D&D 3E/3.5 Brainstorming another Fey PC

I’m really at the beginning stages of this. All that I know for certain is that the character’s main alias will be “Willy Nilly”, that I’ll be using the Fey Heritage Feat tree, and that the character will be leaning into the trickster/chaos agent archetype a bit more than my previous Fey PC.

My first question is what (official) D&D PC races lend themselves to a classic Fey character? The list I’ve made so far:

Human
Elf
Drow
Half-Elf
Gnome
Killoren
Hengeyokai
Shadar-Kai
Tabaxi
Kenku

All ideas & commentary welcome.

Dannyalcatraz said:

I’m really at the beginning stages of this. All that I know for certain is that the character’s main alias will be “Willy Nilly”, that I’ll be using the Fey Heritage Feat tree, and that the character will be leaning into the trickster/chaos agent archetype a bit more than my previous Fey PC.

My first question is what (official) D&D PC races lend themselves to a classic Fey character? The list I’ve made so far:

Human
Elf
Drow
Half-Elf
Gnome
Killoren
Hengeyokai
Shadar-Kai
Tabaxi
Kenku

All ideas & commentary welcome.

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This is a huge IMNSHO thing, but...

The entire point of playing something with Fey Heritage is to be unearthly, strange, or weird. Not human, but with enough connection to humanity to be relatable and fun to play. OTOH, playing lots of other fantasy races, like Tabaxi, Drow, Hengoyokai, etc, is to to be unearthly, strange, or weird. Not human, but with enough connection to humanity to be relatable and fun to play.

So what they heck is the point of trying to drop a Fey Heritage on one of these other races? One option is powergaming. Which I totally respect, but won't be going into in this post. Another idea is to get a very, very specific Fey/X cross that you want. Like a Fey/Dwarf to intentionally get into an industrial vs nature story arc, or a Fey/Half-orc to make a non-traditional high-CHA half-orc. But none of those options are really playing into the classic Fey trickster/chaos archetype you talk about. They're all things that are something else first, with Fey just tacked on. At most, your backstory is 50% Fey, which doesn't sound like what you're describing.

So, TL;DR, if you want to do a Fey Heritage build that is about being a Fey Heritage character with classic Fey Heritage archetpyes, start with a human base. Focus on the Fey Herritage, not the other race stuff.

Only if you want to be more extreme, consider the Half Elf or Elf route just to start a litlle closer to Fey. But if you really, really want to maximize your Fey side, you should go full on Pixie or something similar with LA (and Savage Species when needed).

What book is the Fey Heritage chain in? I haven't played 3.X in a while, and I'm drawing a blank.

TwoSix said:

What book is the Fey Heritage chain in? I haven't played 3.X in a while, and I'm drawing a blank.

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Complete Mage, p43.

Deset Gled said:

This is a huge IMNSHO thing, but...

The entire point of playing something with Fey Heritage is to be unearthly, strange, or weird. Not human, but with enough connection to humanity to be relatable and fun to play. OTOH, playing lots of other fantasy races, like Tabaxi, Drow, Hengoyokai, etc, is to to be unearthly, strange, or weird. Not human, but with enough connection to humanity to be relatable and fun to play.

So what they heck is the point of trying to drop a Fey Heritage on one of these other races?

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True, but being Fey has certain connotations. Fey beings and the rest may all be “…unearthly, strange, or weird. Not human, but with enough connection to humanity to be relatable and fun to play.”, but they all do so differently. They’re not freely interchangeable. Fey Heritage changes the base creature in particular ways to model that.

And doing that to a non-human character makes the PC not __________, but with enough connection to __________ity to be relatable and fun to play.

Deset Gled said:

One option is powergaming. Which I totally respect, but won't be going into in this post.

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No one who has sat beside me playing D&D has ever accused adult me of power gaming and not gotten laughed at by the others at the table.

Deset Gled said:

Another idea is to get a very, very specific Fey/X cross that you want. Like a Fey/Dwarf to intentionally get into an industrial vs nature story arc, or a Fey/Half-orc to make a non-traditional high-CHA half-orc. But none of those options are really playing into the classic Fey trickster/chaos archetype you talk about.

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I’m not sure about the existence of rules for simple crossbreeding races like that. (Not that I have a specific cross in mind, as evidenced by the opening to this thread.)

Deset Gled said:

They're all things that are something else first, with Fey just tacked on. At most, your backstory is 50% Fey, which doesn't sound like what you're describing.

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I’m describing someone who has discovered their heritage, and fully embraced it.

Imagine a person who has discovered their previously unknown Native American heritage who then researches what tribe they should belong to. After doing so, they start attending tribal functions, participating in rituals, and wearing clothing and jewelry that harken back to their native ancestry. Maybe they get involved in (internal and external) tribal politics and even move back to the reservation.

Deset Gled said:

So, TL;DR, if you want to do a Fey Heritage build that is about being a Fey Heritage character with classic Fey Heritage archetpyes, start with a human base. Focus on the Fey Herritage, not the other race stuff.

Only if you want to be more extreme, consider the Half Elf or Elf route just to start a litlle closer to Fey. But if you really, really want to maximize your Fey side, you should go full on Pixie or something similar with LA (and Savage Species when needed).

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I’d personally rather not venture too far into LA races- that can be a real PITA- but I’m fine with considering them, nonetheless. Maybe I’ll even be convinced! Maybe it will help someone else with a similar concept brewing in their head.

I'd recommend darfellan (the orca-people from Stormwrack), but only if you were going for a "Free Willy" Nilly feel....

Johnathan

Richards said:

I'd recommend darfellan (the orca-people from Stormwrack), but only if you were going for a "Free Willy" Nilly feel....

Johnathan

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For further silly orca concepts incorporate recent news stories about real life orca play and teenage orca fads like wearing, absolutely true here, dead salmon hats.

Voadam said:

For further silly orca concepts incorporate recent news stories about real life orca play and teenage orca fads like wearing, absolutely true here, dead salmon hats.

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I remember that, and it was also recently mentioned in an article about the yacht-sinking orcas. The researchers think the reasons behind each are related- it’s a game that has reached fad status.

Bard is the most obvious choice if I’m going for a charismatic trickster- especially with a non lawful alignment requirement from Fey Heritage. Sorcerer or Battle Sorcerer is a close second.

I was initially hoping to go with a Beguiler, Illusionist or Enchanter, but that would require an Int based build. On a certain level, I feel a smart trickster implies a more malicious streak. That could be a “license” to play an Illusionist Assassin type build I thought about back in AD&D, but I’m not sure that goes along with the whimsy implied by a name like Willy Nilly.

Here's a short list of animals associated with being tricksters in various myths, if you want to use any of them as your animal base for a hengeyokai trickster PC:

• Coyote (Native American trickster god)
• Fox (believed by many cultures to be devious and sly)
• Monkey (after the Chinese trickster god, the Monkey King)
• Rabbit (mostly from the "Brer Rabbit" tales)
• Raccoon (Native American lesser trickster spirit)
• Spider (mostly after Anansi, an African trickster god)

The fox, monkey, rabbit (hare), and raccoon (well, raccoon dog) have the advantages of already being existing hengeyokai subraces. You could probably substitute in dog for coyote fairly easily, but the for spider you'd probably have to create the stats on your own. (Maybe using the crab hengeyokai as a start?)

Johnathan