Fey Guide

Contributed by Bloodsong

We’re not evil. In the end, moralistically speaking at the very least, fey are just about the same as any other race. If you’re one to group us together and call us evil as a whole, then perhaps you need to step back and take a look at where you yourself fall on the “Good and Evil” chart. While it may be true that we’ve had some fey in the past who just weren’t beneficial to society, that same can be said about each other race, as well. Our real differences are our needs—due to the nature of our creation, we cannot exist without the lifeblood of others, just as each other race feeds on life in its own way. However, most fey would rather drink blood off of the floor, or from a convenient fountain or decanter, than from the neck of an innocent.

For one thing, you people really do tend to taste bad.

I digress. As a fey, you drastically need to alter the way you exist in the world. Instead of being sustained from abundantly-placed water fountains, look instead to your foes in battle for nourishment—if you’re going to kill them, regardless, you might at least let their death have meaning in some small way. Similarly, before taking an object from a defeated foe, or before accepting a gift from an ally, take a moment to make sure of the lack of iron in the item in question.

We fey are truly of two different worlds, and just as in anything else, it possesses tremendous advantages as well as a few downsides. All fey intrinsically possess knowledge of how to very briefly slide into the Faerie Plane, which allows us some measure of protection against virtually any weapon. The ethereal nature of our bodies makes mundane and supernatural poisons alike fail to find any purchase in our forms. To a lesser extent, diseases often lack the ability to properly take root in our bodies, and our nimble, spiritual forms dance easily around most attempts to confine us. These abilities do not come without cost; our half-real forms are vulnerable to bright light, doubly so the glaring rays of the sun; the slightest touch of iron burns more deeply than other beings could possibly imagine; water, the lifeblood of Alyria itself, is anathema to our forms.

In terms of staying power, we are unmatched among all the world’s races. While it may be true that we aren’t as hardy as ogres, or as magically adept as the elves, we are well above average in all the areas imaginable—including being superior, physically and spiritually, to our ‘noble’ cousins. To add to this, if our corporeal forms are ever destroyed, our souls fly back to our Castle Unseelie, where Gracious Tirona is more than happy to supply us another physical body—after a fitting rebuke for negligence, of course.

Some may state that we’re too firmly rooted in our ways to truly adopt some professions in Alyria today… yet, I would say instead that we prize common sense more highly than pointless ‘flexibility’. We fey are above the frivolous need to ride around on horses attacking random passers-by with lances, being a ‘holy knight’ (killing in the name of a god is still killing, after all), hugging trees, or wasting our time singing to each other. We embrace the true nature of a self-reliant warrior with our weapons and our spells, without artifice or the need to pointlessly involve other beings. Yes, we are all trained in the art of the shadows—merely because we realize that days do come where there is a place for such behavior, for the good of all.

Readers, I ask of you one small thing: Do not judge by ancient prejudices and propaganda alone. Watch your fellows in an honest light, and view them by their actions (which they control), instead of their heritage (which they do not). Look back, at the end of your journey, at who your most trusted allies and stalwart friends are… for you may realize that a fey is one of them.

If you want to put it on here, here's a purely mechanical sub-guide:

Mechanically

I know I'm biased, but I'm still of the opinion that fey are some of the best around. We have the best vitals of any race, in total, and it's evenly spread across everything, so we're not especially weak in any one area. We are the only race that has retained the ability to paralyze. Poison immunity, especially coupled with plague resistance, are true advantages, both in pk and against mobs, and 25 racial Save vs Paralysis is wonderful to begin with. Fey always have at least one defense, we can faerie fire at any level, and we can shapeshift racially. All in all, fairly good perks--not to mention that we don't need a decanter in a dungeon, and the decanters we do get can't be taken away from us.

We've got our weaknesses as well, 'tis true. Vulnerability to light is probably the biggest thing--we get blinded almost pathetically easily, even from flash bombs and blind herbs, and color spray does both decent damage and blinds us fairly often. Iron weakness isn't quite as damaging, save backstabs from stillettoes and our inability to use the stuff ourselves, which comes into play with battle master rings, brutal axes, the aforementioned stilletto, and more than a few others. Vulnerability to water doesn't always come up quite as much, except that Atlantis and certain areas of PG aren't fun, and that Water Evocation has been bumped up quite a bit over the last couple of years. Lastly, we're pretty set in our class path, being forced into rogue (and, for men, barbarian), and not given monk, druid, or priest as choices in the remaining.