The Book of the Fey: A 5e Fey Compendium

My latest D&D 5e DMs Guild product is finally ready to go! The Book of the Fey is the latest entry, following the Book of the Dead, and contains over 150 fey creatures compiled from previous versions of D&D.

In addition to monster templates, I also added some options for familiars and new races as well!

Check out some preview pages here, and if you want to check out the book, buy it here!

This was fun to create, and it’s a great way to look at how groups of monsters/creatures are designed.

For example, previous editions of D&D applied damage and spell resistances to fey unless the attack was from a cold iron weapon. In my opinion, damage resistances tend to slow down play, and unless part of a particularly powerful or iconic fey creature, isn’t actually necessary. Plus, if you were to be playing in a Fey heavy game, every adventurer would strive to have a cold iron or magical weapon, eventually rendering the resistances useless. In my opinion, it’s better to have this resistance show up less frequently than having literally every fey with a damage resistance. If it doesn’t mesh with your version of Fey creatures, it’s very easy to just tack it onto a creature.

Most Fey also tend have high Dexterity and Charisma attributes, amplifying their nimble and tricky reputation. Armor is rare, and there is a lot of innate casting.

Finally, there’s a common theme among fey creatures of “attractive woman lures men to their death.” I tried to avoid specifying in the book whether a creature was specifically masculine or feminine. Dryads are typically portrayed as feminine, but I had a really great game once featuring a male dryad that looked like Fabio. Most of the art in the book still features feminine fey in these roles, but I tried to avoid that in the written descriptions.

I hope you enjoy the book! Next up will be a Construct Compendium!