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Bramble
These wicked watchers of the woodlands haunt dark thickets in forests and fi elds, stalking the unwary. Most dangerous in the tangled briar patches and thorny copses they call home, brambles often make clear trails through their domains that turn into winding mazes designed to confuse and entrap victims.
A bramble’s body is covered with barklike skin and wrapped in tangled, thorny vines. Its face is wizened and cruel, and yellow eyes peer out from beneath its prickly brows.
Creating a Bramble
“Bramble” is an inherited template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature that breathes air (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A bramble uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type The creature’s type changes to plant with the appropriate augmented subtype. Size is unchanged.
Hit Dice Change all racial Hit Dice to d8s.
Armor Class If the base creature has a +1 or lower natural armor bonus, it improves by +2.
Base Attack Bonus A bramble’s base attack bonus for its racial Hit Dice is 3/4 x racial HD (as cleric). Its base attack bonus increases normally for any class Hit Dice it has.
Attack The bramble retains all the base creature’s attacks, and its weapon and armor proficiencies. These attacks retain the same primary or secondary status they had for the base creature. The bramble gains a gore attack if it did not already have one. If it has other natural attacks, it must choose upon creation whether the gore is a primary or a secondary attack. It cannot thereafter change that decision.
Damage A bramble has a gore attack. If the base creature does not have this attack form, use the base damage value given for its size on the following table. Otherwise, use the value from the table or the base creature’s damage value for its gore attack, whichever is greater.
| Size | Gore Base Damage |
|---|---|
| Fine | 1 |
| Diminutive | 1d2 |
| Tiny | 1d3 |
| Small | 1d4 |
| Medium | 1d6 |
| Large | 1d8 |
| Huge | 2d6 |
| Gargantuan | 2d8 |
| Colossal | 4d6 |
Special Attacks A bramble retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains those described here.
- Entangle (Sp) A bramble can use entangle (caster level equals bramble’s character level) once per day, plus one additional time per day for each 5 character levels the bramble possesses. This ability functions like the spell of the same name, except that it affects only thorns and burr-bearing plants. A bramble is immune to the effects of its own entangle.
- Improved Grab (Ex) To use this ability, a bramble must hit with any one of its natural attacks. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can use its thorny grasp ability.
- Prickle Whip (Ex) Once per day, a bramble can unravel and detach one of the tangled strands that form its body. Doing so requires the same kind of action as drawing a melee weapon. This strand then functions as a whip sized for the bramble (see the SRD for a description of the whip), except that the damage it deals is lethal and is not negated by armor or natural armor of any value. The whip becomes stiff, brittle, and useless after 1 hour.
- Thorn Dart (Ex) Twice per day per character level, a bramble can pull a long thorn from its body. Doing so requires the same kind of action as drawing a dart. This thorn functions like a dart in all ways, and the bramble is automatically proficient with it.
- Thorny Grasp (Ex) A bramble deals automatic gore damage with a successful grapple check against another creature. In addition, any creature that attempts an opposed grapple check to pin, constrict, swallow, or damage the bramble takes damage equal to the base damage for the bramble’s gore attack (unmodified by Strength).
Special Qualities A bramble retains all the special qualities of the base creature and gains those described here.
- Fire Vulnerability (Ex) A bramble takes double damage from fire unless a save for half damage is allowed, in which case the bramble takes double damage on a failed save and half damage on a successful save. If the base creature has immunity to fire, the bramble retains that quality and does not gain fire vulnerability. If the base creature has fire resistance, the bramble retains that quality, but fire vulnerability applies to any damage in excess of that resisted.
- Thorn Walk (Sp) This ability works like the tree stride spell (caster level equals bramble’s character level), except that the bramble can travel only through trees that produce thorns or burrs. In addition, a bramble can move through a wall of thorns or any similar thorn-related effect without taking damage or suffering any impairment. Thorn walk is usable once per day, plus one additional time per day for each 5 character levels the bramble possesses.
- Woodland Stride (Ex) A bramble can move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, or similar terrain) at its normal speed without taking damage or suffering other impairment. However, thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion (except via its own entangle ability) still affect the bramble.
Saves Fortitude is a bramble’s good save; Reflex and Will are poor. Recalculate the portion of each of the base creature’s save bonuses derived from racial HD. The portion of the base save bonus derived from class levels remains the same.
Abilities Change from the base creature as follows: Str –2 (minimum 1), Dex +4.
Skills A bramble gains a +8 circumstance bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks in forested areas and thickets.
Languages If the bramble can speak, it gains the ability to speak Sylvan in addition to any other languages the base creature knows.
Feats The bramble gains Exotic Weapon Proficiency (whip), Simple Weapon Proficiency, and Quick Draw as bonus feats.
Environment Warm and temperate forests, or cold forests if the base creature lives in a cold environment.
Organization Solitary, pair, or coven (3–8).
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +1.
Alignment: Often neutral evil.
Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +2.
Bramble Characters
A bramble favors whichever class the base creature does. Although most brambles are evil, many are not.
The material below originates in a 3PP source (License).
