A Giant Made of Faeries (And its Habitat)

[DragonBaneDM]

Hey guys!

I'm developing a quest through Eberron's Feywild where one of the Courts has manipulated my level 4 party to go into a living maze called The Writhing Hedge in order to slay a group of Lordless fey called The Mockvast Clique.

The Mockvast Clique is a swarm of Faeries that arrange themselves in the form of a Huge giant. I'm designing it as a Paragon Monster, (a la Angry DM's blog) probably a Hill Giant inside of a spell casting swarm of Faeries of my own design.

What are some cool things I could do with this encounter? A swarm of Faeries where every fifth one is casting Magic Missile would be great, but what else?

Another thing I want to set up is a really cool environment for this to take place in. I was thinking maybe a mushroom forest for them to jump from fungi to fungi, platformer style, but I'm not sold. I like incorporating skill checks into my Paragon fights for high one time damage or buffs. Maybe floating spores that release poisons or buffs?

TLDR What would be some cool things to happen in a fight with a swarm of Faeries posing as a giant?

[Slipperychicken]

The fairies could separate and act like a swarm whenever convenient.

What if you had the fairy giant use the living maze as an ally? The latter could manipulate itself to isolate PCs so the giant could stomp them one at a time. It would be like an environmental crowd-control effect. There might be some kind of check involved to avoid being separated by the maze. The hedge might also close a roof over the PCs and keep them in darkness.

Also, I'd imagine the fairies could just fly off if they got too injured, which could make things pretty frustrating for the PCs.

[DragonBaneDM]

What if you had the fairy giant use the living maze as an ally? The latter could manipulate itself to isolate PCs so the giant could stomp them one at a time. It would be like an environmental crowd-control effect. There might be some kind of check involved to avoid being separated by the maze. The hedge might also close a roof over the PCs and keep them in darkness.


That would be a cool usage of the maze, and although I originally planned the giant being just outside of it, it using its home as a defensive mechanism makes a lot of sense.



The fairies could separate and act like a swarm whenever convenient.


Yep! I plan on it spawning a swarm of faeries at the cost of hit points at the start of the round. It'll have downgraded versions of the second phase of the monster.



Also, I'd imagine the fairies could just fly off if they got too injured, which could make things pretty frustrating for the PCs.


Makes sense! They don't have to outright kill EVERY faerie. Just enough to disperse the clique.

[Ninja_Prawn]

This sounds like an incredible fight.

Random thoughts:

That many faeries could probably evoke enough Faerie Fire to blind you... Also, faeries are known shapeshifters, so the faerie giant could suddenly become a swarm of housecats, or snakes, or squalling babies!

If you're feeling really evil, one of your paragon transformations could be a winged form. Or one with six arms.

Faeries love to play tricks, so make sure there are some things that aren't what they seem. Marble statues that are actually animated armour springs to mind...