Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey (PFRPG) PDF

What a great book! Not only is it a monster collection, but there's enough awesome plothooks in here for an entire campaign setting. First off, Jack-in-Irons is flavorful as can conceivably be, and is the hook the rest of the book hangs on. The Spriggan is fully statted out for a player character, and, as such, makes a nice substitute for the Half-Orc in a different style of setting. The Dullahan, the Sylph, and the Erlking add so much to the standard fey that they should be standard for any campaign. Great stuff, well-delivered. A deserving purchase!

This pdf is 27 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC and Fey by CR, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving 21 pages for the fey.

The first thing you'll notice about this pdf is that it is gorgeous full-color and that it's extensively bookmarked, high hopes, so let's dive in.

The first page gives us an introduction to the concept of the fey as well as a table listing the quick-reference glyph system.

The fey herein are:

-Dullahan (CR 7): A fey take on the headless horseman, two additional stat-blocks are provided: 1 for the Dullahan Dreadknight (CR 9) and for their dark mares (CR 6). Their artwork kicks ass and is on par with what you can see in Paizo products.

-Erlking (CR 2): Kidnapper fey based on the ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, their artwork can be seen on the cover and, again, rocks! They have abilities to shroud themselves from sight and kidnap people. As a German who grew up learning the ballad by Goethe by hard, I love this hommage to the disturbing song.

-Fachen (CR 6): Strong, deformed soldiers of the Fey-lord Jack-in-Irons, I like how they got a weakness for adventurers to exploit: Fighting smart should be rewarded. They also get a CR 9 sorceror. Their artwork first threw me off, but after printing it out and taking it in, I've come to like it.

-Jack-in-Irons (CR 21): An extremely powerful fey king, broken and chained, Jack-in-Irons is interesting due to one fact: He fits nicely in with already established fey lore in your game. Due to e.g. Oberon already existing in my game, I can insert him nevertheless, as his portfolio does not conflict with Oberon's. On the downside, though, his AC is low for his CR and his artwork reminded me more of a giant than of a fey. It's still a good artwork, though.

-Kapre (CR 4): A kind of umanoid treant, this creatures make for interesting takes on the Green Man. Their artwork is nice.

-Nightshade Wisp (CR 3): Poisonous, revenge-seeking soldiers associated with the Nightshade plant. Nice artwork.

-Rarog (CR 13): Not actually a fey, but an elemental outsider, this fire/wind-aligned creature nevertheless makes for a great creature to associate e.g. with the scorching Sirocco. The artwork, again, rocks.

-Lean Sidhe (CR 7) & Bean Sidhe (CR 9): Beautiful, alluring emodiments of cathartic moments, the capricious Lean Sidhe may drain mortals of their creativity. Their dark sisters, the Bean Sidhe, born of grief and misery, get completely different abilities. Both share a beautiful artwork, though I would have liked to see a separate one for the Bean Sidhe.

-Spriggan (Cr 1/3): Ugly little creatures who worship Jack-in-Irons, their picture is actually the first picture of a Spriggan in any incarnation of the game I considered creepy. Well done! They come with information to make Spriggan characters yourself.

-Spring-heel Jack (CR 5): Urban, suave swashbucklers, their artwork is cool and could also be used for iconic Elven duelists. As a fan of urban settings, they'll see some use in my campaign.

-Sylph (CR 2): A cute, butterfly-winged fey, Sylphs actually get another great piece of artwork that makes them look not only cute but resolute at the same time.

-Vodnik (CR 3): An ugly little creature that drowns its victims and has some nice additional information (a mini-template) to make a variant bog-troll/vodnik hybrid.

-Yallery (CR 6): An embodiment of apathy and laziness, these urchin-like fey have some interesting abilities: Beggar's Idle lets them increase the duration of spell-like effects by 1d6 rounds on a successful attack. Nice.
After that, we get 2 pages containing both tips for the DM to properly play fey as well as a hook for a campaign centering on the new fey.
The final page features 5 new magic items.

Conclusion:
I've commented a lot on the artwork and rightly so - this book ranks among the most beautiful 3pp-books I've ever seen. Editing and formatting are top-notch and I didn't notice any mistakes. All of the fey are iconic and feature at least one signature ability that makes them stand out. I'm quite frankly at a loss to say anything negative about this book - the only true criticism I can provide is that a printer-friendly version would have been nice to have. Apart from that, I can only say: I want more! I love fey and this book actually gets them, resulting in a 5-star final verdict. Well done!

This product is 27 pages long. Cover, credits and introduction takes up the first 5 pages.

Monsters section. (17 pages)
All have at least one full page devoted to them, a few have more. Each also has artwork.
Dullahan and horse – A headless, whip wielding dark fey. Stats for them, a Dark Mare mount, plus a variation Dullahan Deathknight.

Erkling – evil shadow fey that kindnap bad children. Which is how they make more of themselves. Very creepy and cool monster.

Fachen – A interesting violent fey, with a second set of stats for a sorcerer version.

Jack in Irons – supposedly the first fey and king of the fey.

Kapre – medium sized tree race of fey a little like treants.

Nightshade Wisp – elf like plant race that punishes those that defile the fey realm.

Rarog – fire elemental fey that are not native to the fey realm.

Sidhe – Two kinds lean and bean fey, Both female fey. Both feast on energy, the lean feast on creative energy while the bean on misery. Both act as muses so they can feast.

Spriggan – small savage evil fey, with stats for their use as a PC race.

Spring-Heel Jack – fey that prefer to live in mortal cities. Embodiments of mortal wanton appetites.

Sylph – related to pixies, sprites and brownies. They often like to play tricks and pranks.

Vodnik – evil aquatic fey that may or may not be related to gnomes. Half troll template as they breed with trolls sometimes.

Yallery – small lazy fey that prefer living in cities, terrified of dwarves. They seek to inspire lethargy in others.

GM's section. (2 pages)
With advice on how to play fey and some encounter idea's by level for fey.

Magic Item section (1 page)
In this section there is 5 new magic items.
Boots of Blazing Dervish – can make a wall of fire in a interesting way.
Dullahan Hide Armor – deals with fear, both protecting and causing it.
Sidhe Locket – social skill bonuses and lets the owner break out of enchantments.
Sprigganblood Crudgel – magic club that can at times be a reach weapon
Sylph's Sword – can cause sleep effect.

It finishes with a OGL and back cover. (2 pages)

Closing thoughts. The art work runs from good to top notch in this product. The monsters are interesting. If you are a fan of the dark fey and things like Grimms tales, this product will help bring that feel to your game. If you are looking for that or just some new interesting monsters then I highly recommend this product. The CR ranges from 1/3 to 21, with all but three of them being between 2-10 CR. Only one at 13 CR and one at 21 CR. I would like to see a follow up to this product, perhaps a part 2 with more fey and/or a fluff heavy book about the fey realm and more fluff about the creatures.

I did notice one thing odd that I am not sure if it was done on purpose or not. In the Vodnick section there is looks like there is drops or circles where the text is just a bit blurry, not enough where it is still not easy to read but enough to be very noticable. I am not sure if that is suppose to be drops of water on the page as they are aquatic fey or not. That appears to be the case and I think it was done on purpose but I am honestly not sure.

So whats my rating? Well I couldn't really find anything wrong, but to be fair I am not a huge number cruncher when it comes to stat blocks. As long as it looks like it will play well I am content. But I didn't notice any stat block errors either. My only real complaint is I wish they had had about half a page or more of fluff for each monster, I think that would have turned this from a great product to a fantastic one. So with the top notch art and interesting fey monsters and no real errors to speak of. I am giving it a 4.5 star review.