Reviews – Fae Fantastic

Two works looking at options for fey characters in the Pathfinder RPG:

Convergent Paths: Fey Archetypes by Rite Publishing provides three new archetypes, seven new feats and a new monster for the Pathfinder RPG.  The three archetypes are: Faerie Knight, a Cavalier variant, that serves one of the fae courts gaining a fae mount -with whom the knight can perform various magical abilities- and access to allies from the realm.  Laughing Man, built off of the monk, who uses words to manipulate his foes as much as weapons, the class uses skill rolls quite heavily but looks like it could be fun for the right player.  And the Masquerade Reveler, a Barbarian variants, who uses masks built off of Eidion powers (from the Summoner class) as their “rage” effect. a vary interesting archetype that looks quite intriguing.  The new feats are mostly linked to the new archetypes but three of them could be used by others.  Lastly there is the new fae being, the Gancanagh, a trickster and seducer adapted from Irish and Scottish lore which could be used for a variety of tricky scenarios.  Overall, a good selection of options on a relatively narrow theme, so if you are looking to expand the role of the fae in your campaign you should find some inspiration here.

Faerie Passions by Legendary Games is “[a] supplement devoted to the iconic romance between mortal and immortal” and show what happens from such romances and passions, it is also designed to compliment a certain King-making Pathfinder adventure path.  After an introduction to how this product can be used with an adventure path, it has an excellent introduction to the ways that the fae interact with the mortal world and how their passions and mortal one’s intersect and the end results of such.  Five new sorcerer bloodlines playing off of the idea of fae heritage are introduced: dryad, neriad, nymph, norn and satyr.  Along with two new archetypes, the Fey Friend druid, who walks the intersection between faerie and nature, and the Fey Hunter ranger, who, well, hunts dangerous fae.  While the new mechanics are solid, this work really shines in its advice on how to use the fae in a campaign, mechanically some feats or traits to allow characters outside of sorcerers to show their fae heritage would have been a nice addition, but in the end, a good bit of work here.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.