How to use Pixies & Satyrs?

[Oryan77]

I plan to throw a dozen Pixies at the PC's in a "random" encounter in the woods. The PC's will come across a shrine in the middle of a pool in a clearing of the woods. That's where the Pixies will come out and play with them. What would be some good pranks for pixies to play on PC's? I have a few in mind but I thought I could get more ideas here.

Also, how can you use Satyrs in interesting ways? I want the PC's to come across a Satyr in the woods playing his pipes and thought about having him seduce the female PC. But what are some more interesting things you can do with Satyrs?

 

[Tinner]

Can you give us a little more info?
What level are your PC's?
What is the party makeup.

One tactic I always use for pixies, is to play them like the Knights of Ni! from Monty Python's Holy Grail.
The pixies use their powers to send the PC's on a variety of annoying, unpleasant quests. Usually the pixies use the "big folk" to accomplish some task their small size would make more difficult.
I also ALWAYS rip off the pixies voices from Willow.
Nothing is more fun than shrikeing in a faux French accent "I stole zee babyyyyyyy!"

Satyrs on the other hand tend to be a LOT darker in my games. Probably because I'm a big fan of the oWoD game Changling.
Satyr's aren't just jolly goat men who frolic in the woods.
These guys are primal forces of nature. Kind of like cavemen with the personality of The Joker.
My satyrs tend to interact with PC's by following the 4-F rules.

When encountering new people (ie. the PC's) Satyrs will attempt the following:
1. FOOD? - Is this new encounter food? Can we eat them? Odds are they won't try to just eat your PC's, but a group of cannibal satyrs would be pretty gruesome.
2. FIGHT? - Is this new encounter dangerous? Should I try to kill/drive off these people? Are they invading our turf and disrespecting nature? If so, it's time for some combat.
3. FORNICATE? - Can the satyrs breed with any of these people? New baby satyrs and half-fey are always welcome in the faerie courts. Satyrs have long been considered an embodiment of lust. If there's a chance to have their way with the PC's they'll try it.
4. FLEE! - If the encounter cannot be eaten or mated with, and is too powerful to fight, then the only solution is to run from it.

This gives satyrs a VERY primative, almost reptilian mindset, but I like the creepy vide it gives them. YMMV.

 

[painandgreed]

I plan to throw a dozen Pixies at the PC's in a "random" encounter in the woods. The PC's will come across a shrine in the middle of a pool in a clearing of the woods. That's where the Pixies will come out and play with them. What would be some good pranks for pixies to play on PC's? I have a few in mind but I thought I could get more ideas here.

I would have the pixies do something that would entertain them, say convince the party to help them with monstes that are troubleing them. Then the pixies would run off and use their polymorph self ability to play those monsters. With a DR of 10 and invisiblity and light if they need it to flee, they're pretty safe in this "boffer LARP" they're setting the party up to play. The one real trouble would be spell casters and perhaps they begin the "adventure" by kidnapping the spellcasters. At the end adfter the party had been beaten and given the illusion of being killed (via the pixies illusion powers), all the players end up together unharmed, and the pixies announce "It was only a game", reward the party for being good sports, and then fly off. Probalby wouldn't work for high level party unless you gave the pixies levels also.

 

[Burrahobbit]

Pixies can be a good bit of fun before the PCs know they're there, or at least what they are:

- Replacing their rations with live eels and a recipe for eel casserole; especially fun in the middle of the trackless wilderness. (This ol' "bait and switch," (pun intended) can be used also with weapons...imagine the PC's surprise when he wakes to find that his +3 Flaming Longsword has been replaced with a trout).

- Polymorphing into duplicates of the PCs and striking up a conversation.

- Booming Voices (combined with illusions, if necessary) pretending to be dragons, giants, the PC cleric's god, etc.

And Otto's Irresistable Dance is too annoying *not* to use.

What kind of pranks are you looking for? Just stuff to give the pixies (and you, and possibly the bighearted among the players) a laugh? Or do the pixies have another motivation? Also, although pixies can be as wacky as you want them to be, you also might want to bear in mind your players' tolerance for this sort of thing - I'm hesitant to use pixies in my game because I know that everyone else would get tired of them a lot earlier than I would...

And I agree with Tinner about the voices.

 

[Hypersmurf]

There was a pixie encounter in the Book of Lairs for 1E that did something similar, from memory... I think they'd constructed giant footprints here and there in the forest, and use illusions to scare the PCs into thinking there was an angry titan of some sort wandering about.

-Hyp.

 

[Oryan77]

Can you give us a little more info?
What level are your PC's?
What is the party makeup.

All PC's are 7th lvl
Female Half-Elf Sorceress
Dwarf Monk
Aasimar Cleric
Half-Giant Fighter

Sorry I didn't mention that before.

 

[Oryan77]

What kind of pranks are you looking for? Just stuff to give the pixies (and you, and possibly the bighearted among the players) a laugh?

Yeah, just some fun pranks to give everyone a laugh but also to make them scoot on out of the area before it gets out of hand. I like the suggestions so far, I'm going to use a couple of them.

The Satyr is still the one I'm having the most trouble coming up with ideas for.

 

[Banshee16]

I plan to throw a dozen Pixies at the PC's in a "random" encounter in the woods. The PC's will come across a shrine in the middle of a pool in a clearing of the woods. That's where the Pixies will come out and play with them. What would be some good pranks for pixies to play on PC's? I have a few in mind but I thought I could get more ideas here.

Also, how can you use Satyrs in interesting ways? I want the PC's to come across a Satyr in the woods playing his pipes and thought about having him seduce the female PC. But what are some more interesting things you can do with Satyrs?

There was an old Dragon article about half-satyrs and half-dragons. In it, they talked about other challenges....not only could a satyr seduce a female PC, leading to the other PCs chasing him around trying to rescue her, but he could also sing them to sleep with his pipes, then steal everything but their clothing. When they wake up, he refuses to give their stuff back unless they do a quest for him.

Alternatively, a satyr can challenge one of the male PCs for the right to "woo" one of the female PCs. He might not understand that the male PC doesn't own her.....so a wrestling match with a satyr ranger and one of the PCs..

Stuff like that..

Banshee

 

[godawful]

I plan to throw a dozen Pixies at the PC's in a "random" encounter in the woods. The PC's will come across a shrine in the middle of a pool in a clearing of the woods. That's where the Pixies will come out and play with them. What would be some good pranks for pixies to play on PC's? I have a few in mind but I thought I could get more ideas here.

Also, how can you use Satyrs in interesting ways? I want the PC's to come across a Satyr in the woods playing his pipes and thought about having him seduce the female PC. But what are some more interesting things you can do with Satyrs?

Atomic wedgies from some invisible source...(Special attack:Wedgie: -2 to attack rolls until remedied, dexterety check (DC15) to successfully remove the wedgie every round, may be assisted at +4 to the roll, -4 to AC while in the process of remedying the wedgie, -4 to charisma when dealing with others until remedied, move at -10 feet movement. Atomic Wedgie: same as above, 1d4 hps of damage to the delicate area, blinded until underwear is removed from eyes (as above) movement at -10 feet for 1 to 2 hours afterward)

grab their weapons (while invisible) from out of their sheathes and start flailing around like they have been animated and are going to attack... maybe run off into the woods into a nasty encounter where the pixies throw all the gear at the feet of the baddies!! maybe nothing too strong, just something annoying to kill while they have your good gear...

If the party and you have a sense of humor, all those little flirty woodland creatures can be fun to play. make sure you have a crossdressing treant there who wants a hillgiant sized bra or something. the satyr cracked his panpipes trying to break his record of 25 nymphs at once and he needs some new ones.

 

[Thomas Percy]

Pixies are good as rangers, wardens of the fairy forest.
Satyrs are natural born jesters.