Shambling mounds

Shambling mounds, or shamblers, appear to be heaps of rotting vegetation. They are actually an intelligent form of plant life, with a roughly humanoid shape. In Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, they build their own race, while they count as elementals of the earth type in other games. Their gender varies, while they are always of a true neutral alignment.
==Variants==
Shambling mounds appear as enemies in Siege of Dragonspear and Throne of Bhaal, while they may be summoned as allies in Baldur's Gate II and The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay. One specific, hostile summoning, however, has to be combated against in The Black Pits.
==Locations==
===Siege of Dragonspear===
*Underground River : three of them at two places in the southwestern area; two further ones will come to aid Ferrusk in the Corrupted Grove in the southeast
*Dead Man's Pass
:*: one of them northeast of the Cave
:::
:*: two of them northeast of the Cave
*Bloodbark Grove : one in the far northeast
===Throne of Bhaal===
*Forest of Mir – The Temple: two of these, among other creatures, will be called by Nyalee after her own and Yaga-Shura's heart were given to her – the moment she realizes that Gorion's Ward is going to defeat her boy; also, possible rest encounter
==Gameplay==
*A shambling mound's attack counts as being made with an weapon.
===Siege of Dragonspear===
*The attack comes from an extended melee range of 2 ft with a speed of 0. The THAC0 is calculated with 10 and crushing damage may be dealt at an amount of 2d8+8, both including the creature's strength bonus.
**In addition, a successful hit will entangle the target for a duration of 3 rounds, immobilizing it and worsening its armor class by 2.
===Throne of Bhaal===
*They are earth elementals first and foremost, but this version attacks twice per round and hits for 2d8+12 at a THAC0 of -7, because of it's high strength.
*Mounds have grown a rather special set of resistances over time, much better than others of their species. Their electricity resistance is maximized which means they heal when hit by it. Poison and fire have no effect on them and while cold can still hurt them, it is severely reduced. Finally, they regenerate 4 HP per second.
*When hit by a Mound, there's a 50% chance for a series of effects to occur on the victim, should they also fail their saving throw against spells:
**First, they get a -2 AC penalty and will be entangled and rendered unable to walk for 9 seconds (they will still be able to take other actions).
**Second, the entangling vines will try four times to set the victim's HP to 25% of their current value – once every 3 seconds. The first vine attack will come immediately upon taking the Mound's normal damage, and the last will be after 9 seconds have elapsed, when the vines release the victim. The first vine attack can be saved against at a +4 bonus, the second one at +2, and the last two at +0. Example
***If I have 130 HP, the Mound hits me for 30 and I completely fail my save, then the first vine attack will take me to 100x0.25 = 25 HP.
***Assuming no other unrelated damage was taken in between, the second vine attack will take me to 25x0.25 = 6 HP three seconds later
***The third one to 6x0.25 = 1 HP rounded down
***The final one will kill me.
**No attack rolls are needed in between vine attacks since they are already wrapped around my legs.
*Vine damage ignores magic resistance, but the AC penalty and entanglement do not.
*All vine effects can be dispelled.
*This means most characters will die within 9 seconds if left untreated, as one needs a minimum of 256 current HP after the initial crushing damage from the hit and no other damage and no healing in between vine attacks. A full heal takes six seconds to cast and needs to be timed rather well, so smaller heals and potions may work better.
==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 in the Enhanced Editions, and is only applied for the Siege of Dragonspear variant; other shambling mounds are classified as giant humanoids or monsters.
*A template for a shambling mound, SMOUND01.cre, exists already in the code of the original Shadows of Amn, but remains unused throughout Baldur's Gate II.
==Bugs==
*The Mounds' regeneration does not work.
* The creature specific item that grants several immunities and such to the shambling mound, RING95.itm, protects in the original Throne of Bhaal from the priest spell Hold Person, but not from its wizard's counterpart; instead it makes the mound being protected from Lightning Bolt. This is most likely a typo: Hold Person has the code SPWI306.spl, while Lightning Bolt is SPWI308.spl; the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition fixes this mistake.
==See also==
*Shambling Mound (The Black Pits)
*Shambling Mound (Staff of the Woodlands)
*Shambling Mound (green globe)
==External links==
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Category:Articles with links to the Forgotten Realms Wiki
Category:Immune to normal weapons
Category:Immune to +1
Category:Immune to poison
Category:Bugs