Coeden
— Brendan Twwalsh, The Eye in the Woods
In the most secluded glades, in the most hidden clearings, in the very deepest and most remote parts of the sea of leaves and branches, the trees speak. The coeden are agents of nature, grown from the earth to protect, to scout, to negotiate, and even to destroy.
Made With Purpose
Created by powerful nature spirits such as treants or dryads, or even gods of nature themselves, a coeden's first memory is often of being given a task. A coeden begins their life as a tree, completely ordinary and anchored to the earth. By powerful magics, their growth is accelerated over several months as their trunks widen and divide to take on the form of a humanoid body, and eventually their eyes open. At this point, their creator instructs them to complete a specific task. Most often, in this age, it is to protect the forest from those who would poach its game or fell its ancient trees. Sometimes a lone druid will need a reliable scout to monitor conditions in a far away woodland. When more drastic measures are needed, a coeden may be burdened with the heavy responsibility of spilling mortal blood, if there is no reasoning to be done. They have no magical compulsion to complete this task, but many will work towards it even at great risk to themselves. If one completes their task, or if it becomes apparent that it will take a great deal of time, they may occupy themselves with other interests, pursuits, and even vices. A coeden free of their task most often turns to a life of adventure, if they were not living one already.
Avatars of Life
Coeden roughly resemble humanoids in their shape and stature, but they are of vastly different construction. Thick, sticky sap suffuses their woodlike flesh, and their skin is tough and coarse like bark but also bends to conform to their bodies. Coeden often sport a cluster of branches that grows from their head like a crown, growing and shedding leaves to indicate the season or their health. They usually have smaller branches or twigs growing from their shoulders, back, elbows, or legs, but these can be trimmed if they desire to wear clothing so as not to get in the way. Depending on the species of tree the coeden was made from, they may bear fruit or flowers during some parts of the year. It is not uncommon for them to have birds, insects, or even small mammals living in their boughs.
Leaves in the Wind
A coeden is created for a specific purpose, but is also possessed of free will and can exercise it by rejecting their responsibility. Few coeden do, but many consider it. Either way, a coeden becomes purposeless eventually, once they complete their task or elect to ignore it. At this point, some return to the forest and plant themselves in the ground, returning to a peaceful life as a tree. Others decide to wander the world, or to integrate into the societies they encounter. While coeden are rare, many can claim to have seen one at some point, seeking adventure now that they are free to engage with the world as they wish. A coeden on the road is sometimes regarded as good luck, but more often it simply means something interesting is nearby.
Leafbrained
Most young coeden are fully intelligent and capable, but woefully inexperienced with the outside world. Even older, more traveled coeden regularly run into people, ideas, or situations that are wholly novel and strange to them. You can roll on the Coeden Quirks table, or choose a result manually, to determine a unique aspect of your thought process.
Coeden Quirks
| d6 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | So you have to keep putting stuff in your mouth? Every day? Or else you die? That sounds annoying. Here would you like to try a leaf? |
| 2 | I'm patient, sometimes to a fault. People seem to get confused when my solution to most problems is just to wait until the problem passes. |
| 3 | I don't mind if people are mean to me, I take solace in the fact that I will absorb them through my roots someday. |
| 4 | I'm never lonely. I carry 3 sparrows, 21 beetles, a beautiful lizard, a family of chipmunks, and sometimes a spider with me everywhere I go. |
| 5 | I almost never speak, but my friends know what I'm thinking from changes in the movement of my branches or the color of my leaves and flowers. |
| 6 | I love the way flesh people decorate their bodies and hair. I've started hanging ribbons from my branches, and painting pretty designs on my bark. |
Coeden Names
Most often, a coeden won't be given a name by the being that created them, only their task. They may adopt part of this instruction into a sort of callsign so that humanoids can refer to them. Just as often, the other races they spend time around will give them a name, sometimes based on the kind of tree they were made from. Similarly, coeden have no innate concept of gender, and can be pollinated and make seeds like a normal tree, though these will not automatically produce more coeden. If it seems prudent, a coeden may adopt a gender, and over time some will develop a firmer identity.
Coeden Names. Cultivate, Encourage, Eradicate, Examine, Expel, Herald, Illuminate, Invade, Investigate, Maintain, Neutralize, Nourish, Nurture, Obstruct, Oppose, Overthrow, Pacify, Plead, Pulverize, Punish, Purify, Rebuild, Reclaim, Reconquer, Recover, Resolve, Right, Save, Scrutinize, Seek, Smash, Teach, Terminate, Thrash, Thwart, Uncover, Undermine, Uproot, Usurp, Veil, Verify, Visit, Wander, Warn, Watch, Welcome, Witness, Wrangle.
Coeden Traits
Your coeden character has the following racial traits.
Creature Type. You are a Plant.
Size. Your size is Medium or Small. You select the size when you choose this race.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Deep Roots. If you are standing on solid ground, you can expend 15 feet of movement on your turn to root yourself. You remain rooted until you are incapacitated, until you are no longer standing on solid ground, or until you expend 15 feet of movement to uproot yourself. While rooted, you cannot be moved or knocked prone, and your speed is 0 and can't increase. This does not prevent you from being magically teleported or shunted out of a space, or from being moved by effects that also move the ground you are standing on.
You can finish a long rest in 6 hours if you spend that time in an inactive, motionless state while rooted in the earth. You retain consciousness in this state. You cannot take a long rest this way if there is no earth to connect to, such as on the deck of a ship.
Natural Armor. You are covered in thick, tough bark that weathers attacks as easily as rain. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 16 (your Dexterity modifier doesn't affect this number). You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Photosynthetic. You draw your strength from the invigorating power of the sun. For every hour you spend in direct sunlight, you regain a number of hit points equal to half your level (minimum of 1). If you gain this benefit, you have resistance to necrotic damage for the next 24 hours. While you have this resistance, you do not need to eat or breathe.
Woodwhisperer. You ignore difficult terrain made of nonmagical plants or overgrowth. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence Plants and vegitation, and they can understand the meaning of your words. They can communicate simple ideas to you through subtle movements or the release of pheromones.
Optional Coeden Feat
If your DM allows the use of feats from chapter 6 of the Player's Handbook, your coeden character has access to the following special feat.
Vineweaver
Prerequisite: Coeden
You've honed the art of shaping your branches into usable forms. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have advantage on Intelligence (Nature) and Wisdom (Survival) checks that involve plants.
- Over the course of one minute, you can fashion one of the following items by growing and removing the item from your body: a shield, a club, a greatclub, a quarterstaff, a javelin, a spear, 1d4 darts or blowgun needles, 1d4 arrows or crossbow bolts, a whip, a net, a grappling hook, 50 feet of hempen rope, or a torch. The items wither away 24 hours after being created. You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of once) and regain all expended uses after finishing a long rest. While you have no uses remaining, you can expend one Hit Die to use this feature again.
Coeden Race v2.1 for D&D 5e
Created by: u/NotTheDreadPirateArtist Credit: Jeffrey Oyem - Guardian of the Forest