Fairy Tale Monsters 4e

[roulette]

Ok, so the idea for my campaign is that my PCs will be facing different fairy tale creatures as enemies. I don't have much in terms of story yet because I want to know if this is even possible before I start planning it. What I want from you people is monsters that can fit as different fairy tale creatures. My party is going to be four PCs starting at lvl 5 and ideally this campaign will take them to Paragon tier. This is for 4e, by the way

[NecroRebel]

Many, many creatures can fit as fairy tale monsters; just reflavor various critters with the stats you want and you're done. The easiest, of course, would be various forms of Dragon (for dragons, naturally) and Fae (for elves, leprechauns, nature spirits, and other fae), but Undead (for various spirits/otherwise incorporeal entities), Elementals (for other spirits), and basically anything can be made to fit anything.

Just look through the Monster Manuals for something with stats vaguely similar to what you want the critters to have, then reflavor them as necessary. Changing damage types generally doesn't significantly change power level, even if it's from something easy to resist like Fire to something relatively uncommon like Psychic, and "a barrage of poison spikes shooting at an area" and "a cloud of faerie dust choking and enchanting you" can be mechanically identical, so just twist things subtlely to fit what you need them to.

[Swordgleam]

Someone came out with a book of semi-traditional fairy creatures a little while ago. I can't seem to find it right now, though.

[kieza]

I ran the Wild Hunt for my group a while back: lots of Fey Hounds (MM I) with an NPC Ranger on a horse. If you're running this for a level 5 group, you might need to delevel the hounds, and you might as well make the ranger from scratch.

When I ran it, I involved a skill challenge before the fight: the group was running from the hunt, hoping to keep away from it until the sun rose. Each "round" every player got to make one skill check to contribute to the group outrunning the hounds: Athletics to climb and jump up difficult terrain, Endurance to flat-out sprint, Stealth to hide from them, Nature to convince them you were a fellow predator, etc. If more than half the party made their checks, they got a success. 0 successes meant that they faced the full fury of the Hunt (Level + 4 encounter). 1-2 successes meant that they faced fewer hounds (Level +2 encounter), and 3-4 successes meant that they faced only a few hounds as the strength of the Hunt faded. 5 successes (very hard) meant that they faced only the master of the hunt, who acknowledged them as worthy of respect and gave them an item (the Horn of the Wild Hunt, a custom artifact) as a token of esteem.

[Balain]

It's very possible to have the fairy tale story as an adventure. I think there have been many published modules in the past based around fairy tales. 1st edition had a module that was the party playing through Alice in wonder land.

Easiest way is, what was said. Go through monsters that are like the fairytale monsters and tweak them or change the name.

You could use animals, fey animals, gnomes, dwarves, elves, dragons, Satyrs, ghosts, giants, unicorns. Heck you could do little red riding hood and make the big bad wolf a werewolf.

[roulette]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I hadn't thought to delevel creatures that worked but were too high level. All these suggestions will really help. I like the idea of having the big bad wolf as a werewolf. Can anyone think of any other "classic" fairy tale characters that might make good boss fights?

[Serpentine]

I've been storing up an idea for a while of an advanced Mimic that disguises itself as a tall tower with a great rope of plaited golden hair hanging out it's "window" (mouth)...
Also a Jack and the Beanstalk with a Storm or Cloud Giant.
I'm a 3.5er, though, so I dunno whether either of those are doable in 4th.

[Tiki Snakes]

I've been storing up an idea for a while of an advanced Mimic that disguises itself as a tall tower with a great rope of plaited golden hair hanging out it's "window" (mouth)...
Also a Jack and the Beanstalk with a Storm or Cloud Giant.
I'm a 3.5er, though, so I dunno whether either of those are doable in 4th.

All of the above, pretty simply, yes.

Ah, Comedy Mimic Moments.

[WickerNipple]

Hard to beat wikipedia for the start of your research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fairy_tales

[roulette]

Ok, so I think I want to have Maleficent from Disney's Sleeping Beauty be the BBEG for this campaign. Any thoughts on how to build her?

[Mando Knight]

Human Sorcerer with Polymorph or Shapechange. Or otherwise, just a Black Dragon.

[Ubercaledor]

Have you already played Kingdom Hearts on the PS2?

Otherwise, I would highly recommend it.