Faer (3.5e Race)
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Contents
Faer[edit]
Created millennia ago, during the Elven Wars, the faerath are extinct, and their very existence is contested by their creators: the elven alliance who would latter become the Grey Elves subrace.
Preliminary Notes[edit]
The faerath are a very unusual race, designed for a specific campaign setting. They are incompatible with many playing styles or campaigns. That is not to say they can't be adapted to other settings, but both the DM and player should give this wiki entry a thorough reading before deciding to go for it, specially the racial feature named Simulacrum of Life.
History[edit]
The faerath are an artificial cross between a Grey Elf embryo and fiendish essence. This race came to be during the Great Elven Wars, before the elven subraces even existed. No faction was without their war crimes, but maybe apart from the Drow's pledging allegiance to the Spider Queen, the creation of the faerath still tarnishes the reputation of the self-important Grey Elves. The mother of the faer never survived the birth, and her pregnancy was excruciatingly painful. It is believed that none of such mothers consented with the procedure, and that the Grey Elf archmagi abducted or bought the elven maidens from their parents, or sometimes performed the procedure on their own daughters The faer cannot reproduce naturally, this is why the race is considered extinct, and while the Grey Elves may deny they ever existed and this “myth” is a part of a smear campaign by their lesser brethren, the amount of surviving evidence supporting they actually existed goes way beyond circumstantial. High Curators of the fabled Grey Elven libraries have some well-hidden evidences of the faerath existence, which are passed from generation to generation, without the knowledge of the archmagi of the Magic Senate, the Highlord Exarchs or even The Royal Family.
Personality[edit]
The faerath are relics from the past, from a time when even some of the current Gods weren't around. They come from an epoch of great magical abundance, the closest to a post-scarcity society that the world has ever got. If a faer appears in the present, there should be a very good explanation, like powerful time-travel gateways or extremely long lasting magical stasis. Human languages were unheard of, Orcish dialects changed way too much with time to make even the slightest sense to a faer and the Elf's relationship with the Dwarves was never close to good enough to allow any faer to learn Dwarvish. A faer would have some difficulty understanding even current Elvish for the first months or years, although languages like Celestial, Abyssal, Infernal and Draconic haven't changed since their time. The biggest shock to a faer would be the human-centric society. Some would react with fear and confusion, others with indignation and aversion. But most would try to adapt. They begin as fearful and easily intimidated, but they may fit in with time. Due to the peculiarities of the profane process responsible for the creation of the faerath, they are physically and emotionally immature, and the perfect targets to indoctrination and brainwashing. Most of them are trained to use that apparent vulnerability in their advantage.
Physical Description[edit]
One of the effects of the arcane infusions that turn a Grey Elf embryo into a faer is that their growth is stunted. A faer physically and emotionally ages only to the human equivalent of 10+1d4 years old. Most people have no idea what they are: faers can present in a great hue of reddish skin (in rare cases bordering on purple), sometimes naturally covered in very subtle curved patterns of a similar tone, which somehow makes their contours harder to define to an onlooker. They have the characteristic silver hair of the Grey Elves and their same facial bone structure and ear shape, but they possess 2 or 4 thick horns in their heads. The colour of their eyes have little variation: they can be violet, as are those of some Grey Elves or yellow, the colour of titanium nitrate coating, but much less shiny.
Relations[edit]
Alignment[edit]
The great majority of faerath were Lawful, raised to obey the orders of their handlers without question. To this day, the few faer walking the world are still lawful scions of someone, and the majority of them disregard the notions of Good and Evil: they do what needs to be done. Their handlers should still be careful to show proper respect for things like honouring an alliance or pact, or a faer will lose their respect for them and either leave or attempt to depose them.
Lands[edit]
The faerath used to live in the great magically enhanced cities of the past, and no modern city, as splendorous as it may be looks better than a slum in their eyes, except the ancient ringed cities of the Grey Elves, who preserved the art of magically sculpting a mountain in a tiered city of breathtaking beauty. They are not very welcome in those kingdoms, though, because the existence of the faerath is forgotten and viewed as a smear campaign by all but the High Curators of their legendary libraries, who keep it a secret passed down from generation to generation in their lineage. The faerath learn life in this new almost alien world is harsher than it was in the times of the Elven Wars, and they look for orderly places to abide, generally human kingdoms or empires open enough to allow a horned creature in their general populace. Because of the terrible discomfort caused by the current Sun, faerath live night lives most of the times. It is not unheard of a faer living under the open-minded rule of a Dwarf King or as a thrall of the Drow or other Underdark races. Their need to follow a leader, their susceptibility to good orators and the garish light of today's sun all work combined to make faerath accept the rule of a subterranean lord, as long as their society is ordered (and it helps if it's ritualistic, like the Drows').
Religion[edit]
Language[edit]
Ancient Elvish (reciprocal -2 to Elvish), Celestial, Draconic, Abyssal and Infernal.
Names[edit]
The faerath had fake names when working undercover and a code name only. They were never formally named as they were never considered adults, and very rarely received child nicknames from their handlers. Their family lineages are almost always lost.
Racial Features[edit]
The faerath have special racial features complex enough to grant each of them their own section.
Prisoner of Childhood: The process of creating a faer stunts their ageing, and no faer is considered an adult by elven societies (or most other societies). A faer stops ageing physically and emotionally once they hit an apparent human age of 10+1d4 years. This gives the faer -2 racial penalties to both STR and CON, and a -4 racial penalty to fear inducing effects (this penalty against fear effects is denied when the faer is following his handler's instructions) and effectively makes them Small in size. Furthermore, the carrying capacity of a faer is halved, and they can only move in a march for 4 hours. Forced march always causes subdual damage to the faer (the saving throw to avoid it automatically fails). Because of their immature minds, the faer has -4 racial penalty to any WIS based check and skill that relates to common sense instead of perception, and a -8 racial penalty to intimidation checks against adults, but they also learn any new skill at half the speed, and gain 4 extra skill points per level beyond the 1st. They are easy to condition and brainwash, and their main use during the Great Elven Wars were as sleeper agents, spies and assassins. Until the faer attacks or casts a spell in combat, the enemies ignore them as long as a different opponent stands within their threatened area. The enemies are aware of the faer's presence but simply give other targets a higher priority. As soon as the faer attacks, they lose this benefit. Additionally, if the enemy is still unaware of the ruse, the faer can make a Bluff check opposed by the target's Sense Motive check. If the faer wins the check, the target becomes temporarily vulnerable to faer; it loses any Dexterity bonus to its Armour Class against the faer until after the faer first attacks. Enemies who have previously seen the faer in its current likeness are immune to this, as are their allies if they are warned of the faer's true nature. There are a number of non-combat applications of this feature, ranging from convincing strangers to provide food and shelter to a successfully disguised faer, to bluffing their way into an orphanage. These applications will require the DM's approval but should be considered a viable use for this feature.
Blighting Sun: The life-giving powers of the Sun cause great discomfort to the faerath. Under direct sunlight, they take a -4 holy penalty to any rolls, reduced to -2 under indirect sunlight. For each 8 consecutive hours a faer spends under direct sunlight, they have to save against Fortitude, or take 1 point of CON damage. They need an interval of at least 2 hours in indirect sunlight or 1 hour away from sunlight to reset the 8 hours counter.
Fiend in Sheep's Clothing: A faer suffers a -6 vile penalty to reaction against domesticated animals, who will either attack or flee the faer, depending on their nature. That penalty always applies to Handle Animals and Ride checks, no matter what's the animal involved. Wolves, bats and vermin will never bother the faer, unless if magically compelled. Other predators will simply avoid the faer if there are other targets available.
Simulacrum of Life: A faer is an artificial being, and its very continued existence depends on magical energies. A faer loses half of their level in hit points every sunrise. Cure spells only restore 1 hit point per level of the spell, Lay On Hands is innefective, and magical effects performed by the faer himself that would drain life from others to permanently heal wounds only restore half the amount they normally would. The faer's mainly gains hit points by draining charges from magical items. The amount of hit points gained that way is equal to the level necessary to acquire the necessary feat to create the item times the level of the spell charge spent from item. This effectively drains a charge/daily use from the item, or destroys it, in case of items with only one use. A faer can accumulate an excess of magic as a personal dweomer equal to twice their maximum possible result in their hit die, plus their level times their spellcasting ability. The daily hit point lost occurs preferentially from this personal dweomer, but it doesn't serve to absorb any other type of wounds. This excess magic allows the faer to prepare or sponteneously cast spells without wasting spell slots. The number of dweomer points the faer spends is equal to the level of the spell. They can also apply metamagical feats to a spell and use the excess dweomer to offset the increase in the spell's effective slot (but never bellow +1) Nevertheless, a faer without constant access to magic items or a host of clerics at their disposal lives a short life indeed.
A Little Help From Bellow: A faer gains a +2 profane bonus in Decipher Script, Disable Device, Disguise, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sleight of Hand and Spot.
Grey Elvish Heritage: A faer gains +1 racial bonuses in long swords, short swords and bows and +2 racial bonuses in Listen, Search and Spot.
Fiendish Essence: A faer who chooses to gains levels as a Warlock is considered to have 1 extra level in that class for all class features, including the daily number of invocations, but excluding the Base Attack Bonus, Hit Dice and Base Saving Throw bonuses. They also gain the following warlock invocations regardless of having levels in that class or not: Darkness, See The Unseen, Serpent's Tongue and Entropic Warding Special: A faer can use Entropic Warding differently: instead of leaving no trail, you can choose to leave a different trail than you normally would. You can make your trail look like it's going in the opposite direction, make it seem like you were walking on a different manner (hurt, not hurt, distressed, etc, including blood appearing or disappearing) or change it to one of another creature (same size as yours or one size smaller or larger). To mimic a specific individual or to alter your scent or add/remove details like blood, a camp, a fall, etc, the faer needs to pass a disguise test, with the CD being determined by the DM (as a guide, the CD of the test should start at 5, and each task should add from 2 to 6 to it, depending on how hard the DM judges it to differ from reality).
Racial Traits[edit]
- -2 Strength: Faerath look extremely weak, but are stronger than normal elven children.
- -2 Constitution: Faerath are naturally frail and have an unimpressive physique.
- Faerath base land speed is 20 feet.
- Automatic Languages: Ancient Elvish (reciprocal -2 between current Elvish. And -4 between specific elven dialects, for instance, Wooden-Elvish).
- Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Infernal.
- Favored Class: Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard
- Level Adjustment: +0
- Effective Character Level: 1
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|size="Small". |basespeed="20"
|specialtext1= |special1= |specialtype1=
|specialtext2= |special2= |specialtype2=
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Vital Statistics[edit]
| Start | Simple | Moderate | Complex | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | +2d10 | +3d10 | }
{{3.5e Racial Aging Effects |
name=Faer | middle=N/A | old=N/A | venerable=N/A | maximum=475 + 6d100}
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Races |
| Author | The Hierophant + |
| Effective Character Level | 1 + |
| Favored Class | Sorcerer +, Warlock + and Wizard + |
| Identifier | 3.5e Race + |
| Level Adjustment | 0 + |
| Racial Ability Adjustments | -2 Strength + and -2 Constitution + |
| Rating | Unrated + |
| Summary | Created millennia ago, during the Elven Wars, the faerath are extinct, and their very existence is contested by their creators: the elven alliance who would latter become the Grey Elves subrace. + |
| Title | Faer + |
