Medium fey, neutral
Armor Class 11 (16 with barkskin)
Hit Points 22 (5d8)
Speed 30 ft.
STR: 10 (+0)
DEX: 12 (+1)
CON: 11 (+0)
INT: 14 (+2)
WIS: 15 (+2)
CHA: 18 (+4)
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +5
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Elvish, Sylvan
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
Innate Spellcasting. The dryad’s innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13). The drider can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: Druidcraft
3/day each: Entangle, Goodberry
1/day each: Barkskin, Pass without Trace, Shillelagh
Magic Resistance. The dryad has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Speak with Beasts and Plants. The dryad can communicate with beasts and plants as if they shared a language.
Tree Stride. Once on her turn, the dryad can use 10 feet of her movement to step magically into one living tree within her 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.
Actions
Club. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit (+6 to hit with shillelagh), reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) bludgeoning damage, or 8 (1d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage with shillelagh.
Fey Charm. The dryad targets one humanoid or beast that she can see within 30 feet of her. If the target can see the dryad, it must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be magically charmed. The charmed creature regards the dryad as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn’t under the dryad’s control, it takes the dryad’s requests or actions in the most favorable way it can.
Each time the dryad or its allies do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until the dryad dies, is on a different plane of existence from the target, or ends the effect as a bonus action. If a target’s saving throw is successful, the target is immune to the dryad’s Fey Charm for the next 24 hours.
The dryad can have no more than one humanoid and up to three beasts charmed at a time.
All About Dryads
Review by Sam West, Twitter @CrierKobold
Should you be in need of an elusive antagonist acting as a thorn in the party's side, an ally offering an olive branch to seek out an ancient arboreal evil, or just a departure from all the killing to stop and smell the roses, may I recommend the iconic fey from mythology: the Dryad.
Fundamentally dryad’s aren’t combatants; they excel at subtlety, manipulation, mobility, and oddly enough, leadership. They can be fey presences that warp the world around their existence, and can be annoyances to burgeoning industry and expanding civilization. Just one dryad can exert influence over a massive wooded area.
When dryads form groups they can command authority over a huge swath of territory and create a diverse society of beasts, plants, fey, and weak-minded people who fail their charms’ saving throws. Best hope the local liege has a decent wisdom or the next declaration could be to rip down the walls and plant ten-thousand new saplings.
A Dryad’s Domain
Dryad’s most famous ability, Tree Stride, requires a large forest full of aging trees to flourish. Each has incentives to stay and protect these woods not only for self defense but to maintain a healthy social environment full of the plants and animals they can call friends.
When creating and exploring forests home to dryads, consider using clear visual indicators to mark the space as such. Tree trunks could be vaguely shaped like feminie humanoids, tiny awakened shrubs or flowers could call the forest home, or trees may be warped in arches which when looked at just right appear as pathways following the local dryad’s regular strides.
Thinking Like a Dryad
Vanity can be a unique trait to work into Dryad antagonists; a desire to be the most beautiful creature within their world can set up the best kind of friction with highly charismatic characters. With the ability to communicate with people, plants, and animals, their high charisma and knack for stealth might aso manifest within them as being busybodies. By combining their natural *pass without a trace* and Fey Charm, they can direct their own soap operas at the party’s expense!
When creating goals or motivations for your dryads to flesh them out as antagonists, assistants, or passerbys, their natural abilities and attributes should be center stage. To highlight their charming fey nature and high charisma, consider having a high charisma character catching the dryad’s eye for either its deep affections or wrathful jealousy.
Less vain goals can tie into their need to protect their domain; consider having a blight damaging her tree allies, and she needs the player's help in snuffing out the source. Alternatively her way of life could be in jeopardy because a road was built through her domain, and the party must navigate negotiations between the dryad and her infringing neighbors.
The World Around Them
Potentially as important to their motivations, how the world views dryads can be an exceptional tool in framing their encounters. Myth tells of nymphs who act as temptresses that seduce heroes into compromising places. Societies may lean into these myths and view dryads (reasonably or not) as seductresses bent on steering heroes astray.
Alternatively dryads may be known and respected woodland keepers. Circles of druids may revere and work with dryads to secure the lands they call home while opposing forces look to their woods as a resource they need to harvest. A desperate group seeking the wood and food from a dryad’s protected realm can be a complex, no clear winner kind of conflict to torment adventurers’ morality.
Into the Thick of It
To get ideas flowing, consider the following adventure hooks as a starting point to flesh out some fey drama at the table.
Corrupted Bark
An evil fey presence has corrupted a local dryad. Slay her and the beasts at her command, and delve deeper into the mystery surrounding her corruption.
A Woodland Guide
The party has a need to journey to the Feywild, and have heard rumors of local dryads who traverse between worlds. Locate and follow a dryad to a gate to the feywild.
Lumberjack Attack
A reputable lumber mill has pushed deep into an old forest. Operations stopped when a local dryad charmed the owner and stole him away from the mill, now holding him as leverage to prevent the mill’s progress. Work out a means of recovering the owner and brokering a deal between the two sides.
Coven Trouble
Rumors hint at a Green Hag having infiltrated a nearby swamp. Band together with a group of local dryads to find her and root her out for good.
When Negotiations Break Down
While dryads are at their best outside of initiative, within combat they can be a major headache to deal with.
The core of fighting dryads is understanding Tree Stride. It doesn’t require any actions; if a dryad can reach a large tree with 20 ft. of movement it can use it freely every round. Most encounters with dryad’s will be centered on this mechanic. Players should look to lock them down away from trees or burst them down all at once.
Dense forests make ranged combat harder; trees can provide all forms of cover, and dryads love being as close to trees as possible. With only *entangle* as a ranged option and a pitiful melee attack option, dryads require the support of dangerous animals, plants, or fey, and will use its spells and charm to take on a supporting role in the fight. Tactically, a dryad should only attack with its club as a last resort when retreat is no longer an option.
In the early levels, consider using wolves, giant rats, black bears, or giant boars as supporting monsters to amp up a dryad fight. From fifth to ninth level, consider pairing a shambling mound, some awakened trees, or some giant constrictor snakes with her and some of the lower CR monsters mentioned. Levels ten through fourteen is nearing the top of challenge for dryads; giant apes and treants make for organic allies that can be hugely threatening. Beyond fourteenth level, dryads become a bit too weak to pose real threats to adventurers, and likely would act better as minions for greater threats or weaker allies needing protection.
Treants and awakened trees could have the fun upside of being working with Tree Stride with if the DM wills it. Jeremy Crawford on Twitter acknowledged they can’t in a rules as written interpretation, but DMs are free to make the change. A few treants could form a symbiotic relationship with a group of dryads that stride between them freely. The dryads deal with smaller pests and offer their magic in exchange for the brute force treants are built with. Mechanically, *entangle* can root foes while a treant’s animated trees properly surround and beat the shit of the entangled. A pretty solid pairing!
All About Dryads
You’ve got the knowledge; now it’s time to stride to your table with the tools to charm your friends with hot dryad goodness. Happy dungeoning!
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