Helborn

The helborn is an intelligent, meat-eating plant with spell-like powers and a nonverbal empathic telepathy reaching 60 feet, which it uses to talk with prospective prey. A mature plant has a 4-foot head (AC 1) made of two hinged lobes like a clamshell, a trunk (AC 3) that holds its stomach, and 4-12 thick tendrils (AC 5). It can pull up its roots and haul itself short distances by grabbing objects with them. Every attempt to cultivate one has ended in disaster.

Wily and patient, a helborn baits its trap with treasure, as a bribe or a lure, or uses empathy to persuade victims it will aid them if they bring it 'food.' Each tendril clubs for 1-6, or on a hit wraps a foe and crushes for 1-4 per round afterward, and is strong enough to hoist a man-sized victim. A tendril breaks after taking 8 points of damage, which does not count against the plant's own hit points.

Captives go into the mouth, pinned by spines lining the lobes; struggling costs 1-3 per round. A mild enzyme deals 1 point per round for four rounds, then the victim passes into the stomach for further digestion, and indigestible matter is later coughed up. From within, the head is only AC 5, and a victim with a short sword or smaller blade can cut his way out by inflicting damage equal to a quarter of the plant's full hit point total.

Helborn grow in swamps and rarely trouble anyone who lives elsewhere. They eat anything but other plants and suffer no rivals nearby. Only communal creatures able to muster enough magic and force to destroy them ever attack them.

A helborn passes through four growth stages, a year apiece. The seedling is a 6-inch head (1 HD) in a rosette of leaves. The young plant (2 HD) has a 1-foot head, the start of a trunk, and some leaves turned to tendrils too weak to hold anything medium-sized or bigger. The subadult stands 6-8 feet tall with a 2-foot head and tendrils that club for 1-3 or crush for 1-2. A fully grown plant survives around 11-20 years. At each stage it gains a once-a-day power, cast as by a 12th-level mage: ESP as a seedling, hypnotism when young, domination as a subadult, and mass suggestion when mature.