School transmutation (polymorph); Level alchemist 3, magus 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a piece of the creature whose form you plan to assume)
EFFECT
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 minute/level (D)
DESCRIPTION
When you cast this spell, you can assume the form of any Small or Medium creature of the fey type. If the form you assume has any of the following abilities, you gain the listed ability: climb 30 feet, fly 30 feet (average maneuverability), swim 30 feet, darkvision 60 feet, low-light vision, and scent. If the form you assume has the aquatic subtype, you gain the aquatic and amphibious subtypes.
Small fey: If the form you take is that of a Small fey, you gain a +2 size bonus to your Dexterity. If the form you take has natural armor, you gain a +1 natural armor bonus.
Medium monstrous fey: If the form you take is that of a Medium fey, you gain a +2 size bonus to your Dexterity. If the form you take has a natural armor bonus, you gain a +2 natural armor bonus.
Fey Form II
School transmutation (polymorph); Level alchemist 4, magus 4, sorcerer/wizard 4
DESCRIPTION
This spell functions as fey form I, except it also allows you to assume the form of a Tiny or Large creature of the fey type. If the form you assume has any of the following abilities, you gain the listed ability: climb 60 feet, fly 60 feet (good maneuverability), swim 60 feet, darkvision 60 feet, icewalking, low-light vision, scent, freeze, grab, leap attack, mimicry, pounce, sound mimicry, speak with sharks, and trip. If the creature has the undersized weapons special quality, you gain that quality.
Tiny fey: If the form you take is that of a Tiny fey, you gain a +4 size bonus to your Dexterity and a –2 penalty to your Strength. If you take a form that has natural armor, you gain a +1 natural armor bonus.
Large fey: If the form you take is that of a Large fey, you gain a +2 size bonus to Strength and a +2 size bonus to your Dexterity. If the form you take has natural armor, you gain a +4 natural armor bonus.
Fey Form III
School transmutation (polymorph); Level alchemist 5, magus 5, sorcerer/wizard 5
DESCRIPTION
This spell functions as fey form II, except it also allows you to assume the form of a Diminutive or Huge creature of the fey type. If the form you assume has any of the following abilities, you gain the listed ability: burrow 30 feet, climb 90 feet, fly 90 feet (good maneuverability), swim 90 feet, all-around vision, blindsense 30 feet, darkvision 60 feet, low-light vision, scent, blood frenzy, cold vigor, constrict, ferocity, freeze, grab, horrific appearance, jet, leap attack, mimicry, natural cunning, overwhelming, poison, pounce, rake, sound mimicry, speak with sharks, trample, trip, and web. If the creature has the undersized weapons special quality, you gain that quality.
Diminutive fey: If the form you take is that of a Diminutive fey, you gain a +6 size bonus to your Dexterity and a –4 penalty to your Strength. If the form you take has natural armor, you gain a +1 natural armor bonus.
Huge fey: If the form you take is that of a Huge fey, you gain a +4 size bonus to your Strength and a –2 penalty to your Dexterity. If the form provides natural armor, you gain a +6 natural armor bonus.
Fey Form IV
School transmutation (polymorph); Level alchemist 6, magus 6, sorcerer/wizard 6
DESCRIPTION
This spell functions as fey form III except it allows you to use more abilities. If the form you assume has any of the following abilities, you gain the listed ability: burrow 60 feet, climb 90 feet, fly 120 feet (good maneuverability), swim 120 feet, blindsense 60 feet, darkvision 90 feet, low-light vision, scent, tremorsense 60 feet, blood frenzy, breath weapon, cold vigor, constrict, ferocity, freeze, grab, horrific appearance, icewalking, jet, leap attack, mimicry, natural cunning, overwhelming, poison, pounce, rake, rend, roar, sound mimicry, speak with sharks, spikes, trample, trip, and web. If the creature has immunity or resistance to any energy types, you gain resistance 20 to those energy types. If the creature has vulnerability to an energy type, you gain that vulnerability. If the creature has immunity to poison, you gain a +8 bonus on saves against poison.
I'm basing the spell on Monstrous Physique. Fey Form is a more beneficial form for dexterity-based fighters. It seems most of the polymorph forms are focused solely on strength-based characters. I wanted to create a spell to create a character with more of a dex focus. I figure turning into Fey is a good way to accomplish this.
You can't get their spell-like abilities or the majority of their supernatural abilities. Do think monstrous physique is a good analogue for a fey form of spells? Or is it too low level?
Physically the fey aren't very powerful. They have a ton of magical abilities. I figure if you can turn into elementals and dragons, I don't see why you couldn't turn into a fey.
Any assistance in spell design or example of a fey form spell would be helpful. [I]Monstrous physique/I] isn't very helpful to a dex-based fighter. I think it would be pretty cool to turn into a little faerie and attack someone like a stinging bee as a Magus.
I like it.
Are any of the special abilities granted by this spell unique to fey, or did you merely copy/paste the Monstrous Physique ability list?
I took the monstrous physique ability list. Fey mostly have supernatural and spell-like abilities. Not sure how to rate them. Most of the polymorph spells grant extraordinary abilities. You do get the dragon breath weapon at high levels which is considered supernatural. I think most of the elemental forms of movement are natural like a bird flying.
I couldn't find where any of the spells gave supernatural or spell-like abilities. I decided not to include them.
I'm not sure the spell is worth the effort if it's merely Monstrous Physique with a couple points of dex thrown on, though. It feels like you should take a page from Undead Anatomy and grant some of the fey abilities, that'd give strength-based characters a reason to consider it as well. As it is, Monstrous Physique isn't terrible for a dex-based character, just not ideal. I'm thinking Fey Form should be the same. it might favor smaller forms and thus favor dex-users, but offer something for non-dexers as well.
Not that I'd be any good at helping rate said abilities. :p
So I thought I'd try and not be lazy and help out, and started looking through fey forms on the pfsrd. First thing that struck me is that most of them have terrible melee attacks, and only a few had extra senses. They also seem to possess none of the extra abilities of monstrous humanoids--so, for instance, having the spell grant "mimicry" is as useful as Monstrous Physique granting Pounce...
In order to have the spell be useful, it would almost have to grant some of the abilities of fey.
I only looked through A-H so far, but here are some of the potential abilities:
All of an ankou’s natural weapons are treated as cold iron for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Cold Touch (Su)
The touch of an asrai is supernaturally cold. All damage dealt from an asrai’s natural attacks is cold damage. This ability is constant, but the asrai can suppress or resume it at will as a free action.
Rage (Su)
Once per day, a baccae in beast form can fly into berserk frenzy. This frenzy lasts for 1 minute (10 rounds). In this rage, she gains temporary bonuses to her ability scores: +4 Strength, +4 Constitution. She likewise gains a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, but takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. A baccae cannot voluntarily end her rage.
Blood Drain (Ex)
A baobhan sith can suck blood from a grappled or helpless opponent; if she establishes or maintains a pin, she deals bite damage and drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Strength damage and 1d4 points of Constitution damage each round.
Allergen Aura (Ex)
A blodeuwedd exudes an aura of pollen and other irritating allergens that forces living creatures within 30 feet to make a DC 18 Fortitude save or become sickened, coughing and sneezing for 1d6 rounds. Creatures who successfully save cannot be affected by the same blodeuwedd’s aura for 24 hours. A blodeuwedd can suppress this aura at Will as a free action. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Wild Empathy (Ex)
This works like the druid’s wild empathy class feature, except a blodeuwedd has a +6 racial bonus on the check. A blodeuwedd with druid levels adds this racial modifier to her wild empathy checks.
Nature's Infusion (Su)
Once per day, while surrounded by any field or fertile plain, a blodeuwedd may infuse herself with borrowed life energy from nearby plants and nutrients in the ground. This ability functions exactly like false life (CL 7th) but lasts only 1 hour.
Poison Use (Ex)
Buckawns never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade. They favor moonseed berries as poison and usually have a plentiful supply readily available.
These small berries are bluish-purple and resemble wild grapes. They are highly poisonous and are often mixed with food or crushed and smeared on a weapon or object.
Moonseed Berries: poison—contact or ingested; save Fort DC 13; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Con; cure 1 save; Price 1,500 gp.
Icewalking (Ex)
A cold rider and any creature it rides can move across icy surfaces without penalty and do not need to make Acrobatics checks to run or charge on ice. They may climb icy surfaces as if under the effects of the spider climb spell.
Poison Skin (Ex)
A creature that strikes a fey giant toad with an unarmed strike or natural weapon exposes itself to the toad's poisonous skin.
Skin—contact; save Fort DC 14; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Wisdom damage; cure 1 save.
Environmental Awareness (Ex)
The very earth speaks to a forgotten one. A forgotten one has the benefits of tremorsense and blindsight within a 100-foot radius. It cannot be flanked or caught flat-footed.
Frosty Grasp (Su)
A frosty chiseler’s natural attacks, as well as any weapons he wields, deal an additional 1d6 points of cold damage.
Frostwalker (Su)
Frosty chiselers take no penalties to movement on ice, no matter how slippery, and cannot be forced to make Acrobatics checks or Reflex saves to avoid falling on icy terrain. They may climb icy surfaces as if under the effect of a spider climb spell.
Weapon Attunement (Su)
Fyrs have a mystical ability to attune themselves with any weapon they wield. A weapon held by a fyr functions as a masterwork item (gaining a +1 bonus to attack rolls) as long as the fyr wields it. This bonus does not stack with the enhancement bonus gained from magical weapons, or the bonus gained from a masterwork weapon. This bonus is included in the statistics block above.
Keen Scent (Ex)
A gray nisp can notice creatures by scent in a 180-foot radius underwater and can detect blood in the water at a range of up to a mile.
Fey Spell Resistance (Ex)
Against fey magic (spells or spell-like abilities used by any fey creature including elves) a grimm’s spell resistance is 28.
Devour (Su)
If a grimm pins a grappled creature, it deals 1d6 points of Strength drain each round the pin is maintained. Each time the grimm drains Strength, it gains a +1 bonus to its Strength score. These bonus points are temporary and the grimm loses them at the rate of 1 per hour.
Poison (Ex)
Claw—Injury; save Fort DC 14; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Dex; cure 2 saves.
Aura of Complacency (Su)
A harvest haunt projects a 100-ft aura that makes all living, non-fey creatures within the area feel complacent. Those affected by the aura must make a DC 17 will save or fall under the effects of a suggestion, that instructs the victim to “Remain inside to eat, drink, and be merry.” Since this is something most people want to do, they often take a -2 penalty on their Will save as per the spell (subject to GM discretion). A creature that saves against this aura is immune to its effects for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma based.
Lashing Tail (Su)
A huldra’s tail slap is a primary attack. In addition, each time a huldra damages a creature with her tail slap, she deals 1d4 points of Charisma damage, causing her target to grow progressively more deformed and ugly with each strike. A DC 15 Fortitude save negates the Charisma damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.
As you can see there are a lot of (Ex) abilities, along with the (Su). I did omit some of the more obviously overpowered ones.
Thanks for compiling the list, Pendragon.
My main problem is they don't have any tiny or dimunitive monstrous humanoids. Thus you cannot get dex bonuses from monstrous humanoids. So the spell is nearly useless for a dex based fighter. Most of the polymorph spells are.
A fey form spell seems ideal for a dex based martial. Fey are very dextrous. They do have weak natrual attacks. I primarily wanted to be able to run into tiny or dimunitive fey gaining the dex-bonus and size bonus to hit as well as flight. Maybe I should focus on a single fey creature to transform into.
Oh, as you know my current character is a dex-based magus as well, so I immediately saw where you were coming from. Personally I am hoping that the Beastiary 4 might contain some additional monstrous humanoids to fill in the gaps in Monstrous Physique, most notably the lack of small and tiny-sized monstrous humanoids, and any at all that possess the pounce ability. Clearly the spells' designers didn't think pounce was too strong to be in granted by the spell line, after all.
I am definitely thinking that a single form would be much easier to balance, that's for sure. You could balance it against the "best" strength-based form from Monstrous Physique and call it a day, rather than worrying about all the myriad potential abilities of fey in general, and their relative power levels.