Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Treant

Treant, Rare, no. 64 of 72, Giants of Legend

“Side? I am on nobody's side, because nobody is on my side, little orc.” 
     Treebeard

Treants are sentient trees that act as jealous defenders of the forest. Treants adopt a section of a woodland as their own, then devote their lives to nurturing the vegetation within. A treant will allow passage through its woods, so long as the visitors do not start fires, or lay axe to wood. Those who do so are attacked, or at the very least, threatened. Treants care little for the affairs of men, but find their destructiveness disconcerting. Treants are natural allies with elves and other woodland races. Under no circumstance will a treant venture outside its forest.

     Treants are solitary creatures. Enchanted forests will have no more than one treant for every 10 square miles of woodland. Once every five years, all of the treants within a forest will meet to share news and renew friendships. These meetings tend to last a few weeks and are exclusive. Treants will not tolerate visitors during this time. Treants are asexual and reproduce only once during their lifetime. This process involves the production of a special seed that is planted in rich soil, then carefully tended. This usually occurs near the end of a treant’s life. The young treant, often called a “sprout,” is cared for by its parent for at least 10 years.

      A treant’s leaves are deep green in the spring and summer. During the fall and winter the leaves change to yellow, orange or red, but they rarely fall out. A treant’s legs fit together when closed to look like the trunk of a tree. A motionless treant is nearly indistinguishable from a tree. A treant is about 30 feet tall, with a trunk nearly 3’ in diameter. It weighs about 4,500 pounds. Due to its wide stance and sweeping branches, a treant occupies a space 3 hexes in diameter.

     Treants have a reach of 3 hexes and receive a +4 bonus to grapple man-sized (SM 0) creatures. Their favored tactic is to either slam foes with their branches or trample them. Evil wizards prize the trunks of treants, which they use to craft wands and staves of fell power.

Treant (395 points)
SM +4 (30’ tall, 4,500 lbs.);
ST 35 (size, -40%) [150], DX 10, IQ 10, HT 14 [40];
HP 35, Will 15 [25], Per 15 [25], FP 14;
Basic Lift 245, Damage: Thr 4d-1/Sw 6d+1;
Basic Speed 6, Basic Move 6; Dodge 9, Parry (see attacks), Block -;
DR 1.

 Advantages and Perks
Damage Resistance 1 [5], Doesn’t Breathe (oxygen and CO2 absorption) [15], Doesn’t Sleep [20], Extended Lifespan 2 [4], Immunity (metabolic hazards) [30], Injury Tolerance (homogenous) [40], Plant Empathy [5], Speak with Plants [15], Temperature Tolerance 3 (7º-104º) [3]. 

Disadvantages and Quirks
Dependency (sunlight, very common, daily) [-15], Dependency (water soluble nutrients found in soil, very common, weekly) [-10], Disturbing Voice (-2 to reaction rolls) [-10], Fragile (combustible) [-5], Sense of Duty (forest inhabitants) [-10].

Skills 
Brawling-14 [12], Camoflague-15 [2], Farming-13 [12], Gardening-12 [12], Herb Lore-11 [12], Naturalist-13 [16], Observation-15 [2], Tracking-15 [2]. 

Attacks 
Punch-14, 4d+3 cr, reach 3, parry-10.

4 comments:

  1. An article from my old Iridia zine dated September 4, 2006. I forgot to archive it here on the blog. This article was part of an effort to convert D&D monsters to GURPS.

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    1. One of my on-again off-again projects is to convert the World of Greyhawk to GURPS, so this kind of thing is really helpful to me.

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    2. I'm glad you like it. The conversion work is a bit tough, huh? I guess that's part of the "game within a game" aspect of GURPS. Character and creature design is a solitaire experience, not unlike system generation in old Traveller.

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    3. It's a bit of a pain, yeah. Mostly time-consuming, and with no immediate use for it I end up doing it just when I have some free time that isn't already taken up by other things. Priorities.

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