Blackroot Marauder

These golem-like constructs look like walking saplings clad in black leaves and thorns, their roots and branches roughly forming a humanoid shape. A faint, leering face in the bark unsettles even veteran woodsmen.

A marauder lashes twice a round with thorny limbs for 3d4 each, and can also shoot 1d6 thorns per round at a single target within 30 feet. Each thorn that hits calls for a save vs. poison; failure costs 1d4 hit points a round for 2d4 rounds. Extra thorns do not raise the damage but do extend it: four failed saves mean 1d4 a round for 8d4 rounds. Neutralize poison halts further loss without restoring what was lost, and slow poison cuts it to 1 point per round. Thorns regrow so fast its supply is effectively endless. Its branch attacks carry no poison.

It is immune to electricity, poison and mind-affecting magic. Blunt weapons do nothing, piercing weapons deal just 1 point per hit, and slashing weapons deal half. Standing still, it looks like any other plant, giving +3 to surprise against anyone but a druid. It can use know alignment at will on everything within 60 yards, even hidden or invisible beings, so it cannot be surprised.

Since the sudden exodus of his fiendish allies, the cruel demigod has leaned on them heavily in a vast border forest, where they make ideal ambushers. Many roam under orders to slay any non-evil creature, and the forest's rangers count them among their worst foes.

The demigod's inner circle guards the creation rite, though rumors leak. Only his priests of 12th level or higher can perform it. The priest finds a wild sapling about 7 feet tall, clears all plants within a 15-foot radius, and shades it from direct sun for a month, rubbing unholy water into the bark at every sunrise and sunset and feeding the roots warm blood. On the final day the priest casts six spells in strict sequence: warp wood first, then spike growth, then know alignment, then poison, then quest, and last animate object; when the last spell takes hold, the marauder awakens to serve. The first two must be read from scrolls, since the demigod does not normally grant them to his clergy.