Homebrew Dryad Species Details

Dryads are a magical people of otherworldly grace, inhabiting the trees of the world. They live in places of ethereal beauty in the midst of ancient forests, both on the Material Plane and the Feywild. Dryads love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world.

Slender and Graceful

With their unearthly grace and fine features, elves appear hauntingly beautiful to humans and members of many other races. When they are away from their tree, they appear to be slightly shorter than humans on average, ranging from well under 5 feet tall to just over 6 feet. They are more slender than humans and are weightless. Males and females are about the same height.

Dryad coloration is similar to the tree that they inhabit, with their skin taking on the same colors of the bark and wood, and their hair is the current color of their tree's leaves, changing in accordance with the season. Dryads have no facial and little body hair. They tend to be dressed in elegant gowns appearing to be made of the leaves of their tree. .Most dryads feminine in appearance, with even the males appearing much more feminine than even androgynous. As dryads are progenitures, males are often few and far between, but each is charished due to their rare appearances. 

A Timeless Perspective

Dryads live as long as their trees do, giving them a broad perspective on events that might trouble the shorter-lived races more deeply. They tend to space out, being able to hold off on making most of their decisions for decades, if not longer. They tend to remain aloof and unfazed by petty happenstance. When pursuing a goal, however, generally when in defense of their forests and nature, or when something finally catches their interest, dryads have a single track mindset and a drive to see their goal accomplished. They are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them, often confusing a child for their parent or grandparent if they look similar enough. 

Like the branches of a young tree, dryads are flexible in the face of danger. They trust in diplomacy and compromise to resolve differences, but are unafraid to escalate to violence. When armies and invaders move through their forestes, if they do not feel threatened, dryads often retreat into the wood of their trees, watching the forces move past them idly. But when the need arises, dryads reveal a stern martial side, demonstrating all of their skill with nature's wrath.

Hidden Woodland Realms

Dryads tend to live in copses, though a younger dryad might ask a wandering adventurer to take their sapling and move it elsewhere, if the dryad feels that it wants to see more of the world before setting down its roots. They are talented artisans, crafting finely worked clothes and art objects. Their contact with outsiders is usually limited, though a few dryads make a often find lost children endearing enough to guide them to safety.

Dryads are rarely encountered outside their own lands. Human nobles compete for the services of dryad guardians to protect their woods and ensure that the game is not being poached. 

 

HAUGHTY BUT GRACIOUS

Although they can be haughty, dryads are generally gracious even to those who fall short of their high expectations—which is most non-fey. Still, they can find good in just about anyone.

Dwarves. “Dwarves are dull, clumsy oafs, and their axes bite our wood cruely. But where they lack tact, they make up for in utility, never taking more of our bounty than they need to survive. And I must admit, when they build there settlements nearby, our forests are often left unscathed.”

Halflings. “Halflings are people of simple pleasures, and that is not a quality to scorn. They’re good folk, they care for each other and tend their gardens, and they have proven themselves tougher than they seem when the need arises.”

Humans. “All that haste, their ambition and drive to accomplish something before their brief lives pass away—human endeavors seem so futile sometimes. But then you look at what they have accomplished, and you have to appreciate their achievements. If only they could slow down and learn some refinement.”

Dryad Names

Dryads are considered children until they declare themselves adults, some time after their second or third decade of finally finding a location to put down roots, and before this period they are called by child names.

On declaring adulthood, a dryad selects an adult name, although those who knew them as a youngster might forget and continue to use the child name. Each dryad'ss adult name is a unique creation, though it generally reflects the area of they have their tree planted. Little distinction exists between male names and female names; the groupings here reflect only general tendencies. 

Nature's Lash

Dryad’s are guardians of nature. You are able to produce a vine from your form to strike at your foes. Your unarmed attacks deal 1d6 plus your Dexterity Modifier.

One with Nature

Dryad's are one with the world around them. Starting at 5th Level, you can cast Speak With Plants without expending a spell slot

Subspecies

Dryads have as many subraces as there are trees, with each one having distinct abiltiies and preferred climates. 

Aspen:

Light and quick and never quite still. Skin is smooth and pale with dark coin-spots along the arms and ribs; even at rest there’s a faint, trembling quiver to their leaf-hair, a chorus of soft clicks like whispers. In summer their hair is bright green; by fall it turns to shining, coin-gold that catches the sun with every nod. Their eyes are bright yellow-green, and they tend to wear sashes that flutter and chime, as if the wind itself were an old friend. 

When a creature you can see targets you with an attack, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on that attack. After the attack resolves, you can move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks

Birch:

Slender and pale, their bark-white skin bears the birch’s black “tear” marks—clean, vertical strokes like ink on parchment. Hair is fine and silvery, often braided with catkins in spring; in dappled light they look half-ghost, half-moonbeam. Their eyes are frost-blue or pewter gray, and their movement is quick, whisper-soft, like a page turning. Touch is cool as a mountain stream, and their garb peels in thin, papery layers that flutter at the hem when they walk. 

You add an additional 1d6 fire damage to their Nature's Lash.

Holly:

Winter-bright and watchful. Skin is glossy evergreen with a healthy sheen, and hair is a thick crown of spined holly leaves that holds its shape like a laurel—festooned with bright red berries in the cold months. Their cheeks keep a lively color even in snow, and their eyes sparkle bright green or cheerful brown. Along the forearms and calves, you’ll often spot small, neat thorn ridges—more decorative than dangerous. Their attire tends to crisp lines and tidy sashes, as if prepared for midwinter rites and door-to-door blessings.

The midwinter ward, bright and barbed. When a creature within 5 feet hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to deal 1d6 piercing damage to all creatures within 5 ft. of you (the attack still hits). Damage scales to 2d6 at 5th level and 3d6 at 11th, and 4d6 at 17th.

Maple:

All warmth and harvest color. Skin has a soft, honeyed undertone with speckles like sugar across the cheeks; in strong light, you catch a faint maple sheen. Their hair is a cascade of five-pointed leaves that blaze copper and crimson in autumn—truly dazzling when a breeze runs through. Eyes trend to syrup-brown or amber, and you’ll find little samaras used as charms on belts and earrings. They smell faintly sweet, the promise of sap and hearth cakes.

When your strike lands, the tree fights with you. When you hit with a natural weapon, you can use your reaction to force the target to make a Dexterity save or become grappled by tacky sap (escape DC equals your save DC) for one minute. At the end of each of their turns, the grappled target can attempt to break free with a successful Strength save against your save DC. You can only have one target grappeld in this way at a time. You don’t need a free hand, and the grapple ends at the start of your next turn unless the target escapes sooner.

Oak:

The archetypal forest matron: broad-shouldered and steady, with skin like weathered oak—deep-grained and furrowed as if carved by centuries of wind and rain. Her hair falls in a heavy mantle of lobed leaves, dark green in summer and burnished bronze in autumn; in winter it thins to stark branch-silhouettes crowned with acorn pins. Eyes run amber-gold to deep moss, and you can almost smell warm earth and old smoke about her. Oak dryads favor simple circlets of twined roots and acorn caps, and their “clothing” reads like layered bark plates, as dignified as knightly mail.

You have resistance to Bludgeoning damage form non-magical sources.

Pine:

Sun-browned and rangy, built like hill rangers. Their bark shows broad reddish plates separated by charcoal seams, and their hair grows in long, soft “needle” locks gathered into loose bundles, giving them a slightly wind-tossed look. Pine-cone bosses sometimes sit on pauldrons or belts, and resin glints at the fingertips like clear varnish. Eyes are warm green or hazel, and they carry the clean, familiar scent of pitch and sun-heated wood. They are the only dryads whose appearance does not change based on the time of year.  

Pitch seals wounds and stiffens will. As a bonus action, exude resin to gain temporary hit points equal to your PB + Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) for 1 minute. While you have this temp HP, a creature that hits you with a melee attack has its speed reduced by 10 feet until the start of its next turn (sticky footing).

Spruce:

Tall and tapering, with a subtly triangular silhouette that echoes a high-country spruce. Their skin is dark, resin-tinted bark with small scaly plates; hair falls in long, straight strands that separate like needles, often bound tight for travel. Eyes are cold-green or glacier blue, and a dusting of pale “snow” lichen often frecks the shoulders and collarbones. Jewelry is modest: tiny pendant cones, braided root cord, and the occasional shard of frost-clear crystal.

High-country, hard-winter stock. You have resistance to cold damage, and natural difficult terrain from snow, ice, or conifer underbrush doesn’t cost you extra movement.

Yew:

Grave and elegant, the old churchyard guardians. Their skin is dark, wine-brown bark with a subtle red undertone, polished smooth as if by many hands. Hair is a dense fall of fine evergreen needles, often cut to a severe line; lips may hold a dusk-red tint, echoing the yew’s arils. Eyes are deep garnet or near-black, and they favor somber, ceremonial garb—plaited cords, bone toggles, and berry-red accents. There’s a hush around them, the sanctity of places where time walks slowly.

Churchyard solemnity, life watching over death. You have resistance to necrotic damage. In addition, once per long rest, when you fail a death saving throw, you can choose to succeed instead.

Dryad Traits

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

Age

Dryad’s are ageless. They live as long as their trees does.

One With Nature

Dryad's are one with the world around them. Starting at 5th Level, you can cast Speak With Plants without expending a spell slot

Size

Dryad’s all come in shapes and sizes. You are either medium or small.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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.

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Sylvan and one other language of your choice.

Subspecies

There are many subspecies of Dryad, as many as there are trees.