Unseelie Fey questions

[Zweisteine]

I'm considering using this most wonderful of templates, so I had to ask a few questions about it, as some of the template is quite unclear.

1. There is no LA entry. I assume the. That it has 0 LA, because LA equals CR adjustment when not listed. Am I right?

2. How bad iron vulnerability? So much is made of metal, and most of that metal is steel. This could be very bad. Then again, I'm making a Wizard, so the most important steel I'll have is a dagger, for emergencies...

3. Am I correct to assume that the skills and feats the template says it grants are completely ignored when I take class levels?

4. The template does not grant The Fey type, or any similar benefits. Is there a known reason for that?

5. Most fey have DR/cold iron. The table in Dragon 304 says they get DR/+1 (and later +3). Any known reason for this? Would changing that to DR/cold iron be balanced?

6. Most important question: Which Season's Power do I choose?
Vernal Touch could be extremely useful, especially exause I have a party member who is constantly fatigued (troll-blooded).
Summer Carress has the whole +2 to AC and saves against most things, which rocks.
Autumn Harvest is great too, but less so in combat.
Winter Chill is useless to me, so it's narrowed down to three.


These last questions are specific to my character, a Whisper Gnome Illusionist.
Should I take a feat to increase flight maneuverability to good? Hovering is nice.
This one is purely aesthetic/personal preference: What kind of wings should I have?

Thanks!

[Urpriest]

I'm considering using this most wonderful of templates, so I had to ask a few questions about it, as some of the template is quite unclear.

1. There is no LA entry. I assume the. That it has 0 LA, because LA equals CR adjustment when not listed. Am I right?

Nope, CR and LA have no connection whatsoever. The LA 0 comes from extrapolation from the example creature, an Unseelie Fey Gnome.



2. How bad iron vulnerability? So much is made of metal, and most of that metal is steel. This could be very bad. Then again, I'm making a Wizard, so the most important steel I'll have is a dagger, for emergencies...

It's something to avoid, requires some care. If you're not a weapon-user it's not going to be devastating.



3. Am I correct to assume that the skills and feats the template says it grants are completely ignored when I take class levels?

The template doesn't grant any skills or feats, except for a racial skill bonus, so I don't know what you mean.



4. The template does not grant The Fey type, or any similar benefits. Is there a known reason for that?

It explicitly does grant the Fey type, again I'm not sure what you're talking about.



5. Most fey have DR/cold iron. The table in Dragon 304 says they get DR/+1 (and later +3). Any known reason for this? Would changing that to DR/cold iron be balanced?

That table was from 3.0, and is irrelevant. You should be looking at the current 3.5 version, from Dragon Compendium. That may explain the above issues as well.



6. Most important question: Which Season's Power do I choose?
Vernal Touch could be extremely useful, especially exause I have a party member who is constantly fatigued (troll-blooded).
Summer Carress has the whole +2 to AC and saves against most things, which rocks.
Autumn Harvest is great too, but less so in combat.
Winter Chill is useless to me, so it's narrowed down to three.


Winter's Chill is actually pretty great, but you do need to be in melee to put it to use. Without that...talk to the Troll-Blooded character, and if they don't have another way to avoid fatigue then go for Vernal Touch.



These last questions are specific to my character, a Whisper Gnome Illusionist.
Should I take a feat to increase flight maneuverability to good? Hovering is nice.


I don't think it's worth a feat. There are enough ways around it with spells, and most of the time you'll be making standard actions and will have move actions free to fly.

[Jeff the Green]

Nope, CR and LA have no connection whatsoever. The LA 0 comes from extrapolation from the example creature, an Unseelie Fey Gnome.

And from the fact that if a template doesn't mention something it remains unchained from the base creature. So even though the rules don't explicitly say it's +0 LA they do say it's the same as the base creature, which is the same thing.

Also note that it was errataed to +1 CR, though that's irrelevant to you as a player.

[Bronk]

The 'turn undead' aspect of vernal touch seems pretty nice too...

[Bonzai]

I wouldn't worry about the Iron Vulnerability, as the template comes with DR. Cold Iron isn't exactly a common weapon type, so for the most part you the extra 1d6 of damage will be swallowed up by your DR.

Really, the winter's chill ability is down right broken. Your a gnome illusionist, and you don't want to basically add your Charisma to the save DC of your spells? Are you kidding?

[OldTrees1]

Urpriest hit everything on the head.


And from the fact that if a template doesn't mention something it remains unchained from the base creature. So even though the rules don't explicitly say it's +0 LA they do say it's the same as the base creature, which is the same thing.

Also note that it was errataed to +1 CR, though that's irrelevant to you as a player.

You might want to examine more templates. While that is the general rule for most aspects of templates, there exist templates with an explicit unlisted LA.

Take Paragon for example:
A Mindflayer has an ECL of 15
A Paragon Mindflayer has an ECL of 26
The Paragon template does not list an LA
So should we conclude that Paragon is a +0LA or a +11LA (26-15)?

Sidenote: Zombie is not a +0 LA template it is a n/a LA template (Int is a prerequisites to be a PC)

[Jeff the Green]

Urpriest hit everything on the head.



You might want to examine more templates. While that is the general rule for most aspects of templates, there exist templates with an explicit unlisted LA.

Take Paragon for example:
A Mindflayer has an ECL of 15
A Paragon Mindflayer has an ECL of 26
The Paragon template does not list an LA
So should we conclude that Paragon is a +0LA or a +11LA (26-15)?

Sidenote: Zombie is not a +0 LA template it is a n/a LA template (Int is a prerequisites to be a PC)

I'm AFB, but if that's accurate, paragon is dysfunctional.

Generally, if a template does not cause a change to a certain statistic, that entry is missing from the template description.

Also, zombie is LA –. Even if it didn't mention it, the general template rules would take over and the LA would be – because it's Intelligence isn't at least 3.

[OldTrees1]

I'm AFB, but if that's accurate, paragon is dysfunctional.

So rather than take LA as an exception to the general template rule, all templates that have evidence to the exception will be listed as dysfunctional. The end result is the same. You need to identify if the template is following the general template rule before knowing if it is +0LA, - LA or +X LA.

[Zweisteine]

Thank you for the help!

I forgot to read the bit at the top, about who can get the template. That's where the type change is listed. Oops.


The troll-blooded character is a cleric, so he does have Lesser Restoration, but I imagine that if he goes inside and enters the sun again, his fatigue would return, and it means he gets fewer otherwise useful spells each day.

I think if I don't take Vernal Touch, I'll take Summer Caress, because Autumn Harvest is best in melee range (though it does have a ton of out-of-combat applications, so maybe not).