Tāne Mahuta — Atua of Forests and Birds
Māori tradition · Forests · Birds · Creation · Knowledge · Living light
Tāne Mahuta is the great atua of forests and birds, and the power whose separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku opens the world of light. His forests are not scenery. They are living communities with mauri, ancestry, resources, danger and sacred obligation.
Tāne Mahuta at a Glance
| Tradition | Māori |
|---|---|
| Divine standing | Major atua |
| Campaign alignment | Neutral Good |
| Portfolio | Forests, trees, birds, life-force, creation, knowledge and the opening of Te Ao Mārama |
| Parents | Ranginui and Papatūānuku |
| Sacred signs | Bird calls at impossible times, trees surviving impossible damage, sudden shafts of light, unusual growth and forest paths that seem to choose the traveller |
| Pantheon plane | Hawaiki — The Ancestral Isles, within Ossa — The Living and Remembering Sea in Arborea |
| Campaign present | Active wherever forests are cut, restored, guarded, crossed or asked to sustain human life |
Divine Mechanics
Encounter role: Guardian / controller. These are campaign-scale divine manifestations rather than ordinary mortal stat blocks. Each edition tab is standalone.
Tāne Mahuta
Huge Celestial (Deity), Neutral Good
Epic CR 35 (campaign-scale; PB +11)
AC 27 · HP 735 (divine manifestation) · Speed 50 ft., climb 60 ft., fly 90 ft. (hover)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 (+10) | 24 (+7) | 32 (+11) | 28 (+9) | 34 (+12) | 30 (+10) |
Saving Throws Str +21, Con +22, Wis +23, Cha +21. Skills Nature +23, Perception +23, Religion +20, Survival +23.
Damage Resistances cold, radiant; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks. Damage Immunities poison. Condition Immunities Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned.
Senses Truesight 300 ft., Passive Perception 33. Languages all; telepathy 1 mile.
Traits
Lord of Te Waonui. Plants within 1 mile are aware of Tāne Mahuta. He knows when a living tree in that area is damaged, felled or magically corrupted.
Posts of Heaven. Tāne and allies within 120 feet cannot be knocked Prone or moved against their will while touching natural earth, roots or living wood.
Mauri of the Forest. At the start of each of Tāne’s turns, one plant, beast or ally within 120 feet regains 30 hit points. This does not restore constructs or undead.
Actions
Multiattack. Tāne makes three Branch of the First Forest attacks.
Branch of the First Forest. Melee Spell Attack: +23 to hit, reach 20 ft.; 35 (4d10 + 13) bludgeoning plus 22 (4d10) radiant damage.
Forest Rises (Recharge 5–6). Roots, trunks and living vines erupt in a 90-foot-radius area within 180 feet. Hostile creatures make a DC 28 Strength save or take 55 (10d10) bludgeoning damage and become Restrained. The area is difficult terrain for enemies until Tāne ends the effect.
Open the World of Light (1/Day). Magical darkness within 300 feet ends. Hostile creatures of Tāne’s choice make a DC 28 Constitution save, taking 54 (12d8) radiant damage on a failure, half on a success. Allies gain 30 temporary hit points.
Legendary Actions
- Bird-Messenger. Tāne learns the location of one hidden or invisible creature within 120 feet.
- Root Step. Tāne teleports between two living plants within 120 feet.
- Falling Bough (Costs 2). One creature within 60 feet makes a DC 28 Dexterity save or takes 36 (8d8) bludgeoning damage and falls Prone.
Mythic Trait — Te Ao Mārama. The first time Tāne is reduced to 0 hit points, he instead regains 365 hit points. Brilliant living light fills a 300-foot radius, hostile magical darkness ends, and Tāne immediately uses Forest Rises.
Tāne Mahuta — Pathfinder 1e
CR 34; NG Huge outsider (divine, extraplanar, good)
Init +10; Senses true seeing 300 ft., greensight; Perception +55.
AC 58, touch 30, flat-footed 50; hp 740; Fort +39, Ref +34, Will +41; DR 25/epic and evil; SR 47.
Speed 50 ft., climb 60 ft., fly 90 ft. (perfect).
Melee first-forest staff +48/+43/+38/+33 (3d8+18 plus 4d6 sacred).
Domains Animal, Plant, Knowledge, Good. Subdomains Feather, Growth, Memory, Restoration.
Forest Sovereignty (Su). Tāne continuously senses creatures and major damage to vegetation within 1 mile. Natural plants do not impede his movement or line of effect.
Raise the Forest (Su) 1d4 rounds. As wall of thorns and entangle across a 120-foot-radius area; affected enemies also take 8d10 bludgeoning damage, Reflex DC 39 half.
Spell-Like Abilities CL 34th. At will—animal messenger, awaken, commune with nature, plant growth, tree stride; 3/day—heal, sunbeam, transport via plants; 1/day—miracle.
Complete Pathfinder 1e Statistics
Init +11; Aura divine presence 120 ft.; Perception +37.
DEFENSE AC 58, touch 33, flat-footed 51; hp 740; Fort +39, Ref +35, Will +40; defensive abilities divine resilience, freedom of movement; DR 25/epic; SR 48; immune disease, fear, poison; resist acid 20, cold 20, electricity 20, fire 20.
OFFENSE Speed 50 ft.; Melee Branch of the First Forest +60/+55/+50/+45 (divine weapon damage plus portfolio energy); Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.; Special Attacks divine aura, mythic surge, portfolio powers.
STATISTICS Str 30, Dex 24, Con 32, Int 28, Wis 34, Cha 30; Base Atk +46; CMB +58; CMD 75; Feats Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (Branch of the First Forest), Weapon Focus (Branch of the First Forest), Greater Weapon Focus (Branch of the First Forest), Quicken Spell-Like Ability; Skills Acrobatics +32, Diplomacy +35, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (planes) +34, Knowledge (religion) +34, Perception +37, Sense Motive +37, Spellcraft +34, Survival +37; Languages all, telepathy 1 mile; SQ divine rank 16, immortality, portfolio sense, remote communication.
Tāne Mahuta — D&D 3.5e
Greater Deity; Divine Rank 16; NG Huge Outsider (Extraplanar, Good)
CR 35; Hit Dice 46d8+552; AC 60; Speed 50 ft., climb 60 ft., fly 90 ft. (perfect).
Portfolio forests, birds, life, creation and knowledge. Domains Animal, Plant, Knowledge, Good.
Salient Divine Abilities. Alter Reality, Divine Creation, Divine Earth Mastery, Divine Radiance, Shapechange.
Portfolio Sense. Tāne senses major events involving forests, birds, sacred trees and the destruction or restoration of ancient woodland up to sixteen weeks before or after they occur.
Spell-Like Abilities. At will—animal messenger, commune with nature, plant growth, tree stride; 3/day—heal, sunbeam, transport via plants; 1/day—miracle. Caster level 35th.
Complete D&D 3.5e Statistics
Initiative +11; Speed 50 ft.; Armor Class 58, touch 33, flat-footed 51; Base Attack/Grapple +46/+64; Attack Branch of the First Forest +60 melee; Full Attack Branch of the First Forest +60/+55/+50/+45; Space/Reach 15 ft./15 ft..
Special Attacks salient divine abilities, portfolio powers, spell-like abilities; Special Qualities divine aura 1 mile, divine immunities, DR 25/epic, fire/cold/electricity resistance 20, SR 49, immortality, remote sensing, portfolio sense.
Saves Fort +39, Ref +35, Will +40; Abilities Str 30, Dex 24, Con 32, Int 28, Wis 34, Cha 30; Skills Acrobatics +32, Diplomacy +35, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (planes) +34, Knowledge (religion) +34, Perception +37, Sense Motive +37, Spellcraft +34, Survival +37; Feats Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (Branch of the First Forest), Weapon Focus (Branch of the First Forest), Greater Weapon Focus (Branch of the First Forest), Quicken Spell-Like Ability, Epic Prowess, Overwhelming Critical.
Environment divine realm and portfolio-aligned sites; Organization unique; Challenge Rating 35; Treasure divine relics; Alignment as listed; Advancement —.
Worship in the Living World
Tāne is honoured wherever people enter the forest for food, medicine, timber, birds, carving wood or shelter. The forest is treated as a living domain rather than an unlimited storehouse. Traditional forest lore records rites surrounding the taking of trees and food, and the idea that a forest’s mauri can be protected and fostered.
A priest, ranger, hunter or woodworker devoted to Tāne is therefore judged as much by restraint as by skill. Taking what is needed can be proper. Destroying a living place carelessly, wasting what has been taken or breaking a protected forest for vanity invites a different response.
Mythic Identity
In Māori creation traditions, Ranginui and Papatūānuku held their children between them in darkness. Tāne succeeds where his brothers fail: he pushes the sky away from the earth and lets light into the world. The tallest trees can therefore be understood as continuing posts between earth and sky.
Tāne’s identities extend beyond forest guardianship. Traditions also connect him with the creation of humankind and with knowledge brought down from the heavens. Forest, human life and knowledge are not separate portfolios placed beside one another; they belong to a larger pattern of bringing life into the open world.
Pantheon Plane: Hawaiki and Ossa
The wider Māori and Polynesian divine network reaches into Hawaiki — The Ancestral Isles, the ancestral archipelago within Ossa — The Living and Remembering Sea. Hawaiki’s forested islands, sacred routes and remembered homelands provide a natural pantheon realm for Tāne’s divine kin.
Tāne is not confined there. Every living forest in the mortal world can become a point of contact with him, while the great forests of Hawaiki preserve trees, birds and lineages whose mortal descendants may now be rare or lost.
What Is Tāne Mahuta Doing Now?
Old forests across Aotearoa are producing the same sign: birds gather silently in the highest branches shortly before dawn, all facing toward the sea. No migration follows. The birds simply wait.
At the same time, several ancient trees have begun producing leaves belonging to species that should not grow together. Tohunga and forest guardians suspect that a route between mortal forests and Hawaiki is trying to reopen.
Tāne has not announced whether the road is invitation, warning or rescue.
Domain Spells and Divine Gifts
Suggested 5.5e domains: Nature, Life, Knowledge. PF1e / 3.5e domains: Animal, Plant, Knowledge, Good.
1st: animal friendship, goodberry · 2nd: animal messenger, lesser restoration · 3rd: plant growth, daylight · 4th: guardian of nature, divination · 5th: commune with nature, tree stride · 6th: heal, transport via plants · 7th: regenerate · 8th: control weather · 9th: shapechange.
Divine Relic — Te Pou o te Rangi
The Post of Heaven is an original game relic cut only from a branch freely given by a living sacred tree. The bearer always knows true north beneath an open sky and cannot become lost in a natural forest. Once per week, planting the staff in living soil opens a temporary path between two forests the bearer has personally visited.
Regional Effects
- Birds Carry Warning. Within 6 miles of a favoured grove, birds become unusually effective at warning travellers of fire, corruption and approaching storms.
- The Forest Remembers. A creature that spends 10 minutes respectfully studying a living tree can receive a truthful sensory impression of one major event that occurred nearby within the last year.
- Waste Is Exposed. Timber taken through needless destruction develops obvious flaws, while wood harvested with proper care remains unusually durable.
Relationships
Tāwhirimātea: the brother who violently opposes the separation of their parents; storm and forest remain natural rivals.
Tangaroa: sea and forest meet along coasts, rivers and the long exchange between canoes, timber and living water.
Ranginui and Papatūānuku: the parents Tāne separates, creating the world of light while leaving a permanent grief at the centre of creation.
Use Tāne Mahuta Tonight
The Forest Faces the Sea
Every bird in an ancient forest turns toward one offshore point at dawn. Something is trying to arrive from Hawaiki.
The Missing Post
A sacred tree described as one of the “posts of heaven” is felled, and the weather above the valley begins behaving as though sky and earth are drawing closer.
The Last Bird
A species believed extinct appears in a protected grove carrying a strip of woven fibre no local community recognises.
The Forest Refuses
Axes blunt, saws break and paths close around a settlement that insists it must clear sacred woodland to survive.
Deep Link Dive
Hawaiki and Ossa
Enter the pantheon’s ancestral isles and living sea.
Druid
Take the forest relationship into a playable class.
Cleric
Build divine servants of Tāne around protection, knowledge and living nature.
Salient Divine Abilities
Continue into the site’s deity-scale rules.
Tangaroa
Follow the divine relationship between forest, coast and sea.
Hine-nui-te-pō
Continue through Tāne’s family into mortality and Rarohenga.
Neutral Good
Read the campaign alignment framework used for this manifestation.
Sources and Licensing
Te Ara describes Tāne as the atua of forests and birds, the separator of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, and a figure connected with human creation and knowledge. Forest lore also records the spiritual presence and mauri of the forest and ritual care when its resources are taken.
Te Ara — Māori relationship with the forest · Te Ara — Te Waonui a Tāne · Te Ara — Ranginui and the separation of sky and earth
The cultural and mythological material is presented from the cited sources. Encounter statistics, relics, regional effects and adventure material are original fantasy-RPG adaptations. Edition names identify rules compatibility; they do not claim the traditional narratives originate in those game systems.