Unseelie Fey Villain

[Chester]

So I stumbled across the Unseelie Fey template from Dragon Magazine. I'd never seen it before.

IMO, it's completely inappropriate for player characters, at least in my group.

But for NPC villains......

I rolled for wings and vision, ended up with dragonlike wings and low light vision. Fine. Now I'm thinking of a villain build. Warlocks come to mind. Maybe a summoner? I don't know.

Does anyone have a suggestion, who may have done this before? Not looking for a specific build, just some ideas that might work well with such a template.

[Eldariel]

So I stumbled across the Unseelie Fey template from Dragon Magazine. I'd never seen it before.

IMO, it's completely inappropriate for player characters, at least in my group.

But for NPC villains......

I rolled for wings and vision, ended up with dragonlike wings and low light vision. Fine. Now I'm thinking of a villain build. Warlocks come to mind. Maybe a summoner? I don't know.

Does anyone have a suggestion, who may have done this before? Not looking for a specific build, just some ideas that might work well with such a template.

Any of the typical Fey-classes work well. Bard(/Sublime Chord), Sorcerer, Favored Soul, Wilder, basically any Charisma-based spellcasting class. Though other casting classes work too (Druid and Cleric are both quite natural - Unseelie Fey have a connection to undeath or at least body marionettes) - just note that Faerie-options do mostly center around Charisma and magic (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030815a). Though arrows work too; Charming the Arrow goes beautifully into any caster archer builds such as Bardcher or Sorc-based Gishes. Faeries are all about trickery and magic and Unseelie ones about malicious ones at that. Charisma-focus lends itself to shapeshifting, charming, dominating, social manipulation and in general sowing distrust and general mischief (Faeries are nothing if not Chaotic incarnate). And all of those do again revolve around spellcasting classes. I'd say Bard is the quintessential Faerie-class but there are of course plenty of ways to go - and an Unseelie Bard probably focuses more on the fear- and debuff aspects of the class.

[daremetoidareyo]

So I stumbled across the Unseelie Fey template from Dragon Magazine. I'd never seen it before.

IMO, it's completely inappropriate for player characters, at least in my group.

But for NPC villains......

I rolled for wings and vision, ended up with dragonlike wings and low light vision. Fine. Now I'm thinking of a villain build. Warlocks come to mind. Maybe a summoner? I don't know.

Does anyone have a suggestion, who may have done this before? Not looking for a specific build, just some ideas that might work well with such a template.
What season did you choose? The winter season is a great save debuffer. Dropping opponents Saves by their Charisma modifier works really well with a poison user or a beguiler or both

[Chester]

Any of the typical Fey-classes work well. Bard(/Sublime Chord), Sorcerer, Favored Soul, Wilder, basically any Charisma-based spellcasting class. Though other casting classes work too (Druid and Cleric are both quite natural - Unseelie Fey have a connection to undeath or at least body marionettes) - just note that Faerie-options do mostly center around Charisma and magic (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030815a). Though arrows work too; Charming the Arrow goes beautifully into any caster archer builds such as Bardcher or Sorc-based Gishes. Faeries are all about trickery and magic and Unseelie ones about malicious ones at that. Charisma-focus lends itself to shapeshifting, charming, dominating, social manipulation and in general sowing distrust and general mischief (Faeries are nothing if not Chaotic incarnate). And all of those do again revolve around spellcasting classes. I'd say Bard is the quintessential Faerie-class but there are of course plenty of ways to go - and an Unseelie Bard probably focuses more on the fear- and debuff aspects of the class.

Yeas, I thought about Bard, too. Maybe obvious, but the right build....


What season did you choose? The winter season is a great save debuffer. Dropping opponents Saves by their Charisma modifier works really well with a poison user or a beguiler or both

I hadn't chosen a season yet. I'm going to base that on the direction of the build. Still, Winter sounds mean, so it's likely I'll use it.

[weckar]

Winter only works on adjacent foes, though. Not where most fey want to be.

[Demidos]

My DM allowed me to take the template once for a high power game, assuming that I rolled in front of him. I got non-functional wings and eyes, along with blindsight 30 feet.

So I proceeded to make one of my favorite characters, a Winter-based Paladin of Freedom//Witch who was blind outside a range of 30 feet and had to leave the travelling decisions to his mount, but was a terrifying force of nature in combat. Eventually he gained several abilities that effectively rendered him an actual avatar of Death.


In short, don't discount the negative options just because they're "bad". Having a blind villain and thinking through how this might influence his life and tactics can create moral squabbles among the heroes, and also just shape a memorable opponent in a way that just giving him good abilities might not.

[ZamielVanWeber]

As a note: the blinded condition actually stated you could theoretically negate some of its downsides if you experience over a long term. Unseelie Fey is inherited so by default your villain has been grappling with it for some time so you can ignore some of the elements which cripple him for a surprisING adversary.

[DrKerosene]

There is a Shadowcaster prc that has some dispel based shenanigans. I think I tried building a Warlock/Shadowcaster Theurge, or I handwaived the requirements as close enough for a Warlock entry. I built a BBEUnseelie Fey around that, but never got to use them in-game.

Perhaps a Hexblade, Paladin of Tyranny, Blackguard and/or Mortal Hunter combination will be useful.

Alternatively, slap Unseelie Fey on a Lunar Ravager, who then takes levels in Legendary Captain (or whatever other PrCs you like) and give them an eberron airship. Maybe they have a rivalry with some Neogi slavers.