This is not a playtest review.
Fey Magic is part of Mongoose Publishing's Encyclopaedia Divine series, concentrating on aspects of and options on divine magic.
Though this is fairly average pricing for the size of the book, Mongoose have made better use of space than in any of their previous books including a stunning piece of art on one of the inside covers and very little white space, though the font size and space between paragraphs could still be improved.
Artwork varies considerably, varying from poor to superb. Much of the art concentrates on naked, partially naked or on-the-way-to-being-naked bodies (mainly female), and with quite a lot of sensual undertones. Writing style is fairly average and editing is fairly good.
Fey Magic begins with some definitions of a number of terms that are used within the text. The book presumes the following:
- Fey are nature spirits. They are split between Fey of the Air, Earth, Water, Wood and Beast types. They are immortal.
- They are also split into two factions or 'courts' - the Seelie court, which attempts to live in peaceful coexistence with mortals, and the Unseelie court, which doesn't.
- Fey gain poweful magics from mystical meditation (called Reverie, a more efficacious version of elven 'sleep') during which they gather magical power (called Essence) from the plane of Faerie. This magic is only divine in the same manner as druid and ranger magics are divine.
- Fey generally live either in protected sylvan glades or in the plane of Faerie. Sylvan glades are magical places, giving endure elements and healing at twice the normal rate to those within the glade, and memory modification to hide the location of the sylvan glade from mortals, and protection against fires.
The book goes on to describe interactions with fey, introducing a new skill, Knowledge (Fey), a specific variant of the Knowledge (Creature) skill introduced in Gaslight Press' 'The Gryphon's Legacy'. This skill is used widely in the continuing discussion of rules and information regarding finding fey in order to learn the use of Reverie and Essence. There are plenty of roleplaying opportunities in attempting to find a fey patron and convincing them to teach the character Reverie. The fey may demand a challenge and/or gifts and will require some sort of binding oath that the character dedicates themselves to aiding the fey, usually against incursions of evil creatures against the sylvan glades. A challenge may include a riddling contest, and a new skill, Knowledge (Enigmas) is also offered - surely Knowledge (Arcana) could have covered this. There follows a brief description of the rites of acceptance and the gaining of the ability to enter Reverie for non-fey characters.
The next section begins with another new skill, Knowledge (Reverie), which defines the character's ability to absorb Essence, craft fey tokens, and forge a symbiotic link with an animal. More detailed discussion of Essence follows. A character attempting to use fey magic must first enter Reverie, and then absorb Essence into his body. This animates the character with magical vitality and enthusiasm. However, characters holding Essence in their body overnight or longer face possible insanity in the form of temporary or permanent Wisdom loss. Once a character begins to use Reverie, they also discover they have a permanent 'Gift' - a supernatural ability to use the effects of a druid spell of 3rd level or less. The number of gifts can be increased by taking the Fey Gift feat, which can be taken multiple times. The Gift can be activated by channelling Essence.
Essence can also be used in a number of other ways. The first discussed is Fey Tokens, a type of natural battery for Essence, channelled into it by the character from his own body. Fey Tokens may also be imbued with Gifts. Tokens are activated using Essence and tokens created by others also require the Knowledge (Reverie) skill. The second use of Essence discussed is Bonding, the creation of a symbiotic link with an animal, which have a number of magical effects such as creating an empathic link, awakening the animal and changing the nature of the animal to that of a magical beast. Essence can aslo be used to enhance druid spells and abilities, enhance ranger abilities and stronger Bonding abilities for rangers, and links elves with the wisdom of ancient ancestors. It is also noted that elves are more proficient than other races with Reverie, as they once had the ability to enter full Reverie, but the ability has atrophied over the centuries.
Several Prestige Classes are then offered:
Feydancer - experts in Reverie and Essence absorption who end up becoming Fey themselves.
Spellbinder - expert in crafting Fey Tokens and magic items.
Wylding - specialises in interacting with the plant life in sylvan glades, finally becoming a plant herself.
Chosen Protector - a character who has sworn an oath to protect fey and their glades in return for knowledge of the Reverie.
Eight new feats are offered: Animal Totem (Bonded to a spirit animal), Craft Token, Fey Blooded (fey blood in your past gives greater power to channel Essence), Fey Gift, Forge Bond, Mark of the Fey (+2 to Cha with Fey), Resist Fey (+2 to saving throws), Waking Dreamer (enter Reverie whilst awake).
Thirteen new spells are introduced along with the Fey domain: Blinding Beauty, Cloak of the Trickster, Detect Fey, Erase Memory, Fey Bane, Gift of the Leprechaun (bit like wish or miracle), Greater Sleep, Kiss of the Selkie (brethe water, freedom of movement), Magic Circle Against Fey, Nymph's Blessing (charm person, 19 Cha), Protection from Fey, Sense Fey Portal (portal to the plane of Faerie), and Unearthly Beauty.
The next section delves deeper into fey magic, with the introduction of three powerful types of fey magic (called The Great Art), which make use of Reverie and Essence.
- Dance Magic requires a host of Fey, with one powerful leader. The leader gathers large amounts of essence with the help of the participants during a long ritual dance, risking their sanity, to create a spell effect that one character alone could not create. The climax of the dance ends in a song that unleashes the powerful magic.
- Grove Wards are enchantments that protect and enchant sylvan glades using a month-long nightly ritual, again using a leader and a number of participants to channel Essence.
- Spell Seeds are spells that are imbued into a character, allowing them to cast that spell once a day. The ritual to imbue the spell seed takes several months and non-fey characters suffer permanent hit point loss as a side effect. The power of the spell seed grows over a number of years.
Fey Magic Items are discussed next, including use of fey items by non-fey characters. The section includes actual items (such as potion of fey sight, stone of confusion and rod of fey locating) as well as some special qualities of armour and weapons (such as trackless armour and weapons of slumber), as well as a few Celticky artifacts. Some unusual materails such as Hawthorn, Oak, Mistletoe, etc. are discussed with various minor game effects.
The next section offers help for GMs in using the powerful magic that is discussed in this book, and the author admits that the magic here is open to huge abuse unless the GM limits access to it and provides strong roleplaying-orientated caveats to its learning and use. The section provides advice for rooting out PCs who attempt to fool the Fey into teaching them Reverie with no real desire other than to gain power. There is also some roleplaying-orientated advice for running Fey NPCs in relation to their need for protection for their species, their glades and/or the plane of Faerie. There is also some discussion of the Fey love of challenges and the wrath of the fey if they are deceived - the character can be marked, cursed and hunted.
Eight new Fey creatures are offered: Bogle (a Fey warrior type), Brownie (a Fey home-help), Fey Cat and Hound (actually magical beasts), Gremlin (opposite of the Brownie), Gwyllion (look like stone-skinned dwarves), Leprechaun, and Spriggan (Fey rogue types with the ability to transform using enlarge, stoneskin and cause fear into rather nasty horrors).
The final section, Designer's Notes, discusses the author's attempt to bring more power and danger to the idea of Fey. It includes an admission that the rules for Reverie and Essence go a good bit beyond the spellcasting rules in Core Rulebook I, but reiterates the need for the GM to police the availability of fey magic and to use it as a huge roleplaying hook rather than a power boost.
Conclusion
This is powerful stuff and really transforms one's perception of Fey in D&D. As the magic is also made available to PCs, the GM will have to take very careful note of the recommendations for controlling the use of the powers described here. If used wrongly or overly, they could destroy a campaign. However, on the whole, I like the ways in which the author has enhanced the Fey, giving them the powers ascribed to Faerie creatures in tales and legends. Certainly, using these rules, PCs won't be so blase about interacting with "flighty and annoying" Fey.
It should be noted that the title of the book is Fey Magic, and not the Slayers Guide to Fey. This book does not go into great detail about non-magical matters related to the Fey. I would have liked to see even more information about roleplaying the powerful and strange creatures that are portrayed within these pages. I was left with a slight sense of lack in regard to roleplaying Fey NPCs and recreating their natures and their interaction with their environment. I also was a little disappointed, though not surprised, that Fey portals and the plane of Faerie were only briefly mentioned - there just wasn't enough room. Perhaps the somewhat lacklustre Fey creatures could have been replaced with a section in this regard.
I would have loved to see a better tie-in here with the cosmology offered in Mongoose's Shamans supplement, as the two concepts seem very similar, and 'Fey Magic' portrays Fey as "nature spirits", and spirits were discussed in great length in Shamans. The author hints at a possible forthcoming book on Fey and the Unseelie court in particular. With Changeling's The Unseelie Court being the most popular release for that line, there is obviously potential for this subject - here's one vote in favour of that idea, anyway.
