This vaguely humanoid-shaped creature resembles a tree stump with arms and legs. It bears a large wooden shield and club held at the ready. Points of like, like eyes, shine out from within a deep hollow that forms its face. Mosses and small mushrooms grow all over its body.
Wood woads are plant creatures akin to treants, that serve as guardians to dryads or other servants of nature.
A wood woad has the power to enter trees as a dryad can, but it can also use this ability to teleport from tree to tree. This similarity to the dryad’s ability has led some to think that wood woads are the male version of the race, but they are in fact plants.
Wood woads cannot carry most treasure items with them when they move from tree to tree; after defeating a foe, they often carry useful items some distance away to hide them in a hollow tree or under a stump. Although dimwitted, wood woads have an excellent memory for where such caches lie, and they return to them to retrieve better weapons or useful items when they spot intruders.
Such caches are often guarded by a thick wooden door that a wood woad opens and closes with its warp wood ability. This power allows a wood woad to twist dead wood and wooden objects, and a forest occupied by a wood woad is often marked by frequent instances of its past uses of the ability. A wood woad is about 6 feet tall and weighs 300 pounds.
Wood woads speak a rudimentary form of Sylvan.
Combat
Wood woads attack any creature not native to their forests. They charge foes from some distance away, using their treewalk ability to cross the distance swiftly. After they warp their foes’ wooden weapons and strike a few blows, wood woads flee and watch to see if their enemies go away.
Wood woad
Medium plant
Init +1; Senses low-light vision; Perception +6
Defense
AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16 (+1 Dex, +4 natural, +2 shield)
hp 30 (4d8+12); regeneration 5/fire
DR 5/slashing
Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +2
Immune plant traits
Vulnerable fire
Offense
Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft., treewalk
Melee club +7 (1d6+3)
Ranged rock +5 (1d6+3; 10 ft. range increment)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Spell-like Abilities
- At will—warp wood (DC 13)
Statistics
Str 17, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 7, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +4; CMB +7; CMD 18 (22 vs. bull rush or trip)
Feats Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Acrobatics +6, Climb +8, Perception +6, Stealth +9 (+13 in forest), Survival +6
Languages Sylvan
Morale resolute (+4)
Special Qualities strength of the earth
Ecology
Environment temperate forests
Organization solitary or colony (1d4+2)
Special Abilities
Treewalk (Su)
At will, a wood woad can enter a living tree as a free action and exit from it or another living tree within 60 feet, continuing as though the distance between the trees had not been crossed. A wood woad moving in this manner can charge or run through trees so long as it moves in a straight line.
The entrance and exit trees must have girths at least equal to the wood woad’s, and the wood woad cannot take nonvegetable items or other creatures with it when it treewalks. A wood woad can exit a tree in any direction and from any part of the tree that has enough girth.
A wood woad can remain inside a living tree for as long as it wishes. A wood woad inside a tree senses the world around it normally and automatically knows which trees within 60 feet are living and can accept its girth. If the tree in which a wood woad hides is chopped down, burned up, or otherwise killed, the wood woad inside dies.
This ability is a teleportation effect.
Strength of the Earth (Su)
While the wood woad is touching the earth (or touching a tree which is rooted in the earth), its regeneration is active, and it gets a +4 stability bonus on CMD against bull rush or trip combat maneuvers, and on saves against being moved in any way.
Skills
A wood woad has a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks in a forest.