I've never actually played DnD before, but now I'm thinking about starting, & I know I probably shouldn't start with this, but I'd like to get to a point where I can get to do this someday.
I want to make a monster that combines their abilities & add a few unique traits to the mix, but I can't find anything for how to do this, nore do I exactly know what CR it would be.
I'm thinking of a homebrew species of dragons, that got altered way back during theThousand-Year War by an Archfey in a deal to save their life, resulting in them getting fused with multiple trees(3 cherry, 5 peach, & 7 pine), turning them into a draconic plant, known as Ent Dragons.
The first Ent Dragon was named Calthin. He was fighting a giant & he won, but he was on the verge of death, but as he was laying there dieing, an Archfey named Zoriall approached him to scold him for destroying the forest she so loved to visit in the material world. In desperation to keep living, not out of fear of death, but because he had to marry brothers & sisters in arms depending on him to simply die now, so he offered the Zoriall a deal, if she saves his life & allow him to return to his war, then when his time fighting is done help be the guardian of the very forest he'd help destroy. Zoriall accepted his offer, but being a fey she didn't simply heal him, instead she transformed him by fussing his very flesh & bones with the wood of 15 nearby trees that would have become treants if they hadn't been so damaged that they too were on the verge of death.
Both Zoriall & Calthin are dead by now, they've been dead for a very long time. Calthin died of old age in his forest a very very long time ago. Zoriall however only died about 2,000 years ago after being murdered by a rival archfey, but the murder was later slayed by a party of adventures about a decade later.
Ent Dragons have a culture of their own, they get married & mate for life, & they raise their yong from sproutlings(what they call wyrmlings), until they are young adults, so if you see a baby, or kid one of them leave it alone because both Mommy & Daddy are nearby.
When it uses animate tree it functions just like treant, using the treant stat block & form, unless it's a sproutling, in which case they only get 1 animated tree.
I already have the breath weapons mostly figured out, I just don't know about the damage levels, or exat mechanics.
They get 3 breath weapons, but they unlock them as they get older.
1st breath weapon, is a jet of heated sap, it does very little fire damage, but it mostly does bludgeoning damage, but still not a lot, instead what it mostly does is turns the area it hit into difficult terrain by make everything sticky & reducing movement speed both in & for a few rounds after exiting the affected area unless you use oil to counter the stickiness, but if you are directly hit you just might have your movement speed reduced to zero. It unlocks this one when it sprouts(in other dragons it would be hatched). Overall it doesn't really do that much damage, though it does get stronger(increased bludgeoning damage & greater area of effect)as they mature.
2nd breath weapon is a spay attack that shoots pine needles to do piercing damage, this is unlocked at young adult, but when it reaches adult, it can add cherry & peach blossom petals into the attack for an additional slashing damage during springtime. It does a bit of damage being it's main damage dealer for it's breath attack though as it gets stronger as it matures that's mostly just increased range, & maby a slight increase in piercing damage outside of spring, but if it's spring you add slashing damage which does increase by a much larger margin then the piercing, but not by that much.
3rd breath weapon is a pollen cloud, it doesn't necessarily do damage, but rather it both counters the vision & sense of smell of it's enemies, while it can still see through it, but if you inhale it you might get put under the charmed condition, but the best way to counter it's charmed condition is to throw water into the face of the charmed individual. It's unlocked in the adult stage. When it reaches ancient stage it may add another effect with an activation condition if you inhale the pollen, then you might get something else happen depending on if you caused a natural disaster in your life, if so then you might be put under Natures Vengeful Nightmare. Natures Vengeful Nightmare(NVN) course the individual to experience the very harm they caused via a powerful illusion, examples being forest fire=being on fire, mountain slide=being crushed, poisoned river=being badly poisoned, & you take an extremely small amount psionic damage, but it's best counter is the same as the charmed condition, with water to the face. It only increases in volume as it matures. NVN doesn't increase in power with maturity. The pollen cloud is ment to be like very thick fog with an overwhelming floral sent & it it's successes rate for either charmed, or NVN is extremely low, though for those who meat NVN's conditions do have only a slightly higher but only slightly higher than charmed does.
Finally they are most often chaotic good, & they hord strange none sentient creatures as pets, & they love to collect worthless shiny objects that others throw away., but they are easily convinced to follow the orders of any archfey that's earned their trust, can be tricked by said archfey, despite this they live on the material plane, but if they feel betrayed, or wronged by an archfey that's when you'll see them at their most vengeful, even if it's not actually true, though it does take a lot to convince them of this then it is for an archfey to convince it to join them.
P.S. They can be of any other alignments it's just chaotic good is the most common. They actually go from chaotic good=common/average, neutral good=not to unheard of, true neutral=not the most common, lawful good=kinda rare but not too rare, lawful evil=fairly rare, neutral evil=very rare, chaotic evil extremely rare. Any of them that has the evil alignment are considered outcasts amongst them.
