Fey Lore

[RSKennan]

In response to RSKennan, thanks for the link! The book looks excellent and from the way it sounds it's an excellent resource to have. Are the prestige classes only for creatures with the fey type or can they be taken by player characters?

Sorry, didn't notice this before...

It largely depends on if the GM allows fey PCs, but one PrC is specifically intended for non-fey: The Twilight Warlock. He gets access to Fey magics, and some other benefits. The book is written with Fey campaigns in mind- using either PC or NPC fey. I'd personally run a campaign where everything in the book was available to PCs.

 

[Sigurd]

Fey have their own agenda

Unlike many of the plane creatures fey have definate hooks into the prime material plane. They see their untouched woodlands dissapearing and their magic groves stepped on. On many worlds Fey would have reason to be bitter and vengeful. Some of the summoned outsiders really want little to do with the prime material -- not the fey.

I recently created a list of "feytouched" feats for a campaign that has lots of fey activity. Mechanically, they work the same as FR's Regional Feats or OA's Ancestor Feats; they're more powerful than a standard feat, but you can only take one, and you can only take it when you're creating your character.

Many of these are hugely powerful. I'd balance them with.

"Fey touched must swear a lifelong loyalty to the Fey court and promise to do its bidding in all things. If a Fey Touched character is summoned to the court he must immediately travel back with the messanger or risk losing his fey powers forever - and making a powerful enemy."

 

[carpedavid]

Many of these are hugely powerful. I'd balance them with.

"Fey touched must swear a lifelong loyalty to the Fey court and promise to do its bidding in all things. If a Fey Touched character is summoned to the court he must immediately travel back with the messanger or risk losing his fey powers forever - and making a powerful enemy."

By definition, they are more powerful than normal feats. With FR's regional feats, WotC made a concious decision to reward players who chose to ground themselves in the campaign world. These feats were designed with the same intent. Overall, they should be at about the same power level as a "regional" or "ancestor" feat (about 1 1/2 feats worth of power), and are useful for representing the presence of fairy blood in a character's linneage in a world with heavy interaction between mortals and fey.

In a world where the DM doesn't want "a little bit of magic in everybody," then, yes, they would need to be balanced with something like what you've suggested above. Alternately, if you wanted a character to be able to take more than one feytouched feat, or to be able to take one at a time other than character creation, creating a balacing factor of some sort would be neccessary.

 

[Raven Crowking]

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[DM_Fiery_Fist]

Raven,

Having read through your faerie encounters thread, I must bow down to the presence of a master. You've given me tons of inspiration for my next few games. I saw the mention of your article in En World Gamer and I wondered what had become of it. I'll eagerly anticipate seeing it in the faerie encounters thread. Did I read somewhere that there was also an article on faerie rings, or am I imagining things?

 

[Banshee16]

I wrote a book called "The Complete Guide to Fey" for Goodman Games. I'm usually pretty hard on my own stuff but I like how this one turned out. Last I knew it was at the printer. It should be coming out soon.

The CG to Fey presents a set of rules for creating new fey (which can be used for reconstructing the MM Fey almost flawlessly-to within an ability point or two) but more importantly it allows you to adapt fey from any source you like and have the mechanics work.

It's not all crunch- there's tons of flavor- it answers all the common questions about what it is to be Fey, what their minds are like, what their motivations are and why, etc etc, etc. All through the book are adventure hooks.

There's really enough material here to run a Fey-centered or Fey-only campaign. In such a campaign, the book would be nearly as useful to the players as the GM. I really think it's going to be a hit. As the Donald would say, "This is gonna be 'uge."

I think it manages to be both 100% D&D, and yet do service to the traditional stories of the Fey.

I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging, but I'm proud of how this book turned out.

Here's a link:

http://www.goodman-games.com/3009preview.php

I'm interested in this book myself. Been waiting ever since I saw it on the site a few months ago. Hopefully it allows the full range of Faeries to be incorporated...pixies, pooks, redcaps, sprites, the wild hunt, the white ladies, etc.

Admittedly, the Faeries book by Bastion Press was pretty good, but it had its holes. Can you give any more description of what the the Complete Guide to Fey covers?

It is a light, whimsical take on the faerie folk? or does it allow the dark side of faerie to be protrayed as well? One of my favorite novels on the topic has always been Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist, followed by War of Flowers, by Tad Williams.

Banshee

 

[RSKennan]

I'm interested in this book myself. Been waiting ever since I saw it on the site a few months ago. Hopefully it allows the full range of Faeries to be incorporated...pixies, pooks, redcaps, sprites, the wild hunt, the white ladies, etc.

Admittedly, the Faeries book by Bastion Press was pretty good, but it had its holes. Can you give any more description of what the the Complete Guide to Fey covers?

It is a light, whimsical take on the faerie folk? or does it allow the dark side of faerie to be protrayed as well? One of my favorite novels on the topic has always been Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist, followed by War of Flowers, by Tad Williams.

Banshee

I'm in a bit of a hurry, but everything you mention here can be accomplished with the book. There is a light and dark side to the fey, and each host of fey has its own style.

I don't know about the Bastion book, but this book isn't a monster manual, it's a toolkit.

You can do everything from the tooth fairy and Peter Pan to Oberon and Titania, to queen Mab and Arthurian fantasy, or anything else. I think it would work very well to achieve the same flavor as the d20 Grimm game that came out a while back, or for any number of fey-focused campaigns.

 

[Arkhandus]

Devas, xian (also spelled hsien), orisha, kami, angels and demons, spirits (not ghosts), and minor deities all have bear a striking resemblance to what you'd come across with Celtic faeries. They are like us but distinctly Other for one main reason: magic. For instance, the Olympian gods. Mount Olympus resembles a faerie court more than it does a vortex of cosmic powers. Another example: anime demons. In a lot of cases, when I hear the word "demon" on English translations of anime, it sounds like a misnomer because the creatures seem very similar to fey. Wicked City's creatures from the Black World and Inuyasha's demons are two well-known examples of this.

The japanese word Yokai, commonly mis-translated as Demon is actually supposed to translate as Apparition or Spirit; a few anime series shown in America like Yu-Yu Hakusho got the translation right. Mononoke is another word for Yokai, they both describe a wide variety of spirit creatures such as the demonic oni, capricious tengu, vile kappa, mischevious kitsune, and jolly tanuki/mujina.

RSKennan: I'd definitely look into picking up your Complete Guide to Fey, looks like it'll be a good resource. :^D

 

[Raven Crowking]

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[Raven Crowking]

Faerie Article Up

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