Fey Courtier (Bard Archetype)
(art by Kelly McNee on Artstation)
Of the handful of ancestries that first appeared as race builder examples in Advanced Race Guide, gathlain are perhaps my favorite, being an interesting twist on the classic diminutive winged faerie.
Being true fae does mean that they are one of the few playable ancestries for whom the First World, home of the fae and rough draft of the material plane, is considered a normal place. And with that comes the notion of belonging to one of the many faerie courts of that realm.
Whether or not they are gathlain, some other form of fey, or even a rare mortal resident or visitor, many bards who seek to curry favor of the fae courts learn the secrets of being a true courtier, and with it, many magical secrets (as well as the allyship of many fey).
Of course, taking on such a role isn’t without risks. After all, the fey are powerful and fickle beings, especially the powerful Eldest, the fey demigods that rule over vast realms in the First World.
These courtiers do not necessarily spend all their time in the fey realms, however. Many act as agents for the fey in the Material Plane, or perhaps freewheeling wanderers that received a blessing due to their charm and are occasionally required to show up to parties and entertain.
The ways of the fey courtiers include a handful of new performances. In particular, they can use their performances to inflict curses upon their enemies, particularly those that have harmed nature or insulted the fae. At first, these curses are simply things like traditional curses or causing animals to reject the victim, but later on, they can transform them into small animals, or inflict a curse that slowly turns them into a plant. However, such performance-based curses always come with a stipulation by which the curse may be broken.
They also learn a performance that calls upon not just plants, but the earth and water to come alive and move, animating to fight for the bard.
Beyond such performances, the courtier can venture into the wilds and engage in trade with the fey, their mastery determining how much they can buy, sell, and the upper limits of what the fey might find for them. This might be flavored as them contacting a fey to act on their behalf in the First World to trade for items, or they might slip away to some hidden fey marketplace in either plane. Regardless, the only stipulation is that it must be an area of wilderness where fey can be found, though I’d argue that sufficiently fey-accustomed cities might also suffice.
Finally, these bards have many favors to call upon from the fey. As such, they add natural summoning to their spells cast, with techniques to augment said summonings as well. What’s more, they add a decent set of additional types of fey to their summoning list.
Being able to summon a wider variety of fey (with augmented summoning from the get-go!) is quite nice, and the new performances let you debilitate foes both in combat or for roleplaying reasons are all fun things, and giving up certain performances for them seems pretty fair. However, what will likely interest many players is the ability to buy and sell pretty much anywhere. Obviously the GM should put limits on this. Not every wild location is going to have enough fey to draw upon, or said fey might be hostile. I personally would recommend a build focused on summons, support, and debuff/control with spells from the back (since they lose one of their big debuff performances).
The potential for these courtier characters to interact regularly interact with the fey realms is a gold mine for GMs wanting to take a legs of the main quest, or at least one side quest into the First World. Additionally, they may be the best equipped to actually deal with the fey peacefully. However, they also are the ones that perhaps best know how capricious and dangerous they can be, making even seemingly ironclad pacts and agreements into vapor on a whim.
The Court of the Shining Grotto has been troubled by the disappearances of many of it’s subjects, and the mighty lampad who rules over them has sent one of her most loyal courtiers to recruit a band of heroes to deal with whatever is causing these troubles. The cause is a wormlike horror from the depths of the world called a rorkoun, which may be part of a much larger being.
The iruxi tribes of Longmarch have long been allies of the fey, trading with them and helping maintain their shared territory. As part of this pact, they train some of their own to become courtiers in the fey courts, delighting them with their deep, crooning songs.
Making the mistake of assuming that mortal nobility considered itself beneath fey courtly affairs, the gathlain courtier Ilbiri has been thrown in a cell for their insults and disrespectful attitude. However, it is only a matter of time before the gathlain’s home court learns of this, and trouble begins to stir.