Homebrew Ent Species Details

For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.”

— Treebeard, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers

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 natural magic.

Ancient Wisdom

Older than the gods themselves, ents are some of the wisest creatures to exist. Often recognizing the patterns in nature that humans and even elves are too young to notice, (e.g. the regular ten-thousand year cycle of a volcano’s eruptions or the time between exceptionally large floods) ents are thought to have infinite knowledge of nature.

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. 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 other 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.

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, orcs, and other similar races. 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 as possible. Very rarely an ent might be sent on a quest to determine a suitable location to start a new grove.

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

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 natural magic.

Ability Score Increase

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

Age

It is believed that ents cannot die of old age and oldest one known is about 3 million years old. Ents mature around 1,000 years of age.

Allignment

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 are usually corrupted by some sort of dark magic or disease.

Creature Type

You are a fey.

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.

Nature Knowledge

Ents are one with nature because they come from it. You are proficient in the History and Nature skills.

Photosynthesis

Ents do not need to eat or sleep. Instead, they must rest in sunlight, for at least 4 hours a day. While resting in this way, 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 and eating enough food to last the next 24 hours. Additionally, you are resistant to radiant damage.

Powerful Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. Additionally, you have advantage Strength Saving Throws against being knocked prone.

Barkskin

Due to your size and the shape of your body, you are ill-suited to wearing armor. Your thick barkskin provides ample protection, however; it gives you a base AC of 16 (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. Also, you are vulnerable to fire damage. Also, you are vulnerable to fire damage, due to your bodies composition.

Languages

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