Therefor I didn't feel it would've been fair to limit this even further. The animal companion is potent on paper, but these creatures all have 5 or less hit points, making them sooner a liability than an asset beyond mobility. Putting in measures to limit the flying abilities of should be a minor inconvenience as far as I'm concerned. On a related note, it's the DM's job to build an adventure around his players. And fairies wouldn't be able to carry anything heavy enough to deal damage into the air. I had originally planned on giving them a max flight height, but as with aaracokra (as a side note, people actually ban these? Most people I know find them completely worthless!), these can be houseruled. Thank you for writing up such a huge list of suggestions/critique! First and foremost: I'd thought of most of these things, and had pondered the thought about writing them all out, but that would make this race, which is already pretty complicated, a complete mess to keep track of. I'm sure I missed some stuff I thought of as I was reading it, but for the moment that's it. Like a needle (1 piercing, finesse) or a slingshot (1 bludgeoning, range 10/30, pebble ammunition). Maybe as a variant rule, add some race-specific weapons as well. What about magical weapons? Ask your DM to include fairy weapons among the loot. Weapons shrunk in this way deal 1 damage per die rolled at their regular size. And if their shrunken weapon goes for an hour or so without being worn or carried, it reverts to its normal size if it has the space to do so. Maybe the items they get from their class features are automatically tiny. Give them all the ability to shrink non-magical weapons and items as a one-hour ritual or something.
Or just "advantage on charisma checks against beasts". That's not quite as good as the wings, so I'd also give them something like the Friends cantrip that could help them out even further. Instead of giving them an animal companion as a racial trait, I'd give them the "Speak With Small Beasts" trait from forest gnomes, and then subtly slide in the "Small Mounts Expansion" all sneaky-like. Last stand/last push/final climactic moment style. It also means that you can have a dramatic moment where the fairy character must make a 10-minute flight to save their friend's life and barely makes it there in time. They get exhausted quickly if they fly for long. It also encourages them to flit from place-to-place like a hummingbird, rather than soar like an eagle. There, now they don't have unlimited flight, and they're mostly rooted within melee range (similar to hover) while still being able to fly up higher if they push themselves. The air is considered difficult terrain when you are further than 5 ft from solid ground, and if you remain in flight for more than a minute without touching down, you must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or take a level of exhaustion (repeating the save for every minute of flight). Gossamer Wings: You have a fly speed of 30 ft. I like the poisoner's kit training, though. Sprite Weapon Training doesn't account for the actual literal size of weapons. I'd rather give them a bonus to stealth rather than straight-up invisibility. Only being able to do it once per day is a fine enough compromise, but I'm still not entirely convinced. It's a fun trait for a monster but it's not great for a player character. It also encourages them to constantly separate themselves from the rest of the group. Invisibility is straight up too powerful, in my opinion. I'd give an average weight, rather than a maximum. That's a much more elegant solution in my opinion.Ģ0 pounds is too much in my opinion.
Instead, I would not reduce strength (because it's an abstract representation anyway) and simply put a limit on the amount of pounds they can lift/shove/carry. Reducing it by 4 is not the correct solution. As a tiny creature, they already have a huge disadvantage for using strength. You've basically given fairies a class feature as a race feature.ĥe shies away from reducing stats. Normally you'd need to be a druid or a ranger or access to Find Familiar to get an animal companion that fights for you in battle. There's nothing stopping this fairy from floating a hundred feet above the battlefield and just dropping rocks on owlbears all day.įlightless fairies are also OP. No other race but the Aarokocra (often banned outright) has in-built flight.