Review: Fey Folio, The Unseelie Court

S-S-S-Stupid readers…it’s not like I like you or anything. I’m just going to post this review now because I got the product for free from Alluria Publishing! I mean I might as well you know. Hmph. Don’t you dare think I did it because you like reviews or anything! And don’t get too confident either! I didn’t play any of this, so this is an idiot review! But if you want…you can stay and read and stuff…it’s not like I care if you do or not, just like I don’t care if you go here to buy the book! HMPH!

</tsundere mode>

This book was actually written by Matthew Cicci of Thieves’ Cant. This is my reason for wanting to review it, as the other Alluria products I reviewed were abominations so I wasn’t really keeping up with their catalog nor really looking forward to anything.

Though being fair, they did fix the stuff I found horrendous after my nasty initial review, so kudos, but I’m still not going over to the side of frogmen and tree-boobs just yet. I also haven’t kept up with what they’re doing for the longest time since I barely keep up with WOTC as it is – adding in the third parties would drive me more insane.

The book is a small collection of fey monsters for use in your 4e games.

Wait hold up.

I’m reviewing a book of monsters. More monsters. Is this…is this a sign of fate? Is it my destiny? Is it something that…

Sigh. There’s just no escaping it is there.

No escaping it. I will meet my fate head on. Time to stop running away from it. To the monstermobile!

Meet The Feyckers

Did I just write that heading? Man this review is a trainwreck already.

The book begins with a little introduction page I didn’t read. If you’ve read my reviews before you know I usually skip the intros or blow them off. I know it doesn’t look good of me to always skip these things, but the font was just murder on my eyes, it’s written in this blocky ye olde parchment font that just drives me up the wall. I’m sure it’s completely unnecessary for me to enjoy the book, just like the manuals on video games. I’ll figure this out.

Dullahans are the first monster in the book. They’re the expected headless knight creatures. You get two of them and a horse. The Dreadlash Dullahan is a melee/short range controller who relies on threatening reach and grabbing folks with its whip basic attack to damage and disrupt the opposition, while the Fearknight is a straightforward soldier with high defenses and damaging attacks. Both of them make use of the Weakened condition, but they don’t spam it, thankfully. The Dullahans look pretty fun in an encounter with a couple of bodaks who can get in some hurt on weakened creatures while being protected by the centerpiece, and ghouls who can trap the PCs within the range of the Dullahan. Pretty neat overall.

Erlking are fey pedophiles. They scramble into towns, snatch kids and run away. The Erlking is a weird creature. Rather than getting extra damage from combat advantage, Erlkings have to gain concealment, and this lets them use their non-basic at-will attack which does more damage (and some ongoing). Their other powers involve grabbing. Erlkings can grab creatures and run away with them, but this slows them down. However, if multiple Erlkings grab the same creature, they boost the speed of primary grabber by 1. This is funny, but I don’t see it being very useful in-game.

If multiple Erlkings delay turns to coordinate a kidnapping, they still won’t get far. Other monsters can just toss a dude the same distance these guys would cover. Still, points given for effort. I find it a pretty weak addition all told. There’s also the weird thing that an Erlking is slowed to 3 speed by carrying anything. They’re 15 str medium creatures who kidnap children, but carrying a child of any size would by their combat rules slow them down so that multiple erlkings would need to be brought in.

Nah I’m just thinking too deeply about this.

Fachens are killer pectoral muscles with one arm and hatchets. I guess. Their musculature would make Rob Liefeld proud. The trend towards grabbing attacks persists with these guys. The Razorchain Fachen can grab and weaken targets until they escape, at will, and make a minor action action attack that prevents escape. They also have another attack that grabs two targets, but prevents them from using their basic attack.  The Stone Shaman is a cool artillery who can split the earth into a wall that knocks dudes into the ground if a wall square is near ‘em. Both look like a good bit of fun, particularly if you have enough Stone Shamans around to box the PCs in.

Jack In Irons is kind of the iconic critter of this book. He’s the biggest one, and his story has tied into some of the monsters I’ve read about already. He’s a liefeldian juggernaut wrapped in chains. He is wearing nothing but the chains. Okey-dokey then. It’s a level 32 solo soldier, so you can expect amazing grind. However, the cool thing about Jack is he isn’t a wimp like Orcus who has to insta-gib you, or a punk like Demogorgon who has to stun and daze and stun and daze you so you never get turns. Jack just takes his club and he straight-up wrecks you. You won’t lose your turns, but you will lose HP. Tons of it. If I had to use a meatbag solo to end my adventure, I’d pick this guy over Orcy and Gorgy.

Kapre are part of the image I have about Fey in D&D. Normally I would like to think of fey as cute little anime girls with butterfly wings. But in D&D I just think of them as trees with faces. Kapre are tree-people. They’re one-trick ponies, but it’s a very cool trick they have. Kapre can hide in the same square as a tree, and while in it they have regeneration and massive resistance (except to fire, for obvious weakness moments). They can step out from the tree to launch a marginally more damaging attack than normal. Paired with other plant monsters, I can see them being interesting.

We interrupt this review to bring you cute girls, doing cute things.

Night-Shades are purple spartan elves made from trees. Their schtick is teleporting and poison – they all share a teleportation power, the Jumper has a whole slew of teleport-attacks, and all of them deal ongoing poison damage. There’s a Jumper and an Archer. I’d have liked to see a third Nightshade – the suggested encounter, 5 Jumpers and 1 Archer, could use a bit of diversity, though dudes teleporting all over the place seems pretty neat (and reminds me of all those people who hate 4e teleportation, and the delicious tears they would weep upon seeing such an encounter).

The Rarog is an NBA basketball player who’s on fire all the time, and I don’t mean based on his score, assists and rebounds, I mean literally on fire, all the time. It’s a pretty straightforward burny damage critter with a burny damage aura, but the neat thing happens when he becomes bloodied. Every square he steps in is lit on fire, and until the end of the encounter or until extinguished with a standard action, these squares will deal 10 damage to things that start their turns in them.

Sidhe‘s are hot fey chicks in leaf dresses. The Lean Sidhe is a festival of not controlling your character. The Bean Sidhe likes to slow things a lot and deal damage in pretty large areas but only things it’s managed to slow down. I really don’t like the look of the Lean Sidhe’s power spread, and the bean one’s just kind of boring.

Spriggans are liefeldian midgets. The runt is a minion. The Savages hulk out and deal massive damage when bloodied. The Stormrager stormrages. These guys are kind of like the goblins of the book. They’re more interesting than goblins (thankfully) but I’d have liked to see a few more regular Spriggans instead of that waste of space minion. I’d have liked to see maybe a skirmisher Spriggan or a lurker Spriggan. I guess the fact that I’d liked to have seen more gives them a pass.

Spring-Heel Jack is a dandy in plate armor with a nice hat. These elite skirmishers can jump away 8 squares and attack or retreat, ignoring difficult terrain and occupied squares, blowing blinding fire and thrusting their rapiers everywhere. They make for pretty neat “unique units” in a combat encounter. But they’re paired up with tieflings and werewolves from the monster manual. I think it’d have been cool for them to have their own fey minions right in this book.

Sylph are what I think about when I think about fey (cute little anime girls with butterfly wings – they even have purple hair!). Their pixie blade attacks leave a poison that first slows and then slows and dazes if the target fails saving throws, and their ranged attacks can make targets treat all terrain as being difficult, or knock them prone. Their damage is a little anemic (all d4s) but otherwise they’re good little additions to fey encounters at the lowest levels.

Vodniks are deep ones wearing…bondage ropes? Something like that. The Gremlin, a level 3 lurker, slaps you around while you’re suffering the conditions imposed by its other one-shot powers (dazed and weakened with one, blinded with the other). The Bog Troll is a level 5 brute with much the same construction, except the blinding power is replaced with a damaging attack, and the damages on everything has been increased. Now, there’s something weird about the Vodniks. They have a Swamp Walk ability listed after speed, but it is never elaborated upon. Their encounter attacks are also reliable, which is kinda neat.

Yallery are small hobos. The scale on them is a bit weird. They’re small size, but a candle looks like half their size in the art work. It’s a little strange. I would have made them Tiny. Oddly enough, these little rascals are Solo controllers at the high-heroic tier. It has an attack in which, I guess, it farts at enemies. It is called Drunkard’s Reeking Escape, it is a close burst 2, it is a poison attack, I don’t know what else it could be. It’s a fart. Yallery run around drunkenly causing status effects.

Verdict: It’s always difficult for me to review monster books, particularly because I’ll probably never use the monsters in them. It’s fun to look at them, but they rarely fit the aesthetics in power or story that I want. However, the book is solidly put together, with great artwork, solid monsters that don’t seem frustrating or boring to fight (well, most of them) and some handy extras, like fluff reminders when playing fey creatures, a bundled skill challenge for Jack-In-Irons, and some magic items. Ultimately, I think if you play 4e, play it like the type of fantasy it usually is, and are looking for more fey to utilize, this book does nothing but good for you and is definitely worth the 5 dollar price of admission. So my final judgment: