Travelers entering a forest might catch a glimpse of a form flitting through the trees. Warm laughter hangs on the air, drawing those who hear it deeper into the emerald shadows.
Powerful fey will sometimes bind lesser fey spirits to trees, transforming them into dryads. This is sometimes done as a punishment when the fey spirit falls in love with a mortal and that love is forbidden.
A dryad can emerge from the tree and travel the lands around it, but the tree remains her home and roots her to the world. As long as the tree remains healthy and
unharmed, the dryad stays forever youthful and alluring. If the tree is harmed, she suffers. If the tree is ever destroyed, the dryad descends into madness.
Dryads act as guardians of their woodland demesnes. Shy and reclusive, they watch interlopers from the trees. A dryad struck by the beauty of a stranger might investigate more closely, perhaps even try to lure the individual away to be charmed. Dryads work with other sylvan creatures to defend their forests. Unicorns, treants, and satyrs live alongside them, in addition to druids that share the dryads' devotion to the woods they call home. Dryads can speak with plants and animals. They can teleport from one tree to another, luring interlopers away from their groves.
Dryad Traits
These are the common traits of every Dryad
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age
As long as a dryad's tree is healthy, a dryad will not age.
Alignment
Due to their varied past, dryads do not tend towards any alignment.
Size
Dryads are around the same size as a human, from under 5 feet tall, to over 6 feet. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Innate Spellcasting
You know the druidcraft cantrip. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast barkskin with this trait once per long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Speak with Beasts and Plants
You can communicate with beasts and plants as if you shared a language.
Tree Stride
As a bonus action, you can use 10 feet of your movement to step magically into one living tree within you reach and emerge from a second living tree within 60 feet of the first tree, appearing in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the second tree. Both trees must be large or bigger.
Fey
Your creature type is fey, rather than humanoid.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write, Common and Sylvan.
