Lion's Tactical Guide to the Hamadryad

Hamadryads are what happens when a dryad’s tree is destroyed or becomes corrupted somehow, causing those who don’t die as a result to wither into a hamadryad over the course of several months. Their transformation is rather horrific, to say the least; they quite literally have no mouths, yet must scream as they take out the immense rage they feel over the loss of their home on any non-fey creatures they come across. They have similar ability scores to dryads, although their Dexterity and Constitution are higher while their Charisma is lower, likely due to their much less appealing physical appearance. They also have the same Magic Resistance, Speak With Beasts and Plants, and Tree Stride traits. Finally, their innate spellcasting abilities are similar: hamadryads gain the ability to innately cast Grasping Vine once per day and lose the ability to innately cast Druidcraft, Goodberry, or Shillelagh, but otherwise have the same spells available to them as an ordinary dryad does. One advantage that the hamadryad’s innate spellcasting abilities hold in comparison to ordinary dryads is that, where ordinary dryads still need to utilize verbal and somatic components, hamadryads’ spells don’t require any components, allowing them to disguise their spellcasting to an extent.

Whereas a dryad utilizes magic and trickery to defend themselves, hamadryads utilize magic and trickery to tear any non-fey they come across apart. Between their Stealth proficiency and their ability to innately cast Pass Without Trace once per day, standard ambush tactics would seem to be the most effective choice for the hamadryad to make when approaching potential targets. Of course, the flavor text makes it a point to note that hamadryads are no longer entirely rational due to their affliction, so another strategy they could utilize would be to cast Barkskin on themselves before combat breaks out, then running at their enemies with claws flailing wildly. Regardless, once they get into combat, they focus their ire upon one target at a time, attacking with two claw attacks that deal a dagger’s worth of piercing damage and considerably more poison damage on top of that. In order to ensure maximum maneuverability, they prioritize targets who are adjacent to Large trees and make sure to position themselves in such a way that they can use Tree Stride to teleport between trees as a pseudo-Disengage. Although they could easily use this ability to flee when they are reduced to 12 hit points or less, between their erratic behavior and the nightmarish reality of their existence, I believe it’s more likely that they would fight to the death purely out of a latent desire for it to finally end.