Dryad

Aye, dryads are a wonder, just look at my wife! Looking at one is like looking at de most beautiful of flowers. Each one of dem show de variety of plant-life on dis earth in such a way you can almost never find two similar-looking dryads. I never really thought to leave de mountains, but I tell ye, Silene showed me de wonders of forests and grasslands. Now I know why elves lived in de forests, it's cause dey can't stop looking at Dryads! Hah! ATCHOO! - Grebith Dewstone, dwarven sage and founder of the Dwarven-dryad Dewstone clan.

Sentient plants given humanoid forms, dryads are living embodiments of the natural creativity of plant-life. Their beauty and grandeur hides their thorns for those who would desecrate the natural world.

Art by Maxkayart!

Blood of Sap and Dew

No two dryads are alike, be it appearance or mind. While they all take on a humanoid appearance, their body is primarily composed of leaves, bark, roots, and other plant-matter. Their composition mimics the environment they grew from, and shapes their physical capabilities outward in life.

Some may change color and shape with the seasons, while others remain the same in appearance all throughout their life. Even their sizes are not consistent; those tied to moss and flowers are often around the same heights as halflings and kobolds, while those tied to trees and cacti may rival the giant-borns in height. Many of them see beauty not as traits to be mimicked so that it may become a standard, but as a way to define yourself among the rest. What good is beauty if it is simply one style?

How humanoid a dryad looks is even up to debate amongst them. Some may take akin to beauty standards from other races and grow to develop them, while others take on an appearance of a figure more plant than man, their humanoid traits barely visible amongst their plant-like mass.

A New Life

The origin of dryads is as varied as they are themselves. Countless cautionary tales exist about careless men who desecrated the wild for gold and boasts, only to find their blood and bones change to sap and bark, their lives forever intertwined with the woods until their deeds are forgiven. Even more feared are those who remain trapped in their old bodies, foliage and greenery now second flesh forevermore.

But with every tale warning against dryads, there exist tales of beauty and joy about them; druids who offered their lives to nature and were thanked with a new gift of life, a caretaker of a sacred grove being regrown after spilling their blood for its safety, or a botanist earning a new life of mirth and beauty after saving countless plants from extinction.

Others claim parentless dryads grow from the remains of great folks, the plants growing atop their corpse gaining sentience and morality from the mighty sustenance it feed off.

Dryads can reproduce with any race, but it is the dryad who will always produce a child. Nearly all of these children are dryads in turn, but in extraordinary cases a child of the other parent will be born, forever touched with a connection with plant-life. Such children are vivid with color and even more vivid in spirit, a friend of nature and a child of travel.

Travelers Wary of Society

Dryad societies are many a times intermingled with those deep within the wild such as elves and druids, or they may call lost elven cities as their own. In their early years, many decide to make haste like pollen and travel the world before they let their roots take hold, which is what results in the primary interaction between civilizations and dryads.

These beings are naturally cautious of non-dryad settlements, and quick to react to poor care of the environment around such places. Rarer still are dryads who live or originate from these places, naturally inclined to seek a balance between humanoid societies and the nature around them. Such dryads are nicknamed Gardens; "domesticated" according to the worse of their kin, and "weeds" to the worst of men. But they take this title with pride, as they see themselves as the gardener of the region around them, with them the careful gardener to protect it.

Dryad Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution Score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Art by Karmacores!

Age. Dryads generally live as long as trees, ranging from 100 to 400 years.
Creature Type. You are Humanoid, but are treated as a Plant for the purposes of being detected.
Rarity. Rare. Dryads are not too infrequent to see within lush landscapes, but are rarely frequent humanoid cities outside of trade or politics.
Size. Dryads are generally taller in sun-rich areas, while shorter in light-starved regions. You are Medium or Small (your choice when selecting this race).
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a climbing speed of 30 feet when climbing plants.
Body of the Forest. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage or other plants.
Fey-Touched. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed.
Photosynthesis. You don't need to eat. However, you can't finish a long rest so long as you have spent 1 continuous hour doing nothing more than light activities in bright or dim sunlight since the end of your last long rest.
Speech of Nature. You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with animals, plants, and fungi. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.
Unique Flora. Your origin as a dryad varies based on your home environment, and often affects how your plant-like appearance looks. Choose one of the following traits.
- Appeasing Aroma. You can cast Animal Friendship and Charm Person with this trait, using Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for them (you pick when choosing this race). Once you cast either spell, you can't cast it again with this trait until you finish a short or long rest.
- Barbs of the Barrens. You are unaffected to the effects of extreme heat and cold. Creatures that start their turn in your space or are grappled with you take piercing damage equal to your proficiency bonus.
- Deep-Dweller. You don't need sunlight in order to finish a long rest, and instead gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. Moreover, while you are in darkness, you can spend your action on your turns to emit dim light in a 15-foot radius around you. This light lasts until the start of your next turn.
- Forest-Kin. You can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces while leaving your hands free, so long as you are moving across soft earth or plants.
- Gentle Gardener. You can cast Goodberry and Purify Food and Drink with this trait, using Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for them (you pick when choosing this race). Once you cast one of these spells, you can't cast it again with this trait until you finish a long rest. When casting the Goodberry spell through this trait, you instead create a number of berries equal to double your proficiency bonus, rather than 10.
- Limber Lilies. You gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed, and can breathe underwater. While in water you can use your Dexterity score, rather than your Strength score, for grapple and shove checks.

Art by HDH!

d6	Dryad Characteristics
1	I wake up each day with a new set of flowers grown on me or around me.
2	My body changes seasons based on my emotions.
3	I love climbing the tallest places in order to absorb the most light.
4	I graft small plants I find beautiful to myself.
5	I carry a seed of the plant I was born from, so that I may plant it somewhere perfect.
6	I like to gossip to plants and trees.