Feywild, fey as major powers in D&D: good thing?

[Crothian]

D&D has never really had a good version of the Fey. And while I like many of the mechanical changes to the game for the new edition it just doesn't make me feel that the fey will be well done in it either. D&D has always treated the fey like any other monster: something to be killed. And that's just not what the fey are.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I dunno, they seem to make a pretty clear distinction in the W&M book between simply amoral Fey and those like the Fomorians who are truly monstrous and thus enemies.

 

[FourthBear]

Even as enemies, they don't resonate with me like human(-oid) villains, the undead, fiends, dragons, abominations, snake-men....hmmm, pretty much any kind of foe beats out the fey with me, I guess. However, if the Feywild is worked well into the default setting and we get some decent adventures and campaigns for it, I might give the fey a spin. I'm hoping that they give them a more interesting default society and behavior. I've seen occasional adventures with scary fey in 2e and 3e, but can't say I thought much of them, either. If they give them a good niche in the cosmology, I may add them to my next homebrew. If not, it's not like it will be any different than any previous edition of D&D for me.

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

As written, fey have never been worth much in D&D. It surprises me, to be honest, that Gygax didn't draw more heavily on the mythological source, instead going for the mischievious yet light-hearted fey of popular culture.

Anyway, the new fey are one of the most exciting things about the new edition. They were already improving towards the end of 3.5, and it looks like the trend will continue.

 

[Cyronax]

At first. The later stuff like the verdant prince I think was great, and hopefully an indication of the direction they're taking things.

I believe I read somewhere official that verdant princes (of some conversion) would be in 4e. Maybe its 4e's attempt at a templated classed out evil eladrin? I don't know.

Anyway, I agree from a past campaign: verdant princes rock. They are in the top tier of interesting and complex fey, and they became a significant edition to my campaign setting, which strangely preempted much of 4e's cosmology due to my chucking of the Great Wheel for only a few planes (including Faerie, the Far Realm, Limbo (as the uber elemental plane/elemental chaos), and Ethereal (with demiplanes for the various gods of my world's pantheon).

I got many of those inspirations from variants in Manual of the Planes (3.), which leads me to believe that they were thinking the variants were better over five years ago at WotC. (thread jack over).

C.I.D.

 

[ThirdWizard]

After having read Summer Knight of the Dresden series of books, I was really looking forward to giving fey in my D&D game a makeover. Then I read World and Monsters this weekend, and it looks like WotC beat me to it!

 

[ferratus]

D&D has always treated the fey like any other monster: something to be killed. And that's just not what the fey are.

Yep, they are much more "OH DEAR GOD KILL IT, KILL IT NOW! PLEASE DON'T WEAR MY SKIN, I'M STILL ALIVE!" *sob*

 

[I'm A Banana]

Feycon

Feycon?

Isn't that fake bacon?

(but otherwise yes)

 

[frankthedm]

As written, fey have never been worth much in D&D. It surprises me, to be honest, that Gygax didn't draw more heavily on the mythological source, instead going for the mischievious yet light-hearted fey of popular culture.

From the looks of 1E MM , it seems the fey in that book were part of the counterbalance to the rest of the Evil critters.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I am much more stoked about the inclusion of the Feywild, which seems much more interesting than the old "ooh, everything is kind of foggy and such" Ethereal plane which needed a book of it´s own to become interesting (and mostly in regions like the Deep Ethereal, where many people never went).

And nasty fey = win, in my book.