James Wyatt, in Wizards Presents: Races & Classes:

QuoteWHY FEY AND THE FEYWILD?
Fey have always been a part of D&D that has both proponents and detractors. The detractors have some good points, in my estimation---cute pixies and leprechauns aren't fun opponents, and good-aligned creatures are hard to use in combat-heavy adventures. Yes, people recognize pixies from fairy tales. But D&D is emphatically not the game of fairy-tale fantasy. D&D is a game about slaying horrible monsters, not a game about traipsing off through fairy rings and interacting with the little people.

:raise:

eh, just about everything about 4e is :rolleyes:  to me.  

you didn't waste US$20 on that book, did you?

i will skim a copy of the new stuff when it hits the stores, tho.  you never know when you'll find good fluff to steal!

Nah, didn't buy it. I don't buy ads, thank you very much. :hehe:

I don't understand the problem with the quote either. D&D is good for all kinds of fantasy, but it doesn't fit traditional fairy tales very well.

There are really very very few fae in fairy tales.  Fairy tales, like those collected by the brothers Grimm and Charles Perault were medieval folk tales.  The pixies and sprites owe more to the Victorian period in England.

Take them out of D&D?  Sure, why not?  I can think of a lot of reasons to urinate on 4e, this isn't one of them.

I suppose they're secretly planning to bring them back with much hoopla in a few years and call them Zorbanoogiiii, claiming that they were only called fairies by people who didn't understand what they were and where they came from...

So any creature which you are not principally supposed to go murder for its stuff now has no place in D&D?

RPGPundit

Quote from: James Wyatt, in Wizards Presents: Races & ClassesD&D is emphatically not the game of fairy-tale fantasy. D&D is a game about slaying horrible monsters, not a game about traipsing off through fairy rings and interacting with the little people.

4e Marketing is AWESOME! :haw:

I guess he never played through "Huddle Farm" from Dungeon Magazine #12...

Perhaps these developers are focusing on the pillaging and looting a little too much??? :raise:

Fey are fun opponents. The non evil ones will mess with PCs for fun. They are opponents PCs may not be able to effectively harm and may not want to harm due to fear of retribution from other fey.

The fey can also be a good encounter to flesh out the character and disposition of a PC. Do they get mad and try to kill the sprites? Do the PCs go along with the fey's pranks and take them in stride?

Facing opponents you do not want to kill (for what ever reason), but need to deal with in some way or another, can make for some very interesting scenarios.

Fey are damned annoying.  I like some thinking encounters and oddball stuff in my games, and the pixie that's living in the barn can be a lot more fun than making every peasant 50th level* when disabusing players of the notion they can just trample the peasants.  Even so, there are parts of the AD&D Monster Manual that read like an episode of Smurfs.

*Well except Farmer Apollyon, and the PC who tried to trample him was really being foolish since they'd seen him lifting a full grown bull over the fence before he stepped into the road to challenge their passage.

Quote from: RPGPunditSo any creature which you are not principally supposed to go murder for its stuff now has no place in D&D?

RPGPundit

Bingo! Exactly what made me pause when I read that quote.

Look at the new Dryad for support on that assumption.

Quote from: RPGPunditSo any creature which you are not principally supposed to go murder for its stuff now has no place in D&D?

RPGPundit

There are also PC races.

As others have pointed out, there's a huge difference between (largely Victorian-era) fairytale fantasy and the Fey. However, I contend that pixies - or rather, AD&D-specific pixies - and the like belong to the latter rather than the former, misleading nomenclature notwithstanding.

I mean, just open the 1E AD&D Monster Manual at the Pixie: they come at you in droves when you invade their home turf deep in the wilderness, they slash you to death by daggers while they're invisible, they shoot arrows at you more accurately than a crack elf marksman, they polymorph into terrible monsters and charge into your midst, they use illusions to misdirect the fleeing survivors to run around in circles, and as a final cruel joke they leave the last survivor permanently confused and with an amnesia.

Now tell me, does that sound like something from Alice in Wonderland, or more like something that might be rubbing shoulders with svartálfar and the Tuatha Dé? Look beyond the name and you'll see that these guys are dangerous and dark and otherworldy and fey allright.

Quote from: PseudoephedrineThere are also PC races.

Given what they've been doing to the PC races, I'm not entirely sure encouraging PVP isn't also one of their goals.

Quote from: John MorrowGiven what they've been doing to the PC races, I'm not entirely sure encouraging PVP isn't also one of their goals.

I am not so sure. PCs are far too capricious in nature and unpredictable in combat. They do not make for "fun" opponents.

PCs make the fey look incredibly stable and rational.

QuoteOriginally Posted by James Wyatt, in Wizards Presents: Races & Classes
D&D is emphatically not the game of fairy-tale fantasy. D&D is a game about slaying horrible monsters, not a game about traipsing off through fairy rings and interacting with the little people.

So this is why gnomes are out and halflings have been altered...