| “ | Come, spirits of the glade! Come, woodsies of the forest! […] | ” |
Like most others of their kind, the hostile shambling mounds in the Forest of Mir are true neutral earth elementals.[n2] These female giant humanoids,[n1] encountered during the Throne of Bhaal campaign of the Baldur's Gate series, are stronger than any other specimen seen before.
- Main article: Shambling mounds
Involvement[]
These shambling mounds are guarding the Forest of Mir and may come to drive off any person that dares to rest in their territory.
Defeating Yaga-Shura[]
| “ | […] We... we must protects my boy! My precious Yaga-Shura! | ” |
Nyalee at the forest's temple will call two of them, among other creatures, after her own and Yaga-Shura's heart were given to her – the moment she realizes that Gorion's Ward is going to defeat her boy.[5][6]
Gameplay[]
- Shambling mounds move faster than the party, with a factor of 10 opposed to 9.[1]
- They attack twice per round at a melee range of 1 ft and a speed of 1 with a THAC0 of -7, while dealing 2d8+12 crushing damage, strength modifiers included. This attack counts as being made by a magical weapon with an enchantment of 3; thus, it can hurt party members and e.g. summoned creatures that are immune to normal weapons and to those with an enchantment of only 2 or below, but not characters immune to magical weapons.[7]
- When hit by a Mound, there's a 50% chance for a series of effects to occur on the victim, should they also fail their saving throw against spells. First, they get a -2 AC penalty and will be entangled and rendered unable to walk for 9 seconds, as a result of failing the save. (They will still be able to take other actions.) Second, the entangling vines will try four times to set the victim's HP to 25% of their current value -- once every 3 seconds. The first vine attack will come immediately upon taking the Mound's normal damage, and the last will be after 9 seconds have elapsed, when the vines release the victim. The first vine attack can be saved against at a +4 bonus, the second one at +2, and the last two at +0. If I have 130 HP, the Mound hits me for 30 and I completely fail my save, then the first vine attack will take me to 100x0.25 = 25 HP. Assuming no other unrelated damage was taken in-between, the second vine attack will take me to 25x0.25 = 6 HP three seconds later, the third one to 6x0.25 = 1 HP rounded down, and the last one will kill me. No attack rolls are needed since they are already wrapped around my legs.
- Vine damage ignores magic resistance, but the AC penalty and entanglement do not.
- All vine effects can be dispelled.
- The Mounds can only be hurt by +2 weapons or better.[3]
- Apart from this, they have quite a number of other immunities and resistances:
- they cannot be damaged with crushing weapons and will absorb 50% of all other physical damage
- they are more than a 100% resistant to electrical damage and will even be healed by it
- they are 100% resistant to fire and 75% to cold damage
- they are immune[3][2] to
- berserk
- charm
- confusion
- fatigue
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Throne of Bhaal (2013)
Content from the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition campaign Throne of Bhaal held- instant death and vorpal hits
- Level drain
- morale failure
- panic
- paralysis
- petrification
- poison
- sleep
- stun
- they are protected[2] from the following spells:
- Chaos
- Confusion
- Dragon Rain
- Throne of Bhaal (2001)
Content from the original Baldur's Gate II campaign Throne of Bhaal Hold Person (priest) - Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Throne of Bhaal (2013)
Content from the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition campaign Throne of Bhaal Hold Person - Throne of Bhaal (2001)
Content from the original Baldur's Gate II campaign Throne of Bhaal Lightning Boltb - Nature's Beauty
- they are protected[2] from the following spells:
- Their effective armor class is 0, while having 160 hit points, of which they regenerate 4/sec. Their saving throws are only 10, 12, 11, 11, 13 – resembling those of a fighter at level 8, despite being level 20 themselves.
- The creatures' morale is rather high, 18, and won't fail.[2]
- Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Throne of Bhaal (2013)
Content from the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition campaign Throne of Bhaal In the Enhanced Edition, they are able to detect illusions.[3]
Notes[]
- According to the Monstrous Manual, a sourcebook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the ruleset which the Baldur's Gate series is based on, shambling mounds are plants. However, this creature type was only introduced to the games by a later update for the Enhanced Editions, and previously existing creature files were not adjusted.
- The race "shambling mound" also was introduced in an Enhanced Editions' update only; previously existing creature files were not adjusted and remain being classified as elementals from the earth plane.
Bugs[]
- Baldur's Gate II:
Throne of Bhaal (2001)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal campaign. The restricted item that grants several immunities and such to several creatures,RING95.itm, protects in the original Throne of Bhaal from the priest spell Hold Person, but not from its wizard's counterpart; instead it makes the shambling mound being protected from Lightning Bolt. This is most likely a typo: Hold Person has the codeSPWI306.spl, while Lightning Bolt isSPWI308.spl; the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition fixes this mistake.
External links[]
- Shambling mound on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting Forgotten Realms.