(art by AngeloIB on DeviantArt)

And so begins another series of updates to my oldest entries, and today we’re focusing on yet another first from the early days of the blog: our first animal companion archetype!

The original version of this analysis was not some of my best writing. Hopefully I can improve upon it here.

Whether you’re playing a druid, hunter, ranger, or one of the many archetypes that gain access to animal companions, there is something magical about the idea of having a cool pet in the form of a creature that can range from something familiar and domestic to something more fantastical that has never been tamed by humans.

Without exception, such companions are deeply loyal creatures, though the road with them can be rocky at times. That loyalty is a big part of the fantasy of having such a companion in the first place, plus it helps justify a wild animal submitting itself to the training and guidance of another creature.

Some companions, however, seem even more loyal than others, defending their master to the very end and beyond, determined to protect and even give their lives if necessary to protect them.

Such companions might have been trained with that in mind, but others might behave this way because of their own, internal reasons, treating their bond as so precious they’d rather die themselves than risk it be severed while they are still alive. Maybe they suffer from terrible loneliness or the need for a pack or herd-like social structure, or maybe they view their master as family. It can be hard to tell exactly why without magic, but what remains true is their utter devotion.

The feats that these companions have access to has a few new additions, namely the ability to improve the defenses of nearby allies and even interpose themselves to protect them, as well as those granting a determined fury that can delay or even overturn effects that would normally risk taking them out of the fight.

Determined to keep their master safe, these companions keep alert and encourage their charge to do the same while nearby.

Riding on pure adrenaline and loyalty, bodyguard companions fight on past the point where they should fall as long as their master remains nearby, and becoming even more ferocious for it.

Always alert, these bodyguards hone their senses to better defend against surprise attack and hidden hazards, as well as guarding their vitals from those that would exploit their weaknesses.

Finally, these companions become so fearsome when heavily injured that they seem to just not die, fighting even more ferociously and ignoring fear to keep their master safe.

If you plan on keeping your companion close to serve as a barrier between you and the baddies, this archetype is certainly a tempting choice, granting you additional defense and the ability to hit back pretty hard, especially in desperate times. A small side benefit is that these companions have a slightly higher survival rate due to the bonus to their death threshold, but since they start bleeding out in this state, it’s not reasonable to maintain them in such a state forever. Be warned though, they lose out on both levels of evasion, so they become more vulnerable to area attacks as a result.

For a lot of characters, it’s probably both reassuring and stressful to have a companion like this, since presumably the hero cares for their companion in the same way that their companion does for them, so seeing them severely hurt probably weighs upon them. Conversely, more villainous or callous characters might have a muted or indifferent response to their companion being hurt. Making the relationship a bit tragic.

Tully is an old warhorse. He’s seen many a cavalier rider in his day, and while they always leave for one reason or another, only one has died while riding him. Some claim that he’s lucky, while others think that the old beast is making up for his failure with his first rider.

The shallows of Herrek are populated by the Crabbrother merfolk, a tribe that has bonded with the armored giant crabs of this grand expanse of natural tidepools. The crustaceans, for their part, have accepted them as their own, defending them with a tenacity that surprises scholars well versed in the behavior of these creatures.

Amiri & Friends #32 - Good Weed

Artist: @sheastandefer

Illustration for Pathfinder RPG. Ultimate Wilderness. Chapter Opener.

Art Director : Sarah Robinson © Paizo Publishing, LLC® 2017

(art by AlectorFencer on DeviantArt)

I’ve said this before on the blog, but despite some lamenting them not being very mythos-accurate, I do love the leshies of Pathfinder, just cute little guys created by nature spirits inhabiting cultivated plant bodies. What they lack in overall power they make up in their unique abilities and impeccable designs. (and hey, if you prefer a more traditional “green nature man”, the Green Men monsters are also called Leshy Kings, being connected to them lore-wise. It’s a win-win!)

Leshies got pretty popular though, with not just archetypes related to them, but even expanding the concept of vine leshies into a much more robust and diverse ancestry in Second Edition. (and First if you use my homebrew alternate heritages).

But on the subject of leshy-themed archetypes, we’ve covered a few here and there, but now it’s time to tap into leshies through the lens of the summoner class!

Indeed, these so-called Leshy Callers bond with an eidolon that takes a leshy-like form. This eidolon might be part of an extremely powerful nature spirit, a smaller, more individual spirit, or something else. Either way, they sport-a plantlike form and a generally leshy-like personality.

Such a bond can happen many different ways, just like other eidolons, but the goals of such beings, and presumably that of their summoners, differ a bit, even from wild caller summoners that conjure their own plant-like eidolons.

On a side note, it’s worth mentioning how one can justify how 2e summoners can vary in casting traditions with archetypes like these, though admittedly mechanically they still are arcane casters.

In any case, this archetype offers plenty of planty fun with a leshy twist!

As mentioned above, the eidolons of these summoners are composed of extraplanar plant matter and a natural animating spirit, making them very similar to plants, particularly for unchained summoners.

Their base forms, however, are based on various form of leshy, ranging from cactus,conifer, fungus, leaf, and seaweed, having mostly the core set of forms from the original introduction with the exception of gourd leshy.

Don’t think that leaves the summoner left out, however. Instead of extraplanar monster, they learn to summon natural ones instead, and add several leshies to their list of summons!

While the archetype itself is rather simple, the leshy eidolons can be quite fun and useful, especially when upgraded with evolutions! Aside from having a less utility-driven set of summons, however, there’s not much mechanically that sets them apart from other summoners, so build them as you see fit!

Two important things to remember about these summoners and their eidolons is that while they may not have the exact same powers as their counterparts, these are still the same sort of nature spirits as normal leshies, albeit with extraplanar bodies and a bond with their summoner. With that in mind, try looking up info on leshies of that type and see what resonates when coming up with their persona. The other thing is that while they are leshies, their bodies are much larger and stronger, built for more direct combat over the typically debilitations, stealth, and trickery of their kin, which also might affect their characterization.

Finally, the base forms for the leshy eidolons are actually super simple, so feel free to use them as a template for homebrewing your own to get the other leshy types available, as well as potentially completely unique ones.

Ten years ago, Vana of Woodstone held the guardian of her village, a leshy named Quickening Seed, in her arms as they succumbed to their wounds. Since that day, she has trained to become such a guardian herself, the human developing the magic to summon forth leshies to aid her. Sometimes, she thinks she even feels Quickening’s presence in her eidolon as well.

They say that the Garden of the Ancients is a hidden valley, one where strange creatures such as wolpertingers and other curious beings both benign and dangerous can be found. It is said that nature spirits are born there, and the locals learn to summon them forth when their need is great, and they do, especially when strangers come looking for plunder and lost secrets.

(art by BangBooDoragon on DeviantArt)

Mimicry is a common adaptation among life across the planet. If you’re soft and vulnerable, mimic something that your predators fear. If you’re fearsome and scary, mimic something harmless to draw other creatures in, and so on.

This extends even to plant life, with many plants finding way to mimic animals or other plant species. Many flowers have parts that mimic pollinating insects to draw the real deal in, or mimicking other plants to avoid being eaten by those that fear the toxins of others, and so on.

With that in mind, the ghorans, a plant species that hyper-evolved a humanoid form and behaviors to convince humans to stop exploiting them as a food source, have a conceptual link to not just this concept, but the shifter class as well.

Today’s subject, the leafshifter, is one of two archetypes that cause the shifter to take on plant forms instead of animals. The other, the verdant shifter, we have already covered, but while the verdant shifter specializes in actually shapeshifting into plant monsters, the leafshifter instead shapeshifters into forms that blur the lines between animal and plant. Like living topiaries, their animal forms are composed of plant matter, gaining the benefits of the form on a macro scale, and the benefits of plant physiology on the micro scale.

Now, this archetype naturally meant for ghorans first, but as always, I’m of the opinion that unless a so-called “racial archetype” (or perhaps ancestral archetype is more appropriate now) specifically requires a certain trait to function, there isn’t any reason why other ancestries can’t take part too.

Regardless of how you handle it, however, these shifters present an interesting way to blend mimicry with the true nature of the plant beneath for surprising customizability.

Rather than grow claws, the basic weapon morph of these shapeshifting warriors is to harden their limbs like bramble-covered tree branches.

While they gain aspects like any shifter, they do not gain the normal minor form associated with that aspect. Instead, they gain a planty aspect of their choice, representing the base plant species that they take on the form of, which is later reshaped into an animal-like form when they invoke the major form. These minor forms can include an assassin vine’s grappling, the punishing thorns of brambles, the climbing skill of a creeper vine, the camouflage of a giant flytrap, the toxin resilience of a mushroom, the immovability of the oak, the senses of the giant shrieker mushroom, the lightweight airy nature of the spore, and even the buoyant aquatic mobility of the water lily.

Essentially, as these shifters grow in power, they get to pick and choose their minor aspects to go with their more familiar animal forms. You might recognize the names of those minor aspects as being the same as the plant focus abilities of the plant master archetype for hunters, which makes sense with how the core shifter aspects of the base shifter work. Regardless, these aspects provide lots of mobility options as well as close combat options, so this archetype might be useful indeed for the shifter as a whole. Beyond that, you can pretty much build them however you like.

Even though they don’t necessarily HAVE to be ghorans, the angle of mimicry is a very strong tie for that people, especially since in the Lost Omens setting, they hail from a land where their species was once engineered as a food source, and those of the mystic arts already hold so much political and social power over those that do not. If you can’t beat them directly, fool them. Of course, not every mage requires such deception, and not every ghoran lives in such a situation, but the concept is there, especially since ghorans live with the constant shadow of knowing that some may view them as nothing but chattel.

The iron mining and smelting town of Jusso has had it’s fair share of troubles with the local ghoran population, who take offense at the pollution wrought by their industry. However, when a scanderig wanders out of a pocket of elemental earth deep in the mine, the two forces must set aside their differences to bring down this forgefiend, with combined might of steel and bestial plantlike forms.

It is impossible to say for certain, but some have speculated that the leafshifter technique has a connection with the curious plant monsters known as living topiaries. The ghoran inventors of the technique are quick to dismiss such suggestions, though some would say they are hiding something.

(art by kaerru on DeviantArt)

Today we’ve got another late addition to First Edition, but unlike others, this one got quite the expansive lore to go with it, and even was carried further into one of the early inclusions of Second Edition! I give you, the vine leshy!

In the real world, “Leshy” is a Slavic deity or spirit associated with the wild places of the world and being a temperamental guardian of nature. This figure is often conflated with the Green Man or woodwose, and is at least sometimes a humanoid plant creature.

It’s no surprise then that the closest thing to this guardian deity in Pathfinder are Green Men: quasi-divine plant entities associated with druidism and nature, and are sometimes called Leshy Kings since they are in fact powerful nature spirits given planty bodies to interact with the world.

Which brings us to actual leshies. In Pathfinder, the leshies are much like the Green Men in that they are nature spirits bound into specially grown plant bodies, often made by other sapient plant creatures such arboreals or of course the Green Men themselves, or even by druids who have been taught the art. Regardless of who creates them, however, they all gain abilities based on the nature of the plant matter used to embody them.

Most leshies, while fully sapient, are not quite strong or willful enough to be truly independent and go off on their own, many acting as servants or even familiars. However, vine leshies in particular grow into fully-realized beings that often strike off on their own, finding a natural place to serve as guardian of (and watching over their lesser kin), or else travelling to learn more of the world.

…or at least that was the paradigm when this ancestry was first introduced. In 2E, it was revealed that any type of leshy might have full sapience, having more to do with the strength of the nature spirit than the nature of the vessel. As a matter of fact, I did a conversion of these different types of playable leshy on this very blog if you do some searching. But for now, we’ll be focusing on the base ancestry, though you can assume that this applies to all playable leshies with their monster entries supplementing their behavior.

In any case, most leshy-kind are fiercely devoted to nature, while also delighting and finding fascination on the perspective that a mortal body offers. However, they view death differently than mortals, since their spirits literally directly return to the world upon death, leaving no questions or quandaries past that threshold.

Leshies are… in a word: Adorable. Like seriously, if you’ve never google image searched “pathfinder leshy”, do so. You will not be disappointed. They all essentially resemble small, cute humanoids made out of plant matter, though 2E art also includes many of them having animal features, all of which falls in line with the fact that, since their bodies are magically cultivated and then animated by a nature spirit, there is no set taxonomy or even true genetic connection between leshies unless two were grown from cuttings from the same plant or species. Everything from cutie pies with carved pumpkin heads to surly talking cacti and so on.

Now, if you’re specifically playing a vine leshy (either because you’re not using my homebrew or simply chose to play a vine leshy), they all have some vine elements to them, such as having limbs made from intertwined woody or green vines, leaves based on various vining plants, and so on. Additionally, while many make use of the goods made by societies, those with a more crafty mindset often craft their own clothing and tools from natural materials. (There are multiple pieces of art with leshies wearing “helmets” that are in fact citrus peels.)

Given that they are creations of other beings, most leshies do not have a society of their own, typically living with their creators until striking out on their own, oftentimes living as hermits, though others retain friendly relationships with travelling companions or with like-minded dwellers in the wild that also have a vested interest in protecting nature. Indeed, in regions where there are many leshies, the fully independent leshies may share an almost parental or mentor role for their lesser kin, possibly under a powerful druid, arboreal, or Green Man. In any case, their relationships with other ancestries varies based on the experiences of the nature spirit that forms the core of their being.

Vine leshies tend to be hardy and full of life, with the wisdom of being an immortal nature spirit bound to a mortal body. However, a combination of their naivety of youth or their alien perspective makes intellectual pursuits a lower priority for them.

They are also small in size, and their short limbs limits their speed somewhat, though their supernatural and light-reliant nature gives them superb senses in the dark.

They also constantly are warded against being tracked, leaving no discernable trail for others to follow.

All leshies can disguise themselves by transforming into a mundane specimen of the plant they were grown from, helping them to blend in, at least in areas where a wild plant (a vine in a vine leshy’s case) wouldn’t stand out.

They can also speak with their origin plant variety as well, communicating with them with ease.

Even when not disguised, it can be hard to discern the planty bodies of leshies from surrounding foliage, and vine leshies in particular are excellent climbers, their limbs latching on to handholds just as easily as the anchor roots of natural vines do.

Finally, when a leshy is slain, their nature spirt soul is released into the world in an explosion of positive energy, causing nearby plants to be healed and even spring up in a verdant growth around them in a wide area, making travel difficult and the fact that they’ve been slain nearly impossible to conceal. While the thickness of the foliage reduces with time, the plants are otherwise natural, and may thrive or wither based on the conditions of the area.

Of course, not every vine leshy (or other leshy) is built the same, especially when the exact species they were grown from can vary. Some of these might be applicable for my homebrew, while others might not. In any case, there’s plenty of options. For example, vine leshies grown from grapevines and other fruiting vines can produce fruit infused with healing and sustaining magic of a goodberry spell. Other prove more dexterous than tough. Others can reconstitute a limb into a whip-like weapon as well as wield whips with great skill. More wizened ones can perform a ritual to speak with all plants, rather than just their own kind. Those living in swamps tend to be especially stealthy in them as well as good swimmers. Meanwhile, some can produce a vine with sensory organs to sneakily peer and listen through small openings. Those interested in other cultures often develop a knack for learning about them. Finally, some leshies are outright toxic, perhaps grown from poison ivy or the like.

(art by JulieLohen on DeviantArt)

As I’ve said in the past, racial archetypes as a rule shouldn’t be limited to a single ancestry unless their actual species is required to access some of the abilities in the archetype, and today… is one of those rare times.

Being not just plant creatures, but also having spirits of nature as an animating force and soul, leshies have perhaps a better understanding of the element of wood than any other mortal being with perhaps the exception of ardande geniekin.

However, among the leshies that channel this element, a few take it further beyond what even other plant creature kineticist such as ghorans can, tying their very powers into their very being as leshies, accelerating the rate at which they learn certain talents but limiting them to the element of wood.

As we’ll soon see, these leshykineticists can be quite impressive as paragons of the element of wood!

As mentioned above, these kineticists only gain the wood element, but they make up for it by gaining additional talents as they progress in skill, learning to speak with plants, gaining healing abilities and the ability to infuse their positive blasts with sunlight, being able to more easily heal plant creatures, an additional talent of their choice, and communing with nature later on.

Normally, a leshy cannot move when in their sessile plant form, but by using their phytokinetic powers, they can gain surprising mobility and even using their kinetic powers in such a form.

Other kineticists can establish a buffer by accepting burn days in advance to build up a reserve. Not so with leshykineticists, who instead draw power from sunlight to build up their reserve, meditating for hours to gather their reserves. However the drawback for this lossless method is their buffer is fleeting, requiring daily renewal.

The most powerful of these elemental masters have achieved the pinnacle of mastery with the element of wood, and can overcome the greatest weakness of their kind. When they are slain, their verdant burst heals others for a much greater amount, and as long as the bloom of plant life created by their death remains, they can regrow themselves and return to life in a day.

Having extra talents at the cost of being limited to one element can be pretty appealing, so I can see plenty of leshy kineticists taking it. They also gain both healing and light-based blasts, so they do tend to be geared towards being a healer and undead hunter. What’s more, this archetype also means that their plant form is less a disguise and more an alternate mobility mode (as long as you do nothing but move and fight, of course). The buffer is nice too. Just hand out in the back of the party’s wagon on the way to the dungeon and boom, you get to go in with a full buffer. Overall a good archetype, but there’s pretty much only one role you can fulfill with it, despite variance in the builds.

Something I do like about this archetype is that it does mention that not just vine leshies, but theoretically other types of leshies can take this archetype, either one of the lesser leshies a GM gives class levels too, or homebrew ancestries or alternate heritages (such as the ones I made!) could use them as well!

The oni of Shinjio are finally making their move, marching an army to the Forest of Eyes to burn it to the ground. However, the denizens of the forest will not go down without a fight, with kami and leshies alike rising up to face them, but even the greatest kineticists among the leshies will need help, and the party may yet be instrumental in slaying the army’s atamahuta general.

Ever Blossom the lotus leshy has been teaching the channeling of the wood element to her students for generations, but even her most prized pupil, a nagaji named Viksha, cannot hope to attain her level of mastery due to her nature as a plant being. This, however, has spurred the ambitious Viksha to perform a dangerous ritual which might infuse her with enough of the element to transcend into an ardande… or it might kill them.

(art by Rshupe on DeviantArt)

They say the strongest foes hit like a ton of bricks, or a Mack truck, or perhaps, yes, even an avalanche. Name your heavy and swiftly falling/moving object of choice, and you can construct a simile about how hard that big guy in the arena can hit you.

But for some, a mere verbal comparison of physical strength is not nearly enough. Some wish to truly emulate the might of falling snow and rock, to leave their foes utterly overwhelmed by their physicality the same way poor souls are crushed and suffocated under an unstoppable torrent of matter sourced from a higher elevation.

These so-called living avalanches may or may not actually be from a mountainous region, but it doesn’t matter, for their primary strategy remains the same: overwhelm foes with the combination of Newton’s various laws to knock back, trample, and bowl over their foes with their weight and force.

Mass is important here, so it’s very unlikely to see a wiry Living Avalanche. Instead, they may combine raw muscle with a stout frame and a healthy layer of body fat as well. (Think less body builder, more professional wrestler or weight lifter, maybe even sumo wrestler.) and are likely quite proud of their bulk.

No matter what form they take, however, they can truly be an unstoppable force like a wall of ice crashing down the mountain.

Overrunning and rushing foes is the bread and butter of this style, and so not only do they learn the basics for doing so without leaving themselves open, but become especially good at those maneuvers, ignoring training in other combat maneuvers and even cascade multiple foes into each other with their overwhelming force.

They even learn how to drive foes they overrun into the dirt, and push foes much larger than themselves.

They are not entirely offensive though, as they also evoke the immovable object, hardening their bodies to absorb damage from all but the most piercing forces.

Using their foes like stepping stools, more masterful warriors can overrun multiple foes at once, not only also knocking them prone, but driving them down with enough force to injure them, and at the zenith of their ability, such attacks can also potentially deal grievous wounds.

This archetype is perfect for a warrior that wants to be able to further punish foes when they overrun, and control the positioning of multiple foes at once. They can get in and out of the midst of their foes with relative ease, so keep that in mind when your allies have area effect spells.

With their ability to handle multiple attackers at once, I can imagine this martial style might have emerged in regions where travellers can be expected to be accosted by large groups, be they swarming monsters, brigands that use their numbers to their advantage, and the like.

So bulky they resemble the boulders of their mountain home, the Tumbling Stones are a clan of gargoyles that revere highest peak of Graflon Range: Mt. Pabul, as a sacred figure. However, their favored method of worshipping the mountain is very un-neighborly, preferring to come down on foes from above with the force of an avalanche and either crushing them directly or sending them to a plummeting demise.

The Valley of Killing Spirits is perpetually blanketed in fog, but the reason of it’s name comes from the trench mists that long ago wandered in, killing any living creatures they came across. The villages in the mountains above know to avoid it, but they aren’t above using their martial arts to drive interlopers into the valley, hoping that those that survive the fall with placate the evil within.