Editing Myconid (section)

==5th Edition==
[[File:Myconids 5e.jpg|right|300px]]
It is perhaps fitting that the myconids were reintroduced to the latest version of the D&D rules once again via In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords. During the long playtest period between 4th and 5th edition, WotC reprinted some older edition material, and this included the hardcover compilation A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords. Although the reprint remained faithful to the original AD&D rules, that month's playtest packet included a new document titled D&D Next Monster Statistics for Against the Slave Lords (A0-A5). The myconid adult, juvenile and sovereign are all detailed inside.

The juvenile is the smallest myconid. It has just 7 hit points and a single slam attack which does 1d4 bludgeoning and 1d4 poison damage. A juvenile has both rapport spores to allow it to communicate telepathically with other creatures, and distress spores which can broadcast an alarm to other myconids within a 50 feet range. The medium-sized adult has 22 hit points, and does three times as much bludgeoning damage with its slam attack. The range of its distress spores doubles, and an adult can also release pacifying spores which stun a target for up to a minute.

A large creature with 33 hit points and a slam attack which does 5d4 bludgeoning damage, the myconid sovereign has the same abilities as other adults, but two additional spore attacks. It has hallucination spores which cause a creature to react randomly for up to a minute, and animating spores which can animate the corpse of a humanoid or a beast of up to large size for between two and five weeks. The playtest document includes statistics for an animated human commoner. All three types of myconid are averse to sunlight; it kills them after an hour of exposure. They also have a poisonous skin which does damage relative to the myconid's size to anyone who touches them. Plants are immune to this effect.

The Monster Manual makes a few changes to the playtest version. Myconids no longer have poisonous skin and their aversion to the sun is now called sun sickness. The juvenile is known as a "sprout" and its distress spores have a much greater range (240 feet). Its rapport spores, on the other hand, now last only one hour instead of six. Both the sprout and the adult have reduced movement speeds. The sprout's fist attack does one point less damage. An adult myconid's melee attack does 1d4 less bludgeoning damage but 1d4 more poison damage.

Both the adult and the sovereign have an improved armor class from the playtest versions. Like the adult myconid, the sovereign now does less bludgeoning damage but more poison damage. The sovereign has nearly twice as many hit points (60 hp), and has gained the multiattack ability which lets it use either hallucination spores or pacifying spores and then still hit with its fist. In the playtest rules, the hallucination and pacifying spores had a limited number of uses per day, but in the final version they are unlimited. The effect of the hallucinations is now to incapacitate the target, instead of being determined randomly.

The D&D Next version of animating spores has the creature rise almost immediately, but in 5th Edition the process take a full 24 hours to work, closer to the 1-4 days of AD&D. The animated corpse still lasts 1d4+1 weeks. The Monster Manual includes a more interesting sample spore servant (a [[quaggoth]]) but also helpfully provides a whole template for converting other creatures into servants.

The Monster Manual is quite light on myconid lore, but it is clear from the paragraph describing their spore-based reproduction that their 4th Edition expansionist tendencies are no more. Instead they carefully control the release of their reproductive spores to avoid overpopulation.

Circles of twenty or more myconid are still the basic social structure, and once again they use their rapport spores to meld into a group consciousness. As in earlier editions, they consider the meld to be the reason for their existence. If approached by travellers, myconids will gladly provide shelter and safe passage.

Given that (spoiler!) the 2015 adventure Out of the Abyss culminates in the wedding of [[Zuggtmoy]], [[Demon Prince|Demon Queen of Fungi]], it is not surprising that the fungus folk feature quite prominently in the adventure. This is their most significant presence since A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, and there are more named myconids here than in the rest of D&D history combined.

Quite early on in the adventure, the heroes meet Stool, an inquisitive young myconid who has been taken prisoner, and who may become an important ally. A little later on, there is another potential encounter with a group of myconids who have fallen under the sway of "the Lady", and who are behaving erratically, dancing to tunes that only they can hear. One of their group is a friend of Stool's, named Rumpadump. An introverted myconid by nature, Rumpadump is the only unaffected member of the group. He is able to lead the adventurers on to Neverlight Grove, a myconid refuge where much of the adventure is set.

Unusually, two sovereigns share control over Neverlight Grove. Sovereign Phylo has unfortunately fallen under the sway of Zuggtmoy's influence, and he has established new rules governing which myconids meld with each other, allowing some of the circles to focus entirely on supporting the Demon Queen. Sovereign Basidia has not yet been infected with Zuggtmoy's spores, and will try to warn visiting adventurers away, lest the corrupted myconids sacrifice them to her. It is an integral plot point in the adventure that Basidia is later able to reach out to the heroes using rapport spores over a much greater distance than would normally be possible.

The Grove's community consists of seven circles of myconids, most of which serve a specific function. The Circle of Builders is responsible for maintaining the group's dwellings and structures. The Circle of Growers are the community's farmers. Responsible for the sporing and tending of new myconids is the Circle of Sporers (also refered to once as the Circle of Sowers), while the Circle of Explorers consists of the those restless myconids willing to act as scouts and pathfinders. The Circle of Hunters tracks dying creatures and retrieves their carcasses for reanimation. The remaining two circles -- the Inner Circle and the Circle of Masters are unique to this community and a result of Zuggtmoy's growing influence over Phylo.

One of the appendices in Out of the Abyss provides three new types of spores available to adult myconids under Zuggtmoy's influence. Caustic spores cause acid damage, Euphoria spores cause poison damage to non-myconids and leave the creature exhausted as an after effect. Infestation spores infect flesh and blood creatures with disease and madness that gets gradually worse until the victim is cured or dies, likely to be reanimated as a spore servant.

Although the myconid is mentioned as an example of the plant monster type, the creature itself doesn't form part of the Basic Rules or the Systems Reference Document for 5th Edition.