Homebrew Elven Dryad Species Details

Physical Description:

Half-dryads more closely resemble their paternal race than their mother's. By most standards they appear to be a child of normal birth and are often mistaken for elves. But the half-dryad's fey heritage always shows in one obvious detail, their hair. A half-dryad's hair changes with the seasons; in the spring and summer their hair comes in mixed shades of green, and in the fall and winter their hair changes a varied blend of blonde, brown, and red. Leaves and flowers from their mother's root tree occasionally grow within a half-dryad's hair. For some it is mixed in among strands of hair, for others it spreads to become foliage, their hair closely resembling a mass of verdant vines.

History:

Dryads are famous for their tremendous love and their lustful expression of that love. Occasionally a child results from these unions. The child grows within the dryad's root tree and emerges like a birth after the usual period of time. Most of these children do not survive, as fey are not extraordinarily fertile and most dryads are too whimsical to raise a child. But occasionally these children, called "saplings" by their mothers, are taken care of and raised to adulthood.

Society:

Half-dryads usually live on the fringes of society. Their connection to their mother's fey heritage makes them more comfortable in places where things grow, and cities tend to feel oppressive and unnatural. When a half-dryad has a home inside of a city's walls, their residence is obvious from the explosion of foliage they have growing. Many half-dryads live in their mother's groves, while some find a calling working with plants and become farmers or gardeners. Half-dryads often worship the Goddess Ehlonna, as many of their fey brethren do. Mielikki, Goddess of the wilds is also a common choice.

Origin

A Dryad is born with a bond to a particular tree and they share the exceptionally long life span of the tree they are joined with. There are several groups of Dryads with different origins. The Meliai come from the blood of the castrated Uranus when it spilled into the earth. Oreiades are thought to be the daughters of the Dactyls and Hekaterides, with later generations coming from the union of the Oreidades and Satyrs. Other Dryads are simply born from the forests or trees themselves.

Family

The trees and forests are the true families of the Dryads. Dryads can be found in two major distinctions – one which lives within the tree itself and is known as hamadryad, and one who lives close to or near the tree but not within it.

Among the Dryads are several types, each associated with a different kind of tree. The most common are the Hamadryads, born within oak and poplar trees, along waterways or sacred tree groves. The Meliai, of ash trees, are ancient and were wed by men in the Silver Age before the first woman was created, and are believed to be the originators of mankind. Oreiades dwell in mountain pines and wild places. The Maliades and Epimeliad inhabit fruit or apple trees and are guardians of both trees and sheep. The Daphnaie are rare and inhabit laurel trees. Finally there are the Caryatids, which inhabit walnut trees.

Names:

Half-dryads typically take names from their father's race. If they do not, their mothers tend to come up with something outrageous they may have heard once before, or that was popular in their youth centuries ago. A common alternative is to hand down their own names to the child.

Alignment

Half-dryads tend to embrace the laws of nature over the laws of man and favor neutrality.

Age

Half-dryads grow like trees. Though they may grow quickly, once they hit maturity their aging slows to a crawl. A half-dryad can live for hundreds of years, and the oldest have reached 500.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan, and one language from your non-dryad parent.

Elven Dryad Traits

Your elf character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of thousands of years of elven refinement.

Awesome Beauty

 Any humanoid within 30' who looks at Elven Dryad's is Shaken (Will Negates, DC is charisma based) for 1 minute. Continued looking results in additional saves, failure resets duration. The Elven Dryad can use or suppress this ability as a Free Action. This is a [Mind] [Fear] Effect. 

Blinding Body

 If a male humanoid ever sees a bare naked half-nymph, he must succeed on a will save (DC 8 + half-nymph's level) to avoid blindness as per a sorceress of an equal level to the nymph. This is a supernatural ability.

Distracting Presence

While battling a male humanoid, a Elven Dryad's scent and beauty is amazingly capable of distracting the opponent. Thus, she gains an AC bonus equal to her CHA modifier. Blinded opponents, or anyone with four or more levels than the half-nymph, are immune to this ability.

Weapon Proficiency

Proficient with wooden weapons. You have proficiency with long bows and hand crossbow

 

Elven Blood

 For all effects related to race, an Elven Nymph is considered an elf. Elven Nymph, for example, are just as vulnerable to special effects that affect elves as their elf ancestors are, and they can use magic items that are only usable by elves

Elven Nymph senses

•  +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A Elven Nymph who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
• +4 racial bonus on all Swim checks. An Elven Nymph is just as at home in the water as a Nymph and an Elven Nymph can always take 10 on swim checks even if stress or distractions would normally prevent it.

Unearthly Grace

An Elven Dryad's natural beauty makes it hard for others to act against her. She gains a +1 bonus to all saving throws and a +1 deflection bonus to armor class.

Ability Score Increase

Your Abilities: Dex +2, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4

One with Nature

Mask of the Wild: You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

You are descended from the spirits of the trees themselves. You know the druidcraft cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the barkskin spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the plant growth spell instantaneously once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Alignment

Elves love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not. The drow are an exception; their exile into the Underdark has made them vicious and dangerous. Drow are more often evil than not.

Speak With Beasts & Plants

You can communicate with beasts and plants as if they shared a language.

Made of the Earth

When self-healing or using hit-dice, you must touch the earth barefoot or suffer disadvantage.

Low-light vision

Half-nymphs can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and details under these conditions. 

Keen Senses

You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

 For all special abilities and effects, a half-nymph is considered a fey. Half-nymphs for example, can use special fey weapons or magic items with racially specific fey powers as if they were fey creatures.

Trance

Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Tree Stride

Once per long rest, you can move 10 feet to step magically into one living tree within reach and emerge from a second living tree within 60 feet of the first tree. Both trees must be large or bigger.