Hey there. Played a game with a friend of mine who is new to GMing today. Everyone died in the first encounter against a Hangman Tree. We figured it might have been bad luck, so we rewound. Again, everyone died. We opted to try once more, and finally managed to beat it by sundering all its vines, but still lost one of our PCs.
The rest of the adventure went fairly smoothly, so I can't really say it was poorly-built characters to blame or anything, that leaves me wondering whether it was potentially the monster. I know monsters that are more challenging than their CR would suggest occasionally exist, and so perhaps the Hangman Tree is one of them.
As a note, the party was a melee-based human cleric, an archery-based grippli ranger, a human witch focusing on spellcasting, and a half-elven summoner (caster summoner, melee eidolon).
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Honestly being 70ft+ away from this thing and just pumping it full of ranged attacks would be the key. it only has a movement of 10 so party could outrange it to death.
I agree with Matthias. That is how my group beat it also.
Honestly being 70ft+ away from this thing and just pumping it full of ranged attacks would be the key. it only has a movement of 10 so party could outrange it to death.
I believe that's how my group generally handles giant, horrible plant monsters. Anyone who gets close takes his life into his own hands.
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Doesn't look too bad. It's defenses are mediocre at best, frankly. I mean, a melee character might get eaten (and that'd be unfortunate) but most parties should be able to take the Hangman Tree.
I've actually got a party of five 6th level characters in my game currently...maybe I'll send them up against this thing next session (Friday). They're melee heavy, so we'll see how it goes.
I think they'll murder the poor tree (the Barbarian could kill it in two rounds by himself if he got lucky), though it will be trying to get the drop on them...which should give it a chance.
The battle area matters a lot. If you don't *have* a wide open area to kite it with, it's much more dangerous than if you do.
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The battle area matters a lot. If you don't *have* a wide open area to kite it with, it's much more dangerous than if you do.
It is sorta logically inclined to relatively open areas, though. How many areas contain trees and aren't mostly open (if perhaps difficult)? I mean, I can think of a few, but most people really are gonna face it somewhere where they can run from it.
Of course, that tactic might be less of an option if a PC or two have already been eaten...
You meet a hangman tree in a damp cave that is wearing tree ornaments of haste.
The location was a thick forest. Outdoors, but not open enough to get a shot in if we moved too far away (The GM has also said afterwards that if we'd attempted to retreat the undergrowth was also a monster that would have attacked us).
We camped underneath it without realizing what it was (well, I knew, but my cleric and the other players didn't). When it grabbed us we were well-within the horrible death radius, and unfortunately those PCs who were in a position to run away weren't willing to leave their allies behind.
In the first fight our ranger and witch succumbed to the spores. The witch finally made her save against them just in time to get knocked unconscious and the ranger never actually made his save. The others had difficulty running away due to constantly being grappled, and the summoner's eidolon wasn't summoned because we had gotten caught by surprise.
In the second fight we attempted to go for its hit points directly. The ranger's tiger animal companion and the summoner both failed their saves vs. spores at first, but made them eventually. We spent more time freeing ourselves from the tree's vines than attacking it though, and died one by one. Again, the summoner couldn't get her eidolon out, this time due to the spores.
We managed to win in the final fight as the summoner managed to stay un-grappled for a round early on, long enough to call out her eidolon. It did most of the work of flying to people and chewing through the vines holding them so that the rest of us could actually manage to take some actions. The witch got eaten and died in the tree's stomach though.
honestly the monster in the undergrowth would have been a better solution to something that mind controls and grapples. CMs are a monsters cheap trick against players as it never scales correctly, and even though your will saves would be decent with the party you listed it is not worth the random failures that are bound to happen.
Linkified Hangman Tree.
My current group recently fought a grapple-happy tree of some sort, and Liberating Command saved the day. It's a very situational spell, but among all the spells our Oracle knows, it may be my favorite.
honestly the monster in the undergrowth would have been a better solution to something that mind controls and grapples. CMs are a monsters cheap trick against players as it never scales correctly, and even though your will saves would be decent with the party you listed it is not worth the random failures that are bound to happen.
We didn't actually know there was an undergrowth monster. The GM just told us afterwards that it would have went for us if we tried to run away through it (and it formed a circle around the tree once we were fighting).
There was no real chance to run in any of the fights though. Or at least not one that everyone could have taken. By the time we'd cut everyone down they'd be grabbed again, and we'd have to do it again (and nobody was willing to leave teammates behind).
Linkified Hangman Tree.
My current group recently fought a grapple-happy tree of some sort, and Liberating Command saved the day. It's a very situational spell, but among all the spells our Oracle knows, it may be my favorite.
Liberating Command is an absolutely wonderful spell indeed.
My cleric prepared it thrice in their third attempt to defeat the tree.
Is this from an AP?
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We didn't actually know there was an undergrowth monster. The GM just told us afterwards that it would have went for us if we tried to run away through it (and it formed a circle around the tree once we were fighting).
So the whole encounter is designed like a trap?
Maybe the party was expected to detect it in the first place, trust avoiding being surprised by the Hangman Tree?
The hangman tree looks devious, but I've never actually had the misfortune of encountering one. Though about 10 years ago (2001-2002), a similar monster was created for D&D, look it up at your own risk.
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Actually my 2nd ed MM has a hangman tree in it too. Pretty nasty even then;
Magic Resistance 5% per 10 years of age
Spores at will (30-80ft), no save mentioned
Breaking free from the grappling vines requires a Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll (16% chanced with Str 18)
"Escape from the stomach is impossible. Many sharp growths surround the top of the opening, they point inward and down. About three man-sized victims can fit in the tree's stomach at one time."
However, a mature tree moves only 2ft per hour. Only you can ensure forest fires.
Barrels of oil, torches, time and patience.
And having good saves to deal with the spores helps. Monks or pallies.
Is this from an AP?
No, it was a new (to Pathfinder) GM's first attempt at running an adventure of her own creation (it actually went pretty well once we got to the actual dungeon, though we ended up defeating her BBEG in effectively one round).
So the whole encounter is designed like a trap?
Sort-of. It struck me as a sort of natural relationship between the tree and undergrowth monsters. The tree is the predator and the undergrowth feeds on the victims that the tree injures but doesn't manage to eat. When we proved strong enough to beat the tree in our third attempt the undergrowth let us by, as we'd proven to be stronger than something that was stronger than it.
How were you handling the multiple grapples? From my understanding, the tree can only maintain one grapple at a time (since maintaining a grapple is a standard action). So was it dropping all of the grapples each round and then full-attacking again?
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You meet a hangman tree in a damp cave that is wearing tree ornaments of haste.
i kill da tree an wear de shiney bulbs as earings!! now im da biggest AND i got da shiney bitz!
How were you handling the multiple grapples? From my understanding, the tree can only maintain one grapple at a time (since maintaining a grapple is a standard action). So was it dropping all of the grapples each round and then full-attacking again?
Hmm, good point. The GM probably missed the bit of the grapple rules (as did I to be honest. Having multiple limbs to grapple with isn't an issue that comes up very often).
Though iirc, we never really stayed grappled long enough for it to have to maintain them. It just kept forcing us to spend our turns escaping the grapples.
Pretty sure they can make multiple grapples, or they would be useless against a party otherwise.
Pretty sure they can make multiple grapples, or they would be useless against a party otherwise.
It's a murky subject, which is why I asked how it was being handled.