A Problem with Fey

[Nellisir]

You must spread some Experience Points around...blah blah blah.

I think the most accurate Nymph artwork would probably look more like amorphous blobs of light and shadow than any person. Like staring at the sun. Like the opposite of a Lovecraftian horror: all perfect angles and appealing symmetry.

Excellent. I'd like to see that nymph. At least once.

 

[Jhaelen]

D&D has done succubi/incubi both ways - as seperate creatures in one edition and as one creature capable of changing gender in others (I forget exactly, but I think 1E had them as seperate and either 2E Planescape or 3E merged them into one). It was, in fact this merging that got me thinking of the possibility of alternate gender nymphs/dryads.

For me the important question is this:
Are D&D monsters supposed to be somewhat accurate representations of the mythical creatures or not?
We can think up all kinds of things about D&D monsters, but if we deviate too much from the real-world lore, then I prefer monsters being given a new, made-up name instead of calling them by the name of a mythical creature they do not represent.

In the case of the succubus/incubus, it's definitely the same creature according to medieval lore:

According to the Malleus Maleficarum, or "Witches' Hammer", written by Heinrich Kramer (Insitoris) in 1486, a succubus collects semen from the men she seduces. The incubi or male demons then use the semen to impregnate human females

I don't think I ever read about a male nymph, however, considering they're typically regarded as fey creatures and fey creatures tend to be proficient in the use of glamour, I don't see why they shouldn't be able to change their sex if they wanted to.

There aren't really (m)any mythical stories featuring heroines, so it might be hard to find examples.