Would a Bugbear and Nymph fusion be attractive or hideous?

[BlueWitch]

If a Bugbear were to merge/fuse or procreate with a Nymph, would the result be attractive or ugly?

Asking for a friend. :P

[The Glyphstone]

Assuming Charisma 10 remains 'average', a normal Bugbear is Cha 9 - slightly below average. The Half-Nymph template grants +4 Cha, so a Half-Nymph Bugbear will have Charisma 13, slightly above average. Not enough variance to guarantee being universally considered attractive or ugly, so it would depend on preference.

[tstewt1921]

I mean...it would depend on which genes the baby got more of.

[Hackulator]

Assuming Charisma 10 remains 'average', a normal Bugbear is Cha 9 - slightly below average. The Half-Nymph template grants +4 Cha, so a Half-Nymph Bugbear will have Charisma 13, slightly above average. Not enough variance to guarantee being universally considered attractive or ugly, so it would depend on preference.

Charisma is not physical attractiveness though, it's force of personality. Plenty of unattractive creatures have high charisma.

From a narrative/storyline perspective I would say given the mystical nature of nymphs, it would end up somewhere between"strangely beautiful" and just "beautiful". It would definitely not be hideous.

If you're looking for a mechanical answer, it would have the power "Awesome Beauty" which is granted by the half-nymph template, so it would literally be so beautiful it shakes you to your core and give you penalties to doing things around it.

[Zaq]

Depends on what you're into.

They're probably beautiful to someone.

[DrMotives]

Sounds like Beauty & the Beast, if they had kids but never broke the curse.

[KillianHawkeye]

Depends on what you're into.

They're probably beautiful to someone.

This is just about exactly what I was going to say.

[BlueWitch]

At best I can imagine she'd be like a bigger "thicker" furry Nymph with small tusks.

[NontheistCleric]

What any individual monster looks like is really up to the DM. After all, even a normal bugbear could potentially be attractive, even coming from the presumably human viewpoint the OP is asking from.

[Crake]

Charisma is not physical attractiveness though, it's force of personality. Plenty of unattractive creatures have high charisma.

From a narrative/storyline perspective I would say given the mystical nature of nymphs, it would end up somewhere between"strangely beautiful" and just "beautiful". It would definitely not be hideous.

If you're looking for a mechanical answer, it would have the power "Awesome Beauty" which is granted by the half-nymph template, so it would literally be so beautiful it shakes you to your core and give you penalties to doing things around it.

There's actually lots of precedence in fairy tales that, despite a fey's attractiveness, they can produce unbearably hideous offspring, which is why for example, feytouched and unseelie fey can range from graceful beauties to hulking monstrosities. The half nymph template is dragon magazine, I would instead use the half fey template for this situation, or potentially the unseelie fey template.

[Mordaedil]

Don't forget that goblins are a type of fey too, in folklore. A fusion of a nymph and bugbear might just result in a different type of fey, like a satyr.

[hamishspence]

The half nymph template is dragon magazine, I would instead use the half fey template for this situation, or potentially the unseelie fey template.

Given that the unseelie fey template is also from Dragon Magazine - there's no particular reason to allow it, if one is already ruling out half-nymph.

[Crake]

Given that the unseelie fey template is also from Dragon Magazine - there's no particular reason to allow it, if one is already ruling out half-nymph.

I mean, it's dragon compendium, slightly more credible :smalltongue: Usually I just go half fey for my games, and reserve seelie/unseelie as an acquired tempalte for fey that actually join a court.

[hamishspence]

For some reason the unseelie fey are supposed to be hybrids of fey and mortal, rather than "improved fey" the way the Seelie are.



Manual of the Planes has an alternate take on Seelie/Unseelie - basically, use half-fiend and half-celestial elves.

[Hackulator]

There's actually lots of precedence in fairy tales that, despite a fey's attractiveness, they can produce unbearably hideous offspring, which is why for example, feytouched and unseelie fey can range from graceful beauties to hulking monstrosities. The half nymph template is dragon magazine, I would instead use the half fey template for this situation, or potentially the unseelie fey template.

Sure, but a nymph is not just any fey, but a fey that is the personification of beauty.

[Crake]

Sure, but a nymph is not just any fey, but a fey that is the personification of beauty.

And succubi are the demonic personification of beauty/lust, yet they can still produce atrociously hideous offspring.