Homebrew Wee Folk Species Details
"Keep your eyes open as you travel, my friend, and stick to the path. For hiding amongst the trees, streams, and glades of this countryside live the tiniest of Fae, with the greatest of hearts. Diminutive though they may be, you would not wish to risk their ire. Not even on accident."
The Wee Folk are tiny, magical peoples of the planes of Faerie, who have crossed over into our world. They stand barely a foot tall, and resemble diminutive elves. They live in ancient forests, flowering glades, scenic hillsides, or along burbling brooks, and make their homes in the wilds, where they won't be disturbed by members of the other races. They are curious about the big people, but wary of them, and so tend to stay out of sight.
Magical Faerie Folk
The wee folk are possessed of the same unearthly grace and fine features as their larger fey kin, such as the elves, eladrin, and dryads. As such, they are often considered beautiful by humans and members of many other races. These tiny fae vary greatly in appearance, but are generally between 9 and 12 inches in height and weigh less than a pound. Males and females are about the same height, and males are only marginally heavier than females. Their hair and skin colors vary wildly between individuals, and can be anything from the drab browns and whites of other races to vibrant greens and blues of the natural world. Metallic colors are also represented, from skin shades of copper, bronze and bluish-white, to hair and eyes like liquid mercury, silver, or gold.
Ageless Communities
Wee folk live in small communities in houses that they build in and around trees, under hillocks, or near remote streams and lakes within easy reach of food sources such as nuts, berries, fish and small game. Larger races often mistake the homes of these faerie creatures as bird nests, earthen mounds, beaver dams and the like, and thus see nothing remarkable when stumbling across them. But woe to the creature that harms one of these structures, accidentally or otherwise.
Those who anger the little folk may be confronted immediately with anything from a stern talking-to to a swarm of foot-tall warriors seeking justice. Alternatively, their may find their family to be cursed by invisible tricksters for generations, and never know the cause of the grievance. Given the agelessness of these faerie people, these grudges can last for a very long time indeed.
Curious Adventurers
Most wee folk are too cautious to adventure outside of their tiny communities, but some let their more curious natures get the best of them. These tiny faerie explorers usually start out by befriending one or more adventurers. They will turn to these individuals for information, advice, and protection in the strange, and very large, world that they have come to revel in.
Due to their diminutive size, the equipment these folk carry must be specially crafted for them. Whatever equipment they begin the game with is already the appropriate size, but new items, weapons and armor may have to be crafted for them or magically resized.
The Fairy Misnomer
The wee folk are often referred to, especially by the uninitiated, as Faeries or Fairies. However, these terms actually describe every entity from the Fae Realms, including Dryads, Satyrs, Hags, Darklings, and Blink Dogs. The wee folk take no offense to these terms, but they tend to assume the speaker refers to all creatures from Faerie, and not just their small race.
Wee Folk Names
Names are extremely important to the wee folk, as they are to many creatures from the Fae planes, and each individual will have a unique name. However, it is the pronunciation of the name, and not its spelling, which is unique. Thus you could have siblings who both spell their names "Caramel", but one may pronounce that name "Care-a-Mel" and the other might pronounce it "Car-a-Mel", and each name would be considered to be completely different.
While the wee folk maintain the traditions of their faerie ancestors, they will often adopt root names from words used by other civilizations. Thus some names for the people found in our world might be:
Male Names: Aeden, Aphid, Bear, Bim, Blathnat, Blaze, Drake, Firo, Flint, Ginko, Indi, Jarrah, Lake, Lapis, Light, Moonbeam, Moptop, Newt, Ocean, Onyx, Pandora, Persimmon, Pine, Rocky, Scorpia, Smokey, Sneezy, Sunbeam, Timothy, Turnip
Female Names: Amaryllis, Amode, Chickadee, Citron, Coyote, Dahlia, Daylily, Delia, Eli, Eupherbia, Gerania, Hollyann, Jane, Julie, Kelly, Lenora, Liri, Minerva, Mudpie, Olive, Pecan, Plume, Plumeria, Prise, Rill, Salle, Strawberri, Sugar, Summer, Tess
Family Names: Appleroot, Bitternewt, Blackfall, Blueblossom, Briarglade, Broomheart, Cocoafrost, Crystalclove, Elmflower, Fireflight, Flutterdove, Foxdance, Gemsprout, Giggletwirl, Hollyfield, Isleclove, Jesterthistle, Jinglevale, Littlepebbles, Mistydew, Neverbird, Nightleaf, Rainyfield, Shinygourd, Sparklewings, Sweetmuse, Swifttwist, Tigerswirls, Treeberry, Vanillaglow
Subrace
Ancient divides among the wee folk have sculpted them in very different ways, resulting in several main subraces: the gentle pixie, the territorial sprite, and the wingless brownie are the most common. Choose one of the subraces presented below or one from another source.
Wee Folk Traits
Your tiny faerie character has the following racial traits.Ability Score Adjustment
Your Dexterity score is increased by 2, but your Strength score is decreased by 2.
Age
The wee folk reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, but then cease aging, living out the remainder of their lives in youthful exuberance. There are no aged or ancient-looking members of this race, though it is not certain that they are truly immortal.
Alignment
The wee folk are free, fun-loving people who live in harmony with the environment around them. They are typically neutral good, and almost never evil.
Size
Wee folk range from 9 to 12 inches tall and often weigh around a pound. Your size is Tiny.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 10 feet. You have a flying speed of 30 feet.
Keen Senses
You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Magic Resistance
You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Tiny Fey
As a tiny creature, you can effortlessly hide behind nearly everything and are often overlooked by larger folk. Your small hands are perfect for delicate tasks, but your tiny body makes you unfit for feats of strength. You are proficient in the Stealth and Sleight of Hand skills, but make Strength checks at disadvantage. In addition, there are special rules around wielding normal sized weapons. Your DM has the details.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.
Small Body
Due to your tiny size, your body is frail and more vulnerable to damage, but it also acts as something of a boon as you are harder to hit. You lose 2 HP per level, but your base AC is increased by 2.
Brownie
Brownies are small, benign humanoids who may be very distantly related to halflings. Peaceful and friendly, brownies make their homes in the trunks of hollow trees, small earthy burrows, and even under porches and within the crawlspaces of farmhouses. Brownies wear belts lined with pouches and tools for tinkering and foraging their vegetarian food, seldom carrying weapons but able to defend themselves with their innate Fey magic to imbue simple items when needed.
Standing around 2.5 feet tall, brownies are stocky or even plump, usually hairy not unlike a dwarf, but always nimble like an elf. They resemble small stout elves with wild unkempt red, brown or white hair and bright blue or green eyes. Their garments are made from simple fabrics like wool or linen with ornamentation. They normally carry leather pouches and tools for repairing leather, wood, and metal.
Combat: Brownies prefer not to engage in combat, doing so only if threatened or defending others. They prefer to confound and confuse attackers to buy an opportunity to escape, or attack at range preferably hit and run. Since their senses are so keen and reflexes quick their favorite tactic is to run away or play dead, which they are masters of.
Habitat/Society: Brownies live in rural areas, making their homes in small burrows or abandoned buildings. They often live close to or on farms, as they are fascinated by farm life.
Brownies live by harvesting wild fruits and gleaning grain from a farmer’s field. Being honest to the core, a brownie always performs some service in exchange for what is taken. One might milk a farmer’s cows and take only a small amount. Some brownies go so far as to become house brownies. They observe the families in a given area, and if one meets their high moral standards, these brownies secretly enter the household. At night, while the residents are asleep, they perform a variety of helpful tasks; spinning, baking bread, repairing farm implements, keeping foxes out of the hen house, mending clothes, and performing other household tasks. If a thief creeps silently into the house, they will make enough noise to awaken the residents. Watchdogs and domestic animals consider brownies friendly and never attack or even bark at them. All brownies ask in exchange for their labor is a little milk, some bread, and an occasional bit of fruit. Etiquette demands that no notice be taken of them. If the residents boast about the presence of a brownie, the brownie vanishes. Brownies are not greedy, but they may have small hoards of treasure which they have taken from evil monsters or received as gifts from humans. A brownie sometimes leaves his treasure in a location where a good person in need is bound to find it. Strangers and outsiders are constantly watched by the brownies of the community until their motives are established. If the brownies decide that a stranger is harmless, he is left in peace. If not, the brownies will aid it's enemies and prank on or agitate it until the intruder moves on. Brownies know every nook and cranny of the areas where they live, and thus make excellent guides. Adventuring Brownies are very rare, and generally driven by their desire to help the pure of heart or protect the innocent if they do.
Ecology: Brownies are basically vegetarians who live very comfortably on the gleanings of agricultural life. They make efficient use of leftovers that are too small for humans to notice. When brownies glean from fields, they do so after harvest, gathering grains and fruits which might otherwise be wasted.
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 2.
Wingless
You don't have a flying speed, but your walking speed becomes 20 ft.
Darkvision
Brownies have spent countless decades sneaking around in the dark, avoiding the slumbering large folk while searching for items worth salvaging. As such, their eyes have adapted to serve them in the dark in ways their winged cousins cannot. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Speak with Small Beasts
Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts. Brownies love animals and often use hawks, eagles, giant rats, giant badgers, giant weasels, mastiffs and other Small to Medium creatures as mounts.
Extra Language
In addition to Common and Sylvan, you have also picked up one extra language of your choice which is commonly used by the large folk whose homes you share.
Pixie
Resembling diminutive elves with gossamer wings like those of dragonflies or butterflies, bright as the clear dawn and as luminous as the full moonrise, pixies are curious as cats and shy as deer. They like to spy on other creatures and can barely contain their excitement around them. The urge to introduce themselves and strike up a friendship is almost overwhelming; only a pixie’s fear of being captured or attacked stays its hand. Those who wander through a pixie’s glade might never see the creatures, yet hear the occasional giggle, gasp, or sigh.
While the arrival of visitors piques their curiosity, pixies are too shy to reveal themselves at first. They study the visitors from afar to gauge their temperament or play harmless tricks on them to measure their reactions. For example, pixies might tie a dwarf’s boots together, create illusions of strange creatures or treasures, or use dancing lights to lead interlopers astray. If the visitors respond with hostility, the pixies give them a wide berth. If the visitors are good natured, the pixies are likely to be emboldened and more friendly. The fey might even emerge and offer to guide their “guests” along a safe route or invite them to a tiny yet satisfying feast prepared in their honor.
When they do show themselves, pixies array themselves like princes and princesses of the fey, wearing flowing gowns and doublets of silk that sparkle like moonlight on a pond. Some dress in acorns, leaves, bark, and the pelts of tiny woodland beasts. They take great pride in their regalia and beam with joy when they are complimented on their ensembles. When pixies fly visibly, a shower of sparkling dust follows in their wake like the glittering tail of a shooting star.
A mere sprinkle of pixie dust is said to be able to grant the power of flight, confuse a creature hopelessly, or send foes into a magical slumber. Only pixies can use their dust to its full potential, but these fey are constantly sought out by mages and monsters seeking to study or master their power. In the Feywild and on the Material Plane, pixies etch patterns of frost on winter ponds and rouse the buds in springtime. They cause flowers to sparkle with summer dew, and color the leaves with the blazing hues of autumn.
Unlike their fey cousins, the sprites, pixies are opposed to violence. They abhor weapons and would sooner flee than get into a physical altercation with any enemy.
Ability Score Increase
Your charisma score increases by 2.
Opposed to Violence
Unlike other tiny fey, pixies abhor weapons and would sooner flee than get into a physical altercation with any enemy. You can use spells to do damage, but are unable to wield a melee or ranged weapon, even in self defense. In addition, you have a disadvantage on Weapon Attack Rolls should you ever break this code.
Superior Invisibility
You can turn magically invisible until your concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Anything you are wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on your person.
Innate Spellcasting
You can innately cast the following spells, using your Charisma as your spellcasting ability, and requiring only your pixie dust as a component:
- At will: druidcraft, dancing lights
- 1/day each: confusion, detect evil and good, detect thoughts, dispel magic, entangle, fly, plant growth, polymorph, sleep
Sprite
Sprites are aggressive and hardy warriors, who build little villages in the boughs of trees and willing treants, in verdant glades brightened by moss, wild flowers, and toadstools, tucked away in secret groves and shaded glens where wild nature thrives. The sprites allow no trespassers. When intruders are spotted, the sprites lead them astray with ominous rustling from the bushes and distant snapping twigs. Creatures foolish enough to persist in intruding on a sprite’s territory are stung with poisoned arrows and lulled into a senseless sleep. While they slumber, the sprites make good their escape, retreating to an even more secluded area of the forest.
Sprites can sense whether a creature is good or evil by the sound and feeling of its beating heart. Weighing the balance of a creature’s past actions, a sprite can tell whether its heart beats rapidly in love or flags in sorrow, or whether it is darkened by hate or greed. The sprite’s power to perceive the heart always shows the truth, because the heart can’t lie. Because they are judges of the heart and favor good creatures, sprites oppose the will of evil fey and pledge to thwart evil archfey at every turn. If they encounter adventurers on a quest to rid their forest of an evil fey creature or goblinoid menace, they will pledge their support and even come to their aid when the adventurers least expect it.
In their forest domains, sprites brew toxins, unguents, antidotes, and poisons, including the sleep poison with which they coat their arrows. They venture far into the woods to harvest rare flowers, mosses, and fungi, sometimes crossing dangerous territory to do so. If desperate, sprites even steal their ingredients from the gardens of hags. Unlike pixies, sprites rarely indulge in frivolous merriment and fun. They are firm warriors, protectors, and judges, and their stern bent causes other fey to consider them overly dour and serious. However, fey that respect the sprites’ territory find them staunch allies in times of trouble.
Ability Score Increase
As a sprite, your Constitution increases by 1.
Invisibility
You magically turn invisible until you attack or cast a spell, or until your concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment you wear or carry is invisible with you. You can use this action up to 4 times before you must take a long rest.
Heart Sight
The sprite touches a creature and magically knows its current emotional state. If the target fails a Charisma saving throw, the sprite also knows the creature's alignment. Celestials, fiends, and undead automatically fail the saving throw.
Guerrilla Warfare
You are accomplished at ambush tactics and the use of poisons. You gain proficiency with poisoner's kits and you have expertise in the Stealth skill.
Languages
You read, write, and speak the Common, Elvish, and Sylvan languages.
Poisoned Bow
As a sprite, you know that your weapons don't hurt as much as the bigger people's, so you've learned how to take advantage of other tactics to gain an advantage over your foes. You've coated your arrows in a potent toxin that causes your target to seize up, their reactions slowing, and even possibly taking them right out of the fight.
Ranged Weapon Attack: You coat your arrows in poison. Whenever you hit with an attack, the target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. If its saving throw result is 5 or lower, the poisoned target falls unconscious for the same duration, or until it takes damage or another creature takes an action to shake it awake. Because of its smaller size, the arrow deals 1d4 piercing damage. At 6th level, the damage increases to 1d6 and the damage becomes magical to for the purpose of overcoming resistances. At 12th level, it also deals a bonus 4 poison damage on hit.
If a creature saves on the poison effect, it cannot be affected by it again until the start of your next turn.
Sprite's Dagger
Your inability to wield the weapons of the larger races. You have fashioned a weapon of your own devices made of the bark from a tree in the feywild. It deals 2 + your Dex modifier slashing damage, increasing in strength as your level increases. At level 6, the damage increase to 1d4 + your DEX modifier and channels your innate magic for the purpose of overcoming resistances, then 1d6 + your DEX modifier at 12th level.
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