Homebrew Wood Woad Species Details

Born of Sacrifice. The ritual to create a wood woad is a primeval secret passed down through generations of savage societies and dark druid circles. Performing the ritual isn’t necessarily an act of evil, if the victim-to-be has entered into a bargain that requires it to be a willing sacrifice.

In the ritual a living person’s chest is pierced and the heart removed. A seed is then pushed into the heart, and it is placed in a tree. Any hollow or crook will do, but often a special cavity is carved out of the trunk. The tree is then bathed and watered with the blood of the sacrificed victim, and the body is buried among the tree’s roots. After three days, a sprout emerges from the ground at the base of the tree and swiftly grows into a humanoid form.

This new body, armored in tough bark and bearing a gnarled club and shield, is at once ready to perform its duty. The one who performed the ritual sets the wood woad to its task, and the creature follows those orders unceasingly.

Pitiless Protectors. A wood woad has a hole where its heart would be, just as does the body of its former self, buried in the earth. Those who become wood woads trade their free will and all sense of sentiment for supernatural strength and a deathless duty. They exist only to protect woodlands and the people who tend them. A wood woad’s face is void and expressionless, except for the motes of light that swim about in its eye sockets. Wood woads speak little, and when not being called upon to take action, they root themselves in the earth and silently take sustenance from it.

Uprooted by Immortality. Like a tree, a wood woad needs only sunlight, air, and nutrients from the earth to go on living. Because they are undying, some wood woads outlive their original purpose. The site a wood woad guards might lose its power or significance over time, or those whom it was assigned to guard might themselves die. If it is freed from its specific duties, a wood woad might roam to find another place of natural beauty or fey influence to watch over.

Wood woads are drawn to creatures that have close ties to nature, and that protect and respect the land, such as druids and treants. Some treants have wood woad servants by virtue of age-old pacts with druids or fey that performed the rituals, while others acquire the services of freed wood woads that find renewed purpose in the domain of a kindred guardian.

Wood Woad Traits

The following traits are granted to wood woads.

Ability scores

Your Constitution score increases by 2, your Strength increases by 2, and your wisdom by 1, your charisma decreases by 2

Age

Sprouting 3 days after the ritual completes, wood woads mature into their humanoid shape very quickly over a few months and can exist seemingly indefinitely unless destroyed.

Alignment

Wood woads tend towards the lawful neutral alignment but may adopt traits of the soul within them.

Size

Wood woads usually stand between 6 to 7 feet tall, and weigh between 200 to 400 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Natural Armor

Your thick bark gives you a base AC of 16 (your Dexterity modifier doesn't affect this number). You gain no benefit from wearing armour, but if you are using a shield, you can apply the shield's bonus as normal.

Photosynthesis

Instead of eating or sleeping, you can benefit from a long rest after spending a total of 4 hours a day partially taking root absorbing water, nutrients, air, and light simultaneously to perform photosynthesis. If sunlight isn’t available, you can become dormant for the full rest absorbing nutrients from soil without the power from the sun.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Living Plant

Whilst you were created by magic, you are a living creature. You count as a plant type creature and are vulnerable to fire damage.

Forest Ambusher

You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in terrain with ample obscuring plant life, and you have a climb speed of 30 feet when climbing trees. Whilst within 5 feet of a tree of Large or larger, you may use a bonus action to step into that tree and emerge 5 feet from another tree of the same size that is no further than your movement speed.

Magically Infused

While the binding may weaken, your body is still infused with magical power. You know the shillelagh cantrip, and as an action you can cause a shield to replace one of your hands. This shield prevents use of that hand and cannot be removed unless you choose to dismiss it as an action at which point it falls off and withers away. Once you use this ability it cannot be used again until you finish a short or long rest.

Languages

You know the languages you knew in life.