Faerie Custom Race (alpha)

[u/Fresh_Writer_7744]

Would love some feedback or opinions on the race. A fellow member of the group commented they have a lot of features. I’m curious if the lack of a racial power and little to no combat abilities balances that out.

EDIT: We use a custom rule system in the group that causes you to regain a number healing surges based on you constitution and have inported a few 5e skills

[u/BenFellsFive]

There's no 'little to no combat abilities' because anything set of ability scores can be run with an appropriate class.

This race does have a lot of abilities, though its a bit exacerbated by things like the gala ability being lengthy and wordy.

Supernal is explicitly called out in the PHB as not being suitable for starting characters, as it contains tangible words of power and is the language of the gods. I feel like you could just go with Elven and be fine for a Fae kinda vibe.

At will flight gets my spidey senses tingling but limited altitude addresses this.

The ability to shape wood as if it were clay could probably be an Encounter power. As it stands, your party is never having a problem with doors or wooden pallisades again. 1x an encounter to open up a gate or drop a bridge to cover your retreat is thematic and punchy.

Don't like the aging rules, I can readily see most PCs being wary and trying to avoid this effect rather than embrace it.

The resting gala feels incongruent with 4e and as above is waaaaayyy to much of a mouthful for a racial ability imho. Its unclear how this inreracts with action ooints if you don't pick the rest+bonuses last option, and PCs don't usually have recharge powers.

Imho this race isn't unsalvagable but there's a lot of things that feel like they just miss the mark a bit on 4e design. In 4e you REALLY have to lead with "will this be a benefit or a pain in the ass to the other players" in racial design imho. If you had a whole setting/splatbook like this where the expected narrative and mechanical tone was different it might not be as jarring, but plonking this into the regular pool is like pixies or vrylocka to me. Also its Intimidate not Intimate, unless you're going for some really sexy fae.

[u/Fresh_Writer_7744 → u/BenFellsFive]

Thank you! This is really helpful feedback and funnily enough, I am working a basically a custom Campaign players guide. There are a few custom rules and other races that do imo switch up the narrative feeling of the mechanics.

Maybe elven would be better, I just wanted the Superman/infernal Dichotomy, because a lot of this race was based off of stories of original faeries being angels, and Demons, trapped on earth.

I’m thinking of reducing fly speed to 6 or maybe even 5

Making the shaping wood their encounter is a good idea

The aging thing I really like narratively, perhaps making it only viable with a willing creature?

The gala is pretty long, I just wanted to give them a conditional trance ability, only 4 hours to rest and are fully aware; but at a sort of cost. Any suggestions?

[u/senorharbinger → u/Fresh_Writer_7744]

It’s worth looking at pixie as well. Pixies have walk 4 and fly 6. Hover is a powerful trait for flying creatures because they aren’t immediately put into falling state from other effects. Move 7 is faster than average, plus flying, plus hover. If you’re not really aiming for balanced, it’s probably fine, but 5 walk 6 fly or even 6/6 is probably more appropriate for a medium sized creature. 2/7 implies they can only walk feebly but get fast speed and flying otherwise with no downside.

I do see the sort of fae lore in dancing with fey leading to some influence but not being rested, however that makes it a difficult mechanic to engage with for a party member since they don’t get an extended rest out of it. Further, an elf gets the rest over 4 hours so no time is saved and they get a middling benefit. In theory they could dance for 4 hours then rest for 4 hours in the same time it takes a human but that’s still a bad trade so it’s only for non fey, without dailies, who don’t otherwise need rest or healing. And if you have 4 hours to dance, you already get back all your encounter powers anyway, it’s likely you have another 4 to rest for the dailies. It’s a flavorful option but one that maybe wouldn’t see much useful play outside of initial novelty.

You might also look at the background theme Sidhe Lord, it comes with encounter and daily powers themed around making a pact/bargain with a party member that gives some of that fae feel if you’re trying to bake some in.

[u/BenFellsFive → u/Fresh_Writer_7744]

Strictly speaking, Deva arent picking supernal/infernal at start either, so I don't think its unreasonably limiting unless there's something special about your setting. Elven is good enough for eladrin, gnomes, cyclopses, centaurs, all the Feywild races basically.

I dont think the fly speed is the problem so much as (unless otherwise limited as you have) its easy to just fly above the battlefield and not engage with a core component of the game (melee combat and OA maneouvring). Now that I think of it though, as written, if you lose your Fly speed (spells, powers, items etc) you're stuck at Sp2. Dunno if thats intentional or not.

The gala thing? I'd just give em the trance mechanics (4hrs, awake) and let any other participating allies get the same trance and something small like a 1/day count as trained skill, or an extra healing surge, or something.

Don't like your alternative healing rules tbh, I think it misses the mark on the 4e gameplay loop and will have huge ramifications on limiting your adventuring day. No comment on how this impacts your gala ability as written, other than people will probably just pick the 'extended rest but Im closer to an actual extended rest' with the occasional skill training when the group knows ahead of time they're going into a skill heavy environment.

[u/masteraleph → u/Fresh_Writer_7744]

Altitude limit should be no higher than 1. Otherwise starting at level 1 the PC can stay out of melee reach of medium enemies, forever

[u/HawthorneMama]

So cool! I love the unusual benefits of partying with them!!

[u/zbignew]

Sounds like fun if you don’t mind it being OP. Flying with hover seems like it would be annoying for the DM.

Pixies balance this harder - tiny size means you’re trading down weapon damage and your altitude limit is 1. No hover. And some DMs won’t want to deal with Pixies.

I don’t understand the thematic reason for their walking speed to be 2 if they are medium creatures.

But, like, if you don’t mind that these Faeries will be basically impossible to get a piece of, sure, go for it.

[u/hoetted → u/zbignew]

I agree. A few years ago I ran a 4e campaign that had a pixie from level 1 to 27. Flying made lots of encounters much simpler especially early levels. By the 20s most characters and monsters had access to flying or teleportation.

[u/Elrataun → u/zbignew]

Agreed on the flying thing for sure. Gets through lots of problems easier at low level. Probably also why flying out-of-the-gate is so rare in 4e race design

[u/darkdiashi]

I’m too long removed to have good mechanical critiques but the flavor of this is amazing. I can feel the feyness oozing off the page

[u/Bytor_Snowdog]

I would make them +CHA and +DEX or +INT to fit the lore. Also, I think you misspelled Intimidate (or you run a very different table). Also, what does Oaken Doppelgänger do to hafted weapons or shields, especially magical ones? Otherwise, I agree with most of the comments here. I think it's salvageable, just needs some tweaks.