Doric

Doric was a druid and a member of the Emerald Enclave based in the Neverwinter Wood in the late 15 century DR. Born to human parents, Doric spent much of her life living among a community of elves of the North, before embarking on a series of adventures that would take her to the lands south of Waterdeep, to the city of Neverwinter, and even the perilous Underdark.

"And I'll stay. The problem is bigger an our part of the forest. If you hide away, that's fine. I can be the emissary between you and the outside world. If we solve the issue out there, it'll protect you here."

- Doric, serving her people as a druid of the Emerald Enclave.

Description
Doric had red hair, horns, pointed ears, and a tail. She typically dressed in green-and-brown leather armor, pants, boots, and a traveler's cloak.

Personality
"So you make plans that fail?"

- Doric to Edgin.

She was described as honorable, but she kept an emotional distance to protect herself from other people and her own powers. While Doric was sometimes curt, and ever the stoic, she put great value in those friends who took the time to truly earn her trust.

Possessions
Doric was bequeathed a set of vambraces, and a book of druidic lore, that once belonged to the wood elf druid Sunmuir.

For a time she carried a bow, but was not very skilled in its use. She later acquired a slingshot, which she mounted on her left vambrace.

Relationships
Doric was born to human parents, and had one biological sister who was also human. Doric's parents locked her away in the attic after her sister was born.

Among the wood elves, Doric became fast friends with an older elven girl named Torrieth. The duo went on hunts together, and developed a strong bond over the years.

Doric made several friends among her fellow initiates at the Emerald Enclave, including the human boy Leander, a black-haired girl named Cassa, and her closest comrade, the firbolg Jowenys. She formed a close bond with Enclave group's only other tiefling, Open, who served as the camp cook.

Abilities
"I...I wild shaped into one. That's how I got it to follow me. It followed another owlbear."

- Doric, explaining her powers to Open.

With a druid's wild shape ability, Doric could shapeshift into a variety of creatures, such as a horse and even a snowy owlbear. Though this was unusual, she could do this because she believed owlbears not to be monstrosities but natural creatures, after she observed them in their lairs and caring for their chicks. Her training in the Circle of the Moon allowed her to better tap into her more primal nature.

As a tiefling, Doric had natural resistance to flames and other forms of intense heat. Similarly, she could eat all types of "food" that was entirely inedible by most humanoids, including coal, tree bark, and even ash. Any person or creature that harmed Doric would potentially become engulfed in flames.

At any time, Doric could cast the following spells animal messenger, beast sense, speak with animals; twice per day she could cast cure wounds, entangle, faerie fire, and thunderwave.

Early Life
Doric was born a tiefling to human parents in a village on the Sword Coast, south of Neverwinter Wood. But her parents shunned her for her demonic heritage, even to the point of locking her in the attic of their house. At the age of six, when her parents sired a second, entirely human child, Doric became increasingly bothered by their favoritism for her sibling. When Doric finally came face-to-face with her sibling, her parents drugged her and took her into Neverwinter Wood and abandoned her, thinking she would die there.

Even at such a young age, Doric learned to fend for herself in the forest, foraging and hunting small game. It was there that she met her guardian nature spirit, a forest-dwelling snow owl. One day, a great storm wracked the Neverwinter Wood, and Doric was swept up in a raging current. Fortunately, Doric was rescued by her future, elven guardian, Liavaris. Liavaris and her fellow wood elves offered Doric a home in their village. She found an adopted family and friends among them. However, her tiefling traits and growing druidic powers still set her apart from the wood elves and rangers of the village.

From Elves to the Enclave
"You do have a keen understanding of animals and an empathy for them that goes beyond what rangers feel. I think, and Fenjor agrees, that you should train as a druid."

- Liavaris, to Doric.

One day, Doric went with Torrieth and other elven rangers on a hunt in Neverwinter Wood. After the group had successfully caught one deer, Torrieth and Doric were attacked by a bear. In a moment that surprised both friends, Doric rapidly developed an empathetic bond with the bear, and calmed it down enough that it left them in peace.

Liavaris and other senior elves thought it bast that Doric was trained in the ways of the druid. She visited a glade that housed some belongings of the elven clan's previous druid―Liavaris' aunt Sunmuir―and prepared for a journey south to the Ardeep Forest, to meet with representatives of the Emerald Enclave. Doric, Torrieth, and the ranger Fenjor traveled south, stopping in the town of Helm's Hold, before the aspiring druid split off from her friends. During her travels, Doric met a young sorcerer named Simon, and helped a village with their problematic well. She finished the last leg of her journey asea, aboard a small skiff that sailed south past Waterdeep.

Training With the Enclave
When Doric arrived at the Ardeep, she immediately impressed the druids of the Enclave, and earned herself a place among a class of initiates. Together they learned wilderness survivor skills—of which Doric was already quite proficient—combat training, and began to tap into the primal magic of druidism. Doric learned she was quite advanced at transforming into animals, an ability known commonly as wild shape, and took on the form of a mighty bear, the same beast whom she had bonded with some weeks prior. Though she advanced as a druid and in her powers, Doric faced conflict with fellow initiates and her own beliefs.

There was a call to action among all the Enclave druids when heard reports of a large wildfire raging through the Ardeep. Doric and other druids that were naturally protected from flames made their way to a forest village that was in the way of the fire's path. She and her fellow student Leander did their best to save some of the townspeople, but encountered a terrified and enraged owlbear. The fearsome monster killed the young Leander, and Doric was forced to take action. Combining the bear form she had previously taken, along with that of her snow owl nature spirit, Doric wild shaped into a snowy owl bear herself, and managed to truly empathize with the monstrous creature whose home was imperiled.

Doric was troubled by the encounter but remained dedicated to helping the druids in their continuing mission to maintain the balance of nature and civilization.

Return to Neverwinter
Shortly after the vigil for Leander, Doric received a letter from her elven family in the Neverwinter Wood. They requested aid from Doric and other elves of the Enclave, to help turn away the growing logging operations that sprang up on the outskirts of the forest. The new Lord of Neverwinter, Forge Fitzwilliam, painted the wood elves as enemies of the city. Having abandoned sensible logging practices, he dispatched loggers who cut ever deeper into the woods.

Doric and Jowenys made their way north, traveling across land, by sea, and even via portal, to reach the wood elf village in the Neverwinter Wood. Doric received a warm welcome from her adoptive family, and quickly set out to scout the logging camps with elven rangers. Rather than merely scout, the druids and rangers harassed, harried, and disrupted the human logging camps. Doric even managed to save the glade that was home to her owl nature spirit guide, and meet it one more time.

Doric returned to her home amongst the elves, and celebrated their victory with both her family and her new friends in the Enclave. Having learned so much of the world beyond the elves, Doric felt she had one more quest to complete, albeit one alone: to return to the house of her biological parents, for one last glimpse of the home she had left so long ago.



Adventuring Life
After Doric returned to Neverwinter Wood to fight against Lord Fitzwilliam's loggers and soldiers, one of the forest's wood elves was captured by Neverwintan soldiers. Just as the soldiers threatened to quarter the elf, Doric transformed from the form of a soldier's horse, into her owlbear form. She handily defeated the soldiers and rescued the imperiled wood elf.

During the encounter, she met Edgin Darvis, Holga Kilgore, and reunited with Simon. The trio recruited Doric to aid them in their quest to steal Forge Fitzwilliam's fortune from Castle Never. She agreed to help in order to save her people, though she doubted their capabilities.

Background
Doric is played by actor Sophia Lillis. She was confirmed to be a druid via a promotional video played at the San Diego Comic-Con 2022's Tavern Experience and to be a tiefling by Christopher Perkins and Todd Kenreck in an official Dungeons & Dragons video discussion on the movie trailer, here. The name was also reported as 'Dorig', apparently after being misheard.

In early drafts, Doric was to have pointed canine teeth, but these were later removed. Nevertheless, a set of false teeth was made for Lillis and sent to her after production was complete. She said, "Which I have not touched. I don't know what to do with it."

While druids traditionally cannot wild shape into owlbears in D&D rules, this was considered and included by writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley on the basis of "Rule of Cool". The Druid's Call provided an explanation for Doric's ability, perhaps due to her unique perspective.

Appearances

 * Film & Television
 * Honor Among Thieves
 * Novels
 * The Druid's Call • The Junior Novelization • The Quest Begins • Heroes Unite!