Dryads

When choosing dryad as a player character race, use the following characteristics:

• Aloof: Due to their unsocial nature, dryads incur a -2 penalty to Charisma.
  
• Bark Skin: A dryad’s skin is tough like a tree. They gain a +1 bonus to Toughness at character creation.
• Fire Weakness: Due to their wood- like composition, fire attacks gain a +2 bonus to damage against dryads.
• Low Light Vision: Fey races can see quite well in the dark. They ignore attack penalties for Dim and Dark lighting.
• Poison Immunity: Dryads are immune to poisons that come from plants.
• Woodland Camouflage: Dryads gain a +2 bonus to Stealth while surrounded by thick trees such as a forest or jungle.
• Forest Born: Dryads begin play with a d4 in Survival.

Basic Information

Biological Traits

Dryads are an arboreal race of Fae.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Dryads are purely vegetarian, they will not touch meat at all, and can eat toadstools and fungi that would be potentially lethal to others.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Dryads live under the soil of their native woodlands and do not like to wander too far away from home. They bond to a tree during their life and always return to it no matter how far away they have travelled. They are solitary figures but occasionally gather in small groups of no more than six or seven. It’s believed this is where a Dryad selects its mate and once mated, they mate for life. Dryad settle- ments, if they can truly be called that, are connected by long, twisting, narrow tunnels which do not accommodate larger species.
For a dryad, the desire to explore the world outside is unusual, but not unknown. Interaction may indeed be awkward, but once the bond of trust is forged, it is surprisingly hard to break. They are quite inclined to stay close to anyone that shows friendship or affection.

Facial characteristics

Their eyebrows look like patches of moss or woven twigs and are surprisingly expressive. Their eyes are a uniform black with no pupil or iris.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

They have a close affinity to the earth and the elemental magic that flows through it and strongly defend the forests and woodlands.

Civilization and Culture

Common Taboos

Dryads are very afraid of fire and do everything they can to avoid contact.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Dryads are shy, isolated, and sometimes untrustworthy as they do not open up to others easily. Though they are usually reluctant to deal with outsiders, dryads have been known to administer aid to kind souls in great need.

Some races have found a way to break through that reluctance, such as halflings and gnomes. Brownies also have contact with the dryads, as do elves and faeries who they are generally on pleasant terms with.

Lifespan

Dryads can potentially live for thousands of years, but they are not immortal. When bonded with their ‘home tree’, they can live for many millennia.

Average Height

Dryads have the same average height as humans

Average Physique

Dryads have bark-like skin and leaves sprouting from their body. They have an almost bird like motion to their movements, taking quick hopping steps between periodic pauses as if listening to something beyond the range of normal hearing.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Their skin is dark brown, green, or a mottled pattern of both and looks and feels like the bark of a tree. This provides excellent camouflage in the forests and woodlands, blending in so well they are almost invisible to all but the keenest eyes.

Their hair resembles blades of slender grass or hay.