Homebrew Treant Species Details

Treants are awakened trees. They are quiet, pensive, slow, and deliberate in their natures. Though normally kind and helpful to those who do not threaten the balance of nature, treants will guard their flock of trees and protect their forest homes with great ferocity, able to rip apart constructs of solid stone in seconds.

Awakened Beings

Treants do not mate or give birth like other races. All treants begin their life as a seemingly normal tree. Yet even as a seedling they contained the spark of sentience that would later awaken them. A tree destined to become a treant grows normally, but slowly begins to take on humanoid characteristics over the decades; their trunks split into two separate legs, branches bend down to become grasping arms, and a face forms in the tree’s rough bark. Eventually the tree awakens fully and pulls itself free of the ground to begin its new life as a treant. It will continue to grow as it did as a tree, tending to the forest and protecting it from usurpers and destroyers.

Shepherds of the Trees

The life of a treant is simple and commonly quiet. Being plants, they have no need to forage for food, creating their own sugars from the rays of the sun. Most spend their days in quiet contemplation, ruminating on the goings on of nature and the wilderness surrounding the simple homes they make in a glen or copse. A treant rarely leaves its forest, focused solely on protecting its trees and other denizens of the forest. As a treant ages and its bark thickens it will venture out less and less, eventually taking permanent root and settling forever until its time to rejoin the earth comes. Treants have a natural affinity to nature. They can communicate with other plants through a deep and groaning tree language incomprehensible to other races. This affinity extends to creatures of fey origin, who share the treants’ love of growing things. It is possible that treants themselves are fey in nature, the spark which awakens them possibly originating from a nature spirit.

Pensive and Patient

Treants rarely venture out into the world, and the concept of adventuring is foreign to most. A treant’s true home is among the trees with which it grew and shared soil. Yet some young treants will venture out to strange lands, perhaps seeking some greater sense of purpose or understanding. Many feel that they have a duty to protect all the regions of nature in the world, not just the forest where they sprouted, and travel far in pursuit of this ideal. They return to their home soil only when their height is great and their bark is thick.

Treant Names

Treants take their names from a variety of sources. Many name themselves, being awoken with a grasp of multiple languages. Others are named by friends, both humanoid and fey. Whatever the source, most names combine two words based on a characteristic unique to the treant’s personality or build. Though treants do not have a true sex they typically lean to one gender throughout their lives.

Treant Names: Ashthorn, Autumnbirch, Barreltrunk, Bramblewood, Cunningdale, Elderheart, Firhair, Ironbark, Limbwillow, Maplesap, Oakgrove, Pinestand, Sapjoy, Tendershoot, Wildroot, Wisebellow

Treant Traits

Treants are as varied as the trees from which they grow, but in general all have the following traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength and Constitution scores increases by 1.

Age

Treants can grow to many hundreds or thousands of years old, their magic sustaining them far beyond the normal lifespan of their tree species. Most treants awaken within the first century of their sprouting, and it is while a treant is young and small that they travel the world.

Alignment

Treants tend to carry no particular opinions beyond the need for the protection of their forests, and they have little concept of the laws of civilization. Though most are good-natured and kindly, corruption of a natural habitat or the destruction of their home can drive a treant toward madness and fury.

Size

Treants continue to grow steadily for the entirety of their lives. Most treant saplings are between 7 and 8 feet tall when they leave their forest homes and weigh 300-700 lbs. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

False Appearance

While you remain motionless, you are indistinguishable from a normal tree.

Natural Armor

Your tough bark protects you from harm. You are unable to wear armor, but your AC is 14 + your Dexterity modifier or your Constitution modifier, whichever is higher. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.

Nature's Warden

You have proficiency in the Nature skill.

Powerful Form

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

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Giant.

Treeish

You are considered a plant instead of a humanoid, and you have vulnerability to fire damage. Instead of eating or breathing normally, you harness the sun's energy and surrounding oxygen to create your own food. You can survive a number of days equal to your Constitution score without sunlight or oxygen before starving or suffocating. You must drink twice as much water as a normal human, but can take in this water through your root-like feet during travel or other activities if it is available. Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.

Hardwood

Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.