I
Immortal Sun
Guest
Which are intended for what, levels 1-10 I think?
How to Make the Fey Less Twee
Which are intended for what, levels 1-10 I think?
I'm not even sure myself, yet. Basically, my line of thinking was "So, they like Ravenloft--the gothic trappings, the tragedy, the angst. And they play a lot of druids. Fey could be sort of gothy and nature-y at the same time. And fey don't get used much in adventures, so it would be something out of the ordinary."
As I said above these people LOVE Ravenloft. I don't think I want them to run screaming from fey. I'd just like to be able to present fey and have them get the same kind of respect my players would give, say, a vampire. Something that could hurt them, that they'd want to be careful around, but also, something that has dignity, so they wouldn't just make a joke out of it. And absolutely not childish or cute.
As I grope toward a picture of what I want, I'm thinking maybe ... so, like a psychological vampire? Something that could hurt you mentally/emotionally, in the way a vampire could hurt you physically? But not just a simple suck-your-brains-out threat like a mindflayer.
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MechaTarrasque
Hero
Ambiance goes a long way. If you think your players will recognize the theme from the Godfather, I will give it a play right before the head fey shows up. A little bit of Brando in the head fey's voice (maybe with dialogue involving the PC's being....reasonable, and there being....consequences if they aren't) should get the message across without you having to do much "in game."
I would start with a simple rule: Nothing smaller than Medium-size. Small monsters get no respect.
Beyond that... themes of mind control and illusion are very common in fey legend. Fey can wipe your memories, twist your emotions, make you see things that aren't there and not see things that are, and erase your entire personality to turn you into a simple beast. I could envision an evil fey empire, with brainwashed, adoring humans waiting hand and foot on cruel elvish masters.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
wyrdly enough I just noticed that the EnSider Villain Spotlight Granny Buccus is very much this, although they're using a succubus as their base, she is presented as the 'old crone' - so very much a Fey
indeed Hags are my favourite Fey and I recommend using them as well as taking other creatures (like Emotion Vampires and Succubi) and re-coating them as Fey too
The nicer scary fey of legends did things like ruin families with changelings or keep mortals in Underhill for a night of revelry that actually lasts a century or two, returning them to a world that has utterly forgotten them beyond being a cautionary tale. Everything they had is lost across an abyss of time. Kind of a conceptual precursor to the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who fame.
That’s hard to translate into a credible threat against a PC, but it could be the basis for an adventure.
More direct threats might be fey that treat humans as mere meat puppets, conscious but unable to control their actions. Consider
Substitute “fey” for “gods”, and you have callous creatures forcing others to be gladiatorial combatants.
In The Magicians TV series, the fey queen took a character’s eye and could thus sense what the maimed person sensed. What is it like to have NO secrets from a powerful caster?
I
Immortal Sun
Guest
I would then suggest looking more towards the fae courts. These parallel many of the same elements that people find appealing and frightening about classic vampires. There's an air of nobility that acts as justification for the cruel behaviour the fae oh-so-often perpetrate. Where there's a very real danger that the fae may up and kill you for simply not knowing the proper greeting, or turn you into a frog for a decade because you made a joke about not being able to dance. Depending on your lore, the fae are often (like many vampires) vain beyond belief and minor physical imperfections (like a zit) can be seen as horrific disfigurement and cause for death.
In D&D terms, the Drow are quite possibly the most fae of all the "mortal" elves and look at the sort of society they have. Aside from being tied to the seasons instead of Lolth and matriarchy not being a requirement, much of the fae courts looks like a blue/orange "chotic evil" society.
I think it's interesting that you mention mind flayers as a "simple suck-your-brains-out threat", since they too like the fae have a sort of blue/orange "chaotic evil" system. They're literal aliens. Their organizational structure, much less their motivations, are difficult to pin down making them feel "chaotic" when it's really more that we mere humans have difficulty comprehending their thought process.
Thanks! I do subscribe to En5ider, and noticed that article in passing. I'll have to read it in detail.
Here's another example of the sort of fey that started me thinking along these lines:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/205276/Mizzerene-the-Black-Rose
Good idea. Are Emotion Vampires written up in detail anywhere?
That makes a lot of sense, at least for fey the group is expected to interact with.
It's possible that I've never played in a game that used mindflayers up to their full potential. In my experience, they are not treated as social encounters, just "Kill them before they suck your brains out!" monsters.
I
Immortal Sun
Guest
I would say that they are most often presented as "murderous alien monsters" rather than a more horror-inclined "thing that goes bump in the night". In the latter they're quire good, I had one DM capable of running them well. I'm certainly not very good at it.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I take it you haven't seen the tooth fairies in Hellboy 2?
There is little creepier than hordes of tiny creatures. They can come though windows, crawl under locked doors, emerge from fireplaces and ventilation ducts, you kill one and there are a dozen more right behind it...
Here is one I made earlier:
SWARM OF IRIDESCENT BUTTERFEY
Medium swarm of Tiny Fey, Chaotic Neutral
________________________________________
Armor Class 15 (dexterity)
Hit Points 22 (5d8)
Speed fly 60 ft.
________________________________________
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
3 (−4) 20 (+5) 10 (+0) 6 (−2) 14 (+2) 20 (+5)
________________________________________
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses blindsight 10 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Sylvan
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
Magic Resistance. The swarm has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Blur. Any creature attacking the swarm that relies on sight and can’t see through illusions has disadvantage on attack rolls when attacking the swarm.
________________________________________
Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny insect. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
ACTIONS
Hypnotic Pattern (concentration, 1 minute). Anyone within a 30’ cube centred on the swarm must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed, incapacitated and have a movement speed reduced to 0. The spell ends if the affected creature takes any damage other than from the attacks of the swarm, or if someone uses an action to shake them out of their stupor.
Digestive Juices. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target in the swarm’s space.
[FONT="&]Hit:[/FONT][FONT="&]4d6 acid damage, or 2d6 acid damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.[/FONT]
These tiny fey resemble regular butterflies with wings that flash with all the colours of the spectrum. On close examination, they can be seen to have large dragonfly-like compound eyes, and their mouthparts are more like those of a housefly. They can rarely speak, but can communicate in a high pitched chirping version of Sylvan. They flit through the woods and forests of the Feywild, generally staying well above ground level. They are carnivorous, and if any potential prey come within reach, such as by flying or climbing a tree, hundreds will quickly swarm around it, hypnotising it with the flashing patterns of their wings. They then vomit their acidic digestive juices over it an suck up the liquified flesh with their proboscis.
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