# I'm playing a pixie! What class should I be?



## EroGaki (Jun 5, 2012)

I'm currently in a group composed of a warlock, seeker, ranger, bard, and a psion. I've decided on bringing in a pixie character, but can't seem to choose a class for the little bugger.

I start at 2nd level, and anything on the character builder is fair game. The basic idea behind this character is that of a dark fae. The Heroes of the Feywild book says that pixies are born whenever a child is. While children eventually grow up and leave behind childish dreams and behaviors, pixies retain them. With that in mind, my character exemplifies the dark aspects of childhood; selfishness combined with a distinct lack for solid moral guidelines, this character would be cruel, spoiled, and hellbent on making mischief.

I'm not asking for builds or character designs, just some ideas as to what class I should pick. Thanks all.


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## Someone (Jun 5, 2012)

A pixie monk can be surprisingly effective if you don't mind reflavoring it enough to fit your theme. They are good enough at any kind of arcane spellcasting including swordmage, and I think they could be very good as charge monkeys too with the streak of light feat or just as plain rogue or thief.


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## Tallifer (Jun 5, 2012)

Your party lacks a defender. A Pixie can make a surprisingly good Swordmage with an 18 Intelligence and 16 Constitution. Makes sense for a Pixie to teleport around and harass big stupids with its flickering sword of light. Intelligent Blademaster allows you to use Intelligence for Basic Melee Attacks. Your Armour Class will be mediocre, so be careful. A Swordmage does not defend in the same way as a Fighter or a Warden.


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## gideonpepys (Jun 5, 2012)

Pixie defenders are great because, theoretically, they can defend from inside ally and enemy squares.

Swordmage would be an excellent choice, but we had a (suboptimal) pixie beserker in our group and it worked a treat.


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## Ryujin (Jun 5, 2012)

Someone did an interesting range zero charging Barbarian build, a while back.


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## Trit One-Ear (Jun 5, 2012)

While all these suggestions for builds and classes make sense, they don't seem to fit in what you describe your character's personality to be. I can't see someone who exemplifies selfishness being a good defender class. True, your group is lacking one, so if you can justify it (perhaps they like being the center of attention and are a glory hog) it seems like a sound option.

My first impulse based off your descriptions was to suggest a rogue. (Often rogues are my first impulse ). Selfish, mischievous and an amoral view of right and wrong sounds very much like a rogue to me. Of course, personality types can be applied to almost any class, so my biggest advice is play what you want, and what will make the game the most fun for you and your group.

Trit


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 5, 2012)

Feypact Warlock, emphasizing fear-effect powers.


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## the Jester (Jun 5, 2012)

Blackguard.


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## contraserrene (Jun 5, 2012)

Trit One-Ear said:


> While all these suggestions for builds and classes make sense, they don't seem to fit in what you describe your character's personality to be. I can't see someone who exemplifies selfishness being a good defender class. True, your group is lacking one, so if you can justify it (perhaps they like being the center of attention and are a glory hog) it seems like a sound option.




The One-Ear speaks truth. A selfish Leader might be especially good. You might consider the always-hilarious Lazy Warlord setup, described as the Pixie bossing everyone around like a child who thinks the world revolves around him. You could even describe your Daily powers as "Tantrums!"


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## Ryujin (Jun 5, 2012)

contraserrene said:


> The One-Ear speaks truth. A selfish Leader might be especially good. You might consider the always-hilarious Lazy Warlord setup, described as the Pixie bossing everyone around like a child who thinks the world revolves around him. You could even describe your Daily powers as "Tantrums!"




I'm picturing Veruca Salt, here, from the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTkCHE1sS4]Veruca Salt - I Want It Now (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) - YouTube[/ame]

On second thought, maybe a Cunning Bard


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## Quickleaf (Jun 5, 2012)

gideonpepys said:


> Pixie defenders are great because, theoretically, they can defend from inside ally and enemy squares.
> 
> Swordmage would be an excellent choice, but we had a (suboptimal) pixie beserker in our group and it worked a treat.




Yep, I had the great honor *cough* of having a pixie cavalier in a game and he was a surprisingly effective defender with all those pixie feats.

Since some of a defender's attacks trigger off of the enemy shifting away or attacking your allies without attacking you, one way to interpret that for your pixie PCwould be: incorrigibly self-centered, like a bad actor who always pictures himself center stage during battle, growing incredulous when enemies don't pay attention to him, and then hostile because he thinks it means they don take him seriously. The fun thing with swordmage is you then blink over to them to give them an earful and stabbity stab.


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## OnlineDM (Jun 5, 2012)

Ryujin said:


> Someone did an interesting range zero charging Barbarian build, a while back.




Yeah, that was me. Good ol' Crazy Wings! I created the pixie berserker mainly for hilarity. One he gets the Badge of the Berserker, he charges into opponents' spaces all day long.

I've only had a chance to play him once so far, but he was a blast.


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## Charles Dunwoody (Jun 5, 2012)

Vampire. Your pixie is dark and evil and selfish. 

Drinkerbell (un)lives again.


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## EroGaki (Jun 5, 2012)

OnlineDM said:


> Yeah, that was me. Good ol' Crazy Wings! I created the pixie berserker mainly for hilarity. One he gets the Badge of the Berserjer, he charges into opponents' spaces all day long.
> 
> I've only had a chance to play him once so far, but he was a blast.





This is gold! I'm adding this to the possible list. Thanks!


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## EroGaki (Jun 5, 2012)

Kravell said:


> Vampire. Your pixie is dark and evil and selfish.
> 
> Drinkerbell (un)lives again.




While the flavor of a pixie vampire would be pretty awesome, I don't think vampire would be viable; most of our adventures take place during the day, and I don't know how the character would function without burning to a crisp. Plus I've heard that vampires are kind of bad.


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## Tallifer (Jun 5, 2012)

Quickleaf said:


> Yep, I had the great honor *cough* of having a pixie cavalier in a game and he was a surprisingly effective defender with all those pixie feats.
> 
> Since some of a defender's attacks trigger off of the enemy shifting away or attacking your allies without attacking you, one way to interpret that for your pixie PCwould be: incorrigibly self-centered, like a bad actor who always pictures himself center stage during battle, growing incredulous when enemies don't pay attention to him, and then hostile because he thinks it means they don take him seriously. The fun thing with swordmage is you then blink over to them to give them an earful and stabbity stab.




That is an excellent suggestion. The best one so far.

I hate to see a roleplaying concept get in the way of everyone else's enjoyment. This is not just a 4th edition thing: way back in AD&D and Runequest, all of us grognards hated the thief who stole from every party or the wizard who hid from the fight.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 5, 2012)

EroGaki said:


> While the flavor of a pixie vampire would be pretty awesome, I don't think vampire would be viable; most of our adventures take place during the day, and I don't know how the character would function without burning to a crisp. Plus I've heard that vampires are kind of bad.




Have someone carry you around in a bullseye lantern.


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## underfoot007ct (Jun 6, 2012)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Have someone carry you around in a bullseye lantern.




You deserve a 100 XP for that .


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## contraserrene (Jun 6, 2012)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Have someone carry you around in a bullseye lantern.




This idea makes sense for almost any of the suggested classes, actually.

Lazy Warlord: The lantern contains a tiny study with a comfy chair, bookshelves stuffed to bursting with reference works on the history of combat, one of those ashtrays on a fancy pedestal, a clawed footstool, and another much smaller bullseye lantern hung for use as a reading light. Professor Pix lounges in a smoking jacket and well-worn slippers, enjoying his pipe and offering sage advice to his "students."

Vampire: The lantern is styled like a fanged skull. It sloshes slightly and its worn brass jaw is stained with trails of brown and red corrosion. A tiny onyx  set deep in the shadow of one eye socket allows Count Pixatus to see without suffering; the lantern is designed with powerful spring hinged so it can only be opened or closed quickly from the inside. If he sees a need to strike- or spots a delicious throat to slake his thirst- he will throw the switch and emerge as a _streak of dark._

Generic "bad actor" Defender: The lantern looks normal, but it unfolds like a fisherman's tackle box into a small but well-appointed stage. Dimunitive _everburning torches_ along the bottom edge shine through colored lenses the size of a human eye, each lens chosen just before opening for maximum dramatic effect. Pixantalus the Eloquent can also reach into the rigging overhead to pull down a speaking-tube which magnifies his already _shockingly_ loud voice, the better to share his lines- extemporized or merely selected from an appropriate great play- with the audience. A flask of water is cleverly concealed in the rear of the lantern, just in case anyone cares to send flowers after the performance is over.

Crazy Wings: The lantern looks normal, if a little in need of repair- several tiny screws and pins are missing and the whole thing looks like it's been rattling around in the back of a wagon with shot springs. Every glass piece is cracked and every metal plate is dented. On closer examination, the dents are all facing outward. When things start to get stressful, the lantern starts to shake- just a little at first, but more and more- as though it contains a million incredibly angry hornets. If this simple intimidation is enough, Crazy Wings stays in his restraints... but when worst comes to worst, he bursts forth, sending lantern fragments everywhere as he unlimbers a disproportionately large axe and shield. After the battle someone will need to collect and reassemble the pieces, if they can find enough.

Fear-based Warlock: Ah! His eye! His terrible eye, like a vulture's eye! And the sound from within, like the sound of a watch wrapped in cotton...


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 6, 2012)

> A tiny onyx set deep in the shadow of one eye socket allows Count Pixatus to see without suffering




Better that this would be optically clean grade material from either the quartz* or corundum** family.  They both can be fairly dark, do not split light to cause multiple images, would be clear (as opposed to cloudy), and are hard (Moh's hardness 7 for quartz- dead center on the scale- and 9 for corundum) without being too brittle.  Not cheap, but worth it.

* Smoky quartz can be a deep, dark grey-brown to chocolate brown; amethyst is a deep, rich purple.

** either ruby or some kind of sapphire- blue or violet.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 6, 2012)

The bullseye lantern idea also gives the pixie an element of surprise, and may let him act as a spy...a living bug, in appearance and actuality.

In desperation, he could also be flung as a grenade...







(The more I think about this, the more I think I need to use it in a bit of short fiction..)


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## contraserrene (Jun 6, 2012)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Better that this would be optically clean grade material from either the quartz* or corundum** family.  They both can be fairly dark, do not split light to cause multiple images, would be clear (as opposed to cloudy), and are hard (Moh's hardness 7 for quartz- dead center on the scale- and 9 for corundum) without being too brittle.  Not cheap, but worth it.
> 
> * Smoky quartz can be a deep, dark grey-brown to chocolate brown; amethyst is a deep, rich purple.
> 
> ** either ruby or some kind of sapphire- blue or violet.




You are correct, sir. Though thematically it could perhaps be bloodstone. Some kind of... magical translucent bloodstone. One-way bloodstone mirrors!

EDIT: Or blood diamonds!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 6, 2012)

Or (clever, clever), a 3-lensed lantern: the outer lens would be quartz or corundum (to protect the other lenses, and the other 2 would be in your word's version of Icelandic Spar.

Icelandic Spar is an optical grade form of calcite that is capable of refractive polarization.  That means the pixie inside could make the lens appear to go from clear to black depending upon the relative orientations of the 2 inner lenses.


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## EroGaki (Jun 6, 2012)

Alright, so I'm trying to narrow down the choices, and I'm thinking I'd like to focus on one of the more magical classes; being a pixie, it's kind of difficult to imagine him not being mystical.

So far, I'm thinking swordmage, swordmage/wizard hybrid, fey pact warlock, bard, or perhaps one of the psionic classes. I was tempted with vampire, but most of my searches on the class have comfirmed it's rather bad.

BUT, I *love* the lantern ideas, and so I think I'll use one as a mobile shelter for when we camp; once we set up camp, I unshrink it and bamf! I've got a house! Of course, I'll need to make sure it can be opened from the inside...


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## Ryujin (Jun 6, 2012)

EroGaki said:


> Alright, so I'm trying to narrow down the choices, and I'm thinking I'd like to focus on one of the more magical classes; being a pixie, it's kind of difficult to imagine him not being mystical.
> 
> So far, I'm thinking swordmage, swordmage/wizard hybrid, fey pact warlock, bard, or perhaps one of the psionic classes. I was tempted with vampire, but most of my searches on the class have comfirmed it's rather bad.
> 
> BUT, I *love* the lantern ideas, and so I think I'll use one as a mobile shelter for when we camp; once we set up camp, I unshrink it and bamf! I've got a house! Of course, I'll need to make sure it can be opened from the inside...




Make sure that you've got at least one self-starter teleport power. That way as long as you can _see _out, you can _get _out


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 6, 2012)

Glad to help!


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## EroGaki (Jun 7, 2012)

Does anyone have any experience with hybrid characters? I've never actually used one before and I understand they can be tricky to design. But I've also heard the right combination of classes and feats can produce some pretty interesting characters.


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## Quickleaf (Jun 7, 2012)

EroGaki said:


> Does anyone have any experience with hybrid characters? I've never actually used one before and I understand they can be tricky to design. But I've also heard the right combination of classes and feats can produce some pretty interesting characters.




While that's true, one of the major drawbacks to hybrid PCs is that many of their class features only work with powers from that class. For example a warlock's curse damage only applies to warlock powers, not powers from the other class. Unless you know what you're doing or are copying a build I generally recommend avoiding hybrid characters.


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## EroGaki (Jun 8, 2012)

An update: we seem to have lost our bard, and are thus leaderless. I'll have to step in and fill that spot, so the question now becomes: what leader class should my pixie be?


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## mneme (Jun 8, 2012)

Pixie bards are awesome!  Thematically, at least.  Paint yourself blue and you can be a Pict Pixie Piper!

Just looking at stat synergy, Pixies are Cha/(Int or Dex).  That suggests Bard (again -- Skald or Cunning), or Warlord (lazy build).  So if you're not going for something against type -- you want to be a bard.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 8, 2012)

Be a Cha-based Warlord/Warlock (MC or hybrid)- gripe about how your party mates are lousy at tactics.

IOW, "Pixie Bitching."


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## Ryujin (Jun 8, 2012)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Be a Cha-based Warlord/Warlock (MC or hybrid)- gripe about how your party mates are lousy at tactics.
> 
> IOW, "Pixie Bitching."




Warlock or Bard, with Warlord MC, works well with this. Take both Warlord feats that kick in when the player spends an action point and watch the party tear the opponents up, as they envision chopping the Pixie into even tinier bits.


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## Octangula (Jun 9, 2012)

Tallifer said:


> Your Armour Class will be mediocre, so be careful.



Not sure how you work that out. 10 + 4 (Int mod) + 1 (half level) + 2 (leather armour or Unarmored Agility) + 3 (Swordmade Warding, assuming the off hand is free) = a very respectable 20.

As for the change of plans: Although your stat bonuses don't support it, I'd like to suggest being a Shaman. You could always reflavour the spirit companion as also being a pixie, making the enemy believe that there's more than one of you.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 9, 2012)

Personally, I don't think Shaman fits well with the OP's character concept of "dark fae...selfishness combined with a distinct lack for solid moral guidelines, this character would be cruel, spoiled, and hellbent on making mischief."


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## EroGaki (Jun 10, 2012)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Personally, I don't think Shaman fits well with the OP's character concept of "dark fae...selfishness combined with a distinct lack for solid moral guidelines, this character would be cruel, spoiled, and hellbent on making mischief."




Truthfully, I've had a problem trying to fit most of the leader classes with my character concept. Leaders focus on aiding their allies rather than themselves, and I'm kind of stuck on how to combine the two.

Perhaps I should go for a different concept all together.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 10, 2012)

Leaders can also use others to selfishly further their own ends- better that fighter takes on that foe than he get to me!- so its not the role.

I just don't see the shaman in particular being a good fit.


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## drothgery (Jun 10, 2012)

EroGaki said:


> Truthfully, I've had a problem trying to fit most of the leader classes with my character concept. Leaders focus on aiding their allies rather than themselves, and I'm kind of stuck on how to combine the two.



Artificer who considers the other PCs his test subjects?


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 10, 2012)

You know, Dr. Zachary Smith of _Lost in Space_ was a classic "leader from the rear"- despite being an expert in interstellar environmental psychology, Cybernetics and an enemy agent/saboteur, he is constantly telling others what to do...often while retreating/hiding.

Brilliant, egotistical, helpful (when it suited him), selfish and cowardly...but still a leader in many ways.


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## tuxgeo (Jun 11, 2012)

I've thought about it lately, but not very hard, and I think what you need is a -- 
slightly-illicit, rogue-complicit, peevishly perplexing, prurient, prescient, piccolo-playing pixie bard -- all high-pitched and shrill.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 13, 2012)

Named Pistachio?


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## tuxgeo (Jun 13, 2012)

Sure. "Pistachio" would be a fine name for a Pixie Bard. 

Or "Harold Hill" (rhymes with "shrill"). 
Or "Madame Vogueary," "Whistle Will," "Oleander," or "Dunceoff." 
The possibilities really are endless.


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## mneme (Jun 13, 2012)

@tuxgeo  A pixie bard named Harold Hill?  Does he use the Twinkle System?  Does he sell bird's bands insturments on the side?  "No, the pixie sells bands, Bird's bands. I don't know how he does it but he lives like a king and he twinkles and he flutters and he plucks and shines and when that fey dances, certinely boys, what else? The piper pays him"


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## tuxgeo (Jun 13, 2012)

Yeah -- I think the "Twinkle System" has merit. ("But he doesn't know the territory!")

It might not have to be birds' bands, though. Rainbow bands? Sunbeam bands? Bands of friendship, bands of harmony, bands of trust? Satyr bands? 
Even reed bands might be sustainable.


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