Shambler, Lesser
- Armor Class
- 1 [18]
- Hit Dice
- 3
- Attacks
- Slam (1d6+1)
- Special
- spells, engulf (1d6/round), fire, cold, lightning, electricity
- Move
- 6
- HDE/XP
- 5/240
Description
A Shambler appears to be a heap of rotting vegetation. It is actually an intelligent carnivorous plant with sensory organs located in its upper body. A shambler’s body has an 8-foot girth and is about 6 feet tall when the creature stands erect. It weighs about 3,800 pounds. It is typically encountered in temperate marshes or other warm wetlands, but it may also be found in other areas where rotting vegetation can accumulate in large quantities.
A shambler batters its opponents with two huge arm- like appendages. If a shambler rolls a 20 on a d20 with an attack against a man-sized or smaller creature, that creature is engulfed by the monster. The victim can no longer attack or cast spells, and suffers 1d6 points of damage each round due to suffocation. It can only engulf man-sized or smaller creatures and may only engulf one such creature at a time. It will expel any such creature from its body 1d4 rounds after the victim dies. Attacks against a shambling mound which has engulfed a victim require a saving throw for the victim each time the monster is hit; if the saving throw fails, the victim suffers half (rounded down) of the damage done to the monster (which still takes full damage). The victim does benefit from the monster's resistance to fire or cold, but takes full damage from lightning attacks.
A shambler takes half damage from cold and minimal damage from fire (treat all die rolls as 1), and no damage from electricity; any electrical attack against a shambler will heal 1d6 HP instead.
Lesser Shamblers appear similar to their greater relatives, just smaller, being approximately 5 feet tall and weighing about 500 pounds. Unlike the greater variety however, they are actually intelligent carnivorous plants with enough self-preservation instincts to lower their morale. A lesser shambler’s brain and sensory organs are located in its upper body.
See Also
Other creatures grouped under Shambler: Shambler, Greater.
Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.