Ninja_Prawn's Fey Creatures as PC Races - Part 3! PEACH

[Ninja_Prawn]

Hello, playground. It's that time, the one you've all been waiting for!

Part 3 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/q24i7p2n6u4vn3x/Fey%20Creatures%20Part%203.pdf?dl=0) of Ninja_Prawn's fey homebrew project is ready for community review!

AND NOW... the complete, final document is ready! Click here (https://www.dropbox.com/s/s3crmpfdbc5u5x5/Fey%20Creatures%20Complete.pdf?dl=0) for Forests and Faeries!

A while ago now, I wrote a package (https://www.dropbox.com/s/djoe8axkkk8w5se/Fey%20Creatures%20Part%201.pdf?dl=0) of fey PC races. It was fairly successful, establishing a system for dealing with tiny creatures and standing up well under playtest. Then, I wrote an expansion (https://www.dropbox.com/s/makjqikshg0rstw/Fey%20Creatures%20Part%202.pdf?dl=0), because I had a few ideas I wanted to add. For a while, things were good.

Then two people contacted me, asking for a third installment. Kamikaze_Winds wanted some new races and spells, bringing up a few fey creatures I'd never even heard of. Sporeegg wanted more of the malicious, unseelie fey that haunt children's dreams, feeling I had leaned too heavily towards benevolent fey. Thus, I decided to create a third and final installment.
First and foremost: after this installment has been critiqued and balanced, I intend to repackage all three into a single document. So take that into account when you're reviewing. The current layout is a bit of a mess, I know, but I will fix it.

Second, the rules for tiny creatures (and flight) are not up for discussion here. I've been through that already, and I'm happy with how they sit. For reference, they are included in part 1 (link above).

Okay, so I went a bit wild with this installment. We've got tiny creatures with no strength penalty, class features that restrict the player's agency, medium creatures with +3 to a stat and a variety of other mechanics that don't exist elsewhere. Did I dream too big? That's my biggest concern right now. Did the game break while I wasn't looking?

[zeek0]

Well, I've been waiting anyhow.

I dislike any +3 ability score increase, for a few reasons:
-I think that there is usually one other attribute that can be boosted +1 as part of the race concept
- +3 implies a particularly large increase, allowing a player that takes the standard array to have an 18 in an attribute from level 1. In my mind, 17 means particularly gifted not only by inherent nature but by biological nature. 18 is reserved for those who also have experience at applying that attribute.

But here's my assessment; take it as you will:

Changes to Consider
Glaistig:
- While a Glaistig is certainly a charismatic creature, I think that giving them +2 Cha/+1 Dex would not go amiss - after all, they do need to feed.
If I remember right, in 5e one creature does not grapple the other, they are simply both "in a grapple", so you can relax the terms in the Blood Drain trait.

Jogah:
Are Gahonga Jogah fliers? I feel that that their connection to the earth implies that they are not, but I am unfamiliar with any legends about them. Due to them not having an ability score decrease, I wouldn't feel remiss about taking it away from them.

Menehune
A character will use either Dex or Str as its primary combat statistic, making ability score increases to dex and str less useful than you might think. You might consider going with dex/int to reflect the builder nature of the menehune.

Cold Rider
You might consider changing the name of the trait "Horse Master" to "Mount Master" or "Riding Master", especially since the image for the race is definitely not a horse.
Consider giving Cold Riders adaptation to cold climates, as the Goliath race.

Stalker
Can stalkers choose a different humanoid form when they use shapechange, or are they bound to a single humanoid form?

What I Particularly Enjoyed
- I can imagine playing a Bard Shellycoat Boggart as a jester or something. Or maybe one will be an NPC in a game of mine...
-The special attention you gave to the legends and lore of each creature and its transformation into a character race.
- The awesomely cool Soul o' Wisp race. Ghostly, in charge of undead, and totally weird.
- The alternate forms of the Stalker race.
- The "Guardian of Crossings" trait of the Faerie Troll. Fits the race very well, useful in combat situations, but not overtly overpowering.
- Find Exotic Familiar and Nondescript spell.
- The items (such as redcap sling or shinaelestran pipes) that do something that a spell does. In my mind, this is a particular trait of fey/feywild things: that items are magical as a part of their function. Wands are so uninspired - a stick of wood that does a spell. But pipes that beguile the senses or a sling that is especially powerful - that captures the imagination.
- Also, bottled twilight - the strange grounding of the ephemeral is striking. It reminds me of the fey encounter in "The Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss

I know that you were concerned about your odd and new race traits. Nothing stuck out like a sore thumb to me, but if you want to draw my attention to anything specific let me know.

This document is well done.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Thank you for the review! My thoughts in magenta.


Well, I've been waiting anyhow.

I dislike any +3 ability score increase, for a few reasons:
-I think that there is usually one other attribute that can be boosted +1 as part of the race concept
- +3 implies a particularly large increase, allowing a player that takes the standard array to have an 18 in an attribute from level 1. In my mind, 17 means particularly gifted not only by inherent nature but by biological nature. 18 is reserved for those who also have experience at applying that attribute.

The +3s have been a staple of this series from the beginning (prior to PEACHing, the pixie had +4 dex / +2 cha!). So far, I'm not hugely worried; your odds of rolling at least 1no 16 with 4d6b3 are pretty good (specifically, 57%), so standard races can get to 18 when rolling stats, too. It hasn't ruined anything in playtesting yet, though that particular feature hasn't been tested much. Really, what I'd like is a proper, thorough playtesting...

But here's my assessment; take it as you will:

Changes to Consider
Glaistig:
- While a Glaistig is certainly a charismatic creature, I think that giving them +2 Cha/+1 Dex would not go amiss - after all, they do need to feed.
If I remember right, in 5e one creature does not grapple the other, they are simply both "in a grapple", so you can relax the terms in the Blood Drain trait.

Satyrs and Sirines already took +2 cha / +1 dex... I didn't want to repeat myself a third time. Also, both grappling and biting depend on strength, not dexterity. And I thought that at first, about grappled/grappled-by, but when I looked it up it seemed that you do still have a grappler and a grapplee.

Designer's Note: the reason I gave them Command was so they could walk up to a commoner and go "I cast Command: Embrace!" thereby sidestepping the need to grapple anyone.

Jogah:
Are Gahonga Jogah fliers? I feel that that their connection to the earth implies that they are not, but I am unfamiliar with any legends about them. Due to them not having an ability score decrease, I wouldn't feel remiss about taking it away from them.

Honestly, I don't know. There isn't a lot of info on the internets. Jogah were suggested by Kamikaze_winds, and I liked them enough to include them, but I'm not a Native American (or any kind of American, actually) so I can't claim to know the details. The impression I got was that jogah are one race, and the different names are more of a cultural thing. Thus they all have wings.

Menehune
A character will use either Dex or Str as its primary combat statistic, making ability score increases to dex and str less useful than you might think. You might consider going with dex/int to reflect the builder nature of the menehune.

I've already got dex/int races (sylph and soul-o'-wisp, possibly others). I know it's suboptimal, but I think it's an accurate representation of the lore. And some classes (barbarian, maybe ranger) could get some mileage out of it.

Cold Rider
You might consider changing the name of the trait "Horse Master" to "Mount Master" or "Riding Master", especially since the image for the race is definitely not a horse.
Consider giving Cold Riders adaptation to cold climates, as the Goliath race.

Good point; I'll rename it. They probably do need cold adaptation... but they're already pushing the limits of balance in my opinion. I'd like to know what others think on that.

Stalker
Can stalkers choose a different humanoid form when they use shapechange, or are they bound to a single humanoid form?

My intention was that their humanoid forms are all slightly deformed, but they can choose different appearances within the stated constraints. I guess it's ambiguous. I'm more concerned about balance for now. If that's alright, I can look at clarifying the wording.

What I Particularly Enjoyed
- I can imagine playing a Bard Shellycoat Boggart as a jester or something. Or maybe one will be an NPC in a game of mine...
-The special attention you gave to the legends and lore of each creature and its transformation into a character race.
- The awesomely cool Soul o' Wisp race. Ghostly, in charge of undead, and totally weird. Inspired by wispmothers from Skyrim!
- The alternate forms of the Stalker race.
- The "Guardian of Crossings" trait of the Faerie Troll. Fits the race very well, useful in combat situations, but not overtly overpowering.
- Find Exotic Familiar and Nondescript spell. Have you voted for Nondescript in the contest (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?473243-5e-Spellbrew-contest-I)?
- The items (such as redcap sling or shinaelestran pipes) that do something that a spell does. In my mind, this is a particular trait of fey/feywild things: that items are magical as a part of their function. Wands are so uninspired - a stick of wood that does a spell. But pipes that beguile the senses or a sling that is especially powerful - that captures the imagination.
- Also, bottled twilight - the strange grounding of the ephemeral is striking. It reminds me of the fey encounter in "The Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss I had the same thought when I first saw the item in the 4e splatbook, Heroes of the Feywild. A book that was surprisingly useless for compiling this supplement. :smallannoyed:

I know that you were concerned about your odd and new race traits. Nothing stuck out like a sore thumb to me, but if you want to draw my attention to anything specific let me know.

This document is well done.

[Spore]

I think I will add a few thoughts based on fluff rather than crunch (just because I am so terrible at crunch):

Boggart: They HAVE to have suffering. It's not just a hobby that let's them excel, it's necessary. I have never seen a Fey starve (well, you could say Tinkerbell's sickness in Peter Pan was from not having enough hope) but I figure you could give them a small penalty if they haven't wounded someone in the past 48 hours. Although this speaks against everything D&D 5 stands for (no penalties for race choices) you DO provide very exotic racial choices.

You could give them a ring of sustenance-like effect for the duration in which they inflict the following feelings: Suffering (Bogle), Kills/Fear (Red Cap), Humiliation (Shellycoat). If they get a strong feeling of either they don't need to eat or drink.

Bogle: Bad Luck should be an ability 1/long rest that imposes disadvantage. Deliberate "bad luck" is usually more fun than negating crits. I know you wanted a reverse Halfling trait but I feel there's nothing more feylike than to say: "You might have a bad time." and then the nimble Rogue fumbles their Acrobatics and fall into the dirt.

Cold Rider: My DM made his creation basically an undead with a heart of ice. And I for one really like that heart of ice thing. It has Snow Queen vibes (the original not that weird Disney movie) and I really liked that fluff. You can add it in the fluff description if you want.

Glaistig: I concur with the previous poster on the Charisma thing. Maybe give it Str +1 (their preferred combat style IS their Blood Drain attack) and you can give them the benefit that you added to other Fey. Maximum natural Charisma is 22.

Jogah: That movement speed thing is a giant headache. I know it's supposed to give you a feel for a tiny pixie-esque creature but you have to rework that. If I were DM I would not want to deal with the movement speeds of one of my players if I had allowed a homebrew race in the first place. My idea sounds like this:

Speed.Your base walking speed is 20 feet and your base flying speed is 30 feet. However hurrying like the big folk is strenous to you. Flying against even small air currents is difficult and being as quick as the big people is exhausting to you. If your movement is excessive you suffer TWO stages of exhaustion at the end of the day.

The point is that now the DM and player can decide together what is too much. Otherwise flying for 8 hours is excessive and the character is night useless if there is more than a heavy blow.

Other than that the Jogah feel a bit misplaced if the point of the book were evil-ish Fey. If you only want unaligned Unseelie Fey they're fine.

Soul O Wisp: More clarification on whether (and why!) the character is corporeal rather than incorporeal (are they tho?).

Other than that the rules feel fine. Unbound Glaistig feels like an alternate racial rather than something I would WANT to spend a feat on.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I think I will add a few thoughts based on fluff rather than crunch (just because I am so terrible at crunch):

Boggart: They HAVE to have suffering. It's not just a hobby that let's them excel, it's necessary. I have never seen a Fey starve (well, you could say Tinkerbell's sickness in Peter Pan was from not having enough hope) but I figure you could give them a small penalty if they haven't wounded someone in the past 48 hours. Although this speaks against everything D&D 5 stands for (no penalties for race choices) you DO provide very exotic racial choices.

You could give them a ring of sustenance-like effect for the duration in which they inflict the following feelings: Suffering (Bogle), Kills/Fear (Red Cap), Humiliation (Shellycoat). If they get a strong feeling of either they don't need to eat or drink.

Bogle: Bad Luck should be an ability 1/long rest that imposes disadvantage. Deliberate "bad luck" is usually more fun than negating crits. I know you wanted a reverse Halfling trait but I feel there's nothing more feylike than to say: "You might have a bad time." and then the nimble Rogue fumbles their Acrobatics and fall into the dirt.

Cold Rider: My DM made his creation basically an undead with a heart of ice. And I for one really like that heart of ice thing. It has Snow Queen vibes (the original not that weird Disney movie) and I really liked that fluff. You can add it in the fluff description if you want.

Glaistig: I concur with the previous poster on the Charisma thing. Maybe give it Str +1 (their preferred combat style IS their Blood Drain attack) and you can give them the benefit that you added to other Fey. Maximum natural Charisma is 22.

Jogah: That movement speed thing is a giant headache. I know it's supposed to give you a feel for a tiny pixie-esque creature but you have to rework that. If I were DM I would not want to deal with the movement speeds of one of my players if I had allowed a homebrew race in the first place. My idea sounds like this:

Speed.Your base walking speed is 20 feet and your base flying speed is 30 feet. However hurrying like the big folk is strenous to you. Flying against even small air currents is difficult and being as quick as the big people is exhausting to you. If your movement is excessive you suffer TWO stages of exhaustion at the end of the day.

The point is that now the DM and player can decide together what is too much. Otherwise flying for 8 hours is excessive and the character is night useless if there is more than a heavy blow.

Other than that the Jogah feel a bit misplaced if the point of the book were evil-ish Fey. If you only want unaligned Unseelie Fey they're fine.

Soul O Wisp: More clarification on whether (and why!) the character is corporeal rather than incorporeal (are they tho?).

Other than that the rules feel fine. Unbound Glaistig feels like an alternate racial rather than something I would WANT to spend a feat on.

Thanks for reading. I like the 'ring of sustenance' idea, though I'll have to figure out how to word it, since it'll be different for each subrace. Maybe I won't put anything under the main race and have three full entries in the subraces, like I did for the dryad origins. Also I'd need to define how 'humiliation' works. I'm thinking psychic damage? But then, what's 'suffering'? All HP damage? That's not really fair...

I agree that negating crits isn't the most exciting thing ever, but is once/day anti-inspiration any better? Maybe it is. I'll think about it.

Yeah, I will add the heart of ice thing. I'll put it alongside the stag heart thing, because I like that, too. Then it becomes something the DM can customise to suit their setting.

Glaistigs... I'm listening. If any more people say +3 cha doesn't work, I'll change it. And I did actually want to do the unbound thing as a 'variant' rather than a feat, but the layout of the document favoured feat-ifying it. Plus that jives better with the hamadryad precedent I set in part one. Any more thoughts on this are welcome... I could give the standard glaistig +2 cha / +1 str, then write up a variant with just +2 cha and the kiss ability instead of blood hunger and blood drain maybe.

I am planning to clean up the flying movement thing when I combine the 3 parts. Then I won't have to repeat it half a dozen times, and I can clarify it a lot better. The current text block has been carved up quite a lot from what I originally wrote, and I can see that it would be better if it had more room to breathe. Also, the theme isn't supposed to be monotonically unseelie. I wanted a bit of light in there! Besides, that issue will disappear when I combine the parts.

Are souls-o'-wisp corporeal? I don't actually know. I kind of made them up on the spot. In my head, their incorporeal movement is actually more like Gaseous Form, where they turn into a mist and squeeze through gaps... but then, how do they carry stuff with them? I'm open to any thoughts people may have on this!

[Spore]

. Also I'd need to define how 'humiliation' works. I'm thinking psychic damage? But then, what's 'suffering'? All HP damage? That's not really fair...

Suffering is HP damage when the target has conscience (so no undead and constructs).



I agree that negating crits isn't the most exciting thing ever, but is once/day anti-inspiration any better? Maybe it is. I'll think about it.


It just plainly IS more interesting. Player involvement is more fun unless you're a very passive player (but then why no watch a movie?). The question is: Is it balanced?



Glaistigs... I'm listening. If any more people say +3 cha doesn't work, I'll change it. And I did actually want to do the unbound thing as a 'variant' rather than a feat, but the layout of the document favoured feat-ifying it. Plus that jives better with the hamadryad precedent I set in part one. Any more thoughts on this are welcome... I could give the standard glaistig +2 cha / +1 str, then write up a variant with just +2 cha and the kiss ability instead of blood hunger and blood drain maybe.

It can work and I like it. It is just over the top powerful for any Charisma caster. Barring variant humans it is the strongest choice for warlocks and sorcerers. And it shoots close to top 3 for paladins as well.



Are souls-o'-wisp corporeal? I don't actually know. I kind of made them up on the spot. In my head, their incorporeal movement is actually more like Gaseous Form, where they turn into a mist and squeeze through gaps... but then, how do they carry stuff with them? I'm open to any thoughts people may have on this!

The Will O Wisp is incorporeal and that gives them very powerful resistances and immunities. Too powerful to allow for a PC imho. You could make them fickle spirits that need a dead (or at least weakened) host body. Bog bodies (bod mummies) concealed with illusion magic will do nicely. Still, that's more undead than fey so maybe just a malicious spirit that takes over wanderers?

[Ninja_Prawn]

It can work and I like it. It is just over the top powerful for any Charisma caster. Barring variant humans it is the strongest choice for warlocks and sorcerers. And it shoots close to top 3 for paladins as well.

The Will O Wisp is incorporeal and that gives them very powerful resistances and immunities. Too powerful to allow for a PC imho. You could make them fickle spirits that need a dead (or at least weakened) host body. Bog bodies (bod mummies) concealed with illusion magic will do nicely. Still, that's more undead than fey so maybe just a malicious spirit that takes over wanderers?

Damn charisma casters, always ruining everything. Why does the game need four of them? [/rant]

Yeah, I would never advocate making will-o'-wisps playable. I mean, they're undead, don't really have any free will, can't use any kind of weapon/armour/gear and have stacks of immunities. I wanted the soul-o'-wisp to be sharply distinct from them, hence no resistances/immunities at all.

Playing a spirit that possesses hosts is a cool concept... but I don't think it fits in this particular project; I could see that as an aberration, like the energy riders from Farscape. Also "malicious spirit that takes over wanderers" is kind of the kitsune's thing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsune#Kitsunetsuki) - hence the Dominate ability in its racial feat.

[Belac93]

Really cool. I love the fact that these are unseelie.
Have you considered doing subclasses?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Really cool. I love the fact that these are unseelie.
Have you considered doing subclasses?

Well, I just remembered that I was going to make an 'official' variant Oath of the Ancients, because it's a natural choice for fey but the PHB version's Turn the Faithless ability would end up hitting your allies half the time!

The final document will contain a bonus section on archfey, but there won't be any crunch in that. Just some mini-biographies to give fey-pact warlocks an idea of what they're dealing with.

What other sorts of classes would people like to see? Maybe a Circle of the Twilight for druids? I've had a few looks through old fey-themed prestige classes, and it seems like there weren't that many out there.

EDIT: the document has been updated.
Changes:
Additional clause added to boggarts' Sustenance from Suffering,
Bad Luck changed to anit-inspiration,
Additional clause added to cold riders' Cold Adaptation,
Sentence about stags' hearts changed to include shards of ice
Horse Master renamed to Master Cavalier
Stalkers' Shapechange and related abilities reworded to imply that each individual can have multiple disguises, and
Faerie Ward spell added.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Hello everyone, update time: I have written up a sacred oath and an arcane tradition, both of which incorporate fey themes. I want to know if they seem balanced and coherent - and if there's anything that can be improved. Without further ado:

Oath of the Never-Setting Stars

Humanoid paladins with an affinity for fey creatures and the natural world often become so-called ‘green knights’, swearing the Oath of the Ancients as defined in the PHB. True fey creatures, however, hold themselves to higher standards. All of them, even the vilest of the unseelie fey, share an innate bond to nature that compels them to defend the living and beautiful things in the world. They do not need to swear an oath to do so; it is the entire foundation of their existence.

Instead, fey paladins (those who are not devoted to an archfey or on a quest for vengeance) tend to choose a narrower focus, dedicating their lives to the defence of a location, the protection or acquisition of an item or the perfection of a skill or creative work. Paladins of the never-setting stars pursue their focus to the exclusion of all else, which sometimes leads them to exhibit extremely strange – and chaotic – patterns of behaviour that can only be understood in the context of their singular goal.

This oath therefore appeals particularly to nymphs and satyrs; the former usually swearing to defend their homes and the latter dedicating their lives to composing the perfect song.

Tenets
Respect the natural world. All living things, from the most ancient trees to the smallest insect, are equal in your eyes. You must show the same respect to all.
Strive for perfection. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing properly. You must always strive for perfection in all things.
Be the silence. Your quest is yours alone. You must embrace solitude and meditation, so that you may foster the peace and quiet your quest demands.

Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

Oath of the Never-Setting Stars Spells



Paladin Level
Spells


3rd
Beast Bond, Faerie Ward (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20238229&postcount=2)


5th
Maximillian’s Earthen Grasp, Nondescript (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20238226&postcount=1)


9th
Meld into Stone, Speak with Plants


13th
Conjure Woodland Beings, Grasping Vine


17th
Reincarnate, Tree Stride



Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.

Repel the Interloper. As an action, you present your holy symbol and invoke your divine power to cast out those who would defile your presence. All humanoids within 30 feet of you, except those you specify by name, must make a Wisdom saving throw or be turned for 1 minute or until they take damage.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can’t willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there’s nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.

Perfect Clarity. You can use your Channel Divinity to completely clear your mind, devoting yourself single-mindedly to your quest. As an action, you can say a brief mantra. For the next minute you are immune to the Charmed and Frightened conditions and any attempt to influence your thoughts or emotions using enchantment or illusion spells automatically fails.

Aura of Certainty
Starting at 7th level, you can project your inner sense of conviction onto others around you. You and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you cannot be pushed, shoved or in any way subjected to involuntary movement unless they choose to be.

At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Misty Form
By 15th level, your body takes on a blurred, shifting appearance that makes you very difficult to hit. Any ranged attack made against you at a distance of more than 30 feet has disadvantage.

Guardian of the Wilds
At 20th level, you gain the ability to transform into a terrible monster in defence of all that you hold dear. This ability works exactly like the druid’s Wildshape ability, except that you can only use it once per long rest, the transformation only lasts 1 minute, and you can only choose one of the following forms: Spirit Naga, Tyrannosaurus Rex or Young Green Dragon.
Witch

Far from the Material Plane’s regimented colleges of wizardry, fey wizards learn to tap into the essential magic of the natural world in a manner similar to druids of wild mages.

Although witches still strive to master magic through study and logical reasoning like other wizards, they have a tendency to be somewhat irrational, given to superstition and animism. This may manifest in their mannerisms, methods, or moral compass – and is responsible for the distrust they face from more conventional wizards.

Witches appreciate diversity in all things, and seek to incorporate many different ideas and techniques into their magic. This means they are much more open to new ideas, making them talented diviners and transmuters, though they place no special emphasis on any one school.

Witch’s Familiar
When you choose this tradition at 2nd level, you add the spell Find Familiar to your spellbook if it was not there already.

While your familiar is summoned, you can use an action to touch your familiar and fuse yourself with it. Your normal body is removed from the world and your consciousness now controls the familiar. Your game statistics are replaced by those of the familiar, except that you retain your Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores, your ability to talk and your ability to cast spells, including those with somatic or material components. You may use an action to undo the fusion at any time.

If your familiar is reduced to zero hit points while you are fused with it, you are immediately ejected and any excess damage is applied to you. The familiar disappears to its pocket dimension.

Wild Magic Recovery
Starting at 6th level, you gain the ability to draw upon the wild magic of the Feywild. When you use this ability, you roll 1d6 and recover expended spell slots with a combined level equal to the number rolled. You then trigger a wild magic surge as detailed on page 104 of the PHB. After you use this ability, you must complete a long rest before you can use it again.

Moonsight
At level 10, you gain blindsight out to a range of 5 feet and are immune to the blinded condition.

Witch Apotheosis
At 14th level, your familiar gains the ability to store your spirit in the event of your death. If you die by failing three death saves, your body immediately becomes a lifeless corpse, while your spirit is transferred to your familiar. 1d10 days later, you return to life in a new body that is spontaneously generated within 5 feet of your familiar.
While you are dead, you are able to see and hear through your familiar’s senses, but you are not able to control it or communicate in any way. It will do its best to preserve itself and go to a safe location so that you can regenerate.

[Belac93]

Nice. The witch is awesome.

[Flashy]

Witch and Oath of the Never Ending Stars seem really well balanced on the whole, and are both tremendously flavorful. The only tweak I'd suggest is that I think the wording on the Perfect Clarity channel divinity option should maybe be a little more specific. It's clear what " any attempt to influence your thoughts or emotions using enchantment or illusion spells automatically fails" means when you're talking about enchantment spells, but it's less clear when it comes to illusion. Is it just Fear, Phantasmal Killer, and Phantasmal force, or does it extend to Mislead, Dream, Hypnotic Pattern, etc. Those are all spells that technically affect your thoughts, but it's not instantly clear to me whether those should be included as spells that fail.

[Ninja_Prawn]

The only tweak I'd suggest is that I think the wording on the Perfect Clarity channel divinity option should maybe be a little more specific. It's clear what " any attempt to influence your thoughts or emotions using enchantment or illusion spells automatically fails" means when you're talking about enchantment spells, but it's less clear when it comes to illusion. Is it just Fear, Phantasmal Killer, and Phantasmal force, or does it extend to Mislead, Dream, Hypnotic Pattern, etc. Those are all spells that technically affect your thoughts, but it's not instantly clear to me whether those should be included as spells that fail.

My intention is that the second set of spells is not included in the effect. How do I word that though? I can't just list spells, in case people want to use nee spells that haven't been published yet.

[RazDelacroix]

Woo! Another fey pack! Huh, only downside for me is that I now have to go and print out color copies of this pdf... Anyhow I'll give it an in-depth lookey over later. Thanks!

[PoeticDwarf]

I never thought fey or elf are cool, but because of these I want to play it one or twice. Some are too much like each other and +3 should definitely (standard arrey, and with rolling there is also a good chance highest is 15 or 17). Overall I like this really much

[Ninja_Prawn]

Woo! Another fey pack! Huh, only downside for me is that I now have to go and print out color copies of this pdf... Anyhow I'll give it an in-depth lookey over later. Thanks!

Ohhh... If I were you I'd hold off on the printing for the minute. I'm currently working on a combined pack that contains all three installments in one place - with some slightly updated rules (including these two subclasses). It'll probably be ready in a couple of weeks.

Once that's out, I'll be done with fey homebrew, I promise.


I never thought fey or elf are cool, but becauae of these I want to play it one or twice. Some are too much like each other and +3 should definitely (standard arrey, and with rolling there is also a good chance highest is 15 or 17). Overall I like this really much

I'm glad I've been able to sway you!

I agree that some are quite similar - people have made a lot of requests as to races they'd like me to do, and I had to turn down a lot of them on the grounds that they were too similar to existing ones. It seems that faeries mean many things to many people. I'm mostly happy with where it's ended up.

The +3 charisma glaistig is going to be relegated to a 'variant' sidebar in the final version, but I haven't had any problems with +3s on tiny creatures (which all have ability score penalties). Besides, the tiny races are intentionally extreme and I would understand if a DM restricted their players from using them.

[zeek0]

Aura of Certainty
Starting at 7th level, you can project your inner sense of conviction onto others around you. You and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you cannot be pushed, shoved or in any way subjected to involuntary movement unless they choose to be.

The wording makes it unclear if "involuntary movement" includes mind-altering affects such as Command.

Otherwise, I love both of them. They are fun, entertaining, and would have a place at my table. I eagerly await the full PDF.

[Ninja_Prawn]

The wording makes it unclear if "involuntary movement" includes mind-altering affects such as Command.

Argh, that's another nasty one to have to word. Even worse, I don't know what my RAI is... I hadn't considered that free will is a "privilege, not a right" around spellcasters when I wrote that one. In that case, the concept of voluntary/involuntary action is a huge meta-ethical mess.

It'd be a clearer ruling to say that all movement in all cases is affected - a paladin can choose not to move even if someone uses Command or Suggestion. But is that overpowered in the context of the game? And does it create a weird loophole where you can be Suggested to do anything... but if you have to walk somewhere to complete the suggestion, you can't do it?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Okay everyone, I've finally got the 'combined' pack into a presentable shape. It incorporates all three previous documents into one PDF, with the two new subclasses and the updated glaistig (plus I've changed out some of the pictures with better ones). It's not 100% finalised yet, but it's probably ready to print if that's what you want to do.

The only thing left to add is examples of names for each race. I've done pixie and petal and I know where I'm going with faerie, huldufolk and glaistig, but the rest might take a while to feel out.