Ok, so you give a dryad a pot of awakening and get her to plant an oak tree in it, when it's all done she gets an awakened oak tree that she or her daughter can bind to it and essentially get a mobile home.
I imagine a living elven spelljammer type ship that is a small forest of trees rooted on an asteroid (or maybe the ruins of a flying castle) and crewed by Dryads and Treants. I call it the Leaping Tree.
I'd want to live there, for like... Forever. I will take shore leave to visit the life I left, just to be reminded why I left it despite what I missed.
Be me: forever DM, in a party full of wise guys and gals who always make puns. Use a dyrad against my party after watching this video Party: why are we fighting a dryad? Me: it would be horrible to fight a tree woman just so I could make this pun, wooden tit?
Oooo.. good question! That is a distinct possibility, since trees that grow in places steeped in nature's magic are more liable to become awakened, and Dryads are bound to the tree in a powerful ritual performed by an elder fey.. so yeah, no reason why this could not happen. What you now have is a Treant that is soul bound to a Fey spirit, the Dryad, and the two are inseparable soul mates. On the one hand, the Dryad is less vulnerable to the destruction of her home tree, since it can move and defend itself, and on the other hand, the Treant now has a mobile scout that can travel across the forest very quickly, report back, and perform enchanting magic.. also, the Treant can animate trees.. the dryad can teleport between trees.. so, they can make a moving line of trees that stretch 120 feet from the Treant, allowing the dryad to travel beyond a forest, or into a secure area.. they would make a formidable team!
AJ Pickett a question i have always had is who would win out of a confrontation between nympth and a dryad, which creature would overpower the other? which would dominate/outrank?
I like the idea of playing with the fact that the tree has to be large enough that the dryad can fully fit inside of it. A giant tree having a giant dryad with the advantage of all that size but the disadvantage of not being able to have other trees large enough around to teleport through. In the converse of a tiny dryad in a tiny tree and having many potential trees to teleport through or have a tree that is small enough to be transported around in a pot.
One of my characters in 5e was a female Druid raised by dryads who had a very interesting perspective when it comes to males. Seeing them like how one would see a very cute dog. Not in a demeaning unintelligent pet way where you order them around, more like how you would see someone else’s dog. The cuteness is their main characteristic she notices and it’s a wondrous place where men are walking around the streets and owning business Imagine getting into a debate with a corgi? Pinch the cheeks. “Ah such a smart little man”. Made for a very interesting character just because of how prevalent that part of her backstory is to her personality. Something worth up playing in dryad personality. Sure some of them are former elves and and they’re plants but they’re also chaotic Fey, and all female fey at that. How would they see men?
great vid. the dryad is a great encounter to run,it could be an ally,or just really annoying,or alluring one of the party members. fun stuff, i love these videos.
I ran a few adventures set in winter which centered around a translucent, almost ghostly dryad bound to a chime oak. My players loved the added weirdness of the chime oak dryad over a vanilla dryad.
A Dryad bounded to a rotting tree by an elven necromancer who worships that ghoul god you talked about. Causing the rot to spread through the forrest. Side effect it causes anything that died or dies in the spread of rot to come back as undead.
Huh.. maybe i just have Warlocks on the brain at the moment.. but I'd wonder if a particularly old Dryad could make a Pact with someone.. and Slowly make them into a Fellow Dryad (The End goal for the Dryad would be to replace themselves/fill the Forest with other Protectors) Hmm...
@@dawsonhelf7922 They Might be Male for a while but (thinking on it a little) They Might not stay that way. They'd probably get a choice at some point to either "Join them fully" and become a Dryad (Also depends on the Dryad to an amount.. One that is less worried about their pactee will likely force the issue) or have them become a Ent or something similar.
Watching this again - for reasons - and I noticed the Vallejo at 0:45 I used to have a poster of that on my wall, along with other Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta pieces. Anyway, good art choices!
My plan for a future (soon) session is to have the party meet with a dryad bound to a Gulthas tree. Mixing her stats with a Vampire Thrall and giving her blights as allies.
Thanks for the video! I am currently reworking part of my druids background for our humblewood campaign and was recently reminded of dryads. Which gave me an idea for my druid to have had a romantic partner dryad who's tree got burned by the scorched grove. He is hoping to revive her through and acorn from her tree that she gave him after trying to tie part of her soul to it. But make the story good I needed to know more about dryads, at least before this video. Hopefully my dm is okay with the changes!
Lich literally means corpse. By definition it is an undead being. And dryads do not have to be good aligned. Just aligned with the forest they live with. Although I can see it as an alternative way to enhance ones longevity.
In my game there's a great treant in the abandoned village of an Orc village. He essentially has a dryad as hi wife and advisor as he guards the overgrown ruins
Would it? I mean, if the thing has a soul would it not be more that you connect with that spirit rather then simply the object they are connected to? Hm... I guess one could look at it as similar to falling in love with a robot with intelligence.
Is there any reason a dryads tree couldn't "wake up" and the Dryad be bonded to a Treant?? If so, it wouldn't be stuck in a certain area would it??? ~ AND~ maybe could even be 0considered an "ent-wife", since there is no analog for Tolkeins "ent-wifes" in D&D. Even works with the whole, "Dryads are always female and Treants are male." Lol, that statement reminded me of the comment from Kindergarten cop for some reason 😂 🤣😁 Treants are the "male" version of a dryad in my game now, ITS CANON!! Lol, love your content!! Thanks for the video!!! Gave me some great ideas for my campaign.😃
Vampire Tree Dryad. Basically, it's a dryad that became mutated and twisted due to bloodshed following a great war and developed a taste for blood as a result during her bid to protect her tree, and became twisted herself into a sort of vampiric creature.
They cannot charm displacer beasts or ropers. Fae charm ability only allows up to one humanoid and three beasts to be charmed by it. Displacer beasts and ropers are monstrosities. Also the charm is not dominate so they can't control them but they are inclined to protect the dryad while charmed. Blink dogs and Owl bears would be the most dangerous things protecting a dryad.
AJ Pickett Hi! I have a question, how did you get all this knowledge? Perhaps you read articles. This is the first video of yours I ran into and I love it! Your descriptions are very detailed, just keep up ;) Such things touch me to the core, I feel a connection to them and the otherworld.
Yes, I originally started doing these videos on the advice of Gareth (The DMG) and it quickly became the focus of the channel, and as more people took interest, it compelled me to put as much effort into research on the subjects as I could comfortably do, given the time constraints involved. I consult wikipedia (which usually has great info, and points me to any Dragon magazine articles I can read, since I have a complete collection of them), I also read entries from the Forgotten Realms wiki and various forums such as RPGnet, ENworld, Giant in the Playground. Plus, of course, I have a lot of source books from most editions of the game, stacked up on groaning book shelves, stuffed with scraps of paper, bookmarked and well thumbed. Glad you found the channel, hope you enjoy the vids :)
I think there is a book on amazon that might interest you. I look forward to buy it when I'll have a job like ASAP. It has similar contents but seems like it has something much deeper to it, Magic of the Celtic Otherworld by Steve Blamires. Give it a look ;)
3.5rdE, .. Young adult male green dragon CR10, ECL: 13. that is also rogue3/wizard10 +13CR, total CR: 23; ECL: 26. Dryad that are half dragons and they protect their father's hoard.
courtney boxsell absolutely, dryads are creatures of ancient mythology, Wizards of the coast do not own 'the dryad' (however they do own beholders, bulettes, rust monsters and many others) you can write your own version as you see fit.
If you are making the caracter in a book. >.> I mean, you can basically describe the monster the best you can then just give it a diffrent name. Personally I find claiming fantasy monsters as your own seems rather dumb. I get it with pokemon and such. :/ But even then I do find it a bit silly. Imagine if someone came today with a claim saying that they have the right to all forms of dragons. And anything using dragons in them now has to pay them a lot of money. :/
I have still got Blink Dogs, Pixies, Quicklings, Gnomes and various other fey type critters to cover, as well as the more exotic planar dragons and giants.
My curiosity is about blight trees, what would happen to a dryad if her tree was a blight tree, would the dryad become vampiric? Die? Would they be weakened but still alive and maybe have a need to provide their corrupted tree blood, and if so what do they hate doing this or does the influence of the corrupted tree make her take joy in it? There's a lot of ways it could go.
I had a campaign where the players could be half dryads as a playable race. Their hometown is one of three Elfin settlements. They are liberated underdark slaves who only remember their youth as underdark thralls to the Drow. The elves put most of their war efforts into just snatching slaves and anti-drow defense because of that. There is also a nearby forest dominated by evil and corruption. It even had its version of Treants called Gnarled Trees (among other twists on non-evil forest creatures). The campaign conclusion of going to the center of the evil forest found out the origin of all the half dryads. For some reason, certain magical defenses were not triggered by the half dryads. There was an evil (deeply evil) magical overlord who had a keep in the center. He had a few dryad trees as part of his harem. The evil overlord and the hapless dryads were the biological parents of all the half dryads, which the evil overlord happily used as currency for his dark elf contacts. The magical defenses that ignored the half dryads? They were recognizing heirs to the evil overlord. The evil forest was nightmarishly twisted and complex, one of my greatest and darkest work. When the evil overlord was destroyed and his power sources liberated, the forest began to change as the darkness left. The party was horrified to see how many "good forest creature" bodies replaced the monster corpses they left in their wake. Then, from that power vacuum, things got messy. I had 2 more years of intrigue and the half dryad players had issues to face.
Well, the charm power and other spells are all quite different now, and the idea of the Terel and such are pretty obscure, but its got a few interesting points I could have added, my apologies, I made this video quite a while ago.
Hi TMG, I have a question for you Could a Dryad ever bond with a Treant or could a Dryads bonded Tree become a Treant ?) Kinda curious and you expertise would be very useful
Tbh m8 I (embarrassingly) have played half a game of DnD before. I play lots of RPGs and similar fantasy games but unfortunately not had the organization to finish a campaign so I was just curious, I’m binge watching your monster/creature vids purely for entertainment value on the off chance you didn’t know that demographic exists.
Yeah I would expect you might predict people to watch mainly for DnD reasons but yeah you’re an entertaining personality so I will give you my sub and if I can find my other acct passwords I’ll give you 4 more
How about making Dryads be druids that had a Tree Stride (Or transport via plants) go wrong and that is what bound them to the tree? What happens when a transport via plant, you enter just at the end of the spell duration and don't exit in time? Hi Dryad.
I played the 5th edition A-Z playlist to listen to while working and didnt look at my phone's skreen and got asked about the nude women on the skreen and had to explain what the video was to someone who doesn't know what a D&D is.
Good Morning AJ, great show as always. I left a message for you on your discussion section a few days ago. I know your busy AJ and cant answer all your crazy fans question. Keep up the great work you do. I do have a M.E. suggestion for you, but here is the problem. I cant remember the name of the creature. Tried looking it up on wiki, had no luck. It would be from AD&D. Humaniod creature with dirty clothes, strong, annoying creature that would give away Characters position in a dungeon. They are immune to metal. In the Futurama movie: benders game, the one where they spoof D&D. Robin Williams character Morcis is what I believe they called it. But in the wiki it says its mork crossed with an orc. The name is wrong but the way they had Robin Williams character acting really reminded me of that Creature in AD&D. Sorry I really cant remember anymore about this creature in AD&D. Later AJ have a great day.
OMG LOL, your best AJ you really know your stuff. I went to yahoo, typed in lava children and there in images is the picture I remember from AD&D. Yes that is the creature I was thinking of. So if you haven't already done lava children please do a M.E. on them. I used them in my dungeons way back in the day. Again thank you AJ!!
Do dryads NEED to be bound to a tree? I think playing a dryad Druid would be fun to play. (Of course in my head my dryad would probably look more human just using things like leaves and wood as armor. They just are WAY more in touch with nature then any other race.
My initial reaction is that a powerful true fey could fairly easily bind someone to a tree to make them a driad, but that it would be largely outside the realm of mortal abilities.
Huh now I wonder if you can get a dryad to have two trees or transfer them to a different tree by grafting from say one fruit tree dryad and putting it on another. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting
I suppose it may be that females have some diffrent sort of energy that more easy can be bonded with a tree? Maybe something along the lines of trees being of the yin energy whatever, and females are also mostly yin so they can bond more easy, while men are rather yang and therefore would not mix with a tree the same way. Naturally as its fantasy there would be no reason as I see it why anyone could not be cursed to a tree. I suppose I do not see why it would have to be a tree at all, but if you would set yourself with something else I suppose the creature would be also named diffrently. It do remind me somewhat of dwarfs turning to stone or whatever tho.
A dryad (/ˈdraɪ.æd/; Greek: Δρυάδες, sing.: Δρυάς) is a tree nymph, or tree spirit, in Greek mythology. In Greek drys signifies "oak". Thus, dryadsare specifically the nymphs of oak trees, though the term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general.
500 years? Elvis live for an average of 750 years and dryads for many thousand of years i would think half dryad would live for at lest 2 or 3 thouands years maybe more
Half elves gets 120 years. That 750 pulls the lifespan down a lot just like the humans 80 does to the elf blood in a half elf. Also your world your stats, wanna make them live longer by all means go ahead :)
Yes, and male flowers! The vast majority of flowers are female, or, female-ish... something needs to be done! *chuckle* Your game, your rules, your world, I can only suggest that there are never enough fantasy artists, so, by all means, make more male dryad and nymph images (preferably safe for work).
Safe for work... aw... I really think there is something into the idea of yin and yang tho. A tree as I understand it, mind you I really have no idea about what yin or yang or whatever those stuff is about. But as I understand it, similar to how a tree can make oxygen, it can also take negative energy and change it to positive. So by my understanding a tree probably would count as yin. Having the ability to clean yang energy into yin. And from my understanding a female would have mostly yin energy while males would have yang. I suppose it would be if a male would be bound to a tree, due to it cleaning yang energy. Even if the person originally was male maybe the result would still be a female dryad? Or maybe it would simply reject and not be able to bound at all as the male would be in conflict with its own yin energy.
Jonathan Wells That isnt a very in-depth answer... Why do they feel superior? Their extended life spans? The dwarves live a long time too, as do any number of savage species'. What makes them so superior in their minds?
First, it's important to recount the history of the elves in Forgotten Realms, they basically got created by a god and then enslaved by dragons for a few thousand years, they may well have taken on some of the traits of their abusers and have a sort of draconic arrogance and aggression that they veil with an air of moral high ground, for instance, an elf would always get a little bit triggered whenever a Dragonborn points out that they have been around longer than the elven race. Elves had mastery of the world once, and the tragic end to their empire was their own fault, they waged vicious war against each other, so, elven aggression is not just a matter of racism, nor is it xenophobia, it is isolationism, they justify their emotional distance from others, by only seeing the inferiority of others to themselves, this is kind of manifested as a racial nobility complex, they see themselves as better than others, other elves are more like them, so they are therefore better than non elves, but in the absence of other races to scorn, they turn their spite on each other. This is not a common theme to player character elves, but NPC elves quite often get depicted as stuck up pricks don't they? Dwarves are isolationists and xenophobes as well, they have some dark chapters from their history, for sure, but perhaps they are a little more accepting, see a lot of themselves, in the 'grubby'races, while elves see everyone as less attractive, more flawed, less clean, more sickly, less desirable.
Ok, so you give a dryad a pot of awakening and get her to plant an oak tree in it, when it's all done she gets an awakened oak tree that she or her daughter can bind to it and essentially get a mobile home.
It would be interesting if there was a kind of dwarven version of a dryad that bonded with stone instead of trees or something.
A Dwarven spirit that is bound to a large natural crystal would be cool :)
AJ Pickett or a dwarf spirit bond to a particular ore vain.
in mythology, mountain nymphs are oreads. not sure if its what your specifically talking about but they exist.
@@AJPickett
What about a crystal Golem?
There is actually a creature in 3.5 that is basically a mountain Dryad. Can't remember the exact material it is in. But it is thrre.
I imagine a living elven spelljammer type ship that is a small forest of trees rooted on an asteroid (or maybe the ruins of a flying castle) and crewed by Dryads and Treants. I call it the Leaping Tree.
If they serve elven beer and have hammocks, I want to go on an extended cruise.
I'd want to live there, for like... Forever. I will take shore leave to visit the life I left, just to be reminded why I left it despite what I missed.
Just want you to know I'm stealing this the moment my players get a spelljammer ship.
That would be the best spelljammer ship to choose from for players
-DD
..I'm renubded if Juraian ships from Tenchi.
Be me: forever DM, in a party full of wise guys and gals who always make puns. Use a dyrad against my party after watching this video
Party: why are we fighting a dryad?
Me: it would be horrible to fight a tree woman just so I could make this pun, wooden tit?
yes, just yes
Why do I want to hug a tree now ...?
What if the dryads tree awakens and becomes a treant
Oooo.. good question! That is a distinct possibility, since trees that grow in places steeped in nature's magic are more liable to become awakened, and Dryads are bound to the tree in a powerful ritual performed by an elder fey.. so yeah, no reason why this could not happen. What you now have is a Treant that is soul bound to a Fey spirit, the Dryad, and the two are inseparable soul mates. On the one hand, the Dryad is less vulnerable to the destruction of her home tree, since it can move and defend itself, and on the other hand, the Treant now has a mobile scout that can travel across the forest very quickly, report back, and perform enchanting magic.. also, the Treant can animate trees.. the dryad can teleport between trees.. so, they can make a moving line of trees that stretch 120 feet from the Treant, allowing the dryad to travel beyond a forest, or into a secure area.. they would make a formidable team!
AJ Pickett a question i have always had is who would win out of a confrontation between nympth and a dryad, which creature would overpower the other? which would dominate/outrank?
The Nymph would win, in a face to face confrontation, but, the Dryad would best the Nymph in a mobile fight.
Spooky Wizard thats what i said
Then the Treant has its wood in the Dyrad constantly and will be the happiest of them all
I like the idea of playing with the fact that the tree has to be large enough that the dryad can fully fit inside of it. A giant tree having a giant dryad with the advantage of all that size but the disadvantage of not being able to have other trees large enough around to teleport through. In the converse of a tiny dryad in a tiny tree and having many potential trees to teleport through or have a tree that is small enough to be transported around in a pot.
One of my characters in 5e was a female Druid raised by dryads who had a very interesting perspective when it comes to males. Seeing them like how one would see a very cute dog. Not in a demeaning unintelligent pet way where you order them around, more like how you would see someone else’s dog. The cuteness is their main characteristic she notices and it’s a wondrous place where men are walking around the streets and owning business
Imagine getting into a debate with a corgi? Pinch the cheeks. “Ah such a smart little man”. Made for a very interesting character just because of how prevalent that part of her backstory is to her personality. Something worth up playing in dryad personality. Sure some of them are former elves and and they’re plants but they’re also chaotic Fey, and all female fey at that. How would they see men?
like a bear.....they would see men like a bear.....a bear carrying fire (torch) with their claws (swords and axes)......sooo prob be pretty afraid
great vid. the dryad is a great encounter to run,it could be an ally,or just really annoying,or alluring one of the party members. fun stuff, i love these videos.
Add a treant for extra danger.
I ran a few adventures set in winter which centered around a translucent, almost ghostly dryad bound to a chime oak. My players loved the added weirdness of the chime oak dryad over a vanilla dryad.
It’s always weird seeing cantrips be limited in how many times a day a monster can use them
A Dryad bounded to a rotting tree by an elven necromancer who worships that ghoul god you talked about. Causing the rot to spread through the forrest. Side effect it causes anything that died or dies in the spread of rot to come back as undead.
Maybe even the Elf bounded to it is the Necromancer.
That dovetails nicely into the next monster ecology vid I am making...
What monster is that? I thought I was being original. :(
Oh you are, no doubt, but there is a creature who could be used for just such a thing..
+AJ Pickett (The Mighty Gluestick) Now, I want to see it.
Huh.. maybe i just have Warlocks on the brain at the moment.. but I'd wonder if a particularly old Dryad could make a Pact with someone.. and Slowly make them into a Fellow Dryad (The End goal for the Dryad would be to replace themselves/fill the Forest with other Protectors) Hmm...
There is the fey pact, so maybe work with that? I have a succubus as a patron for my tiefling who wants to raise an army to take over hell.
If that’s the case, then it WOULD BE OFFICIALY POSSIBLE for a male dryad to exist (If said warlock is male)
-DD
@@dawsonhelf7922 They Might be Male for a while but (thinking on it a little) They Might not stay that way. They'd probably get a choice at some point to either "Join them fully" and become a Dryad (Also depends on the Dryad to an amount.. One that is less worried about their pactee will likely force the issue) or have them become a Ent or something similar.
Watching this again - for reasons - and I noticed the Vallejo at 0:45
I used to have a poster of that on my wall, along with other Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta pieces.
Anyway, good art choices!
My plan for a future (soon) session is to have the party meet with a dryad bound to a Gulthas tree. Mixing her stats with a Vampire Thrall and giving her blights as allies.
Shoot, I fixed a typo and lost the heart.
I'm still pretty proud of the idea.
Thanks for the video! I am currently reworking part of my druids background for our humblewood campaign and was recently reminded of dryads. Which gave me an idea for my druid to have had a romantic partner dryad who's tree got burned by the scorched grove. He is hoping to revive her through and acorn from her tree that she gave him after trying to tie part of her soul to it. But make the story good I needed to know more about dryads, at least before this video. Hopefully my dm is okay with the changes!
This is very unique information. My old dragon magazines were similar with strange new classes. Your Ent video gave me a few ideas.
I've often uses Dryads as Fae Realm gatekeepers. They are often also the main interface between Fey and Mortal.
A portal that is an archway of two oaks twined together guarded by Dryad sisters would be a pretty cool thing to see.
Can a dryad become "one" with a treant?
HEY! This is a family channel Olji. (also, yes)
AJ Pickett xD. Sounded abit weird now when i look back at it. Thx for the answer.
I wish I was as charismatic as a Dryad. They sound so cool!
Is this the fabled "good litch" XD
Sort of?
Lich literally means corpse. By definition it is an undead being. And dryads do not have to be good aligned. Just aligned with the forest they live with. Although I can see it as an alternative way to enhance ones longevity.
Baelnorn?
Let's go....the nymph's "tree hugger" Hippie cousin.
In my game there's a great treant in the abandoned village of an Orc village. He essentially has a dryad as hi wife and advisor as he guards the overgrown ruins
ZenodudeMC sounds like you have a very good handle on how those critters operate :)
Drendophilia and Dragons!
Technically that would be paraphilia, and eww.
Would it? I mean, if the thing has a soul would it not be more that you connect with that spirit rather then simply the object they are connected to? Hm... I guess one could look at it as similar to falling in love with a robot with intelligence.
In the words of Morty Sanchez
"I MASTURBATED TO AN EXTRA CURVY PIECE OF DRIFTWOOD THE OTHER DAY."
Is there any reason a dryads tree couldn't "wake up" and the Dryad be
bonded to a Treant??
If so, it wouldn't be stuck in a certain area would it???
~ AND~
maybe could even be 0considered an "ent-wife", since there is no analog
for Tolkeins "ent-wifes" in D&D.
Even works with the whole, "Dryads are always female and Treants are male."
Lol, that statement reminded me of the comment from Kindergarten cop for
some reason 😂
🤣😁
Treants are the "male" version of a dryad in my game now, ITS CANON!!
Lol, love your content!!
Thanks for the video!!!
Gave me some great ideas for my campaign.😃
Didn't catch how long one lives a half or full dryad thanks 👍 for the excellent video and have a good day.
If their body is like a sapling in how it feels, wouldn't, um, making a half-dryad be a little painful?
#WorthIt
Depends. Do you believe their, ah, sap to be slippery?
Vampire Tree Dryad.
Basically, it's a dryad that became mutated and twisted due to bloodshed following a great war and developed a taste for blood as a result during her bid to protect her tree, and became twisted herself into a sort of vampiric creature.
Or how about this: A dryad that’s bounded to a mandrake
-DD
They cannot charm displacer beasts or ropers. Fae charm ability only allows up to one humanoid and three beasts to be charmed by it. Displacer beasts and ropers are monstrosities. Also the charm is not dominate so they can't control them but they are inclined to protect the dryad while charmed. Blink dogs and Owl bears would be the most dangerous things protecting a dryad.
AJ Pickett
Hi! I have a question, how did you get all this knowledge? Perhaps you read articles.
This is the first video of yours I ran into and I love it! Your descriptions are very detailed, just keep up ;)
Such things touch me to the core, I feel a connection to them and the otherworld.
Yes, I originally started doing these videos on the advice of Gareth (The DMG) and it quickly became the focus of the channel, and as more people took interest, it compelled me to put as much effort into research on the subjects as I could comfortably do, given the time constraints involved. I consult wikipedia (which usually has great info, and points me to any Dragon magazine articles I can read, since I have a complete collection of them), I also read entries from the Forgotten Realms wiki and various forums such as RPGnet, ENworld, Giant in the Playground. Plus, of course, I have a lot of source books from most editions of the game, stacked up on groaning book shelves, stuffed with scraps of paper, bookmarked and well thumbed.
Glad you found the channel, hope you enjoy the vids :)
I think there is a book on amazon that might interest you. I look forward to buy it when I'll have a job like ASAP. It has similar contents but seems like it has something much deeper to it, Magic of the Celtic Otherworld by Steve Blamires. Give it a look ;)
hey aj what if dryad mated with nymph ??
Splinters would kill them both.
they can't, both are females
seekr34 you think that’ll stop them?
Almost feel like bark skin should be unlimited.
3.5rdE, .. Young adult male green dragon CR10, ECL: 13. that is also rogue3/wizard10 +13CR, total CR: 23; ECL: 26.
Dryad that are half dragons and they protect their father's hoard.
Could a half dryad leave its home for months at a time?
If you are taking the creative license to make half dryads for your campaign, then sure, why not?
AJ Pickett
So if I'm writing a book, I could alter the half dryads [ in my book ] quite a bit?
courtney boxsell absolutely, dryads are creatures of ancient mythology, Wizards of the coast do not own 'the dryad' (however they do own beholders, bulettes, rust monsters and many others) you can write your own version as you see fit.
AJ Pickett
Awesome, thanks.
If you are making the caracter in a book. >.> I mean, you can basically describe the monster the best you can then just give it a diffrent name. Personally I find claiming fantasy monsters as your own seems rather dumb. I get it with pokemon and such. :/ But even then I do find it a bit silly. Imagine if someone came today with a claim saying that they have the right to all forms of dragons. And anything using dragons in them now has to pay them a lot of money. :/
Thanks for making this video.
My pleasure, more fey on the way soon.
AJ Pickett Yay. Fay and dragons are two races and species I love
I have still got Blink Dogs, Pixies, Quicklings, Gnomes and various other fey type critters to cover, as well as the more exotic planar dragons and giants.
Thanks AJ.
A Dryad once helped my group fend off an Owlbear xD It was a weird session, but Diplomacy is your friend!
Dryad has biten of our gnome wizzards finger
Thanks for the vid sir.👍🏼👍🏼
There's a lot of wood in those forests - if you know what I mean.
I think there is a make dyrad creature called a fossergrim and they are tied to water falls
My curiosity is about blight trees, what would happen to a dryad if her tree was a blight tree, would the dryad become vampiric? Die? Would they be weakened but still alive and maybe have a need to provide their corrupted tree blood, and if so what do they hate doing this or does the influence of the corrupted tree make her take joy in it? There's a lot of ways it could go.
Underrated species.
I wonder if elves ever fall In love with them.
I had a campaign where the players could be half dryads as a playable race. Their hometown is one of three Elfin settlements. They are liberated underdark slaves who only remember their youth as underdark thralls to the Drow. The elves put most of their war efforts into just snatching slaves and anti-drow defense because of that. There is also a nearby forest dominated by evil and corruption. It even had its version of Treants called Gnarled Trees (among other twists on non-evil forest creatures). The campaign conclusion of going to the center of the evil forest found out the origin of all the half dryads. For some reason, certain magical defenses were not triggered by the half dryads. There was an evil (deeply evil) magical overlord who had a keep in the center. He had a few dryad trees as part of his harem. The evil overlord and the hapless dryads were the biological parents of all the half dryads, which the evil overlord happily used as currency for his dark elf contacts. The magical defenses that ignored the half dryads? They were recognizing heirs to the evil overlord. The evil forest was nightmarishly twisted and complex, one of my greatest and darkest work. When the evil overlord was destroyed and his power sources liberated, the forest began to change as the darkness left. The party was horrified to see how many "good forest creature" bodies replaced the monster corpses they left in their wake. Then, from that power vacuum, things got messy. I had 2 more years of intrigue and the half dryad players had issues to face.
Aww...nothimg from the old Dragon magazine article 'Ecology of th Dryad'?
Well, the charm power and other spells are all quite different now, and the idea of the Terel and such are pretty obscure, but its got a few interesting points I could have added, my apologies, I made this video quite a while ago.
adding class levels of bard, druid, ranger to make a more interesting mentor perhaps.
A Dryad could be the foundation of an entire circle of Druids, or train generations of Elven rangers, bards, fighters or even mages. Cool concept!
........3:44 nice
Hi TMG, I have a question for you
Could a Dryad ever bond with a Treant or could a Dryads bonded Tree become a Treant ?)
Kinda curious and you expertise would be very useful
check the reply to Crimson Wizard's question below.
+AJ Pickett (The Mighty Gluestick) thank you for the description and reply, this will help a lot :D
Hey thanks friend, umm were you talking in terms of DnD when you were talking stats?
Broken_mold yes, I use the 5th edition stats as they are the most common.
Tbh m8 I (embarrassingly) have played half a game of DnD before. I play lots of RPGs and similar fantasy games but unfortunately not had the organization to finish a campaign so I was just curious, I’m binge watching your monster/creature vids purely for entertainment value on the off chance you didn’t know that demographic exists.
Binge watchers are my specialty. ;)
Yeah I would expect you might predict people to watch mainly for DnD reasons but yeah you’re an entertaining personality so I will give you my sub and if I can find my other acct passwords I’ll give you 4 more
Thank you kindly, tell your friends :)
Woot! Dryad! Thanks!
Thank you for your patience and support Allen :)
How about making Dryads be druids that had a Tree Stride (Or transport via plants) go wrong and that is what bound them to the tree?
What happens when a transport via plant, you enter just at the end of the spell duration and don't exit in time?
Hi Dryad.
I played the 5th edition A-Z playlist to listen to while working and didnt look at my phone's skreen and got asked about the nude women on the skreen and had to explain what the video was to someone who doesn't know what a D&D is.
So what I heard here was that Dryad and Lich have a lot in common. Just me or did you not hear it
Hey AJ,would you like to know what my evil necromancer did with a dryad he snatched up? (grinning wolfishly)...................I guess not. Lol
Sure...
Dryad , sounds more like a druid. Also i wonder how a Dryad and a Nymph would get along?
Good Morning AJ, great show as always. I left a message for you on your discussion section a few days ago. I know your busy AJ and cant answer all your crazy fans question. Keep up the great work you do. I do have a M.E. suggestion for you, but here is the problem. I cant remember the name of the creature. Tried looking it up on wiki, had no luck. It would be from AD&D. Humaniod creature with dirty clothes, strong, annoying creature that would give away Characters position in a dungeon. They are immune to metal. In the Futurama movie: benders game, the one where they spoof D&D. Robin Williams character Morcis is what I believe they called it. But in the wiki it says its mork crossed with an orc. The name is wrong but the way they had Robin Williams character acting really reminded me of that Creature in AD&D. Sorry I really cant remember anymore about this creature in AD&D. Later AJ have a great day.
lava children are immune to metal. could that be it?
OMG LOL, your best AJ you really know your stuff. I went to yahoo, typed in lava children and there in images is the picture I remember from AD&D. Yes that is the creature I was thinking of. So if you haven't already done lava children please do a M.E. on them. I used them in my dungeons way back in the day. Again thank you AJ!!
lol at myself I thought AJ had replied. Thank you Trenton Maloney-that creature was driving me crazy trying to remember its name.
Oooo beat me to it! Lol, thanks Trenton lore master :)
Fiend Folio creatures for the win!
Do dryads NEED to be bound to a tree? I think playing a dryad Druid would be fun to play.
(Of course in my head my dryad would probably look more human just using things like leaves and wood as armor. They just are WAY more in touch with nature then any other race.
Could a human become a dryad?
I would not say it was impossible, but there would have to be a lot of good reasons for it.
Thats easy Magic! Usually a druid who's overzealous in tree hugging.
My initial reaction is that a powerful true fey could fairly easily bind someone to a tree to make them a driad, but that it would be largely outside the realm of mortal abilities.
Huh now I wonder if you can get a dryad to have two trees or transfer them to a different tree by grafting from say one fruit tree dryad and putting it on another. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting
chakatBombshell yes, though not if the Dryad is not willing.
Are there male dryad
I suppose so.
I meant plant girls forget about that one part
Oh ok
Delete the other comment if that's what you meant. Why leave it? To induce cringe?
I suppose it may be that females have some diffrent sort of energy that more easy can be bonded with a tree? Maybe something along the lines of trees being of the yin energy whatever, and females are also mostly yin so they can bond more easy, while men are rather yang and therefore would not mix with a tree the same way.
Naturally as its fantasy there would be no reason as I see it why anyone could not be cursed to a tree. I suppose I do not see why it would have to be a tree at all, but if you would set yourself with something else I suppose the creature would be also named diffrently.
It do remind me somewhat of dwarfs turning to stone or whatever tho.
Dryads come from cetic mitology, the ones from greek mithology are the nimphs
A dryad (/ˈdraɪ.æd/; Greek: Δρυάδες, sing.: Δρυάς) is a tree nymph, or tree spirit, in Greek mythology. In Greek drys signifies "oak". Thus, dryadsare specifically the nymphs of oak trees, though the term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general.
500 years? Elvis live for an average of 750 years and dryads for many thousand of years i would think half dryad would live for at lest 2 or 3 thouands years maybe more
Half elves gets 120 years. That 750 pulls the lifespan down a lot just like the humans 80 does to the elf blood in a half elf. Also your world your stats, wanna make them live longer by all means go ahead :)
There totally needs to be more representation of male dryads and nymphs in the fantasy genre! :D
Yes, and male flowers! The vast majority of flowers are female, or, female-ish... something needs to be done! *chuckle* Your game, your rules, your world, I can only suggest that there are never enough fantasy artists, so, by all means, make more male dryad and nymph images (preferably safe for work).
Safe for work... aw...
I really think there is something into the idea of yin and yang tho. A tree as I understand it, mind you I really have no idea about what yin or yang or whatever those stuff is about. But as I understand it, similar to how a tree can make oxygen, it can also take negative energy and change it to positive. So by my understanding a tree probably would count as yin. Having the ability to clean yang energy into yin.
And from my understanding a female would have mostly yin energy while males would have yang.
I suppose it would be if a male would be bound to a tree, due to it cleaning yang energy. Even if the person originally was male maybe the result would still be a female dryad? Or maybe it would simply reject and not be able to bound at all as the male would be in conflict with its own yin energy.
I bet they gave you *wood*
:D
Wood Woad is the male version
I think those two monsters were definitely make a good pair, But they aren’t opposite gendered versions of each other.
Ok, so is it just me, or are elves like SUPER-racist? Why is that? What made them that way?
A superiority complex
Jonathan Wells That isnt a very in-depth answer... Why do they feel superior? Their extended life spans? The dwarves live a long time too, as do any number of savage species'. What makes them so superior in their minds?
First, it's important to recount the history of the elves in Forgotten Realms, they basically got created by a god and then enslaved by dragons for a few thousand years, they may well have taken on some of the traits of their abusers and have a sort of draconic arrogance and aggression that they veil with an air of moral high ground, for instance, an elf would always get a little bit triggered whenever a Dragonborn points out that they have been around longer than the elven race. Elves had mastery of the world once, and the tragic end to their empire was their own fault, they waged vicious war against each other, so, elven aggression is not just a matter of racism, nor is it xenophobia, it is isolationism, they justify their emotional distance from others, by only seeing the inferiority of others to themselves, this is kind of manifested as a racial nobility complex, they see themselves as better than others, other elves are more like them, so they are therefore better than non elves, but in the absence of other races to scorn, they turn their spite on each other. This is not a common theme to player character elves, but NPC elves quite often get depicted as stuck up pricks don't they? Dwarves are isolationists and xenophobes as well, they have some dark chapters from their history, for sure, but perhaps they are a little more accepting, see a lot of themselves, in the 'grubby'races, while elves see everyone as less attractive, more flawed, less clean, more sickly, less desirable.
+AJ Pickett I... what?!
+Shamus Farmer I'm really not at liberty to say, it is your imaginary world after all
TFW no Woody GF
You need to stop pissing on trees well let some people they really don't care for tree huggers
Anyone from *Terraria*
2:28 ...."other than female " ??...Soooo MALE.
Sorry for mentioning gender in your presence your edgelordiness. 😎
@@AJPickett ... I'll let you slide this time, seeing as how I like you.