) Iceroot devourers do not leave tracks when moving across snow, and cannot be tracked across it.

Iceroot devourers were once normal trees that became the final resting place of a traveler lost in the frozen wilderness. As the tree continued to grow around the corpse, it internalized the deathly cold and silence of the falling snow, and began to hunger for the warmth and life the traveler once possessed. When killed and broken open, the unfortunate traveler’s gear can usually be found intact within. The trunk is typically at least 3 feet in diameter, and the iceroot devourer can grow as tall as 40 feet. Most are formed from coniferous trees, but some deciduous versions exist, although they remain dormant during the warmer spring and summer months.

Iceroot devourers usually stay in one location, standing still while they wait for adventurers or animals to wander nearby. They can sense warm-blooded prey and other heat sources, and when that prey comes within reach, the iceroot devourer grabs it with claw-like branches to keep it from escaping, while the aura of silence keeps it from crying out to its companions.

Iceroot devourers are found mostly in the perpetual winter of Irrisen, but also in the more northerly taigas of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and Mendev. There are even rumors that some of them were created on purpose through experiments with necromantic magic, by the servants of Baba Yaga.

[Wolfgang Baur]

Initial impression: A frozen tree that creates silence? Creepy fun. And congrats for going with a plant AND a lower CR!

The more I think about this one, the more it seems like an awesome match for Irrisen and the Linnorm Kings, and a fine way to mess with a party. At the levels we're looking at, nerfing the spellcasters that depend on verbal components won't doom the party, though it's definitely going to hurt. The potential to combine these with a Still Spell caster does make me chuckle with evil GM glee, though, and that's a good thing.

I wish you had spent a few words on whether the silence can be cancelled and why a 40-foot-tall tree only counts as Large.

I DO recommend this monster to advance.

[Clark Peterson]

Initial Impression: Stealthy snow tree of silence, attack! You remind me of Jason Nelson. Not flashy but really really solid. That makes one heck of a freelancer. I think this is a really strong entry. Not the best, but top group no doubt.

[Sean K Reynolds]

Welcome to Round 3! I'm posting this little blurb at the top of my reply for everyone. FYI, I'm not going to crunch all the math in your stat block, for several reasons. One, I don't have an hour for each monster. :) Two, I'm sure you've been very diligent about this and if anything is wrong, it's probably only off by a little bit. Three, if you were writing this for publication in a Paizo book, you'd be using our stat block spreadsheet, which takes care of the math for you--your job is to understand the rules and bring the mojo. :) My focus in this review is on the overall coolness and balance of your monster, with an eye on how efficiently you put it together and a spot-check of stat block elements that catch my eye.

Your monster is an animate tree with a freezy dead vibe.

Stat block nitpicks: You need a space between Init and the number.

This creature's damage reduction is 3/slashing. Most monster DR is in increments of 5—to make the math easier, so the DR actually has an impact on the combat (same reason trolls have fast healing 5 instead of 1 or 3), and to be consistent (same reason most monster skill bonuses are +4 or +8).

The monster's constrict ability deals cold damage. Constrict is specifically described as crushing damage; if you want it to have a special ability that deals cold damage on a successful grapple check, then create one, don't redefine a UMR (in the same way that you shouldn't give a monster the burn ability but have it deal cold damage instead of fire damage... you'd create a new ability with the same rules construction as burn, but call it something else).

Camouflage: I like that you can use Survival or Knowledge (nature) instead of Perc to detect this monster.

Seeping Chill: It is weird to me that this cold ability eventually applies a negative level.

The flavor text of this monster really skews from the stat block information. You say it's Large, and its trunk is 3 ft. in diameter, and it's 40 feet tall. But compared it to a treant: Huge, 2 ft. diameter trunk, 30 feet tall. So either your flavor text is off (because you describe it as larger than a treant), or your stat block is off (because it's presented as smaller than a treant).

Your flavor text also says it can detect heat, but nothing in its stats indicate that (blindsense doesn't necessarily detect heat, and it doesn't have a special sense like the banshee's ability to detect heartbeats).

I like the concept of the monster, but there are some technical problems that make me hesitant to recommend this one.

I do NOT recommend this monster for advancement.

[Clark Peterson]

Joseph, welcome to Round 3!

Now that I’ve read all 16 entries, I can say that there are some real strong entries here—more strong entries than spots, unfortunately. Some good submissions won’t make the cut. I am only going to recommend 8 of you since only 8 can advance. In close cases, I took into account your prior work.

What I am looking for: I’m a big picture guy more than a minute details guy. I don’t think just seeing if you crunched out the rules properly is the right way to judge a good entry for this round. Of course you need to execute the stat block properly. Luckily, Sean and Wolfgang are way more qualified than I am to talk about the nit picks and issues with the stat block so I will leave that to them. My comments to you will be more “big picture.” For me, I want to see a monster that is fun and playable—a monster that leaps of the page and makes me find a way to incorporate it at the game table. That, to me, is a superstar monster. So here we go…

You got my Initial Impressions above. Unfortunately, as I read the other submissions the bloom came off the rose for me with this one. I no longer think it is a top submission. Instead, this one was in the group of monsters “on the bubble,” and that lost out to Michael’s ooze, Pedro’s leechroot and Maurice’s leechlorn.

Design (name, overall design choices, design niche, playability/usability, challenge): B+
I like the initial frozen silent stealthy death tree vibe. I still like it. This was a tough round and I just though there were better core concepts, I’m sorry to say. That’s not a criticism of your entry, I just felt others were better. The limitation is on the nature of the creature.

Execution (quality of writing, organization, Golarion-specific, use of proper format, quality of content—description, summary of powers, rules execution, mechanics innovation): B
Sean spelled out the technical errors and I agree, I also think there are more than there should be. When I couple the errors here with the less than the best core concept, it led to your bubble monster not making the cut, which I’m sad about.

Tilt (did it grab me, do I want to use one in an adventure?, mojo, just plain fun factor): A
I can’t deny it—it grabbed me initially. It didn’t wind up standing the test of time or comparison with others. But I still like the thing.

Overall: B+
Joseph just not quite enough my brother. Great try in a tough round.

Final Verdict: I DO NOT RECOMMEND this monster advance.

Joseph, your mirror was one of the weaker top 32 items in my view (but still top 32, for goodness sake) and your Round 2 archetype I thought was an improvement and a step in the right direction. I thought this was a step back and in a round this close this was not the round to take a step back (or maybe more accurately, not to take a step forward).
That said, it’s up to the voters.

Good luck!

[Alexander Augunas]

This monster already has a strike against it in my book, because I personally feel that there are too many "sneaky living tree" monsters in Pathfinder. I was hoping to see something new and instead this monster is a "sneaky living tree ... OF THE NORTH!" Wasn't crazy about the design, was disappointed in the lack of snow-and-ice themed powers, and was completely puzzled as to why this thing has an aura of silence. It seems like a cheap GM trick to punish spellcasters, really. There's nothing in the stat block to suggest why the tree has this power or what it uses for except, "It could have been made by witches!" Furthermore, if you walk within 20 feet of this tree and all of a sudden the sounds of the snowstorm around you, the sounds of your feet tapping against the ground, your own body drawing breath, all of that stops too. You're going to know SOMETHING is nearby the minute it happens and I'd argue that you're immediately prepare yourself for trouble. This is, of course, assuming that the aura cannot be turned off. Because your text does not describe ways the monster can activate or deactivate it.

[RonarsCorruption]

Joseph, it makes me sad that you decided to go with a plant monster, because I really dislike plant monsters. Yes, there are the occasional keepers there, but there are already a half-dozen monster trees (scythe tree, gallows tree, witch tree, treant...), and this isn't new or exciting enough for me to care about it.

You took a crowded space, and added a slight variation. Yes, a creepy silent-stalking winter-tree is.. an okay idea - but I think it'd have been a lot better as a variant of one of the existing tree monsters already out there.

[R D Ramsey]

Naming: So-so. Kind of an old school name name in some ways, but not inspiring. Seeping Chill is a nice SA name.

Cool Factor: Low. It's hard to make an exciting tree, and this doesn't really make the cut for me. The silence aura is neat, but Alexander's points there are on target. Would anyone still be talking about this encounter in later gaming sessions? Probably not. Props for attempting CR 3, though.

[frank gori]

While I wasn't in love with your evil dead mirror, you won me over with your archetype and now this. Awesome monster man, no critiques this time around I'm just giving a bump to my faves

[Joel Flank]

I agree that there are lots of tree monsters already, but don't think many (or any) at this lower CR. I like the imagery of a snowy silent tree killer, and there's decent background of how they come to be and why they hunt for blood, so that's all good.

My biggest concern is what happens with the negative levels if they kill someone? Most monsters or effects that can give negative levels create spawn, zombies, etc if something dies from it, and I'd prefer to have it addressed, even if the answer is just dead and can't be raised. I did like the lower level effect that had a fatigued then exhausted buffer before negative levels from a CR3 creature.

As for "can grow to 40 feet" I assumed that was code for - advanced iceroot devourers can be huge or even gargantuan, though normally there's a standard size given, then mention of "can grow to...".

Overall, while not a super original monster, it's interesting and creepy, and nothing glaring with the stat block, so I'll probably vote for this.

[Eric Morton]

@Joseph Kellog: Unfortunately, I agree with many of the above posters that "killer tree" is an overcrowded niche. I also have an unfair bias against this monster because I've already posted a CR 3 Large plant with an aura of silence on the Homebrew forum (though I wouldn't have expected you to know that). Further, I agree that extreme cold has nothing to do with negative levels; at most, cold might cause Dexterity or Constitution damage.

[Sean McGowan]

I've given a big sigh in response to most if not all of the other plant entries this round, but surprisingly, this one works for me. I'm not sure why; it still has the standard plant monster 'grab and constrict' attacks. But the fact that it's cold based is interesting; that's an element that rarely makes it into a plant monster design. Also. it's purely superficial, but I like that it's a coniferous plant; most plants tend to be willow/vine/giant carnivorous plant in basis. Pine trees need to be feared too!

I don't mind the negative level as an expansion to fatigue/exhaustion; much like Joel upthread though, I wish the full consequences of getting enough negative levels had been spelled out.

Not sure about where this falls for my vote; it might be top eight or else just fall shy. best of luck in either case.

[Jacob Trier]

Joseph, congratulations on making it this far. While I ended up not voting for your monster, I thought you did a great job capturing the essence of the frozen woods of Irrisen, and you made a bold choice by picking a tree as the basis for your entry.

Good luck in the voting.

[Mike Welham]

A cold-themed plant monster is an unusual choice, so that works in your favor from my perspective. The snow step ability makes me smile, since I can imagine that a large tree would normally leave a furrow that anyone can follow even without ranks in Survival.

Good luck to you in the voting!