DRAGON #360 Art Gallery: Dryad

[Aeolius]

Aren't they calling this the "Blackwoods Dryad"? So maybe its an evil or feral version, not the classic type we're used to? Personally, I prefer the slutty type, but it will be nice to have a version that's meant to be fought.

Fair enough... and, I agree. In my games, I accomplished this with the introduction of the woodhag, daughter of a night hag and sylvan elf, and their daughters the harridans. I even devised a more evil dryad, the driftwood nymph, made from dryads who start by inhabiting mangrove trees and eventually end up adrift on the open seas.

 

[Wepwawet]

I prefer the "hot chic" type...
But maybe Dryads have two forms, tree- and hot-chic-form, and this is how they look while shapeshifting

Yeah, it's sad if they change every monster so that they're jsut supposed to fight and die... D&D has always been more than just combat.

 

[Larrin]

But maybe Dryads have two forms, tree- and hot-chic-form....

I agree, if dryads have any hope of being taken seriously they need to be able to look serious when the need arrises for defending their home. The wrath of nature does not look like a half naked woman making and angry face it looks alot more like that tree thing...

 

[Aeolius]

But maybe Dryads have two forms, tree- and hot-chic-form, and this is how they look while shapeshifting...

Her bark is worse than her bite?

 

[Beregar]

there's a joke there... but I'm not going to be the first...

Me, I prefer the "hot chick with nonviolent powers" dryad. D&D is NOT solely about combat. Having a fey that charms her opponents, occasionally keeping the ones she fancies, is infinitely more interesting than that topiary abomination.

Eh, I'm not sure what prevents that tree dryad charming its opponents and keeping the ones it fancies? What has human shape to do with it? The keyword there is "charm", it's a compulsion, an echantment...

Furthermore, I'm not sure why that 4E tree dryad can't be used in noncombat encounter. I find it slightly humorous that all that is said here basically implies that "unless it is a hot chick, it must be killed!".

 

[an_idol_mind]

I'd like it if the tree-thing was the dryad's true form in the feywild, and the hot chick was a shape taken in the material plane. That could also play up the foreign nature of the planes, while keeping the dryad as the beautiful witch in the woods that she currently is.

 

[Remathilis]

there's a joke there... but I'm not going to be the first...

Me, I prefer the "hot chick with nonviolent powers" dryad. D&D is NOT solely about combat. Having a fey that charms her opponents, occasionally keeping the ones she fancies, is infinitely more interesting than that topiary abomination.

Problem is, we've got two monsters fighting for that role: the dryad and the nymph which fill almost the exact same role of hawt nekkid elflike babe with foresty powers. I'd rather the dryad become otherworldly and plant-like and the nymph retain her human-eye beauty. It will give some more room between the two monsters other than CR.

 

[Aeolius]

I'd like it if the tree-thing was the dryad's true form in the feywild, and the hot chick was a shape taken in the material plane. That could also play up the foreign nature of the planes, while keeping the dryad as the beautiful witch in the woods that she currently is.

Works for me. My hags get by quite well with Polymorph (self) and Disguise Self, to find male companions to sire their offspring.

 

[Knight Otu]

But maybe Dryads have two forms, tree- and hot-chic-form, and this is how they look while shapeshifting

Considering that this is essentially what is said here, even if mirrored with the plant form being the natural form...

 

[Wepwawet]

I'd rather the dryad become otherworldly and plant-like and the nymph retain her human-eye beauty.

Not human-eye beauty, rather viewer-eye beauty
She could look like a sexy elf, sexy dwarf, or even sexy orc or kobold ( )