Deadly Gardens: Hypno-Lotus
This installment of the Deadly Gardens-series clocks in at 5 pages, 1 page front cover, 1/2 page SRD, leaving us with 3.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
The pdf begins, as always, with new magical items, the first of which would be the alluring everbloom crown, which is a high-priced item that allows the character wearing it to affect plants with mind-influencing effects and 3/day cast charm monsters, but only on plants. The second item would be the mowing scythe, a +2 plant bane scythe – the first attack each round with this scythe targets all plant creatures threatened by the wielder – which is powerful, but only works when all creatures threatened are plants. Additionally, 3/day, the wielder can attack ALL CREATURES in a 60-ft.-line, which is extremely powerful – 68K does offset that somewhat, but still…circumstantially, this can be insanely strong.
We also get a total of 7 natural items: Accuser devil eyes can record visually everything that occurs within 24 hours, allowing for easy recollections; blink dog fur can once prevent being unwillingly pulled to the ethereal plane. Bunyip shriek balls can panic foes when squeezed, while chupacabra tongues can temporarily enhance the user’s movement. Hypno-lotus petals can be used as a full-round action to grant telepathy with a creature or induce a mind-affecting effect preventing autohypnosis. Necrophidius bone meal fortify the user by providing bonuses versus dazed and paralyzed conditions. Powdered forlarren horn grants DR 5/cold iron, but also imposes a penalty to saves versus emotion effects. Aforementioned blink dog fur can be used as a power component for blink‘s percentile miss chance to be rolled twice, while use in conjunction with dimension door reduces damage of being shunted into a free space. Hypno-lotus petals can increase the duration of hypnotism and suggestion. When used with mass suggestion you can affect +1 creature and murderous command grants a bonus to attacks of affected characters.
All right, I’ve beaten around the bush long enough: The star of the pdf would be the hypno-lotus, which clocks in at CR 10 and is lavishly and gorgeously rendered by artist Becca Baen. Mind-affecting abilities can affect the lotus and the critter gets a pretty strong mental defense. The petals of the lotus generate a mesmerizing, hypnotic pattern with its leaves…and the plant can make creatures nearby attack themselves and communicate with their charmed thralls. Oh, and their slams and grabs are nasty. Love this critter!! The art of advanced hypnosis can be learnt these days if one is interested.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to the two-column full-color standard and is still rather printer-friendly. The pdf comes fully bookmarked in spite of its brevity. The b/w-artwork of the creature is amazing.
Stephen Stack’s hypno-lotus is an amazing critter. Deadly, versatile and fun. The supplemental material is similarly well-crafted. With no significant glitches or complaints on my end, this can be considered to be an amazing little pdf, well worth the asking price of less than a buck! My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars, missing my seal only due to the imho OP, but cool scythe.
Obey the lethal lotus and purchase it for less than a buck here on OBS!
Endzeitgeist out.
