The crop woke up. The Waking Garden is a bestiary of sixty-seven creatures for a world where the things people grow have started growing back, and it is published here in full, free to read, whether or not you ever open the console.
It is written for the 2024 rules and works with 2014. The stat blocks are tuned to 5.5e, so a few will hit harder than their challenge rating suggests at a 5e table.
Three stages, and what each is for
Each stage of growth is intended for a different range of party levels.
| Stage | Levels | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1: rooted | 1–3 | Awake, aware, and unable to leave the furrow they grew in |
| Stage 2: uprooted | 4–8 | Torn free of the soil, and hunting |
| Stage 3: crowned | 9+ | Sovereign, legendary, and the thing a campaign ends on |
Rooted creatures cannot chase the party. A Speartip Row has a 15-foot reach and a Speed of 0. A Grinning Gourd sits in the furrow looking like the rest of the crop until the light comes on behind its eyes. Paths through the field and the space between rows determine who comes within reach.
Thirteen creatures in the library have legendary actions. At CR 22, the final plant is the source from which every waking garden is a cutting.
The rest of the field
Two chapters cover the creatures that live around the crop and tend it.
The rest of the garden is eleven weeds, pests and scavengers that live alongside the crop. Several feed on the waking vegetables themselves.
The Gardener and its retinue is who has been doing this on purpose: a fey with an under-gardener, a rookery of crows, and six garden tools it wakes when it wants hands.
Nineteen encounters, already built
The last appendix is encounter seeds: nineteen encounters from level 1 to level 20. Each includes terrain and creature placements, so you can see how the party might approach a rooted creature or move through its reach.
There are also two indexes, by challenge rating and by creature type, so you can find something at the right size without reading a chapter to get to it.
Using it at the table
Open Settings in the console, the gear at the top right, and tick The Waking Garden. Its creatures then appear in Add creature alongside everything else, with full stat blocks, rollable actions, and their own source line.
The site and console read the stat blocks from the same data file.
What you may do with it
The stat blocks and game mechanics are licensed under CC BY 4.0, so you may share and adapt them, commercially included, with credit to Nicola Mustone and a note of what you changed.
Each creature’s description and the chapter text are © 2026 Nicola Mustone, all rights reserved, and are not licensed for reuse. The full terms are on the library’s own page.
Start with the overview, or go straight to the rooted if you want something to put in front of a level 2 party tonight.