Primal Terran

Spiciness: 3/5

While hard to kill, the Primal Terran doesn't deal exceedingly high amounts of damage and lacks any AoE. If the fight goes on long enough, you could theoretically kill off a player, but if they have any healing its more likely to simply burn a lot of their resources over several rounds.

Feeds about 3-5 players, level 5-7

Scales for: Number of Players, Player Level

Ingredients:

• 1 Primal Terran
• X Awakened Trees (One for every player above 3 players)

Scale for Level: For every level above 5, add +10 HP to the Primal Terran. At level 7, give it a third attack as part of its multiattack.

Preparation

The oldest of earthen Terrans, the Primal Terran are the primordials before there was even a word for them. They are the direct creations of elder gods, and often serve as protectors of their holy grounds or sacred gardens. They are kind, gentle souls that cultivate plants in their territory and on their very bodies-- but also fierce warriors who relentlessly smash those who would threaten them, or what they are sworn to protect. While they are perfectly capable of being reasoned with, very few speak primordial. Even still, the primal terran speak an older dialect: even those who speak primordial may require intelligence checks to decipher the exact meaning of their words, and anything other than complete and unambiguous surrender is enough to stop the Terran's onslaught.

Though the Primal Terrans are rarely seen in groups, the plants they cultivate often gain sentience from the care they provide. As such, a DM might pair them with Awakened Trees, Vegepygmies, Blights, Woads, or Myconids. Assassin Vines (From ToA) would be particularly brutal, as they add significant damage despite being only CR3. In this encounter,

Cooking the Awakened Trees
(Or other plant-creatures)

Round 1+: Their sole purpose is to add a little damage that the Primal Terran lacks, and to balance out the action economy a little. Have them stay next to ranged players (including spellcasters) so that they make ranged attacks with Disadvantage, and forces them to split focus off of the Primal Terran.

Note. Many plant creatures have False Appearance, so you can introduce them later to the fight as "see these trees you're hiding behind? They start to move."

Cooking the Primal Terran

Round 1. Regeneration is only good if you're not at full health, so feel free to stick around and take a little damage. Use Earthen Grasp to grab someone (preferably a melee person who is not yet at melee range), then keep your distance and Stone fist.

For Round 2+.

• If you're still at mostly full health, stick around and Stone Fist twice. This should help encourage them to crank out some higher damage.

• If you're mid-to-low on health

  • If you have no one around you, use your Burrow speed to create a size large tunnel, then Create Stone Wall to seal it off behind you. Since the tunnel is 10ft by 10ft, you'll be able to create a box shape (meaning they'll need to smash 2 panels, or 50hp worth to get to you). Since you have tremor sense though, you still have line of sight on anyone within 60ft of you, including behind the box.
  • If you have melee opponents next to you, you can use your Stone Fist to knock up to two of them back 10ft (thus, preventing attacks of opportunity), and then dig straight down 30ft & to the side 10ft. This has an interesting effect of causing the melee people to need to jump down 30ft (taking 3d6 fall damage) to chase you, and blocking off all line of sight from ranged opponents, who will now likely need to Dash to get to you anyways (as they likely stayed as far back as possible in the first place). This gives you time to heal, and set up a Stone Wall, in which we use the "If you have no one around you" strategy.