Offbeat Beasts: The Jinmenju – D&D Monsters With A Unique Twist
Written by the Goblins on November 3, 2018
Editor’s note: This is part of a series exploring cool, weird, or just plain interesting Dungeons and Dragons monsters from both Wizards of the Coast and third-party publishers such as Kobold Press.
Name: Jinmenju
Source: Creature Codex, Published 2018 by Kobold Press, MSRP $49.99
What it does: The Jinmenju is indeed a deadly dendritic. A legendary monster complete with a ton of non-magical resistances and lair actions that can suck in the unwary (or, in the case of bad rolls, unlucky) adventurer. It will take more than an axe to fell this tree.
With its lair actions, this beast can ensnare people in spells of confusion or charm person. It has an aura that can affect people up to six miles away and it has a multi-attack with its roots that deal 2d10+3 bludgeoning damage plus an additional 4d6 psychic damage.
Some folks have asked me to include images of the monsters I profile. I can’t take them straight from the books because copyright. So here’s a drawing of the Jinmenju with a dude sleeping at its base in a permanent thrall. He’s going to die soon…
Why it’s cool: The Jinmenju is basically the monstrous D&D version of Charlie Brown’s Kite-Eating Tree. Its “fruit” are these white apple-looking things that have humanoid faces. The tree can’t speak, but the fruit hears its thoughts and voices them one word at a time.
It’s not evil, though. It doesn’t really realize the effects it has on the people caught in its thrall.
When to use it: This is definitely a different kind of enemy. It doesn’t move on its own, but its roots are capable of burrowing and making melee attacks. A CR 9, the Jinmenju probably needs to be the boss encounter of an adventure. More than one member of the party probably will end up subject to a confusion or charm person spell during the battle thanks to the Jinmenju’s lair actions.
This might be a little basic, but the most natural way to use The Jinmenju could be the following scenario:
Your party comes to a town haunted by faint laughter coming from the nearby woods that started some months ago and have been gifted with extremely pleasant dreams. Those who have dared investigate the source of this eerie noise haven’t come back. Additionally, some people who’ve just been out in the forest for work or recreation have disappeared. The party will venture in and discover that these people have fallen under the thrall of the Jinmenju and, in some cases, died while entranced by the tree’s magics. The party either can destroy the tree or offer to uproot and transport it somewhere less populated (along with appropriate warning signs).
Or you could do something a little different (and dark) as part of a long-term campaign:
The party has been responsible for delivering a seed cache to a town that’s building a large community garden or trying to nurture a forest. They deliver the seeds with little trouble and move on with their adventure. Months later in game-time, have them come back through this area to discover the town mostly abandoned aside from one old woman with dementia who does nothing but repeat “The trees. They laugh…” as she slowly starves to death. It turns out the seed delivery was tainted with a number of Jinmenju seeds. These trees grow quickly and now part of the town/area near the town is infested with these hypnotic monsters. The only solution might be to burn down the town or the forest…
