In the past few weeks, we had many wonderful entries to the Monarch of the Monsters contest, and our talented and skilled judges chose five finalists from among the entries. We now present those five finalists to you so that you can enjoy them, and, at the end of the week, vote on your favorite. This time, we have the green strangler by Mike Welham.

This plant, composed of writhing roots and vines, is arranged in a vaguely humanoid form. It approximates a grin as it thrusts out several grasping vines.

Green Strangler        CR 10

XP 9,600
NE Large plant
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +15

Defense
AC 25, touch 9, flat-footed 25 (-1 size, +16 natural)
hp 152 (16d8+80)
Fort +15, Ref +5, Will +9
Defensive Abilities hidden core; Immune acid, plant traits; Resist electricity 20, fire 20

Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee 4 vines +18 (2d4+6 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (20 ft. with vines)
Special Attacks alluring blooms, choking vines, constrict (vine, 2d4+6)

Statistics
Str 23, Dex 10, Con 20, Int 9, Wis 18, Cha 15
Base Atk +12; CMB +19 (+23 drag, +23 grapple); CMD 29 (31 vs. drag, can’t be tripped)
Feats Dazzling Display, Deadly Finish, Gory Finish, Greater Drag, Improved Drag, Intimidating Prowess, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (vine)
Skills Intimidate +15, Perception +15, Stealth +0 (+16 in forests); Racial Modifiers +16 Stealth in forests
Languages Common (can’t speak)
SQ woodland stride

Ecology
Environment temperate or warm forests
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure standard

Special Abilities
Alluring Blooms (Ex) Once per day as a full-round action, a green strangler can grow flowers that produce a captivating fragrance. Any creature within 120 feet of a green strangler that fails a DC 20 Will save walks toward the green strangler and otherwise gains the fascinated condition. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Choking Vines (Ex) A green strangler does not take a penalty to its CMB check to maintain a grapple with its vines. However, it can only maintain a total of 4 separate grapples with its vines. Each vine has AC 18, hardness 5, and 10 hit points, and severing a vine deals no damage to the green strangler.

Hidden Core (Ex) A green strangler’s vital organs are difficult to reach, granting the plant a 25% chance to negate critical hits or precision damage inflicted on it.

Woodland Stride (Ex) A green strangler benefits from woodland stride per the druid ability of the same name.

A green strangler possesses a malign intelligence it employs to maximize terror in the communities upon which it preys. Those aware of the creature also call it a green assassin, while those communities unknowingly targeted by it refer to it as the Strangle Man or some other colorful epithet. A green strangler stands 8 feet tall and weighs roughly 1,500 pounds.

A green strangler is carnivorous and can live off any fleshy creature it consumes. When the creature merely wishes to sustain itself, it draws a strangled victim into its inner core where its acids completely break down most organic material. A green strangler has a vegetable mockery of a heart that pumps the resulting slurry throughout its body. When the creature kills in this manner, it leaves behind hair, finger- and toenails, hooves, and similar “inedibles” as evidence of its kill. Oftentimes, a green strangler kills purely for the joy of doing so and targets humanoid victims whose fear induces euphoria in the plant. In this case, the plant leaves its intact strangled victim behind in the hope that someone else will discover the corpse and react appropriately. A green strangler is a patient killer and will wait a week or more between murders, meanwhile savoring the building fear carried on the wind from the stricken community.

Evil druids sometimes employ green stranglers as assassins, and the plants require no payment beyond the enjoyment of murdering sentient beings.