D&D 5E (2014) 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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[Faolyn]

I’m not saying people who don’t like gnomes can’t be trusted, I’m just...ya know...not gonna turn my back to ya.

IMO, it’s taken too damn long to have this many Fey PC options, and there is still a lot of room for more.

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.

Why would magical flight that doesn’t require even having wings have such a restriction?

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.

 

[Bacon Bits]

MTG doesn't have owlfolk, but they do have owl-headed aven. These same aven have popped up in a couple of the Plane Shift PDFs.

Not sure about rabbitfolk lore-wise in either MTG or D&D, so I'll leave that to those more familiar.

About 20 years ago, Paul Kidd wrote a trilogy of novels set in Greyhawk based off adventures of the same name: White Plume Mountain, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. One of the primary protagonists in the trilogy was a fairy named Escalla. A few times in the novels Escalla pointed out that fairies were distinctly different and "better" than pixies, despite the outward resemblance between fairies and pixies. Escalla and the other fairies in the novels were described as being about two feet tall. Compare this to the current description of pixies being "barely a foot tall" and it looks like there's some justification in the lore for differentiating between fairies and pixies.

In the old 4e Feywild book there was a whole kingdom of goblins in the Feywild. It was also described as having ogres, trolls, etc. So there's definitely some justification in the lore for a fey hobgoblin.

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.

Actually, the next Magic Set, Strixhaven, does prominently feature Aven in Owl form, and I would wager that Kwain there will appear in Strixhaven, particularly given this test material.

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.

 

[jasper]

Why would magical flight that doesn’t require even having wings have such a restriction?

Ugh. No.

Why?

Or, some small folk have less speed and others don’t.

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.
...
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. And could you not inter space your questions.

 

[Reynard]

I guess I am the only one that associates rabbits with speed. Rabbitfolk should be FAST. Maybe give them a +10 speed boost when using the dash action.

 

[darjr]

The humblewood designers are so good, I don’t think they have much to worry about. In fact I’ll bet this increases their sales. For instance this thread alone has brought them to the attention of a few that didn’t know them.

 

[ccooke]

The humblewood designers are so good, I don’t think they have much to worry about. In fact I’ll bet this increases their sales. For instance this thread alone has brought them to the attention of a few that didn’t know them.

They do deserve it, too - their stuff is lovely. It's been on my my list to buy when I have a good excuse to use it for a while

 

[darjr]

They do deserve it, too - their stuff is lovely. It's been on my my list to buy when I have a good excuse to use it for a while

The Free RPGDay kit from them is amazing. That adventure is amazing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I guess I am the only one that associates rabbits with speed. Rabbitfolk should be FAST. Maybe give them a +10 speed boost when using the dash action.

Making it apply to dash only would be a good model, since in real life, humans did (and sometimes still do) run rabbits down by having more stamina and catching them when the little guys are panting and exhausted, unable to run any further.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They do deserve it, too - their stuff is lovely. It's been on my my list to buy when I have a good excuse to use it for a while

I am waiting on the inevitable Humblewood II Kickstarter, which has been teased for a while. The original, along with Seas of Vodari, Magical Industrial Revolution and Brancalonia, is one of the few RPGs Kickstarters I regret not plunking the money down for.

 

[darjr]