Homebrew Dryad Species Details

They appear to be beautiful men or women with delicate features seemingly made of soft wood. Their hair seems to be made of leaves and foliage that change color with the seasons of the calendar. During the spring and summer months, the hair of a dryad is lush and green, while during autumn it turns red and eventually brown in the winter.

Dryads prefer to live away from civilization, delighting in the savage wilderness away from those that seek to cut their trees. They live with respect to nature and accept the company of those that do so as well. Humanoids who are fond of nature are often taken in by a dryad as both its mate and guardian. They are oftentimes known to dance and sing with other dryads, which has served to lure in many unsuspecting and dim-witted humanoids.

There are few dryads who prefer to live amongst many different people, taking an approach to cities much like that of a wallflower. They move their trees to a protected space within a city and enjoy spending their time watching, but never engaging with, the many interesting characters that inhabit a city. Others, if their trees are small enough, keep the plant rooted in a portable container, such as a wheelbarrow. These dryads are usually more interactive with non-dryads, engaging in occupations such as weaving, selling herbs or vegetables, or caring for animals.

Dryads are generally benign and attempt to warn off intruders. Only those who are particularly cruel and determined to destroy a dryad's forest see the full wrath of these fey.

All dryads are magically bound to a single tree. These trees serve as the dryad's life force and home. They fight to the death to protect their bonded tree, as should the tree be cut or destroyed, the dryad will die after a year. A dryad can not stray too far from its bonded tree without suffering the same fate. If a dryad left the vicinity of its tree for too long, its skin would turn gray, its hair fall out, and it would root in place, still as wood. Ceremonies can be performed by druids or sorcerers to restore life to the dryad, but it would be a lower life form that would return. The dryad would grow taller, sprout branches, and turn into a tree that could be inhabited by another. To prevent the death of a dryad once its tree is been destroyed, an alternative ceremony must be performed by a group of druidic dryads known as the Protectors to bond the suffering dryad to an uninhabited tree.

Dryad Traits

Dryads have the following racial traits.

Forest Blend

When in a forest or park with surrounding plant life, dryads are able to absorb into any uninhabited medium or large-sized plant for five minutes before the plant rejects the druid. Roll advantage on Stealth checks.

Ability Score Increase

A dryad's long life grants extra wisdom, and when prompted out of their shy behavior, dryads are quite charming.

Alignment

Most times, due to their belief in the circle of life, dryads are strictly neutral until prompted to action. When a dryad's tree is destroyed and they are unbound, however, the dryad begins to go mad. In this case, alignment is chaotic evil.

Size

A dryad's size often corresponds with the size of its tree, which also indicates how old it is, usually.

Age

Dryads often reach maturity around 50 years old, but they may live as long as their tree. Without a bound tree, dryads may only live one year before dying.

Languages

Dryads can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan at birth.

Barkskin

When unarmored, a dryad's armor class is equal to 12+ their dexterity modifier. When armored, if a dryad's hit points are less than 5, its armor class gains 5.

Tree Connection

When a dryad strays more than ten feet from its tree, the connection between the dryad and the tree acts as an alarm system. If any living creature or danger gets within two feet of the tree, the dryad will no longer be consious of it's surroundings. Instead it will enter a trance-like state from which it can view the tree but not interact with it or its surroundings. This effect lasts one minute.

When a dryad strays more than ten feet from its tree for an extended period of time, its life-force begins to weaken. After one month of separation, the dryad's total hit points decrease by one and a strength disadvantage modifier of one is added. Each day after one month decreases the hit points and strength by one, until the druid is too weak to move (strength 1) and dies (hit points 0). If a dryad is reuinited with its tree, each minute in its presence restores hit points and strength by one until they are back to the starting values.