Homebrew Fey Changeling Species Details

Among all of my children in the Timeless Forests, none are more expressive, more lively, more mischievous, or more dedicated than the Fey Changelings. Their wild hearts are fierce as they guard their groves, but gentle as they tend to the seeds of new life and soothe even the most tumultuous and troubled souls that find themselves in our forests.

—The Winter Queen

 

Fey Changelings can shift their form with a thought. Though capable of deception, and prone to trickery and pranks, most Fey Changelings use this ability to express themselves and to adopt soothing and familiar forms for the souls they tend in the Great Forest of the Winter Queen. 

Rare and Unknown in Mortal Realms

Fey Changelings are rarely found outside of the Feywilds. When they are encountered by other races, they're generally regarded as Elves, or Elven magic users to those that witness their ability to alter their appearance.

Fey Changelings were originally created to serve The Winter Queen as grove guardians in her Great Forest. There they participate in the generation of new life, and serve as shepherds for the departed souls of those who dedicated their lives to the preservation and protection of nature on other planes.

In creating a Fey Changeling adventurer, you must create a backstory that explains how they came to leave The Winter Queens forest. Why has your character chosen to wander the mortal realms?

Masks and Personas

In their true form, Fey Changelings resemble pale Elves, with colorless eyes and silver-white hair. It is rare to see a Fey Changeling in that form, for a typical Fey Changeling changes their shape the way others might change clothes. A casual shape — one created on the spur of the moment, with no depth or history — is called a mask. A mask can be used to express a mood or to serve a specific purpose and then might never be used again. However, many Fey Changelings develop identities that have more depth. They build an identity over time, crafting a persona with a history and beliefs. This focused identity helps a changeling pinpoint a particular skill or emotion. A Fey Changeling adventurer might have personas for many situations, including negotiation, investigation, and combat.

Fey Changeling Names

A Fey Changeling might use a different name for each mask and persona and adopt new names as easily as they change faces. The true name of a Fey Changeling is often known only by The Winter Queen or their bonded partners.

Fey Changeling Children

Fey Changeling children are most often shaped from the seeds of new life that grow in the Great Forest of The Winter Queen, but that is not the only way they can be made. Fey Changelings may choose to bond and mate with other races. In such instances, if their bonded partner is female, the resulting children will match the race and characteristics of the bonded female partner. If they choose to mate with a male, become pregnant, and give birth, the resulting children will be Fey Changelings. The Fey Changeling children created in such a union will bear resemblance in their true form to the bonded male partner, but they will have all of the characteristics of Fey Changelings.

When Fey Changelings choose to bond with another, regardless of whether or not that union produces children, their fierce sense of dedication tends to result in a bonded partnership that lasts until their partner's passing. A Fey Changeling may choose to have many bonded partners over the course of their immortal lives, treasuring each.

 

Fey Changeling Traits

Your changeling character has the following traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2. In addition, one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Age

Although Fey Changelings reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the Fey understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. A Fey Changeling typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and will typically occupy the mortal realms for 750 years. Like all Fey, Fey Changelings are immortal. When they choose to move on, they return to the boundless and timeless forests of the Feywild; there they tend and nurture new life with the wisdom and experience they've accumulated.

Alignment

Fey Changelings love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos; even more so than their Elven cousins. Their shapeshifting nature is often considered the manifestation of their ultimate love of individuality and self-expression. Though capable of deception and imitation, Fey Changelings are far more likely to use their gifts to create truly unique expressions of their current mood. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not.

Size

Your size is Medium. To set your height and weight randomly, start with rolling a size modifier:

Size modifier = 2d10

Height = 4 feet + 6 inch + your size modifier in inches

Weight in pounds = 100 + (1d4 × your size modifier)

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Darkvision

Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, 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.

Keen Senses

You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Trance

Fey Changelings don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Mask of the Wild

You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

Fleet of Foot

Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.

Fey Weapon Training

You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.

Shapechanger

As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including your coloration, hair length, and sex. You can also adjust your height and weight, but not so much that your size changes. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You can’t duplicate the appearance of a creature you’ve never seen, and you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have. Your clothing and equipment aren’t changed by this trait.

You stay in the new form until you use an action to revert to your true form or until you die.

Grove Guardian

You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, and Persuasion.