Building Better Monsters | Treants

Really exciting to hear that there is the possibility for a monster manual of your ideas on monster twists. With designs like this trench riding a log, the other trent being a walking colony, and immensely different takes with things like the owlbear; I'd say you have something really special. Hope it does become a thing and if not at least we get these amazing videos!

I LOVE the treant riding a log - so flavourful!

I had made a custom Awakened Tree boss that that had a few fun ideas; I gave the tree Spike Growth and Thorn Rake, so the party gets brought in and then stuck. To prevent the party from just out ranging the tree I gave him a custom spell where it was an AOE attack and for everyone hit by the attack created Awakened Shrubs. But! If the party gets close enough to the tree I also added the ability to ENGULF them! This seems a little to "raid boss" in retrospect, but it's a good starting point for sure.

the spider treant combo has got some big murkwood vibes, i could totally see an adventure of a dark spooky forest with the trees and spiders teaming up!

I think it'd be really cool to incorporate the idea that the ents are the living forest itself, that whether spiritually, or even directly, by some root network (one of my favorite scientific theories is that myceliae from fungus actually creates a giant neural network and in a sense entire forests themselves are like giant thinking organisms) so the entire forest together decides to fight against loggers or those who have upset the natural balance of their world, by means of industrialism or environmental destruction. There are really all sorts of themed plant ideas you could use for this sort of thing, I love ents.

I shouldn't be surprised given that you're a DM, but your voice acting skills are staggering. At first I thought it might be a clip from the movies.

You make such beautiful artwork, and the fantastic spins you put onto established concepts and ideas are wonderful and inspiring! I have to say though, that your Treebeard voice is astounding, I think I actually prefer it to the original, it gives him this wise, cryptic, mystical, and almost jaded feel to the character. It's AWESOME! Love the work, started watching with your Dragons video, and just started binging. Awesome job all the way, man, keep up the good work.

Oh hey I like the spiders idea, actually had my own similar idea but I was thinking a treant full of poisonous snakes

Came here from JP Coovert's latest video and glad I'm here. Couldn't watch all of them yet but I'm excited to see them. Keep up the good work!

I'm partial to the idea of a willow tree-style treant with necromancer abilities. Also: Treants that live in a mangrove swamp, so wade through the saltwater looking for interlopers.

I am really loving this series. I DM for a lot of veteran players so being able to add a spin to classic monsters is really refreshing. I’d love to see a Building Better Trolls video. They are such a classic folk lore monster and are often lurking beneath bridges. There could be a lot of fun stuff to work with.

Every encounter contains an ecology

‘Every time you damage the ent more spiders come out.” 😈😈😈

The back-to-back tree puns did more structure damage than the ents could ever dream of

You did those voices, right? Well done!

Keep going back to hear your the your version of the Ent Marching Song. It's so evocative and chilling, wooh I get chills. Would you ever consider releasing that audio specifically, I can think of many uses in my campaign.

Came for the interesting ideas, stayed for the dad jokes

Really like where you're going with this idea. It wouldn't even have to be large tree shapes that start attacking the village. What if at the beginning of the adventure just the bushes were coming to life. They'd be the equivalent of foot soldiers (think woody orcs) -- not too difficult to handle one on one but a horde of them would start to become overwhelming. Meanwhile as the reality of the plants coming to life sinks in, everyone keeps a wary eye on the massive old tree that's stood for generations in the middle of the town square. The swaying of the top branches are just the wind, right? Right?!

Fantastic work yet again, great video, great art. Can't wait for the pencil tutorial.

The first image looks like a Dark Souls enemy. Very nice.