One of my players asked me if he could change his character from a Wood Elf Forest Druid, to a Water Nymph Coastal Druid.
But other than some broken homebrew, I can't find a Water Nymph that is playable.
1. Are water nymphs officially a playable race?
2. If they are not, how can I give my player what he is asking for without breaking my game?
Lastly, what source books are nymphs in? I've looked through the ones I have and can't seem to find them - not even in the monster manual. Are nymphs an actual d&d race because there seems to be no mention of them anywhere, other than broken homebrew and people saying they have played one nymph or another?
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
There are no official Water Nymph races or monsters. The only "nymph" I am aware of in 5th edition is the Dryad, which is an official monster. If you do not want your player to use homebrew content, perhaps refer them to a Water Genasi as a way to tie in their desire for a water-based character?
Not to say that I do perfect work, but my Nymph race has been playtested through multiple games/one-shots, and there is a Naiad subrace, which is mythologically a water-based Nymph. You might have seen it and not liked it, in which case ignore me, but if you'd like to take a look, you can find it here: Nymph. Naiad is the final subrace. :)
You might want to take a look at the Triton. There are probably a few Nymph races under Homebrew also, but you'd want to take a close look at those. Some are way Unbalanced and Overpowered.
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Watch your back, conserve your ammo, and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
Nymph was a creature in 3.5 edition of D&D. If you can get your hands on a 3.5 edition of the monster manual it describes nymphs and their characteristics and even an outline of how to play a nymph as a playable character, however in 3.5 the rule for playing as a monster were different and wouldn’t really fit in a 5.0 game. You may want to check it out if you wanted to create a home brew class. The most remarkable feature about the nymph is that they add their charisma modifier to their AC, (to make it fair in 5e you would have to say it’s an unarmed defense so it’s not so OP) but this would make them a great race for sorcerers, bards and warlocks.
Edit: MellieDM, not sure if that link you posted to your Naiad is working as it came up 'Page not found'...
I'm basing this off of the Naiad/Water Nymph from Mythic Odesseys of Theros but it could be doable albeit with some homebrew feats as well....
Base race take Yian-ti Pureblood and change as follows:
Abiilty score: Keep buff to Charisma, change buff to Intellegence to Wisdom.
Gain Swim speed (30ft)
Change Darkvision to Amphibious (The Naiad version of Nymph does not have Darkvision)
Innate Spellcasting: Change Poison Spray @ Will to Minor Illusion @ Will, change Siggestion x1/LR to Phantasmal Force x1/LR, lose Animal Friendship.
Languages: Change to Common and Sylvan.
Keep Magic Resistance and Posion Immunity.
Homebrew Feats:
Feat 1) Psychic Touch: Gain Resistance to Psychic damage and can use the Psychic Touch cantrip (requires melee spell attack, deals 1d10 Psychic damage)
Feat 2) Naiad Spellcasting: Increases number of uses of Phantasmal Force from 1 per Long rest to 3 per long rest and additionally gain the ability to cast either Fly or Hypnotic Pattern x1 per Long rest.
The Naiad also has Condition Immunity to Charmed and Frightened but given they also have Magic Resistance these might be a bit much to tack on but you could include them into one of the feats above. They also get inivisibility when fully immersed in water, its pretty niche as invisibility goes but could be put into the base race is large bodies of water are not going to be plentiful.
All options above should be perfectly workable. To answer your question of *should* you let your player play a nymph or will it break your game, I'd say there's no harm in it.
Gary Gygax himself even wrote that invariably in a game like D&D with cool monsters and creatures, players would want to play as dragons and such, and that they should be allowed. The DM just needs to decide how the powers and abilities should scale to character level, and that's perfectly all right.
One of my players asked me if he could change his character from a Wood Elf Forest Druid, to a Water Nymph Coastal Druid.
But other than some broken homebrew, I can't find a Water Nymph that is playable.
1. Are water nymphs officially a playable race?
2. If they are not, how can I give my player what he is asking for without breaking my game?
Lastly, what source books are nymphs in? I've looked through the ones I have and can't seem to find them - not even in the monster manual. Are nymphs an actual d&d race because there seems to be no mention of them anywhere, other than broken homebrew and people saying they have played one nymph or another?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Hey SocialFoxes--
There are no official Water Nymph races or monsters. The only "nymph" I am aware of in 5th edition is the Dryad, which is an official monster. If you do not want your player to use homebrew content, perhaps refer them to a Water Genasi as a way to tie in their desire for a water-based character?
Not to say that I do perfect work, but my Nymph race has been playtested through multiple games/one-shots, and there is a Naiad subrace, which is mythologically a water-based Nymph. You might have seen it and not liked it, in which case ignore me, but if you'd like to take a look, you can find it here: Nymph. Naiad is the final subrace. :)
The Water Genasi would be a good proxy for this sort of thing.
You might want to take a look at the Triton. There are probably a few Nymph races under Homebrew also, but you'd want to take a close look at those. Some are way Unbalanced and Overpowered.
Watch your back, conserve your ammo,
and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
If you don't like the current homebrew stuff then make your own it's pretty easy.
The 6 most hated words in all of d&d history: make me a dex saving throw .
Nymph was a creature in 3.5 edition of D&D. If you can get your hands on a 3.5 edition of the monster manual it describes nymphs and their characteristics and even an outline of how to play a nymph as a playable character, however in 3.5 the rule for playing as a monster were different and wouldn’t really fit in a 5.0 game. You may want to check it out if you wanted to create a home brew class. The most remarkable feature about the nymph is that they add their charisma modifier to their AC, (to make it fair in 5e you would have to say it’s an unarmed defense so it’s not so OP) but this would make them a great race for sorcerers, bards and warlocks.
Edit: MellieDM, not sure if that link you posted to your Naiad is working as it came up 'Page not found'...
I'm basing this off of the Naiad/Water Nymph from Mythic Odesseys of Theros but it could be doable albeit with some homebrew feats as well....
Base race take Yian-ti Pureblood and change as follows:
Abiilty score: Keep buff to Charisma, change buff to Intellegence to Wisdom.
Gain Swim speed (30ft)
Change Darkvision to Amphibious (The Naiad version of Nymph does not have Darkvision)
Innate Spellcasting: Change Poison Spray @ Will to Minor Illusion @ Will, change Siggestion x1/LR to Phantasmal Force x1/LR, lose Animal Friendship.
Languages: Change to Common and Sylvan.
Keep Magic Resistance and Posion Immunity.
Homebrew Feats:
Feat 1) Psychic Touch: Gain Resistance to Psychic damage and can use the Psychic Touch cantrip (requires melee spell attack, deals 1d10 Psychic damage)
Feat 2) Naiad Spellcasting: Increases number of uses of Phantasmal Force from 1 per Long rest to 3 per long rest and additionally gain the ability to cast either Fly or Hypnotic Pattern x1 per Long rest.
The Naiad also has Condition Immunity to Charmed and Frightened but given they also have Magic Resistance these might be a bit much to tack on but you could include them into one of the feats above. They also get inivisibility when fully immersed in water, its pretty niche as invisibility goes but could be put into the base race is large bodies of water are not going to be plentiful.
All options above should be perfectly workable. To answer your question of *should* you let your player play a nymph or will it break your game, I'd say there's no harm in it.
Gary Gygax himself even wrote that invariably in a game like D&D with cool monsters and creatures, players would want to play as dragons and such, and that they should be allowed. The DM just needs to decide how the powers and abilities should scale to character level, and that's perfectly all right.
Fairy or water Genasi
for fairy just swap out druid craft for shape water and fly speed for water breathing and swim speed and maybe water walking.
No one suggested sea elf? Why would they want to play a wood elf as a water nymph but not a sea elf?