# Race: Fairy > [!info] Quick Facts > | | | > |---|---| > | **Rarity** | Rare | > | **Perception in Gryth** | Positive. Their arrival is widely read as a good omen, by people who have generally not been on the receiving end of a fairy who was bored. | > | **Subraces** | [[#Flower Fairies\|Flower Fairies]], [[#Thorn Fairies\|Thorn Fairies]] | > | **Guide Section** | Rare Races | ## Overview Fairies live in the Feywild and cross into the material plane only in passing, small magical beings carrying the raw wonder of their home realm with them. They are strange, otherworldly, mischievous, and they follow a logic that does not survive translation into any mortal language. Two kinds cross over. The flower fairies are the ones anybody means when they say the word, and their arrival is treated almost universally as a good omen. The thorn fairies come from somewhere colder, and are not an omen anybody welcomes. ## The Thrill of the Chase What a fairy wants, more than comfort or company or anything a mortal would put on a list, is the game. Fairies love the chase, the trick, the prank that takes three days to come apart, and the moment when somebody finally works out what has been happening to them. They will go to astonishing lengths for a joke whose entire audience is themselves, and they do not distinguish very carefully between a trick played on a friend and a trick played on a stranger. ## Not Harmless This is where the good omen runs out. Fairies can be cruel and mean-spirited, and the cruelty is casual rather than considered. A traveller who has annoyed one, or who has simply arrived at the wrong moment, may find a straight path turning into a maze that was not there an hour ago, or may walk the same mile of forest until nightfall, or may find every route out of a valley subtly and politely blocked by magic too small to fight. Very few of these games are meant to kill. A reasonable number do, and the fairy responsible is generally puzzled rather than remorseful about it. ## The Cold Divergence Not all fairies stayed as they were. Some diverged long ago and became something sharp and cold, and they keep to frozen forests of snow and darkness where the season never turns. What they take from the living is warmth, and in the worst accounts blood, and the pleasure they take in the taking is the only part of the old fairy character they have kept intact. ## An Old Hatred Fairies despise goblins. To a fairy, a goblin is a piece of the young Feywild that was taken and spoiled. No fairy has eve feeling %% Printed as above: the guide's text box overflows off the top-right edge of p53 and is clipped after "has eve" / "feeling"; the rest of this sentence is not in the PDF. %% ## The Elven Cousins Fairies are not elves and have never claimed to be, but of all fey they stand closest to elvenkind, and the two have kept a relationship that predates most written history. It is old enough to have produced the only standing exception to the blood-right beyond the island’s great walls by an ancient treaty whose terms are now lost, fairies may pass from the Feywild into the island through the conduit of Ty’Shee Rumm, the Fairy Crystal, in the mountain forest beside the Eladrin courts. The exception is narrow. Fairies are confined to that region, forbidden to wander the island at will, and take no part in elven politics. A fairy will tell you this is because elven politics are extremely boring, and an elf will tell you it is because the treaty says so, and both are content to leave it there. ## Fairy Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Dexterity score increases by 2. **Age.** Fairies mature quickly and can live for centuries. **Creature Type.** You are a Fey. **Size.** Your size is Small. **Speed.** Your walking speed is 30 feet. **Flight.** Because of your wings, you have a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You cannot use this flying speed if you are wearing medium or heavy armour. **Fairy Magic.** You know the *druidcraft* cantrip. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the *faerie fire* spell with this trait. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the *enlarge/reduce* spell with this trait. Once you cast *faerie fire* or *enlarge/reduce* with this trait, you cannot cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait; choose when you select this race. **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan. ## Subraces ### Flower Fairies These are the fairies of the stories, and the only kind most people will ever see. They are small, quick, and relentlessly present, forever halfway through a joke nobody else has been told the start of. They are kind in a way that is easy to mistake for simplicity and tricky in a way that is easy to mistake for malice, and both mistakes are made constantly. Underneath it they are wild. A flower fairy will sit at your fire all winter and be gone in the morning without a word, and will not understand why you found that rude. **Rarity:** Rare **Perception in Gryth.** Positive. The arrival of a flower fairy is widely read as a good omen, and their reputation is the reason fairies as a whole are welcome anywhere. #### Flower Fairy Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 1. **Merry Trickster.** You gain proficiency in the Performance or Persuasion skill, your choice. You also know the *minor illusion* cantrip. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it. **Wild at Heart.** You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the charmed condition on yourself. Nothing holds a flower fairy’s attention against its will, including a friend’s. ### Thorn Fairies In the lands of always winter, where the season never turns and the Feywild’s cruelty is not leavened by anything, the thorn fairies keep to themselves. They are the same size and shape as their flower kin and nothing else about them matches. Their wings are dark and ragged, their limbs are barbed, and frost does not melt on them. They hate. It is not a temper or a grievance but a settled condition, carried from birth and directed at a wrong that most of them could not name if asked. Whatever was done to them was done a very long time ago. They have not let it go and show no sign of intending to. A thorn fairy in company is usually there for a reason, and the reason is rarely disclosed. **Rarity:** Very rare **Perception in Gryth.** Negative. They look enough like a flower fairy to be approached and are wrong enough at close range that the approach is not repeated. #### Thorn Fairy Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Constitution score increases by 1. **Winter’s Bite.** You know the *frostbite* cantrip. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for it. **Thorned Limbs.** You can use your barbed limbs to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with them, the strike deals 1d4 + your Strength modifier piercing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. **Bitter Heart.** You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened. Whatever is in front of you is rarely the worst thing you are carrying. ## Connections - [[Region - High Vel'Nora]] — Fairies may enter the island through Ty’Shee Rumm, the Fairy Crystal, beside the eladrin courts - [[Race - Eladrin]] — Their neighbours at the Fairy Crystal - [[Race - Goblin]] — Despised by fairies --- ## Gallery ![[Race - Fairy.jpg]] --- *See also: [[Races]]*