Fey of the Month #1: Winter Shade

[Krishnath]

Well, in an odd fit of inspiration, I decided to start up a new regular feature on this board from yours truly. Fey of the Month!

Now, this is the first of what will (hopefully) become a regular feature... So please, tell me what you think.

Well, enough babbling from me, on to the creature...

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Winter Shade
Medium-Size Fey (Cold)
Hit Dice: 5d6 (17 hp)
Initiative: +7 (+3 Dex, Improved Initiative)
Speed: 30'
AC: 13 (+3 Dex)
Attacks: Freezing Touch +2 melee, spell +2 touch melee, spell +5 touch ranged
Damage: Freezing Touch 1d6 cold plus Slow.
Face/Reach: 5' by 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Freezing Touch, Spell-Like Abilities,
Special Qualities: Cold Subtype, SR: 16, Planeshift,
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +8, Will +7
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 15, Wis 14, Cha 17
Skills: Hide +9, Knowledge (Arcana) +8, Knowledge (the Planes) +8, Listen +10 (+2), Move Silently +9, Perform (Dance, Song, Flute, Poetry, Ode) +7, Search +8, Spot +10 (+2), Wilderness Lore +8,
Feats: Ability Focus (Freezing Touch), Alertness, Improved Initiative, Quicken Spell-like Ability,

Climate/Terrain: Any cold land
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually Chaotic Neutral
Advancement: By character class

The Winter Shade, also sometimes called a snow nymph, is a type of fey that is exceedingly rare.
The Winter Shade looks much like a fragile elf with elongated features. Their skin is incredibly pale, and their hair is always white (unless the fey choses to color it). A Winter Shade has pale blue or green eyes. They always dress in white.
They can usually be seen during the winter months, dancing and playing gleefully among the snow. It is relatively unknown what their diet consists of, but sages belive it is a combination of winter berries and snow.
Winter Shades speak Sylvan, Gnome, and Elven in clear and almost crystalline voices.

Combat:
Winter Shades shun combat, and will usually attempt to flee or hide to avoid combat. If pressed they will attempt to use their spell-like abilities to defeat their attackers as quickly as possible, fleeing at the first oppertunity.
Freezing Touch (Su): Winter Shades are incredibly cold to the touch, dealing 1d6 points of cold damage to whomever touches them, with no save allowed, unless the creature is immune to cold damage or has the cold subtype. Creatures damaged in this way must also make a fortitude save (DC: 17) or be Slowed for 1d4+1 rounds.
Spell-like Abilities: 3/day - Ray of Frost; 1/day - Charm Person, Pass Without Trace, Sleet Storm, and Speak with Animals; These are as the spells cast by a 5th level sorcerer (Save DC: 13 plus spell level.)
Spell Resistance (Su): Winter Shades has spell resistance equal to 16+ their class level.
Planeshift (Sp): Once per day the Winter Shade and up to six persons in contact with the Winter Shade may enter the Fey Realm or the Paraelemental Plane of Cold as a standard action.

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I hope you like it

Later,

 

[Knight Otu]

Looks good!

Edit: AAARGH! I did not hit submit reply! I only hit enter for a new line! But this ######## browser....

Err.. sorry. I just wanted to add that the CR might be 3. At least I would put it at that.

 

[Krishnath]

Thank you, anyone else have comments?

 

[Clay_More]

Looks good, even though I agree on the CR. Players of low level might try to catch some Winter Shades to get them to transport them to a plane where they need to go, making for interesting sub-adventures (even harder if they instead try to convince the Winter Shades to help them, since Chaotic-Neutral creatures are the hardest to bargain with in my opinion). I like the slowing effect of their cold touch, makes me think of WC3 for some reason .

 

[Krishnath]

Ah, but the Pc's might get more than they bargained for as both the Fey Realm (plane of faerie) and the paraelemental plane of cold are quite lethal to non-natives...

I'm glad you like it...

So, should I make this a regular feature?

 

[Clay_More]

By all means, do. I would prefer some interesting Fey more than Slivers, but thats mainly because my campaign is a little bit low-level (i only had out 50% xp).

 

[Krishnath]

Well not all my fey will be small and relatively weak. I have planned on making one that is large and has a CR of about 10 or so... And I had another planned racking up a CR in the 20's. But the next one is allready finished, it only has a CR of 2 or 3 (can't remember at the moment, and I'm to lazy to look.)

Only 50% Exp huh, then the players will probably end up with a lot of treasure...

So, what level (roughly) are the PC's at the moment, and what classes?

 

[Clay_More]

There are four level 4 characters and one level 5.

I got one elven lvl 1 Sorcerer/lvl 3 monk (which is also my most munchkiny player)
One 5 th. level human wizard, a big fan of illusions without actually being an illusionist. He is actually the most diplomatic of the group, really using illusions to solve problems (I always liked it when he made an illusion on-top of another players sleeping character, making it look as if though that player wasn't there. From a good hiding spot, he awakened another player by creating a bushy-rustling sound. The player woke up and saw that another player was missing. He heard someone talking out in the woods and move to see what was happening. There, the wizard had created an illusion of the missing player talking to an orc, discussing an ambush in which the player would betray his friends. The player looked in amazement as their rogue obviously wanted to have some orcs help him betray them. He ran back to camp and told the other players about it. The next morning, the illusionistic wizard at one time created an illusion of a group of orcs comming rushing down the side of a road. The players first action was to slay the rogue, thereby ridding the wizard of an enemy)
The there's the obligatory 4 th. level fighter, a 4 th. level half-orc cleric and a 2 th. level rogue / 2 level fighter.

I generally save alot on the magic items and treasure too, so the game becomes a bit more slow-advancing than the normal D&D game.

 

[Krishnath]

Well, don't be to harsh on the rewards, but I suggest giving the players alternate rewards once in a while (pieces of land, estates, deeds, titles, reputation, and other such things. Including the wandering bard writing a song about their heroism, or lack thereof.)

By the way, want to know how I was inspired to create the winter shade?

 

[Clay_More]

Well, I sometimes give them odd rewards that are a bit specific. The best reward I have ever given, that the players really loved, was when they stepped through a wish-gate. It didn't allow them to make any specific wishes, instead I chose a benefit for them that fitted their personalities and character. My wizard player, that had a non-magical staff he had used fifteen minutes to explain, a quarterstaff with a head shaped like a ice dragon. I made his staff magical, so that it could use it's dragon's head to cast a cone of cold once a week. My rogue/fighter gained the ability to see through polymorph, even that of natural polymorphs (his family had been killed by shapeshifters and he had been hunting them ever since). My half-orc cleric gained the ability to change self twice a day (since he had always complained about how humans always disliked him and tried to cheat him, thinking him dumb). The change self only allowed him to change into a human. My monk/sorcerer was healed of a terrible curse inflicted on him by a lich, a curse that made him unable of hiding. The fighter didn't want to go through the gate, since he is suspicious of magic, which I actually consider good roleplaying (since he heard that the others had gained beneficial things). Im thinking of something to reward him later for that roleplaying, perhaps an XP bonus.

Tell me, by all means, how you got the idea. Its a cool critter