On the usage of Fey creatures.

[Pokonic]

Well, basicly, how do you tend to use that little catigory for varying creatures? Inhuman yet usualy benevolent to those that appese them? Members of gigantic interplaner courts? Baby-stealing thiefs that flee from the sound of bells? A useful way of keeping track on which creatures go into magical enviroments? Aliens that use the fact that humans are guliable to there advantige?

[Mantarni]

All of the above. The feywild/world is a big place, and it's not like it's a united planet of hats...

[Tvtyrant]

I tend to use Fey as the descendants of outsiders that have moved to the Prime. The Fey are thus similar in nature to whatever their ancestors' assigned alignment was.

[Coidzor]

More of a broad class of (usually physical) spirit creatures that are generally more or less tied to the material plane.

Sometimes I have them part of transplanar courts, some of which occupy between-spaces in the planes, others instead are tied to multiple material planes.

[Tokuhara]

This is why I somedays hate our DM:

We were playing in a Horror campaign last Halloween (a year ago) and we stumbled into the Feywild. Now, unbeknownst to us, our sicko DM had just finished reading Changeling: The Lost from the nWoD. For those not in the know, the Fae of that world are sickos who rule over a section of ever-shifting world (much like a demiplane) and kidnap people to be used in their sick desires. Yeah. We ran into fey that were like that, but with D&D Broken-ness...

I shudder at the thought of ever dealing with fey to this day.

[Snowbluff]

I use them as guide and companions for my PCs, usually to progress/remind my player of a plot.

[NNescio]

I use them as guide and companions for my PCs, usually to progress/remind my player of a plot.

http://ompldr.org/vYm1obg/Hey_Listen.jpg

[Pokonic]

http://ompldr.org/vYm1obg/Hey_Listen.jpg

This is why half-elves cannot be part of the Sidhe court. :smalltongue:

[Yora]

In my setting, there's only the material plane, the plane of spirits, and the plane of demons, none of which is clearly good or evil.
Pretty much everything that is not regular people or beasts or a demon comes from the spiritworld, which incldudes ogre mages, yuan-ti, winter wolves, and so on. Some simply like eating people. Most others don't care for humanoids not that much. Some just want them gone from their lands, others just kill them without asking much questions in the hope that it keeps others from trying to explore their forest or their mountain. Then there are some who don't want to harm humanoids, but since many of them are virtually immortal and think in very different ways, they are often not very careful about what helps or harms mortal visitors. Even a well meant gift from a fey might turn out to be a curse and cause lots of problems, or they accidentally kill visitors because they didn't think that certain things might be dangerous.
The best advice for everyone is, stay away from them as much as possible and leave dealing with them to druids, who know what they are doing.

[Coidzor]

The best advice for everyone is, stay away from them as much as possible and leave dealing with them to druids, who know what they are doing.

Actually it sounds like the best advice for everyone is to produce high level adventurers to kick them out/murderhobo them whenever they cause trouble. :smalltongue: Have I stumbled upon the secret reason for adventurers in your settings?

[Pokonic]

Actually it sounds like the best advice for everyone is to produce high level adventurers to kick them out/murderhobo them whenever they cause trouble. :smalltongue: Have I stumbled upon the secret reason for adventurers in your settings?

Fool! All that does is send the Demons more cannonfodder to use!

[Morithias]

Whenever I use fey. I play the trickster part up to the extreme, I have pixies use their invisibility to stalk the party and steal stuff. I have memory loss arrows used so they forget they ever had the stuff.

And the one time I used a half-nymph she happened to be a vampire, who drugged the party wizard with a drug that makes you vulnerable to sexual suggestions (Black out, Book of Erotic Fantasy), and then proceeds to strip him naked and drain his life.

Then she comes down stairs and dominate persons the frenzy berserker, needless to say the dragon shaman jumped out the window and we would've had a TPK had he fought.

I play "fair folk" style fey. Tricksters and chessmasters who are basically like weaker versions of the devils, and completely underestimated, no one would ever tell that the story of the nymph that nearly killed off the party of course. lol

[Snowbluff]

http://ompldr.org/vYm1obg/Hey_Listen.jpg

Whahahehehehehe...

Seriously, she did nothing to progress the plot...

[Zale]

Well, I like using Fey as bargain junkies.

They love to indulge in deals and trades, after all.

A tooth for a quarter, milk for some chores, years off your life for inspiration..

So if you can get virtually anything from them.. if you are willing to pay.

And may the gods have mercy if you go back on your side of the deal.

[Pokonic]

I tend to play up the fact that they are basicly amoral in the best of times, even if it has good intentions.

A Satyr may invite more than a few "friends" without care to the number of pregnancies that may ensue or the total damage there partying may cause. A group of Redcapes from one court may kill childeren to take there stuff and group of Gnomes would fight them off because they wandered into there hunting territory. Ogres and Trolls may serve as enforcers for the local spirits, and the Nymphs and Dryads care for nature and your death, respectivly. Great hunting packs of dogs and savage Firbolgs donning elk helms walk the world serching for the illegiment childeren of sidhe nobles, while creatures of winter and gloom search for mortals with the barest drop of fey blood to be invited into the court. Small, stony savages lurk in crude burrows, the only sign of civilised life being the cook pot and the piles of small shoes strung on strings or in piles on the floor.

[sonofzeal]

They're... alien. Probably more alien than most Outsiders, and right on par with Aberrations.

One thing I've toyed with is the idea of Fey, collectively, being an Overdeity or equivalent pan-Cosmic force. Individual Fey are less like creatures and more like... semi-autonomous "fingers". Kind of like the Orz in SC2. They act like creatures, but aren't quite.

[Pokonic]

They're... alien. Probably more alien than most Outsiders, and right on par with Aberrations.

One thing I've toyed with is the idea of Fey, collectively, being an Overdeity or equivalent pan-Cosmic force. Individual Fey are less like creatures and more like... semi-autonomous "fingers". Kind of like the Orz in SC2. They act like creatures, but aren't quite.

Yeah, in my game they dont think in terms so much as in good or evil, but in summer and fall and winter and other weird stuff like that.I think my PC's had a better time interogating the beholder than the Korrad, who just wanted to dance after causing a entire villages population to dance to death.

[kpenguin]

http://ompldr.org/vYm1obg/Hey_Listen.jpg

Counterpoint

http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/comics/2011-11-21.jpg

[Alleran]

These days, I almost shamelessly use the Fey Courts of Winter and Summer from Dresden Files.

[Eldan]

I actually use six fey courts. Seelie, Unseelie, and the Four Seasons.

Seelie and Unseelie have always been at war, and they are to blame for the destruction of the plane of faerie, which now consists only of small shards, which can be found in other planes, or randomly wandering the planes, appearing in different places.

The Seasons are not really at war with each other, as they have to cooperate to keep the world going, basically. They each take power in turn from each other. Every approximately three months, there's a contest between the waning and the waning court, which determines how soon the season changes. E.g. every year when you had a december without snow, Autumn totally pwned Winter.

The four seasons variously ally with one or the other of the aligned courts. When you have a magical winter wonderland, Winter is aligned with Seelie. When you have wolves and blizzards and starvation, it's Unseelie. Seelie isn't technically better than Unseelie, for mortals, they just like to present themselves as beautiful and seductive more than their counterparts which are more open about their intentions.

Then we have wild fae, by far the majority. Fey that take small dominions, a well, a grove, a meadow, a mountain, a rock, a tree, a river and live their, apart from court politics. They might be loosely aligned to one of the four seasons, for a time, but rarely for long.

Overall, the thing to remember with fey is that they are enigmatic, vicious, and they never have your interests at heart, no matter what they say. They can never lie, but they will never tell the truth, either.

[Tokuhara]

I actually use six fey courts. Seelie, Unseelie, and the Four Seasons.

Seelie and Unseelie have always been at war, and they are to blame for the destruction of the plane of faerie, which now consists only of small shards, which can be found in other planes, or randomly wandering the planes, appearing in different places.

The Seasons are not really at war with each other, as they have to cooperate to keep the world going, basically. They each take power in turn from each other. Every approximately three months, there's a contest between the waning and the waning court, which determines how soon the season changes. E.g. every year when you had a december without snow, Autumn totally pwned Winter.

The four seasons variously ally with one or the other of the aligned courts. When you have a magical winter wonderland, Winter is aligned with Seelie. When you have wolves and blizzards and starvation, it's Unseelie. Seelie isn't technically better than Unseelie, for mortals, they just like to present themselves as beautiful and seductive more than their counterparts which are more open about their intentions.

Then we have wild fae, by far the majority. Fey that take small dominions, a well, a grove, a meadow, a mountain, a rock, a tree, a river and live their, apart from court politics. They might be loosely aligned to one of the four seasons, for a time, but rarely for long.

Overall, the thing to remember with fey is that they are enigmatic, vicious, and they never have your interests at heart, no matter what they say. They can never lie, but they will never tell the truth, either.

Where do Dusklings fall? The incarnum fey

[Eldan]

I honestly have never fit all fey in there. There's too many out there.

That said: court allegiance is often less a thing of fey race (except in the case of some elemental ones) and more one of the individual fey's personality. You could just as well have autumn dusklings as spring dusklings.

[Shadowknight12]

My fey are just people. They have different physiologies, magical powers and cultures, but at the end of the day, they are just people, not one-dimensional plot devices or blatant wish-fulfilment fantasies.

The way I usually portray fey is that they're creatures that can either be born normally or spontaneously arise in natural areas with a high concentration of magic (how does this happen? Spellcasters draw magic from external sources, and the process of spellcasting leaves a residue in the surrounding area proportional to the power of the spell), and in the latter case, they might appear as babies/infants or as amnesiacs of any age.

Then each type of fey has its own culture. It's not a "genetic" thing that they must all obey because it's in their blood. It's merely that society expects them to act in certain ways and most of them don't even question it. Nymphs and satyrs are expected to be constantly partying or sleeping around, dryads are expected to watch over their forests and take things seriously, pixies are expected to be mischievous but sharp and verdant princes are expected to be regal and always keep their end of the bargain.

Individuals may break the mould and scorn the expectations society places upon them, but that sort of thing isn't very common.

I use them as I'd use any other NPC. I craft a general, multi-branching storyline and campaign and they are a part of it. They have their own personalities, goals and motivations, so I just focus on portraying that.

[Eldan]

Isn't that how basically any intelligent creature is used? I'm a bit confused on how this applies more to fey than any other creature. :smallconfused:

The born from environmental magic part is interesting, though.

[Shadowknight12]

Isn't that how basically any intelligent creature is used? I'm a bit confused on how this applies more to fey than any other creature. :smallconfused:

Exactly, all intelligent creatures are to be treated like people.

You'd be surprised how often this is very much not the case.


The born from environmental magic part is interesting, though.

I apply the same rationale for magical beasts, dragons, some monstrous humanoids, some undead and some oozes.

I have an entire region in one of my campaigns called "the Spellwarped Mountains" where a bunch of epic-level spellcasters had a massive duel, and the residual magic has warped the land into the fantasy equivalent of Silent Hill. Residual magic has also trickled down to the surrounding landscape, in much safer concentrations, and spawned plenty of magical beings.

[FearlessGnome]

These days, I almost shamelessly use the Fey Courts of Winter and Summer from Dresden Files.+1.

More letters to appease Skynet.

[CTrees]

I play them as about as comprehensible in their motivations as the Slaad.

Also, the campaign I've got which is about to start... The world is mostly ruled (and owned) by an extremely wealthy, powerful coallition of mercanes. Of the groups that are highly interested in making trades or deals, they're mostly accepting of the devils and genies, but the fey attitude towards bargaining is inimical to them. Thus, the end result of escalating conflict is that, while the mercanes have ensured the major population centers are fairly cosmopolitan (there may be racism, but orcs/ogres/goblins/etc. don't have "xp and loot here" tattooed on their foreheads anymore), the fey have all been declared outlaw. There are isolated, hidden communities, and one large island full of them, but otherwise... the party will not be encountering them on a regular basis (and woe betide them if they decide to travel to the fey island...)

[Pokonic]

I play them as about as comprehensible in their motivations as the Slaad.


To be fair, at least the Slaadi are actualy funny some of the time.

[Prime32]

Stuff on fey. (www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=108)