Feywild Themes

I am really pleased with the timing of the recent Feywild love, because my group has pressed me into re-visting Erui, a homebrew campaign that I ran and shelved over a year ago.

The first article is really in name only intended for the Moonshaes, a region in Forgotten Realms (which as an aside has an interesting-looking related article that I will write about later). In addition to giving some advice for reskinning some existing themes out of Neverwinter Campaign Setting, we also get the Sarifal warden and Callidyrr dragoon themes and a new varient elf.

Sarifal wardens start out with a turn-long aura that grants scaling energy resistance/vulnerability to your allies and enemies respectively. Level 5 gives you a bonus to Nature and lets you cast Spirit Fetch once per day for free, and level 10 gives you a Fortitude bonus.

  • Sarifal Advisor (level 2 daily): You can summon a pixie that cannot attack, and is better than you at Arcana, Nature, and Stealth. It can also talk to natural and fey animals, and you can use its senses for a turn. Mostly I can see this being good primarily for social roleplay situations.
  • Light of Sarifal (level 6 daily): A sustainable aura that imposes a damage penalty based on your highest stat.
  • Level 10 is different; instead of choosing from a specific power, you can instead choose from blur, mirror image, shadowed moon, or warlock's leap.

Callidyrr dragoons are like elite knights that are geased, but are generally charged with going on adventures anyway. On the plus side, violating the geas just causes a memory wipe, which could have some interesting side effects. You start out with Mounted Combat and a free martial weapon of your choice, making it ironically not too well suited for the types of classes that I would most often expect. Level 5 gives you a bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate, and at level 10 you can use Diplomacy instead of Heal for triggering a saving throw or second wind. Oh, and you can do it at a distance. Fucking sweet.

  • Dragoon Warding (level 2 encounter): An adjacent ally gains a AC and Fortitude bonus, and you take hits on melee and ranged attacks.
  • Dragoon Parry (level 6 encounter): An interrupt that gives you a bonus to AC and Reflex against a melee attack targeted at you, and the enemy grants combat advantage for a turn.
  • Dragoon Summons (level 10 daily): You summon an ancestral defender, which I guess is a natural animate that packs a damage boosting aura, can heal as a minor action, and take hits for allies as an interrupt. The downside is that it cannot attack, but then it is a defender.
Llewyrr elves are eladrin that can swap out their Arcana bonus for Insight and use long- and shortbows at the expense of Eladrin Weapon Proficiency.

The second article is a tad shorter, giving us the wild hunt rider and oracle of the evil eye.

Wild hunt riders give you a Perception bonus, but only when looking for a creature. On the plus side you ignore partial concealment entirely. At level 5 you can use Phantom Steed once per day for free, using Arcana or Nature (whatever is best). At level 10 you gain a bonus to save against effects that hinder your movement.

  • Wild Hunt Leap (level 2 encounter): You can jump your speed, and gain combat advantage for a turn if you land next to an enemy.
  • Moonfire Aura (level 6 daily): A small aura that negates invisibility and concealment. It is not friendly, so you gotta be careful.
  • Relentless Pursuit (level 10 encounter): If an enemy moves away from you, you can teleport next to it as a reaction, and you do not need line of sight. Awesome.

Oracles of the evil eye are unfortunate victims that undergo a ritual that results in them gaining a fomorian's iconic...well, eye. You can an at-will minor power that causes a non-marked creature to take a piddling amount of automatic psychic damage after damaging you. Like "normal" evil eyes it only works on one creature at a time. At level 5 you gain a bonus on Bluff and Intimidate, and at level 10 you gain low-light vision (or darkvision if you already had low-light vision).

  • Eye of the Fomorians (level 2 daily): You can a bonus to Perception and can see invisible creatures for the encounter.
  • Urge of Destiny (level 6 daily): An ally deals bonus damage for the encounter. If the creature marks them, they deal even more. 
  • Evil Eye Mesmerism (level 10 encounter): A reaction that prevents a creature from attacking you at all for a turn if it misses you.
Aside from the elf variant I pretty much liked all the new themes for one reason or another. The oracle and dragoon can introduce some interesting adventure hooks--such as a key villain or memory loss plot hook respectively--and social roleplay elements to a game. I am also liking the ritual freebies, which if nothing else will hopefully encourage players to try more out (especially with the heroic rituals article).

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