monsters: the Dryad

[beermotor]

PUtS references the wood from a dryad's tree, and I'm going to have an opportunity to introduce a dryad to my group pretty soon (assuming they don't TPK in Sailors, which is a possibility).

Anyone created a dryad for their game? I'm just curious what sorts of abilities you gave it. I was reading about them on Wikipedia yesterday, from a mythological standpoint I'm not sure they really had a whole lot of powers. Seems like they need to be kind of badass for DCC, though. I'm thinking, a tree-spirit that can animate the nearby plants and trees?

[The Venomous Pao]

I'm trying to figure out what to do regarding the Dryad myself. The two main approaches I'm consider are (a) have the dryad be something truly horrible and fearsome that is nothing at all like the shy and beautiful archetype (and maybe more like the tree demoness in A Chinese Ghost Story) or (b) have the dryad already be out of the action, her tree having been cut down by some other sinister force (most likely not on purpose, or at least not intentionally to mess with the players' goals) and the party has to liberate the wood from wherever it is/whatever it's being used for.

I kinda like both ideas, so I'm not sure how I'll proceed. If I go with (a) then I'll try to remember to share my writeup of the dryad here.

[beermotor]

Yeah, (a) fits pretty well with my campaign. Would love to see your write-up. There's an interesting Japanese analog to the Greek dryad, called a kodama. I read about that movie on wikipedia and it sounds awesome, going to try to get it on Netflix. Already thinking about making the spirit bound by the dryad/kodama actually evil, instead of good, and trick the party into releasing it. My players will totally fall for it, too.

[The Venomous Pao]

Just a quick note to say that I'm still not sure how I'm going to proceed, but if my players do wind up facing the Dryad I'm planning on using Ssisssuraaaaggg from PUtS as a baseline for the stats for the "tree demon" style Dryad. A few mods here (perhaps some additional attacks that do a little less damage each, say from multiple branches) and a few tweaks there (maybe some sort of grappling/binding ability due to animated roots) et voila! a dryad you'd rather not be stealing from. I say that even though my players aced the encounter with Ssisssuraaaaggg due to some incredible dice rolls. But that can't happen two sessions in a row, can it?

[Aplus]

There's this:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monste ... /fey/dryad

Not sure if you are just looking for stats, or if you want to get creative, though.

[Blood Axe]

You could have the players meet a withered old woman sleeping next to a dying old tree. If they help save the Dryads tree, the Dryad recovers & turns back into a young woman giving the group info on a forgotten tomb nearby.

[beermotor]

I'm going to have the "dryad" be a magical carnivorous tree that dangles a shapely figure of a maiden in front of them and tries to entice them close enough to be grabbed, hauled up into the center of the tree, where it drops them into a venus-fly-trap-like maw that slowly digests them. They stop screaming in a few hours.

It will be glorious!

[The Venomous Pao]

I'm going to have the "dryad" be a magical carnivorous tree that dangles a shapely figure of a maiden in front of them and tries to entice them close enough to be grabbed, hauled up into the center of the tree, where it drops them into a venus-fly-trap-like maw that slowly digests them. They stop screaming in a few hours.

It will be glorious!

Me likey! Let us know how it goes, dude.

[Bobjester]

I'm going to have the "dryad" be a magical carnivorous tree that dangles a shapely figure of a maiden in front of them and tries to entice them close enough to be grabbed, hauled up into the center of the tree, where it drops them into a venus-fly-trap-like maw that slowly digests them. They stop screaming in a few hours.

It will be glorious!

Just like the old AD&D "Sheep-in-Wolf's-Clothing monster from MMII (or was it FF?), only instead of a rabbit, it dangles a bunny!

Nevermind the necro, I'm just searching old threads for ideas on dryads meself. I'm going with the more D&D traditional tree sprite, although with more powerful druidic abilities than the monster version. Going to have one be Lawful and another Chaotic and ready to use a Treebuchet.

Yeah, I know. Weaksauce compared to your SiWC version, but whateve.

[GnomeBoy]

https://appendixm.blogspot.com/search/label/dryad

[Bobjester]

https://appendixm.blogspot.com/search/label/dryad

Very nice! Thanks!