Introduction
Tiny, adorable plant critters, the Leshy has quickly become a community favorite, appearing as the full protagonist line-up in the Free RPG Day adventures two years in a row. With a broad range of Heritage and Ancestry Feat options, plus the ability to describe your Leshy to look like any plant you can think of, Leshies offer a ton of room for creativity.
Mechanically, the Leshy’s options are numerous and diverse, but the truly fantastic options are few and far between. There are options to support a variety of builds, including defensive options, unarmed strike options, innate spellcasting, and some more unique options like Ageless Spirit and Grasping Reach. You can definitely assemble a functional build, but you’ll benefit greatly from Adopted Ancestry or a Versatile Heritage to get access to additional Ancestry Feat options.
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Remastered Leshy
Leshy Ancestry Traits
- : 8+ is average and you get a Constitution increase on top of that.
- : Small. Medium and small size have few functional differences in Pathfinder 2e.
- : 25 feet is standard.
- : Constitution and Wisdom is a perfect basis for a huge number of builds. An Intelligence Flaw rules out the Magus, the Witch, and the Wizard unless you take the Alternate Ancestry Boosts.
- : Ancestry language plus Common is standard.
- : Low-light vision.
- : Not mechanically impactful.
Leshy Heritages
- Cactus Leshy (PC1): A fairly standard unarmed attack. Unfortunately, the Leshy’s only feats to support unarmed combat are the Seed Pod feat chain.
- Fruit Leshy
(PC1): Effectively a
free, scaling healing potion once per day. It won’t replace other sources of
healing, but it can keep an ally in a fight for another round. Unfortunately,
I don’t think you can eat it yourself since leshies don’t derive sustenance from plants.
Remaster Changes: The traits of the effect have changed.
- Fungus Leshy (PC1): Consistently useful in almost every game.
- Gourd Leshy (PC1): Very novel, and a great way to keep easy access to items that you need to access in combat like potions or weapons. The 1 Bulk limitation does limit your options, but there are still plenty of things that you can do with 1 Bulk items.
- Leaf Leshy (PC1): Only situationally useful.
- Lotus Leshy
(PC1): Beyond low
levels you can have someone cast Water Walk.
Remaster Changes: The wording of the ability to walk across flowing water has been reworded for clarity, but is functionally equivalent.
- Root Leshy
(PC1): Only
situationally useful.
Remaster Changes: The Circumstance bonus now also applies to your DC against attempts to Reposition you.
- Seaweed Leshy (PC1): Only appealing in an aquatic game.
- Vine Leshy (PC1): In a game with magical flight, this will stop mattering beyond low levels.
Leshy Ancestry Feats
Level 1
- Grasping Reach (PC1): This isn’t a go-to option, but if you want some combination of weapon properties that aren’t available on a reach weapon, this is a great way to get it, and reducing the damage die by one step isn’t a terrible price to pay.
- Harmlessly Cute (PC1): Shameless Request is only situationally useful.
- Leshy Lore
(PC1): Nature and
Stealth are both great skills, but few characters are good at both.
Remaster Changes: Instead of being Trained in Leshy Lore, you now get Additional Lore for Leshy Lore, so your proficiency increases automatically with no further investment.
- Leshy Superstition (PC1): Spells and magic effects are common hazards, and while Circumstance bonuses are common, they’re also not perpetually in place.
- Seedpod (PC1): An adequate ranged option for unarmed combat builds.
- Shadow of the Wilds (PC1): Extremely situational. Enemies tracking you is exceptionally rare.
- Undaunted (PC1): Emotion effects, which include fear effects, are extremely common. This will see a lot of use.
Level 5
- Anchoring Roots (PC1): Only situationally useful. I love that they wrote this to stack with Root Leshy’s bonus.
- Leshy Glide (PC1): Only situationally useful. You either need to fall long enough that you don’t hit the ground in one turn, or you need to intentionally jump off of a sufficiently high surface to glide. Castle Gentle Landing if you’re worried about falling.
- Ritual Reversion (PC1): Only situationally useful, but it is cool that you can effectively cast a 2nd-level spell at will. You may be able to use the Turn into Plant option to set up ambushes reliably.
- Speak with Kindred
(PC1): If you’re a
type of Leshy that’s common wherever you are, you may be able to gather a
great deal of information. Unfortunately, the examples of which leshies can
talk to what plants isn’t a complete list, so your GM will need to
adjudicate which plants your Leshy can talk to.
Remaster Changes: Instead of being limited to plants of a similar type to you, you can now speak to any plant/fungi, but also receive a +2 bonus to speak to related plants.
Level 9
- Bark and Tendril (PC1): Neither spell is very good.
- Lucky Keepsake (PC1): Removes the Reaction cost of Leshy Superstition.
- Solar Rejuvenation (PC1): Very cool thematically, but your party needs sources of healing that can apply to the whole party, so you’re going to have a source of inexpensive healing long before you can get this feat.
- Thorned Seedpod (): The 1d4 Persistent Damage doesn’t scale, and even by this level it’s not a noteworthy amount of damage. I love persistent damage, but it needs to be either more reliable to apply or it needs to be more impactful.
Level 13
- Call of the Green Man (PC1): This isn’t far behind top-rank spells when you get access to the feat, and the fact that it heightens to 6th rank automatically is great. Unfortunately, the stats for the spell won’t remain impactful after a few levels. If you plan to take this and get the most value out of it, you need to build yourself around polymorph spells.
- Cloak of Poison (CG): Decent damage, especially if you’re being swarmed.
Level 17
- Flourish and Ruin (PC1): Field of Life is a mediocre healing option. Tangling Creepers is good area control, but it depends on your spell attack modifier, so it’s only appealing to spellcasters.
- Regrowth (PC1): A decent buff to put on your party’s front-line defender, or on yourself when using Cloak of Poison.
Legacy Leshy
Leshy Ancestry Traits
- : 8+ is average and you get a Constitution increase on top of that.
- : Small. Medium and small size have few functional differences in Pathfinder 2e.
- : 25 feet is standard.
- : Constitution and Wisdom is a perfect basis for a huge number of builds. An Intelligence Flaw rules out the Magus, the Witch, and the Wizard unless you take the Alternate Ancestry Boosts.
- : Ancestry language plus Common is standard.
- : Low-light vision.
- : Not mechanically impactful.
Leshy Heritages
- Cactus Leshy (AG): A fairly standard unarmed attack. Unfortunately, the Leshy’s only feats to support unarmed combat are the Seed Pod feat chain.
- Fruit Leshy
(AG): Effectively a
free, scaling healing potion once per day. It won’t replace other sources of
healing, but it can keep an ally in a fight for another round.
Remaster Changes: The traits of the effect have changed.
- Fungus Leshy (CG): Consistently useful in almost every game.
- Gourd Leshy (CG): Very novel, and a great way to keep easy access to items that you need to access in combat like potions or weapons. The 1 Bulk limitation does limit your options, but there are still plenty of things that you can do with 1 Bulk items.
- Leaf Leshy (CG): Only situationally useful.
- Lotus Leshy (AG): Beyond low levels you can have someone cast Water Walk.
- Pine Leshy (PF #176): Only situationally useful. Climbing in combat is rare, and very few enemies rely on disarming.
- Root Leshy (AG): Only situationally useful.
- Seaweed Leshy (AG): Only appealing in an aquatic game.
- Vine Leshy (CG): In a game with magical flight, this will stop mattering beyond low levels.
Leshy Ancestry Feats
Level 1
- Ageless Spirit (AG): With the exception of Lore, you’ll rarely benefit from changing a trained skill on a daily basis.
- Grasping Reach (CG): This isn’t a go-to option, but if you want some combination of weapon properties that aren’t available on a reach weapon, this is a great way to get it, and reducing the damage die by one step isn’t a terrible price to pay.
- Harmlessly Cute (CG): Shameless Request is only situationally useful.
- Leshy Lore (CG): Nature and Stealth are both great skills, but few characters are good at both.
- Leshy Superstition (CG): Spells and magic effects are common hazards, and while Circumstance bonuses are common, they’re also not perpetually in place.
- Pyrophilic Recovery (PF #176): Not as good as resistance to fire. This is potentially helpful, but unless you’re taking fire damage constantly, I don’t think this is worth the feat. It’s a really fun concept, but mechanically it’s just not very good.
- Seedpod (CG): An adequate ranged option for unarmed combat builds.
- Shadow of the Wilds (CG): Extremely situational. Enemies tracking you is exceptionally rare.
- Undaunted (CG): Emotion effects, which include fear effects, are extremely common. This will see a lot of use.
Level 5
- Anchoring Roots (AG): Only situationally useful. I love that they wrote this to stack with Root Leshy’s bonus.
- Climate Adaptation (PF #176): Very situational, and having actual damage resistance will provide similAr benefits.
- Defensive Needles (PF #176): A fantastic defense for any melee character. Teeth, claws, and most other Strikes used by monsters count as unarmed, and should trigger this damage.
- Leshy Glide (CG): Only situationally useful. You either need to fall long enough that you don’t hit the ground in one turn, or you need to intentionally jump off of a sufficiently high surface to glide. Castle Gentle Landing if you’re worried about falling.
- Ritual Reversion (CG): Only situationally useful, but it is cool that you can effectively cast a 2nd-level spell at will. You may be able to use the Turn into Plant option to set up ambushes reliably.
- Speak with Kindred (CG): Too restrictive to be useful.
Level 9
- Bark and Tendril (CG): Neither spell is very good.
- Lucky Keepsake (CG): Removes the Reaction cost of Leshy Superstition.
- Solar Rejuvenation (CG): Very cool thematically, but your party needs sources of healing that can apply to the whole party, so you’re going to have a source of inexpensive healing long before you can get this feat.
- Spore Cloud (AG):
- Thorned Seedpod (AG): The 1d4 Persistent Damage doesn’t scale, and even by this level it’s not a noteworthy amount of damage. I love persistent damage, but it needs to be either more reliable to apply or it needs to be more impactful.
- Towering Growth (PF #176): Enlarge is a fine buff for melee characters, but it’s once per say, self only, and doesn’t scale at all, so it will become obsolete quickly.
Level 13
- Call of the Green Man (AG): This isn’t far behind top-rank spells when you get access to the feat, and the fact that it heightens to 6th rank automatically is great. Unfortunately, the stats for the spell won’t remain impactful after a few levels. If you plan to take this and get the most value out of it, you need to build yourself around polymorph spells.
- Cloak of Poison (AG): Decent damage, especially if you’re being swarmed.
Level 17
- Flourish and Ruin (AG): Field of Life is a mediocre healing option. Tangling Creepers is good area control, but it depends on your spell attack modifier, so it’s only appealing to spellcasters.
- Regrowth (AG): A decent buff to put on your party’s front-line defender, or on yourself when using Cloak of Poison.