Dryad

The creature blossoms out of the bark of the ancient tree, at first appearing as a new branch before solidifying into a decidedly female shape. She has a wild, unfathomable look in her large, almond-shaped eyes, and her hair has a pronounced, leafy texture, while her skin looks like burnished wood.

Dryads are wild, mysterious entities found deep in secluded woodlands. They defend the trees from any who would fell them and sometimes come into conflict with humans and others who take wood from the forests. Dryads have been known to charm adventurers into helping them defend their homes or hunting down the forest’s enemies⁠—​even if those enemies are human loggers and woodcutters.

Dryads remain something of a mystery even to other woodland beings. Tales tell of dryads who took a fancy to handsome elf or human men, charmed them, and held them captive. But since dryads rarely associate with any outside their own kind, these stories may be purely apocryphal. Dryads are more likely to ensnare intruders and then send their charmed “guests” out to deal with threats the dryads cannot handle.

A dryad’s delicate features are much like a female elf’s, though her flesh is like bark or fine wood, and her hair is like a canopy of leaves that changes color with the seasons.

Although they are generally solitary, up to seven dryads have been encountered in one place on rare occasions.

Dryads speak Common, Elven, and Sylvan.

Combat

Shy, intelligent, and resolute, dryads are as elusive as they are alluring⁠—​they avoid physical combat and are rarely seen unless they wish to be. If threatened, or in need of an ally, a dryad uses charm person or suggestion, attempting to gain control of the attacker(s) who could help the most against the rest. Any attack on her tree, however, provokes the dryad into a frenzied defense.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will⁠—​entangle (DC 13), speak with plants, tree shape; 3/day⁠—​charm person (DC 13), deep slumber (DC 15), tree stride; 1/day⁠—​suggestion (DC 15). Caster level 6th. The save DCs are Wisdom-based.

Tree Dependent (Su): Each dryad is mystically bound to a single, enormous oak tree and must never stray more than 300 yards from it. Any who do become ill and die within 4d6 hours. A dryad’s oak does not radiate magic.

Wild Empathy (Ex): This power works like the druid’s wild empathy class feature, except that the dryad has a +6 racial bonus on the check.

Source: Monster Manual (version 3.5), page 90.