D&D 5E New Unearthed Arcana: Folk of the Feywild!

Wander into the magical realm of the Feywild with our latest Unearthed Arcana: Folk of the Feywild!

Your character can be a member of one of the new D&D races: fairy, hobgoblin of the Feywild, owlfolk, or rabbitfolk. Which will you choose?

Playtest now:

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[iltharanos]

Oh, I forgot about those avens. Aerie Mystics is an owlfolk, for one, though. Still, those races are often just bird-folk; often as not they look like eagles as owls. Warden of Evos Isle is an owl on the right, but I think that's an eagle on the left. Simiarly Aerie Mystics are owls, but Aven Trailblazers are eagles.

I've read White Plume Mountain, and the other Greyhawk Classics that finish the story of Escalla and Justicar. Without spoiling anything, I think the size of Escalla was due to her eventual role in the story more than the canon of the lore. Either way, I don't discount the idea that pixies or sprites are smaller than this race, nor argue that the MM is comprehensive. I'm just saying that, based on the artistic depictions on cards, faeries in MTG are closer to the 1 foot mark than the 3 foot mark. Brazen Borrower from Throne of Eldraine certainly doesn't look that big, though the vast number of faerie cards don't have a very good frame of reference.

Yeah, they definitely vary the heads of the aven. In Amonkhet you had a lot of ibis-headed aven, so basically bird people like you said, with the variations likely for thematic and artistic reasons.

For sure with faeries vs. pixies in the Escalla storyline. Like others have already pointed out the real reason they probably statted fairies as bigger than pixies and sprites is so they could keep them small size and not have to deal with tiny size characters.

I always wonder how anthro settings handle food. Like, do Fox people eat Rabbit people?

It's the Pluto and Goofy problem all over again, lol!

 

[Remathilis]

Disappointed they still dont provide for Tiny sized PCs

Or a Large sized one

It really comes down to reach and equipment. Weapons for large races do extra damage, while tiny-sized weapons do 1 point of damage (rarely, 1d4). Further, mundane gear is sized for mediums (and occasionally smalls) so rules for large/tiny armor, clothes, backpacks, etc. Lastly, the reach on large creatures OAs makes them superior in combat.

While it would make a lot of sense to have large minotaurs and tiny fairies, the game really isn't set up well to handle them.

 

[Charlaquin]

I always wonder how anthro settings handle food. Like, do Fox people eat Rabbit people?

It varies. Many of these settings have regular animals as well as anthropomorphic ones, and in such settings it's usually considered socially acceptable to eat the former, and not the latter. If there are non-anthropomorphic counterparts to the various anthro-folk, it is sometimes considered taboo to eat non-anthro animals that have an anthro counterpart, but not always.

In settings where all animals are anthropomorphic, it's almost always the case that predators either eat prey, or historically ate prey, but social advancement has rendered it unnecessary. In the former case, the stories tend to focus on prey protagonists surviving in a harsh world where predators are functionally monsters. I've observed that these stories also tend to go lighter on the anthropomorphization, essentially treating the characters as animals that talk. Good examples of this type of story include The Secret of NIMH and Redwall. In the latter case, the stories usually revolve around the social tension between predators and prey, and they often feature predators illegally eating prey as antagonists. Good examples are Zootopia and Beastars.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, we already have satyrs, centaurs, eladrin, firbolgs, changelings, forest and rock gnomes , and the new Hexblood;. Shifters, kenku, genasi, triton, and goliaths can also have a fey feel to them. If you made the duegar less Underdark-y, their enlarge/reduce and invisibility make them into perfect spriggans. And depending on how you view them, warforged and the new Reborn could be the result of fey magic: make them into individually-animated wooden or wax statues or tick-tocks rather than mass-produced weapons of war or people who died and were brought back to a semblance of life. You could easily reskin halflings as mousefolk.

I could definitely go for a few more fey, though. I've long wanted hengeyokai/pooka. The only "problems" are that they should be dual-typed beasts/humanoids, and it doesn't seem like people like the dual-typing that much. And their main form should be the often-Tiny beast form, not the humanoid form. And you know how much WotC doesn't like Tiny PCs.

Puca are a key race in my own system, being the main “mortal Fey” race.

Maybe the magic isn't that strong and can't lift too much beyond their base weight? Personally, I'd say heavy armor and/or being some level of encumbered.

But if they can fly in medium armor and with extra weight that doesn’t quite hit encumbrance, the heavy armor restriction makes no sense.
I could make sense of saying you can’t fly if you are carrying more than half your encumbrance, or something like that, but fairies don’t even have body mechanics to worry about. They’re just magically zooming around, changing size (1 inch openings), using full sized weapons. They clearly aren’t at all natural.

Flight was limited to up to medium armour in Season 9. If you want fly in heavy armour cast Flay
Nimble flight dex save limited to your proficiency bonus. I like limits on strange races. And the DC makes this critter immune to fall damage.
...

I don’t understand. Why should races you find strange (and animal races are more common in fantasy than most D&D races, so strange is an odd choice of words) have extra restrictions?

also season

r, some small folk have less speed and others don’t.. Okay I should adding PC small races should be limited to 25 feet. Or all pc races limited 30.

No. I’m sorry, but just no. Races shouldn’t be limited like that in design.

And could you not inter space your questions.

I can’t follow multiple points without doing so. I’m not bothered if you want to reply all in one block, but I can’t meaningfully engage with your post without replying to each point I want to address individually.

 

[jmartkdr2]

It really comes down to reach and equipment. Weapons for large races do extra damage, while tiny-sized weapons do 1 point of damage (rarely, 1d4). Further, mundane gear is sized for mediums (and occasionally smalls) so rules for large/tiny armor, clothes, backpacks, etc. Lastly, the reach on large creatures OAs makes them superior in combat.

While it would make a lot of sense to have large minotaurs and tiny fairies, the game really isn't set up well to handle them.

Note that most of this isn't necessarily true in 5e: weapon damage by size only kicks oin for large creatures and even that's technically just a monster design guideline, since the rule does not apply to enlarged creatures. Small weapons do the same damage, and size does not affect reach by any rule.

For a game where pc's would expect to use found armor and weapons, the sizes might be an issue, but I haven't seen that a lot in 5e outside of magic weapons - and those are often tailored to the pc or magically re-size-able.

 

[darjr]

I wish they’d included bugbears.

then we’d have bigfoot.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh, I forgot about those avens. Aerie Mystics is an owlfolk, for one, though. Still, those races are often just bird-folk; often as not they look like eagles as owls. Warden of Evos Isle is an owl on the right, but I think that's an eagle on the left. Simiarly Aerie Mystics are owls, but Aven Trailblazers are eagles.

I've read White Plume Mountain, and the other Greyhawk Classics that finish the story of Escalla and Justicar. Without spoiling anything, I think the size of Escalla was due to her eventual role in the story more than the canon of the lore. Either way, I don't discount the idea that pixies or sprites are smaller than this race, nor argue that the MM is comprehensive. I'm just saying that, based on the artistic depictions on cards, faeries in MTG are closer to the 1 foot mark than the 3 foot mark. Brazen Borrower from Throne of Eldraine certainly doesn't look that big, though the vast number of faerie cards don't have a very good frame of reference.



Ah, that's true. I did forget about future sets. Strixhaven is supposed to have "strixfolk" which are owls. You can see one on Quandrix Command. Can't really tell if they're four-limbed or six-limbed.

I dunno about Kwain. It might be a card eliminated from a future set as easily as a past set, certainly, but I don't know that there will be rabbitfolk. At least I haven't seen any material with them so far.

The Lorehold Command picture also has a smaller looking Owl-based Aven, who has six limbs:

This UA says "Owlfolk," but I could see them just calling it "Aven" in the final form.

 

[dave2008]

It really comes down to reach and equipment. Weapons for large races do extra damage, while tiny-sized weapons do 1 point of damage (rarely, 1d4). Further, mundane gear is sized for mediums (and occasionally smalls) so rules for large/tiny armor, clothes, backpacks, etc. Lastly, the reach on large creatures OAs makes them superior in combat.

While it would make a lot of sense to have large minotaurs and tiny fairies, the game really isn't set up well to handle them.

Yes, but those are not big issues to me. Also, in 5e, most Large creatures have the same reach as Medium ones:

 

[see]

How the hell you go through that list and see identical traits like the Jump, Glides and Proficiencies.

Um, yeah, see, if people are designing owl-based lineages, they tend to give them the characteristics of owls (flying, seeing at night, stealthiness). See:

Takara (Homebrew on D&D Beyond, from 2018)
Size: Medium
Speed 25 ft., fly 30
Darkvision 60 ft., can discern colors
Proficiency and Expertise in Stealth
Obsession ( Choose a humanoid race that your Takara is obsessed with, once chosen you may add your proficiency bonus on Insight checks regarding this race (does not stack with expertise) and you may add your Wisdom modifier to damage rolls (once per action) against this race.)

Owl Kin (3.5 Homebrew on D&D Wiki, 2009)
Base land speed is 25 feet: Fly 40 (Moderate Maneuverability)
Silent Wings: When flying, an Owl Kin gets +2 to move silently, so long as they are wearing light or no armor.
Perch: Owl Kin have talons for feet, thus allowing them to grip branches and the like easily. An Owl Kin gets a +2 to their balance check on anything small enough for them to wrap their talons around, but can still be knocked off by normal means.
Darkvision: Owl Kin can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight.
Light Sensitivity: Owl Kin are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Two Natural weapons Talons 1d4
Owl Type - Depending on which type of Owl the Owl Kin closest appears like determines some abilities

• Barn - gain Hide In Plain Sight
• Horned - gain a +6 to Intimidate
• Snowy - gain +5 Resist/cold

 

[see]

I always wonder how anthro settings handle food. Like, do Fox people eat Rabbit people?

Well, that's the premise the comic Kevin & Kell has worked with for 26 years . . .