Homebrew Ent Species Details

This is not my original creation, this is an edit of "westward_man"'s Ent.

Ents typically live together in tribalesque groups known as groves, preferring to spend their days in quiet harmony with the woods. When provoked, ents demonstrate formidable skills with weapons and druidic magic.

Awakened Creations

Ents were created over 500 years ago by a long-forgotten elven archdruid, who wanted to provide guardians for the forest he called home. Using long-forgotten wood shape spells to give the trees humanoid forms, the druid imbued his children with intelligence, senses, and the ability to move with the <spell>Awaken</spell> spell. The oldest among the ents are aware of this magic and can create offspring, though they do so very rarely and usually only to create new groves in the far-flung forests of Faerûn.

Ents love nothing more than a peaceful day spent among the trees of an old forest. They see forests as sacred places, representing the heart of the world and monuments to the durability of life.

In an ent's eyes, there is no greater fault than greed. The ents believe that the world remains healthiest when each creature takes only what it needs. Material goods, especially precious gems and gold, have little appeal to them. What use are such things when winter lingers and food runs short?

Natural Druids

Ents have a talent for druidic magic. As creations of an archdruid, and as awakened plants themselves, their cultural reverence for nature, combined with their strong and insightful minds, makes learning such magic an instinctive part of their development. Almost every ent learns a few spells, typically those used to mask their presence or encourage healing and growth in other plants, and many go on to master nature magic.

Ents who become druids serve as grove leaders. With every action the grove takes, the druids weigh not only the group’s needs, but the effect each action will have on the forest and the rest of the natural world. Ent groves would rather go hungry or without sunlight than strain the land during a famine or choke non-awakened plants of the sun's precious rays.

Forest Guardians

As caretakers of the forest, ents prefer to remain out of sight and out of mind. They don’t try to dominate nature, but rather seek to ensure that it prospers and survives according to its own laws, as their creator intended.

Ents use their magic to keep their presence in a forest secret. This approach allows them to avoid the politics and struggles of elves, humans, and orcs. Such events concern the ents only when the events affect the forest.

When the forest is threatened, ents tend to take direct action. Their observations of a settlement determine what happens next. If the outsiders seem peaceful, the ents approach and gently ask them to leave, even offering food and other supplies to aid their departure. If those who insist on remaining respect nature, take only what they need, and live in harmony with the wood, ents explore the possibility of friendship with them, as long as the outsiders vow to safeguard the forest. If the settlers clearly display evil intentions, however, the ents martial their strength and magic for a single overwhelming attack. They do not typically leave survivors.

Outcast Adventurers

As guardians of the wood, few ents would dream of leaving their homes or attempting to fit into human society. An ent whose grove has been destroyed, however, might not have a choice in the matter. Most adventuring ents fall into this category.

A few rare ents are entrusted by their grove with an important mission that takes them beyond their homes. These ents feel like pilgrims in a strange land, and usually they wish only to complete their quests and return home as quickly aspossible.

Very rarely an ent might be sent on a quest to determine a suitable location to start a new grove, in order to guide the elders there who still remember the old magics of the arch druid who created them.

The Ent Adventurers table can serve as inspiration for determining why an ent character leaves home.

Ent Adventurers

Ent Names

When they must deal with outsiders, Ents typically adopt elven names or invent descriptive names for themselves, although the concept of names strikes them as strange. Similar to the firbolg and other fey creatures, they know the animals and plants of the forest without formal names, and instead identify the forest’s children by their deeds, habits, and other actions. As a result, many ents true names are very long and can take days or even years to speak, as it represents the history of their lives.

Sometimes ents adopt the nicknames or titles outsiders give them under the assumption that those who need names can call them whatever they wish.

Ent Traits

Your ent character has the following racial traits.

Part of Nature

You gain proficiency in the Nature skill. Ents are one with nature, because they come from it.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 1, and your Wisdom score increases by 2.

Age

Like the trees from which they were shaped, ents live very long lives. Ents typically consider themselves adults around the age of 100, though they never stop growing. As they were created only 500 years ago, no one knows their lifespan, but many druids estimate ents can live for 2000 years or longer.

Alignment

As people who follow the rhythm of nature and see themselves as its caretakers, ents are typically neutral good or true neutral. Evil ents are rare and, as beings of awakening magic, are usually corrupted by some sort of dark magic or disease.

Size

Ents can grow between 7 and 12 feet tall. At maximum size, their trunk is 2 feet in diameter, and they weigh over 2000 pounds. Ents tend to resemble the species of trees most common in their woodland territories, from which they were shaped. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Creation of the Forest

Ents are plants which makes them immune to paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning. Additionally, due to your size and natural stability, you have advantage when defending against any effect that would knock you prone.

Take Root

Ents breathe and eat like most other races, but do not need to sleep. Instead, ents must find a place where they can take root. During this time, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. Additionally, if performed under daylight, ents can collect energy from the sun and relieve themselves of the need to eat for 24 hours.

Natural Armor

Due to the shape of your body, you are ill-suited to wearing armor. However, ents are covered in a thick bark hide which provides ample protection; it gives you a base AC of 17 (your Dexterity modifier doesn’t affect this number). You gain no benefit from wearing armor, but if you are using a shield, you can apply the shield’s bonus as normal.

Powerful Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Speech of Beast and Leaf

You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with beasts and plants. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Sylvan.