Homebrew Races: Nymph

Nymph Subrace: Alseid

Touched with the golden light of the sun, alseids inhabit meadows, plains, and lands of cultivated natural beauty. Many live in closer proximity to human civilization than other nymphs. Farmers are grateful for the presence of alseids on their lands and often leave them offerings of mead, honey, flowers, and dates in return for protecting their flocks and making their crops more abundant.
Alseid Ancestry. You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide while it is in grasslands, and you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks in grassland regions. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the speak with animals spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a short or long rest. Starting at 7th level, you can cast the plant growth spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a short or long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Nymph Subrace: Dryad

Dryads are associated with the forests and trees. Travelers entering a forest might catch a glimpse of a feminine form flitting through the trees. They look like beautiful humans but with rough, bark-like skin that ranges in color from earthy browns and greens to flowery pinks and blues. Of all the nymphs, they have the most trouble adapting to civilization, as they do not cope well with being separated from their birth tree. A dryad can emerge from the tree and travel the lands around it, but the tree remains her home and roots her to the world. As long as the tree remains healthy and unharmed, the dryad stays forever youthful and alluring. If the tree is harmed, she suffers. If the tree is ever destroyed, the dryad descends into madness.
Reclusive Fey. Dryads act as guardians of their woodland demesnes. Shy and reclusive, they watch interlopers from the trees. A dryad struck by the beauty of a stranger might investigate more closely, perhaps even try to lure the individual away to be charmed. Dryads work with other sylvan creatures to defend their forests. Unicorns, treants, and satyrs live alongside them, in addition to druids that share the dryads’ devotion to the woods they call home.
Dryad Ancestry. You are fluent in the languages of beasts and plants, and you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks in forested regions. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the entangle spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a short or long rest. Starting at 7th level, you can cast the speak with plants spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a short or long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Nymph Subrace: Naiad

Naiads live in and near water. They might be spotted among rivers and lakes, on isolated shores, or amid coral labyrinths and deep sea fumaroles. They look like beautiful humans but with long hair that coils and tumbles like a flowing waterfall from their shoulders. They adapt to civilization easily, as many mortal settlements are built along rivers. Wherever rivers and seas show their variety and force, naiads gather to revel in nature's might. Individual naiads often grow fixated with a single type or body of water, potentially preferring a deep sea trench, coastline, or river system above all others. Over time, such a resident nymph often becomes connected with their aquatic home through sightings and stories, becoming a guardian of the place and, in effect, a manifestation of its personality.
Aquatic Collectors. Curious by nature, naiads often seek out what the seas and rivers claim. As a result, they might be found among sunken ruins and shipwrecks, sifting through the remains for whatever catches their eye. Living creatures aren't exempt from this curiosity, either. Naiads are known to befriend aquatic creatures, or even to keep modest menageries. The occasional star-crossed castaway has even been known to become part of such collections.
Secret Routes of the Sea. Sailors across the world claim that naiads know all the secret aquatic routes of Theros. Using this hidden system of currents and arteries, a ship might reach any destination in record time, be it across the sea or along a river a hundred miles inland. Naiads do nothing to dissuade sailors from this belief, and certainly numerous reports tell of charmed nymphs leading lost seafarers home. Yet, if tales of naiad-led galleys appearing amid the headwaters of mountain rivers are true, only the nymphs know for sure.
Naiad Ancestry. You can breathe underwater, and you have a swimming speed of 40 ft. Starting at 3rd level, you may cast the create or destroy water spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a short or long rest. Starting at 7th level, you can cast the wall of water spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a short or long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Nymph Subrace: Oread

Aggressive oreads number among the most dangerous nymphs, as they embody the wild might of flames, volcanism, and the hidden forces of the earth. These creatures are associated with rocky crags and volcanoes, where they caper among the forces of dissolution and rebirth. They look like beautiful humans but with cat-shaped eyes. During avalanches and volcanic eruptions, groups of oreads might race ahead of the destruction, dancing, singing, and doing what they can to maximize the impending devastation. Oreads are fierce hunters, and they are known to stalk rural areas in search of interesting prey. Any hunter who can live for weeks in the wild and come away looking fresh as a flower might be an oread.
Honor Among Fey. Hearkening back to some ages-old conflict, oreads refuse to knowingly destroy any land inhabited by another nymph. While they won't work to alter the natural course of destruction, neither will they make another nymph's home part of any calamity they encourage. As a result, part of what makes an alseid's field or a dryad's grove seem so blessed is that oreads go out of their way to leave such sites alone.
Tales of Fire. The followers of Purphoros regard oreads with special reverence, as myths tell of cagey smiths befriending these nymphs and convincing them to aid in creating phenomenal works. In some tales, a smith finds an oread and allows it to relish in the destruction of a novel or remarkable item. In recompense, the oread provides the smith with materials drawn from the burning heart of the world, allowing the smith to create an even greater wonder. In more tales, though, a smith pursues an oread, then later the mortal's associates find familiar tools and a heap of ashes.
Oread Ancestry. You have Darkvision out to 60 ft., and you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks in steppes, rocky islands, and mountainous regions. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the hunter’s mark spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a short or long rest. Starting at 7th level, you can cast the erupting earth spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a short or long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Nymph Traits

Nymphs have the following traits.
Ability Score Increase. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
Age. Nymphs are born cocooned within some feature of their associated element. For example, dryads are usually born within trees, and nereids may be born within giant clamshells. Young nymphs sleep in their cocoon for up to one hundred years before emerging, fully mature. They can live for as long as one thousand years, although many choose to return to the elements once their curiosity about the world has been satisfied.
Alignment. Nymphs tend toward chaotic alignments. They understand the concepts of good and evil, but they tend to select one or the other based on impulse rather than any deep-seated conviction. Nymphs tend to make a game out of performing acts that characterize their chosen alignment, rather than pausing for serious introspection.
Size. Nymphs are the same size as humans, but their builds typically reflect a life of leisure. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.
Enthralling Beauty. You possess unearthly grace and beauty, which allows you to dazzle and charm those who are susceptible to such things. You have proficiency in the Persuasion skill. Additionally, you can cast the charm person spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a short or long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Nymph Ancestry. When you create your nymph, choose one of the following subraces: Alseid, Dryad, Naiad, or Oread. You gain access to special traits and magic depending upon your ancestry.

Nymphs are nyxborn elemental nature spirits created by the Gods to protect the natural world. They represent all aspects of the wild, the land, and the sea, and as such their race is as varied as the elements they signify. Some are more powerful than others, but all are a force to be reckoned with when angered. Divine servants that inhabit unspoiled corners of the world, nymphs protect places of natural power and infuse their surroundings with the magic of Nyx. Some are benevolent and aid those who live off the land, while others embody violent aspects of nature. In either case, nymphs generally avoid other sapient creatures, preferring to mind the cycles of nature, the daily interplay of wild animals, or other cosmic forces. Occasionally though, groups of the same kind of nymphs congregate in a place of natural power or beauty. In times of special need, deities tied to facets of nature might employ nymphs as messengers, guardians of scouts.

Beautiful and Diverse

Nymphs are famed for their feminine charms, but they are not exclusively female. Some are awakened from the lements with a mix of masculine and feminine features, and others are quintessential specimens of male splendor. As fey creatures, nymphs like little less than to be nailed down by the crude shackles of mortal language. They come in as many shapes and forms as the earth itself. The only physical trait that all of them have in common is an awe-inspiring beauty.

Curious and Possessive

Nymphs have an insatiable desire to learn as much as possible about both the natural and the civilized world. Because most have had eons to discover the splendor of nature, it is the civilized world that interests them the most. However, they are not usually very accustomed to mortal culture, and so they may think of men and women as interesting baubles to be collected and admired. Even civilized nymphs tend to cherish their friends and acquaintances as ‘pets’ to be manicured and proudly exhibited. They are not above bragging about their collection—or fighting with one another over their favorites.

Nymph Names

Nymphs have names that sound beautiful and elemental.
Male Names: Celano, Elion, Eratheis, Hyllis, Limnade, Linos, Myrmex, Olbia, Pega, Potameid, Pyron, Taygete
Female Names: Aegle, Alcyone, Arethusa, Asterope, Brettia, Brisa, Calybe, Crinae, Crimisa, Dodone, Electra, Erythia, Hesperia, Himalia, Oeneis, Laodice, Maia, Merope, Polydora, Rhene, Semestra