Celawyn's Guide to Wilderness and Fey

Chamomile

64
Table of Contents Credits
Playing the Fey pg. 2 Writing and design: Chamomile
Fangs of the Beast: Playable Werewolves pg. 2 Layout and formatting: Megan Bennett-Burks
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble: Playable Hags pg. 4 Cover illustration: Custin
Sorcerer Bloodline: Fey pg. 6 Interior illustration: Deckydraws, Fukamihb
Form Of: The Shapeshifter Class pg. 10 Additional Illustration: Nelnes
Communing With Nature pg. 14 Additional monsters: Virgil Clemens
Running the Fey pg. 15
Common Threads pg. 15
Wilderness Adventures pg. 17
Courts of Reverie pg. 34
The Fair Folk: New Fey Stat Blocks pg. 35
The Old Gods: New Fey Bosses pg. 40
Additional Contentpg. 46
Additional Bosses pg. 46
Additional Feats pg. 52
Additional Spells pg. 53
Backers pg. 55
Index pg. 58

1
Playing the Fey
Fangs of the Beast: Playable Werewolves
Ferocity Tier 1 (minimum level 5)
Werewolves have many origins. Some inherit the transformation
from their ancestors, often skipping one or more generations.
Some become werewolves after being wounded by one, especially
by a bite. Some intentionally merge with wolf spirits to learn how
to transform. Regardless of how they are changed, werewolves
have the power to transform into an ordinary (or at least, seem-
ingly ordinary) wolf or into their powerful hybrid war forms.
Like other transformations in the series, you must attune to the
transformation as though it were a magic item to unlock its full
power. This requires permanently sacrificing magic item slots
equal to the tier, which may be done at any level up when you
meet the level prerequisite.
Ferocity Tier 0 (minimum level 1)
• You can transform into a wolf as an action when under
the light of the moon (full or not). Once you are transformed,
you remain so until you transform back with another action
or you are under the light of the sun, which transforms you
back automatically. You may remain transformed indefinitely
so long as you avoid direct sunlight.
Under the light of the full moon, you transform into a wolf
automatically and may not revert to your human form until
the full moon is no longer in the sky (whether you are under
its light or not). You remain in full control of your actions
when transformed, even under the full moon.
• While transformed, you have a 40 ft. movement speed,
are medium size (if you weren’t already), have the Keen
Scent ability granting you advantage on Perception checks
to do with the sense of smell, and gain a bite attack dealing
2d4+STR piercing damage, and the target must make a STR
save against 8 + your STR bonus + your proficiency bonus
or be knocked prone. You cannot wield any weapons in
wolf form, and you can only wear armor specifically fitted
for wolves, which is not usually available except as a custom
request in most settlements (although goblins tend to make
wolf armor for their mounts and may have some lying around
their blacksmith). Your ability scores are not affected (though
your ability to use your Charisma and Intelligence may be
somewhat limited by an inability to speak) and both forms
share the same HP.
2
• If you take this tier at level 1, you may take the “Were-
wolf ” background. This gives you proficiency in either Per-
ception or Survival and the at-will ability to speak with wolves
as though using the Speak With Animals spell.
• You can transform into a hybrid war form when under
the light of the moon. Shifting between any of your three
forms always requires an action. While in war form, you have
+4 STR and +4 CON (which also means you gain HP equal
to double your level), resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing,
and slashing damage from non-silver, non-magical weapons,
have the Keen Scent ability granting you advantage on per-
ception checks to do with the sense of smell, your deep growl-
ing voice gives you advantage on Intimidation but disadvan-
tage on Persuasion against anyone not used to dealing with
werewolves (this is most people), and you have a claw attack
dealing 1d8+STR slashing damage and a bite attack dealing
2d4+STR piercing damage, which you may use together in
a multiattack. If both your hands are unoccupied, you may
also use your bonus action to make another claw attack. Your
hybrid form is capable of wielding ordinary weapons, and
when you multiattack with wielded weapons, you may replace
one of the attacks with a bite.
• While in your wolf or hybrid form, you have the pack
tactics ability, granting you advantage on all attacks against
enemies who are adjacent to at least one of your allies.
• Silver is deeply harmful to you. When struck by a silver
weapon, or when you spend an entire round in physical
contact with a silver object (probably because you’re unable to
drop it), you must make a CON save of DC 15 or the attack
roll of the silver weapon, whichever is higher. If you fail, you
are nauseated by pain, which affects you as though poisoned.
You can repeat the save to end the effect at the end of each of
your turns.
 • Under the light of the full moon, you transform into Ferocity Tier 3 (minimum level 13)
your hybrid form automatically, and you cannot transform • Your regeneration when transformed increases to 10 HP,
out of it until the full moon has left the sky. While the full or 20 HP if you’re standing in moonlight.
moon is in the sky, your hybrid form is harder to control.
• You command the absolute loyalty of wolves (including
When rolling to Intimidate a creature, being Intimidated
dire wolves and etc.), at least as long as they are within your
(successfully or not) by a creature, or whenever you are
immediate presence. They may get bored and wander off if
attacked by a creature, you must make a DC 12 WIS save to
you ask them to garrison a location or do something else long
avoid losing control and attacking the creature in question (if
term and outside your presence, but they will never run away
you plan on attacking the creature anyway, especially in the
from combat while you’re still fighting, and they will carry
example of someone who is attacking you, you can ignore the
out actions that would ordinarily be far outside ordinary pack
roll, since it hardly matters). Once you have begun fighting
behavior, like infiltrating defenses or leading non-wolf allies
(for any reason), you must make a DC 12 WIS save at the
to a certain location in the forest.
end of your turn to stop. If there are no enemies left when
you fail the save, you must attack allies instead. • When in hybrid or wolf forms, you can howl as an
action. All creatures of your choice within 30 ft. must make
Ferocity Tier 2 (minimum level 9) a WIS save against DC of 8 + your STR + your proficiency
• While in your hybrid or wolf forms, you regenerate 5 bonus or be frightened of you. Frightened creatures may
HP at the start of each of your turns. This regeneration is make an additional save at the end of each of their turns to
increased to 10 HP if you are in the direct light of the moon. end the effect.
Your regeneration does not work so long as you are poisoned
by the nauseating effects of silver.
• When you transform, you may transform into a large
Werewolf Feats
Diurnal (requires Ferocity Tier 0): +1 Intelligence, Wisdom, or
size creature instead of medium. This increases your bite Charisma. You can transform without the aid of the light of the
attack to 3d4+STR piercing damage, and your hybrid form’s moon, are not turned back to human form by daylight, and do
claw attacks to 2d8+STR slashing damage and gives you +4 not have to transform under the full moon.
STR and +4 CON (for +8 total in hybrid form).
Lycanthropic Bite (requires Ferocity Tier 1): +1 Strength,
• Wolves (including dire wolves and any other wolf-ish
Dexterity, or Constitution. You can pass lycanthropy on via bite.
beast of INT 3 or below) recognize you as one of their own,
Creatures who take at least one point of damage from one of
and are supernaturally compelled to accept you as leader of
your bite attacks must make a CON save with DC of 8 + your
their pack. They will attack the creatures you attack or who
CON score + your proficiency bonus. If they fail, they automati-
are attacking you, although they will flee after losing more
cally gain Ferocity at tier 0.
than half their number, and may also be terrified away by
fire, explosions, or other frightening things beyond their
comprehension. You can summon any wolves within several
miles to your side with a howl, which will usually summon
2d4 wolves, who will arrive in about half an hour, but may
summon more in particularly wolf-dense territories, or none
at all in areas like deserts or oceans that just don’t have wolves
in them.
• When under the light of the full moon, you transform
into a large size hybrid form automatically. The WIS save to
avoid frenzy increases to DC 15, and you must make a save
immediately upon transforming and at the start of each of
your turns when you are within 30 ft. of fire or unsheathed
silver.

3
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble: Coven Balance
Playable Hags In order to keep their coven spells refreshed, hags
must be in direct contact with one another often enough
Some hags are created by dark magic (usually from other hags) to refresh their coven spells together. Since adventuring
worked upon an infant, cursing the child to grow into a hag. parties are very mobile, most likely the only way a hag
Others spring up fully formed from fairy land, or have simply adventurer would be able to do this is if the other two
always been there. Either way, hags have the following abilities. hags of her coven are also adventurers (and note that
Ability Score Increase: +2 Wisdom. the hags of a coven don’t have to be the same type - you
can have a coven of a green hag, a night hag, and a sea
Age: Hags are sometimes made from mortals (usually through
hag, or two green hags and a sea hag, or whatever). The
some manner of dark ritual), but their lifespan is indefinite.
power of the coven was balanced around this, with three
Size: Medium. different PCs each giving up a magic item slot to get a
powerful but shared suite of spells, loosely equivalent to
Speed: 30 ft.
each PC attuning to their own wand, exchanging the
Claws: Hags have terrible claws that may be used as a melee twenty-one spell slots the wands would provide for a
attack with a reach of 5 ft., dealing 1d6+STR slashing damage. total of sixteen slots, but having a total of twelve spells to
Coven: When three hags come together, they may form a coven pick from instead of just three.
by attuning to one another as though to a magic item. The hags The coven is massively more powerful if the other
must be at least level 5, the coven lasts until one of the hags is two hags in it are NPCs who do not use their spells,
killed (even if one of the hags would like to break it off early!), providing all of them to just one PC who has to sacrifice
and all hags lose one of their magic item slots so long as the just one magic item slot. If a single hag PC really wants
coven is active. to have coven spells, I recommend either randomly con-
While the coven is active, each of the hags may cast the following suming ten of them (roughly two-thirds) every long rest,
coven spells from the following spell list, regardless of how close or else requiring the single PC to give up all three magic
the other hags are. Hags who do not have spellcasting can still item slots to attune to the coven.
cast coven spells and use WIS as their ability modifier for
these spells. The coven spells are shared between all hags
and refresh with a ritual that must be performed by all
three hags together at moonrise (if using one-hour long
rests, this ritual takes an hour but may be performed at
any time the moon is in the sky, and if using week-long
long rests, this ritual must be performed at moonrise on
Friday evening, specifically), although it does not matter
when (or if ) the individual hags take their long rest. Hags
do not have to be within 30 ft. of their covenmates to use
their coven spells.
Coven spells
1st level (4 slots): Identify, Ray of Sickness
2nd level (3 slots): Hold Person, Locate Object
3rd level (3 slots): Bestow Curse, Counterspell, Lightning Bolt
4th level (3 slots): Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph
5th level (2 slots): Contact Other Plane, Scrying
6th level (1 slot): Eyebite
Darkvision: Hags have 60 ft. darkvision.
Illusory Appearance: Hags can cast an illusion upon themselves
as an action, making them appear as another creature with their
same general size and shape. This does not change the physical
reality of the hag, so someone who touches the hag will still be
able to feel her claws, may be able to tell that the texture of her
clothes is much different from how they appear, and so on.
Languages: Hags speak common and sylvan.

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Green Hag
Ability Score Increase: Green hags have +1 STR.
Aquatic: A green hag has a 30 ft. swim speed and can breathe
underwater.
Invisible Passage: At level 5, a green hag may turn invisible and
leave no trace of her passage (i.e. no footprints, bent branches,
etc.). This effect can be broken the same way the regular Invisi-
bility spell can be broken. Once the hag has used this ability, she
cannot use it again until she finishes a long rest.
Night Hag
Ability Score Increase: Night hags have +1 DEX.
Nightmare Haunting: At level 5, a night hag may enter the
ethereal plane. While there, she may reach out and touch a
creature on the material plane. This creature’s dreams are haunted
by terrible nightmares that prevent rest for as long as the hag’s
ethereal form is in contact with them. If the nightmares last for at
least one hour, that creature does not benefit from a long rest and
their HP maximum is reduced by 1d10. If their HP maximum
is reduced to 0, they die. Protection From Evil and Good and
Magic Circle prevent the hag from using this ability. Once the hag
has used this ability, she cannot use it (including the ability to
become ethereal) again until she finishes a long rest.
Sea Hag
Ability Score Increase: Sea hags have +1 CON.
Aquatic: A sea hag has a 30 ft. swim speed and can breathe
underwater.
Horrific Appearance: At level 5, the sea hag’s appearance has
become particularly gruesome. Any creature who starts within 30
ft. of her and who can see her true form must make a WIS save
against her spell save DC, or 8 + her CON bonus + her profi-
ciency bonus if she has no spellcasting. Creatures who fail are
frightened of the sea hag, and may make a new save at the end of
each of their turns to end the effect. Creatures who succeed are
immune to the sea hag’s horrific appearance until their next long
rest.
The Fair Folk: Playable Pixies
Pixies are known for their mischievous and curious nature. Partly
this is just a result of selection bias: If a pixie is neither mischie-
vous enough to want to prank mortals nor curious enough to
want to eavesdrop on them, they won’t have much need to ever
get near them at all. Nevertheless, there are plenty of mischievous
and/or curious pixies out there, and while most of them start by
lurking in literal eaves, some of them eventually become com-
fortable enough with mortal society to introduce themselves and,
almost inevitably, become adventurers.
Ability Score Increase: Pixies have +2 Charisma and +1 Dexter-
ity.
Age: Pixies bloom from flowers fully grown and have indefinite
lifespans.
Size: Pixies are tiny size.
Speed: 10 ft., 30 ft. fly
Pixie Dust: Pixies have pinches of pixie dust equal to their
proficiency bonus, which they can use to cast spells. They must
meet the level prerequisite listed below to cast a spell. Spell DCs
for pixie dust spells are 8 + the pixie’s CHA bonus + proficiency
bonus. They regain their pixie dust when they take a long rest.
1st level (0* dust): Dancing Lights
3rd level (1 dust): Entangle, Sleep
5th level (2 dust): Invisibility, Phantasmal Force
7th level (3 dust): Dispel Magic, Fly
9th level (4 dust): Confusion, Polymorph
*: These spells cost no dust, but you must have at least one pinch
of pixie dust to use them.
Pixies also get additional spells usable with pixie dust based on
what fey court they belong to:
Autumn Dust: Pixies of the autumn court can cast Contagion
with five pinches of pixie dust.
Spring Dust: Pixies of the spring court can cast Awaken with five
pinches of pixie dust.
Summer Dust: Pixies of the summer court can cast Flame Strike
with five pinches of pixie dust.
Winter Dust: Pixies of the winter court can cast Hold Monster
with five pinches of pixie dust.
Stealth Proficiency: Small and quiet, pixies have proficiency in
Stealth automatically.
Tiny Weapons: Because they are very small, pixies must wield
very small weapons. These weapons have half-size damage dice
(for example, a pixie’s longsword deals 1d4 damage instead of
1d8) or, if they have an even number of damage dice, half as
many dice (for example, a pixie’s greatsword deals 1d6 damage
instead of 2d6).
5
 Fairy Circles: Your fey ancestry calls you towards fairy land.
Sorcerer Bloodline: Fey Starting from level 6, any time you are in a wilderness area (like a
Fey sorcerers are descended from dryads or satyrs or occasionally forest or desert, but not a city or dungeon), you can search for a
other fey creatures. Fey sorcerers are descended from a specific fairy circle, and will find one within ten minutes. This fairy circle
fey court, which they must choose from level 1. However, fairy can be used to take you to and from the fey plane.
land is an unstable place in terms of both politics and geography.
Courts shift borders, cease to exist, and are reborn freely, both Fey Charm: At level 6, non-fey creatures take disadvantage on all
because of land taken or lost and because a river might decide to saves against being charmed or frightened by you.
start flowing through an entirely different set of kingdoms, totally Fey Sense: At level 6, you have an intuitive sense for when the
altering which fey courts do and don’t count as “river kingdoms” fey are nearby. As a bonus action, you can detect how many fey
and have easy access to one another via that river. A fey territory there are within 60 ft. This does not tell you exactly where they
may wake up one day to find they are now surrounded by im- are or what kind of fey they are, but it will give you a rough
penetrable mountains, and a long-lost fairy lord has reappeared estimate of the total number within range (this estimate is very
to rule over the isolated kingdom, re-establishing a court that had accurate when there’s only three or four fey in range, but if there’s
long since been defunct. dozens, then just like looking at a crowd, it becomes hard to
All of this to say that there are an uncountable number of fey count the exact number in a hurry and it just kind of dissolves
courts, and all that really matters is what damage type they’re into “a whole lot”). This is a divination effect and can be thwart-
associated with. One example court of each type has been given ed by things that block divinations.
in the table below, but you can feel free to invent your own even Fairy Wings: At level 14, you grow wings. For some, these wings
as a player (though if you make a court up as a player, there is no are permanent, but for many, they are telescoping dragonfly
guarantee that whatever court you’re descended from is currently wings which can be easily folded up along the back whenever not
extant). in use or something similarly possible to easily get out of the way.
Force damage is intentionally excluded from this list. There is Regardless of how inconvenient it’s become to fit through door-
no fey court attuned to force damage, because force damage is ways, you gain a fly speed equal to your land speed. You will need
almost never resisted by anything. special clothes and armor to accommodate the wings (although
clothes are very easy to modify - just cut some holes near the
Damage type Example courts shoulder blades).
Acid Court of Agony, Court of Entropy Elemental Immunity: At level 18, you are totally immune to the
Cold Court of Winter damage type associated with your court.
Fire Court of Summer Fairy Roads: At level 18, whenever you are in the fey plane, you
Lightning Court of Spring can use fey roads to find your way to any other plane within an
hour. Planes that intentionally try to close themselves off from
Necrotic Court of Autumn all outside access (fortresses and prisons and so forth) have only
Poison Court of Serpents a 20% chance of actually succeeding. Roll a d100 when attempt-
Psychic Court of Eyes, Court of Shadow ing to find your way to these planes with a fairy road. On a 21
or higher, a fairy circle exists within them, likely placed by some
Radiant Carnival Court, Court of the Sun
mischievous fey thumbing their nose at the attempt to deny en-
Thunder Cloud Court, Court of Cacophony try. On a 1-20, no such fairy circles exist in the plane in question,
Elemental Resilience: Starting from level 1, you are resistant to and you cannot access it through fairy roads.
the damage type of your court.
Fey: Other fey creatures recognize you as fey, and will treat you
as such, rather than as a mortal. This has no direct mechanical
consequences, but does mean that fey are less prone to messing
with you.
Hidden: Starting from level 1, you have advantage on all Stealth
checks made in natural terrain (like trees or snow, but not cities
or inside structures).

6

Ranger Subclass: Beast Friend
While there are Rangers who focus on woodland magic and
Rangers who focus on straight-up murder, one of the most iconic
Rangers is that of the beast friend, who goes into battle with an
animal companion. This concept was done infamously poorly in
the PHB. The revised version was generally better received, but
while it’s acceptable, it’s only scratching the surface of how cool
a concept an animal companion can be. We can do better - and
now we have.
Animal Companion: When you join this conclave at 3rd level,
you can magically summon a fey spirit in the form of an animal
to travel and fight by your side with a ritual that can be complet-
ed as part of a short rest. Whenever you complete this ritual, your
companion may shift into a new animal form or restore their HP
to maximum. This ritual restores them even if their HP had been
reduced to 0, as they do not die when reduced to 0 HP. As fey
spirits, they are almost incapable of death, and when their phys-
ical form is slain, their incorporeal spirit enters into a slumber
until given physical form again. For most fey, this process takes at
least a year and a day, and often centuries, but luckily your ritual
can reliably coalesce their spirit into physical form again whenev-
er you have time for a short rest.
Your animal companion must be of either the beast or mon-
strosity type, and must have a CR of 2 or more lower than your
Ranger level (so when you join this conclave at 3rd level, you can
have any beast or monstrosity of CR 1 or lower as your animal
companion, while at 20th level, you can have any beast or mon-
strosity of CR 18 or lower). Creatures with fractional CR count
as 0 for purposes of this ability.
If your animal companion’s INT, WIS, or CHA are lower than
6, they rise to 6. They have a proficiency bonus equal to yours,
which might alter their saves or attack bonuses compared to the
default stat block.
Monstrosity Companions
There are a lot of really cool animal companion can-
didates who are monstrosity type instead of beast type,
like the winter wolf, hydra, and purple worm. There’s
also a couple of creatures in the monstrosity type that
probably should’ve just been humanoids, like the yuan-ti
abomination, harpy, and ettercap. You might choose to
intentionally avoid them for roleplaying reasons. On the
other hand, you might decide not to, instead. If your fey
spirit companion can transform into a yuan-ti, that’s
not really any weirder than transforming from a wolf
into a bear. If it fits your theme, go for it.
Calls of the Wild: Starting from third level, you may perform
any of the following calls as an action. You may perform a total
number of calls equal to your proficiency bonus before taking
a long rest to refresh them. Except where otherwise stated, each
call has a range of 60 ft. and ends if the companion exceeds this
range, lasts one minute, and requires concentration.
• Call of Ferocity: You direct your animal companion to
fight with savage fury. For the duration of the call, they make
attacks at advantage and deal bonus damage equal to your
proficiency bonus on each hit.
• Call of Haste: You direct your animal companion to act
with incredible speed. Their movement speed is doubled, they
gain +2 AC, have advantage on DEX saves, and get an extra
action on each of their turns. This action may only be used to
make a single attack, dash, hide, or use an object.
• Call of Protection: You direct your animal companion
to fight cautiously. For the duration of the call, attacks against
them take disadvantage, and their saves are made at advan-
tage.
Shape Companion: Starting from third level, you can apply any
of the following alterations to your animal companion. Each
alteration increases the animal companion’s CR by 1 for purposes
of max CR for animal companion. For example, if you are a 5th
level Ranger, your animal companion’s maximum CR is 3. You
could instead take a CR 1 creature with two of the following
alterations. Fractional CR counts as 0 for purposes of max CR, so
even a level 3 Ranger can apply one of the below alterations to a
companion with default CR of ½, ⅓, etc. etc. You may reshape
your companion whenever you take a short rest, as part of the
same ritual that allows you to reshape them into an entirely dif-
ferent creature and restore their HP.
• Aquatic. Your animal companion can breathe water and
gains a swim speed equal to their land speed. You may apply
this alteration twice, doubling their swim speed on the second
alteration.
• Burrow. Your animal companion gains a burrow speed
equal to half their land speed, rounded down to the near-
est 5 ft. You may apply this alteration twice, granting them
a burrow speed equal to their land speed with the second
alteration.
• Charge. If the animal companion moves at least 20
ft. before attacking an enemy and hits with their first attack,
the attack is automatically a critical hit. Subsequent attacks
cannot benefit from charge in this way.
• Critical Master. Your animal companion’s natural
weapons score a critical hit on a 19-20.
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 • Elemental Weapon. One of your animal companion’s
natural weapons deals an extra die of damage. This die of
damage is one of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder dam-
age, chosen when you apply the alteration. You may apply
this alteration multiple times, giving an elemental die to a
different natural weapon each time.
• Elemental Resistance. Your animal companion be-
comes resistant to one of acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison,
or thunder damage. You may apply this alteration multiple
times, making your companion resistant to a different damage
type each time.
• Flight. Your animal companion gains a fly speed equal
to their land speed. You may apply this alteration three times,
doubling or tripling their fly speed on the second and third
alterations, respectively.
Advanced Shaping: At 7th level, you may apply the following
alterations to your animal companion when reshaping them on a
short rest. These alterations count as two alterations for deter-
mining the animal companion’s CR (for example, a CR 3 animal
companion with one of these alterations would count as CR 5).
• Breath Weapon. The animal companion gains a breath
weapon that is either a 30 ft. cone or a 60 ft. line. The breath
weapon deals d6s of damage equal to your proficiency bonus
of either acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder dam-
age, chosen when you make this alteration. The damage can
be halved with a DEX save of DC 8 + your animal compan-
ion’s CON bonus + your proficiency bonus. When the breath
weapon has been used, roll a d6 at the start of each of the
animal companion’s turns. On a roll of a 6, the weapon is
available again.

• Grab. Pick one of the animal companion’s natural • Elemental Immunity. The animal companion is com-
weapons. Once per turn, they automatically grapple and re- pletely immune to one of acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or
strain a target when they land a blow with that weapon, with thunder damage. You may take this alteration multiple times,
an escape DC equal to 8 + your companion’s STR bonus choosing a different element each time.
+ your proficiency bonus.
• Keen Sense. Your animal companion
gains one of Keen Hearing, Keen Scent, or Keen
Sight, giving them advantage on Perception
checks to do with the selected sense. You may
take this alteration multiple times, choosing
a different sense each time.
• Natural Armor. Your animal companion
gets a +2 bonus to natural AC.
• Poison. One of your animal companion’s
natural weapons becomes poisonous, dealing 2d6
poison damage and inflicting the poisoned condi-
tion if it hits, with a CON save for half damage
and to negate the poisoned condition. The DC
for the save is 8 + your animal companion’s
CON bonus + your proficiency bonus. Crea-
tures poisoned by this attack can repeat the save
at the end of each of their turns to end the effect.
• Trip. One of your animal companion’s natu-
ral weapons trips its targets, who must make a STR
save against DC of 8 + your animal companion’s
STR bonus + your proficiency bonus or else be
knocked prone.

8
 • Natural Weapon. The animal companion may add a • Innate Spellcasting. Your animal companion has the
claw attack dealing 2d6 slashing damage, a bite attack dealing innate ability to cast spells, which they may cast once before
2d6 piercing damage, a slam attack dealing 2d6 bludgeoning they need a long rest to refresh it. Each time you take this
damage, or a spine attack with a range of 30/120 ft. dealing alteration, pick up to six spell levels’ worth of spells, with each
2d6 piercing damage. This is a natural weapon and it may spell being a maximum of 3rd level.
be used as part of a multiattack. You may take this alteration • Petrifying Gaze. Your animal companion can petrify a
multiple times, adding a different natural weapon each time. creature with a look. This takes an action and must target a
• Swallow Whole. The animal companion may attempt single creature within 60 ft. who can see your animal com-
to swallow whole any creature who is at least one size category panion’s eyes. The target must make a CON save of DC 8
smaller and who they have grappled with their mouth. The + your animal companion’s CHA bonus + your proficiency
target must make a STR save against DC of 8 + your animal bonus. If they fail, they are paralyzed until the end of your an-
companion’s STR bonus + your proficiency bonus, and if they imal companion’s next turn. If they fail by 5 or more points,
fail, they are swallowed. Swallowed creatures take 8d6 acid they are petrified.
damage at the start of each of their turns with no save. They • Reflective Armor. Your animal companion is cov-
are grappled and restrained so long as they are swallowed, ered with some kind of reflective surface, whether that be a
but may make attacks from inside the creature. Swallowed carapace, crystalline scales, bony plates of natural armor, or
creatures remain swallowed until the creature who has swal- metallic, reflective fur. The animal companion has advantage
lowed them is reduced to 0 HP (whether from the inside or on all saves against spells or other magical effects, and all spell
outside). attacks against them take disadvantage. If they save for half
Call of Restoration: At 11th level, you can revive your animal against a magical effect, they instead take no damage. Line
companion from 0 HP to 1 HP with a call. This call is an instan- effects, cone effects, and single target spells which do not hit
taneous effect, but otherwise works like any of your other wild or which they make their save against are reflected back to
calls (including taking an action). affect the caster, which also prevents the spell from affecting
any creatures standing directly behind the animal companion
Expert Shaping: At 15th level, you may apply the following
(but not creatures standing in front or to the sides).
alterations to your animal companion when reshaping them
on a short rest. These alterations count as three alterations for
determining the animal companion’s CR (for example, a CR 10
animal companion with one of these alterations would count as
CR 13).
• Frightful Presence. The animal companion is terrify-
ing to look upon. All creatures who get within 30 ft. of the
animal companion must make a WIS save against DC of 8
+ your animal companion’s CHA bonus + your proficiency
bonus. If they fail, they are frightened of your animal com-
panion. Frightened creatures may repeat the save to end the
effect at the end of each of their turns. Creatures who succeed
on the save (initially or at the end of their turn) are immune
to your animal companion’s frightful presence for 24 hours.
The frightful presence is indiscriminate, but presumably all
your party members make their saves (possibly taking a few
minutes to do so) at the start of the day and are subsequently
unaffected for the length of the actual adventure.

9
 Rat Form: A shapeshifter can transform into a rat as an action.
Form Of: The Shapeshifter Class Transformation: When a shapeshifter transforms into a morph,
The shapeshifter is a master of transforming into all manner of
animal forms, not just into perfect copies of animals like a Druid, they are a human-animal hybrid. They still use their own stat
but into hybrid forms, from rats and wolves up to sharks and block, modified by the morph. Morphed forms can still speak
bears and, ultimately, all the way up to the mighty dragon form. (though they may be higher or lower in pitch or have strange
enunciation) and have opposable thumbs capable of making
Hit Die: 1d8 about the same gestures and carrying about the same items as the
Armor: None shapeshifter’s base form.
Weapons: Simple When a shapeshifter transforms into a form, they use the statistics
of the creature they have transformed into, however they retain
Tools: None their own INT, WIS, and CHA score. They also have the follow-
Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma ing effects:
Skills: Choose two from Athletics, Nature, Perception, Stealth, • The shapeshifter assumes the HP and hit dice of the
or Survival creature they have transformed into, and retain the HP they
had before transformation when they revert back. However,
Starting Equipment: You start with the following items, plus
if they revert back due to being reduced to 0 HP, any excess
anything provided by your Background.
damage will spill over into their base form’s HP.
• A dagger • The lack of proper lips or opposable thumbs make ver-
• A sling bal and somatic components for spells impossible.
• A dungeoneer’s pack or an explorer’s pack • They retain any class features, feats, or other abilities
that their new form is physically capable of.
Level Proficiency Features
Regardless of whether they use them for forms or morphs, a
1 +2 Keen Senses, Rat Form, Transforma-
shapeshifter can shapeshift a number of times equal to their pro-
tion, Wolf Form
ficiency bonus before they must take a short rest to restore their
2 +2 Aquatic Form, Rat Morph, Snake shapeshifting power. Shifting back into their base form does not
Form, Wolf Morph count as shapeshifting for purposes of this limit.
3 +2 Shark Morph, Snake Morph Wolf Form: A shapeshifter can transform into a wolf as an
4 +2 ASI, Bird Form, Dire Transformation action.
5 +3 Bear Form, Cat Form, Regenerative Aquatic Form: Starting at second level, a shapeshifter can trans-
Morph form into a dolphin, reef shark, or giant octopus as an action.
6 +3 Scent of the Unnatural, Spirit Fangs
Rat Morph: At second level, a shapeshifter can transform into a
7 +3 Swarm Transformation half-rat, half-humanoid hybrid form. This grants the following
8 +3 ASI, Bear Morph, Cat Morph benefits:
9 +4 Troll Blood • If they were not small size, they become small size.
10 +4 Greater Dire Transformation • +4 bonus to DEX.
11 +4 Find the Path • Resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
12 +4 ASI, Hydra Form damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons.
13 +5 Wyvern Form • A claw attack dealing 1d4+STR slashing damage, a bite
14 +5 Bird Morph attack dealing 1d6+STR piercing damage, and a multiattack
with two claws and one bite.
15 +5 Hydra Blood
16 +5 ASI, Dragon Morph • Advantage on all Stealth checks.
17 +6 Unerring Tracker Snake Form: At second level, a shapeshifter can transform into a
poisonous snake or constrictor snake as an action.
18 +6 Master of Forms
19 +6 ASI
20 +6 Dragon Form
Keen Senses: A shapeshifter has one of Keen Hearing, Keen
Scent, or Keen Sight, giving them advantage on all Perception
checks made with the relevant sense. They retain this ability in all
of their forms, including their base humanoid form.

10
Wolf Morph: At second level, a shapeshifter can transform into a
half-wolf, half-humanoid hybrid form. This grants the following
benefits:
• If they were not medium size, they become medium
size.
• +4 bonus to STR and CON.
• Resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons.
• A claw attack dealing 1d6+STR slashing damage, a bite
attack dealing 1d8+STR piercing damage, and a multiattack
with two claws and one bite.
• Enemies struck by their claw attack must make a STR
save against DC 8 + the shapeshifter’s STR + the shapeshifter’s
proficiency bonus or be knocked prone.
• Enemies struck by the bite attack are automatically
grappled, and any bite attacks made against a grappled oppo-
nent are automatically a critical hit as the bone is worried.
• The pack tactics ability, giving them advantage on all
attacks made against enemies adjacent to at least one of the
shapeshifter’s allies.
Shark Morph: At third level, a shapeshifter can transform into a
half-shark, half-humanoid hybrid form. This grants the following
benefits:
• If they were not medium size, they become medium
size.
• +6 bonus to STR.
• Resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons.
• A bite attack dealing 3d6+STR piercing damage. This
attack can be used to replace one weapon attack as part of a
multiattack.
• A 30 ft. swim speed and the ability to breathe underwa-
ter so long as they have moved at least 5 ft. each round.
• 30 ft. blindsight when under water.
Snake Morph: At third level, a shapeshifter can transform into a
half-snake, half-humanoid hybrid form. This grants the following
benefits:
• +6 bonus to DEX.
• Resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons.
• A bite attack dealing 1d8+STR piercing damage plus
3d6 poison damage, with a CON save for half of DC 8 + the
shapeshifter’s CON bonus + the shapeshifter’s proficiency
bonus. Creatures who fail the save against the poison damage
are also poisoned, and can repeat the save to end the poisoned
effect at the end of each of their turns. This attack can be used
to replace one weapon attack as part of a multiattack.
• A poison spit attack with a range of 30/120 ft., dealing
3d6 poison damage, which works the same as the poison ef-
fect on the bite attack. This attack can be used to replace one
weapon attack as part of a multiattack.
• An extra 30 ft. of land speed.
• Do not provoke attacks of opportunity from movement.
• Have advantage on all checks made to grapple an oppo-
nent and on all attacks made against grappled opponents.
Bird Form: At fourth level, a shapeshifter can transform into a
hawk, eagle, owl, or raven as a standard action.
Dire Transformation: At fourth level, a shapeshifter gains the
ability to turn into much larger versions of their form transforma-
tions.
• Aquatic form can be used to transform into a giant
octopus.
• Bird form can be used to transform into a giant eagle.
• Rat form can be used to transform into a dire rat.
• Snake form can be used to transform into a giant poi-
sonous snake or a giant constrictor snake.
Bear Form: At fifth level, a shapeshifter can transform into a
black bear or brown bear as a standard action.
Cat Form: At fifth level, a shapeshifter can transform into a lion
or tiger as a standard action.
Regenerative Morph: Whenever a fifth level shapeshifter
transforms into a morph (but not a form), their HP is restored to
maximum.
11
Scent of the Unnatural: A sixth level shapeshifter can smell out
the presence of celestials, fiends, fey, and undead within 60 ft.
of their location as a bonus action. They know what square the
creatures occupy, what kind of creature they are (provided they’ve
encountered such a creature before, i.e. if they’ve never met a
bearded devil in person before, they’ll just recognize it as “an un-
familiar fiendish scent”), and if they’ve met that specific creature
before, even exactly which individual it is.
Spirit Fangs: Starting at sixth level, all of a shapeshifter’s natural
attacks in any form count as magic weapons for purposes of
bypassing damage resistance.
Swarm Transformation: A seventh level shapeshifter can trans-
form into a swarm version of their forms.
• Aquatic form can be used to transform into a swarm of
quippers.
• Bird form can be used to transform into a swarm of
ravens.
• Rat form can be used to transform into a swarm of rats.
• Snake form can be used to transform into a swarm of
poisonous snakes.
Bear Morph: At eighth level, a shapeshifter can transform into
a half-bear, half-human hybrid form. This grants the following
benefits:
• If they were not large size, they become large size.
• +4 bonus to STR and +6 bonus to CON.
• Resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons.
• A claw attack dealing 1d8+STR slashing damage, a bite
attack dealing 1d10+STR piercing damage, and a multiattack
with two claws and one bite.
• The claw attacks grapple any target they hit automati-
cally, with an escape DC of 8 + the shapeshifter’s STR bonus
+ their proficiency bonus.
• Creatures grappled by the bear morph provoke an at-
tack of opportunity if they attack anyone but the bear morph
grappling them.
12
Cat Morph: At eighth level, a shapeshifter can transform into
a half-cat, half-human hybrid form. This grants the following
benefits:
• If they were not large size, they become large size.
• +4 bonus to STR, DEX, and CON.
• Resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons.
• A claw attack dealing 1d8+STR slashing damage, a bite
attack dealing 1d10+STR piercing damage, and a multiattack
with two claws and one bite.
• If the shapeshifter moves at least 20 ft. in a straight line
before attacking a creature in cat morph, they pounce on the
creature. The creature must make a STR save against a DC of
8 + the shapeshifter’s STR bonus + the shapeshifter’s profi-
ciency bonus or be knocked prone. This happens before the
cat morph makes any attacks (although at least one subse-
quent attack is mandatory), which means the attack rolls will
benefit from advantage if the target is successfully knocked
prone.
• If the cat morph hits a prone creature with their bite
attack, the hit is automatically a critical.
Troll Blood: A ninth level shapeshifter can passively regenerate
themselves whole from damage. They heal damage equal to the
number of transformations remaining at the start of each of their
turns, and can reattach severed limbs by holding them against the
stump for a full round.
Greater Dire Transformation: At tenth level, the shapeshifter
can transform into much larger versions of some of their most
powerful animal forms.
• Aquatic form can be used to transform into a giant
shark.
• Bear form can be used to transform into a giant bear.
• Cat form can be used to transform into a giant tiger.
Find the Path: At eleventh level, the shapeshifter can use their
supernaturally acute senses to orient themselves as a round. This
allows them to find the most efficient route from where they are
to where they want to be, even if they’re totally unfamiliar with
their environment. Note, however, that the most efficient route is
not necessarily the safest route.
Hydra Form: At twelfth level, a shapeshifter can transform into a
hydra as an action. This expends three of their transformations.
 Hydra Blood: At fifteenth level, the shapeshifter’s passive regen-
Balancing the Hydra Form eration is now 10 HP at the start of each round, and they can
By twelfth level, turning into a hydra is cool, but regrow missing appendages outright as a bonus action.
usually not very practical. Unprepared GMs who don’t Dragon Morph: At sixteenth level, a shapeshifter can transform
know how to exploit the hydra’s weaknesses, however, into a half-dragon, half-humanoid hybrid form. This has the
might find it hideously overpowered. In order to kill a following benefits:
hydra without too much effort, keep two things in mind:
First, the hydra is huge size, which makes it impossible • +6 bonus to STR, CON, and CHA.
to get through most dungeon corridors. The shapeshifter • Resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
will most likely have to shift out of hydra form to get damage from non-magical weapons.
from one room to another, and even if they’re able to
squeeze through, they’ll be almost totally immobilized • Additional resistance to one of acid, cold, fire, lightning,
while doing so, inching forward one or two squares at or poison damage, based on color of the scales.
a time through a corridor that’s much smaller than the • A claw attack dealing 1d8+STR slashing damage, a bite
three squares wide they need to operate normally. This is attack dealing 1d10+STR piercing damage, and a multiattack
the perfect place for an ambush. with two claws and one bite.
Outside of dungeons, the hydra is very big which makes • Their bite attack deals an additional 1d10 acid, cold,
it visible from a very long distance, and it has no ranged fire, lightning, or poison damage, based on color of the scales.
attacks. Although it’s probably not so big as to be taller • A fly speed equal to double the shapeshifter’s land
than the trees and thus won’t necessarily draw arrows speed.
from the entire forest, it probably is big enough that
ranged enemies will be peppering it with arrows for • A breath weapon that is either a 30-foot cone of cold,
several rounds before it even gets into melee. Wild hydras fire, or poison damage or a 60-foot line of acid or lightning
usually spend all of their time lurking in ponds or rivers damage. Either way, it deals d6s equal to the shapeshifter’s
unseen, bursting out to attack their prey when they come proficiency bonus. Once used, the shapeshifter rolls a d6 at
within melee range. Adventurers, who must remain the start of each of their turns, gaining the power back on a 6.
highly mobile in order to preserve the inherent advan- • A frightful presence that causes all creatures within 30
tages of an adventuring party, are almost never able to ft. to be frightened if they do not make a WIS save of DC 8 +
hide in one spot for hours like this. the shapeshifter’s CHA bonus + the shapeshifter’s proficiency
bonus. Creatures who are frightened may repeat the save at
the end of each of their turns to end the effect. Creatures who
Wyvern Form: At thirteenth level, a shapeshifter can transform make their save (immediately or at the end of their turn) are
into a wyvern as an action. This expends two of their transforma- immune to the shapeshifter’s frightful presence for 24 hours.
tions.
Bird Morph: At fourteenth level, a shapeshifter can transform
into a half-bird, half-humanoid hybrid form. This has the follow-
ing benefits:
• +6 bonus to DEX.
• Resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons.
• A talons attack dealing 1d8+STR slashing damage and a
beak attack dealing 1d6+STR piercing damage, which may be
used together as a multiattack.
• Their talons attack automatically grapples any target it
hits, with an escape DC of 8 + the shapeshifter’s STR bonus
+ the shapeshifter’s proficiency bonus. Note that dropping
a grappled creature is a free action, and that creatures who
cannot fly under their own power will subsequently take fall
damage.
• A fly speed equal to double the shapeshifter’s land
speed.

13
Unerring Tracker: At seventeenth level, a shapeshifter’s supernat-
ural senses are so keen that they can automatically determine the
direction and distance of any creature or object they are familiar
with as a bonus action (for objects, they must have handled the
object, for creatures, they must have come within speaking dis-
tance (30 ft. or so)), so long as the target is on the same plane.
Master of Forms: At eighteenth level, a shapeshifter is so unerr-
ingly in control of the shape of their body that they cannot have
their shape changed against their will. They automatically succeed
on all saves against body-altering effects like Polymorph, but they
can still choose to forego the save and be affected if they like.
Dragon Form: At twentieth level, a shapeshifter can transform
into a wyrmling dragon of any color as an action, or a young
dragon for three transformations, or an adult dragon for six
transformations.
Shapeshifter Subclasses
The standard shapeshifter can transform into a rat,
wolf, snake, shark, bird, bear, cat, hydra, wyvern, and
dragon. That’s ten different creatures, which is less than
the number of creatures that exist in the world. Rather
than making two or three of those tied to subclasses and
the rest a permanent fixture of every single shapeshifter,
shapeshifter subclasses work by swapping out some num-
ber of form/morph pairings for some other number of
form/morph pairings. For example, you might exchange
the snake form/morph for a spider form/morph, or the
bear for a deinonychus, or the hydra for a giant ape.
14
Communing With Nature
Thaemin’s Guide to Gods and Miracles presented the pilgrimage
of the divine caster as an alternative to Clerics and Paladins with
unlimited spells known. This makes adding new Cleric and Pal-
adin spells (as many sourcebooks are wont to do) less disruptive,
since these spells are not automatically added to the spell list of
every Cleric and Paladin, and adds a flavorful new way for Pala-
dins and especially Clerics to gain new spells, which is helpful for
classes which otherwise have relatively little to do with treasure,
since they require magic weapons and armor less than classes like
the Fighter or Rogue (something which is particularly true for
Clerics who, heavily armored though they often are, usually view
themselves as casters first and frontline fighters only when no one
better is available).
All this recap to say that the same thing applies to Druids and
Rangers, except that they naturally would get their spells not
from a divine pilgrimage to holy temples and monasteries, but
rather by communing with the spirits of different forests, moun-
tains, rivers, and so on. Like Wizards, Druids learn two new
spells automatically every time they level up. Also like Wizards,
they can acquire more spells on top of these, but unlike Wizards,
they do so by communing with natural spirits. The natural spirits
can only impart spells they themselves embody. Communing
with the moon might give Moonbeam, communing with some
cavern of primordial fire might give Flaming Sphere, and com-
muning with a mountain might give Erupting Earth.
This gives instant quest hooks for the Druid or Ranger any time
it involves passing near a new terrain feature (which is probably
common), even if it’s the same type of terrain feature as has been
visited before. The last forest granted Warding Wind, the next one
may grant Speak With Plants. And if you have no particular quest
hooks to dispense, you can just let the spirits of the wild grant
the spell to the Druid or Ranger immediately on their arrival.
Running the Fey
How To Fairies
Fey are extremely underutilized in basically every edition of
the world’s most litigious fantasy roleplaying game. For most
editions, they were split up amongst otherwise unrelated planes
and thus had only the most strained relations with one another, if
they had any at all, which means they didn’t even really exist as a
class of creatures unto themselves. That’s changed in the last two
editions, but even with an official fey-themed plane, most people
cannot name even one fey lord. It’s not like major antagonists
are obscure amongst the audience. Everyone knows Asmodeus,
Orcus, Demogorgon, and Tiamat. It’s less consistent exactly
which archdevils, demon princes, dark gods, etc. etc. that people
remember after those four, but even fairly casual players can
usually name at least 3-5 others.
When it comes to fey, even heavily invested, veteran players
usually cannot name even one major fey villain, and if they can,
it’s probably someone like Titania, who they already knew from A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
This lack of attention means there’s no consensus on what a fairy
even is. There’s definitely a well-agreed upon fairy aesthetic, but
the details both metaphysical and narrative are totally inconsis-
tent, and you can use whichever combination of the following
common paradigms seems most interesting to you.
Common Threads
There are some things that all common depictions of the fey hold
in common, however. Specifically, three:
  1. Fairies are driven by personal emotion, not ideology. This
makes fey distinct from celestials and fiends. Some fey are driven
by positive emotions like compassion and a desire to help other
people, while others are driven by negative emotions like jealou-
sy, greed, and spite, but fey are driven by immediate feelings, not
abstract morals. The closest you’ll get to an ideology amongst the
fey is that many of them value loyalty highly, but even then they’re
loyal to a specific person, whether as a ruler, sibling, or vassal. A fey
might oppose the cruel abuse of a tyrant, but only on the grounds
that they feel sympathy for the oppressed masses. They do not
oppose abstract concepts like “tyranny,” and might be totally un-
perturbed by an equally oppressive regime that has a more utopian
facade, disguising the human cost of their authoritarianism.
  2. Fairies obey bizarre laws and customs and expect oth-
ers to do the same. Traditional fey respond very poorly when
you don’t leave a saucer of milk out for them at night or walk
under the boughs of a specific type of tree. This concept per-
sists in almost every interpretation of fey, although specific
fey are sometimes much more understanding about outsid-
ers’ ignorance of their customs. Fey society as a whole, howev-
er, has several easily-followed but impossible-to-guess rules and
are extremely vindictive about people who disobey them.
These rules might be the doing of an evil tyrant fey or they might
be broadly accepted by all of fey society.
  3. Narratives that deal with fairies heavily pretty much always
either embrace or subvert fairy tale tropes, but rarely ignore them
altogether. Fey sorceresses disguise themselves as beggar women at
the side of the road and hand out wonderful gifts to those who give
them food, or terrible curses to those who refuse - or maybe some
fey are doing the exact opposite just to spread confusion amongst
the mortals for the sake of wicked mischief, or maybe it’s just a
rumor that old beggar women started and the fey don’t actually
care. Animals are helpful to those who are kind, either because
awakened animals are very common and generally pro-social or
just because otherwise unintelligent animals are drawn in by the
aura of kindness that exists around them, or maybe being helpful
to “those who are kind’ is propaganda and Cinderella’s mice are
actually mercenaries who would’ve worked for anyone willing to
give them more cheese. Step-parents are always evil, or at least, fey
think they are. Everything comes in threes, or at least fey expect
them to, and are taken off-guard by a fourth.
Lieutenants of the Nature God
It’s common to depict fey as nature spirits, and it’s also common
to have a god of nature who created trees and animals and so
forth. Under this paradigm, the fey are the divine servants of the
nature god. This doesn’t mean that pixies and sprites and so forth
have to be any stronger than they already are in the MM, just
that they were created or recruited by the nature god to help care
for the natural world, which likely includes guarding it against
humanoid intrusion. Depending on how good or evil your nature
god is, fey may be anything from perfectly reasonable conserva-
tors of the environment who help lost travelers survive the wil-
derness to so bloodthirsty and vengeful as to kill all humanoids
who enter the wilderness on sight.
The problem with this paradigm is that there are a huge variety
of fey, and they tend to range from the fairly helpful (if some-
times frustratingly distractable) satyrs to the largely self-interested
dryads who mostly just want to protect their own personal tree or
grove to the vengeful hags who usually try to torment and/or kill
mortals for fun. You can imagine all these fey being a part of the
same community, where the satyrs might not like the hags, but
they’re not at war with them, either. It’s hard to imagine them be-
ing part of the same organization, though. If all fey are ultimately
taking orders from the nature god, why are satyrs so friendly and
hags so murderous?
Your pantheon might have room in it for multiple nature gods
(indeed, it would not be hard to imagine a pantheon who are all
nature gods, each responsible for a different part of the natural
world), with different fey courts each answering to a different
god, but if it doesn’t, it is best to give the fey a less direct rela-
tionship with the divine. Fey, after all, is a different creature type
from celestial.
15
Sovereigns of Nature If you deposed the Winter Queen (somehow), you wouldn’t cause
the season of winter to halt, but you would make people unable
It’s common in modern fantasy (meaning, Tolkien and every-
to feel or express sadness, which is perhaps even more catastroph-
thing afterwards, as opposed to older fairy tales and myths - the
ic. Winter is honestly a pretty terrible season that mostly kills
last decade in particular has been moving away from this a bit) to
things and places that don’t have it tend to do just fine, but being
have the current gods be responsible for creating the world. The
unable to grieve might make people much less capable of moving
god of the sea actually created the seas, for example, and the god
on from loss, while emotions like anger as well as the malaise
of the forests created trees. This isn’t very common in mythology,
of depression - which is not feeling sadness, but rather feeling
though. Often, the god or gods responsible for the creation of the
nothing - run rampant in a world where no one can have a good
world are at least one generation removed from the gods current-
cry and get over it.
ly in charge of things, and have either retired or been deposed.
This one also mixes easily with the Sovereigns of Nature par-
This means that fey can be nature spirits without necessarily
adigm. The Winter Queen can be the personification of both
answering to a nature god. The fey were created along with the
sadness and the literal season of winter, both of which stop func-
rest of the natural world by a previous generation of gods or by
tioning if she is deposed.
a natural, cosmic process, and in any case do not answer to any
particular gods anymore. If there is a nature god, the fey likely Sidebar: Banshees
maintain a good relationship with that god (it is not wise to
In modern culture at large, banshees are supernatural creatures with
make a habit of angering the god of the place you live in), but are
a shriek that is either supernaturally loud or else has some super-
not servants of that god. Fey lords are fully sovereign, indepen-
natural effect of stunning, terror, instant death, etc. etc. on all who
dent from any god, in much the same way that mortal lords are
hear it. Super heroes named “Banshee” will have a power based on
sovereign and do not answer directly to any specific god (though
loud noises, sci-fi war machines (like tanks, star fighters, etc.) called
they would still be unwise to antagonize any god).
“banshees” will produce loud or unusual noises when firing or when
The expectations of unity on the subjects of a fey lord are much running their engine, and fantasy spells or magic items associated
lower than on servants of a nature god, so it is not so unusual with a banshee will be some kind of supernatural shriek, like a spell
that some hag is luring the unwary to a grisly demise in opposi- called “Banshee’s Wail” that causes a noise which stuns everyone who
tion to the official policy of a benevolent fey lord of the area, nor hears it or a magic item called a “banshee book” that screams when
that satyrs might be lackadaisical about the kill-on-sight policy of opened.
a malevolent fey lord. Similarly, while there are usually expected
It’s got nothing to do with being undead, is what I’m getting at.
to be a small number of nature gods (often just one, and some-
You never see banshees as part of the standard necromancer retinue
times none at all), people don’t find it at all unusual that there are
alongside skeletons, mummies, and vampires, the means by which
more fey courts than can be reasonably counted. This means the
someone becomes specifically a banshee rather than an ordinary ghost
fey of one forest can behave drastically differently from the fey
is different in every edition, and the latest fluff suggests a bizarrely
of another, and even a single forest might be contested between
cruel cosmic order wherein beautiful elves are required to use their
multiple fey rulers, or even timeshared between them. It would
body to benefit others under penalty of being cursed forever with
not be at all unusual for a different fey lord’s rules to be in force
tormented undeath, and apparently everyone is okay with this and
depending on whether it is day or night, or whether it is spring
nobody considers this terrible curse to be a problem that high-level
or autumn.
heroes might want to solve.
The world’s most litigious fantasy roleplaying game made banshees
Spirits of Emotion undead as part of the same general trend of underusing the fey in its
Fey are often tied deeply to dreams or emotions, a sort of elemen-
earliest editions and nobody ever changed it, but the word literally
tal of emotions rather than of physical matter. Hags are spirits of
means “fairy woman” and they work much better as fey than as
vengeance, satyrs of Bacchanalian celebration, nymphs of desire,
undead. You can fix it as easy as changing the creature type from
and banshees of grief. Under this paradigm, although fey may
undead to fey. There’s nothing wrong with the stat block. Even the
have themes around natural forces like night and day or the four
necrotic damage makes plenty of sense in the context of a regular
seasons, these are metaphorical. The Winter Court are the fey of
mythical banshee, who are omens of death despite not being dead
grief, and do not have any literal connection to winter.
themselves.

16
Spirits of Chaos This can be combined with the spirits of nature or emotion
paradigms to a limited degree, in particular the emphasis on the
Some settings posit fey as having no metaphysical connection
relations between fey courts. The four seasonal courts might have
to nature or emotion or anything else at all. They’re from a fairy
an ancient alliance or perhaps be locked in never-ending war with
plane which works on bizarre rules, and they come to our world
one another, for example. This does mean, however, that upset-
and tend to expect it to work the same way and are upset when it
ting that balance of power (for example, due to the intervention
does not. Sometimes they attempt to warp the world with their
of PCs) could have bizarre and catastrophic consequences for the
fey magic so that the material plane works the same way as their
material plane that are hard to manage in an ongoing campaign,
home, either within a limited area (usually a forest or swamp) or
although they could be fairly easily managed in an epilogue if this
as an imperialist seeking to expand the borders of the effect until
rearranging of the natural order happens at a campaign’s climax.
the entire material world is consumed and indistinguishable from
their home plane.
Though this paradigm is called “spirits of chaos” for short, that
Spirits of Magic
This paradigm is similar to spirits of chaos in that the fey are
shouldn’t be taken to imply that the fey are dedicated to chaos
largely alien outsiders at least some of whom want to convert the
ideologically. They almost never are. Rather, they are from a plane
prime material plane to resemble their own, even more fantastical
that is chaotic and unstable compared to the prime material
plane. In this paradigm, however, rather than being residents of
plane, and they try to make other places chaotic and unstable as
another plane with no particular relation to the prime, fey are
part of the process of trying to make our world more like theirs.
spirits of magic. Their home plane is the source of magic, and
Unlike creatures of pure chaos, once they’ve created a world of
they carry that magical power with them. Wizards have learned
impossibly tall mountains and floating islands where every animal
to harness this magical power by channeling it through signs and
can speak and every tree can listen, they won’t continue to make
sigils, while Sorcerers are able to tap into it naturally in the same
things even more chaotic forever until the universe is reduced to
way the fey are.
a constantly shapeshifting, schisming, and recombining mass of
madness. The advantage of this paradigm is that every spell presumably
has an associated fey, which provides plenty of creative hooks for
Fey still have a certain degree of order to them, they have rulers
designing new fey. The disadvantage of this paradigm is that every
and courts and while there is a lot of turnover in who rules what,
spell presumably has an associated fey, or at least all the Sorcerer
the deposition of a fey lord or the conquest of a fey territory is
spells (or Druid spells, if you make the fey the source of druidic
not even a daily affair, let alone second to second as you would
magic instead of arcane), and while there is no need to have every
expect from maximum chaos. Though their relationships are
last spell assigned from the beginning, it does mean that players
often based on intense and volatile emotions, there are still
might reasonably ask “which fey spirit originated Globe of Invul-
friendships and romances and rivalries and vendettas that endure
nerability” and you will have to think of an answer.
for centuries or millennia largely unchanged, as intense in their
thousandth year as they were in their first day. The fey goal in
this paradigm is not “maximize chaos” but rather “terraform the Wilderness Adventures
mortal world into Reverie.” Fully half of the Twelve Labors of Heracles involve capturing or
slaying a wild monster (three more involve capturing or slaying
Because they are not the spirits of anything in particular, merely
tamed or domesticated monsters, which is different). Several
inhabitants of another, even more fantastical plane, this paradigm
knights of the round table hunted some animal or monster as
can put more emphasis on the political divisions between the fey.
a key part of their famous quest, and the Questing Beast in
Fey have different courts, and different courts are different pol-
particular was a famously un-huntable monster. There are many
ities, but these fey polities have wars and alliances driven purely
Conan stories, especially the short stories, in which Conan hunts
by the intense emotions and personal relationships endemic to
some fantastic monster for valuables or revenge. And in modern
the fey, in sharp contrast to mortal politics, where such emotional
fantasy, the basic premise of the Witcher books and games is that
narratives are usually post-hoc justifications for resource wars.
their protagonist is a wandering monster hunter, and the Monster
This paradigm draws greatest emphasis to the countless nature of Hunter games are, naturally, based on little else but tracking
the courts, and how a fey court is in one sense eternal, because it down and slaying monsters.
will never be forever destroyed, but in another sense quite ephem-
Despite this, hunts are rare in fantasy roleplaying, most likely be-
eral, because it could be cleared away from the fairy and mortal
cause the obvious way to run a hunt is also fairly boring: You roll
worlds alike by some overnight cataclysm, to not be heard of for
Survival blindly until you get however many number of successes
a hundred years until some wandering fey knight reveals herself
are required to track the target down, losing nothing else but
to be a long lost queen and establishes the court once more.
however many days of rations along the way, and maybe wasting
some time on some random encounters that you’ll rest up from
before encountering the main target anyway. Then you’ll have a
boss fight with a weird monster.

17
The problem gets even worse with adventures that simply involve
going from one place to another with lots of dangerous wilder-
ness in between. Lord of the Rings is some of the original foun-
dational material for fantasy roleplaying, and yet modern fantasy
roleplaying games are pretty much completely unable to present
“deliver cursed magic item to special location to destroy it” as an
interesting adventure. At best, they sometimes deliver a cavalcade
of random encounters and then you’re done. At worst, it’s a giant
railroad where you simply proceed from one end of the road to
another, encountering a predetermined set of encounters one
after another until the GM runs out of content and deposits you
at your destination.
The actual narrative of the Lord of the Rings doesn’t work this
way! The Fellowship argues about which route to take, changes
their minds, and gets split three or four different ways, with some
party members sticking to the main quest while others break off
to try and buy time.
It’s certainly possible to have wilderness adventures in fantasy
roleplaying, but in order to do so, you have to figure out how to
make interesting decisions (rather than pure, tedious bookkeep-
ing) out of resting, navigating, and eating.
18
Resting in the Wilderness
Part of the problem is the attitude towards resting that most
campaigns have. Long rests lasting eight hours mean that only
the most dangerous day of an adventure actually matters, and
you may as well skip everything else. It’s never made much sense
anyway. Healing wounds that quickly is absurd, and magic comes
back on whatever schedule you want it to, because it’s magic
and it plays by whatever rules you want it to. Older editions
had wounds healing at a more reasonable pace, but magic still
came back overnight (for some classes, even faster!), at which
point healing to full took about 24 hours anyway, just with extra
bookkeeping. The latest edition replaced this with healing to full
every 24 hours (or so) automatically, which made things simpler
and works perfectly fine for adventures taking place in a dungeon
or city, where the entire expedition is generally expected to take
an hour or two, tops.
In the wilderness, however, expeditions take days or weeks. In the
Lord of the Rings, the most iconic “journey through a big fantasy
wilderness” story of all time, the journey took months, and the
accumulation of physical and mental wounds upon Frodo and, to
a lesser extent, the other characters was a major theme. In fantasy
roleplaying, all of that goes away every time you make camp.
Unless, of course, you’re using optional rules. There are optional
rules that allow for a short rest lasting a full day, and a long rest
requiring an entire week. This is presented in the DMG as a
hardcore, gritty option, but it doesn’t actually make any difference
to game balance at all and it doesn’t make characters any more
likely to die. The enemies also require a full week to get their HP
back, so when you get beat up by a dungeon, you run away back
to town, spend a long rest licking your wounds while the bad
guys spend a long rest licking theirs, and then you’re both ready
for another go (with advantage to the party because the baddies
probably can’t revive any of the monsters killed, rather than
merely wounded, during the first round). This is exactly the same
whether your long rests are one week long or one day long.
As such, it’s wiser to use the extended resting rules in basically
every campaign. It’s required for meaningful wilderness adven-
tures, and the only difference it makes to urban or dungeon
adventures is that your calendar will advance faster. You probably
aren’t keeping track of the date anyway, so who cares? If you are
keeping track of the date, perhaps because running out of time is
a possible failure state, multiply all your deadlines by seven and
you’re good to go.
With week-long long rests, you don’t just get your HP back
every Monday at dawn. You have to spend a full week actually
resting, and while interruptions lasting less than an hour do not
prevent you from benefiting from the rest, marching for eight
hours a day sure will. If the party tries to camp in a random
spot for a full week, they’ll likely face several random encounters
before completing the rest, and since they are presumably already
drained (they’re seeking a rest, after all), this could be extremely
dangerous.
As such, it becomes very important to be able to find safe places
to rest. The obvious safe place is within the walls of a town, but
this also allows the Ranger, Druid, and other wilderness-themed
classes a chance to shine, by finding locations that are concealed,
which repel large predators for some reason, or which are other-
wise safe to rest in for a long period of time. Someone with high
Survival is also more able to set up an easily hidden camp, for
example, knowing how to gather food that can be eaten without
the benefit of a highly visible campfire.
Many magic items in the game recharge on a 24-hour rate. There
is an easy fix to update these to this or any other resting schedule
you decide to switch to: The magic item instead refreshes when-
ever someone who has attuned to it takes a long rest. This does
mean that unattuned items will not recharge, but this comes up
only in edge cases and is just as balanced (though differently so)
as more complex recharge schemes.
You only recover from one level of exhaustion per long rest in
the standard rules. Levels of exhaustion are inflicted by almost
nothing, so this comes up mainly as a way to prevent Berserker
path Barbarians from using their sub-class features for some rea-
son. Under week-long long rest rules, a single level of exhaustion
should be healed with an eight-hour short rest, and all levels of
exhaustion should be healed by a long rest.
Safe Campsites
There’s plenty of good campsites out in the wilderness, of course,
but a safe campsite is one where you can set up camp for a full
week and expect not to be attacked by bulettes while you rest.
These should generally be pretty rare. If every other hex has one,
then any party with a decent scout will quickly find dozens of
them and never be more than two days away from total safety,
especially if the campsite is also located in a Ranger or Druid’s
favored terrain, so food isn’t even an issue.
You do want safe campsites to exist at all, whether as locations in
a hex with a high discovery DC or infrequent points on a point-
crawl. A small smattering of two or three around the map makes
them precious discoveries that ease the tension of the race against
starvation without destroying it completely.
Navigating in the Wilderness
Hexcrawls and Pointcrawls
The most iconic way of navigating in the wilderness is via hex-
crawl. If hexcrawling, there are generally two useful scales: Twen-
ty-four mile hexes are about the distance that can be traveled
in a day, and is used for exploration scale. At this scale, the party
will pick a direction to move, move in that direction, hopefully
arrive in a new hex, and encounter whatever is in that hex. At
least 70% of the hexes at exploration scale should have some kind
of adventure inside of them. The classic example is a dungeon,
whether that’s a one-page dungeon that can be completed within
the same session it’s discovered or the entrance to a megadungeon
that could sustain many months of expeditions.
Exploration scale is also useful for traveling from place to place,
although as we’ll discuss later on, if you want your wilderness to
be a series of routes connecting specific locations, you are better
off using a pointcrawl rather than a hexcrawl. You might use a
hexcrawl for a mixed campaign, though, where both exploration
and straight A-to-B travel are called for in different situations.
Two-mile hexes are about the distance that can be traversed in
half an hour (the exploration scale assumes eight hours of travel a
day, but that a small fraction of the travel per day will be through
some kind of difficult terrain even on hexes that are mostly open
terrain, so you cover twenty-four miles a day in practice rather
than the ideal thirty-two), and is used for hunting scale. At this
scale, the party will be moving from one hex to another, trying to
narrow down the location of a specific target, whether a monster
they’re hunting, an army they’re reconnoitering, or just trying to
figure out where the magic herbs grow around here. On a map of
this scale, many hexes will be empty, and many hexes will contain
essentially identical clues (i.e. a trail of fresh tracks might cover
eighteen different hexes and all be the exact same thing: “You
find a set of fresh tracks heading from [direction A] to [direction
B]”). Hunting scale will almost always take place in a 91-hex
grid that is itself in the shape of a hexagon, 11 hexes across from
top to bottom (or side to side, if using true rows instead of true
columns). This can fit inside of a single hex in exploration scale,
and is thus perfect for when the party decides to hunt a monster,
recon an army, or similar in a specific exploration-scale hex.
19
In a pointcrawl, you have a series of nodes representing settle-
ments, dungeons, and other points of interest, and a series of
routes connecting them. Each route crosses through a certain ter-
rain type and has a certain length in miles (for the sake of easier
math, it is usually best to round this to a multiple of twenty-four,
or even measure in “days on foot,” which allows you to represent
difficult terrain with shorter lines that nevertheless have longer
“days on foot” numbers, rather than having to do any multipli-
cation). A pointcrawl works best for situations where the nearby
area is at least moderately well explored, to the point where the
locals at one node can at least tell you where the neighboring
nodes are to a reasonable degree of accuracy (i.e. the people in
town can tell you not only which other towns the roads lead to,
but also where in the wilderness you can find the entrance to the
Caves of Terror - probably accompanied by some dire warning
about how none have ever emerged from them alive, traveler, so you
had best turn back!). New points can be added either by visiting a
point on the edge of the current map and learning from the locals
what connects there, or by discovering hidden points via maps,
guides, or rumors.
While it is less venerable than the hexcrawl, the pointcrawl
reflects the medieval European pastiche of standard fantasy
roleplaying much better, and is easier to design besides. In a
hexcrawl, you are committing yourself to filling in at least 70%
(preferably more) of the hexes with interesting content. In a
pointcrawl, you write up as much interesting content as you like,
and then draw lines connecting them.
Travel and Roles
Regardless of whether you are using a hexcrawl or a pointcrawl,
the party is going to want to travel from where they are to a
destination (whether that’s to a point on a pointcrawl, into a
neighboring hex in a hexcrawl, or perhaps many hexes away). The
distance will give a total number of days of the journey, according
to the below chart.
Speed of slowest party member Miles traveled per day
45 ft. or less 24
50-75 ft. 48
80-115 ft. 72
120+ ft. 96
20
Balancing Travel Speed
The speeds in the travel speed chart were chosen pure-
ly for game mechanical reasons, and the reason why the
ranges are so odd and jagged is because monsters from
the MM are divided into odd and jagged speed brackets,
which are neither neat multiples of one another nor
a smooth spectrum from low to high. There are many
monsters with speeds of 50 ft., 60 ft., and 80 ft., but
none with 70 ft., and the table was designed to accom-
modate these odd speed brackets.
The lowest bracket covers all player race options, from
the wood elf ’s swift 35 ft. to the gnome’s short-legged
25 ft., so that no one ends up slowing the party down
because of their race selection. The next bracket up
covers common land mount speeds, like the 50 ft. of
the dire wolf as well as the 60 ft. of the riding horse or
warhorse, while still leaving the mule’s 40 ft. behind in
the standard category. The third bracket starts at 80 ft.
because just about every flying mount, from griffons to
wyverns to dragons, has an 80 ft. fly speed (the slow-fly-
ing manticore’s 50 ft. move speed places it in the second
bracket, however). Finally, the third bracket covers the
tiny handful of extremely fast monsters, like the 120 ft.
quickling or 150 ft. solar.
During travel, each party member can assume one of the follow-
ing travel roles. Generally speaking, everyone’s going to have the
same role every day of travel, but they can swap roles from one
day to another if they like. A party member may also assist any of
these roles, giving that role advantage on their check.
The forager can attempt to find food or shelter. If they are a
Druid or a Ranger in their favored terrain, they succeed automat-
ically. Otherwise, the party must move at half-speed while they
forage, and the forager must roll Survival. If they succeed, they
find enough food and water to feed six people for the day, howev-
er the excess cannot be stored. If they fail, they find nothing, and
the slowdown was for nothing.
The navigator attempts to keep the party going in the correct di-
rection. They make a Navigator’s Tools check using WIS or INT
against a DC based on the terrain they’re navigating through. If
they fail, the exact result depends on whether this is a pointcrawl,
or a hexcrawl. In a pointcrawl, all progress for the day is stalled
as the party spends the entire day getting lost and reorienting
themselves. In a hexcrawl, roll a d8 in secret. On a 1-3, the party
veers to the west. On a 6-8, they veer to the east. On a 4-5, by
sheer dumb luck they go in the direction they’re headed. Reori-
enting may take significantly longer than one day (especially if
they fail another navigation check), but if they’re lucky on the
veer roll they might keep headed in the right direction by pure
dumb luck.
 DC Terrain type The pack-herder keeps the pack animals from wandering off. They
can lead animals equal to their passive Animal Handling score
15 Coast, forest, grassland, or mountain (non-winter) (including any mount they’re riding). Animals in excess of this
20 Coast, forest, grassland, or mountain (in winter), wander away from the group and get eaten by bears.
swamp or underground (any time)
The scout ranges out ahead of the party in all directions to try to
25 Arctic, desert find points of interest. The scout must have a higher land speed
The navigator does not need to roll if the party is following an than the slowest member of the rest of the party (but does not
obvious landmark, like heading towards a mountain or tower have to be in a higher speed bracket - even a 5 ft. advantage is
visible in the distance, or if they are following an obvious path, enough). In a hexcrawl, the scout rolls Perception to find loca-
like a road or river. The navigator has advantage automatically if tions in the hex the party is passing through. In either a hexcrawl
they have a map and compass. or a pointcrawl, they roll Perception to find a random encounter
before the encounter finds the party, and can report this infor-
DC Terrain type mation back to the party for an ambush. The party can attempt
10 Coast, grassland to ambush an encounter discovered by a scout, engage with them
normally, or ignore them altogether.
15 Arctic, desert, forest, mountain
20 Swamp, underground

21
The table below provides default DCs based on terrain, which
can be used for discovering an encounter in a pointcrawl or as a
default DC for finding the location encounter in a hexcrawl.
DC Terrain type
15 Coast, grassland
20 Arctic, desert, forest, mountain
25 Swamp, underground
The sentinel stays with the party and focuses on spotting nasty
things before they spot the party. If the party hits an encounter,
the sentinel makes a Perception check against the Stealth check
of the random encounter to spot them and alert the rest of the
party, thus resulting in a normal encounter instead of an ambush.
Encounters
There are two types of encounters: Random encounters, which
occur in both pointcrawls and hexcrawls, and location encoun-
ters, which occur only in hexcrawls (they’re replaced by points in
a pointcrawl).
Random encounters wander around, and thus can’t be reliably
found without a hunt. For random encounters, make a table for
each region of the map and roll a die on the table to determine
what the encounter of the day is. If the party has already had that
encounter and killed them, have them encounter nothing for the
day (saying “but nobody came” is optional). Even if the region
hypothetically has hundreds of random wandering trolls across its
breadth, don’t have the party encounter a troll ambush more than
once. After the first time, it’s not really interesting anymore, so
cross it off the table.
Likewise, if a party has befriended an encounter, then you can
just let them know they pass by that same encounter again and
move on by with a friendly wave (if the party wishes to call upon
their allies for assistance, they can take the opportunity to do so,
but this is rare). If the party sneaks past an encounter, however, or
if they scout an encounter and decide not to engage with it, that
encounter remains active and may be encountered again.
Some encounters might have sub-encounters attached (for ex-
ample, one encounter might be “wandering merchant” with a d6
table of specific merchants who can be encountered). Once one
of these encounters is solved (violently or otherwise), cross it off
the sub-table, but leave the entry on the main table alone until
the entire sub-table is crossed off.
No more than one-third of the encounters in any given table
should be pure combat (like a troll ambush or wandering pred-
ator). Random encounters can also be faction-based (meaning
they might be hostile if the PCs have antagonized that faction,
but they might otherwise be indifferent or even offer assistance,
perhaps in the form of healing). For areas which are relatively
safe (or extremely profitable despite the danger), merchants can
offer a chance to restock on supplies and may have a magic item
for sale (a surprising amount of traveling merchants carry magic
items - they’re quite valuable, easy to transport, and easy to hide
from would-be bandits). You can even have encounters which
22
are probably going to be combat-based, but don’t have to be, like
bandits operating a “toll,” who will let the party pass unharmed
for a price of 5 gp a piece. Player characters hate being extorted,
but 5 gp would probably cost them less than the resources they
would expend fighting the bandits.
Because of the time pressure to arrive before food runs out (see
the Eating and Encumbrance section), random encounters can
also simply be time consuming. A rainstorm that causes muddy
terrain that might sap a precious day of travel time if you can’t
make STR saves to power through, for example, or a bridge
that’s gone out or a ferry that’s out of service, requiring the river
be forded, which could potentially destroy a wagon or sweep a
character downriver and potentially get them lost.
When you do fall back on combat encounters, try combining two
monsters from the region together and ask yourself what kind
of story that suggests. In a low-tier grasslands region, ogres and
phase spiders suggests ogres with pets who can vanish into the
ethereal plane, and who might have some connection with the
ghostly otherworld themselves. Orogs and druids suggests a tribe
or cult dedicated to nature, who might be enemies of all civili-
zation who attack city folk on sight, but might also be wary yet
not immediately hostile and can potentially be negotiated with. A
goblin boss and a giant boar suggests a goblin tribe whose leader
has an awesome mount.
If in a pointcrawl, the route should have an encounter spot DC
based on its terrain as per the table below, and the scout can find
an extra random encounter if they hit the spot DC, which the
party can decide to engage with or ignore.
Location encounters have a certain DC for being discovered
that might be anything from 10 for fairly obvious locations like
a ruined castle in the middle of some hills to 25 for a small and
well-camouflaged secret entrance to a dungeon. Some locations
may be discovered automatically (like a ruined castle in a flat
grassland, or anything that has a road, river, or other obvious
trail leading right to it). If the scout hits the DC for spotting the
location, they find it, and the party can subsequently visit it any
time they’re in the hex.
Terrain
It’s important to have a mix of different terrain types in your hex-
crawl or pointcrawl, of course. So far as its effects on travel speed
go, however, it depends on whether or not you’re dealing with a
hexcrawl or a pointcrawl.
In a pointcrawl, you can go ahead and let some terrain types, like
forests, cut movement speed to three quarters, while others, like
mountains or swamps, cut it to half or even a quarter. Multiples
of 24 are very easy to divide by two, three, four, and six, so you
can use halves, thirds, quarters, and sixths freely and you’ll never
have to deal with fractions of a mile (you could even use twelfths
if you wanted, although there’s probably no terrain so impen-
etrable that you move only two miles a day even when you’re
not lost). A 36 mile trip through a mountain and a 72 mile trip
through a grassland both take three days on foot, but the trip
through the mountains is much faster if you have a road (which You might also decide it’s worth it to keep track of how many
allows you to ignore the travel penalty) or if you’re riding flying days of travel into a hex with difficult terrain the party is and how
mounts (likewise). These differences can add complications to many days of travel they have left before they’ll get out of it. It
determining which of several routes to take to a destination. really just depends on where exactly your threshold for bookkeep-
ing lies. If you do want to have different hexes affect party speed
In a hexcrawl, difficult terrain slowing the party down remains
by varying amounts, you can use the following table (you can
just as realistic and potentially offers just as many interesting
also use this table to help estimate travel times in a pointcrawl,
choices. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit more complex, as you now
but pointcrawls don’t actually need to be perfectly proportion-
have to deal with hexes that take multiple days to exit and thus
ate anyway - only the length of a connector between two points
have to keep track of how long the party has been traveling
needs to be consistent, the rest of the map may well be somewhat
through one hex. This dilutes one of the advantages of a hex-
inaccurate or abstract).
crawl, which is that it’s easy to figure out where the party is (you
just keep a token on the GM version of the map).
You might have hexes of any terrain type be bizarrely easy to
travel through just like any amount of damage before the last
HP never even slightly impacts someone’s ability to continue
adventuring, while the final HP totally incapacitates them (peo-
ple talk about ability to roll with the punches, but you’d expect
someone whose ability to roll with the punches was on the verge
of collapse to be out of breath, but we don’t model this because it
would be more complication than it would be worth). It doesn’t
make sense, but it has minimal impact on the story one way or
another and is much easier to keep track of.

23
 Terrain Speed multiplier type you can harvest food reliably in) before you starve to death.
Less bookkeeping, more tension.
Road x1.25
The current edition of the game has lots of rules for how to keep
Grassland x1
yourself fed in the wilderness. Unfortunately, none of them agree
Ocean* x1 with each other, they don’t do a very good job of putting the
Arctic x0.75 focus on those two critical questions and the deadlines that they
Coastal x0.75 should be imposing, and all of them are rendered irrelevant by
low-level spells anyway.
Desert x0.75
Hills x0.75 Encumbrance
So let’s talk about encumbrance. Firstly, if you are in town or
River Crossing** x0.75
within easy walking distance of town, inventory can and should
Forest x0.5 be completely ignored. If you have to take a few trips back and
Underground x0.5 forth to cart money back into town, so what? You can just do
Jungle x0.5 that.
City*** x0.25 When deeper in the wilderness, running out of food is a real dan-
ger and getting back to a spot you left some treasure can be an
Mountain x0.25
ordeal, so encumbrance matters and you should track it. Charac-
Swamp x0.25 ters can carry about one stone for every point of STR they have.
*: You will, of course, only be able to cross ocean hexes with a Your inventory is a numbered list with entries equal to your STR
swim or fly speed. You cannot rest in an ocean hex unless you can (for example, if your STR is 12, your inventory is a list going
breathe underwater (or have some means of staying afloat while from 1 to 12). You can’t carry more slots’ worth of equipment
sleeping, like a boat). than your STR, and if you’re ever forced to for some reason, your
movement speed is reduced to 0. Equipment takes up inventory
**: This is on top of whatever speed multiplier the terrain of the space as follows:
rest of the hex has, representing the additional time required to
find a ford. If the party is able to swim right across (pack animals Item Inventory slots
and all), or can fairly quickly rig up some kind of ropes-and- Trinkets, including holy symbols, arcane and 0
rings-of-jumping scheme to get across at an arbitrary point of the druidic focuses, and magic rings or amulets
river, they can ignore the speed multiplier. If the party is follow- Ordinary clothes, including boots, belts, and 0
ing a road, they can also ignore the multiplier, as the road will goggles
take them straight to a bridge.
Especially fancy and/or cumbersome outfits, 1
***: The land area of a single 24-mile-diamater hex is about 375 including cloaks
square miles. The official boundaries of New York City are about Two days of food and water (best written as 1
300 square miles. Medieval and Renaissance cities weren’t nearly “supplies” followed by two boxes, which can
so large, but if your setting has such megaloposies (there is a be crossed off as they’re consumed)
bunch of magic lying around, after all), “city” might well be the
Five potions 1
most common terrain type for a hex. Of course, a city almost
certainly has a highway going through it, which would use the Bags (particularly, magical items like a bag of 1
“road” speed instead, so this value is only used when trying to get tricks or bag of holding)
through a city via alleyways and sideroads. Two-person tent 1
Eating and Encumbrance in the Wilderness 50’ of Rope 1
The exact mechanics of how much food you can gather with Lantern 1
medieval tools in any given environment and how much is con- Any tool kit, including gaming sets and 1
sumed in a day are of great interest to the kinds of history books musical instruments
that RPG designers read when trying to work out worldbuilding.
Sometimes, RPG designers then feel the need to reproduce these Heavy, individual tools, like shovels, pickax- 1
mechanics in detail in their RPGs. This is a mistake. When it es, sledgehammers
comes to food in RPGs, exactly two things matter: How much One weapon and its ammo, if it needs any 1
you can carry, and how long it’ll last. As a part of that second One shield 1
question, it also matters what environments you can or can’t
Light armor 1
keep yourself supplied in indefinitely. This creates safe zones and,
when you move outside of those safe zones, deadlines. You have Medium armor 2
to find what you’re looking for and get back to town (or a terrain Heavy armor 4

24

“Heavy” Potions
If you do the math on potion weight, you find that
one potion appears to weigh nearly three pounds, which
is about four times the weight of the average can of soda
when full, which is, in turn, about three-ish times more
fluid than you would expect to be consumable in six
seconds via unassisted chugging. Naive division makes
it sound ridiculous, but bear in mind that the carrying
system is an abstract combination of both literal weight
and ease of storage. Even if you do the sensible thing and
put them in wooden, metal, or leather flasks rather than
glass vials, a potion’s wax seal needs to be easy enough to
pop off mid-combat, which means it’s prone to popping
open and spilling all over your trail rations if you just
toss them into your pack.
Potions usually have a groove about a centimeter below
the wax seal where you can loop a bit of string to carry
them on your belt. There’s only so much room for them
there, especially since the flasks are usually made of fairly
thick wood, which is cheap but also durable enough that
there’s no chance it’ll crack open after getting knocked
against your plate armor every time you take a step, for
a total of tens of thousands of tiny blows, not to mention
several more violent blows from more rapid movements
during combat. Thinner vials have a tendency to break
at exactly the moment you most need them. If you have
a particularly huge number of potions, then you prob-
ably have ten or so on your belt and the rest in special
chests which are subdivided into little cubbies, each of
which is stuffed with grass or wood shavings or some
other cheap, soft material that you can put the potion in
and be confident it won’t break even if you then toss the
chest haphazardly onto the back of a wagon and leave
it there for three weeks of travel across bumpy roads
or rough terrain. Either way, potions aren’t very space
efficient.
This chart covers virtually everything that any character has ever
cared to use in any campaign I have ever run. There’s not much
you can do with a ladder that you can’t do better with a rope, the
ten foot pole is iconic but modern dungeon design doesn’t usual-
ly call for one (if you really want one, it would definitely take up
an inventory slot by itself ), and anyone who’s ever been hiking
or especially in the military can tell you that you quickly learn to
ditch the kind of excess weight that comes from things you use
only once in a blue moon like blocks of incense or ball bearings.
Things like a hefty tome of lore are exactly the sort of thing you
leave behind. If your character is such a bookworm that they
actually do carry such extraneous things with them wherever they
go, then by all means put one into an inventory slot - having
inventory space that’s ordinarily tightly limited to actually useful
items will make such extravagences stick out as a significant role-
playing choice, rather than disappear into the bottomless hole of
an inventory already stuffed full of items you never use and don’t
care about.
Sometimes weird things come up. In these cases, one stone
literally equals fourteen pounds, so use your best judgement as
to whether this should be a trinket, taking up no space on the
inventory, a pile, something like food which takes up space in the
inventory but only because you’re expected to carry way more
than one of it around, or if it deserves to have an entire inventory
spot (or several) all to itself.
One obvious thing is missing from this list: Treasure. Treasure is
definitely a pile, like food, but there’s three very different ways of
counting it.
The first method is the simplest of all, but very bizarre and some-
what dull. In this method, all treasure is mulched into gold pieces
immediately. Instead of separate inventory slots for copper, silver,
gold, etc., you just have an inventory slot labeled “treasure” with
a number in parentheses up to 750 next to it. This means that a
5,000 gp ruby weighs an absurd seven stone, but it’s very easy and
preserves the important decisions regarding treasure: How much
can you carry, and how much food are you willing to drop to
carry more of it.
The second method is only slightly more complex and only
occasionally leads to bizarre situations. In this method, each
distinct type of treasure gets its own inventory slot, which can be
filled with up to 750 individual coins, gems, or tiny art objects
(like rings), best written as “gold” with a number in parentheses
indicating how many coins is in the pile, up to a maximum of
750 before you need to start a second pile in another inventory
slot. Larger art objects take up an entire slot of their own. This
means that if you have 400 gold coins, that can comfortably fit
into one inventory slot with room to spare, but if you have 100
copper coins, 100 silver coins, 100 gold coins, and 100 platinum
coins, that takes up four inventory slots.
You usually get a decent mixture of coins, so this usually works
out (every inventory slot holding coins will be holding a lot of
coins, so you wouldn’t save much space by combining them
anyway), but where things go screwy is with gems. You will rarely
have more than two or three of the same type of gem, and it can
be very aggravating to have three amethysts taking up an entire
inventory slot. You can instead count gems and tiny art objects as
trinkets with no tracked weight at all, which works so long as you
never hand out more than a few dozen of them (barely ten per-
cent of a single inventory slot, and that’s if one character carries
all of them), which is perfectly typical.
25
The third method is slightly more complex, but many groups will
ultimately settle on it after running into the limitations of the
other two methods, especially since electronic character sheets
make it very easy to have a second sheet of paper attached. In
this method, each inventory slot with treasure in it is labeled as
“treasure A” or “treasure B” and so on, and has a number from 1
to 750 in parentheses next to it, but this number simply tracks
the amount of coins, gems, and tiny art objects in that treasure
parcel. The exact contents of the treasure parcel are tracked on a
separate sheet.
26
This method requires either a lot of manual addition or basic un-
derstanding of spreadsheet software to automate it. Most people
already have the latter, which is what makes this method (ulti-
mately) so popular. For groups where one or more players don’t
know how to use Google Sheets and no one is willing to manage
their treasure parcels for them (maybe you’re all in middle school,
maybe you have somehow escaped the specter of spreadsheet
management in your professional life), you will probably want to
use method 1 or 2.
There’s not actually a major balance concern if different group
members use different methods. Method one is dead simple but
very inefficient, so presumably characters who use it are very bad
at packing. Method three requires some extra bookkeeping but is
much more space efficient in situations where you are the Why
Can’t I Hold All These Limes guy but for gems, especially since
gems usually come in a wide variety of different types within a
single treasure hoard, so one or more players really interested
in maximizing loot might switch to it temporarily to manage a
specific situation and then go back to method 2 (or even method
1) afterwards, suggesting that their characters, faced with a par-
ticularly large and irregularly shaped pile of treasure, unpacked
all their gear and repacked it more efficiently to hold all the loot.
Ban Pound-Based Inventory
The default inventory system, that of counting each
item pound for pound against a weight limit, is very
bad for wilderness adventures. It requires a lot of ac-
counting, which is often tedious. The carrying capacity
offered by the current edition is absolutely ludicrous,
and when combined with a flawless ability to stow items
in a pack as though they were all liquids being poured
into a glass rather than solid items with air gaps, the
party can carry so much, so easily, that there is never any
risk of running out of food except on the most absurdly
long expeditions, nor any risk of running out of space to
cram treasure. Players who want to use the hyper-effi-
cient packing of the default rules are either optimizing
themselves out of a good time or else don’t want to play
a wilderness game at all and are intentionally trying to
skip the supply problems of long expeditions altogether.
If it’s the former, ban pound-based inventory and use
the methods that spotlight the logistical decisions of more
limited inventory space. If it’s the latter, ban pound-
based inventory and give everyone unlimited inventory
so they don’t have to worry about it at all.
Expanding Inventory
All characters are assumed to have backpacks as part of their de-
fault gear. If you don’t, you can no longer carry piles of anything,
whether that’s food, treasure, or anything else where a single
inventory slot comes with a maximum amount. Each individual
item must take up its own inventory slot. Wearing a second back-
pack does not expand your inventory.
Domesticated pack animals can carry inventory around. They get
inventory slots equal to their STR just like regular characters, but
they don’t have to carry weapons or armor. For each size catego-
ry larger than medium, their inventory space doubles, but they
consume twice as much food. For each size category smaller than
small, their inventory space is halved, but they consume half as
much food.
A creature that is being ridden must carry the weight of its rider
as well as all that rider’s inventory. The average medium creature
weighs ten stone. Each size category smaller weighs half as much,
and each size category larger weighs twice as much. Although rid-
ing horses theoretically have 32 inventory slots, they only add 12
inventory slots when ridden by a character with 10 STR (10 slots
are taken up by the rider and 10 slots are taken up by the equip-
ment the rider could’ve carried themselves), and only 2 inventory
slots over what a 20 STR rider could’ve carried on their own.
A cart can carry an extra 15 stone, but requires two medium or
one large creature to tug it and will quickly break down off the
road. A wagon can carry an extra 30 stone, but requires two large
or one huge creature to tug it, and will likewise quickly break
down off the road. The additional capacity is in addition to the
creature’s regular carrying capacity, although all of the weight
will be in the cart/wagon, not on the creature (so if the wagon is
destroyed but the creatures survive, the entire inventory of the
creatures is lost, including both their original slots and the extra
slots provided by the wagon).
A bag of holding can carry an extra 35 stone. It also takes up an
inventory slot by itself.
Realistic Carrying Capacity
The core encumbrance rules posit that characters
can carry 15 pounds per point of STR. This means the
average person with 10 STR can carry 150 pounds.
This is completely ludicrous. The encumbrance system
in this book rectifies this a bit by measuring inventory
in a somewhat abstract way that cares as much by how
much space something takes up as how much it weighs,
but even so, inventory space is extremely generous. For
the default system, this is probably fine. It means that
inventory crunch is an occasional problem in the wil-
derness, something that comes up once every expedition
or so, while also drastically reducing the bookkeeping.
If you want inventory crunch to come up more often,
however, it would be perfectly balanced and also perfect-
ly realistic to cut carrying capacity in half. That is, in-
stead of having inventory slots equal to your STR score,
you have inventory slots equal to half your STR score
rounded down, or in other words, equal to your STR
bonus + 5. This means characters of 7 STR or lower
would not be able to move while wearing heavy armor,
carrying more than a week or so of rations is possible
only for the strongest characters (or someone who’s almost
completely unequipped otherwise), and adding even
one extra slot’s worth of inventory is a big deal. These
are all perfectly plausible consequences that help greatly
intensify supply pressure in the wilderness, thus making
decisions about what to carry and what to leave behind
come up much more often. Be warned, however, that
this means that the party will regularly have to leave
large amounts of treasure behind in the wilderness.
27
Eating in the Wilderness
The fundamental tension of wilderness supplies is that you might
run out of food on the way back. Getting lost or being stone-
walled by an obstacle or hazard for the better part of a day eats
into the buffer between you and starvation. Losing a pack animal
in combat can be catastrophic - you’ve still got all the food, but
you can’t carry it anywhere. Likewise losing a cart or wagon while
attempting to ford a river, which will sweep the supplies away
with the wagon. Druids and Rangers can easily feed a party in
certain terrain types, turning large swaths of the map into safe
zones, while characters with good Survival scores can staunch
the steady flow of rations from your bags to your stomachs, but
their success depends on the roll of the dice and can encourage
expeditions founded on averages rather than guarantees, which
can go terribly wrong if the dice turn against you at a crucial
stage. Bags of holding are precious for how easily and safely they
can transport large quantities of food and treasure.
Tracking food supply in the wilderness is ordinarily very easy:
Each day you are out in the wilderness, you mark off one box of
rations. When all boxes within an inventory slot are filled, you
clear that inventory slot. There are a few character abilities that
can modify this:
• The Ranger’s Natural Explorer ability allows them to
keep a party fed automatically whenever they are within one
of their favored terrains.
• A Circle of the Land Druid can do the same within
their selected terrain type.
• Goodberry can feed up to ten creatures for one day.
• Create Food and Water provides seven inventory slots’
worth of food. Unlike Goodberry, the food created by this
spell does not lose its nourishing power after 24 hours.
• Heroes Feast can feed up to thirteen creatures (including
the caster) for one day.
It is very importantly true that none of the spells which can feed
characters are castable by Warlocks, who gain their spells back on
a short rest and would thus be able to cast them every day. Dru-
ids, Clerics, Rangers, and Paladins must all either return to town
or find a safe place to camp to refresh their spells, so although
their magic can extend the range of a trip or save an expedition
from starvation, it does not come for free.
If you have no food for the day, you take a level of hunger. This
works like and stacks with levels of exhaustion, however hunger
levels can only be recovered from if you are well fed while resting.
28
Terrain Types
A fairly significant part of wilderness travel (especially for Rangers
and Druids of the Circle of the Land) is terrain types. Both the
Ranger’s Natural Explorer and the Druid’s Circle of the Land
offer eight terrain types: Arctic, coastal, desert, forest, grassland,
mountain, swamp, and a specific term that Hasbro’s lawyers
could almost certainly convince a judge should be protected
by copyright but which is synonymous with the generic term
“underground.” It’s difficult to imagine some of these sharing a
map that’s less than 250 miles across, but you almost certainly
have grassland, forest, and swamp, probably have at least one of
mountain (which includes hills, the MM distinguishes between
hill and mountain environments for monsters, but the PHB
options combine them) and coast and probably both, and may
have one of arctic or desert, though probably not both. You can
also add underground regions, though unless you plan to make
an entire second map of all one terrain type, this will probably be
constrained to specific underground routes.
Even so, it should be fairly easy to have at least four terrain types
and not so hard to have six. You can have these terrain types
heavily intermixed, in which case any journey will involve passing
through several of them and only very high-level Rangers will be
able to make an entire journey without using rations. You can
also have them heavily separated out, such that an entire expedi-
tion may well take place in just one or two terrain types, in which
case lower-level Rangers and Druids of the Circle of the Land will
be able to make some expeditions without having to worry about
food at all, but will be unable to use their favored terrain at all for
others. The balance on these options is different from each other,
but neither is broken.
Travel Checklists
Every day the party spends in transit, you as the GM will want to
go down a quick checklist to make sure you’ve covered everything
you do each day when traveling. Getting through a checklist,
assuming no encounters, should take no more than two or three
minutes (including time spent asking for and resolving things
like foraging checks). It’s without a checklist that things become a
complicated headache, as it becomes easy to lose track of whether
or not you’ve done or not done something for this specific day of
travel.
Hexcrawl Checklist
  1. If the party haven’t assigned roles yet, ask them who’s doing
what. Otherwise, skip this step. The party can also change roles on
this step, but they rarely do so, so there is no reason to ask them
if they are.
  2. Ask the party which direction they’re headed for the day.
If you already know their destination, you can skip this step, al-
though it’s usually good to double check (i.e. “we’re still headed
northeast, right?”) just to set the precedent that they can change
direction.
  3. Everyone marks off supplies for the day. Alternatively, the
forager can forage. If they are not a Ranger or Circle of the Land
Druid, or if they are but are not in their favored terrain, they make
their Survival check now.
  4. The navigator makes their check. If they fail, the party may
veer.
  5. Enter the new hex. Nothing needs to be done in this step,
but from now on, all skill check DCs, encounter tables, etc. etc.
are based on the new hex.
  6. Roll a random encounter. If the encounter is unfriendly
and at all capable of sneaking up, they will roll Stealth (even if they
are rolling flat DEX with a penalty - they may as well try). The
scout rolls Perception to try and detect them, while the sentinel
uses passive Perception. If the scout spots the encounter, they may
report it back to the party who can attempt an ambush or to lay a
trap. If the sentinel spots the encounter, the party is not surprised,
but cannot surprise the enemy either. If the sentinel does not spot
the encounter, the party is ambushed.
  7. Have the scout roll Perception to find any undiscovered
locations in the hex.
Pointcrawl Checklist
  1. If the party haven’t assigned roles yet, ask them who’s doing
what. Otherwise, skip this step.
  2. If the party is at a point, ask them which neighboring point
they’re headed towards and calculate how many days it will take
them to get there. Otherwise, double check whether the party
wants to keep going or turn back.
  3. Everyone marks off supplies for the day. Alternatively, the
forager can forage. If they are not a Ranger or Circle of the Land
Druid, or if they are but are not in their favored terrain, they make
their Survival check now.
  4. The navigator makes their check. If they fail, the party
gets lost and makes no progress for the day. Otherwise, mark the
party as one day closer to their destination.
  5. Roll a random encounter. If the encounter is unfriendly
and at all capable of sneaking up, they will roll Stealth (even if they
are rolling flat DEX with a penalty - they may as well try). The
scout rolls Perception to try and detect them, while the sentinel
uses passive Perception. If the scout spots the encounter, they may
report it back to the party who can attempt an ambush or to lay a
trap. If the sentinel spots the encounter, the party is not surprised,
but cannot surprise the enemy either. If the sentinel does not spot
the encounter, the party is ambushed.
  6. If the number of days left in the journey is 0, the party
now arrives at their destination. Otherwise, 20 GOTO 10.
Journeys
So you’ve got a wilderness full of monsters, and you’ve got your
party’s resting, navigation, eating, and encumbrance rules all
straightened out and ready to handle a deep expedition into the
heart of the woods.
Now what do you do with it?
One option, of course, is to simply put dungeons way out in the
sticks, with the wilderness serving as the first stage of a dungeon
expedition, a sort of 0th floor. This can help make the world
feel larger, like there’s real distance between different dungeons,
rather than having them all within an hour’s walk of whatever
town serves as homebase. On the other hand, you can actually
cram all of your dungeons so close together that they have direct
connections to one another and you get a megadungeon, a cam-
paign structure that automatically qualifies as a good idea on the
grounds of being kind of like Hollow Knight.
You can also have a campaign that revolves quite a bit around
travel itself. There are many possible routes from Rivendell to
Mordor, which the different members of the fellowship argue
over. Gandalf recommends heading south through Eregion, then
over the Misty Mountains at Rhedoras to reach Lothlorien and
head south to Emyn Muil, into the Dead Marsh, and ultimately
through the Black Gate of Mordor. Gimli recommends a similar
plan, except instead of going over the mountain, he proposes
going under it, through Moria. Boromir recommends continuing
south from Eregion through Enedwaith and into the western-
most fringe of Gondor, where his people can provide them a safe
escort to Mordor’s doorstep.
Nobody suggests it for the Ring quest, but they could also have
followed Bilbo’s route east, going through the High Pass near
Goblin Town and turning south towards Lorien. Gollum, who
joins the party after they’ve followed Gimli’s plan to Emyn Muil,
suggests they avoid the Black Gate and head through Ithilien to a
secret entrance into Mordor through Shelob’s lair.
29
It’s easy to fall into the mistake when trying to recreate a jour-
ney-based campaign like this of looking on the path Frodo and
Sam took to Mount Doom as inevitable and presenting your own
version of it linearly. In the actual books and movies, a specific
route was decided upon, and we never saw any but the barest
glimpse of what other routes might’ve looked like. But the char-
acters discuss several alternative paths and even attempt some of
them (they tried Gandalf ’s route before giving up and switching
to Gimli’s, and in the movies Frodo and Sam are seconds from
committing to infiltrating the Black Gate when Gollum proposes
the route through Shelob’s Lair instead), and a campaign about
traveling through the wilderness would want to do likewise.
Have multiple routes with different terrain types, lengths, and
encounter tables for each, give the players enough knowledge to
make informed decisions about which route to take, but hold
enough in reserve that they can’t simply sit down and crunch the
numbers on the mathematically optimal answer (it’s usually best
to give them a broad overview of each area that is accurate but
doesn’t give much detail, for example, mentioning the forest is
overrun with spiders and trolls, but not the exact statistics of the
troll chieftain or the spiders’ brood mother).
Of course, this means you end up preparing a lot of content, at
least partially, that does not get used. You can solve this by having
not one, but multiple journeys which need to be undertaken.
If the continent is being criss-crossed often enough, you can be
reasonably certain that every route will get used at least once or
twice. Perhaps your adventurers are part of some Pony Ex-
press-style high-speed, high-risk delivery service. It doesn’t even
have to be the main plot of your game, just a constantly available
side quest that prods players who’ve run out of content in one
region to move on to another.
Monster Hunts
One adventure type that lends itself clearly towards wilderness
journeys is the monster hunt. A monster hunt takes place on
the hunt-scale hex of 91 hexes arranged themselves into one big
hexagon eleven hexes across, with each hex being two miles across
and taking half an hour to traverse, assuming no difficult terrain.
This map might be a specific point of interest on a pointcrawl,
or it might be the zoomed in map of a specific hexagon. Either
way, it’s a sub-area of a greater map, and isn’t usually suitable
to containing an entire campaign by itself (although, just like a
moderately sized dungeon, it might serve as a decent 2-4 session
mini-campaign if it’s especially thick with content).
Some hexes might have rough terrain that could take a full hour,
an hour and a half, or even a full two hours to traverse. What this
comes down to is that you have sixteen moves per day before you
need to either make camp or make a CON check for a forced
march, most hexes require only one move to enter, but some
require two, three, or even four.
30
Unlike the hexes of an exploration-scale hexcrawl, most of these
hexes are empty. The hunt-scale hexcrawl is not about entering
a hex to see what’s inside it, but about trying to find a specific
encounter or encounters, usually one that’s moving around, by
interpreting the clues it leaves behind. Only about a dozen or so
different encounters need to be designed, as this will hopefully
lead to the party always being within about two hexes of the
nearest encounter. These hexes can be packs or herds of animals,
a single large predator, other intelligent creatures (whether inhab-
itants or transients), useful or dangerous plantlife, or the lair or
home of any of the above.
There might be two or three elven parties wandering about
hunting wild game while their village is located in a forested hex
somewhere on the map, a pack of dire wolves with a lair, several
herds of deer which the wolves and elves chase around, herbs that
can be picked for use in healing potions if you’ve got proficiency
with an herbalist’s kit, a treant wandering slowly through the
forest hexes that enjoys showing newcomers the wonders of the
woods but is easily angered by the site of metal tools (especially
axes), a specific deer herd with an awakened deer who escaped
from a ritual sacrifice of an evil druid whose wicked archfey
patron prefers intelligent sacrifices, the evil druid themselves wan-
dering around looking for deer to capture, awaken, and sacrifice,
the archfey’s hidden palace, and so on.
You don’t want there to be so many moving parts that you can’t
quickly move a couple of tokens on a map every time players take
a move, but you don’t want there to be so few that the place feels
static. Players should feel like they might cross paths with some-
one they’ve met before at any time, no matter where on the map
they are (unless that person specifically avoids certain parts of the
map). On the other hand, you don’t have to move every theoreti-
cally mobile token on every turn, though they should move more
often than not. Indeed, it’s important that the NPC tokens not
move often enough that players can catch up with them so long
as they always take their move.
Herbivores tend to move to a specific spot with lots of good
vegetation and graze or browse there for a long period of time,
not moving for several turns (possibly remaining stationary indef-
initely until a predator arrives in the hex, driving the herbivores
out). Carnivores move every turn when following an herbivore’s
trail, but more like every other turn otherwise, as they wander
around looking for signs of prey without any specific direction.
When they encounter herbivores, they’ll kill one, and guard the
carcass for at least one turn while eating, often four or more.
The party might be here looking for a static location, like the lost
entrance to a dungeon, the lair of a specific villain or monster,
or the place where certain magical plants grow. In this case, they
can probably narrow down the location by speaking to local
inhabitants, or by narrowing down possibilities (i.e. if you know
the magical plants grow only in high altitudes, you can eliminate
every non-mountain hex) and then brute forcing what remains.
If you’re doing an actual monster hunt, though, then the creature
you’re looking for is mobile. The locals can tell you that you’re
in the right place and might even be able to give general hints
like “it lives somewhere in the southeast and is found there more
often than other places” or “it gets thirsty easily, so it likes to stay
near the river,” but they have no idea where exactly your target is
right now.
Tracks
In order to track it down, you’ll need to follow actual tracks. Here
are several tracks a monster might leave behind. If you think of
any additions to this list, use them, and share them with others!
The more different ways of tracking a monster there are, the more
interesting a hunt becomes.
• Blood. An injured animal, in addition to usually
moving more slowly (i.e. skipping its turn between player
moves more often) will usually leave an extremely clear trail
of blood, making it immediately obvious where they’ve been,
although not necessarily which direction they’re going. A
bleeding animal continues doing so until they heal or die,
and thus continues leaving a trail behind until either it takes
an eight-hour short rest or is killed (probably by the party
catching up to it). Even after the eight-hour short rest, the
animal hasn’t fully recovered, but is no longer leaving blood
everywhere, at least.
• Carcass. Any time a predator encounters an herbi-
vore, a carcass is left behind. By the next day, whatever of
the carcass wasn’t eaten by the predator in the first place will
have been completely consumed by scavengers, leaving no
valuable traces behind. A carcass gives no indication of where
the animal went afterwards, but does give a clue that it was in
that specific hex in the same day. Of course, a carcass can be
left behind by any predator, and it usually requires a DC 20
Survival check to determine exactly which kind of animal did
the killing, but it is only a DC 10 Survival check to determine
the kind of animal killed and the size of the animal that did
the killing. If the party knows what their quarry eats and how
big it is, this might be enough information on its own.
• Lairs. Many monsters return to lair at the same spot
consistently. If you happen to stumble into its lair while
searching for it, you can camp out there and wait for it to
return at the end of the day (or end of the night, if it’s noctur-
nal).
• Noises. If the monster encounters a rival in its territory,
or if it encounters herbivores and hunts one, it will roar (in
the latter case, to keep scavengers at bay while eating). Roars
can usually be heard at least in adjacent hexes, and often two
or three hexes away, especially for very large creatures. Mon-
sters might also howl (whether the traditional wolf ’s howl or
something more like howler monkeys), a behavior which is
rare but can happen at almost any time, and which can often
be heard up to five hexes away. Any aggressive animal (i.e.
one willing to fight for territory, as opposed to animals like
rabbits which are quiet and evasive) might roar or bellow, but
howling is a form of long distance communication, so it only
comes up in social animals, i.e. those with a pack or herd.
Noises immediately give away what direction the animal is in,
and with a DC 15 Survival check, you have enough familiar-
ity with how loud these animals are at what distances to pin
down exactly what hex the animal is in.
• Prints. Prints can be old or new. Because prints some-
times last for several days, old prints don’t serve to give much
indication of where the monster is now, but do serve to indi-
cate that the monster comes to this hex at all. As the GM, if
there are any areas of the map where the monster simply does
not visit often or ever, tell players entering those places that
they found no prints at all. If they enter a hex that is within
the monster’s territory but which it has not been in recently,
tell them they find old prints. If they enter a hex the monster
has been in within two hours (usually this is any of the last
four hexes it has visited), tell them they’ve found fresh prints
and which direction they lead. Small or tiny prints might
require a Survival check to determine direction (usually DC
15 for small creatures and DC 20 for tiny ones), but large or
larger prints will be immediately obvious. A DC 15 Survival
check is still required to tell which animals’ prints they are,
however. If the party are bad survivalists, they may follow the
wrong animal by mistake.
• Sighting. Normally only happens if you’re in the same
hex as the animal, at which point we are having an encounter,
but animals flying above the treeline are visible from adjacent
hexes if they are medium size, from two hexes away if they are
large, from three hexes away if they are huge, and from four
hexes away if they are gargantuan.
• Trails. Herbivores tend to follow specific trails con-
necting different hexes that are particularly abundant with
vegetation. Carnivores tend to follow those trails to catch the
herbivores. Trails are fairly obvious and any party can identify
them immediately when they run into a hex with one, but
they’re pretty weak evidence for any specific creature. Still,
following the trails will allow a party to find which hexes are
high-vegetation. High vegetation hexes draw in herbivores
and herbivores draw in carnivores, so when once you’ve got
the bountiful hexes and the trails connecting them mapped
out, you can mostly ignore everything in between.
31
Alternatively: Recon
The basic conceit of a big hex grid with about 10%-20% of its
hexes filled in with mobile encounters, one or more of which the
party is looking for, has uses beyond just monster hunting. The
most obvious is reconnaissance, where instead of trying to find
some natural creature, the party is trying to find out what kind
of organized enemies are in the area. The map can have enemy
patrols who must be evaded (or, if not evaded, wiped out before
they can escape), enemy supply lines or depots (including things
like rivers or lakes from which water can be gathered), and enemy
camps whose tents must be counted to get an estimate of troop
size and type.
Many of the types of tracks described above can apply - enemy
armies certainly leave prints, and if they have flying allies or
mounts, those may be sighted in the air. Unless they’re in active
combat, camps won’t give off noise so loud as to be heard from
miles away, but they do usually give off smoke which can be seen
from at least five hexes away, and plausibly as many as ten. Armies
won’t follow animal trails around, but they will definitely avoid
certain terrain types like hills, swamps, and mountains, which
can be used to narrow down their general direction. If the enemy
force you’re scouting is smaller, then they might be hunting local
game to help feed themselves, in which case they will follow
animal trails, seeking to find herbivores the same as any other
predator. If there are friendly forces in the area, skirmishes will
leave clear signs of battle the same way as a carcass will, often
including actual carcasses.
Survival
Like a monster hunt, a survival adventure takes place on a hex
map with two miles across, which require a half-hour to traverse
(unless terrain is difficult). Most of the hexes are empty, with only
about 10-20% holding encounters, and these encounters move
around. Some of the hexes hold special resources.
Earlygame: Food and Shelter
Unlike a monster hunt, a survival adventure assumes a party is
bringing little to no resources with them, or else that their initial
resources will run out with no means of resupply, and will have to
scavenge from almost nothing. The hexes of high vegetation that
draw in herbivores and, therefore, carnivores, may also have valu-
able fruit (usually small berries) that the party can scavenge for a
ration, enough to keep one person from starving for one day.
The animals (whether herbivore or carnivore) can also be con-
sumed, in which case a single medium creature can hypotheti-
cally provide 6 rations’ worth of food (each size category smaller
provides half as much to a minimum of 1 at tiny, and each size
category larger provides twice as much), but in practice meat
spoils almost immediately. A hunted medium creature provides
only one day’s worth of food, although it can provide that food
for up to six people.
32
If the party is lucky enough to have tents and bedrolls, they can
make camp anywhere, preferably somewhere away from animal
trails where they’re less likely to draw the attention of nocturnal
predators. Creating shelter from scratch will require a Survival
check of DC 15 in forests or jungles, or DC 20 elsewhere. Rang-
ers or Circle of the Land Druids in their favored terrain succeed
automatically.
Some hexes may be riverbeds that will flood in the rain. While
flooded, they are unusable as resting points, parties resting in
them when they flood may be swept away, and they can only be
crossed by creatures with a swim speed, a fly speed, at fords, or by
particularly stubborn adventurers with a ten-foot pole, a grap-
pling hook, and an unyielding disregard for their personal safety.
And yes, it’s a bit ridiculous that the entire two-mile diameter
hex becomes unusable as a resting point because one riverbed,
presumably no more than a hundred yards across, has flooded,
but finding and keeping track of riverbeds makes the geography
more dynamic and interesting and we don’t want to zoom in
closer than two miles to get that. Ensure that hexes neighboring
a streambed are rarely (better yet, never) less safe to rest in than
the streambed itself and it won’t come up, because the party can
just rest in an adjacent hex anyway (or they can’t, but resting in
a streambed was already unsafe for reasons besides flooding, so it
still doesn’t make a difference).
Midgame: Making Friends
You can scavenge for food and shelter and simple weapons in the
wilderness. There might be a few exceptions, like light crossbows,
which certainly can’t be banged together out of rocks, and certain
weapons might lose some qualities, like a stone dagger not being
throwable, but for the most part, once you know the lay of the
land, you can catch food and make spears indefinitely. D&D
adventurers usually have aspirations a little bit higher than that,
though, and for most of them, they will need allies.
To reach these allies, the party will have to traverse some obstacle.
The nature of this obstacle can vary quite a bit. It can be some-
thing that just goes away on its own after a while, like a raging
river with no safe fords and whose current is too swift for Shape
Water to provide safe passage (attempts to create frozen patches
to cross are foiled by the speed of the current, which quickly pulls
the ice patch into the rapids), but which dries up on its own after
a set amount of time, requiring the party to survive long enough
to cross. It could be a dungeon that acts as an underground
passage connecting the starting area to the rest of the otherwise
unreachable map. It could just be that the allies aren’t in the
immediate vicinity of the party’s starting point, and they’ll have
to explore to find them.
Ultimately, all that matters is that there aren’t reasonably friendly
inhabitants right in the starting area, who would presumably help
the party survive by just showing them how the wilderness works.
This is an obvious humanitarian thing to do for someone lost in
a wilderness you know how to survive, but also way less fun as a
game.
Although referred to as “friends” or “allies,” they’re really more You can also have imperialist hobgoblins who mostly hang out
potential friends or allies. Actually making an ally out of them in one corner of the map for a while, but then eventually begin a
might require helping them secure resources either from mon- fullscale invasion, or a slowly spreading undead army, or an ele-
sters or from rivals (rivals who might also be willing to ally with mental cult summoning elemental princes from hidden elemental
the party if the party helps them secure those resources instead), temples, who then go on a rampage until the party defeats them,
helping slay a dangerous monster who’s moved into the area, re- whereupon the cult can simply resummon them until the party
trieving some kind of treasure from a dungeon - standard adven- finds their temples and puts a stop to them. What’s important
turer coalition-building. Once allied with, these settlements can is that either the endgame villain somehow interacts with and
provide certain resources. A martially inclined settlement might threatens the network of allies established in the midgame, or
be able to make martial weapons, for example, while a magically else these allies are somehow absolutely necessary to reaching an
inclined one might be able to create scrolls or potions. endgame goal (like traversing an otherwise lethal region to reach
a final dungeon and some ultimate treasure).
Rather than a single city where gold can be exchanged for all
kinds of goods and services, in survival adventures, the party Be wary of the second approach, though. High- or even mid-level
must establish a network of allies to fulfill all their advanced PCs have access to lots of tricks that allow them to reach places
adventuring logistical needs like potion resupply, new spells for without the help of any specific magic item or scroll, and reach-
casters, and magic items (if you have Bianca’s Guide to Golems, ing level 13 and unlocking Teleport as one of the party Wizard’s
you can combine the magic item crafting rules from there with a two automatic spells per level might render the entire midgame
survival adventure by having crafters of different types of magic network of allies irrelevant.
items be spread out across different villages).
Endgame: Defeating Enemies
While you can have plenty of enemies simply from the friends
you didn’t make, settlements you sided against instead of with
in the conflicts across the map, there are also some enemies who
make for good automatically hostile foes. The magical nature of a
fantasy world means that elementals and treants can the like can
serve as combat-capable natural hazards, while fiends or undead
can serve as fundamentally inhuman opposing forces who nev-
ertheless expand and take territory. Of course, these imperialist
tendencies are hardly absent in humans, and you can just have
some ordinary humanoid creatures be expanding into the region
and serve as your main antagonists.
The main thing to contend with when designing enemies is that
if they use forged weapons and have a regular economy and so
forth, then the game becomes less about survival and getting to
know the land and much more about stealing the enemy’s stuff.
While such a guerilla phase can be a great endgame, it can totally
obviate the actual survival part of a survival adventure. Just like
the initial phase of a survival adventure will usually not have any
potentially friendly settlements available (if only because they
aren’t nearby, so you have to explore to find them), the midgame
will usually not have any evil empires nearby to be pillaged for a
complete set of magic items (if only because their outposts are on
the opposite side of the map from the starting point).
You can also not have enemies with these resources at all, and
instead have your endgame be defined by reaching and plunder-
ing ancient dungeons and/or slaying terrible monsters. Perhaps
the land is terrorized by an ancient dragon who is seen flying
overhead, occasionally extorting the party for magic items, drain-
ing settlements of resources which causes them to be unable to
produce anything for the party for a time, and destroying settle-
ments when they can’t pay up. The endgame could be finding the
dragon’s lair and putting an end to their reign of terror.

33

Courts of Reverie
The Court of Spring is bright, vibrant, curious, and mischie-
vous. The Court of Spring is a court of renewal, rebirth, and
the future. They love new things, new people, art and creativity.
The lands of the Court of Spring are confusing and ever-shifting
labyrinths into which Spring fey often abduct “party guests” to
stay for extended periods of time. All aging is halted within the
boundaries of the Court, but every moment catches up with the
guests again when they leave. Those who have been guests of the
Spring Court long enough will collapse into dust the instant they
leave. Under the glamours of the fey, it seems like it’s never been
more than a few hours, maybe a weekend at most, since the party
guests arrived, and they are usually reluctant to leave “so soon.”
The Court of Summer burns with passion. They are a court of
terrible strength and limitless vitality. They are enraptured with
the extraordinary. The lands of the Court of Summer are lands of
vibrant extremity, with impossibly tall mountains and impossibly
swift rivers. The Court of Summer is obsessed with its own might
and glory, and loves to prove its power by challenging others -
whether other fey or mortals - to contests from those as jovial as
races or drinking contests to those as horrific as open war, for the
Court of Summer is exuberant and valiant, but not afraid to start
fires.
The Court of Autumn is a dark and fearsome place inhabited
by dark and fearsome fey. They are a court of terror and fear. It is
perpetually dark within its tangled brambles and haunted moors,
and its inhabitants bring fear, some as a terrible and timely
warning, others as cathartic pranksters, and others terrorizing the
helpless out of pure cruelty. The boundaries between one category
and another are often fuzzy.
The Court of Winter is buried in snow, ossified and unchanging.
The fey who live there are a grim and solemn people, completely
lacking in the mirth usually associated with fairies. They are not
necessarily miserable or depressed, but certainly they are driven
to action more by duties and ancient obligations rather than hope
or mischief.
The Court of Agony are the most straightforwardly cruel of all
the fey courts, and yet there are still mortals who seek them out.
Some seek revenge, and wish to learn how to inflict the most hor-
rific pain possible. Others are thrillseekers who wish to embrace
the extremes of all sensations, even pain. Some are just hoping to
find a way to feel anything at all. Many of the court’s “guests” are
not voluntary at all, which has led to many a rescue mission into
their land of thorns and fire, of crooked castles and mountain
ranges bent like broken bones.
The Court of Cacophony live in a land perpetually overcast with
rumbling storm clouds that crack with impossibly loud thunder.
From the shrieking of banshees to the chanting of manic choirs,
the court’s obsession with sound, both music and noise, is all but
inescapable.
34
The Carnival Court has no fixed territory. They wander in and
out of not only other fey courts, but also other planes, spending
as much time in the mortal world as not. They are patrons of the
lost, the misunderstood, and the outcasts. They are the circus that
unwanted children run away to. Many courts replace a mortal
child with a fairy lookalike called a fetch, but the fetches of the
Carnival Court do not replace their mortal counterparts. They
just invite them in for a twins act.
The Carnival Court will not reject anyone for any reason, which
makes them a home for every kind of outcast, including those
who were outcast for good reasons. Some members of the Carni-
val carry on vicious feuds with one another which the rest either
quietly ignore or else pick sides in.
The Court of Clouds exists entirely in the sky, and almost all of
its members can fly. Clouds look like tiny puffs from a distance,
hardly larger than the average person’s head, but this is an optical
illusion caused by immense distance. In truth, clouds are floating
mountains, and in Reverie, their tops are covered in lush jungles
and waterfalls.
The Court of Clouds is free-spirited and uncontainable, full of
heroes and monsters alike who pursue glory or infamy (respec-
tively) unrestrained by any laws of god or man. Even the “heroes”
are called such not because they are virtuous, but because they
have remarkable powers and abilities, and are distinguished from
the monsters only by their humanoid form. Mortals sometimes
refer to Cloud Court heroes whom they dislike as “villains” in-
stead, but the fey of the Clouds do not recognize the distinction.
Fey of the Cloud Court are also outright annoyed when mortals
refer to monsters they approve of as “heroes.”
The Court of Entropy wishes to destroy everything. If they ever
had a homeland, they unraveled it long ago, and now wander the
planes freely. Mortals are rarely happy at their approach, but are
sometimes left better off when tyrants and warmongers have their
kingdoms left in ruins. The Court itself is frantic and hedonistic,
going about their devastating work as though on an extremely
violent bender.
The Court of Eyes is always watching and is filled with an
insatiable need to know. They do not record what they see, and
indeed, they are so thoroughly in the moment that they frequent-
ly forget and then remember and then forget again. Sometimes
they’ll be halfway through an invasive attempt to extract the true
story behind a certain event only for one of them to remember
that they were present and saw everything personally. The scatter-
brained Court of Eyes often see connections between events that
don’t actually exist, and become obsessed with conspiracies, at
least until they get distracted by something else.
The Court of Revelry is a constant party rampaging across the
planes, whether that be Reverie, the mortal world, or elsewhere.
In order to feed its never-ending festivities, the Court pillages ev-
ery place they come to, using enchantment magic or brute force
of arms to commandeer any interesting locations in the area for
dance halls or festival grounds, then carrying off food, drink, and
new “guests” to take to their next location. Those places unable to
fend off the Court of Revelry (especially the ones foolish enough
to welcome them in because of their festive facade) are often left
as smouldering ruins by the time they move on.
The Court of Serpents live in a land of ancient, primordial
power. All fey do, of course, but the Court of Serpents is obvious
with it. Cyclopean temples and titanic monuments rise up from
the mists of old growth forests and untouched jungles. From
every tree and stone, the Court exudes that it was here long be-
fore you, and will be here long after, lost treasures and forgotten
secrets deep within its vaults.
The Court of Shadows perpetuate the cycle of courts falling and
rising, not because they have some ideological attachment to it (it
would happen with or without their participation), but because
they enjoy playing the villains. They usurp courts, slay rightful
heirs (as much as anything fey can be slain, at least), and ride
through the night terrorizing the common satyrs and brownies
and so forth, more for the love of the role than anything else.
The Court of Sun is arguably not distinct from the Court of
Shadows, for while the Court of Shadows loves to play the villain,
the Court of Sun loves to play the hero. They take on the role of
mentor, sidekick, or sometimes even the hero themselves (though
narrative often demands they leave that role to someone with
more personal investment). They are frequently in conflict with
the Court of Shadows, whom they consider their arch-nemesis.
Although the vast majority of Reverie is untouched by their
rivalry at any given time, from the perspective of the Courts of
Sun and Shadows, the entire fate of the plane is shaped by their
epic struggle.
The Court of Sun acts not out of moral conviction, but rath-
er out of love for a narrative role. This leads them to making
decisions that are bone-headed or even cruel for the sake of an
intentionally pursued character arc, something which can be
compelling if you’re one of the small handful of “characters” they
have decided are important to the narrative and must be deeply
involved with it every step of the way, but for the vast majority of
other fey and mortals alike, the Court of Sun are the fairies who
come into town, stay at the inn, and then loudly signal their pres-
ence to the Court of Shadows so that the inn can be dramatically
burnt to the ground. Even selected “protagonists” are sometimes
dismayed to find that the Court of Sun has decided that their
struggle works better as backstory than as a main event, and takes
a dive in order to ensure things are suitably tragic whenever a
“real” protagonist wanders on set.
The Fair Folk: New Fey Stat Blocks
Courts of the Four Seasons
Some fey are unique to a specific court, but fey knights, dryads,
satyrs, and pixies are common to most of them. A pixie of the
Autumn Court is not quite the same as a pixie of the Winter,
Spring, or Summer Courts, however. You can apply the below
templates to a fey in order to make them fey of that particular
court, and make new templates based on them to create fey
unique to that specific court (generic fey knight, dryad, satyr, and
pixie stat blocks can also be used for fey of any court). You can
also apply these templates to other fey (including talking beasts).
A satyr’s innate spellcasting ability for purposes of abilities grant-
ed by these templates is Charisma.
Spring Fey
• Damage Resistance. Radiance
• Nature’s Stride. Spring fey can pass through nonmagi-
cal plants without being slowed by them and without taking
damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar
hazard. Additionally, the fey has advantage on saves against
plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede
movement, such as the Entangle spell.
• Spring fey may cast Entangle once per long rest.
Summer Fey
• Damage Resistance. Fire
• Call to Dance. A summer fey may call a creature within
30 ft. to dance as an action. A creature called to dance must
make a Charisma saving throw or be charmed by the summer
fey. While charmed by this ability, they dance. Dancing crea-
tures must use their action to dance, cannot take reactions,
and have their movement speed halved. A charmed creature
may repeat the save at the end of each of their turns to end
this effect.
• Summer Fey may cast Create Bonfire and Dancing Lights
at-will.
Autumn Fey
• Damage Resistance. Necrotic
• Innate Spellcasting. 1/day - create food & water
• Terrifying Presence. When a creature the fey can see
starts its turn within 30 feet of the fey, the fey can impose a
glamour upon them. If the creature can see the fey, they must
make a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the winter
fey. As long as they remain frightened, they gain a level of
exhaustion. Affected creatures may repeat the save at the end
of each of their turns to end the effect.
35
Winter Fey Flying Head of Zobiana
• Damage Resistance. Cold
Huge fey (winter)
• Winter fey may cast Dissonant Whispers at-will.
Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
• Ice Walk. The fey can move across and climb icy sur-
faces without needing to make an ability check. Additionally, HP 47 (6d8 + 12)
difficult terrain composed of ice or snow doesn’t cost them Speed 5 ft., fly 60 ft.
extra movement.
STR 16 (+3)

Giant Beasts DEX 14 (+2)

This is a template you can apply to any beast in order to make it CON 14 (+2)
a giant beast. It’s mainly intended for things like giant bears or
giant tigers, but can probably work just as well for making a giant INT 3 (-4)
wyvern or giant catoblepas or whatever. You can also apply the WIS 7 (-2)
template multiple times to the same creature to increase their size
CHA 2 (-4)
category by more than one step, in case you want a giant rat big
enough to gnaw through a suspension bridge. Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning
• Increase the creature’s size category by one step (i.e. Damage Immunities poison
medium to large, large to huge, etc.).
Condition Immunities poisoned
• Increase the creature’s STR and CON by 4 points.
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 8
• Increase the creature’s hit die by one step (i.e. d6s to
d8s, d8s to d10s, etc.), to a maximum of d12. Languages Sylvan

• Double the creature’s number of hit dice.
• Increase the die size of the creature’s natural attacks by
one (i.e. 1d6 to 1d8, 2d4 to 2d6, etc.), to a maximum of d12.
If any of the creature’s natural attacks already deal d12s, add
one die to their damage (i.e. from 2d12 to 3d12).
Magic Resistance. The flying head has advantage on saving
throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 9 (3d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 17 (5d6) poison damage.
Stunning Shriek. The flying head shrieks. Each humanoid and
beast within 30 feet of the flying head and able to hear it must
succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until
the end of the flying head’s next turn. While frightened in this
way, a target is stunned. If a target’s saving throw is successful, or
the effect ends, the target is immune to stunning shriek from all
flying heads for one hour.

36

Fey Knight
In service to the courts of faerie, these knights are valiant protec-
tors of their realms. They appear largely human but for the head
of a woodland creature; examples include a mouse, a hare, or
even a bluebird. Their gleaming metal armor & intricately carved
weapons revert to leaves and sticks upon their death.
Challenge. As a bonus action, the knight may challenge a foe
they can see within 60 feet. If the target does not inflict any
damage by the start of the knight’s next turn, the knight deals an
additional 3d6 damage with every attack for that round.
Actions
Multiattack. The knight makes two melee attacks.

Medium fey +2 Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft.,

one target. Hit: 13 (2d6+4) magical slashing damage.
Armor Class 18 (plate armor)
+1 Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 150/600
HP 52 (8d8 + 16) ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+2) magical piercing damage.
Speed 30 ft.
Reactions
STR 16 (+3) Parry. The knight adds 2 to their AC against one melee attack
that would hit them. To do so, the knight must see the attacker
DEX 13 (+1)
and be wielding a melee weapon.
CON 15 (+2)
INT 10 (+0)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 17 (+3)
Skills Perception +4, Persuasion +6
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing,
and slashing from non magical attacks that
aren’t made of iron or steel
Condition Immunities frightened
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
Fey Step (Recharge 4-6) As a bonus action, the knight
and their steed can teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied
space they can see.
Innate Spellcasting. The knight’s innate spellcasting ability is
Charisma (spell save DC 17). They can innately cast the follow-
ing spells, requiring no material components:
At will: druidcraft, find steed*
* A knight must always choose the fey type. The mastiff has the
appearance of a giant corgi, the war horse & pony are a colour
from the rainbow that changes each time they are summoned,
and the knight has the option of summoning a giant snail.
Magic Resistance. The knight has advantage on saving throws
against spells and other magical effects.
Mounted Combatant. A knight benefits from having the
Mounted Combatant feat while controlling a mount from their
Find Steed spell.
Immunity to Vorpal. A knight suffers no mechanical penalty
should they be decapitated by a vorpal sword. Their head & body
continue to function when separated, and while the knight may
prefer to recover their head and reattach it as an action, they can
regrow it after a long rest; the original head turning into a rotting
turnip should this happen.

37
Giant Snail Huldra
Large monstrosity The huldra is a pine tree nymph who resembles a beautiful wom-
an. Their masculine counterpart, the huldrekall, is an equally
Armor Class 16 (natural armor) beautiful nymph of stone. Huldras dislike being seen, even by
HP 47 (5d10 + 20) friends. Each huldra has a hollow in their back that is much
larger than it appears, but which disappears if they are slain. This
Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft. hollow is usually covered by their long hair.
STR 17 (+3)
Medium fey (winter)
DEX 5 (-3)
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
CON 18 (+4)
HP 58 (9d8 + 18)
INT 3 (-4)
Speed 30 ft., swim 20 ft.
WIS 10 (+0)
STR 19 (+4)
CHA 5 (-3)
DEX 14 (+2)
Skills Perception +1
CON 15 (+2)
Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 30 ft., passive Perception
11 INT 12 (+1)

Spider Climb. The giant snail can climb difficult surfaces,
including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an
ability check.
Knightly Steed. If summoned by a courtly knight, the giant snail
has a land speed of 50 feet.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 7 (2d4 + 3) piercing damage.
Shell Defense. The giant snail withdraws into its shell, gaining a
+4 bonus to AC until it emerges. It can emerge from its shell as a
bonus action on its turn.
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 17 (+3)
Saving Throws DEX +5, CON +3
Skills Nature +4, Stealth +5, Survival +4
Damage Resistances cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
from non magical attacks that aren’t made of iron or steel
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Common, Sylvan
Magic Resistance. The huldra has advantage on saving throws
against spells and other magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting. The huldra’s innate spellcasting ability is
Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 spell attack). She can innately
cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will - druidcraft, mold ice & snow*
3/day - disguise self
1/day - entangle, phantasmal force
* As mold earth, but only for ice and snow
Hollow Back. A huldra has a large hole revealing a deep hollow
that acts as a bag of holding while she is alive.
Actions
Rime Blast. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 20/60 ft.,
one target. Hit: 11 (2d10) cold damage and target must make a
Strength saving throw or be restrained by ice. A creature re-
strained by ice, or adjacent to this creature, can make a Strength
check against the save DC. On a success, the creature is free. The
ice is also destroyed by any amount of fire damage dealt to the
creature.

38
Baleful Raven Ashen Lady
Baleful ravens are giant ravens that carry an oversized eyeball in Ashen ladies are spirits of the autumn fey. Their skin and clothes
their beaks. The intense heat of these eyes can set other creatures are all shades of ash grey, and scorched and burned by some for-
ablaze. gotten fire in the hollow halls of the Autumn Court.

Large fey (summer) Medium fey (autumn)

AC 12 Armor Class 14
HP 40 (9d8) HP 71 (13d8 + 13)
Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft. Speed 30 ft.
STR 15 (+2) STR 9 (-1)
DEX 14 (+2) DEX 18 (+4)
CON 11 (+0) CON 13 (+1)
INT 6 (-2) INT 10 (+0)
WIS 16 (+3) WIS 11 (+0)
CHA 7 (-2) CHA 19 (+4)
Skills Perception +6 Skills History +3, Perception +3, Performance +7, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances fire; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slash-
from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Iron or Steel ing from attacks that aren’t made of iron or steel
Condition Immunities charmed Condition Immunities charmed
Senses Truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 16 Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 17
Languages Common, Sylvan Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
Magic Resistance. The baleful raven has advantage on saving Fey Step (Recharge 4-6) As a bonus action, the ashen lady can
throws against spells and other magical effects. teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space she can see.
Actions Magic Resistance. The ashen lady has advantage on saving
Multiattack. A baleful raven makes two attacks with their eye throws against spells and other magical effects.
ray. Innate Spellcasting. The Ashen Lady’s innate spellcasting ability
Talons. Melee Weapon Attack. +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. is Charisma (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks).
Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage. She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material
components:
Eye Ray. Ranged Weapon Attack.+9 to hit, range 60 ft., one
target. Hit: 14 (4d6) fire damage. At will: dancing lights, druidcraft, levitate, minor illusion
3/day: create food and water
Melting Gaze (1/short or long rest). The baleful raven targets
every creature in a 60 foot cone. Each creature in that area must Incorporeal Movement. Ashen Ladies can move through other
make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 35 (10d6) fire creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. She takes 5
damage. After this ability is used, a baleful raven’s Eye Ray attack (1d10) force damage if she ends her turn inside an object.
is made at disadvantage until they take a short or long rest. Actions
Blood Harvest. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft.,
one creature. Hit: 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. The target’s HP
maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage
taken. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The
target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Bewitch. A target within 30 ft. that the Ashen Lady can see
must make an Intelligence saving throw or have their senses
overwhelmed by the rosy dream of a courtly ball long since lost;
reality only faintly discernible. Until the end of the target’s next
turn, all other creatures are heavily obscured to the target. A crea-
ture is immune to this effect if they are immune to the charmed
condition.

39
Goodberry Slime The Old Gods: New Fey Bosses
Medium fey (spring)
Armor Class 8
Gloriana, Queen of the Midnight Sun
Gargantuan fey (summer)
HP 67 (9d8 +27)
Armor Class 21 (natural armor)
Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft.
HP 255 (30d8+120)
STR 13 (+1)
DEX 6 (-2) Speed 50 ft., fly 120 ft.

CON 16 (+3) STR 28 (+9)

INT 11 (+0) DEX 14 (+2)
WIS 14 (+2) CON 19 (+4)
CHA 17 (+3) INT 15 (+2)
Skills Nature +3 WIS 17 (+3)
Damage Resistances radiant CHA 24 (+7)
Damage Immunities acid, necrotic, poison Saving Throws Dex +8, Con +10, Wis +9, Cha +13
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poi- Skills Intimidation +13, Perception +9
soned, prone
Damage Resistances lightning, thunder; Bludgeoning, Piercing,
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12 and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks.
Amorphous. The goodberry slime can move through a space as Damage Immunities fire, poison; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and
narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Iron or Steel.
Regeneration. Goodberry slimes regain 10 HP at the start of
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, poisoned
their turn if they have at least 1 HP. If the slime takes fire dam-
age, this trait doesn’t function at the start of their next turn. Senses darkvision 300 ft., truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 19
Magic Resistance. The goodberry slime has advantage on saving Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
throws against spells and other magical effects.
Stone Slumber. Wrapping herself in her wings and holding her-
Innate Spellcasting. The Goodberry Slime’s innate spellcast- self motionless, Gloriana becomes indistinguishable from a mass
ing ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell of stone, suppressing her Aura of Glory.
attacks). They can innately cast the following spells, requiring no
Aura of Glory. Unless she is incapacitated, any creature that
material components:
starts its turn within 20 feet of Gloriana must make a DC 21
At-will: druidcraft, shape water Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a fey is charmed and a
3/day: enlarge/reduce (touch range), bless (5’ range) non-fey is frightened for 1 hour. If Gloriana or any of her follow-
ers attack the creature, they get an additional save. If a creature is
1/day: polymorph successful, the creature is immune to Gloriana’s Aura for the next
Final Fruit. When a Goodberry Slime is reduced to 0 HP, it’s 24 hours. Creatures with a courtly background (such as courtier,
core goodberry heart is exposed. If a creature eats this heart as an knight, or noble) make the saving throw with advantage.
action, they gain the effects of tenser’s transformation. The good-
berry heart will overripe after an hour’s time, and eating it after
this happens will instead deal 27 (6d8) poison damage. Spells
such as purify food and drink and gentle repose will not prevent the
heart’s magic from expiring.
Actions
Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) bludgeoning damage and 4 (1d8) radiant
damage.
Healing Touch (3/Day). The goodberry slime touches another
creature. The target magically regains 11 (2d8 + 2) hit points.
In addition, the touch removes all diseases and neutralizes all
poisons afflicting the target.

40
Magic Resistance. Gloriana has advantage on saving throws
against spells and other magical effects.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If Gloriana fails a saving throw,
she can choose to succeed instead.
Innate Spellcasting. Gloriana’s innate spellcasting is Charisma
(spell save DC 21, spell attack bonus +13). Gloriana can innately
cast the following spells, requiring no components.
At will - dancing lights, druidcraft, pass without trace
1/day - commune with nature, control weather
Speak with Beasts and Plants. Gloriana can communicate with
beasts and plants as if they shared a language.
Empowered Attacks. Gloriana’s attacks and the attacks of her
conjured minions are magical.
Dark Sacrifice. If any creature with the Summer Court template
is reduced to 0 HP, Gloriana can spend a reaction to immolate
& consume their essence, recovering 10 HP and making a free
spawn flame attack.
Actions
Multiattack. Gloriana makes two attacks with one action.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 15 ft., two adja-
cent targets. Hit: 27 (4d8 + 9) bludgeoning damage.
Spawn Flame. Ranged Spell Attack: +13 to hit, range 120 ft.,
one target. Hit: 25 (4d8+7) fire damage. If the target has taken
fire damage since last turn, they take an additional 9 (2d8) fire
damage.
Elite Actions
1 Dance of Summer
2 Recruit
3 Royal Presence
4 Wing Attack
Ultimate Eclipse
Dance of Summer. With an action, Gloriana summons two
Courtly Knights with the Summer Court templates adjacent to
her. They roll initiative upon entering the field and vanish when
they are reduced to 0 HP. At her discretion, each of the Courtly
Knights may be substituted with four other fey that have the
Summer Court template.
Recruit. As an action, cast polymorph on a target of Gloriana’s
choice. Unlike normal castings of the spell, the effect lasts until
sunrise without concentration, at which point, the target can
attempt a new save. The form has the fey type rather than beast,
and the target is friendly to Gloriana and her companions for the
duration. They will obey any verbal commands given by Glori-
ana (no action required) which do not violate their motivations
(whether base, noble, or social).
Royal Presence. As a bonus action, Gloriana’s Aura of Glory
takes on a nearly inviolate state. She gains the benefits of the
sanctuary spell until the start of her next turn. Creatures without
a courtly background (such as courtier, knight, or noble) make
saves against this effect with disadvantage.
Wing Attack. Beating her wings, each creature within 10 feet of
Gloriana must succeed on a DC 23 Dexterity saving throw or
take 16 (2d6 + 9) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.
Gloriana can then fly up to half her flying speed.
Eclipse. The sun and the moon are engulfed, spreading darkness
out to 300 feet from Gloriana. Within this area, the brightest
level is dim light, and remains so until Gloriana chooses to end
this effect or is reduced to 0 HP. As a bonus action, Gloriana then
casts flame strike as a 9th level spell.
41

Queen Zobiana, the Mother Witch
Large fey (winter)
Armor Class 21 (natural armor)
HP 285 (30d8+150)
Speed 40 ft.
STR 19 (+4)
DEX 21 (+5)
CON 21 (+5)
INT 15 (+2)
WIS 24 (+7)
CHA 21 (+5)
Saving Throws CON +11, INT +8, WIS +13
Skills Arcana +8, Disguise +11, Intimidation +11, Perception
+13, Ride +11
Damage Resistances lightning, thunder; Bludgeoning, Piercing,
and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks.
Damage Immunities cold, poison; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and
Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Iron or Steel.
Condition Immunities frightened, poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., truesight 30 ft., passive Perception 19
Languages Common, Elvish, Primordial, Sylvan
Head Fey (1/short rest). As a bonus action, Zobiana can conjure
a flying head, which she is considered to have the Mounted
Combatant feat while riding.
Wretched Countenance. Any humanoid that starts its turn
within 60 feet of Zobiana and can see her true form must make
a DC 19 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed saved, the creature is
frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw
at the end of each of its turns, with disadvantage if the Zobiana
is within line of sight, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a
creature’s saving throw fails while they are frightened and within
line of sight of Zobiana, they must succeed on an additional sav-
ing throw or drop to 0 HP. If a creature’s saving throw is success-
ful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to Zobiana’s
Wretched Countenance for the next 24 hours. Unless the target is
surprised or the revelation of her true form is sudden, the target
can avert their eyes and avoid making the initial saving throw.
Until the start of their next turn, a creature that averts its eyes has
disadvantage on attack rolls against Zobiana.
42
Preservation. Any creature that is at 0 HP while in Line of Sight
of Zobiana instantly freezes solid. While in this state, they are
petrified until they receive any amount of healing.
Magic Resistance. Zobiana has advantage on saving throws
against spells and other magical effects.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If Zobiana fails a saving throw,
she can choose to succeed instead.
Ice Walk. Zobiana can move across and climb icy surfaces
without needing to make an ability check. Additionally, difficult
terrain composed of ice or snow doesn’t cost her extra moment.
Innate Spellcasting. Zobiana’s innate spellcasting is Wisdom
(spell save DC 21, spell attack bonus +13). Zobiana can innately
cast the following spells, requiring no components.
At will - detect magic, druidcraft, minor illusion, vicious mock-
ery
2/day - control weather
1/day - commune with nature
Speak with Beasts. Zobiana can communicate with beasts as if
they shared a language.
Empowered Attacks. Zobiana’s attacks and the attacks of any
creature with the (winter) subtype in line of sight are magical.
Actions
Multiattack. Zobiana can make three attacks with her claws or
two attacks with her soup bone.
Claws. Melee weapon attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage.
+3 Soup Bone. Ranged weapon attack: +13 to hit, range
150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 28 (4d8 + 10) cold damage.
Change Shape. Zobiana magically polymorphs into a Small or
Medium female humanoid, or back into her true form. Her sta-
tistics are the same in each form. Any equipment she is wearing
or carrying isn’t transformed. She reverts to her true form if she
dies.
Recruit Goat. As a melee spell attack, Zobiana can enchant a
giant goat to become part of the Winter Court. The target’s type
becomes fey (winter), they gain resistance to cold damage, their
ram attack deals an additional 1d6 cold damage, and they are
loyal to Zobiana. The effect ends when the giant goat is reduced
to 0 HP.
Elite Actions
1 Rime Rebuke
2 Wall of Ice
3 Cursing a Storm
4 Hoarfrost
Ultimate Crushing Stampede
Rime Rebuke. Activated as a bonus action, until the start of her
next turn, whenever Zobiana takes damage from a creature she
can see within 120 feet of her, Zobiana can force that creature to
make a DC 21 Dexterity save or take 16 (3d10) cold damage and
be entangled. A target that is entangled by this effect can, as an
action or bonus action, make a Strength saving throw to remove
the condition.
Wall of Ice. Zobiana casts the spell wall of ice without needing to
maintain concentration.
Cursing a Storm. Zobiana can make four attacks with her soup
bone, dealing thunder damage instead of cold. Whenever a target
is struck, they must make a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or
suffer from the effects of bestow curse cast as a 5th level spell.
Hoarfrost. Every creature of Zobiana’s choice within 30 feet
gains a patina of enchanted frost. Each creature gains a +2 bonus
to their AC until a successful attack is made against them. Shat-
tering the frost on one creature does not affect the others.
Crushing Stampede. Calling upon the power of the Wild Hunt,
a multitude of loping, galloping, and charging fey spirits are
made manifest. This hunt forms a line 30 feet wide and charges
away from Zobiana in a direction of her choosing for 600 feet.
Each creature in the path of this movement must make a DC 21
Dexterity saving throw or take 49 (14d6) necrotic damage and is
knocked prone, or half as much on a successful one and remain
standing.
King Nudd
Large fey (spring)
Armor Class 20 (+1 studded leather)
HP 255 (30d8+120)
Speed 40 ft.
STR 19 (+4)
DEX 25 (+7)
CON 19 (+4)
INT 15 (+2)
WIS 17 (+3)
CHA 21 (+5)
Saving Throws Str +10, Dex +13, Wis +9
Skills Athletics +10, Intimidation +11, Nature +8, Perception
+15, Persuasion +11, Stealth +13, Survival +9
Damage Resistances fire, cold; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and
Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks.
Damage Immunities radiant, poison; Bludgeoning, Piercing,
and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Iron or Steel.
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., truesight 30 ft., passive Perception 25
Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
Regeneration. Nudd regains 15 HP at the start of his turn if he
has at least 1 hit point. If Nudd takes necrotic damage, this trait
doesn’t function at the start of Nudd’s next turn.
Magic Resistance. Nudd has advantage on saving throws against
spells and other magical effects.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If Nudd fails a saving throw, he
can choose to succeed instead.
Innate Spellcasting. Nudd’s innate spellcasting is Charisma
(spell save DC 19, spell attack bonus +11). Nudd can innately
cast the following spells, requiring no components.
At will - commune with nature, detect magic, druidcraft, friends,
pass without trace
1/day - mass cure wounds
1/week - plant growth (8 hour casting only)
Speak with Beasts and Plants. Nudd can communicate with
beasts and plants as if they shared a language.
Tree Stride. Once on his turn, Nudd can use 10 feet of his move-
ment to step magically into one living tree within his reach and
emerge from a second living tree within 60 feet of the first tree,
appearing in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the second
tree. Both trees must be Large or bigger.
43
Actions
Multiattack. Nudd takes three attack actions.
+2 Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit reach 5 ft.,
one target. Hit: 13 (1d8 + 9) slashing damage and 9 (2d8) poison
damage.
+2 Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, range
150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (1d8 + 9) piercing damage and 7
(2d6) radiant damage.
Elite Actions
1 First Strike
2 Nature’s Veil
3 Nature’s Mark
4 Spike Growth
Ultimate Animate Trees
First Strike. Nudd makes a multiattack with every attack at
advantage, rerolling all 1s from damage (he must keep the results
of the rerolled dice).
Nature’s Veil. As a bonus action, Nudd becomes invisible until
the end of his next turn.
Nature’s Mark. During this round, any creature Nudd success-
fully damages with an attack is marked as an enemy of the forest.
All plants and fey deal an additional 1d8 radiant damage with
a successful attack. This mark stays on the target until a remove
curse is cast.
Spike Growth. Nudd casts the spell spike growth without having
to maintain concentration. Plant creatures are not vulnerable to
this spell when cast by Nudd.
Animate Trees. Nudd animates one or two trees he can see with-
in 60 feet. These trees have the same statistics as a treant, except
they have Intelligence and Charisma scores of 1, they can’t speak,
and they have only the Slam action option. An animated tree
acts as an ally. The tree remains animate for 1 day or until it dies;
until Nudd dies or is more than 120 feet from the tree; or until
Nudd takes a bonus action to turn it back into an inanimate tree.
The tree then takes root if possible.
44
Archimago, Regent of The Empty Throne
Medium fey (autumn)
Armor Class 23
HP 165 (30d6 + 60)
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.
STR 10 (+0)
DEX 15 (+2)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 25 (+7)
WIS 19 (+4)
CHA 20 (+5)
Saving Throws Dex +8, Con +8, Int +13, Cha +11
Skills Arcana +19, Deception +17, Perception +10, Sleight of
Hand +8
Damage Resistances force; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing
from Nonmagical Attacks.
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison; Bludgeoning, Piercing,
and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Iron or Steel.
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 20
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Elvish, Infernal, Pri-
mordial, Sylvan
Proficiency Bonus +6
Desolation. The lack of a true heir in the Autumn Throne hangs
over Archimago, manifesting as a pattern of illusions to precisely
counter stimuli around him in a 200 foot radius. Colours are
dull, sounds are less lively, and even lights are dimmer; creating
an unnerving sense of eerie isolation. Every non-fey in the area
that suffers the frightened condition must make a DC 21 Wis-
dom saving throw or be subject to the effects of the Shadowfell
Despair table for as long as they are in the area. A successful save
makes the creature immune until after their next short or long
rest.
Magic Resistance. Archimago has advantage on saving throws
against spells and other magical effects.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If Archimago fails a saving
throw, he can choose to succeed instead.
Innate Spellcasting. Archimago’s innate spellcasting is Intelli-
gence (spell save DC 21, spell attack bonus +13). Archimago can
innately cast the following spells, requiring no components.
At will - detect magic, disguise self, minor illusions, prestidigita-
tion
3/day - counterspell
1/day - scrying, teleportation circle
Actions
Multiattack. Archimago can make two attacks with Silent Knell.
Silent Knell. Ranged Spell Attack: +13 to hit, range 120 ft,
one target. Hit: 24 (4d8 + 7) necrotic damage, or 32 (4d12+7)
necrotic damage if the target is missing any HP.
Phantasmal Backstab. Two adjacent creatures within 60 feet of
Archimago must make a DC 21 Intelligence saving throw. On a
failure, the target sees the other turn to attack them, dealing 42
(12d6) psychic damage. They treat the effect as real, including
sound, temperature, and other stimuli only evident to them. The
target perceives the damage as a type appropriate to the illusion.
Elite Actions
1 Vanish
2 Shadowy Killer
3 Blood Knell
4 Fey Escape
Ultimate Final Hour
Vanish. Every creature of Archimago’s choice within 60 feet gains
the effects of improved invisibility until the end of their next
turn.
Shadowy Killer. Archimago casts phantasmal killer on up to
three targets, without having to maintain concentration.
Blood Knell. For the round, Archimago’s silent knell additionally
restores him HP equal to half of the damage dealt.
Fey Escape. Until the start of Archimago’s next turn, he may
spend a reaction in response to being attacked, leaving behind
an illusory copy and teleporting up to 30 feet to an unoccupied
space he can see and be invisible until the start of his next turn.
Final Hour. An ominous ticking sound resonates through the
air. Archimago no longer wishes to suffer his enemies to live,
choosing any number of creatures within 30 feet of each other
that he can see. They take 21 (6d6) necrotic damage, lowering
their maximum HP by an equal amount. Subsequently, they
must make a DC 21 Constitution save or have their bodies age
into decrepitude, gaining disadvantage on Charisma checks and
become vulnerable to all damage. This status cannot be removed
without the use of greater restoration or similar magic.
45
Additional Content Action
Multiattack. Alouette makes two attacks with her rapier.
+1 Rapier. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
Additional Bosses target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) piercing damage.
Reaction
Alouette Dhorinshylva Misty Escape (Recharge 4-6) In response to taking damage,
Alouette Dhorinshylva is a fey with an especial interest in war-
Alouette turns invisible and teleports up to 60 feet to an unoc-
locks and other mortals seeking to make pacts. She is a ruthless
cupied space she can see. She remains invisible until the start of
negotiator in pursuit of her own hedonistic power.
her next turn or until she attacks, makes a damage roll, or casts a
Medium fey spell.

Armor Class 18 (unearthly grace) Elite Actions

HP 111 (17d8 + 34) 1 Opening offer
2 Levy
Speed 30 ft.
3 Counter Offer
STR 13 (+1)
4 Escape Clause
DEX 18 (+4)
Ultimate Final Offer
CON 14 (+2)
Opening Offer. Singing a melody, Alouette projects a vision into
INT 12 (+1) the minds of creatures within 30 feet of her that aren’t constructs
or undead, showing each creature achieving whatever they most
WIS 13 (+1)
desire. An affected creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving
CHA 19 (+4) throw or drop whatever they are holding and become paralyzed
Saving Throws DEX +8, INT +5, CHA +8 until the end of their next turn.

Skills Deception +12, Insight +5, Perception +5, Performance
+8, Persuasion +8
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from
attacks that aren’t made of iron or steel
Condition Immunities charmed
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
Levy. Alouette casts conjure fey as an action.
Counteroffer. As a reaction, when attacked, Alouette brokers a
temporary deal. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw or
be granted 25 temporary HP and must attack a different target of
Alouette’s choice within range of the attack.
Escape Clause. Alouette’s Misty Escape automatically refreshes.
If she uses it before the start of her next turn, she is healed an
amount equal to the damage inflicted.

Unearthly Grace. While Alouette is wearing no armor and not Final Offer. As an action, Alouette casts dominate monster as a
wielding a shield, her AC includes her Charisma modifier. 9th level spell, without the need for concentration. If a creature
had failed their saving throw against Opening Offer or Counter-
Magic Resistance. Alouette has advantage on saving throws offer, they make this saving throw at disadvantage.
against spells and other magical effects.
Predatory Dealmaker. Alouette has expertise with Deception.
Innate Spellcasting. Alouette’s innate spellcasting ability is
Charisma (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). She can
innately cast the following spells, requiring no material compo-
nents:
At will: druidcraft, message, minor illusion

46
 Súile. Aiobhean magically forces a creature she can see within 60
Aiobhean feet to make a DC 18 Charisma saving throw. The creature takes
Aiobhean is a satyr of sorts, with short, black horns, mar-
21 (6d6) psychic damage on a failed save and is charmed until
ble-white skin, and a love for song and wine. She also has in-
the end of their next turn. On a successful save, the target takes
credible strength. Fey Lord of the Court of Revel, Aiobhean runs
half as much damage and is not charmed.
a constant party, and pillages every place she goes to for “party
supplies.” She comes in with lights and music and leaves ashes in Bonus Actions
her wake. Displacement (Recharges 5-6). As a bonus action, Aiobhean
projects an illusion that makes her appear to be standing in a
Medium fey place a few inches from her actual location, causing any creature
Armor Class 19 (natural armor) to have disadvantage on attack rolls against Aiobhean. The effect
ends if Aiobhean takes damage, she is incapacitated, or her speed
HP 230 (20d12+100)
becomes 0.
Speed 40 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)
Elite Actions
STR 25 (+7)
1 Howl of Yeth
DEX 16 (+3) 2 Rush
CON 21 (+5) 3 Draining Strikes
INT 12 (+1) 4 Thousand Mirrors
WIS 14 (+2) Ultimate Waves of Ecstasy

CHA 19 (+4) Howl of Yeth. As an action, Aiobhean casts Conjure Fey, but
always summons three yeth hounds.
Saving Throws STR +13, CON +11, WIS +8, CHA +10
Rush. As a bonus action, Aiobhean and any allies within 30 feet
Skills Intimidation +10, Perception +8, Performance +10 can instantly take the Dash action. If she or any of her allies end
Damage Immunities Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from their movement adjacent to an enemy, they can make a single
Nonmagical Attacks attack at advantage.
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened Draining Strikes. As an action, Aiobhean attacks four times
with Caladbolg. Any creature struck by one of these attacks must
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 20
make a DC 21 Constitution saving throw or suffer a level of
Languages Common, Elvish, Giant, Sylvan exhaustion.
Magic Resistance. Aiobhean has advantage on saving throws Thousand Mirrors. As a bonus action, Aiobhean generates phan-
against spells and other magical effects. tasmal combatants. One phantasmal fighter appears adjacent to
each enemy within 30 feet of Aiobhean. A phantasmal fighter
Innate Spellcasting. Aiobhean’s innate spellcasting is Charisma
has an AC of 13 and is destroyed if struck by an attack or is no
(spell save DC 18, spell attack bonus +10). Aiobhean can innate-
longer adjacent to an enemy. A phantasmal fighter has a speed
ly cast the following spells, requiring no components.
of 0 and cannot take actions, but can make opportunity attacks
At Will: minor illusion, disguise self*, druidcraft with a +10 attack for 13 (2d6+6) psychic damage.
* Range of touch Waves of Ecstasy. As an action, Aiobhean emanates waves of
pleasure and joy. All enemies within 60 feet of Aiobhean must
Actions
make a DC 18 Charisma saving throw or be incapacitated until
Multiattack. Aiobhean attacks twice with the sword Caladbolg
the end of Aiobhean’s next turn.
and once with either Ram or Súile.
Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 12 (2d4 + 7) bludgeoning damage. A creature that takes
damage must succeed on a DC 21 Strength saving throw or be
knocked prone.
+2 Caladbolg. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft.,
one target. Hit: 16 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage. If a target is
reduced to 0 HP, Aiobhean gains 24 temporary HP.

47

The Kingfisher
The Kingfisher is a massive sea serpent with a thirst for royal
blood. It swims through the rivers and lakes of Reverie and out
into the mortal world, where it demands scions and sovereigns be
offered up in sacrifice. If it is refused, it begins to attack the land,
starting out by wiping small villages and hamlets, and slowly
working its way up to assail larger towns and cities until the
entire kingdom is being depopulated by its wrath. Although the
Kingfisher is primarily a creature of the water, it is quite capable
of emerging on land, using its powerful flippers as legs, coated in
a caustic slime that keeps it wet for hours or even days as it jour-
neys to an inland target, levels it, and then returns to the water.
Gargantuan fey
Armor Class 19 (natural armor)
HP 261 (18d20 + 72)
Speed 30 ft., swim 80 ft.
STR 23 (+6)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 18 (+4)
INT 8 (-1)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 12 (+1)
Skills Intimidation +5, Perception +6, Survival +6
Damage Immunity bludgeoning
Siege Monster. The Kingfisher deals double damage to objects
and structures.
Favored Food. The Kingfisher has advantage on Wisdom (Sur-
vival) checks to track those of noble blood, as well as on Intelli-
gence checks to recall information about them.
Innate Spellcasting. Kingfisher is an 18th level spellcaster, and
their spellcasting ability is Constitution (spell save DC 16). The
Kingfisher can innately cast the following spells, requiring no
components.
At-will: command, sacred flame, thaumaturgy
Actions
Multiattack. The Kingfisher makes two attacks, one with the bite
and another with the tail, or two castings of sacred flame.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) piercing damage. If the target is a Large
or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 13+ Dexterity
saving throw or be swallowed. A swallowed creature is blinded,
restrained, and has total cover against attacks and other effects
outside the Kingfisher. At the start of each of the Kingfisher’s
turns, the creature takes 21 (6d6) acid damage.
If the Kingfisher takes 30 damage or more on a single turn from
a creature inside it, the Kingfisher must succeed on a DC 11+
Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate
all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet
of the Kingfisher. If the Kingfisher dies, a swallowed creature is
no longer restrained and can escape from the corpse by using 20
feet of movement, exiting prone.

Damage Resistances piercing, and slashing from nonmagical Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target.
attacks Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.

Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, re-

strained
Senses truesight 20 ft., darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages Aquan, Common, Draconic, Sylvan
Amphibious. The Kingfisher can breathe air and water.
Freedom of Movement. The Kingfisher ignores difficult terrain,
and magical effects can’t reduce their speed or cause them to be
restrained. They can spend 5 feet of movement to escape from
nonmagical restraints or being grappled.

48
Elite Actions
1 Charge
2 Mucus Cloud
3 Frightful Glare
4 Triton’s Breath
Ultimate Blood of Kings
Charge. If the Kingfisher moves at least 20 feet straight toward a
creature and then hits with an attack on the same turn, the target
takes an extra 16 (3d10) bludgeoning damage.
Mucus Cloud. Kingfisher’s coating of slime begins to slough
off in great heaps in a 5 foot radius, creating difficult terrain. If
underwater, it lightly obscures the area as well. Each creature that
starts its turn in the slime or enters them during their turn must
make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the crea-
ture is restrained as long as they remain in the slime or until they
break free. A creature restrained by the slime can use its action
to make a DC 16 Strength check, no longer being restrained if
successful.
Frightful Glare. Each creature of the Kingfisher’s choice that
is within 120 feet and aware of them must succeed on a DC
16 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened. A creature can
repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending
the effect on themselves on a success.
Triton’s Breath. The Kingfisher exhales a torrent of water in a
60-foot cone. Each creature in the area must make a DC 18 Con-
stitution saving throw, taking 52 (15d6) bludgeoning damage on
a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Blood of Kings. As an action, the Kingfisher calls upon the
noble blood accumulated over the years, casting mass suggestion as
a 9th level spell.
Poutine Sass-a-Frass
Poutine Sass-a-Frass is a shapeshifting kitsune swashbuckler. He
is typically found in his mixed form, a humanoid with fox ears
and tail as well as a large, twirled mustache, though he can shift
to full fox or full human form if it’s convenient. Poutine views
himself as a hero and loves to strike down any who he’s decided
are villains.
Small fey (shapechanger)
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
HP 115 (14d8+10)
Speed 30 ft.
STR 10 (+0)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 13 (+1)
INT 12 (+1)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 17 (+3)
Saving Throws DEX +7, INT +5, WIS +6
Skills Acrobatics +7, Deception +7, Perception +10, Sleight of
Hand +7, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from
non magical attacks that aren’t made of iron or steel
Condition Immunity charmed
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 20
Languages Common, Sylvan
Shapechanger. Poutine can use his action to polymorph into
a Medium fox-humanoid hybrid, a human, or back into his
multi-tailed fox form. His statistics, other than size, are the same
in each form. Any equipment he is wearing or carrying isn’t
transformed. He reverts to his true form if he dies.
Keen Senses. Poutine has expertise with Perception.
Magic Resistance. Poutine has advantage on saving throws
against spells and other magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting. Poutine is a 12th level spellcaster. His spell-
casting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15, spell attack bonus
+7). Poutine can innately cast the following spells, requiring no
components.
At-will: dancing lights, thaumaturgy, vicious mockery
Evasion. If Poutine is subjected to an effect that allows him to
make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, Poutine
instead takes no damage if he succeeds on the saving throw, and
only half damage if he fails.
49
Sneak Attack (1/turn). Poutine deals an extra 14 (4d6) damage
when he hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on
Oxenfree
Oxenfree is a mercurial and passionate satyr who is famous in
the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of his
Reverie for his fighting talents. Quick to anger and also quick to
that isn’t incapacitated and Poutine doesn’t have disadvantage on
forgive, Oxenfree is an unpredictable character in any situation.
the attack roll.
Actions Medium fey
Multiattack. Poutine makes two shortsword attacks or three Armor Class 16 (studded leather armor)
throwing knife attacks.
HP 128 (15d10 + 45)
Bite (Fox Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5
Speed 40 ft.
ft., one target. Hit: x (1d4 + 3) piercing damage.
STR 18 (+4)
+1 Shortsword (Hybrid & Human Form Only). Melee Weap-
on Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6 + 4) DEX 15 (+2)
piercing damage.
CON 16 (+3)
Throwing Knife (Hybrid & Human Form Only). Ranged
INT 12 (+1)
Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit 6
(1d4 + 3) piercing damage. WIS 12 (+1)

Bonus Actions CHA 15 (+2)

Cunning Action. Poutine can take a Dash, Disengage, or Hide
action.
Reactions
Uncanny Dodge. Poutine halves the damage that he takes from
an attack that hits him. Poutine must be able to see the attacker.
Elite Actions
1 Flurry
2 Camouflage
3 Pounce
4 Reactive Pickpocket
Ultimate Fox Fire
Flurry. Poutine’s maximum number of sneak attacks this turn is
three.
Camouflage. When using Uncanny Dodge, Poutine simultane-
ously teleports up to 120 feet away and is invisible until the start
of his turn.
Pounce. When taking a Dash action, Poutine does not provoke
opportunity attacks and his attacks are made at advantage.
Reactive Pickpocket. If Poutine uses Uncanny Dodge against
a weapon attack, he can disarm for free. The attack is made at
advantage.
Fox Fire. As a bonus action, Poutine casts magic missile as a 7th
level spell. A creature struck by one or more such missiles is
outlined in light. While illuminated, they cannot benefit from in-
visibility and creatures that can see them attack at advantage. At
the end of each of their turns, they can make a DC 15 Wisdom
saving throw to end the effect.
Saves STR +9, DEX +7, WIS +6, CHA +7
Skills Athletics +9, Intimidation +7, Perception +6, Performance
+7, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from
non magical attacks that aren’t made of iron or steel
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened
Senses passive Perception 16
Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
Magic Resistance. Oxenfree has advantage on saving throws
against spells and other magical effects.
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when
Oxenfree hits with it (included in the attack).
Stage Presence. As long as Oxenfree wears light or no armor and
does not wield a shield, he adds his Charisma modifier to this
AC.
Special Equipment. Oxenfree possesses two magic items; hand
drums and a hand mirror, each providing additional actions. The
hand mirror acts as a crystal ball.
Actions
Multiattack. Oxenfree makes three shortbow attacks or two
melee attacks.
Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 11 (3d4 + 4) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a Medi-
um or smaller creature, they must succeed on a DC 17 Strength
saving throw or be knocked prone.
+1 Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft.,
one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) piercing damage.
+1 Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 80/320
ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.

50
Hand Drums. Playing the drums, Oxenfree chooses to either
frighten or charm, every creature within 60 feet must make a
DC 13+ Wisdom saving throw or are afflicted by the selected
condition. Creatures that cannot be charmed are unaffected. An
affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each
of their turns, ending the effect on themselves on a success. If a
creature succeeds on the saving throw, the creature is immune to
the drums for 24 hours.
Reactions
Parry. Oxenfree adds 3 to his AC against one melee attack that
would hit him. To do so, Oxenfree must see the attacker and be
wielding a melee weapon.
Elite Actions
1 Dark Reflection
2 Inspiring Drumbeat
3 Riposte
4 Spell Reflection
Ultimate Arrow Hail
Dark Reflection. As a bonus action, Oxenfree casts mirror image.
These images have a weight and reality to them. Oxenfree has
advantage on all attack rolls as long as at least one image persists,
as he single-handedly flanks his target.
Inspiring Drumbeat. As an action, Oxenfree plays his drums an
inspiring beat. Up to six creatures of his choice (including him-
self ) within 30 feet that can hear him gain 12 temporary HP.
Riposte. As a bonus action, Oxenfree enters a battle stance that
lasts until the start of his next turn. Until the start of his next
turn, for every melee attack that misses him, Oxen gets to make a
melee attack against them.
Spell Reflection. Until the start of Oxenfree’s next turn, all spell
attacks against him are made at disadvantage. If this spell attack
misses, then the spell instead targets the caster, using the slot
level, spell save DC, attack bonus, and spellcasting ability of the
caster.
Arrow Hail. Oxenfree fires an arrow that magically transforms
into a flurry of missiles that target every enemy in a 60 foot
radius. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Dexterity
saving throw, taking 35 (10d6) piercing damage on a failed save,
or half as much damage on a successful one.
Simon
Simon is a fey spirit with acidic and fleshwarping powers with a
dismissive attitude towards mortals and even towards other fey.
Medium fey (human)
Armor Class 15 (studded leather armor)
HP 145 (10d12+80)
Speed 50 ft.
STR 18 (+4)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 26 (+8)
INT 12 (+1)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 13 (+1)
Saving Throws STR +8, CON +12, WIS +6
Skills Athletics +8, History +9, Insight +10, Perception +6
Damage Immunity acid, poison
Condition Immunity petrification, poisoned
Senses passive Perception 16
Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Sylvan
Acidic Blood. A creature that hits Simon with a melee attack
while within 5 feet of him takes 7 (2d6) acid damage.
Immutable Form. Simon is immune to any spell or effect that
would alter his form.
Magic Resistance. Simon has advantage on saving throws against
spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons. Simon’s weapon attacks are magical.
Survivor. Simon regains 15 hit points at the start of his turn if he
has at least 1 HP but fewer hit points than half his maximum.
Rejuvenation. If Simon dies, he returns to life in 1d6 days and
regains all his hit points. Only a wish spell can prevent this trait
from functioning.
Legendary Resistance (1/day). If Simon fails a saving throw, he
can choose to succeed instead.
Eternal. Simon is completely immortal. His long life has given
him expertise in History and Insight. Additionally, he doesn’t
require air, food, drink, or sleep; not that he can’t and doesn’t
experience such activities as he sees fit.
51
Actions
Multiattack. Simon makes two fist attacks.
Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a Medi-
um or smaller creature, they must succeed on a DC 15 Strength
saving throw or be knocked prone.
Acid Spit. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 20/60 ft.,
one target. Hit: 22 (4d6 + 8) acid damage. Using this deals 4
(1d6) piercing damage to Simon from having to bite his mouth
to produce the corrosive blood.
Reaction
Parry. Simon adds 3 to his AC against one melee attack that
would hit him. To do so, Simon must see the attacker.
Elite Actions
1 Implacable Advance
2 Caustic Wound
3 Relentless
4 Frighten Foe
Ultimate Flesh Bind
Implacable Advance. As a bonus action, Simon moves up to his
speed, ignoring difficult terrain. Any object in his path takes 55
(10d10) bludgeoning damage if it isn’t being worn or carried.
Caustic Wound. Simon’s attacks deal an additional 14 (4d6)
necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, they suffer a lingering
wound that causes them to take 7 (2d6) necrotic damage at the
start of each of their turns. The wound ends if the target regains
hit points or if a creature uses an action to staunch the wound,
which requires a successful DC 15 Medicine check.
Relentless. Simon casts freedom of movement as a bonus action.
Frighten Foe. As a bonus action, Simon targets a creature he can
see within 30 feet. If the target can see and hear him, they must
succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until
the end of Simon’s next turn.
Flesh Bind. As an action, every creature of Simon’s choice within
30 feet must make a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be healed
for 7 (2d6) HP. If the creature is at less than half of their maxi-
mum HP, their flesh stitches together in unnaturally direct lines.
Any creature healed by this effect becomes restrained until they
take at least 7 piercing or slashing damage from a single attack.
Additional Feats
Hani’s Beastken: +1 Wisdom or Charisma. You gain the ability
to speak with any creature with the beast type as though Speak
With Animals were continually cast on you.
Shroom Network: Whenever you take a long rest, benign fungus
grows throughout the area, reaching a twelve mile wide radius
(that is, covering one complete hex) by the time the long rest is
complete. Even if removed from the surface, the fungal network
remains spread throughout the ground. Only digging up the
earth across the area affected to destroy the fungus can get rid of
the network. Two different networks with an overlapping range
will become connected automatically.
Whenever you are within range of this or any other network
created by the same method (even if it was created by a stranger
or an enemy), you can send messages to anyone who is within
range of the same network, which will cause fungus to sprout
from the earth and speak. You can communicate telepathically
with anyone touching the fungus, and it’s common to audibly
tell someone to touch the fungus so that you can communicate
telepathically with them.
Your shroom network withers and dies if you are killed, how-
ever shroom networks it was connected to are unharmed. If
two shroom network creators take a long rest in the same place
as one another every time (perhaps because they’re in the same
adventuring party), the network will not be affected by the death
of either of them, although it would still wither away if both are
killed.

52

Additional Spells
Artor’s Deadly Crystal Aura
4th level - Evocation - Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 ft.
Components: V S M (a focus crystal from the fairy plane of
Reverie)
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: You create a searing aura of light in all directions from
your position. Every creature within range takes 8d8 radiant
damage, with a CON save for half, unless they are a fey. This
includes the caster themselves. You would think, give that, that
Artor was himself a fey, but no, he was a humanoid, and eventu-
ally killed himself by upcasting the spell too far. We don’t know
why, either.
At Higher Levels: For each level higher than 4th this spell is cast
at, it deals an additional 1d8 radiant damage.
Asher’s Fairy Banishment
3rd level - Abjuration - Cleric, Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 ft.
Components: V S M
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Effect: You attempt to send one fey within range and which you
can see back to the legally distinct fairy plane of Reverie. This
spell has no effect if you’re already in Reverie. The target makes
a CHA save, and if they fail, they are banished to Reverie, where
they remain until you lose concentration on the spell or, if you
retain concentration for the full minute, indefinitely.
Coregan’s Vine Bludgeon
1st level - Conjuration - Druid
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 ft.
Components: V S M
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: Two vines grow out of the ground at a point you can see
within range. Each of them grabs a creature of your choice within
30 ft. of the point they grew from, which must make STR saves
against your spell DC. If both creatures fail, the vines slam them
together in the air 10 feet over head. This deals 1d6 bludgeoning
damage to creatures of the same size, plus an extra 1d6 bludgeon-
ing damage for every size category larger the largest creature is
compared to the smaller one (i.e. 3d6 bludgeoning damage to a
large creature against a small creature). Then both creatures take
1d6 falling damage as the vine releases them and returns to the
earth.
If one target makes the save but not the other, the affected target
is pulled to the vine’s point of origin and takes the 1d6 falling
damage, but does not take any bludgeoning damage from impact
because there wasn’t one.
At Higher Levels: For every level higher than first, an additional
vine may attempt to grab an additional creature. Bludgeoning
damage is calculated based on the largest creature successfully
pulled into the collision.
Haska’s Polymorph
1st level - Transmutation - Sorcerer
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 ft.
Components: V S M
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: This spell creates minor and random alterations to the tar-
get’s appearance. If the target is unwilling, they must make a WIS
save to resist. If they fail, or if they choose not to resist, their hair
color, skin color, height, build, and other identifying physical
features shift randomly. The caster has no control over the result
and cannot make the target look like anyone specific, but the
target will certainly not be recognizable as their original selves.
The effect lasts until the target creature takes a long rest.
Magrim’s Fairy Dance
1st level - Conjuration - Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 120 ft.
Components: V S M
Duration: 1 long rest
Effect: For the duration of the long rest, up to six creatures
within range (including the caster, if they so choose) are swept up
into a dance with conjured fey. The target creature may attempt
to make a WIS save to resist. If they fail, they must attempt the
dance.
Creatures attempting the dance (willingly or not) may make ei-
ther a CON or CHA save (their choice). If they succeed, they are
reinvigorated by their time with the fey and finish the long rest
with an additional 1d8 + the caster’s CHA bonus in temporary
HP. If they fail, they take a level of exhaustion.
At Higher Levels: The dance gives an additional 1d8 temporary
HP for every two levels higher it is cast at, i.e. 2d8 at 3rd level,
3d8 at 5th level, etc.
53
Norok’s Immobilizing Icicle Effect: You sing a piercingly annoying song. All creatures who
start their turn within range take 2d8 psychic damage, with a
3rd level - Evocation - Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard WIS save for half. Creatures who fail the WIS save are also at
Casting Time: 1 action disadvantage on all attack rolls and ability checks until they
leave the range of the earworm or until the start of their next
Range: 60 ft. turn (when, if they are still within range, they will have to make
Components: V S M another save, renewing the disadvantage if they fail again). Once
you cast this spell, you can maintain it as a bonus action.
Duration: Instantaneous
At Higher Levels: For every level higher than 2nd this spell is
Effect: You fire an icicle to impale an opponent and pin them
cast at, it deals an additional 1d8 psychic damage.
to the ground. Make a spell attack roll against the target. If you
hit, they take 4d6 cold and 4d6 piercing damage and their speed
is reduced to 0. They may take an action on their turn to pull Watersmith Etherealness
themselves off of the icicle. 9th level - Transmutation - Bard, Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
At Higher Levels: For every two levels higher than 3rd the spell Casting Time: 1 action
is cast at, it deals an additional 1d6 cold damage and 1d6 pierc-
ing damage, i.e. 5d6 of each at 5th level, 6d6 at 7th, up to 7d6 Range: Self
cold and 7d6 piercing damage if cast as a 9th level spell. Components: V S
SiNaFay’s Earworm Duration: Concentration, up tp to 8 hours
2nd level - Enchantment - Bard Effect: You make yourself ethereal or not with pinpoint preci-
Casting Time: 1 action sion. You become invisible and incorporeal, capable of passing
through solid objects, but retain the ability to affect the physical
Range: 15 ft. world, allowing you to make attacks or cast spells while ethereal.
Components: V You are immune to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage
from non-magical weapons while this spell is active, and you have
Duration: Concentration resistance against acid, cold, fire, and lightning damage.

54
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 K
Index
Shroom Network 52 Spells 40, 53–54
Ferocity 2–3 Kingfisher 48–49 Artor’s Deadly Crystal Aura
53
Fey 2, 6, 15–17, 34–37, King Nudd 43–44
A 39–40, 42, 45, 47 Coregan’s Vine Bludgeon 53
Kitsune 49
Additional Bosses 46–52 Autumn 35 Haska’s Polymorph 53
Aiobhean 47 Courts 34–35 L Magrim’s Fairy Dance 53
Alouette Dhorinshylva 46 New Stat Blocks 35–40 Lycanthrope. See Werewolf Norok’s Immobilizing Icicle
Animal Companions 7–9 Running 15–17 54
Monstrosity 7 M Watersmith Etherealness 54
Sorcerer Bloodline 6
Aquatic 5, 7, 10–12 Monster Hunts 30–31 Survival 2, 10, 17, 19–20,
Spring 35
Archimago, Regent of The 28–29, 31–32, 38, 43,
Summer 35 O 48
Empty Throne 44–45
The Old Gods: New Fey
Ashen Lady 39 Oxenfree 50–51
Bosses 40–45 T
B Winter 36 P Terrain 21–22, 24, 28

Baleful Raven 39 Fey Knight 37 Paladin 14, 53 Tracks 31

Bear 10–12, 56 Fighter 14 Pixie 5 Travel 20, 28

Bird 10–13 Flying Head of Zobiana 36 Pointcrawl Checklist 29

W
Poutine Sass-a-Frass 49–50
C G Werewolf 2–3

Cat 11–13 Giant Beasts 36 Q Feats 3

Cleric 14, 53–54 Giant Snail 38 Queen Zobiana, the Mother Wilderness
Courts of Reverie 34–35 Gloriana, Queen of the Mid- Witch 42–43 Adventures 17–33
night Sun 40–41
Coven 4 Eating 28
Goodberry Slime 40 R
Encounters 22
D Ranger 7–9, 14, 19–20,
H 28–29 Encumbrance 24–27
Dragon 10, 13–14 Navigating 19
Hag 4–5 Beast Friend Subclass 7–9
Druid 10, 14, 17, 19–20,
Green 5 Rat 10–12 Resting 18
28–29, 53–54
Night 5 Rogue 14 Safe Campsites 19
E Sea 5 Terrain 22–24, 28
S
Encounters 22 Spells 4 Travel 20, 28
Encumbrance 24–28 Satyr 35, 47, 50 Wolf 2–3, 10–11, 31. See
Hexcrawl Checklist 29
Sea Serpent 48–49 also Werewolf
Huldra 38
F Shapeshifter 49–50. See Winter Wolf 7
Hydra 10, 12, 13 also Werewolf
Fair Folk 5, 35. See also Fey Wyvern 10, 13
Class 10–14
Playable 5 I
Fairies. See Fair Folk, Fey Simon 51–52
Inventory. See Encumbrance
Feats 3, 52 Snake 10–12

Diurnal 3 J Sorcerer

Hani’s Beastken 52 Journeys 29. See also Travel Fey Bloodline 6

Lycanthropic Bite 3

58