dailybestiary:

There are two kinds of GMs in the world: GMs who hear
“living topiary” and think that’s awesome…and GMs who hear “living topiary” and
think nothing at all because a bush shaped like a lion just ate them.

In all seriousness, while living topiaries may sound a
little silly (like getting attacked by Disney World after lights out), their
stats make them anything but.  When you
combine Hedge Stride (Sp) and Move through Hedges (Ex) with the healing
Assimilate (Ex) ability—especially if you do it somewhere that PCs have limited
mobility, like a hedge maze or thick undergrowth—you get a combatant that can
take a lot of damage and then vanish, only to return again and again until the
party is ground into the dirt.

Obviously, living topiaries are easy to find in creepy
greenhouses and on the grounds of arcane academies and anywhere druids hang
out.  Try these options on for size as
well:

The Sundered
Labyrinth was never meant to be a maze—or a deathtrap.  Designed by the saint Olivia of the Green, it
was intended to gently guide the walker to its heart while encouraging
contemplation.  But when Olivia was
murdered by fiendish leucrottas, a mysterious rift scarred the labyrinth and
the serene magic of the place turned dark.
The elephant-shaped topiaries, meant to represent important philosophical
thinkers, have come to life and now hunt those who try to walk the Sundered
Labyrinth’s twisted path.  Assuming
adventures survive the plant creatures, they may still have to contend with
Olivia’s slayers.

A leanan sidhe
received her comeuppance when a one of her sculptor thralls managed to trap
her in one of his creations.  Now
petrified inside a statue of herself, the faerie can only glare with impotent hatred
upon the world.  The power of her
resentment and mythic might is so strong that it has leaked out and infused her
surroundings, giving form to living topiaries that stalk in cat shape around
her statue.

In the genie-blasted
wastes of the Anvil, life persists despite the boiling heat and magical
feedback.  The few hardy plants that
remain in this region are so infused with sorcery that when their oases run dry
they refuse to shrivel up; instead they gather themselves into living topiaries
and lope across the plains looking for fresh water…or blood, if it comes to
that.

—Pathfinder Adventure Path
#47 80–81 & Pathfinder Bestiary 4
181

Paizo’s ear for collective nouns strikes again: 5–7 living
topiaries are a boscage.

A full ecology and customization options can be found in Pathfinder Adventure Path #47: Ashes at
Dawn.

Living topiaries are said to be creations of Bottna, who considers them a perfect merger of plant and animal characteristics.