Thornies are the pets and companions of the vegepygmies. They are rarely encountered outside of a vegepygmy tribe or hunting party. Vegepygmies often use them to hunt prey. Although the most common thorny is dog-like, vegepygmies have managed to cultivate other types of thornies that resemble other animals in form and manner of attack.

Thornies reproduce by planting egg-like seeds (that the female lays) in the ground. Three to six months later, a small tree sprouts and buds, and from these buds are born the thornies. An average thorny tree is capable of producing 1d6+4 thornies. The tree dies once it buds and the thornies hatch.

Creating a Thorny

“Thorny” is an inherited template that can be added to animal (referred to hereafter as the base animal). A thorny retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

CR: Same as base animal +1.

Alignment: Always neutral.

Size and Type: The base animal’s type changes to plant. Recalculate its base attack bonus, saves, and skill points based on its improved Hit Dice (see below). Size is unchanged.

AC: The base animal’s natural armor bonus improves by +1.

Hit Dice: Add 2 Hit Dice to the base animal. All current and future Hit Dice become d8s.

Speed: The base animal’s land speed increases by +10 feet. It loses all other modes of movement, if any.

Special Attacks: A thorny retains all the special attacks of the base animal, and gains the following.

Skills: Thornies have a +4 racial bonus on Perception and Stealth checks. The bonus on Stealth increases to +12 in swampy or forested areas. It retains all the racial bonuses of the base animal.

Environment: Warm forests.

Organization: Solitary or same as base animal.