Buy me a coffeeForest Linnorm
The forest’s wrath given flesh—an ancient serpent of root, rot, and venom whose breath melts the living and whose death leaves the soul in darkness.
In the oldest forests, there are places where the wild no longer feels merely untamed. It feels watchful. It feels hostile. It feels old enough to remember every wound ever cut into bark, root, and stone.
The Forest Linnorm is not a guardian of the wood, nor a noble spirit of the deep places. It is what remains when wilderness curdles into hatred. Vast, serpentine, and steeped in decay, it moves through the forest like a living sentence passed upon all intrusion. Where it lairs, the land does not die. It goes wrong. Water blackens. Roots thicken. Beasts are born twisted or grow strangely fearless. Sound dulls beneath the canopy, and silence itself begins to feel complicit.
It does not rule the forest. It teaches the forest to hate with it.
A Forest Linnorm is less a beast than a correction: the shape the wild takes when it no longer wishes to be crossed, measured, felled, or named.
Appearance
A Forest Linnorm is a colossal dragon of serpentine build, long-bodied and low-slung, more akin to an immense primal wyrm than a winged tyrant of mountain and storm.
Its scales are deep green beneath layers of damp corruption, but much of its body appears overgrown rather than armored. Bark-like ridges split across its shoulders and spine. Twisted roots cling to its length like cords of sinew. Rotting moss hangs from its flanks in dark, wet curtains, and pale fungal shelves bloom from old scars as though its flesh were half-fallen timber left too long in poisoned shade. Its skull-like head is narrow and severe, crowned with antlered horns that resemble dead branches torn from some ancient woodland giant.
Small things live upon it without fear. Beetles nest in the seams of its hide. Worms writhe in the softer rot beneath its scales. Vines knot around its limbs and throat. When it lies still, it can pass—briefly and from a distance—for a toppled trunk or root-mass among the ruins.
Only the eyes betray the truth at once: cold, patient, and fully aware.
Its breath reeks of acid, mould, and freshly opened earth.
Behaviour
The Forest Linnorm is patient, cunning, and cruel in a deliberate, almost ritual way. It does not simply kill intruders. It studies them, follows them, learns their pace and habits, and lets dread ripen before it chooses to be seen.
It delights in fear that matures slowly. It will shadow prey for hours or days, offering only fragments of its presence: movement between trunks, a whisper in Draconic or Sylvan where no speaker can be found, a glimpse of something vast withdrawing behind root and vine. It wants the forest itself to seem guilty before it strikes.
Unlike dragons that gather wealth, the Forest Linnorm gathers suffering. Isolation, panic, exhaustion, and despair are part of its appetite. It prefers prey divided, lost, and uncertain of the ground beneath them. It wants its victims to feel abandoned not merely by one another, but by the world around them.
It is intelligent enough to bargain, threaten, and deceive, but never in good faith. Mercy does not interest it. Fear does.
Habitat
Forest Linnorms dwell in ancient, corrupted forests where age has soured into malignancy: primeval woods, drowned groves, blighted vales, and deep canopied wildernesses where sunlight reaches the ground only in thin and grudging shafts.
Their presence poisons the land without making it barren. Instead, life grows wrong. Fungi spread in thick and unnatural profusion. Pools stagnate into bitter black water. Animal populations become diseased, aggressive, or unnervingly absent. Trees twist inward over old paths and ruins as though attempting to bury all memory of passage. Roots split stone. Moss devours carvings. Spores drift through the air like pale ash.
These places almost always contain the remains of what the linnorm hates most: an abandoned shrine, a swallowed road, a lost village, a broken watchtower, a hunter’s lodge, or the remnants of a frontier once carved from the trees and now being slowly, methodically erased.
Nothing here has been spared reclamation.
Modus Operandi
A Forest Linnorm does not meet enemies in open challenge unless it has already chosen the ground, the weather, and the terms of their dying.
It begins from concealment, using dense growth, broken terrain, root-torn earth, and the confusion of the deep forest to approach unseen. It separates intruders with walls of living thorn and tangles of violent growth, cuts off retreat, and strikes at weakness first. Those who appear most dangerous are hindered, harried, and drawn out of position before the linnorm commits its full strength.
When the moment is ripe, it unleashes its breath: a torrent of corrosive rot that strips flesh, blackens wood, and leaves the living softened for the kill. Survivors are dragged down with tooth, claw, and crushing force, or else left just enough life to stagger deeper into the forest carrying fear with them.
If pressed, it fights with ferocious cunning rather than rage. If dying, it does not waste its last strength on escape. It spends it ensuring that survival itself becomes a form of ruin.
Motivation
The Forest Linnorm does not seek conquest in the manner of kings, empires, or dragons of ordered dominion. It has no use for tribute, hierarchy, or obedient terror.
What it desires is desecration.
It hates the works of settlement: roads driven through old groves, boundary stones, timber halls, shrines raised where older powers once stood, and every axe-mark that implies the wild can be owned, improved, disciplined, or made to serve. To the linnorm, civilization is not merely an enemy. It is an insult.
It destroys so that the forest may close over what was built. It kills so that flesh may return to mulch. It poisons so that memory itself becomes difficult to preserve. A ruin swallowed by root and rot is, to the linnorm, a kind of truth restored.
In its own mind, it is not a monster. It is the answer.
Forest Linnorm 5e
Forest Linnorm, pathfinder
Forest Linnorm 3.5
Forest Linnorm
Huge Dragon (Linnorm), Chaotic Evil
An ancient predator shaped by the primal malice of the deep woods, the Forest Linnorm is the living wrath of untamed nature. Cloaked in moss, bark, and rot, it does not guard the forest. It devours trespassers so that root and mould may reclaim them.
Armor Class 19 (natural armor)
Hit Points 352 (25d12 + 175)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft., burrow 20 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 (+7) | 14 (+2) | 24 (+7) | 16 (+3) | 17 (+3) | 19 (+4) |
Saving Throws Dex +8, Con +13, Wis +9, Cha +10
Skills Nature +9, Perception +15, Stealth +8, Survival +9
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities acid, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., passive Perception 25
Languages Common, Draconic, Sylvan
Challenge 20 (25,000 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +6
Traits
Innate Spellcasting (Forest’s Wrath). The linnorm’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 18). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: detect magic, druidcraft, entangle, speak with animals
3/day each: insect plague, plant growth, wall of thorns
1/day each: awaken, blight, wrath of nature
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the linnorm fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Magic Resistance. The linnorm has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Forest Stride. The linnorm ignores difficult terrain created by plants, including magical plant growth, and can move through nonmagical plants without being slowed or taking damage.
Death Curse: Blinding Rot. When the Forest Linnorm dies, it bursts in a wave of spores and corrosive bile. Each creature of the linnorm’s choice within 60 feet of it must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature is permanently blinded and takes 14 (4d6) necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns for 1 minute. On a successful save, the creature is unaffected. The blindness and ongoing affliction can be ended by greater restoration, heal, or wish.
Actions
Multiattack. The linnorm makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) acid damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 14 (2d6 + 7) slashing damage.
Tail Swipe. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target.
Hit: 18 (2d10 + 7) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone and pushed up to 10 feet away from the linnorm.
Breath Weapon: Acid Rot (Recharge 5–6). The linnorm exhales a torrent of corrosive decay in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 21 Constitution saving throw, taking 63 (14d8) acid damage plus 27 (6d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature that fails this saving throw is also vulnerable to acid damage until the end of its next turn.
Vine Lash (Recharge 6). Grasping, thorned vines erupt from the ground in a 30-foot-radius area centered on a point the linnorm can see within 120 feet. Up to four creatures of the linnorm’s choice in that area must each succeed on a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or become restrained for 1 minute. A restrained creature takes 7 (2d6) piercing damage at the start of each of its turns and can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Legendary Actions
The Forest Linnorm can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The linnorm regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Detect. The linnorm makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Tail Attack. The linnorm makes one tail swipe attack.
Acidic Pulse (Costs 2 Actions). The linnorm releases a burst of corrosive bile in a 10-foot radius. Each creature in that area must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, taking 13 (3d8) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. One nonmagical weapon or suit of nonmagical armor carried by a creature that fails this save begins to corrode; until the end of that creature’s next turn, the affected weapon is used with disadvantage on attack rolls, or the affected armor imposes a -1 penalty to AC.
Corrupted Roots (Costs 3 Actions). The ground in a 20-foot radius centered on a point on the ground the linnorm can see within 60 feet becomes cursed terrain for 1 minute. The area is difficult terrain. Any creature that starts its turn there must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of its next turn.
Lair
Forest Linnorms make their lairs in places already half-devoured by the land: hollow tree-fortresses, drowned sanctuaries, root-choked watchtowers, ruined shrines, and sunken stone halls swallowed by moss and fungal bloom.
A lair is seldom arranged like the den of a mere beast. Paths mislead. Clearings narrow into traps. Old masonry gives way under root pressure. Pools conceal poison, depth, or decay. The linnorm uses every feature of the place as part of the hunt, until the boundary between lair and body seems almost to disappear.
Regional Effects
The territory surrounding a Forest Linnorm’s lair is slowly remade in its image, often for several miles around.
- Water grows stagnant, sour, or faintly corrosive.
- Fungi bloom in unnatural abundance across bark, stone, and carrion.
- Trees lean across paths and roads as though trying to seal them shut.
- Small animals vanish, while larger beasts become diseased, violent, or unnervingly fearless.
- Sound is muffled beneath the canopy; voices carry poorly, while whispers seem to travel farther than they should.
- Boundary stones, shrines, road markers, and other works of settlement are steadily broken apart by damp rot and upheaving roots.
If the linnorm dies, these effects diminish over the course of weeks or months, though blighted pools, poisoned groves, and malformed growths often remain for years.
Treasure
A Forest Linnorm does not gather treasure for greed or admiration, yet the dead enrich its domain all the same.
Within its lair lie the remains of hunters, pilgrims, knights, woodcutters, druids, foresters, and would-be dragon slayers who entered the wood believing themselves prepared. Their wealth is scattered among roots, lodged beneath black water, half-swallowed by moss, or fused into damp ruin by acid and time.
A typical hoard includes:
- 6,000 to 12,000 gp in corroded coinage, reliquary metal, plate fragments, and salvageable valuables
- 2d4 magic items taken from the dead, often stained, overgrown, or hidden beneath root and moss
- Rare alchemical harvests worth 2,000 gp or more, including acidic bile, toxic spores, preserved venom sacs, horn scrapings, and fungal growths nourished on draconic blood
Adventure Hooks
The Road That Closed. A forest road used safely for generations has vanished beneath sudden overgrowth. Scouts sent to reopen it return blinded, raving, or do not return at all.
The Drowned Shrine. A once-sacred woodland shrine has fallen silent. Pilgrims claim that prayers spoken beneath its trees now come back in another voice.
The Blighted Waters. A river flowing out of old forest has turned bitter and flesh-burning in places, and livestock found along its banks are warped by sickness.
The Last Clearing. An isolated village on the forest’s edge has sent no traders, no letters, and no pleas for weeks. When rescuers arrive, they find the tree line much closer than it used to be.
The Forest Wants It Back. A lord begins cutting new roads and markers through ancient woodland. Within a month, entire work parties vanish, and abandoned camps are found pulled apart, rotted through, and overgrown as though years had passed in a single night.
Forest Linnorm
CR 20
XP 307,200
CE Huge dragon (cold, evil)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, scent, true seeing; Perception +35
Defense
AC 38, touch 13, flat-footed 33 (+5 Dex, +25 natural, –2 size)
hp 390 (20d12+260)
Fort +25, Ref +17, Will +20
Defensive Abilities freedom of movement, regeneration 15 (suppressed by good-aligned weapons or spells), true seeing
DR 15/good; Immune acid, cold, fear, paralysis, sleep; SR 31
Offense
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft., burrow 20 ft., fly 100 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +32 (3d6+13 plus grab), 2 claws +31 (2d6+9), tail slap +29 (2d8+13), 2 wings +29 (1d8+4)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft. (20 ft. with bite)
Special Attacks breath weapon, constrict (2d6+13), death curse, grab, swallow whole (2d6+13 plus 8d6 acid)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +24)
- Constant—freedom of movement, true seeing
- At will—entangle (DC 16), plant growth, speak with animals, speak with plants
- 3/day—wall of thorns (DC 21), insect plague (DC 20), blight (DC 20)
- 1/day—awaken (plants only), creeping doom (DC 23)
Breath Weapon (Su)
The forest linnorm breathes a 60-foot cone of rotting acid and necrotic miasma, dealing 14d8 acid and 14d8 negative energy damage (Reflex DC 33 half). Creatures that fail the save also take 1d4 Constitution damage.
Recharge 1d4 rounds.
Death Curse — Blinding Rot (Su)
When the forest linnorm is slain, its killer (or the creature that struck the final blow) must succeed at a DC 30 Will save or suffer its death curse.
- Effect: The victim is permanently blinded and afflicted with a supernatural rot that causes 1 point of Constitution drain per day.
- Curse: curse of blinding rot—CL 20th; Will DC 30 negates; only miracle, wish, or divine intervention can remove this curse.
Swallow Whole (Ex)
The linnorm can swallow a grabbed Medium or smaller creature.
- Damage: 2d6+13 bludgeoning plus 8d6 acid per round
- AC 20, hp 40; Escape DC 33 (Str or Escape Artist)
Regeneration (Ex)
The forest linnorm regenerates 15 hit points per round. Its regeneration is suppressed for 1 round when it takes damage from a good-aligned weapon or a good spell.
Statistics
Str 36, Dex 21, Con 29, Int 18, Wis 20, Cha 19
Base Atk +20; CMB +35 (+39 grapple); CMD 50 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Cleave, Critical Focus, Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Iron Will, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (bite), Multiattack
Skills Fly +17, Knowledge (arcana, nature) +27, Perception +35, Sense Motive +28, Stealth +20, Survival +28
Languages Common, Draconic, Sylvan; telepathy 100 ft.
Ecology
Environment temperate or cold forests
Organization solitary
Treasure triple (including overgrown artifacts, corrupted druidic relics, and acidic trophies)
Special Abilities
Forest Mastery (Ex): The forest linnorm moves through natural difficult terrain without penalty and can treat any plant growth, wall of thorns, or entangle effect as if it were under its control.
Terrifying Presence (Ex): As a free action, the linnorm can activate its frightful presence. Creatures within 300 feet must succeed at a DC 28 Will save or become shaken for 4d6 rounds (or frightened if already shaken). A successful save renders a creature immune to this effect for 24 hours.
Description
The forest linnorm is a titanic, serpentine horror draped in bark-scaled flesh and weeping with rot. A manifestation of corrupted nature, it slithers through ancient woods and devours intruders with acidic breath and venomous hatred. Unlike most linnorms, the forest linnorm does not hoard gold or relics—it hoards decay. Fungus-ridden antlers jut from its skull-like head, and its breath smells of mulch and acid.
Its mere presence twists the land into a nightmare: rivers turn black with rot, trees wither into screaming shapes, and fey either flee or fall under its corruption.
Lore (Knowledge [Arcana or Nature] DC 35)
Forest linnorms are among the rarest and most feared of their kind, appearing only in the oldest, most secluded groves. Some druids see them as divine punishments sent by vengeful nature spirits; others view them as abominations to be purged. Regardless, those who slay one are rarely hailed as heroes—most die shortly after from its blinding rot curse, their eyes rotted out and their bodies hollowed by unseen decay.
Forest Linnorm
These resemble a huge, grotesque snake more than a dragon. Their bodies are mottled green and brown. They possess a great ego, a natural cunning, and an unending taste for cruelty. It considers all creatures beneath it and passionately hates beautiful things.
This great serpent’s scales is mottled green and brown. Its wide head is clearly draconic, and caustic liquid drips from its maw.
Originally Posted by Shade of the En World forums.
On this Thread
More bestial than most linnorms, the forest linnorm is nevertheless as egotistic and cruel as its more intelligent brethren. Forest linnorms are cunning tricksters, using illusions and their ability to mimic animal’s voices to lure prey to their ambushes.
Forest linnorms are highly territorial, claiming an overgrown area of forest of 100 square miles as its own, only allowing another forest linnorm within it to mate. A male always enters a female’s territory, leaving as soon as mating is complete. A forest linnorm hatchling resembles a large green lizard, bearing four weak legs which atrophy as it ages until they are gone. The female allows the hatchlings to remain only until their legs begin to disappear.
Although they prefer temperate climes, forest linnorms can survive in extremely warm or cold forests as well. They spend their time wrapped around the bases of trees and undergrowth, their camouflaged bodies nearly indistiguishable from roots and trunks. Their greatest natural enemies are forest-dwelling giants who hunt them for their hides.
Forest linnorms hate beauty and enjoy destroying it. Their hoards consist of the broken remains of jewelery, art objects, and fine items strewn about large piles of coins. Although ominvorous, linnorms prefer to hunt creatures they view as beautiful, such as great stags and giant eagles. Humans are the favored prey of forest linnorms, as the linnorms view them as the epitome of beauty, and therefore things that must be defiled and destroyed.
Forest linnorms speak Draconic and Abyssal.
| Forest linnorm | |
| Huge Dragon | |
| Hit Dice | 11d12+66 (137 hp) |
| Initiative | +0 |
| Speed | 60 ft. (12 squares), Fly 60 ft. (good), Swim 30 ft. |
| Armor Class | 25 (-2 size, +17 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 25 |
| Base Attack/Grapple | +11/+28 |
| Attack | Bite +18 melee (2d6+13) |
| Full Attack | Bite +18 melee (2d6+13) |
| Space/Reach | 15 ft./10 ft. |
| Special Attacks | Breath weapon, crush 2d8+13, ferocity, sound imitation, spell-like abilities, spells, sticks to snakes |
| Special Qualities | Blindsense 60 ft., damage reduction 10/magic, immunity to disease, Paralysis, and sleep, keen senses, Spell Resistance 24, water breathing |
| Saves | Fort +13, Ref +7, Will +11 |
| Abilities | Strength 28, Dexterity 10, Constitution 23, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 18, Charisma 18 |
| Skills | Bluff +18, Concentration +20, Diplomacy +8, Disguise +4 (+6 acting), Hide -8*, Intimidate +20, Listen +18, Sense Motive +18, Spot +18 |
| Feats | Cleave, Flyby Attack, Power Attack, Snatch |
| Environment | Temperate or warm forests |
| Organization | Solitary |
| Challenge Rating | 13 |
| Treasure | Double coins, 50% goods, 50% items |
| Alignment | Usually chaotic evil |
| Advancement | 12-22 HD (Huge); 23-33 HD (Gargantuan) |
| Level Adjustment | – |
COMBAT
A forest linnorm uses its illusions and natural stealth to set ambushes and draw prey near. It opens with its breath weapon, attempting to weaken powerful opponents, then enters melee. Forest linnorms fight with a primal ferocity, considering no adversary dangerous enough to force its retreat.
Breath Weapon (Su): 90-foot line of caustic liquid, once every 1d4 rounds; damage 12d4 acid, Reflex DC 21 half. Additionally, a creature damaged by the breath weapon must succeed on a DC 21 Fortitude save or a random limb is withered. Withered legs force a subject to fall prone while at the same time reducing the subject’s land speed to 5 feet. Withered arms make it impossible for the subject to use objects or cast spells with somatic components. A withered limb can be restored to normal by a successful dispel magic or similar effect, with a dispe check DC equal to the linnorm’s breath weapon DC. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Crush (Ex): A flying linnorm can land on opponents three or more sizes smaller than itself as a standard action, using its whole body to crush them. A crush attack affects as many creatures as can fit under the linnorm’s body. Each creature in the affected area must succeed on a DC 24 Reflex save or be pinned, automatically taking 2d8+13 points of bludgeoning damage. The save DC is Constitution-based. Thereafter, if the linnorm chooses to maintain the pin, treat it as a normal grapple attack. While pinned, the opponent takes crush damage each round. The save DC is Strength-based.
Ferocity (Ex): A forest linnorm is such a tenacious combatant that it continues to fight without penalty even while disabled or dying.
Sound Imitation (Ex): A forest linnorm can mimic the sound of injured animals, anytime it likes. Listeners must succeed on a DC 19 Will save to detect the ruse. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Spells: A forest linnorm can cast arcane spells as a 12th-level sorcerer, preferring spells of the illusion school.
Typical sorcerer Spells Known:
- 0 (6/day) — acid splash (+9 ranged touch), detect magic, dancing lights, flare (DC 14), ghost sound (DC 14), open/close, read magic, touch of fatigue (+18 melee touch, DC 14), ventriloquism
- 1st (7/day) — animate rope, color spray (DC 15), disguise self, silent image (DC 15), ventriloquism (DC 15)
- 2nd (7/day) — blur, invisibility, mirror image, misdirection (DC 16), see invisibility
- 3rd (7/day) — deep slumber (DC 17), displacement, major image (DC 17), wind wall
- 4th (7/day) — greater invisibility, phantasmal killer (DC 18), rainbow pattern (DC 18)
- 5th (5/day) — mirage arcana (DC 19), persistent image (DC 19)
- 6th (3/day) — permanent image (DC 20)
- Spell-Like Abilities: At will — fly, hide from animals (DC 15);
- 3/day — plant growth, spike growth (DC 17), tree stride, warp wood (DC 16).
Caster level 12th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Sticks to Snakes (Sp): A forest linnorm can turn up to two dead branches or other long slender pieces of wood (arrow shafts, sticks, staffs, and so on) into Huge vipers. The object is entitled to a DC 17 Will save to avoid transformation. Any snakes created by this spell do not attempt to harm the linnorm, and the linnorm can control their actions telepathically as a free action. Left to their own devices, the snakes attack whomever or whatever is near them, but while the linnorm controls them they can perform any stunt or action they are physically capable of doing. When reduced to 0 hit points or less, the snakes revert to their original, undamaged form.
Water breathing (Ex): A forest linnorm can breathe underwater indefinitely and can freely use its breath weapon, spells, and other abilities while submerged.
Skills: A forest linnorm has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action when swimming, provided it swims in a straight line. *They have a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks when in forest environments. This bonus on Hide checks increases to +8 when the linnorm is immobile.
Originally appeared in Dragon #182 (1992) and MCA1.