Jubokko 樹木子

Large plant, unaligned

Armor Class 15 (natural armor, rooted)

Hit Points 102 (12d10 + 36)

Speed 0 ft. (see Rooted)

STR 19 (+4) · DEX 8 (−1) · CON 17 (+3) · INT 5 (−3) · WIS 14 (+2) · CHA 6 (−2)

Saving Throws Con +6, Wis +5

Skills Perception +5

Damage Vulnerabilities fire (doubles damage after resistances)

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, prone

Senses blindsight 30 ft. (roots and tremor), passive Perception 15

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Traits

Rooted. The jubokko is fixed in place; it can’t take the Move action or be pushed, pulled, or knocked prone.

False Appearance. While motionless, the jubokko is indistinguishable from an ordinary, flourishing tree.

Blood Nourishment. Whenever the jubokko deals necrotic damage, it regains the same number of hit points.

Actions

Multiattack. The jubokko makes two Branch Lash attacks. It can replace one attack with Siphon Vitae if it has a creature grappled.

Branch Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 20 ft., one creature. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the jubokko can’t use that branch on another target.

Siphon Vitae. The jubokko drains life from each creature it currently has grappled. A grappled creature must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 14 (4d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.

Needle Spray (Recharge 5–6). The jubokko flexes its smaller twigs, launching a 15-foot cone of hollow, blood-drawing thorns. Each creature in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. Creatures that fail are also grappled by hundreds of fine twigs (escape DC 15).

Bonus Actions

Reel Prey. The jubokko pulls one creature it has grappled up to 10 feet straight toward itself.

Reactions

Snap Lash. When a creature within 20 feet hits the jubokko with an attack, the jubokko makes one Branch Lash attack against that creature.

Lore

A vampiric tree that grows on battlefields and drinks the blood of the wounded.

Jubokko, whose name literally translates as “tree child,” belongs to a rare class of plant yokai that live exclusively on human blood and life-force. At first glance the yokai looks like an ordinary tree, distinguished only by an unnaturally lush crown even on scorched or barren ground. This unnatural freshness is the first sign that something is wrong: the tree never decays thanks to the constant flow of blood it absorbs. A closer look reveals twisted branches in barely perceptible motion, tipped with hollow growths that work like capillary needles; with them the Jubokko pierces its prey and drains it dry. Some accounts add a pale-white bark studded with sharp thorns. Any cut to this bark releases real human blood, and the wounds seal quickly through the tree’s own regeneration. For that healing the yokai draws on life-energy stored inside its trunk. Around the roots lie scattered bones: the wood cannot digest flesh, so once every drop of blood is gone the victim’s body collapses at the base of the tree.

A Jubokko’s habitat is typically a place of mass death—battlefields, execution grounds, or large burial sites. It is said that an ordinary tree becomes a yokai when its roots soak up the blood of people who died violently, drawing in both nutrients and the hatred of the fallen. After that transformation the Jubokko turns predator, forever craving fresh blood; hence its aggressive territorial nature and the fact that it never moves but simply waits until a victim wanders within reach.

From Yokai Bestiary 5E, Book Two, p. 48 · Fern Flower Press