The Faerie Queene

[sabelo2000]

So, I've decided to use my last Iron Chef entry (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14723516&postcount=94) as an actual opponent for my group. And for anyone who takes time to read that character, he is an insurgent for a returned Queen Mab, the original Faerie Queene who was usurped by Titania and Oberon.

Which of course begs the question, "Will your group also have to adventure against Queen Mab herself?" To which the answer is, naturally, "Oh HECK yes."

However, the Faerie as they appear in English and Welsh folklore are not represented in core D&D. There's plenty of Fae in the various MM's, so I don't lack for minions and courtiers, but as far as the Seelie Court themselves (and their Unseelie counterparts) there's not much material.

So drawing from traditional English sources, what would the Playground propose as stats/classes for Oberon, Titania, and Mab?

I had considered giving them all Divine ranks, or at least Oberon and Titania. Mab herself, of course, is fallen and probably lost her divine power. But as she's likely to be the primary opponent, her stats are a bit more urgent than the (supposedly) allied/NPC Oberon and Titania.

I'm thinking, perhaps some sort of Druid/Sorceress combo in a CE flavor? Her subtitle in folklore is the Queene of Air and Darkness. I'm leaning maybe even into Shadow Weave casting.

Thoughts, Playground?

[Urpriest]

Dragon Compendium has the Unseelie Fey template. Slap that on a high level caster (maybe Shadowcraft Mage, made to be non-Gnome?), and go to town.

[RFLS]

After some digging, I foundthis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Air_and_Darkness_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)) article. It suggests that the creature detailed as the Queen of Air and Darkness in the Forgotten Faiths article of Dragon #359 is Queen Mab. If you go and look, this is definitely the case, but the Wikipedia article was a little misleading in its use of the word "detailed," as there's no stat block for her.

....

So here's what I would do. I'd start with the Nymph (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Nymph) statblock, which is fairly unimpressive. First, I'd buff her base stats as appropriate. Next, I'd swap the druid casting over to Beguiler casting. I'd drop the SLA (seriously, what the heck?). I'd also drop the bonus to swim checks. Finally, I'd add ten levels of the Rainbow Servant (http://dndtools.eu/classes/rainbow-servant/) prestige class, swapping the Good domain for Darkness. You'll end with 17th or 13th level Beguiler casting, depending on whether you take table or text, and the ability to cast spontaneously from the entire cleric spell list. Depending on how powerful you want her, you stack more prestige classes on or leave her as is. If you don't read Rainbow Servant as granting full casting, you'll want Practiced Spellcaster.

Sidenote: Ur-Priest's suggestion of the Unseelie template can probably be put to good use here.

[Darius Kane]

How about a Frostwind Virago (MM4 or 5) banshee or ghost with some class levels on top?

[Norin]

After some digging, I foundthis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Air_and_Darkness_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)) article. It suggests that the creature detailed as the Queen of Air and Darkness in the Forgotten Faiths article of Dragon #359 is Queen Mab. If you go and look, this is definitely the case, but the Wikipedia article was a little misleading in its use of the word "detailed," as there's no stat block for her.


The queen of air and Darkness in Faerûn is actualy Auril the Frostmaiden. :smalleek:

[AWiz_Abroad]

What approximate ECL are you looking for?

[HunterOfJello]

Check out the Eladrin in Book of Exalted Deeds. They're high CR outsiders that are supposed to be related to fey. There's a list of eladrin in the Monsters section of the book and specific Eladrin listed in the Court of Stars section. Morwel, the Queen of Stars, is supposed to be a type of Fairy Queene in power (if not in nature). She's CR 31 and would be pretty damn tough to take on.

[Urpriest]

What approximate ECL are you looking for?

This is an NPC, so ECL is irrelevant. Would be nice to get an approximate CR goal though.

[ksbsnowowl]

The Creature Catalog (http://creaturecatalog.enworld.org/cc/converted/index.php) has converted versions of the Faerie Queen (http://creaturecatalog.enworld.org/cc/converted/view_c.php?CreatureID=1415) and Lussina, the Dark Queen (http://creaturecatalog.enworld.org/cc/converted/view_c.php?CreatureID=1614), originally from the Birthright setting. I use these two conversions (altered to be outsiders), as lesser "nobility" among the Seelie and Unseelie courts.

In an adaptation of the Seelie and Unseelie courts for use in my homebrew viking game, where I equate the Seelie and Unseelie with the Vanir of Vanaheim, I used the aforementioned Eladrin from the BoED (and MM) as the courtiers, with Morwel as the queen. The Seelie court queen is Morwel with the Saint template applied, and the Unseelie court queen is Morwel with the Shadow Creature template applied.

So, I strongly encourage you to use Morwel as the queen, and use Tulani as the typical courtiers. It works quite well, even with them being Outsiders.

[Phelix-Mu]

After some digging, I foundthis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Air_and_Darkness_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)) article. It suggests that the creature detailed as the Queen of Air and Darkness in the Forgotten Faiths article of Dragon #359 is Queen Mab. If you go and look, this is definitely the case, but the Wikipedia article was a little misleading in its use of the word "detailed," as there's no stat block for her.

....

So here's what I would do. I'd start with the Nymph (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Nymph) statblock, which is fairly unimpressive. First, I'd buff her base stats as appropriate. Next, I'd swap the druid casting over to Beguiler casting. I'd drop the SLA (seriously, what the heck?). I'd also drop the bonus to swim checks. Finally, I'd add ten levels of the Rainbow Servant (http://dndtools.eu/classes/rainbow-servant/) prestige class, swapping the Good domain for Darkness. You'll end with 17th or 13th level Beguiler casting, depending on whether you take table or text, and the ability to cast spontaneously from the entire cleric spell list. Depending on how powerful you want her, you stack more prestige classes on or leave her as is. If you don't read Rainbow Servant as granting full casting, you'll want Practiced Spellcaster.

Sidenote: Ur-Priest's suggestion of the Unseelie template can probably be put to good use here.

I like how this person thinks.:smallamused:

I also like the later frostwind virago comment (hmm, virago is an actual word...who knew?). Frostwind virago is my go-to stats for a chassis for fey that I want to mess up the party with at reasonably high level. It may be too strong to slap a bunch of spellcasting on the virago, though. Humorously, I have stuck some pared-down monk abilities on a virago, and the results were awesome.

[ksbsnowowl]

A few other similarities between the D&D Titania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titania_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29) (the Faerie Queen) and Morwel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morwel) (Queen of the Eladrin).


...Titania rules the wandering Seelie Court, which shifts erratically between the Beastlands, Arborea, and Ysgard. ...

...Morwel dwells with her lovers Faerinaal and Gwynharwyf in the Court of Stars on the plane of Arborea. This timeless, autumnal realm seems eternally in twilight, and it can manifest on any of the three layers of the plane. ...


Morwel is the queen of the eladrins... Her titles include Faerie Queen, Queen of Stars, and Lady of the Lake. ...

Titania is the leader of the Seelie Court...

As stated above, it is suggested in Dragon 359 that the Queen of Air and Darkness is in fact Queen Mab (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Mab). Although the sources are reaching far and wide, the 1998 miniseries Merlin (starring Sam Neil) portrayed Queen Mab as the twin sister of the Lady of the Lake... one of the titles of Morwel. Several other literary works also build upon the relationship of Queen Mab and Titania (sometimes equated as being the same person, sometimes rivals).

By no means am I saying this is the only way; it's just my preferred handling of it. Morwel and Mab are sisters, Titania and Lussina are daughters of Morwel, or perhaps cousins, each the heir to their respective courts.

[Norin]

Some more info here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/fey) for anyone interested in the topic.

[DMVerdandi]

I would just homebrew some class variants.

Make a Sidhe class.
Spirit shaman as base.
dump all class features past level 13.

For the variant class, the Sidhe can retrieve spells from any list.

Give them all the same class, and have them retrieve different spells.

Mab gets spells from any of the evil aligned books.
Titania mostly gets cleric spells.
Oberon mostly get wiz/sorc spells and druid spells.

Completely different, yet the same.
BOOSH.

[Ezberron]

Mab isn't always a deposed queen with her lost powers. sometimes's she's portrayed as the queen of the unseelee- an equal and opposite to Oberon and Titania.

As such she would have dominion over darkness, winter and cold. So going with a pumped up version of a Virago would be a good place to start. As a faerie queen, she's amazingly, painfully beautiful to look at but also the essence of winter- patient, cold, calculating and deadly.

Another way to think about high level faeries is to make them essentially highly intellegent, highly charismatic, spell-using elementals. Make Mab a greater ice/cold elemental with sorceror powers equal to her hit dice...


After doing some digging, I found a link to this which seems to hit pretty close to the mark (almost immune to magic, lots of cold and charm powers, etc).

The first entry ("ghostly faerie queen"). change the trappings to taste..

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20070713a

[thorr-kan]

Courts of the Shadow Fey, by Kobold Press. Now available in PF.