Fey Guardians

[Mike_Lemmer]

In one of my campaigns, I've set a new challenge for myself: use as few undead as possible. Now I need to determine what I use as my eternal dungeon guardians instead. Constructs & elementals are fit fine for brute force, but what covers abilities, drains, and magic? How about fey?

Fey are cunning, sneaky tricksters. Their immortality means they can guard it for a long time. Their supernatural power and skill with magic means they can set alarms and warp in just when trouble arrives, instead of going nuts waiting centuries for a visitor. They could set up agreements or be ritually bound to serving, since they're tied so closely to primal magic. And they can be cruel towards mortals, always a plus for dungeon dwellers.

The problems I see are:

Homebrewing a lot of new fey
Not breaking my players' sense of disbelief


But it'll be worth it if I can avoid, "Oh joy, more zombies. *yawn*"

So, do you think it's a good idea or not? Any advice for persuing it?

P.S. This campaign doesn't have Turn Undead, so not using undead won't gimp the clerics' usefulness.

[DracoDei]

If they are coming in based on wards they would have to be powerful enough to have some sort of teleportation power (and the more common ones I can think of work via trees which aren't common in your typical dungeon.), keep that in mind when homebrewing. Also, one way of the party dealing with this is to not trip the wards. Thus Search and Disable Device may get a lot more play.

Shameless plug:
Alternatively, for fresh and original types of mindless undead, see my extended signature... acid spitting stomachs, crushing intestines, lungs that attack with Shout, and floating hearts that litterally pulse with negative energy.

[Closet_Skeleton]

The Crossroads Guardians in Forgotten Realms are Fey. I think they're in Magic of Faerun.

If you add in a bunch of celtic mumbo jumbo and stone circles, using fey for more things than Nymphs and Pixies will make more sense.

[Arioch]

Probably a good idea. The campaign I'm about to run has a LOT of undead, but I have enough supplements and homemade ones to minimise the zombie quota. I like fey, though. Sídhe are awesome.

One problem I can see is that most fey resent being controlled or limited in any way. They consider themselves superior to humans and don't like being beholden to them. Oh, and they hold grudges for a long time. Not all fey are like this though. You can always make new ones.:smallsmile:

[Rigon]

Fey guardians doesn't sound bad.
If all we need is trees than we can make it a dungeon-forest. Like an ancient fey druid moved a divine tree from the "elemental plane of really big trees" (i know that tree is not an element) into a natural space of her own twisted mind. Then he set up a door, a few traps... a potted plant here and a pile of skulls there... and it's ready for visitors. It's all about the old theory saying that knowledge plus devotion equals dungeon engineering madness. I also would say that fire elementals are kinda out of place... in a tree.

quest idea: the NPC (king, mayor, elder, guy who pays the drinks) tells the PCs about recent earthquakes and that many fissures cracked up in the forest (info from local woodchopper association). the party follows the lead while watching not to fall into the lead (as the lead is a giant a fissure) and finds a big tree (it glimmers at night! batteries not included) literrally popping out from the ground. after running around the tree - which will be fun, considering that the forest is fragmented by fissures - they notice an opening which is big enough to enter. inside a dungeon unfolds. please try to avoid words like "steel" and "stone" while describing the interior. they might encounter enchanted vermin (too much tree sap! i told you to keep a limit), earth/water/mud elementals, druidish constructs, dire/potted/domestic plant monsters (actually plants can be pretty dangerous... let us say it has low damage and a high dc poison), here and then a few fey female rogues can ambush the party (imagine them walking down inside a tree for DAYS). after a while it turns out (maybe after speaking with one of the defeated fairies) that the tree wont stop entering the realm until <your mission completion action of choice>. Your might even have to leave - and come back to - the dungeon for a piece of fey magic tools to stop the tree before it blocks the orbit of the moon. The end game boss could be a fey druid/cleric/sorcerer (or a group of them, make the party sweat).

[Yakk]

Golems/Elementals need not be creatures of brute force.

Imagine finely crafted golems that are containers for an elemental spirit. The elemental spirit is channeled by the golems form into special abilities, or even used to power spellcasting.

Fey spirits could also be trapped in such a construct.

Now all you need is an ancient empire who knew more about magical constructs (easy and common) who used this magic to build guardians for their tomes and cities.

...

There are also the demon options.

...

What if it was "normal" to make pacts with Fey/Demons to provide protection for your cities/tombs? These pacts wouldn't end with the mere passing of an age or an empire: so you would have rather bored Demons and Fey whose job it is to provide protection for an abandoned Tomb or a City or what have you.

They would wile away the centuries building monsters to defend their domain. Hence the monsters you see in dungeons. Some would even cultivate ecologies of monster-humans: entire humanoid races bred to be security for the treasures of empires long past, bound by foul or fey magic to spend eternity in the dark dank ruins.

...

Some images:
A rock man-shaped being, thick, with glowing geometric glyphs and lines in red.

A vaguely human-shaped creature made out of arcs of silvery metal, with ball of flickering energy floating in the center.

A finely carved wooden creature, a characiture of a human, dripping with moss, and when it moves it emits silence.

A painting on a wall, too vibrant for it's age, which unfolds itself from the wall.

A swirl of rocks floating in the air.

A short slimy grey creature, one eye twice as large as the other, wielding a staff embedded with bones.

An animated inukshuk.

A shiny suit of plate, lacking mail, with nothing in the gaps.

An animated sword and shield, floating in the air.

A spiraling network of gold wires that moves as if it is breathing.

...

Now, mechanically, you can distinguish between the body and the spirit which animates it.

That would allow you to mix-and-match from a finite list.

The animating spirit would be inside the body. Some spells and abilities would effect both the spirit and the construct that it animates.

This could even extend to undead: you can use negative energy spirits to animate an undead (that is the standard method), but other methods might also work.

Give the animating spirit a separate set of abilities than the body, and each of the animated creatures can now act once physically and one magically per round. Exorcism spells would do damage to animating spirits. Destroying either the animating spirit or the physical body would send the animating spirit off to where it came.

This has the benefit that the physical body of many constructs might be highly magic resistant, while the animating spirit might be very difficult to deal with using physical powers: a bit of niche protection. (Avoid making everything sneak-attack immune: finding the key spots in the network of power that binds the spirit to the body should be a valid move for a rogue to do).

Not all animating spirits need be offensive spellcasters. Some might have no function beyond powering the body. Some might only buff the body. Some might counter spell. Some might detect invisible creatures. Some might have a limited set of spell-like abilities. And some might be full or nearly full casters.

If you aren't using Psionics for PCs, you could use Psionic rules for spirit/demon/fey magic. It is usually easier to build a Psionic NPC than a spellcaster (shorter power list than spell lists usually), and it generates a nice bit of "difference".

...

Useful?

[Mike_Lemmer]

If they are coming in based on wards they would have to be powerful enough to have some sort of teleportation power (and the more common ones I can think of work via trees which aren't common in your typical dungeon.), keep that in mind when homebrewing. Also, one way of the party dealing with this is to not trip the wards. Thus Search and Disable Device may get a lot more play.

Well, fey really don't need to be powerful to have teleport; just look at how many low-level devils get Greater Teleport at will. I don't think letting the fey be summoned, at will, wherever their personal rune is inscribed will require much power.

Speaking of trees, not all fey are related to woods. The Fey type implies a connection to "nature or some other force or place". There's fey for the arctic, the home, the hearth, etc. You could make fey for just about any primal force: song, death, battle, the elements, stone, the home, etc.

[Rigon]

Golems/Elementals need not be creatures of brute force.

Imagine finely crafted golems that are containers for an elemental spirit. The elemental spirit is channeled by the golems form into special abilities, or even used to power spellcasting.

Fey spirits could also be trapped in such a construct.

Now all you need is an ancient empire who knew more about magical constructs (easy and common) who used this magic to build guardians for their tomes and cities.

...

There are also the demon options.


Your golem idea reminds me of binding imprisoned souls into golems to serve as fuel (read more about it in: Giph'lan "Souldrain" Carnimoth - Advanced Necromancy for Practice II). This might make up a quest in itself. Some sort of "re-thought" pyramid. Guarded with the unwilling...

I like it.

PS: please do not try to look for the book. it's a joke. try to laugh as it helps my ego.

[Stycotl]

overall, i like the idea of fey guardians. i think it would add a lot of flavor to a campaign. your players will have their eyes glued to you as you describe the scene, like you were their favorite sitcom on tv. nice idea. aaron out.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Here are a few of my own fey guardians if interested. Most of them could be used in a purely dungeon setting.

Burl Noggin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10822)
Cellarblight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11567)
Crystal Woman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11316)
Dullahan (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58184)
Gremlin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3410950&postcount=9)


And a template that doesn't turn one into a fey, but the fey are what cause it...
Black Passion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10669)