Leshy

A leshy looks a bit ridiculous: a youthful, elfish man in red and green whose coat is always buttoned crooked and whose shoes are on the wrong feet. His height depends on where he stands. At the forest border he is a mere 1 foot tall; at its center he rivals a hill giant in size and strength, growing steadily larger the deeper he goes.

Holding still, a leshy blends into the foliage and cannot be seen, though rangers and druids get a 5% chance per level to pick him out. Nobody surprises him, and no good or neutral forest creature will ever hurt him.

He carries no weapons, but at full size he can swing a tree trunk for double club damage plus his Strength bonus, 2d6+7 total, and can hurl boulders like a hill giant, 2d8 damage at ranges to 200 yards. He rarely throws rocks, finding it crude.

He casts spells as a 12th-level druid, favoring plant magic, and once a day can summon woodland creatures that fight for him as hard as they can.

Each great old forest has exactly one leshy, tied to it as a dryad is to her own oak; he can never go more than 100 feet beyond it. He tends and defends the wood at any cost, and if it is destroyed he dies, a rare event since leshies dwell only in the very largest forests. He knows every inch of it and makes a superb guide if persuaded, aiding only good folk and driving out the wicked.

A leshy may live 1,000 years without losing his young looks; when one dies, a successor somehow appears. He eats only fruit, nuts, berries and roots. Precious metals mean nothing to him, though he often keeps a little wealth for bartering.