Undead Treant

An evil treant that feels its long life ending rarely goes quietly. Most die in a final frenzy of slaughter, but a few return as something so foul that even the wandering fortune-tellers refuse to discuss it. An undead treant looks like any broadleaf tree in winter, leafless, with dull bark that seems almost brittle. Its face stays hidden until it speaks or reveals itself, and it has a 90% chance of going unnoticed among other bare trees.

It speaks the evil treants' language and usually 2d4 others, but rarely talks to the living and seems to have lost the power to speak with animals.

It strikes twice a round with its branches for 5d6 per hit. A natural 19 or 20 knocks the target down and stuns him one round for every 5 points dealt, rounding up, so an 18-point blow means 4 rounds.

When nothing else demands its attention, it settles beside a downed victim to feed. It must stay still for a round. On the second round, 3d4 rootlets snake out and dig into the victim for 1 point each, and from the third round on, every root drains 1d3 points of blood per round. The roots wrap the victim so he cannot move, and he can escape only with someone else's help. Each root is AC 5 and snaps on any hit. Once all are cut, the victim needs two rounds to wriggle free, or one with help. When feeding ends, because the victim is empty or the roots are gone, the treant needs a full round to get moving again, and attacks against it gain +2 during that round and while it feeds.

Fire attacks gain +4 to hit and deal 2 extra points per die. It cannot animate trees, but it casts spells as a 2d3-level druid, never choosing any fire spell. It needs normal verbal and somatic components but material ones only when they are essential to the spell, such as for goodberry.

Like all undead it ignores sleep, charm and hold. Beyond that, holy water does nothing to it, priests and paladins cannot turn it, sunlight does not harm it, and control undead and control plants have no effect.

They live in small stands of dead trees, never more than four in an area, and their foul aura turns those woods dark and evil. Often one remains part of its old evil treant community, where it is honored as a mighty leader and plainly in command.

For some evil treants this seems to be a natural stage of life, surely a reward granted by the dark powers of the realm for a lifetime of wickedness.