Monstrous “Monday”: Deku Baba

And, finally, Monstrous Monday is back! …On a Wednesday! I know I took a bit of an unplanned break for a couple weeks, and I apologize. I should really be holding myself to a better standard. But now I’m back, and I’m here to tell you about one of my favorite monsters in Legend of Zelda. The Deku Baba!

Yeah, that’s right, the stupid “venus fly trap” monster that’s basically a copy of the Piranha Plant from the Mario games. It is, in fact, one of my favorite basic enemies in the Zelda series, and let me tell you why: Deku Babas aren’t just monsters. They’re traps, as well. They pop up out of an innocuous bush on the ground, wall, or ceiling and snap at you with their huge, progressively-more-intimidating-as-video-game-graphics-improve jaws.

And that trap aspect is important when it comes to the design of the deku baba, because they are, in fact immobile. A deku baba in a field or open battleground is effectively-useless, because even if you stumble upon it and it gnashes its teeth at you, running away solves the problem, since you can now simply avoid that patch of grass from now on.

This means that, similar to many of the deadly plants and fungi in D&D, they need to be placed in tight quarters to be effective. Deku babas thrive in caves and caverns, and inside the bodies of dead, hollow trees. They lurk in places where their targets cannot escape, and even those who run must face them again if they wish to pass.

With that understanding, here’s the deku baba.

And, of course, I couldn’t just give you ONE low-CR Zelda plant monster, so HERE’s the Deku Baba Serpent! These are the nasty ones from Twilight Princess that actually bounce/slither toward you once you sever their stalk. I programmed that into the stat block, too. Nifty!

PDF Link (Ha! “Link.”): Deku Babas

And that’s all for now. I’d like to make a few more Legend of Zelda monsters, too, like Redeads, Gibdos, and Dodongos. Don’t know what any of those are? Then tune in for the following weeks.

Did you enjoy this article? Do you want MORE Legend of Zelda monsters? Let me know by clicking that “like” button! And if you’ve been trying to convince your GM to run a Zelda-based game, then this might just be the way to get things rolling. Why not share the page? Sounds like a good idea to me.