Feylaar
 This page is needs images. Help plz. |
Feylaars are a race of 4-armed predatory giant apes who inhabit the few remaining forested areas of the Dungeons & Dragons world of Dark Sun. If you're wondering what distinguishes them from the other race of 4-armed killer gorillas in D&D, the answer is simple: psionics. They're amongst the many monsters canonized into Dark Sun in the Monstrous Compendium Dark Sun Appendix II: Terrors Beyond Tyr.
Standing nearly a foot taller than an Athasian elf and with the breadth to match, a feylaar could pass for an ordinary four-armed gorilla, until you spot the mouth full of double-rows of flesh-shredding fangs and grinding teeth that allow them to rapaciously devour flesh. Their pelts are typically a dull gray or black, but the feylaar possess an ability to psionically camouflage themselves, making them virtually invisible thanks to color changing. Their usual method of locomotion is quasi-quadrupedal, hunching over to employ their legs and the knuckles of their lower arms as legs whilst keeping their upper arms free to grasp, tear and rend, but they are capable of standing upright and even moving about as bipeds.
Feylaars are most associated with the Forest Ridge to the west of the Ringing Mountains, though realistically they are probably amongst the many dangers that inhabit the Crescent Forest around the city-state of Gulg. They organize into clans, centered around lifelong monogamous male-female pairings and their young, who depend on the protection of the adults until they reach maturity at the age of 8.
Although Athasians once tried to enslave the feylaar for use as beasts of burden, the practice has been largely abandoned in favor of more pliable beasts, like the baazrag and the drik. Why? Well, not only are feylaar huge, powerful carnivorous apes with four arms, they are also a lot smarter than you'd think - Intelligence 11-12, which actually makes them smarter than the average human! Add to it a bitter hatred of captivity and a deadly arsenal of psychic powers drawn from the fields of psychoportation, psychometabolism and offensive telepathy, and you have an animal that steadfastedly refuses to be domesticated. Even the Sorcerer-Kings eventually decided they were sick of losing beastmasters to the Death Fields of pissed-off feylaars, and nowadays they are only seen in the city-states as fodder for the gladiator pits.
Nobody actually knows where these creatures came from; some believe they were engineered as living weapons cum super soldiers by a now-lost Sorcerer-King, others say they used to be "ordinary" carnivorous apes with an affinity for psionics that used their psychometabolism powers to mutate their now-iconic second set of arms. Maybe they're just girallons who got smarter as the planet grew meaner. Who knows.
Feylaars did not receive a conversion to Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, perhaps because of that whole "girallon with psionics" thing. Weirdly, it was also absent from the list of Athasian monsters converted to Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition in Dungeon Magazine #110 and #111.
Playing Feylaars
The madlads behind "Terrors of Athas", a netbook intended to serve as a Monster Manual for their fan-update of Dark Sun to Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition included rules for playing a feylaar. This isn't as crazy as you might think, since a) Dark Sun already allows you to play Thri-Kreen and Half-Giants, and feylaar are, as already said, easily as smart as any human. This netbook even plays up their intelligence, fleshing out their meagre 2e lore to give them a slightly higher civilization (largely based on oral histories and traditions) and even stating that some actually seek out feylaars for tutelage in psionics without having to attend the Sorcerer-King-controlled academies.
- Ability Score Modifiers: +6 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha
- Large size. –1 penalty to Armor Class, -1 penalty on attack rolls, -4 penalty on Hide checks, +4 bonus on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits double those of Medium characters.
- A feylaar‘s base land speed is 30 feet.
- Darkvision out to 60 feet.
- Racial Hit Dice: A feylaar begins with 7 levels of Monstrous Humanoid, which provide 7d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +7, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +2, Ref +5 and Will +5.
- Racial Skills: A feylaar‘s Monstrous Humanoid levels give it skill points equal to 10 x (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Climb, Craft (any), Jump, Psicraft, Search, Spot and Survival.
- A feylaar‘s Monstrous Humanoid levels give it three feats.
- +3 natural armor bonus.
- A feylaar has a +8 racial bonus on grapple checks.
- Natural Weapons: 4 claws (1d6) and bite (1d8).
- Special Attacks (see above):
- Constrict (Ex): A feylaar deals 1d6+3 points of damage with a successful grapple check.
- Death Field (Ps): This innate psionic power may be used 3 times per day. When activated, the feylaar sacrifices a number of hit points, up to its current total. All creatures within 20 feet must make a successful Fortitude save (DC 12) or suffer negative energy damage equal to the amount of hit points sacrificed by the feylaar. A successful save negates this damage. Death field is the equivalent of a 3rd-level psionic power. The save DC is Charisma-based.
- Improved Grab (Ex): If it successfully strikes with its slam attack, the feylaar may initiate a grapple attempt as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
- Psi-Like Abilities: 3/day – body adjustment (2d12*), chameleon, cloud mind (DC 11), conceal thoughts, ecotoplasmic form, false sensory input (2 targets, DC 12*), id insinuation (3 targets, DC 13*), mindlink (unwilling targets, 2 targets, DC 10*), psionic dimension door, psionic dominate (DC 13*), psychic vampire (DC 13). Manifester level 7th. The save DCs are Charismabased. *Includes augmentation for the feylaar‘s manifester level.
- Automatic Languages: Feylaar. Bonus Languages: Aarakocran, Common, Halfling.
- Favored Class: Psion.
- Level Adjustment: +4.