Link to Minor Race Development Blog: Half-Dryad
This is the first what I hope will be an every other week blog entry. Basickly its going to be taking about the development of whatever it is I happen to be working on for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. The poll showed the highest interest in Races and Monsters. So lets start with Races since I was working on that earlier this year with only the beta as a guide.
One of the problems that I never felt was really answered was, "There is no race that just scream, 'This race is for women!'" Sure there's the elf/half elf, but neither of these possess the grail-shaped light over their heads to draw in the female gamer. Well with some wonderful inspiration from my girlfriend and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon we're both enjoying thanks to netflix, I found the perfect female to base a race off of: Cordelia. She's social, kicks ass when necessary, a survivalist, possesses indepth knowledge of certain aspects of life, and makes witty remarks. Granted she's not very knowledgeable about many other aspects of life. Oh well. So I leaf through the Monster Manual to find some base of reference for a Cordy-like race. Succubus? No! Not going there ... yet. Dryad is cool. ... The whole "cannot be more than 300 yards away from their tree" thing makes it a major no go. ... How about a half-dryad? Hmmm, potential! I mean what human moral-less man wouldn't want to be with an elf-looking woman that can't follow him back home and find out he's married. Plus they can entangle at will. That's wrong on so many levels, but I think it could work.
So what should a Cordelia-themed half-dryad race have at its disposal. Entangle as a spell like ability would be quite dryad themed. Then there Cordy's native survivalist abilities and she's highly social. Con and Cha and Survival skill bonuses. Definitely an Int penalty. Definitely. She's going to need a natural armor bonus (+1) since she's part dryad and other fey qualities like low light. Maybe the natural armor could be a feat, to keep the race balanced. I'll have to playtest that some. I think that about wraps up the crunch.
How about the fluff? Well they have a Cha bonus so they're pretty and social. They like to make themselves the center of attention. Definitely a Cordelia trait. They can leave the woods and leave their parent stuck at an oak tree. Probably grew up with little change of scenery, except when getting away from the parent. So no matter where they go, they're seeing a whole new world. New possibilities lay before them where ever they go. Sounds like the perfect adventurer race to me. What else?
What about restricting their sorcerer bloodlines to fey only? They can certainly be destined, so keep that one allowable. Well it is possible that their human parent had some infernal or draconic influences. They're fey should overpower such shouldn't it? Possibly, but (to use a cooking metaphor) I don't need to add alot of garlic or oregano to greatly influence the taste of spaghetti sauce. So I think the others should be allowable. Must think more on this.
Please feel free to comment on this. Tell me what you think of this race?
Give it a read and share your thoughts.
Hmm. Dryads are fey, aren't they? Or are they a separate species?
I'd be careful about just saying "This is for *WOMEN*" because the women gamers I've known have played everything from male half-orc barbarians to female halfling wizards to dragonborn paladins. I've never had a woman in a gaming group say she didn't feel there were appealing racial options to her, and by saying "Well, this is for women" it implies that what's already out there isn't.
Dryads are a fey race, yes. But like pixies and others, they are their own race.
Probably poor phrasing on my part. I too have known my fair share of female gamers in my time; my girlfriend is among them. When she and I came up with this race, one of the reasons we focused in on its core concept was that she and I both felt that there was little in the world of game of D&D that was expressly designed with the female gamer inmind. Oh sure, there is plenty in all the available material that can/does appeal to women, but how much of it was designed without one of the designers saying "... how can we make this [insert item here] more appealing to women ..." but instead "How can we take experiences common among women that men just 'don't get' and turn it into a race?"
I will admit I am relying heavily upon my girlfriend's (as well as other insight provided by other female gamers) insight to hit the appropriate tone for this race.
...one of the reasons we focused in on its core concept was that she and I both felt that there was little in the world of game of D&D that was expressly designed with the female gamer inmind. Oh sure, there is plenty in all the available material that can/does appeal to women, but how much of it was designed without one of the designers saying "... how can we make this [insert item here] more appealing to women ..." but instead "How can we take experiences common among women that men just 'don't get' and turn it into a race?"
I will admit I am relying heavily upon my girlfriend's (as well as other insight provided by other female gamers) insight to hit the appropriate tone for this race.
I don't think I understand what that means, which I suppose might be what you're talking about, but isn't a female gamer's character as representative of the 'feminine experience' as she wants it to be?
Besides, in making a race that represents "the female experience", you used the character of *Cordelia Chase* as a model? A shallow, somewhat vapid pretty girl of dubious talent (even her friends thought she was a bad actress) who gets caught up in major events but usually relies on other people to save her? For an entire race?
That's... a concept. I think I'm not really getting it but it just seems like kind of a fix to a problem that isn't there.
Well, after having played one in a AD&D v1 game, here are some things you should be looking at:
- Druid favoured class
- CHA +4, INT -2
- No Natural Armour (they are supposed to be soft ad warm, not leather-hide beasts)
- Fey traits (and Humanoid - Fey type)
- Sickness from iron weapons, especially cold-iron (use of iron weapons results in sickened status)
The problem you have is explaining how you get a half-dryad. Since all Dryads are female and reproduce with males of other races, aren't dryads by nature always half of something else. They way we explained it was that dryad is a female gene only, so all males maintain their native race, and all females are dryads. So the only possible way to get a half-dryad is that the dryad would have to mate with a male born of a dryad. And then, only males would be half-dryad genetically, since the two feminine genes would produce a true dryad. We got around this by having a satyr-dryad mating yield a possible half-dryad female.
So the last thing you need to do is balance out everything else, and maybe create a few racial feats for the half-dryad.
I don't think I understand what that means, which I suppose might be what you're talking about,
Exactly. If there is one thing that I have learned about female gamers is that us male gamers really do have little clue about the female experience unless we're shown just how little we know. I have been shown enough to see that little is expressly designed from the ground up to help encourage the female experience.
(Disclaimer: I am by no means claiming to be an expert on women. As I said above, I"m relying heavily on my gf to make sure the appropriate tone is hit.)
Besides, in making a race that represents "the female experience", you used the character of *Cordelia Chase* as a model? A shallow, somewhat vapid pretty girl of dubious talent (even her friends thought she was a bad actress) who gets caught up in major events but usually relies on other people to save her? For an entire race?
That's... a concept. I think I'm not really getting it
That one way of looking at Cordelia. Here's another: Whats the difference between Cordy and Buffy? Buffy's the slayer. Otherwise, they're identical. Before Buffy was the slayer, she was a popular cheerleader that dated only the hottest guys with the best cars and slacked off right and left. Had she not been the slayer, she never would have given Willow/Zander the time of day and would have competed with Cordy for the most popular girl spot. Her slayerhood sent her to the bottom of the popularity food chain and was forced to stay with Willow/Zander for any type of friendship. To put Buffy in game terms, she's at least level 12 of an incredibly broken class; Cordy by contrast started out in the early seasons around level 1. With little for the class to focus on as such a lower level, race makes a larger difference and is easier to use her as a model for such a race.
but it just seems like kind of a fix to a problem that isn't there.
Its a fix to a problem that most men fail to recognize. But that does not mean that it is not there.
The problem you have is explaining how you get a half-dryad. Since all Dryads are female and reproduce with males of other races, aren't dryads by nature always half of something else.
I've always thought of Dryads at Tree Spirits and being the physical manifestation of said tree (hence them being tied to a single tree). Therefore, they do not require to reproduce to make more, simply planting another tree and letting it live for a 100+ years brings the dryad to life. But that's just my own opinion.