5e has a severe lack of plant-based or even plant-adjacent player races. There's no Wood-Woad/Treant-based official 5e race, and we don't even have a Dryad or Wilden player race (yet, that is).
However, there is a fairly easy way to replicate practically everything you would want from being a Treefolk in 5e officially, provided that your DM allows it and you refluff the race: The Warforged.
I know it seems strange at first, and I'm typically against whenever someone tells me to "JUST REFLUFF THIS THING INSTEAD!!!" when asking for a new player option in the game, but in this case I think that the stats for the Warforged genuinely fit well for a "Tree-Person" race, and is currently the next-best-thing to playing an official Treefolk race.
(Side Note: I am aware that there can be varieties of treefolk, as a Dryad's mechanics would be very different from a Wilden's, and those would e very different from a Treant-race. The assumption here is that you want to be a living tree, not someone who lives in/on-top of trees/forests.)
Let's go down the Warforged's Mechanics and see how they fit a Treefolk race:
First and foremost, the Ability Score Improvement feature, which grants a bonus to Constitution, and a bonus to any other ability score of your choice. Trees are generally considered "tough/healthy", so a +2 to Constitution fits very well there. The variety that comes from the floating +1 ASI can be if you want to be a treefolk tied to a strong tree (Oak, Cedar, etc), Dexterity if you want to be a Aspen/Cherry Tree Treefolk. Trees are also commonly connected to "Wisdom" (Not D&D Wisdom, real life wisdom, which is knowledge), which would explain choosing an Intelligence bonus, and Wisdom and Charisma bonuses could also be explained away by your type of tree or age/environment/history of your tree-type.
Secondly, Age. Trees live for a long time (typically), and Warforged are assumed to be capable of living for a long time. No issues here.
Third, Alignment. Trees are orderly, right? They all (generally) grown up towards the sky. That's a sign of being lawful, is it not? (jk, but it kind of works if you use alignment/alignment attached to races.)
Fourth, Size. Trees are typically tall and weigh a lot. Warforged are tall and weigh a lot. No problems here.
Fifth, Speed. No problems here. Both Wood Woads and Treants have a 30 foot walking speed.
Sixth, Constructed Resilience. Okay, the name could use a bit of tweaking, but all of the mechanics fit. As said above, trees are generally considered "healthy", so poison resistance fits, as does immunity to disease (okay, trees can catch diseases, but not the same ones that people do, so your DM could give you a fungus-based disease or something like that). Trees also don't eat, drink, or breath in the typical sense, and can mostly absorb the nutrients they need through the air and ground around them. This could be explained away as your feet extending roots into the ground to "feed you" while you're resting. Finally for this feature, the immunity to sleep and not needing to sleep, which also makes thematic sense, as trees don't sleep.
Seventh, Sentry's Rest. See above. Trees don't sleep, and this could be explained as a period of time of you replenishing your energy, while never fully losing consciousness.
Eighth, Integrated Protection. You're a tree. Your skin is bark. The bonus to AC makes sense, as does having to integrate armor into your body. This can be explained as your bark/branches weaving into the armor to keep it attached to you as long as you live.
Ninth, Specialized Design. Trees live for a long time, and this can be explained as a few skills you have learned throughout your lifetime, whether it be as a Tree or Treefolk.
Finally, Languages. Common, because duh, and any language of your choice also makes sense (Sylvan or Elvish would fit thematically).
So, what do you think? Are the Warforged's mechanics strangely fitting for a Tree-Person, or am I crazy? Are there any other non-obvious reflavorings that you think strangely fit for other race ideas? (Maybe a Tortle reflavored as an Armadillo/Pangolin person??? The only not-fitting feature for this seems to be Hold Breath.)
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Trees float, some are spiky, they sort of breathe but slowly, they have obvious connections to nature and animals and covering oneself in flora is archetypical camouflage, there's the bark thing, trees literally take nutrients from decaying matter and grow leaves and nuts with it - I think lizardfolk make an equally good case for being treefolk reskinned.
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Sound thinking I think, in that I've done it. Someone initially wanted to be "the Tin Man (from Oz)" but wood. So I went with Warforged anyway since I think even Eberron makes clear that plant fibers are or at least can be materials in a Warforged's construction. Then the player shifted form "Wood Man to just Wood Tree," seemed to work on the grounds you've laid out, so we did a whole backstory thing where they where a lone tree who blamed its loneliness on its lack of heart, but then became convinced it could grow one if it could only find a grove that accept someone like them. In wooded areas I gave them advantages to hiding because natural camouflage. It was a one shot, but if we went further I'd probably have to think up rules for its nutrition, adequate fresh water and sunlight and all that. Like the one shot was largely outdoors in temperate climates, I don't know how it'd handle say the under dark.
Now reflecting more, and now kicking myself for neglecting this; but fire/lightning vulnerability? Not sure what I'd buff or add for that. Maybe poison resistance? Option to take Powerful Build?
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
There is certainly a level of overlap between all races, with a little blurring of stereotypes, but I wouldn't necessarily say that a Warforged and a Treefolk are a particularly good thematic match. In many ways the archetypical example of each would be fundamentally very different:
Warforged (Machines) are uniform, high energy, and alien, whereas
Treefolk (Plants) are extremely diverse, low energy, and well integrated.
A machine is a juggernaut that travels from A to B in the fastest path. A plant travels from A to B by taking the most energyefficient path.
Simplified on paper, that can sometimes look the same, but that's rather unfortunate.
Re: Alignment
Plants are most definitely chaotic. Being orderly is only convenient until it's not, at which point a plant will adapt. They propagate without any regard for the future, which often leads to wildfires and other natural disasters.(Machines avoid problems, while plants treat them as opportunities.)
Re: Sleep
Plants may not necessarily "sleep", but they are also never really "awake". (Although, many do sleep according to the season.) Maybe this could be represented by balancing not sleeping with disadvantage on Initiative. Always aware, just never quick to act. However, official content is doing away with penalties, so that's unlikely.
etc...
In principle, plants are the opposite of adventurers as they essentially operate via diffusion and not purpose-driven action. Any "Treefolk" race suitable for a PC would have to deviate from their origin in a pretty significant way, which essentially means than any race could act as a template.
When creating a plant-based race, I would probably want to focus on a few special ability variants, and let them otherwise operate like any other humanoid. For example:
Fruit Bearing: Once per day, when exposed to sunlight, this creature can produces a number of edible fruits that operate according to the spell Goodberry.
Flowering: Once per day, when exposed to sunlight, this creature can produce a single beautiful flower. When plucked and offered to another creature, that creature is subject to the effects of Charm Person.
Symbiotic: Once per week, this creature can cast Find Familiar as a ritual without material components.
etc...
Maybe the best thing to do would be to build a Plantfolk with tiered options, akin to the Simic Hybrid. Let the character actually grow through the process of the game.
Sometimes it depends on the rest of the build. If you wanted to be a Treefolk druid, your druid features and spells could cover for the lack of "plantyness" of your race, while warforged adds some very visible sturdiness to your typical druid. But if you wanted to be a Treefolk rogue, then this might not fill out your vision quite as well. Personally I like my plant-based races to be fey-leaning (dryads), so I'd want a race with a bit more of that energy to it.
But in general I fully endorse reskinning like this. If the traits you're looking for in treefolk fit what warforged gives you, by all means go for it.
Okay, simple premise, as seen in the title above.
5e has a severe lack of plant-based or even plant-adjacent player races. There's no Wood-Woad/Treant-based official 5e race, and we don't even have a Dryad or Wilden player race (yet, that is).
However, there is a fairly easy way to replicate practically everything you would want from being a Treefolk in 5e officially, provided that your DM allows it and you refluff the race: The Warforged.
I know it seems strange at first, and I'm typically against whenever someone tells me to "JUST REFLUFF THIS THING INSTEAD!!!" when asking for a new player option in the game, but in this case I think that the stats for the Warforged genuinely fit well for a "Tree-Person" race, and is currently the next-best-thing to playing an official Treefolk race.
(Side Note: I am aware that there can be varieties of treefolk, as a Dryad's mechanics would be very different from a Wilden's, and those would e very different from a Treant-race. The assumption here is that you want to be a living tree, not someone who lives in/on-top of trees/forests.)
Let's go down the Warforged's Mechanics and see how they fit a Treefolk race:
First and foremost, the Ability Score Improvement feature, which grants a bonus to Constitution, and a bonus to any other ability score of your choice. Trees are generally considered "tough/healthy", so a +2 to Constitution fits very well there. The variety that comes from the floating +1 ASI can be if you want to be a treefolk tied to a strong tree (Oak, Cedar, etc), Dexterity if you want to be a Aspen/Cherry Tree Treefolk. Trees are also commonly connected to "Wisdom" (Not D&D Wisdom, real life wisdom, which is knowledge), which would explain choosing an Intelligence bonus, and Wisdom and Charisma bonuses could also be explained away by your type of tree or age/environment/history of your tree-type.
Secondly, Age. Trees live for a long time (typically), and Warforged are assumed to be capable of living for a long time. No issues here.
Third, Alignment. Trees are orderly, right? They all (generally) grown up towards the sky. That's a sign of being lawful, is it not? (jk, but it kind of works if you use alignment/alignment attached to races.)
Fourth, Size. Trees are typically tall and weigh a lot. Warforged are tall and weigh a lot. No problems here.
Fifth, Speed. No problems here. Both Wood Woads and Treants have a 30 foot walking speed.
Sixth, Constructed Resilience. Okay, the name could use a bit of tweaking, but all of the mechanics fit. As said above, trees are generally considered "healthy", so poison resistance fits, as does immunity to disease (okay, trees can catch diseases, but not the same ones that people do, so your DM could give you a fungus-based disease or something like that). Trees also don't eat, drink, or breath in the typical sense, and can mostly absorb the nutrients they need through the air and ground around them. This could be explained away as your feet extending roots into the ground to "feed you" while you're resting. Finally for this feature, the immunity to sleep and not needing to sleep, which also makes thematic sense, as trees don't sleep.
Seventh, Sentry's Rest. See above. Trees don't sleep, and this could be explained as a period of time of you replenishing your energy, while never fully losing consciousness.
Eighth, Integrated Protection. You're a tree. Your skin is bark. The bonus to AC makes sense, as does having to integrate armor into your body. This can be explained as your bark/branches weaving into the armor to keep it attached to you as long as you live.
Ninth, Specialized Design. Trees live for a long time, and this can be explained as a few skills you have learned throughout your lifetime, whether it be as a Tree or Treefolk.
Finally, Languages. Common, because duh, and any language of your choice also makes sense (Sylvan or Elvish would fit thematically).
So, what do you think? Are the Warforged's mechanics strangely fitting for a Tree-Person, or am I crazy? Are there any other non-obvious reflavorings that you think strangely fit for other race ideas? (Maybe a Tortle reflavored as an Armadillo/Pangolin person??? The only not-fitting feature for this seems to be Hold Breath.)
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Trees float, some are spiky, they sort of breathe but slowly, they have obvious connections to nature and animals and covering oneself in flora is archetypical camouflage, there's the bark thing, trees literally take nutrients from decaying matter and grow leaves and nuts with it - I think lizardfolk make an equally good case for being treefolk reskinned.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Sound thinking I think, in that I've done it. Someone initially wanted to be "the Tin Man (from Oz)" but wood. So I went with Warforged anyway since I think even Eberron makes clear that plant fibers are or at least can be materials in a Warforged's construction. Then the player shifted form "Wood Man to just Wood Tree," seemed to work on the grounds you've laid out, so we did a whole backstory thing where they where a lone tree who blamed its loneliness on its lack of heart, but then became convinced it could grow one if it could only find a grove that accept someone like them. In wooded areas I gave them advantages to hiding because natural camouflage. It was a one shot, but if we went further I'd probably have to think up rules for its nutrition, adequate fresh water and sunlight and all that. Like the one shot was largely outdoors in temperate climates, I don't know how it'd handle say the under dark.
Now reflecting more, and now kicking myself for neglecting this; but fire/lightning vulnerability? Not sure what I'd buff or add for that. Maybe poison resistance? Option to take Powerful Build?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
There is certainly a level of overlap between all races, with a little blurring of stereotypes, but I wouldn't necessarily say that a Warforged and a Treefolk are a particularly good thematic match. In many ways the archetypical example of each would be fundamentally very different:
Warforged (Machines) are uniform, high energy, and alien, whereas
Treefolk (Plants) are extremely diverse, low energy, and well integrated.
A machine is a juggernaut that travels from A to B in the fastest path. A plant travels from A to B by taking the most energy efficient path.
Simplified on paper, that can sometimes look the same, but that's rather unfortunate.
Re: Alignment
Plants are most definitely chaotic. Being orderly is only convenient until it's not, at which point a plant will adapt. They propagate without any regard for the future, which often leads to wildfires and other natural disasters.(Machines avoid problems, while plants treat them as opportunities.)
Re: Sleep
Plants may not necessarily "sleep", but they are also never really "awake". (Although, many do sleep according to the season.) Maybe this could be represented by balancing not sleeping with disadvantage on Initiative. Always aware, just never quick to act. However, official content is doing away with penalties, so that's unlikely.
etc...
In principle, plants are the opposite of adventurers as they essentially operate via diffusion and not purpose-driven action. Any "Treefolk" race suitable for a PC would have to deviate from their origin in a pretty significant way, which essentially means than any race could act as a template.
When creating a plant-based race, I would probably want to focus on a few special ability variants, and let them otherwise operate like any other humanoid. For example:
Fruit Bearing: Once per day, when exposed to sunlight, this creature can produces a number of edible fruits that operate according to the spell Goodberry.
Flowering: Once per day, when exposed to sunlight, this creature can produce a single beautiful flower. When plucked and offered to another creature, that creature is subject to the effects of Charm Person.
Symbiotic: Once per week, this creature can cast Find Familiar as a ritual without material components.
etc...
Maybe the best thing to do would be to build a Plantfolk with tiered options, akin to the Simic Hybrid. Let the character actually grow through the process of the game.
You could technically reskin the Warforged as a tree race, but honestly none of their stats or abilities actually feel distinctly botanical.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Late answer, but nonetheless you should disregard the naysayers. It's a very astute observation and very on point.
I'm swiping it for my next druid.
Thank you!
Sometimes it depends on the rest of the build. If you wanted to be a Treefolk druid, your druid features and spells could cover for the lack of "plantyness" of your race, while warforged adds some very visible sturdiness to your typical druid. But if you wanted to be a Treefolk rogue, then this might not fill out your vision quite as well. Personally I like my plant-based races to be fey-leaning (dryads), so I'd want a race with a bit more of that energy to it.
But in general I fully endorse reskinning like this. If the traits you're looking for in treefolk fit what warforged gives you, by all means go for it.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm