Greenvise

Greenvises are ambulatory vegetable horrors that stalk the fringes of some humanoid settlements. These carnivorous plants are not bold—they prefer to ambush lone prey that happens to come too near. Greenvises rest at night and actively hunt during daylight hours, repositioning themselves throughout the day if prey in a particular hunting area proves scarce.

A greenvise is a larger, sturdier version of the venus flytrap, with a thick, green, trunklike stem and four sturdy tendrils that hang down like vines. When the creature opens its mouth, a mottled pink maw lined with toothlike thorns is revealed; when closed, the mouth structure resembles an ordinary leafy bush. A greenvise has small, tendrillike roots that it uses to move.

Combat

After setting itself up in an appropriate location, a greenvise lies in wait for prey to pass. It lunges at the first living creature it senses, using all its tendrils to grab the prey and transfer it to its maw. An extremely hungry or seriously hurt greenvise releases a death fog to weaken its opponents and obscure their vision. Although multiple greenvises are sometimes found together, they do not share their prey and thus do not assist each other in combat unless many potential victims are present.

Death Fog (Su): Twice per day, a greenvise can emit an acidic fog that functions like an acid fog spell, except as follows. The death fog’s area is a 40-foot-high spread with a 60-foot radius. Within this area, all sight, including darkvision, is limited to 5 feet. A creature within 5 feet has concealment (attacks against it have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker can’t use sight to locate the target). Any creature attempting to move through the death fog progresses at one-tenth normal speed, and each of its melee attack and melee damage rolls incurs a –⁠2 circumstance penalty. A death fog prevents effective ranged weapon attacks, except for magic rays and the like.

In addition to obscuring sight, a death fog is highly acidic. Each round, the fog deals 3d8 points of acid damage to every creature and object within it (no saving throw). A severe wind (31+ mph) disperses these vapors in 1d2 rounds; otherwise, the effect lasts for 3d6+1 rounds. The greenvise is not impeded by its own death fog, so it can move and fight within the fog freely.

Improved Grab (Ex): If a greenvise hits an opponent that is at least one size category smaller than itself with a slam attack, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it gets a hold, it can transfer the opponent to its maw with another successful grapple check, dealing automatic bite damage, then try to swallow in the next round. Alternatively, the greenvise has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use its tendrils or maw to hold the opponent (–⁠20 penalty on grapple check, but the greenvise is not considered grappled). In either case, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals slam or bite damage, as appropriate.

Swallow Whole (Ex): A greenvise can swallow a single creature that is at least one size category smaller than itself by making a successful grapple check, provided it already has that opponent in its maw (see Improved Grab, above). Once inside the greenvise, the opponent takes 2d6+9 points of bludgeoning damage and 2d4 points of acid damage per round from the plant’s stomach. See Swallow Whole for escape methods and other information. A greenvise’s stomach has an AC of 14 and 20 hit points and can hold 1 Large, 4 Medium-size, 16 Small, or 64 Tiny or smaller opponents.

Woodsense (Ex): A greenvise can automatically sense the location of anything within 60 feet that is in contact with vegetation, even objects or creatures that are not in contact with the same vegetation as it is.

Source: Monster Manual II, page 120. This creature’s statistics block has been updated to version 3.5 as given in the D&D® V.3.5 Accessory Update for Monster Manual II.