Hamadryad

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The hamadryade makes three attacks which can be a combination of antithesis of metal and seed barrage.
• Antithesis of Metal. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) piercing damage. In addition, armor worn by the target is partly corroded and takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to the AC it offers. The armor is destroyed if the penalty reduces its AC to 10.
• Seed Barrage. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 80/320 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d6) piercing damage. Targets hit by the shards also become entangled by plants that sprout from the ground and are immobilized on a failed DC 23 Dexterity saving throw.
• Fey Charm. The hamadryad targets one humanoid or beast that she can see within 30 feet of her. If the target can see the hamadryad, it must succeed on a DC 23 Wisdom saving throw or be magically charmed. The charmed creature regards the dryad as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn’t under the dryad’s control, it takes the hamadryad’s requests or actions in the most favorable way it can. Each time the dryad or its allies do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until the dryad dies, is on a different plane of existence from the target, or ends the effect as a bonus action. If a target’s saving throw is successful, the target is immune to the hamadryad’s Fey Charm for the next 24 hours. The hamadryad can have no more than one humanoid and up to three beasts charmed at a time.

LEGENDARY ACTIONS

The hamadryad can take 3 legendary action, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The hamadryad regains spent legendary actions at the start of her turn.

• Cast a Spell. The hamadryad casts a spell.
• Infectious Charm. The hamadryad casts a spell from the enchantment school she knows and it effects double the number of creatures.
• Legendary Initiative (1/Day, Costs 3 Actions). The hamadryad can take a second action from her list of available options.

LAIR

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the hamadryad takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the hamadryad can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row.

• The hamadryad chooses a point she can see within her lair. Plants erupt from the ground in a 20-foot radius surrounding that point, creating difficult terrain. Any creatures in the area at the start of their turn, or who enter the area for the first time on a turn, must make a successful DC 22 Dexterity saving throw or become restrained by the vines and take 18 (4d8) poison damage. A creature can be freed if it or an adjacent ally uses an action to make a successful DC 22 Strength check. This effect lasts until the hamadryad uses her lair action again, or dies.
• The hamadryad can cast her senses to any area within her forest, similar to a clairvoyance spell.
• The hamadryad can strike a creature with a beam of moonlight, or summers fire or winter’s frost depending on the time of year and day. In each case a single creature takes 21 (6d6) cold, fire, lightning or thunder damage (as appropriate) and is blinded on a failed DC 22 Dexterity saving throw or half as much damage and not blinded on a successful save.

REGIONAL EFFECTS

The forest that the hamadryad calls home is warped by her magic, which creates one or more of the following effects.

• Treebound fey within the forest do not die if their tree is destroyed. Instead they enter a deep slumber for 1d4 weeks as the hamadryad bonds them to a new tree.
• All water sources within the hamadryad’s forest heal the imbiber 1d4 hit points if they are chaotic good, fey or a beast.
• Large bodies of water within the forest (such as a lake) provide the effect of greater restoration to anyone the hamadryad deems worthy (usually fey, beasts or other woodland protectors and forest natives). If the hamadryad dies, conditions in the area surrounding the lair return to normal over the course of 1d6 days.

ABOUT

A hamadryad is the queen of her forest and the leader of all the dryads within it. Much as a dryad is bonded with one tree and is devoted to it, a hamadryad loves her chosen forest; while she does not sicken and die if separated from it, she loathes such separation. All nonevil woodland creatures acknowledge her as the wisest of dryads and respect her gifts of healing and diplomacy.

In most forests, a hamadryad is the sister or wife of an erlking, and represents the protective, patient, and nurturing aspect of nature. With her healing magic, she can relieve the suffering of a dryad whose tree has been killed and sustain her long enough for her to bond with another tree. A hamadryad prefers to avoid direct confrontations, instead using her magic and allies to divert, confuse, and even befriend any would-be enemies. Her powers allow her to speak with or quickly travel to her subjects even when they are in the most remote parts of the forest.

As a consequence, little happens in the forest without her knowledge, and those who enter her realm would do well to remember this.