Feylost 5e
You grew up in the Feywild after disappearing from your home plane as a child. Perhaps you were spirited away by kindly Fey who thought you were destined for great things. Perhaps you stumbled through a Fey crossing by chance during a twilight stroll in the woods. Perhaps you were kidnapped by evil Fey but escaped from their clutches. Whatever the manner of your disappearance, you gradually fell under the Feywild's spell and learned a little about the nature of the mercurial tricksters that dwell there.
When you finally returned to your home plane, you did not come back unchanged. You are haunted by the fact the Feywild-a mirror world hidden behind a mere twist of perception-is only a hair's breadth away. Although your memories of the Feywild grow fainter with each passing day, your heart swells with a mixture of fear and joy at the prospect of one day venturing back to the Plane of Faerie-your home away from home.
Source: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
Tool Proficiencies: One type of musical instrument
Languages: One of your choice of Elvish, Gnomish, Goblin, or Sylvan.
Equipment: A musical instrument (one of your choice), a set of traveler's clothes, three trinkets (each determined by rolling on the Feywild Trinkets table), and a pouch containing 8gp
Features
Fey Mark: You were transformed in some small way by your stay in the Feywild and gained a fey mark, determined by rolling on the Fey Mark table.
Fey Mark Table
| d8 | Fey Mark |
|---|---|
| 1 | Your eyes swirl with iridescent colors. |
| 2 | You have a sweet scent, like that of nectar or honey. |
| 3 | You have long whiskers like those of a cat. |
| 4 | Your ears are covered with soft tufts of fur. |
| 5 | Your skin sparkles in moonlight. |
| 6 | Flowers either bloom or wilt (your choice) in your presence. |
| 7 | Your hair is made of vines or brambles and grows back to normal length within 1 hour of being cut. |
| 8 | You have a tail like that of a dog or another animal. |
Feywild Visitor: Whenever you're sound asleep or in a deep trance during a long rest, a spirit of the Feywild might pay you a visit, if the DM wishes it. Determine the spirit's form by rolling on the Feywild Visitor table. No harm ever comes to you as a result of such visits, which can last for minutes or hours, and you remember each visit when you wake up. Conversations that occur with a visitor can contain any number of things, from messages and insights to nonsense and red herrings, at the DM's discretion. Such conversations are always conducted in a language you can understand, even if the Feywild visitor can't speak that language normally.
Feywild Visitor Table
| d8 | Visitor |
|---|---|
| 1 | Awakened creature (a Beast or an ordinary plant that has had the Awaken spell cast on it) |
| 2 | Centaur |
| 3 | Dryad |
| 4 | Faerie Dragon |
| 5 | Pixie |
| 6 | Satyr |
| 7 | Sprite |
| 8 | Unicorn |
Feywild Connectio: Your mannerisms and knowledge of fey customs are recognized by natives of the Feywild, who see you as one of their own. Because of this, friendly Fey creatures are inclined to come to your aid if you are lost or need help in the Feywild.
Suggested Characteristics
These tables, while optional, are well suited to Feywild-themed adventurers and are ideal for any character who has the Feylost background.
Feylost Personality Traits
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I'm haunted by fey laughter that only I can hear, though I know it's just my mind playing tricks on me. |
| 2 | Like a nomad, I can't settle down in one place for very long. |
| 3 | Good music makes me weep like a baby. |
| 4 | Wherever I go, I try to bring a little of the warmth and tranquility of home with me. |
| 5 | I have never lost my childlike sense of wonder. |
| 6 | When I have a new idea, I get wildly excited about it until I come up with another, better idea. |
| 7 | I live by my own set of weird and wonderful rules. |
| 8 | I can't bring myself to trust most adults. |
Feylost Ideals
| d8 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Friendship. I never leave a friend behind. (Good) |
| 2 | Empathy. No creature should be made to suffer. (Good) |
| 3 | Wanderlust. I prefer to take the less traveled path. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Changeability. Change is good, which is why I live by an ever-changing set of rules. (Chaotic) |
| 5 | Honor. A deal is a deal, and I would never break one. (Lawful) |
| 6 | Rule of Three. Everything in the multiverse happens in threes. I see the "rule of three" everywhere. (Lawful) |
| 7 | Obsession. I won't let go of a grudge. (Evil) |
| 8 | Greed. I will do whatever it takes to get what I want, regardless of the harm it might cause. (Evil) |
Feylost Bonds
| d8 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I would never break my word. |
| 2 | I find magic in all its forms to be compelling. The more magical a place, the more I am drawn to it. |
| 3 | I do what I can to protect the natural world. |
| 4 | A trusted friend is the most important thing in the multiverse to me. |
| 5 | I can't bring myself to harm a Fey creature, either because I consider myself one or because I fear the repercussions. |
| 6 | The Witchlight Carnival feels like home to me. |
| 7 | I'm drawn to the Feywild and long to return there, if only for a short while. |
| 8 | I feel indebted to Mister Witch and Mister Light for giving me a home and a purpose. |
Feylost Flaws
| d8 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I easily lose track of time. My poor sense of time means I'm always late. |
| 2 | I think the whole multiverse is out to get me. |
| 3 | I'm always operating under a tight timeline, and I'm obsessed with keeping everything on schedule. |
| 4 | I'm a kleptomaniac who covets shiny, sparkling treasure. |
| 5 | I'm forgetful. Sometimes I can't remember even the simplest things. |
| 6 | I never give away anything for free and always expect something in return. |
| 7 | I have many vices and tend to indulge them. |
| 8 | I'm always changing my mind-well, almost always. |
Should You Be a Feylost?
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight provides DMs with a whimsical romp through the feywild paired with two backgrounds tied to the environment. Feylost ties your character to the realm of fairies with ample signs of your ancestry showing on your person. If you want a character of any feature that looks more fey, this is the option for you.
Features: Fey Mark, Feywild Visitor, and Feywild Connection
Fey Mark gives you a cute cosmetic element to enhance the feeling of being a little bit fey. It's the easiest way to take any species and convert them into a hybrid animal, with whiskers and an animal tail being fun additions you can staple to anything. Some of these have some utility baked in as well- a tail may not seem like much, but it's an extra limb that can interact with the world. It can trip creatures and knock objects around. Having sparkly skin in the dark helps allies and enemies identify you in the dark, and hair of brambles that quickly regrows can act as a natural resource you use to have a consistent supply of kindling. It’s nothing revolutionary, but all a lot of these come close to the effects of cantrips like Druidcraft.
Feywild Visitor opens up a connection to the Feywild directly through some fairy dream visitors. You can be a conduit for fey communication for a group involved with fey affairs. It isn’t particularly useful in an average campaign but can be integral to some fey-associated stories.
Feywild Connection is the most “mechanical” feature of the trio; it ends up matching the Player’s Handbook options in utility, as it generally summarizes to “people are nice to you if they like you”, which is just how people work. I doubt this ability will regularly change how a fey creature engages with you or the group at all, and probably wasn’t needed here with two other interesting abilities already denoted.
Skills
Deception and Survival serve different goals, but both are regularly usable abilities. Deception is a great social engagement tool that can get people to act a certain way or pull you and your party out of a tricky situation. Survival is the default tracking skill and is one of the primary ways characters have to navigate larger outdoor environments.
The problem I find with these two together is there aren’t a lot of characters that want both a high Charisma to take the reigns during social encounters and a high Wisdom for the group’s world exploration tools. While not perfectly synergistic, access to either and both will work out great for a wide array of Charisma and Wisdom-based characters alike.
Other Proficiencies
One musical instrument is as close to a non-feature as you get, and paired with a bonus language, I’m confident you’re not going to want this option for these proficiencies that likely will never meaningfully contribute to the group’s adventuring success. Flavorfully, I’m a fan; mechanically, I don’t see much value in these.
Equipment
The main notable equipment you start with is three trinkets. I’m a sucker for trinkets- getting three randomly determined from the Feywild Trinkets table tells three stories from your past, or one convoluted and messy story involving all three tying you to the Feywild. They all can act as jumping-off points for the DM to engage your character’s background to the story.
These aren’t powerful, nor likely regularly going to come up, but a blast to get and make stories about.
Bonus Tables
This option is packed with tables; not only do you roll three times on the d100 trinket tables, but you can roll for your Fey Mark, Feywild Visitor, and all personality trait tables you’d expect to see. You have no shortage of options at your disposal when crafting a Feylost.
I don’t love the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws tables, though. “Good music makes me weep like a baby” can go on any character who engages with music. The ideals suffer the most, with only Wanderlust and Rule of Three feeling like Feylost-specific options. The rest are generic “A deal is a deal” and “Nobody should suffer” options that any person could consider from their life circumstances.
It also majorly detracts from my opinion that the other background in the book, the Witchlight Hand, shares a lot of characteristics with these tables.
All Together
Feylost, first and foremost, gives you fun cosmetic alterations to your character. After that, it lacks mechanical power, instead being packed with opportunities for roleplay. In Wild Beyond the Witchlight and other campaigns directly tied to fairies, I think the narrative features have some value. At an average table, this isn’t going to do much beyond making you look the way you want.
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