Florabarian
Thanks to @HottingerLauren for sponsoring this Encounter!
Spiciness: 5/5
Feeds about 3-5 players, level 5-7
Scales for: Number of Players, Player Level
Ingredients:
- Florabarian (stat block on next page!)
- X Poison Vine Blights (One Per Player)
- Use the Vine Blight stat block but add the following ability: Toxic Thorns. Any creature that grapples the Blight or otherwise comes into direct contact with the Blight's vines must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. A poisoned creature no longer in direct contact with the Blight can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Scaling for Level: At level 7, add +1 to their Save DCs.
Preparation
The Florabarian is named such because they are intoxicatingly beautiful, yet dangerous. They utilize their vicious vines to brutalize their enemy, poisoning them and twisting their minds until they can no longer discern friend from foe.
This fight is all about Poison & Charm. Each ingredient in it can either inflict poison (and help the Florabarian get her Intoxicating Charm off), or has other means of crowd control to prevent the party from simply ganging up on the florabarian until she's downed.
Things you should know for this fight:
- Reactions can happen even on the turn of the person triggering the reaction (thus if the Florabarian poisons someone, she can use her reaction on her own turn).
- Poisoned gives them disadvantage on Attack rolls and Ability Checks.
- While charmed, they follow Florabarian's orders without hesitation or misinterpretation.
Cooking the Florabarian
Round 1. Start off by isolating Florabarian-- you don't want the party getting close to her. Spike Growth is a great option for keeping melee people distant.
Round 2: Fun note, spike growth damage applies for every 5ft a creature moves within there. So pick a target, Thorn Whip them to pull them within 10ft of you (and dragging them through the spiked growth), then use your Poison Ivy to maybe poison them. If that succeeds, Intoxicating charm them. Order all your new charmed friends to run... through the spiked growth!
Round 3+: Once you lose concentration on Spiked Growth, you've lost a large deal of your damage output. You can combo Ray of Enfeeblement with Instinctive Strike to get someone charmed in a turn, play defensively with Dispel Magic to shut down buffs & concentration spells, or even just focus someone down with Blight.
Reaction. Instinctive Strike is fantastic for quickly charming enemies who've been poisoned. Between that and being able to use Intoxicating Charm as an action, you could charm up to 2 party members a round!
Cooking the Poison Vine Blights
Round 1+: Their one job is to poison as many people as possible and keep them grappled. Note that the reach on their Constrict is 10ft, and it inflicts grapple + restrained. So you can grapple a melee person from 10ft away, and they won't be able to hit you on their turn until they've broken out of the grapple (which takes an action to escape anyways), though melee fighters are likely to be able to escape since it uses their athletics or acrobatics to escape. The good news is that since it uses a check and not a save, being Poisoned gives them disadvantage on it!
Round 2+ Once they have someone grappled (and poisoned), use your Entangling Plants to make the whole area difficult to navigate. You don't want your party members getting close! The Entangling Plants only affects creatures you choose for it to affect as well, so don't have it restrain your charmed friends!!
Florabarian
Medium Plant, Neutral Evil
- Armor Class 14 (bark armor)
- Hit Points 88 (16d8 + 16)
- Speed 30ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 11 (+0) 15 (+2) 12 (+1) 12 (+1) 17 (+3) 16 (+3)
- Saving Throws: Con +4, Wis +6
- Damage Immunity. Poison
- Condition Immunity. Poisoned
- Skills Arcana +4, Insight +6, Nature +4, Religion +4
- Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
- Languages Common, Sylvan, Druidic
- Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3
Telepathic Bond. The Florabarian can communicate telepathically with a creature it has charmed. The two don't even need to be on the same plane of existence to do so.
Spellcasting. The Florabarian is an 8th-level Druidic spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks), and has the following druid spells prepared:
- Cantrips (at will): poison spray, thorn whip
- 1st level (4 slots): entangle, ray of sickness
- 2nd level (3 slots): Ray of enfeeblement, spike growth
- 3rd level (3 slots): dispel magic, plant growth
- 4th level (2 slots): blight, giant insect
Actions
Multiattack. Florabarian casts one cantrip and uses her Poison Ivy once.
Poison Ivy. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage plus 14 (4d6) poison damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Intoxicating Charm. The Florabarian targets a Poisoned Creature within 30ft of it that it can see to activate the toxin's hallucinogenic properties. That creature must make a DC 14 Wisdom Saving Throw or become Charmed by Florabarian. The charm lasts until the creature is no longer poisoned. The charmed target obeys the Florabarian's verbal or telepathic commands.
Reactions
Instinctive Strike: When a creature within 30 feet of the Florabarian becomes poisoned, she may use her reaction to use her Intoxicating Charm.