Relic Drake
Dragons normally find a concrete destiny when life ceases, returning to the draconic pantheon's god of death, perhaps under the grace of one of the deities they served. A dragon's path in life is not set, many heeding their innate nature, some becoming valiant defenders, others arcane scholars.
Such is the inborn power of dragonkind that few show deference to the natural world, nor the gods and forces that govern and protect it. A scaled scion of the druidic circles, rare as one might be, differs little from any other dragon while alive. Yet a true adherent to the Old Faith through its many years does not perish in vain, provided it dies in a sacred grove or other area suffused with primordial power.
At the will of an archfey, nature god, or other powerful being, the green things of the forests may take root in a candidate suitable both in body and spirit, purifying it of decay and granting it sustenance. Their wings a small price to pay for walking once more, these landwyrms are just as much dragon as plant in both anatomy and soul: they even resume the gain in power and size over time that they knew in life, and the result of eons of growth is a relic drake, .
Photosynthetic Nature. Relic drakes don't need to eat, given four hours of exposure to sunlight and fresh air for at least 4 hours each day. They also don't suffer the ill effects of old age, and can't die of old age.
Soul of the Wood
Intrinsically connected to the area that granted it new life, a relic drake always benefits from the speak with animals and speak with plants spells. It loses these benefits if it leaves the area it was resurrected in without the blessing of a being similar in power to the one that revived it.
Art by Antonio José Manzanedo, WotC.
Encounter Notes
A relic drake is typically a peaceful creature, if reclusive. It tends to the grove, glade, or oasis it guards using its magic from afar and keeps itself appraised of the region it has been charged with guarding. However, these colossal protectors lie dormant for long periods of time when no threat requires either direct intervention or help rewilding the area. It takes a DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check to discern a relic drake's natural camouflage, though the check is likely to have disadvantage due to plant life having grown over its body.
Indolent Watcher. Owing to the temperament common for their kind in their first lives, relic drakes are unfond of intrusions, even upon them doing absolutely nothing. As such, while they aren't immediately hostile to travelers who might chance upon them, they possess little patience for merely sating the curiosities of passersby - and even less for those who cannot speak in its own tongues.
A lone adventurer or a group thereof that convinces a relic drake for its assistance rarely find that it lifts a literal finger for them, though it can provide valuable information on the surrounding land or threats it finds beneath its attention. It will only directly involve itself to avert large-scale from which the ecosystem can't recover.
Roused to Action. To stir a relic drake to stand is to invite destruction upon those who would defile or destroy the lush world that brought it new life. Its roar a call for the beasts of the area to flee, it uses its magic to create natural barriers aiding their escape: steep hills as walls, rerouting a nearby lake to form a moat, or creating difficult-to-pass thickets and calling its fellow plants to join the defensive front.
The longer a perceived threat waits to engage the drake, the more time it will take turning the environs into a labyrinthine arena whose impediments only affect its foes. Individuals who are none the wiser might believe it is aimlessly rampaging when it is maximizing the area it can use to trap those that dared to violate its sacred land.
Relic Drake
Gargantuan Plant, Typically Neutral
- Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 314 (17d20 + 136)
- Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 26 (+8) 10 (0) 26 (+8) 14(+2) 23 (+6) 18 (+4)
- Saving Throws Dex +7, Con +15, Wis +13, Cha +11
- Skills Insight +13, Perception +13,
- Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks,
- Condition Immunities frightened, grappled, prone, restrained, stunned
- Senses Tremorsense 300 ft., passive Perception 23
- Languages Draconic, Primordial, Sylvan, understands Common but can't speak it
- Challenge 22 (45,000 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +7
Immutable Form. The drake is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the drake fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Regeneration. The drake regains 30 hit points at the start of its turn if it is in contact with the ground. If the drake takes fire or poison damage, this trait doesn't function at the start of the drake's next turn. The drake dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn't regenerate.
Siege Monster. The drake deals double damage to objects and structures.
Verdant Stride. The drake ignores difficult terrain caused by plants, earth, or stone, and can't be slowed or impeded by plants or earth.
Vine Aura. Vines sprout from the drake's feet and fill the ground in a 15-foot-radius centered on the drake. A creature that starts its turn within this area must make a DC 21 Strength saving throw or be pulled prone by the vines. A creature knocked prone this way must use all its movement, rather than half, to stand up, or half if it benefits from features that would reduce the movement needed to stand from prone.
Actions
Multiattack. The drake can use its Pollen Breath. It then makes three attacks: two using its Flatten or Maw, and one with its Shoots. In place of one of these attacks, it can cast a spell or take an action allowed by a spell it is concentrating on.
Flatten. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage, or 25 (5d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage if the target is prone.Maw. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d6 + 8) piercing damage, and the target is grappled by the drake (escape DC 22). The drake can't use its Maw on another creature while it has one grappled this way.
Shoots. Ranged Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, range 100/300 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d6 + 8) piercing damage, and the target must immediately make a saving throw against the drake's Vine Aura.
Pollen Breath (Recharge 5-6). The drake exhales cloying pollen in a 90-foot cone. Each creature in that area that isn't a plant must succeed on a DC 23 Constitution saving throw against poison or be blinded and incapacitated for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Spellcasting. The drake casts one of the following spells without requiring components, using Wisdom as its spellcasting ability (save DC 21).
At will: awaken (cast as 1 action), commune with nature (cast as 1 action), create and destroy water (9th level)
3/day each: control water, move earth (changes occur instantly), stone spiresOES (4th level)
1/day each: bones of the earthXGE, earthquake, wall of thornsLegendary Actions
The drake can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The drake regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Detect. The drake makes a Wisdom (Perception)
check.Overrun. The drake moves up to its speed with-
out provoking opportunity attacks. It can
make one Flatten attack as part of this
movement.Spell. The drake casts a spell from its list of at-will
spells, or it takes an action allowed by a spell
it's concentrating on.
New Spell
The relic drake has access to a spell featured in our upcoming compendium, Orana's Expanded Spellbook.
Stone Spires
2nd-level Transmutation
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 120 feet
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Classes: Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard
You cause the earth beneath a point on the ground you can see within range to instantly compact and shoot up in the form of a spike of sharp rock. The spike has a diameter of 5 feet at its base, and a height of up to 10 feet. The ground where the spike appears must be wide enough for its diameter. The spike has AC 5 and 20 hit points.
If the spike is created under a creature, it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d6 slashing damage. A creature that fails its save by 5 or more takes that damage as piercing damage instead, and is grappled and lifted by the spire's point, held aloft at its peak. The creature can use its action on its turn to automatically escape the grapple.
For the spell's duration, you can use your action to create a new spike on the ground you can see within range.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the spell's damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd, and you don't need to see the ground you target with the spell.