Shambling Mound (Staff of the Woodlands)

This shambling mound is a true neutral earth elemental. The giant humanoid can be summoned by druids with the Staff of the Woodlands in Shadows of Amn and in The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay. It will autonomously aid the summoner in combat and can even be controlled in the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.
==Summoning==
*Can be summoned – up to twenty times, respectively six, until recharging is necessary – with the Staff of the Woodlands, available in Chapter 7 of Shadows of Amn and at Tier 4 in The Black Pits II
==Gameplay==
*The shambling mound summoned with the Staff of the Woodlands will stay for 100 sec, roughly 16.5 rounds, if not banished or killed.
*It moves faster than the party, with a factor of 10 opposed to 9.
*It attacks once per round at a melee range of 1 ft and a speed of 0 with a THAC0 of 10, while dealing 4d8+7 crushing damage, strength modifiers included. This attack counts as being made by a magical weapon with an enchantment of 3; thus, it can hurt creatures that are immune to normal weapons and to those with an enchantment of only 2 or below.
*The shambler can only be hurt by magical weapons with an enchantment of at least +2.
*Apart from this, the summoned mound has no particular resistances or immunities. Its effective armor class is 2, while having 64 hit points. Saving throws resemble that of a fighter by the same level, namely 8, with the one vs. breath being slightly better: 10, 12, 11, 11, 13.
*The creature's morale is fairly high, 16, while breaking very late and being restored within half a round.
* This shambling mound benefits from an improved AI in the Enhanced Edition.
* In the Enhanced Edition, it is also able to detect illusions.
* Due to a bug, or rather a disregard of rules, this summoning would yield 3,000 points of experience in the original Shadows of Amn.
==Notes==
*According to the Monstrous Manual, a sourcebook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the ruleset which the 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.
* This creature's file exists in the code of the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, along with the related effect file, MOUND.eff, but remains unsummoned in the game and its expansion. The item used for its attack, B4-32M3.itm, is only present with Siege of Dragonspear installed on top. The summoning still would even yield experience (see below).
==Bugs==
* In the original Shadows of Amn, this shambling mound would yield 3,000 points of experience – while summonings shouldn't give any; this is fixed in the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.
==External links==
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Category:Better image needed
Category:Giant humanoids
Category:Shambling mounds
Category:Elementals
Category:Earth elementals
Category:Allies in Shadows of Amn
Category:Summonings (allegiance) in Shadows of Amn (Enhanced Edition)
Category:Summonings (allegiance) in Gladiators of Thay
Category:Immune to normal weapons
Category:Immune to +1
Category:Bugs