# Monsters of the feywild.



## Aloïsius (Sep 30, 2007)

This new plane is perhaps the more exiting of the new cosmology. I think it can be used for a lot of heroic adventures, and that those adventures may be somewhat different of the average, because the monsters won't be the great classic (undead, dragons, fiends and humanoids...) of d&d.

so, I would like to compile a list of the monsters that are crying out loud "use me in a feywild adventure !"

I will start with the 3.5 MM :
* Hags : all variety, including night hags, who have the power to enter the prime at night...
* Fey : all variety, of course, with evil or savage variants
* Giant eagle and giant owl : intelligent beast seems perfectly appropriate. 
* Dire animals : they should be different of their prime relative. How ? They should always be the pets of someone... Formorians ?
* Aranea : everything shapechanging does fit well in this plane. Oh, and, because there isn't ethereal plane anymore, maybe she can kill the phase spider and take its stuff... An aranea with the ability to planeshift and shapechange would be nice
* Barghest : Here is what happen when a breed of demons enter the Feywild. 
* Centaurs : probably, but I never knew what kind of adventure do with those guys...
* Cockatrix : this kind of magical beast (puny looking but really dangerous) has its place here.
* Dragons : some of them could have retreated here, to escape older rivals. So, while wyrmlings are too young for the place, and Great wyrm to powerfull, adults and young adults seems good candidates
* dryad : see "fey"
* eladrins : looks like they came from this place
* ettins : the two-headed talking brute fits perfectly IMHO in this kind of setting
* will o wisp : of course ! However, this one may also live in the shadowfell. I wonder if there are passages between those two planes ?
* gargoyle : maybe. Another "what to do with this monster" however.
* giants : the land of giants seems a very close concept to the land of fey. And, if the formorians are giants...
* gnomes : Yup ! They are not in the PHB because they are hidden in the feywild. 
* griffons, hippogrifs... : the classical mount of the nobles in the feywild
* merfolk : probably. They may have hidden cities in the feywild, where prime humans don't see anything but the sea.
* assassin vines and other plant creatures : yup. This is the place where the forrest can eat you.
* lilend : probably, they are native of the plane. 
* winter wolf : yup ! The hunting beast of the frost evil faeries...
* were-stuff : I guess there should be a difference between the one in the feywild, and those living in the prime. I think those living in the feywild are somewhat more in control of their curse, and can be of any alignment. 
* ogre-mage, ogre : see giants. They should be more intelligent (ogre) than their mundane counterpart. Think Lyonesse ogres.
* roc : giant bird are cool, especialy when they eat the PC horses. 
* satyrs : of course, yes.
* sphinx : answer the riddle or be eaten. This kind of interaction is somewhat easier to acknowledge in the feywild.
* treant : not all of them are good...
* trolls : see giants
* worgs : see winter-wolf and giant eagle : talking evil beasts is a classic concept.


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## Szatany (Sep 30, 2007)

I would remove dragons, they are overplayed and would cheapen the plane overall. Adding dragons = lowering the uniqueness.

Also, you forgot of couatl 

I already know what I'm gonna do when I get my hands on 4e. I will divide all creatures into feywild and prime, and most of them will exist only in one of those places, not both. That makes the place really stand out and unique.


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## Aloïsius (Sep 30, 2007)

Szatany said:
			
		

> I already know what I'm gonna do when I get my hands on 4e. I will divide all creatures into feywild and prime, and most of them will exist only in one of those places, not both. That makes the place really stand out and unique.




There should be a way for the creature of one plane to enter the other. But it's possible to add something like a time limit : after the limit is passed, the feywild creature become ill, and eventualy die, if it can't return to the feywild. In the reverse, if you don't go back in the prime before a certain amount of time, bad things can happen : you may be entrapped forever, you may return 2 or 3 century later...


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## Szatany (Sep 30, 2007)

I don't see why feywild creatures should have an inherent ability to planeshift. But some with magical talent should be able to do so (and take the others). I guess I prefer Feywild more of a contained place.


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## Moonshade (Sep 30, 2007)

Looking at that list of suggested creatures, Feywild could end up being quite an interesting environment. IMO, it sounds more fun than the new take on fiends. My DMs haven't done much with fey but I'm hoping that will change if 4E manages to make Feywild exciting and relatively easy to use; I think it has potential.


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## Szatany (Sep 30, 2007)

Another way to make Feywild different from Prime is to disallow undead presence there (and subconsequently necromancy spells and effects).
That of course means that fey can't enter Shadowfell.


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## CleverNickName (Sep 30, 2007)

Feywild.  Great concept, stupid name.   :\   It reminds me of the Sphere of Life, from White Wolf's "Mage: The Ascention."  It could also be made into the mythical "Land of Faerie" with a little bit of elbow grease.

But I digress.  This thread is about monsters, not stupid names for planes.

I think that a Feywild-themed adventure should include:

- The setting would be a small demi-plane in Feywild, taking the form of a vast clearing or meadow dotted with caves and groves of yew trees.  A magical forest would form the boundary of this "adventure zone," with only one trail in and one trail out.  If a creature were to try to enter or leave by any other means except planar travel, they would get lost in a strange fog for 1d4 hours, and end up right back where they left the trail or clearing.

- The random encounter key would contain about a dozen fey-type creatures, three or four dangerous plants, and a half-dozen animals/insects...all of a CR (or level, in 4E-speak) suitable for the party.  There should also be a unicorn or other friendly creature on the list, to assist the party if they get into trouble.

- There should be a half-dozen "fixed" encounters; monster lairs to explore and magical things to find.  A hag lair, a treant grove, a cyclops cave, and an aranea nest are great choices.  I would also throw in something really fun for deep roleplay, like a small village where everyone in the whole town is a werewolf, or a pixie in disguise, or under the thrall of a powerful (and evil) fey, or a figment of the party's imagination created by a powerful "spirit of the glade," something like that.

- Treasure should take on a more natural, organic flavor.  Instead of healing potions, the party discovers magical apples that function the same way.  Instead of coins, jewelry, and other manufactured metal items, the party finds pearls, uncut gems, and magical items made out of darkwood.  A magical pool of water allows the party to "warp" from one side of the glade to another, or to another plane.  So on and so forth.

- The Big-Bad of the adventure could be a high-level druid (assuming druids make the cut), who insists that all humans must be destroyed in order to restore the "balance of nature" in the world.  Another good choice would be a special "Feywild dragon," a green dragon with a fey creature's talent tree or something (hard to say, without seeing the 4E MM).  Or perhaps the boss is a friendly creature acting under some sort of curse, and the party has to break the curse without killing the Big-Bad...a couatl turned evil by a scheming rival, perhaps.


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## GAAAHHH (Sep 30, 2007)

Szatany said:
			
		

> Another way to make Feywild different from Prime is to disallow undead presence there (and subconsequently necromancy spells and effects).
> That of course means that fey can't enter Shadowfell.





That ignores Fey myths including creatures such as the banshee and sluagh.  I would say that certain areas of the Feywild should have portals to the Shadowfell, but those areas are twisted by the exposure.


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## thundershot (Sep 30, 2007)

I love the new cosmology, but isn't the feywild a combination of the spirit realm (for OA and Spirit Shaman in 3E) and the realm of the faerie?

I can't wait to start my new campaign with all of this goodness.. The planes might actually get USED..


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## Kaodi (Sep 30, 2007)

The Spirit of the Wild from MM2 is a big, ass-kicking fey, if I remember correctly. They would make cool upper-end monsters for that plane, though they could perhaps also use a namechange.


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## hong (Oct 1, 2007)

CleverNickName said:
			
		

> Feywild.  Great concept, stupid name.   :\




Pfah. "Rakshastan". Nuff said.


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## Exen Trik (Oct 1, 2007)

Szatany said:
			
		

> I would remove dragons, they are overplayed and would cheapen the plane overall. Adding dragons = lowering the uniqueness.



Pseudodragons should be an exception to this, they're almost fey as it is! I could see a few other varieties of dragon being unique to the plane, like song dragons perhaps...? I'm not familiar enough with them to be sure about that though.


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## Baron Opal (Oct 1, 2007)

Moonshade said:
			
		

> My DMs haven't done much with fey but I'm hoping that will change if 4E manages to make Feywild exciting and relatively easy to use; I think it has potential.




Planescape gave all kinds of great structure for alien environments and otherplanar creatures. We've had precious little for fae and I'm very excited that WotC will devote some energy towards this sector of myth.


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## Aloïsius (Oct 1, 2007)

Szatany said:
			
		

> I don't see why feywild creatures should have an inherent ability to planeshift. But some with magical talent should be able to do so (and take the others). I guess I prefer Feywild more of a contained place.



Not an ability to planeshift, just the use of some passage between the two planes. Eg : "at midnight, if you cross the faerie circle while closing your eyes, you enter the feywild" or "jump in the lake from the high of this cliff, head first, if you want to go back to our home". Of course, the latter can be a stupid faerie joke. 
Anyway, I would like to have interaction between the two planes. The shadowfell is where the deads go, maybe you can reach the feywild through dreams ?


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## TerraDave (Oct 3, 2007)

thundershot said:
			
		

> isn't the feywild a combination of the spirit realm (for OA and Spirit Shaman in 3E) and the realm of the faerie?




This is assuming that they (spirit world and faeries) wheren't already the same thing...

Setting aside the names, the faywild and shadowfell are cool _because _ they tap so directly into mythology and folklore. 

Take Halloween. The original idea was that on that night, doors to the other world would open, allowing spirits of the dead to walk the earth. Know, we have that particular other world right in the core rules.


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## Li Shenron (Oct 3, 2007)

Szatany said:
			
		

> I guess I prefer Feywild more of a contained place.




I probably prefer the opposite, to have Feywild closely tied to the material plane, in a way reminiscent of the Ethereal plane.


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## Stormtalon (Oct 3, 2007)

Hmm, now this all gives me an idea for a nice way to get a party into the Feywild without them even realizing it.

Imagine, if you will, a wild, almost primeval area of forest with an anomalous clearing deep within.  In the clearing stands an ancient set of menhirs in the form of a great gate.  This area is one of only a few where the Prime and the Feywild are so close together that a person can see from one to the other without difficulty, and without noticing that something in the other plane isn't exactly in the same place as yourself.  Now, in the party's explorations, they would surely step through the gate (after discerning that it appears no more magical than anywhere else in the area), perhaps just in the process of investigating it.

The gate, however, takes you from Prime to Feywild.  But they wouldn't notice it at all, as everything would look the same, and they'd see each other still no matter which plane they were on.  Once they start venturing away, those who didn't step thru would see the others begin to fade -- and vice versa.

That's when they might realize what's happened.  And going back to the gate and trying to reverse it reveals one other detail.  It's one-way....


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## Aloïsius (Oct 3, 2007)

I wonder if they will use the seelie/unseelie subtype, or something like that. There are those eladrins, and there are the formorians... This could allow good mythical background, à la Formorians VS Tuatha de Dana... I hope there is enough fluff in the MM and DMG to use them "out of the box".


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## Simia Saturnalia (Oct 3, 2007)

Li Shenron said:
			
		

> I probably prefer the opposite, to have Feywild closely tied to the material plane, in a way reminiscent of the Ethereal plane.



Absolutely, and the Shadowfell as well. I like the idea of certain places and times when the walls between the worlds are weak, and one can slip sideways without realizing it (at first). Sometimes, these pockets are held up against the world by a powerful creature of spirit, and heroes are needed to return the world to rightness.

I love the new cosmology.


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## Rechan (Oct 3, 2007)

Okay, I guess that Formorians aren't the Lawful ant outsiders then?


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## Aloïsius (Oct 3, 2007)

Rechan said:
			
		

> Okay, I guess that Formorians aren't the Lawful ant outsiders then?



I guess, yes 


			
				wikipedia said:
			
		

> In Irish mythology, the Fomorians, Fomors, or Fomori (Irish Fomóiri, Fomóraig) were a semi-divine race who inhabited Ireland in ancient times. They may have once been believed to be the beings who preceded the gods, similar to the Greek Titans. It has been suggested that they represent the gods of chaos and wild nature, as opposed to the Tuatha Dé Danann who represent the gods of human civilization. Alternatively, they may represent the gods of a proposed pre-Goidelic population of Ireland.
> 
> ...
> The word fomóire is believed to derive from Old Irish fo muire (Modern Irish faoi muire), "under the sea". This, combined with their association with glass towers in the western ocean, suggests a connection with icebergs. However the mór element may derive from a word meaning "terror", whose Anglo-Saxon cognate "maere" survives in English "nightmare", but not in "morbid" which instead comes from the latin, all from the Proto-IndoEuropean word *mor : "to rub, pound, wear away". However, Mac Bain holds that there are phonetic inconsistencies with both these theories that would prevent derivation of the long ó in the morpheme "-mór" from "muire, mora" ("sea") or from "mor, mar" (terror, death). His educated opinion leaves the conclusions of Zimmer fomóiri > fo-mór "sub-magnus" (giants, small? giants, nearly? giants, huge people?). [1]
> ...


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## Nahat Anoj (Oct 3, 2007)

Rechan said:
			
		

> Okay, I guess that Formorians aren't the Lawful ant outsiders then?



They're very similar words.  

Formians - LN ant-like outsiders

Fomorians - ugly giant dudes, based on the ugly giant precursor race from Irish mythology.


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## Nahat Anoj (Oct 3, 2007)

GAAAHHH said:
			
		

> That ignores Fey myths including creatures such as the banshee and sluagh.  I would say that certain areas of the Feywild should have portals to the Shadowfell, but those areas are twisted by the exposure.



Good idea.  Maybe the "border" between the Feywild and Shadowfell is a really dark and nasty faerie realm.


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## Aloïsius (Oct 3, 2007)

Jonathan Moyer said:
			
		

> Good idea.  Maybe the "border" between the Feywild and Shadowfell is a really dark and nasty faerie realm.



And, since both the Shadowfell and the Feywild are linked with the prime, this is this overlapping area that is the most easily accessible from the prime  Thus, the point of light setting. 

So, reaching the crystal cities of the Eladrins or the haven of the deads is a perillous journey that start with the bleak lands controled by formorians and vampire lords...


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