Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Option: Heroes of the Feywild
Heroes of the Feywild is a supplement for the epic fantasy system Dungeons & Dragons written by Rodney Thompson, Claudio Pozas, and Steve Townsend and published by Wizards of the Coast.
By Aaron T. Huss
Heroes of the Feywild is the second Player’s Option book for Dungeons & Dragons providing a host of new character options during creation and advancement. The focus is the highly magical feywild and the host of beings that dwell within or trace their histories to it. Everything is focused on providing new options for the players while creating adventure seeds and setting information for the Dungeon Master. I will state quite plainly that, so far, these Player’s Option books are the best companions to the Player’s Handbooks. After reading the book and seeing the additional amount of source content, they become even more valuable to the player that likes to create a fully fleshed-out character.
INTO THE BRIGHT
Into the Bright is the introduction and description of the Feywild including a map of the area. This is where you learn what the Feywild truly is, how the different areas came to be, and a detailed look at the races within. You learn about the mysterious, magical ways of the Feywild and how dangers lurk around every corner. You learn how the Feywild interacts with the mortal realm and what life is like along the borders. It also details the major locations such as the Eladrin cities, Isle of Dread, and the Goblin kingdom. This is the character’s guide to navigating through the Feywild, pointing out where to go and where to stay away from. This is the source content that players can use to further flesh out their characters and build upon their backgrounds.
RACES OF THE FEY
Races of the Fey fully defines, describes, and details three new Fey races for character creation: Hamadryad, Pixie, Satyr. Each one includes all applicable racial bonuses and skills along with any new powers or abilities. These new races are unique and role-playing a pixie would be quite interesting.
CLASSES
Classes adds fully defines, describes, and details four new sub-classes representing character types that would be found in the Feywild: Barbarian (Berserker), Bard (Skald), Druid (Protector), and Wizard (Witch). The berserker sub-class is an over-the-top version of barbarians who are prone to rage and thus going berserk. Skald’s are the ultimate storytellers in charge of keeping a society, race, or whatever’s history in tact and well-known by committing everything to memory and sharing the stories with others through song. Protector’s are druids dedicated to protecting the wilderness, true masters of nature’s magic. Witches are pretty obvious, they are the oldest type of magic user and gain their powers through a familiar.
CHARACTER OPTIONS
Character Options contains a host of new options for character creation and advancement including: backgrounds, paragon paths, epic destinies, feats, gear, and magic items. The four backgrounds symbolize Fey characters with stronger ties to the Feywild. Four new paragon paths and three epic destinies are introduced to coincide with the new sub-classes. There are plenty of feats to go along with the new sub-classes and races along with a collection of new, Feywild gear and magic items to further round out your character.
BUILD YOUR STORY
Build Your Story is a new method of creating backgrounds for characters. Throughout Heroes of the Feywild, there are text boxes with different stories in the fashion of “Once upon a time…” told by a bard. The theme follows the entire book that the Feywild is about making stories and how they become real, no matter how ridiculous they might seem. Build Your Story allows you to create your own background through a series of given events throughout the Feywild that leads to your characters delve into an adventuring career. Using this method not only fleshes out a characters upbringing but also provides skills that pertain to your character’s story (replacing the skills defined by their class). Throughout this process, players assign their character’s abilities to define the results of each portion of the story. This process is a very interactive way of performing character creation and developing 3-dimensional characters.
OVERALL
Heroes of the Feywild is an excellent book for those looking for more character options. Almost all aspects of character options are included with a flavor unique to the Feywild. You can even use it on its own, although the choice of character races is lacking in that regard as there’s only 3. If you are a player and love making unique characters, this book will not let you down.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 10 out of 10
Wizards of the Coast makes very good looking books. Some previous products have exhibited little things here and there that was less-than-desirable such as use of white space and lack of source material to support races and classes. The Player’s Option line of books dispels of those little items by focusing more and expanding upon fewer options. Yes this would make core rulebooks really long, but for sourcebooks it’s very valuable. Heroes of the Feywild not only contains the regular selection of excellent art, well-designed formatting, and easy-to-use layout, it also contains source material for creating 3-dimensional characters. This book radiates quality.
Mechanics: 10 out of 10
Heroes of the Feywild is filled with mechanics. There are new races, sub-classes, backgrounds, feats, spells, and equipment. Everything is meant to represent adventurers coming from the Feywild. Backing up these mechanics is some great source material so that it all makes sense, or at least it’s easier to connect the new options with the Feywild. Possibly the best new mechanics are the sub-classes that tie the races and classes from the core rulebooks to Heroes of the Feywild and the additional options for creating characters from the Feywild.
Value Add: 9 out of 10
For those wishing to create unique characters from the Feywild, this book is designed for you. However, it has a slight drawback in that everything is designed for characters from (or near) the Feywild and their highly, odd “design”. It doesn’t touch base on more traditional characters and classes and how to make them unique (such as flavoring your basic elven ranger). Other than that, every mechanic in Heroes of the Feywild are valuable as they allow further mixing and matching of races, classes (sub-classes), backgrounds, and feats. In addition to the valuable mechanics, you get lots of valuable source content and an entire chapter about creating your own background to design your character the way you want your “Once upon a time” story to be told. You could probably use at least one new mechanic or content piece from this book with every character you create that is somehow tied to the Feywild.
Overall: 10 out of 10
Before considering if this book is for you, consider how focused its purpose is. Heroes of the Feywild is designed to offer new character creation and advancement options along with providing source material for fleshing out your characters background and personality. It also only pertains to those living in or near or with racial ties to the Feywild. Considering that, this book is an excellent addition to your Dungeons & Dragons library. Just the sub-classes which can be used outside of Feywild characters make it useful for all players during character creation and advancement. These Player’s Option books are fantastic additions to a player’s library.
