ᚺᛁᚱᛞᛁᚱ

The shepherds are those awakened trees who have spent enough time awakened that they have grown in wisdom and power and finally appointed themselves to be the shepherds of other trees—the guardians of forests and the watchers of those who, like humans, prey on living trees.

Shepherds are rare. Generally, there is no more than one shepherd to a forest of respectable size, although in centuries past in Britain the largest forests—the Andredesweald in Kent (East Anglia), the Ciltern (East Anglia), and the Weogorenaleag (Mercia)—had many shepherds to each forest. Now those forests are greatly reduced from their primes, and only the largest of the forests—the Andredesweald and the Ciltern—have more than one shepherd within their boundaries.

Shepherds aren’t automatically hostile toward humans; shepherds are just protective of their flock of trees, and this puts the interests of the shepherds at odds with humanity.

Shepherds are very tall trees and can be any type of tree found in the British Isles.

Huge plant, orderly and good

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 161 (14d12+70)
Speed 30 ft

Str 23 (+6) Dex 8 (-1) Con 21 (+5)
Int 12 (+1) Wis 16 (+3) Cha 12 (+1)

Skills Perception +7
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Senses passive Perception 17
Languages Old English, Plant
Reaction to both fear and anger
Challenge 9 (5,000 xp)

False Appearance. While the shepherd remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal tree.

Siege Monster. The shepherd does double damage to objects and structures.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The shepherd makes two slam attacks each turn. 

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 17 (3d6+6) bludgeoning damage.

Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, range 60/180 ft, one target. Hit: 28 (4d10+6) bludgeoning damage.

Awaken Trees (1/day). The shepherd magically creates one or two awakened trees it can see within 60 feet of itself. An awakened tree acts as an ally of the shepherd. The tree remains awakened for 1 day or until it dies; until the shepherd dies or is more than 120 feet from the tree; or until the shepherd takes a bonus action to turn it back into an  inanimate tree. The tree then takes root if possible.

MOTIVES

Shepherds’ entire lives are spent dutifully protecting their flocks of trees—reactively by necessity, proactively by choice.

ALLIES

Shepherds work with awakened trees and wise ones as well as with other plant species.