Gifts of the Fae [3.5]

[dragonfan6490]

Howdy fellow Playgrounders,

I'm currently working on a campaign (whose log is in my sig, just saying ) and I've got an idea for the players, at some point between levels, lets say 4 and 7 to have an encounter with the Fae, notably the Seelie Court. They would do some sort of favor for the Fae, I don't know, save the Faerie Princess or something like that. Anywho, as their reward, the Faerie Lords would bestow upon each of them a gift, a special power, but true to Fae form, they would have some sort of drawback. Nothing too terrible, but something.

Anywho, I'm trying to figure out what their gifts should be and what the drawbacks would be. The party consists of a lesser Aasimar Sorcerer, a Gnome Bard, an Elf homebrew Druid (whose link is in my sig), an Elf Cleric, and a Human Warblade.

Note: This is a fairly high powered game, and so I don't mind the gifts being powerful, just not too powerful. I'll probably start a few more threads similar to this one for advice on other aspects of the campaign.

I have an idea for the Sorcerer and the Bard. The Sorcerer may get the ability to ignore dice pool limits, such as for Fireball, but that may be a power for a magic item. The Bard though, I think I will give her access to Spell Songs from Monte Cook's Book of Eldritch Might.

Thanks in advance!

[Kol Korran]

i suggest for the gifts to be personalized for the players and characters, not just their class. who are they? what do they like? despise? what are their aspirations? frustrations? and such...? this would help us suggest ideas better.

but since i'm allready here, maybe a few suggestions:
- for the druid: his "summon nature's ally" spells may now summons a special sort of fey. that fey is usually stronger over all than other summoned creatures of that level. however, there is a price- the fey exacts it at the end of the encounter, perhaps from the druid, perhaps from his friends (the price could be the theft of an item, or temporary ability damage, or preferably something far more personal to the druid). the fey might not exact the price each time it visits, but it does demand it, perhaps with the threat of the elven court extracting vengence if it doesn't get paid.
- another possibility for the druid: he gets another choice for an animal companion- a strange fey like creature, again more powerfull of those it's kind. it may even be intelligent! but this creature has needs, strange needs, that are somewhat difficult to deal with. and also- since it's a gift of the fey court, they will look harshly on the character if it doesn't try his best to take care of it.

the cleric:
- he may get a different spell of level X or less persisted each day (make a random table). however, 2 domain spells of random levels turn to be of the plant/ animal domain instead, reflecting the influence of the fey onto his beliefs.

the gnome/ sorcerer:
- their spells/ songs have a chance (1 in X) to also curse the target with some curse (either random or to their choosing. i suggest you make it a random curse, ranging from silly such as hair turns purple, to serious like the curse spell or stonger). however, whenever certain conditions are met, the caster can be cursed in return! (doesn't get through spell resistence, got hit by a spell/effect of a certain school, or preferably something much more tailored to your players)

sadly i don't know the warblade, so i can't really help you there.

oh, one last question, what do you mean by:

such as for Fireball, but that may be a power for a magic item

do you mean the power will only work for a specific magic item? or for magic items but not his own spells?

hope this helped,
Kol.

[OverdrivePrime]

For the Warblade, maybe play off the story of sir Gawain. His strength is tied to the Sun. He is at -2 strength from dusk til dawn, but +6 to strength at high noon. From dawn 'til noon his strength rises, and it slowly decreases over the afternoon.

[dragonfan6490]

i suggest for the gifts to be personalized for the players and characters, not just their class. who are they? what do they like? despise? what are their aspirations? frustrations? and such...? this would help us suggest ideas better.

but since i'm allready here, maybe a few suggestions:
- for the druid: his "summon nature's ally" spells may now summons a special sort of fey. that fey is usually stronger over all than other summoned creatures of that level. however, there is a price- the fey exacts it at the end of the encounter, perhaps from the druid, perhaps from his friends (the price could be the theft of an item, or temporary ability damage, or preferably something far more personal to the druid). the fey might not exact the price each time it visits, but it does demand it, perhaps with the threat of the elven court extracting vengence if it doesn't get paid.
- another possibility for the druid: he gets another choice for an animal companion- a strange fey like creature, again more powerfull of those it's kind. it may even be intelligent! but this creature has needs, strange needs, that are somewhat difficult to deal with. and also- since it's a gift of the fey court, they will look harshly on the character if it doesn't try his best to take care of it.

the cleric:
- he may get a different spell of level X or less persisted each day (make a random table). however, 2 domain spells of random levels turn to be of the plant/ animal domain instead, reflecting the influence of the fey onto his beliefs.

the gnome/ sorcerer:
- their spells/ songs have a chance (1 in X) to also curse the target with some curse (either random or to their choosing. i suggest you make it a random curse, ranging from silly such as hair turns purple, to serious like the curse spell or stonger). however, whenever certain conditions are met, the caster can be cursed in return! (doesn't get through spell resistence, got hit by a spell/effect of a certain school, or preferably something much more tailored to your players)

sadly i don't know the warblade, so i can't really help you there.

oh, one last question, what do you mean by:

do you mean the power will only work for a specific magic item? or for magic items but not his own spells?

hope this helped,
Kol.

I meant that the power would be granted from a magic item and my Druid doesn't have Summon Nature's Ally on their spell list and don't get an Animal Companion. I like your idea for the Spell Songs drawbacks though, I may use it.

For the Warblade, maybe play off the story of sir Gawain. His strength is tied to the Sun. He is at -2 strength from dusk til dawn, but +6 to strength at high noon. From dawn 'til noon his strength rises, and it slowly decreases over the afternoon.

I love that idea. I think that it is a great power for the Warblade or any melee based class to have. I will definately take it into consideration.

[Kzickas]

The sorceror can get an untyped bonus to charisma, but people he's interacted with will start doing strange things and claim that they did it for him or because he wanted them to. If pressed they won't know how they know that he want's this, but this won't rock their belief that he does. You can adjust how common this is and how large an interaction is needed to taste.

[Signmaker]

While most don't come with drawbacks, there are a few magic items presented in the various Seelie/Unseelie web articles on the WotC course. Perhaps if you used those as a baseline you could derive some interesting gifts.

If it were me, I'd have at least one rather normal item that curdled fresh milk a la Puck.