Shambling Mound (Staff of the Woodlands)

"And as the vegetation trembled with the [druid's] magical calling, there formed a green, rotting mix of life and death that shambled overtop of [their enemies], killing them all."

- Staff of the Woodlands, excerpt

This shambling mound is a true neutral earth elemental. The giant humanoid can be summoned by druids with the Staff of the Woodlands in Shadows of Amn and in The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay. It will autonomously aid the summoner in combat and can even be controlled in the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.

Summoning

 * Can be summoned – up to twenty times, respectively six, until recharging is necessary – with the Staff of the Woodlands, available in Shadows of Amn and The Black Pits II

Gameplay

 * The shambling mound summoned with the Staff of the Woodlands will stay for 100&#8239;sec, roughly 16.5 rounds, if not banished or killed.
 * It moves faster than the party, with a factor of 10 opposed to 9.
 * It attacks once per round at a melee range of 1&#8239;ft and a speed of 0 with a THAC0 of 10, while dealing 4d8+7 crushing damage, strength modifiers included. This attack counts as being made by a magical weapon with an enchantment of 3; thus, it can hurt creatures that are immune to normal weapons and to those with an enchantment of only 2 or below.
 * The shambler itself can also only be hurt by magical weapons, but already those with an enchantment of at least 2.
 * Apart from this, the summoned mound has no particular resistances or immunities. Its effective armor class is 2, while having 64 hit points. Saving throws resemble that of a fighter by the same level, namely 8, with the one vs. breath being slightly better: 10, 12, 11, 11, 13.
 * The creature's morale is fairly high, 16, while breaking very late and being restored within half a round.
 * This shambling mound benefits from an improved AI in the Enhanced Edition.
 * In the Enhanced Edition, it is also able to detect illusions.
 * Due to a bug, or rather a disregard of rules, this summoning would yield 3,000 points of experience in the original Shadows of Amn.

Bugs

 * In the original Shadows of Amn, this shambling mound would yield 3,000 points of experience – while summonings shouldn't give any; this is fixed in the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.