JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Keith Baker turns his talents to presenting new Fey encounters for any fantasy d20 game.
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Lions Den Press: The Iconic Bestiary -- Classic Fey
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JoeGKushner
Adventurer
A bestiary of a different sort.
The Iconic Bestiary: Classic Fey
Written by Keith Baker
Published by Lion’s Den Press/Ronin Arts
32 b & w pages
Fey are a strange lot in most D&D campaigns. While not heavily supported, they do have some material on them. For example Avalanche Press, Bastion Press, and Dragon magazine, have all supported Fey in d20 terms in one way or another. But for such a wide and broad subject, that’s hardly touching the icing on the cake.
Classic Fey doesn’t jump right into monster statistics. Instead, it starts off with a few things to consider when preparing to use Fey creatures as a game master. For example, as these creatures are often immortal, how does that color the way Fey see humans? I recall an old Mayfair product, Dragons, that did a good job of mentioning how dragon’s perceive time differently from humans and that most of them couldn’t understand the human’s ways and how they always seemed so rushed. These are good notes that should be read by a new GM and might even inspire some ideas in more experienced ones.
After that, the book starts in on the monsters. Each monster starts off with its name and description, centered in the middle of the page, followed by a more standard two-column format for the monster statistics. After the game mechanics, the text follows with background details, combat information, a “what do you know” section that provides characters with information on the monster based on a DC check, and adventure ideas. The format is easy to read. There are no borders, making this product printer friendly. The print seems a little large, making it easy on the eyes, good use of white space.
The skill checks are a nice touch and remind me a little of how Wizards of the Coast has been using them in their products as of late. They range from DC 10 to DC 15. In addition to providing a little knowledge, some of these DC checks also include some game benefits. For example, looking at the sheeries’. These creatures are known evil spirits and if you make a DC knowledge nature check of 25, you get a +2 bonus to save against the sheeries’ confusing touch and haunting images. This reflects the knowledge base that the character knows that these creatures tend to use misdirection and magic to hinder those in their areas.
The adventure seeds aren’t up to the level that Wizards has been doing of late with miniature maps and fleshed out monster statistics. Rather, these are a paragraph or so in bullet pointed lists that can help you get the creatures into the game.
In terms of bookmarks, all eight monsters have a separate bookmark. There’s also one for the introduction, the section on curses, marriage, and feats. It makes navigating the book a snap.
The bad thing is the art. It’s not that the art is bad, it’s just that there are only two pieces, the cover piece, an illustration of a skogsnufvar, a female fey known as the wood woman or wood wife, and the leshy. Having art for only two monsters in a monster book doesn’t sit well with me as monsters tend to be a very ‘visual’ thing for me. In addition, it’s one of the few spots where I usually find that PDF’s suffer in comparison to print products. It’s always nice when you can whip out an illustration of a monster when a player asks the dreaded question, “what does it look like?”
One thing that bothers me about the formatting of the book, is that in keeping it’s format simple and making good use of white space, it doesn’t separate the monsters so they run together. Not a big deal but in a PDF product, you’d think that it wouldn’t be a big deal to insure that each monster started off on it’s own page. My last complaint in terms of formatting, is lack of a listing of CR’s. Now it’s a small product, so again, it’s a minor complaint.
Beanshide: 0
Quite Folk: 2
Sheerie: 4
Skogsnufva: 7
Deep Mermaid: 10
Deep Mermain: 12
Leshy: 16
Dullahan: 18
One of my favorites of the book is the leshy is a high-end creature (CR 16) that is a lord of the forest. When looking at it, I immediately began to wonder how I could combine this forest master with say the treants from Goodman Game’s Complete Guide to Treants. One of the nice things about the leshy, is that they don’t have a set alignment. Those that are good protect the forest and the inhabitants within it. Those evil leshy use the forest to tear down intruders. One of the nice things about the stat block here, is that the author went the extra mile and put in variant stat blocks for when the creature uses it’s alter form ability. We have stats for the creature from fine to colossal. This saves the GM time in using the creature in any of its sizes.
In addition to the monsters, we also have some options for making Fey curses unique, as well as game mechanics for Fey that have “a true marriage” between Fey and mortal. Of more interest to some like myself, are the new Fey feats. These allow a Fey to move beyond it’s initial game mechanics and move in different directions. For example, Craftsman’s Blessing allows the Fey creature to create items in only one quarter of the time with a +5 insight bonus on all craft’s checks. Anyone up for some little shoe making elves? The feats are a nice touch and help the Gm decide what role the Fey will play in his campaign.
The product does what it sets out to do in providing the GM with more alternatives than the core rules provide. I wouldn’t mind seeing some expansions to this with some of the more classic Fey lords given Keith’s interpretation and who knows, perhaps if this one sells enough, we’ll see exactly that!
The Iconic Bestiary: Classic Fey
Written by Keith Baker
Published by Lion’s Den Press/Ronin Arts
32 b & w pages
Fey are a strange lot in most D&D campaigns. While not heavily supported, they do have some material on them. For example Avalanche Press, Bastion Press, and Dragon magazine, have all supported Fey in d20 terms in one way or another. But for such a wide and broad subject, that’s hardly touching the icing on the cake.
Classic Fey doesn’t jump right into monster statistics. Instead, it starts off with a few things to consider when preparing to use Fey creatures as a game master. For example, as these creatures are often immortal, how does that color the way Fey see humans? I recall an old Mayfair product, Dragons, that did a good job of mentioning how dragon’s perceive time differently from humans and that most of them couldn’t understand the human’s ways and how they always seemed so rushed. These are good notes that should be read by a new GM and might even inspire some ideas in more experienced ones.
After that, the book starts in on the monsters. Each monster starts off with its name and description, centered in the middle of the page, followed by a more standard two-column format for the monster statistics. After the game mechanics, the text follows with background details, combat information, a “what do you know” section that provides characters with information on the monster based on a DC check, and adventure ideas. The format is easy to read. There are no borders, making this product printer friendly. The print seems a little large, making it easy on the eyes, good use of white space.
The skill checks are a nice touch and remind me a little of how Wizards of the Coast has been using them in their products as of late. They range from DC 10 to DC 15. In addition to providing a little knowledge, some of these DC checks also include some game benefits. For example, looking at the sheeries’. These creatures are known evil spirits and if you make a DC knowledge nature check of 25, you get a +2 bonus to save against the sheeries’ confusing touch and haunting images. This reflects the knowledge base that the character knows that these creatures tend to use misdirection and magic to hinder those in their areas.
The adventure seeds aren’t up to the level that Wizards has been doing of late with miniature maps and fleshed out monster statistics. Rather, these are a paragraph or so in bullet pointed lists that can help you get the creatures into the game.
In terms of bookmarks, all eight monsters have a separate bookmark. There’s also one for the introduction, the section on curses, marriage, and feats. It makes navigating the book a snap.
The bad thing is the art. It’s not that the art is bad, it’s just that there are only two pieces, the cover piece, an illustration of a skogsnufvar, a female fey known as the wood woman or wood wife, and the leshy. Having art for only two monsters in a monster book doesn’t sit well with me as monsters tend to be a very ‘visual’ thing for me. In addition, it’s one of the few spots where I usually find that PDF’s suffer in comparison to print products. It’s always nice when you can whip out an illustration of a monster when a player asks the dreaded question, “what does it look like?”
One thing that bothers me about the formatting of the book, is that in keeping it’s format simple and making good use of white space, it doesn’t separate the monsters so they run together. Not a big deal but in a PDF product, you’d think that it wouldn’t be a big deal to insure that each monster started off on it’s own page. My last complaint in terms of formatting, is lack of a listing of CR’s. Now it’s a small product, so again, it’s a minor complaint.
Beanshide: 0
Quite Folk: 2
Sheerie: 4
Skogsnufva: 7
Deep Mermaid: 10
Deep Mermain: 12
Leshy: 16
Dullahan: 18
One of my favorites of the book is the leshy is a high-end creature (CR 16) that is a lord of the forest. When looking at it, I immediately began to wonder how I could combine this forest master with say the treants from Goodman Game’s Complete Guide to Treants. One of the nice things about the leshy, is that they don’t have a set alignment. Those that are good protect the forest and the inhabitants within it. Those evil leshy use the forest to tear down intruders. One of the nice things about the stat block here, is that the author went the extra mile and put in variant stat blocks for when the creature uses it’s alter form ability. We have stats for the creature from fine to colossal. This saves the GM time in using the creature in any of its sizes.
In addition to the monsters, we also have some options for making Fey curses unique, as well as game mechanics for Fey that have “a true marriage” between Fey and mortal. Of more interest to some like myself, are the new Fey feats. These allow a Fey to move beyond it’s initial game mechanics and move in different directions. For example, Craftsman’s Blessing allows the Fey creature to create items in only one quarter of the time with a +5 insight bonus on all craft’s checks. Anyone up for some little shoe making elves? The feats are a nice touch and help the Gm decide what role the Fey will play in his campaign.
The product does what it sets out to do in providing the GM with more alternatives than the core rules provide. I wouldn’t mind seeing some expansions to this with some of the more classic Fey lords given Keith’s interpretation and who knows, perhaps if this one sells enough, we’ll see exactly that!
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