Court of Stars: The Prince of Frost

[Kobold Avenger]

I really liked this article, it was the best written one to come out today.

The fey have received the best improvement in this edition of D&D, and the Prince of Frost article was a very inspiring and creative article. I'd say that this one is 10 times better than that uninspiring article on Mual-Tar. There's plenty of story possibilities and plenty of hooks in this article.

It almost makes me want to have a campaign about the machinations of the fey courts.

 

[Jack99]

Total nerd-gasm with awesomesauce and cherries on top. (I liked it a lot too)

 

[arscott]

Flavor-wise excellent (Written by Keith Baker, so that's par for the course). Tale of tragedy that's perfect for a BBEG fey villian. I'm already inspired to submit my own Court of Stars pitch.

From a mechanical standpoint, the Sisters of Lament are handled particularly well:

The sisters of lament are two banshee-like henchmen of the Prince of Frost. They're presented as a Level 24 elite soldier and striker, so they make a great encounter on their own.

However, to go along with the Prince of Frost (A level 31 solo), they also present level 30 minion versions of the sisters with distilled versions of their elite-incarnation powers, a new power they can use in tandem, and a mechanism that allows them to respawn while the Prince of Frost is still alive. This seems like a great mechanism for Big Boss plus Minions.

 

[Nightson]

Overall it was wonderful.

Two nitpicks, first the two pieces of art on the prince are totally inconsistent, barely in the same ballpark inconsistent, secondly the Prince's statblock refrences something that doesn't exist "cold wrath"

Also, this article totally wrecks total havok on the flavor I was using for the feywild which had a lot of conflict between the summer and winter fey, and the article even said that only young and foolish fey fight like this! Of course by the laws on the internet, I now have a vendetta against Keith Baker. For my next campaign I shall blow up Eberron.

 

[Starfox]

And the triumph of cold continues...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Good article.

secondly the Prince's statblock refrences something that doesn't exist "cold wrath"

Yes, I noticed that, too.

Also, this article totally wrecks total havok on the flavor I was using for the feywild which had a lot of conflict between the summer and winter fey, and the article even said that only young and foolish fey fight like this! Of course by the laws on the internet, I now have a vendetta against Keith Baker. For my next campaign I shall blow up Eberron.

It might have been too obvious to go the Winter vs Summer route.

But I greatly appreciate the Drama.

---

There seem also be hints about what the "highlight role-playing features of D&D 4" might be:
1) The ways to affect the prince with a song or showing an amulet.
2) The "true love" experience can help you against the princes allies.
3) Access to a Paragon Path and feat only if you are a Fey Warlock of a specific pact - a pact with the Prince of Winter - that has certain extra story prerequisites.

Comments on that?


PS: Oh, and the Wintertouched feat - though it's not explicitly mentioned, IIRC - seems to give every character with it a connection to the "Wintertouched" allies of the Prince. Of course, that's only implied and not a "rule" per se...

 

[hong]

Oh mang, the rogue and ranger in our game are totally screwed if they come against him. Wintertouched + Lasting Frost, both of them. I can hear the cries of anguish already.

 

[Klaus]

What I loved most were the new mechanics for feylocks. They have been needing some love for a while.

 

[Hawke]

Best fluff article I've seen so far! This totally jarred the direction my campaign is taking...

Interestingly enough a big plot idea has a warrior (elf ranger) in the party who left a far off land after an evil Eladrin came into his village and killed the "princess." The ranger set off north to track him and kill him...

This works perfectly! Perhaps they are the reincarnates and the evil eladrin didn't really kill her, but used a frost dagger that froze her body such that she appeared dead. Very cool... could really work well as they find the dagger on the evil eladrin that leads them to the prince of frost... and eventually finding out.

Could also work well for the current E1 setup - setup an "alliance" between Orcus and The Prince of Frost to usurp the raven queen and add a whole secondary aspect to that plotline so it doesn't feel so "orcus orcus orcus orcus orcus"

 

[Nymrohd]

I think feylocks can really get a lot fluffier powers by tying their pacts more directly to the archfey and other powers of the feywild (can you picture a lock with a pact with Baba Yaga? ) This does article does a good job at that (though I wouldn't mind a few more powers). As for the general fluff Keith has yet to disappoint me.