4e: Sneaky Feys

It’s said, that humans learned magic from the gods; some say that humans learned it from studying the universe around them. Some, in the oldest and darkest stories, say that humans learned magic from the fey, because they couldn’t wait to see how badly we fucked it up.

One thing I love about D&D 4e is the way that making a character is pretty simple and robust. Rather than gate things like werewolves and werebears behind layers of power back in third edition, the game finds ways to let you play that straight up, out of the gates. Same with Vampires, and, if you want, you can play all sorts of weird character types out of nowhere.

If you want to play a weirdo, fae-realms inspired fey creature, you have options too! And, of them, the Satyr and Hamadryad, are bad. Fortunately, though, Fox made some better ones, and I’m going to give you some feat support for them!

Now, this is a bit of a different direction in the kind of 4e content I make. This isn’t about something from established books, this is something based on the character heritages for 4th edition that Fox made. It’s going to be about feat support for the Gruuwar, Pooka, and Firbolg heritages she wrote.

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatability and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

Gruuwar Feats

The Gruuwar, a heritage I kind of accidentally’d into existence, are a bunch of isolated teleporting nightcrawler-likes. They’re afraid of being attacked, but also don’t have the means to produce tons of the things they like, which mean they want to trade, borrow, or steal, and since one of the best things to trade is money, and they’re very good at stealing, they often work as spies or infiltrators.

Cautious Reposition

Every Gruuwar knows the advantage of a tactical retreat. Charging can put you in a dangerous spot, so some Gruuwar work on darting back.

Prerequisite: Gruuwar

Benefit: After you charge an opponent, you can use your Gruuwar Blink power as a free action to teleport to a square in range you left during the charge. You can do this even if you have already used your Gruuwar Blink power this turn.

Scattered Movement

Gruuwar that stay still get hit, and Gruuwar don’t like getting hit. Even in combat, a Gruuwar can benefit from keeping moving.

Prerequisite: Gruuwar

Benefit: You get a +1 to attack enemies you didn’t attack last round.

Namekeeper

Prerequisite: Gruuwar

Benefit: If someone chooses to tell you their name, honestly, and aware of what you are, you can hold onto that name and protect it. This gives you a +2 to skill checks made to find that person, and +1 movement on the battlefield when you move towards an ally who has given you their name.

Pooka Feats

The Pooka are more ‘inherently magical’ and ‘deeply mischievous.’ I feel like their take on the fey style should be more inclined towards faking things – messing with luck, creating illusions, that kind of thing.

Illusionary Blade

Prerequisite: Pooka

Benefit: You can create an illusionary duplicate of any weapon you have. You can use this weapon to make attacks like it’s your main weapon. This illusionary weapon disappears when it’s not being used for attacks. This allows you to copy any weapon you have so you can dual wield a single weapon.

Better Unlucky

Prerequisite: Pooka

Benefit: Whenever an enemy rolls maximum damage on a dice on an attack that includes you as a target, that enemy has to reroll that dice until they get a lower result.

No Chances

Prerequisite: Pooka

Benefit: As long as you have an enemy cursed or marked, abilities of that enemy that can recharge on a dice roll don’t get to recharge.

Firbolg Feats

The Firbolg are big and bulky characters, but they also have a sort of ‘gentle giant’ to them. I designed these feats to both play with the idea of their size (hence Tumble Down) but also about the way that they make the world around them a little less real – a sort of pseudo-teleport that means your ‘Fade to Green’ power can let you target an enemy who might be otherwise evasive.

Tumble Down

Your size surprises people, certainly when they have to face you. Distance is different in the feywild – so even if they think they know how big you are, your size and reach can seem impossibly vast, which can leave people tumbling back as they attempt to avoid you.

Prerequisite: Firbolg

Benefit: Whenever you attack an enemy who is slowed, you may knock them prone.

Placeless Green

Firbolgs that fade into the green sometimes reappear in surprising places.

Prerequisite: Firbolg

Benefit: Whenever you become invisible, you can teleport to a square adjacent to an enemy.

Into The Green

Your pull the space around you a little bit into the feywild, making it harder to bridge the gap between worlds.

Prerequisite: Firbolg

Benefit: Enemies adjacent to you deal 1 less damage. This improves to 2 less damage at Paragon and 3 less damage at Epic.

This article was reposted from Talen’s personal blog.
You can find the original at Press.exe

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