Lasher (3.5e Monster)

* : Situational; see text below.

Lashers are plant creatures with a large, verdant and unpleasant smelling flower for a head, consisting of four sharp, serrated fleshy petals surrounding a mouth festooned with feelers and hard, jagged edges that are much akin to teeth. From the center of a lasher's mouth extends a rugged, thorny vine that it uses to defend itself and ensnare prey. The body of a lasher is thin and tapers down into a collection of thick, ambulatory roots that enable it to move and climb surfaces.

Combat
Lashers use their lash in order to grapple prey and hostile creatures, whittling their health down until they are ready to eat. They feed on rodents, insects and carrion.

A lasher can root itself into the ground (or unroot itself) as a full-round action. While it is rooted, a lasher has a movement speed of 0 and cannot move, but retains its Dexterity score.

 : When a lasher starts its turn grappling a creature, it may capture it with its mouth, enclosing it between its petals and automatically dealing bite damage every round.

Fast Healing : While a lasher's roots are submerged in fresh (non-salt) water or stuck in the ground where there's a viable source of ground water, it has fast healing equal to its Hit Dice.

 : A lasher's lash is a long, flexible vine extending either from an aperture in the center of its face and (when older) from one of two pseudopod arms, that can reach a length up to one and a half times its body. They can be extended and retracted to various lengths to suit any purpose, and the lasher may make them count as a reach weapon whenever it is beneficial to do so. A lasher's lash gives it a +2 competence bonus to any grapple checks.

Wounds caused by a lasher's lash are ugly and continue to bleed, dealing a number of points of damage equal to the lasher's Hit Dice every round for 1d4+1 rounds after the last time a creature has been in direct contact with the lash, such as during a direct attack or a grapple. This persistent damage can be counteracted and stopped with a Heal check at a DC of 15 plus the lasher's Hit Dice or any kind of magical healing that restores 1 or more hit points.

Natural Camouflage: A lasher can blend easily into the background in any jungle environment or amidst other dense natural growth. This functions as the ranger's camouflage ability and grants the lasher a competence bonus equal to twice its Hit Dice (maximum +12) to any Hide check made in such areas.

Juvenile Lasher
Juvenile lashers naturally congregate into groups referred to as clutches, using numbers to compensate for their individual weakness. While only barely conscious at this stage of their life, they coordinate their movements by instinct and olfactory signals that create a sort of basic hive mind within a clutch of young lashers. While lashers as usually fairly docile and will rarely prey on creatures larger than cats or rabbits, when a creature provokes one of the lashers, the entire clutch becomes hostile. Juvenile lashers usually remain near their spawning grounds, which tend to be in marches and undeep streams, where they have access to plentiful water and food.

 : Juvenile lashers can spread their roots on the jungle floor to capture hostile creatures or unwitting prey. This ability functions like the entangle spell and requires at least 3 lashers to be present within 15 feet of the targeted area. Activating this ability requires each of the contributing lashers to expend a standard action. One Medium creature (or one 5-foot square) can be affected per lasher involved. The save DC is 13 plus the number of contributing lashers (up to a maximum of 6). Lashers cannot move or root themselves while using this ability.

Once per round, a lasher may attempt to start a grapple against an entangled creature as a free action without having to make a touch attack first.

Adult Lasher
When they reach adulthood, lashers become self-conscious enough to hunt and fourage on their own. Their roots thicken to form pseudopod limbs and they lose their ability to entangle creatures. They gain two thorny limbs that can grasp creatures and deliver lash attacks.

 : An adult lasher can attempt to capture a Medium sized or smaller opponent and pull it towards itself as a standard action. It makes a ranged touch attack against a creature within 60 feet. If this attack hits, the lasher may attempt to initiate a grapple which, if successful, immediately pulls the defending creature into an adjacent square. Any movement forced upon the creature by this ability does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Variations of Lashers
To come.