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Sard, the Crimson Stormwood Colossus

“Sard: The lightning-writhing, spidery-legged tree beast that obliterates armies with electrified thorns and deadly storms!”

The Sard appears as a colossal, leafless tree with gnarled, cracked bark pulsating with veins of blood-red lightning. Its spindly, root-like legs move with unsettling agility, allowing it to crawl and climb like a monstrous insect. Flickering arcs of red electricity dance constantly along its limbs and trunk, giving it a fearsome, otherworldly glow. Despite its arboreal form, its bark is jagged and splintered, capable of tearing through flesh and armor alike.

Behavior:
Sards are relentless and destructive, displaying a disturbingly intelligent cunning for creatures of their kind. They rarely waste energy, stalking their targets with deliberate precision before unleashing devastating barrages of electrified thorns and crushing blows. When threatened, they become violently aggressive, using their lightning powers both offensively and defensively. Upon death, their bodies explode in a deadly storm of lightning and razor-sharp wood shards, deterring foes from close combat.

Habitat:
Sards are native to deep, ancient forests across multiple planes, often found in dense woodlands where natural magic runs wild. They favor places where storms frequently rage and the air hums with elemental energy. Though solitary by nature, their presence corrupts the surrounding flora, leaving twisted, lightning-scarred forests in their wake.

Modus Operandi:
A Sard moves silently through its domain, using its spidery legs to navigate difficult terrain and scale obstacles. It prefers to ambush, firing volleys of poisonous, electrified thorns from a distance before closing in to deliver brutal melee slams. Their sap, charged with lethal electricity, poisons and paralyzes foes, weakening defenses before the Sard finishes them off. Their mastery over storm magic allows them to manipulate weather, often summoning lightning and whirlwinds to sow chaos.

Motivation:
Created by enigmatic fey gods as living siege engines, Sards harbor a deep-seated urge to destroy and dominate. Their intelligence is employed solely to seek out fortresses, settlements, or any sign of civilization to raze to the ground. Though devoid of compassion, they possess a primal connection to the storm’s fury, driven by an elemental wrath that fuels their endless rampage.

  • Sard 5e
  • Sard, Pathfinder

Sard

Huge monstrosity, chaotic evil

Armor Class: 22 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 310 (23d12 + 161)
Speed: 50 ft., climb 30 ft.

STRDEXCONINTWISCHA
28 (+9)16 (+3)24 (+7)10 (+0)18 (+4)16 (+3)

Saving Throws: Str +16, Dex +10, Con +14, Wis +11
Skills: Perception +11, Athletics +16, Stealth +10
Damage Resistances: Cold, Fire; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks
Damage Immunities: Lightning, Poison
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Frightened, Paralyzed, Poisoned
Senses: Blindsight 30 ft., Darkvision 60 ft., Tremorsense 30 ft., Passive Perception 21
Languages: Sylvan, Aklo
Challenge: 19 (22,000 XP)

Traits

Colossal Rooted Agility. Despite its massive form, the Sard moves with unsettling grace and speed. It ignores difficult terrain caused by plants or undergrowth.

Planar Resilience. The Sard is always considered to be on its native plane. It cannot be banished or forced to extraplanar spaces against its will unless it chooses.

Electric Sap. Any creature that hits the Sard with a melee weapon attack takes 10 (3d6) lightning damage as arcs of red lightning jump from its bark.

Poisonous Thorns (Recharge 5–6). The Sard’s ranged thorn attacks deal an additional 18 (4d8) poison damage. Targets must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. A poisoned target can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns.

Death Throes. When the Sard drops to 0 hit points, it explodes in a 30-foot radius. Each creature in that area must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, taking 44 (8d10) lightning damage and 44 (8d10) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.

Actions

Multiattack. The Sard makes two slam attacks and one thorn volley.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +16 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 9) bludgeoning damage plus 14 (4d6) lightning damage.

Thorn Volley. Ranged Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, range 180/360 ft., up to four targets within range. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage plus poison damage from Poisonous Thorns trait.

Legendary Actions

The Sard 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 Sard regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

  • Lightning Jolt. The Sard deals 20 (4d8) lightning damage to one creature it can see within 60 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
  • Move. The Sard moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
  • Storm Call (Costs 2 Actions). The Sard casts call lightning (spell save DC 18).

Spellcasting

The Sard is a 12th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). It can cast the following spells without material components:

  • At will: lightning bolt, control weather, tree stride (as transport via plants)
  • 3/day: chain lightning, whirlwind (homebrew; acts like gust of wind but in a 60-foot cone, causing knockback and 10 (2d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage)
  • 1/day: storm of vengeance

Tactics

The Sard dominates the battlefield by controlling the weather and terrain. It begins combat by summoning storms and hurling lightning bolts to weaken foes from afar. Using its thorn volley, it poisons and damages multiple targets, then closes the distance with swift, crushing slam attacks. Its electrical sap punishes melee attackers, and when near death, it detonates in a deadly explosion to harm all nearby enemies.

Lore

Born of the fey and storm, the Sard is a walking tempest—a colossal, living tree charged with lethal electricity and venomous sap. It hunts settlements and fortresses alike, driven by a primal urge to destroy and dominate all that lies in its path.

Sard

This wriggling and leafless tree moves on spidery legs. Flickering motes of blood-red lightning dance in the cracks of its bark.

Sard CR 19

XP 204,800
CE Colossal plant
Init +8; Senses blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, tremorsense 30 ft.; Perception +32

DEFENSE

AC 34, touch 10, flat-footed 26 (+8 Dex, +24 natural, –8 size)
hp 333 (23d8+230); fast healing 10
Fort +23, Ref +17, Will +13
Defensive Abilities death throes, electrical jolt; DR 15/cold iron and slashing; Immune electricity, plant traits; Resist cold 30, fire 30; SR 30
Weaknesses vulnerable to sonic

OFFENSE

Speed 50 ft., climb 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +25 (4d10+16/19–20 plus 4d6 electricity)
Ranged 4 thorns +17 (2d8+16 plus poison)
Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft.
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +27)

At will—control weather, lightning bolt (DC 20), tree shape (Colossal tree), transport via plants
3/day—chain lightning (DC 23), quickened lightning bolt (DC 20)
1/day—storm of vengeance (DC 26), whirlwind (DC 25)

STATISTICS

Str 42, Dex 27, Con 30, Int 9, Wis 22, Cha 25
Base Atk +17; CMB +41; CMD 59 (67 vs. trip)
Feats Awesome Blow, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (slam), Improved Lightning Reflexes, Improved Precise Shot, Improved Sunder, Lightning Reflexes, Point-Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (lightning bolt), Vital Strike
Skills Climb +24, Perception +32; Racial Modifiers +8 Climb
Languages Aklo, Sylvan
SQ planar acclimation

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Death Throes (Su)

When a sard dies, its remains explode with a blast of lightning into razor-sharp splinters of wood. All creatures within 30 feet of a sard when it explodes in this manner take 12d6 points of electricity damage and 12d6 points of piercing damage. A DC 31 Reflex save halves this damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Electrical Jolt (Su)

Every time a creature strikes a sard with a metal melee weapon, arcs of electricity deal 1d10 points of damage to the attacker.

Planar Acclimation (Ex)

A sard is always considered to be on its home plane, regardless of what plane it finds itself upon. It never gains the extraplanar subtype.

Poison (Ex)

Thorn—injury; save Fort DC 31; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Dex and 4d6 electricity; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Thorns 8 (Ex)

A sard’s thorns have a range of 180 feet with no range increment.

ECOLOGY

Environment any forests
Organization solitary
Treasure triple

The sard is an ancient elm, oak, or pine tree that has been infused with lightning and raw life by one of the strange gods of the fey realm. One of the legendary beasts known as the Tane, a sard has “sap” that consists of red lightning—all of the sard’s electrical attacks manifest with this same eerie-colored energy.

A sard can pass for an old dead tree—especially when the creature uses its tree shape spell-like ability. Yet despite its enormous size and ungainly shape, the sard is in fact a swift and agile monster. It can move with unsettling grace and speed, crawling across the ground on long spidery roots like an immense insect. It attacks either with a single slam of its immense trunk or by launching volleys of foot-long thorns that inject the creature’s poisonous, electrified sap.

Sards are nearly as intelligent as most humans, but few actually use this intelligence for productive purposes—the first sards were created as a form of living siege engine, and they quite enjoy this destructive role, often seeking out fortresses or even towns to systematically destroy.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2, © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Graeme Davis, Crystal Frasier, Joshua J. Frost, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Hal MacLean, Martin Mason, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Patrick Renie, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, and Greg A. Vaughan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.

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