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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010254" data-attributes="member: 1129">So what can you expect when you buy Faeries?  Well, pretty much everything involving Faeries in the campaign.Want new races?  Check.  You've got stuff like the half-fey, and the deep fey.  One thing that stands out here is that Bastion didn't follow the standards in race creation.  For example, many races have a +1 modifier instead of +2.  One race that stands out, the Faeries, have variable physical characteristics which determine what their ECL is.  Comfortable playing something really powerful?  Take poisoned fangs, gossamer wings and retractable claws with some spell like abilities pilled on top of that.  Since you're still a first level character in terms of hit points though, it's best not to go too overboard.New classes and feats are also covered in the first chapter.  We get those who hunt the fae, as well as those who hunt the hunters, Faerie Hunter and Mortal Slayer, as well as PrCs designed to fill the niche of the Fey races like Knight of the Fey, the protectors if you will, to Fey Prankster.  All of the classes are ten level PrCs and provide the GM with numerous opportunities to augment his campaign by designing specific challenges to his players.    The section on feats are Fey in nature.  Insight of the Fey grants the user a bonus to resist illusion spells while making any illusion spells that user cast harder to resist.  To add a touch of flavor to your familiar, take Improved Familiar to grant it the fey-born template.  Some of the feats may be underpowered though.  For example, Concentrate Spell, reduces the area of effect by 25% but doubles the effect of the spell.  Good but uses up a spell three levels higher.  Empower, a standard feat, provides a 50% bonus at a two level cost with no power reduction.         One thing I was glad to see expanded upon here are the prestige races.  These are optional abilities you buy with experience points that provide different benefits and have different prerequisites.  They were introduced in Oathbound and were so neat that Dragon included some in Dragon #304.  There are seven new foci here, ranging from Focus of the Beast to Focus of the Hordes.  The use of these prestige races will have to be something the GM decides on before allowing them as they change the nature of the character.  Take Bland Creature, it costs 1,400 xp and provides a +5 bonus to Disguise checks and a +2 bonus to Bluff checks.  Not overpowered in and of itself, but it's always there and doesn't require any activation and aren't lost with level loss.In contrast to the setting and the player focused crunch, the Lore of Faerie is short.  You get some ideas on how the Fey think and act, what motivates them and how they compare with standard mortals in terms of aging and sleep.  The material is sufficient enough to let players not playing Fey characters know what types of behavior to engage in when meeting said creatures and the GM enough material to know how the Fey should react in many cases.The World of Faerie however, gets numerous locations and NPCs detailed.  A two page full color interior spread shows the Faerie Lands and labels each section.  It's a lush illustration but one without any real depth to it.  You're not going to see specific locations or up close visuals, but the overhead view is a nice point of reference.  In addition to the physical locations, you get numerous side bars of importance.  How about options to replace the Astral Realm with the land of the Fey?  How about the calendar of the Fey or how time flows?  How about the use of Gates and Doorways to move about or how distance in general is handled in this strange land?  All covered.Most will be more interested in seeing the write ups for the lands various rulers.  Why is that?  Could it be because they are archetypes that most people should be familiar with?  How about the Green Man, Baba Yaga or Queen Titania and King Oberon?  The lands start off with a brief description, a stat block that includes Distance (a Fey land notation), Regional Seat, Regent, Prominent Features, Seasons, Legends & Lore broken up into different DC checks, and the NPCs of the area.  There's so much material to cover here that none of it gets up close and personal but does provide a nice overview of the lands and their rulers.  Perhaps if the book does well enough well see a future supplement like Old Man Winter's Court eh?The last chapter closes out with the Magic of Faerie and includes new spells, domains and magic items.  One interesting facet unrelated to any specific magic item or spell though, is the concept of true names.  I'm a big fan of the Black Company and their use of Names to overcome powerful spellcasters of that setting so always enjoy seeing how someone does a take on True Names.  If the user can get a true name into a spell, it means that the target has a much higher chance of being effected by the spell in question.  Rules provided enable the Gm to use this little idea as an adventure seed to find out creatures true names or to discover one's own true name.Because of the Fey vulnerability to magic, several spells have an Iron type to them like Iron Cloud and Iron Shower, or protection against Iron like Greater Iron Ward and Iron Blight.  It's a nice compare and contrast that follows along the line of providing material to hurt the Fey with as well as protect them.One of the larger sections in the magic items write ups are the Charms.  Broken up into minor, medium, and major types, charms provide different bonuses based on the type.  For example, an Owl grants bonuses to wisdom while a Clover grants bonuses to attack rolls and reflex saves.The Creature Appendix includes Doorway Guardians, Faerie Dragons and Fey Steeds in addition to Jabberworks, Satyrs and templates like Fey-Born, Half-Fey, High Fey and Shadow Born.  These monsters run the range of CR 2 for the Faerie Dragon to 15  for the Greater Jabberwock.Faeries slips up a little in the layout department.  There were at least two occasions, on page 54, page 57, when the text is covered by the wrap points of a nearby object.  Editing is pretty good with only one error of no space between he and has on page 72.  The header font is also difficult to read sometimes.  Capital S looks like G for example.  The art is good, but I question the user of the art.  There are many creatures from the Fey world that are familiar to almost any reader ranging from Jack Frost to Father Time and not to see illustrations of them when there are full page illustrations elsewhere in the book is a little strange.  In addition, the power level of the Fey NPC's may not be what the GM is looking for at all.  Sure, they're powerful, some of them in the CR 20 + range, but some may want them to be some form of demi-god at the very least.  The stats of the NPCs are strange too.  For example, despite the fact that they're using material in the book, the prestige race abilities and the new races, their CR's are not changed to reflect this, nor are their stats, which indicate to the GM that they have to be changed to account for the prestige races.For those looking for a book on the Fey and weren't satiated with Guardians of the Wild from Dragon #304, this book is a blessing.  It has lots of character oriented crunch including prestige classes, new races, feats, spells and magic items even as it presents a setting with numerous NPCs and opportunities for adventure.</blockquote>

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