I know quarterstaffs are wood. I could stick with traditional oak but I'm thinking of something more interesting.

Note: Long story short, I have a druid who was cursed and is now part vampire, making him an iconic character. He uses his power to create balance in nature, but by hunting the powerful rather than defending the weak. What wood would go well with that character? And it should be a durable wood that you can actually make a staff out of for fighting.

And a wood that someone in dnd would use, not some modern breed wood.

And as a bonus, make it something cool. A grayish wood would be great, although that is just a bonus and I don't need anything super specific.

I'm thinking blackthorn?

Hangman’s Tree

My first thought was petrified timber. But while hard as hell it doesn't have a whole lot of torsional strength. Hickory is excellent, though not very thematic. So I'd probably go with Redwood. Particularly Heartwood. Strong and light. Doesn't get much more vampish than that, right?

this is like picking an item from the Wyrmwood catalogue.  Go with the Purple Heart! :)

Make it from wood of the Gultias Tree from the Sunless Citadel adventure.

THE GULTHIAS TREE

A Gargantuan plant, the Gulthias Tree has AC 10 and 35 hit points. It is immune to necrotic, poison, psychic damage, and it has resistance to piercing damage. The tree has vulnerability to fire damage.

Fruit. Two magical fruits (evocation school) ripen on the tree each year. Each fruit resembles an apple, but it slowly extrudes from the tree like a cyst. Up to a week before the summer solstice, a ruby red fruit grows. Someone other than a construct who eats a quarter or more of it regains 70 hit points. In addition, any blindness, deafness, and diseases affecting the eater end. Up to a week before the winter solstice, a sickly white fruit grows. Someone who eats a quarter or more of it takes 70 necrotic damage. Each fruit has 1d4 seeds that, if planted, grow leafless woody shrubs that animate as twig blights after one year.

Tree Thralls. If a humanoid is bound to the bole of the Gulthias Tree, over the next 24 hours the victim is sucked completely into the tree. Once the victim is completely absorbed into the tree, it becomes the tree’s thrall, and is expelled over the course of 1 hour. The Gulthias Tree can have only four thralls at any one time. A victim’s skin is rough, gray, and bark-like. A thrall is totally corrupted, becoming neutral evil. Such a creature exists only to serve the Gulthias Tree and those who tend it (such as Belak). It possesses all of its former abilities and gains the following traits:

Barkskin. The thrall’s AC can’t be lower than 16.

Tree Thrall. If the Gulthias Tree dies, the thrall dies 24 hours later.

In mythology there are several instances when trees bleed when they are cut. This is usually because someone was transformed into a tree, but you could change it slightly. Call it a bloodwood tree and say that instead of sap, they bleed. The wood is red and the tree commonly sprouts in vampire infested lands.

The wood of a hangman's tree is also a cool idea along with the Gulthias tree and redwood also seems to fit.

Maybe ash, or black locust.

Treant heartwood would be interesting, or the branch of an evil Huorn. 

Oak. Oak is sacred to Druids IRL.

Ok, I'm hearing things like heartwood and bloodwood, those are similar sounding. I'm keeping in mind that this is dnd and not reality, so I have some room to make things up.

This is what I wrote in the notes for my quarterstaff:

"Kadea'd quarterstaff is made from blackheart wood. Kadea's mother grew a grove of beautiful blossoming cherry trees, but when they were cursed by vampire-infested lands (the same vampire that attacked Kadea) it turned the cherry tree into a blackheart tree, a tree found in lands where vampires dwell. This tree has gray wood with a slight reddish shade, with crimson blossoms and thorns.

The quarterstaff, like the tree, has a gray color with a slight crimson hue. On one end there is a silver figure of a blossom to remember his past life, and the other end has the figure of a sleeping bat with its wings folded, made to show his present life."

This sound good?

Quote from IamSposta >>

Oak. Oak is sacred to Druids IRL.

oak with a grey polish for the staff that says "yeah maybe i'm a druid, and maybe you need to walk away."

Now people are saying oak. As I said, I could do oak, but that sounds kind of generic don't you think? I'm making this a unique character with a unique quarterstaff

You could use malacca, it’s the hardest wood IRL.

Just make something up. Have it be wood from a tree in the feywld that only blooms once in 1,000 years. And we're on year 999, so who knows what will happen to the staff in a few months. 

That gives the DM a fun little side-plot hook and is much cooler than if someone just starts throwing out names of trees. I mean, I could say ash or hickory or elm, but 1,000 year old fey tree is going to be much more interesting. Or it's a composite of 5 different trees that were each once home to a Dryad, and sometimes their spirits still talk to the bearer of the staff -- and they're out for revenge against anyone who ever picks up an ax. Appease all five of the spirits and you'll unlock the true power of the staff. Work with your DM about how things are in the campaign world, and see if they have any ideas they can incorporate. I guess the point is, don't restrict yourself to real trees, in the end they'll all be boring.  And don't worry about the wood being hard or soft. You're probably just going to use it with shillelagh anyway.

Quote from Xalthu >>

Just make something up. Have it be wood from a tree in the feywld that only blooms once in 1,000 years. And we're on year 999, so who knows what will happen to the staff in a few months. 

That gives the DM a fun little side-plot hook and is much cooler than if someone just starts throwing out names of trees. I mean, I could say ash or hickory or elm, but 1,000 year old fey tree is going to be much more interesting. Or it's a composite of 5 different trees that were each once home to a Dryad, and sometimes their spirits still talk to the bearer of the staff -- and they're out for revenge against anyone who ever picks up an ax. Appease all five of the spirits and you'll unlock the true power of the staff. Work with your DM about how things are in the campaign world, and see if they have any ideas they can incorporate. I guess the point is, don't restrict yourself to real trees, in the end they'll all be boring.  And don't worry about the wood being hard or soft. You're probably just going to use it with shillelagh anyway.

 

 Yeah, I made something up:

Quote from KingOrc >>

Ok, I'm hearing things like heartwood and bloodwood, those are similar sounding. I'm keeping in mind that this is dnd and not reality, so I have some room to make things up.

This is what I wrote in the notes for my quarterstaff:

"Kadea'd quarterstaff is made from blackheart wood. Kadea's mother grew a grove of beautiful blossoming cherry trees, but when they were cursed by vampire-infested lands (the same vampire that attacked Kadea) it turned the cherry tree into a blackheart tree, a tree found in lands where vampires dwell. This tree has gray wood with a slight reddish shade, with crimson blossoms and thorns.

The quarterstaff, like the tree, has a gray color with a slight crimson hue. On one end there is a silver figure of a blossom to remember his past life, and the other end has the figure of a sleeping bat with its wings folded, made to show his present life."

This sound good?

 And yes, I'm using shillelagh. Actually, as a class feature, I get to have a bonus cantrip, so I chose shillelagh. This means I can keep spamming it, so instead of 1d6+2 I have 1d8+3 everytime I use it as long as I keep spamming shillelagh, which I can. This makes it OP

 

 And yes, I'm using shillelagh. Actually, as a class feature, I get to have a bonus cantrip, so I chose shillelagh. This means I can keep spamming it, so instead of 1d6+2 I have 1d8+3 everytime I use it as long as I keep spamming shillelagh, which I can. This makes it OP

 The spell has a duration of 1 minute, which is longer than most fights. What do you mean you're spamming it? You cast it once at the start of the fight, and then use it during your regular attack.

I'm just pointing this out, because I've met people who see it under bonus actions on the character sheet here on dndbeyond and think that it's a bonus action attack they can do every round, which it is not. It's a bonus action spell, which then modifies subsequent attack made with that weapon, and continues to modify those attacks for 1 minute. It's not something you do every round.

IRL am a witch / druid, oak is good but ash is what most quarterstaffs are made of. I just use stuff i find in the forest tho so IDK what other people use. 🤷

Just saying I can allways have the bonus from shillelagh

So blackthorn