Detect Fey

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Detect Fey
Divination
Level: Drd 1, Rgr 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell functions like detect animals or plants, except that it detects the presence of fey creatures.

 

[Starglim]

You'd generally want to detect fey either as a threat, or to ask favours of them (along the lines of the old Call Woodland Beings ).

Maybe detect undead would be a better model for the first use, with a circular emanation area because fey are fast-moving and tricky, and a separate higher-level spell would answer the second requirement.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This spell was actually invented by the NPC who discovered the Fairygold spell (literally discovered it in a ruin). He wants this spell to locate grig settlements so he can capture them en masse and turn them into gold.

 

[Afrodyte]

A source you may want to use, if you don't already have it, is Bastion Press' Faeries sourcebook. It's really cool for incorporating various things involving the fey. There are a lot of spells that you can pluck from there to flesh out the NPC as a faery gold hunter.

 

[Sigurd]

I think Fey are much more illusive than plants, animals or even undead.

Rather than detecting their presense I think you should limit a spell to tracking them by fairy dust.

flavour:

Fey have inherent dimension traveling abilities that makes it extreamly difficult to track their exact presence or numbers. Never entirely in our dimension they flit away from detection fields and magical spells designed to ensnare them.

Yet the presence of dust from the fey realms can be detected for. Wherever fairy travel they leave some quantity of fairy or 'pixie dust'. This dust lasts only the length of a lunar cycle on our plane. It is completely erased by the light of the new moon. The proper apparatus or spells might detect this dust and give an imprecise indication of how many fey frequent a location.


Sigurd


The game possibilities for this approach are that once the fairies realise they are being tracked they can perhaps fool the tracker or lead them into a trap. Apparatus can be broken etc.... You might make it necessary to have something from fey realms as the basis for tracking apparatus - anything impregnated with fairy dust.

 

[Thia Halmades]

This is as much a factor of how Fey work in your world (i.e., I'm a big proponent of VRG: Shadowfey, which is totally different) and how accessible you want them to be to outsiders. At the very least, you want to give the Fae a saving throw against being discovered, and possibly a series of saves based on the level of knowledge aquired per stage of the spell, with different Fey having a better/lesser chance of avoiding detection.

Fey don't work the way other base types do, especially in my campaign. Trying to track a Sidhe would be near impossible, as Fey tend to come and go as they please, and have a series of complex advantages over mortals. Weaker (not necessarily smaller, not necessarily bigger) Fae may be easier to track because they won't be able to resist the spell as easily. Remember that finding the aura, and determining the strength of that aura, are two different things.

LCpt. Thia Halmades

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This spell is meant to work with the MM-default fey, but I can see the merit of your arguments. Maybe the ability for spell resistance to work would do it, since stronger fey would be more likely to have it, while simple fey like petals or grigs would be less likely to have it.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

The Spirit Shaman from Complete Divine has a Detect Spirits ability (feys are considered spirits) which is modeled after Detect Undead.

AR

 

[Thia Halmades]

Whizbang Dustyboots: that's essentially what I'm saying. I'm all about making sure that your campaign works the way you want it too, without confusing the people playing it. Depending on which books you have access too, Altamont Ravenard also makes an excellent point in regards to something I was saying earlier: Detect Undead is a great foundation for this type of spell. In addition, you can add on the Fae's SR and/or grant them a saving throw against it.

Another case where Heighten Metamagick would make a huge difference in the caster's ability to track and identify the target. Mm. Heighten Metamagick. Possibly the most underutilized and misunderstood Meta feat in the game.

LCpt. Thia Halmades.