Aerie (4E)

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

Greyhawk for 4E

Phyiscal Qualities

Aeries are tiny fey, small enough to land in a human palm and have tall pointed ears, long thin limbs and a body of heroic proportions. They fly on gossamer wings trailing stardust.

In the wild, they often go naked or dress in garlands of leaves and flowers, but those that live close to other folk tend to mimic their style of clothing, which can often look quite humorous.

Aeries have lifespans comparable to humans.

Playing an Aerie

Concerned with enjoying fun and beauty, aeries are creatures of conflicting drives. Generally stay-at-homes who enjoy the good life, they can be intensely curious when not overtaken by shyness or laziness. Aeries sometimes get attached to larger folk and follow them around, often adopting traits similar to their companion.

Aeries prosper in any place of great natural beauty or that satisfies their curiosity. A few aeries even live in cities, usually as invisible observers. In areas dominated by evil they sometimes maintain small hidden havens of beauty. Aeries love to craft beautiful and intricate things, and can get mesmerized by artful devices.

Aeries prefer to remain out of sight of combat and only fight if their chosen glade or nest is threatened. Even then, their reaction might be to run to larger allies for help. When they do fight, aeries present a brave front and advance with spells and rapiers at the ready.

Adaptable (Su)

An aerie can live in most environments wearing virtually nothing due to its constant endure elements effect.

Spell-Like Abilities

Am aerie can use the following spell-like abilities at will: dancing lights, detect good, detect evil, detect magic, electric jolt, and faerie fire. A aerie can use detect thoughts (DC 12 + Cha bonus), glitterdust (DC 12 + Cha bonus), and dispel magic, once per day each. It uses these spell-like abilities as a level 3 sorcerer.

Skills

Skills: +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. Aeries can use their Dexterity bonus instead of their Strength bonus on Climb, Jump and Swim checks.

Aeries as Familiars

A character with the Improved Familiar feat of at least 7th level and compatible alignment can gain an Aerie as a familiar.

Aeries as Characters

Aerie adventurers are motivated by curiosity and fun. They tend to take adventures less than seriously and seek unusual solutions to problems. They are good choices for players who like to play happy-go-lucky characters and want some magic to carry out their plans. They are also less disruptive as characters than many other fey.

The aerie progresses by abilities and powers, always remaining at one hit dice. As 1 HD creatures, they can elect to take a class level at first level, tough they lose their spell and damage resistance that way.

Racial Traits

• Starting Ability Score Adjustments: –-8 Str, +8 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Cha. Aeries are physically weak but make up for it in other areas. A fully-developed aerie has -8 Strength, +10 Dexterity, +4 Intelligence, +4 Charisma.
• Tiny: As Tiny creatures, aeries gain a +2 size bonus to Armor Class, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, -8 penalty on grapple checks, and a +8 size bonus on Hide checks, but they must use smaller weapons than Medium-size creatures do, and their lifting and carrying limits are half of those of Medium-size characters. Gear scaled to aeries weight 1/10 of normal and have half the normal cost.
• Speed: Aerie land speed is 20 feet.
• Low-Light Vision: Aeries can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Skills: +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. Aeries can use their Dexterity bonus instead of their Strength bonus on Climb, Jump and Swim checks.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Sylvan. Bonus Languages: Auran, Elven, Gnome, Halfling.
• Favored Class: Sorcerer. The best multiclassing choices for an aerie are bard, rogue, scout, and wizard.

Possible alternative

Level	Class level	Special
1st	1	Adaptable, lesser aerie powers 1/day/level, Weapon Finesse
2nd		Fly 30 ft. (good), Dodge, Major aerie powers 1/day, +2 Int
3rd		Fly 60 ft. (perfect). Lesser aerie powers at will, +2 Dex, +2 Cha

Racial Abilties

All of the following are features of the aerie race.

Feats: An aerie receives Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat at 1st level and Dodge at 2nd level. At each class level it gains feats normally according to its hit dice.

Adaptable (Su): An aerie can live in varying environments wearing virtually nothing due to its constant endure elements effect.

Lesser Aerie Powers (Sp): A aerie can use each of the following spell-like abilities once per day per race level: dancing lights, detect chaos, detect good, detect evil, detect law, detect magic, electric jolt, faerie fire, and invisibility (self only). Its caster level for all spell-like abilities is equal to its race level. At level 3, the aerie can use these powers at will.

Major Aerie Powers (Sp): Beginning at 2nd level, a aerie can use detect thoughts (DC 12 + Cha bonus), glitterdust (DC 12 + Cha bonus), and dispel magic, once per day each.

Fay (Aerie) Hit Dice

An Aerie can opt to advance in Fay (Aerie) hit dice instead of by class level. The Fay (Aerie) class has only one level.

Table: Aerie by HD

Level	Hit Dice	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	1d6	+0	+0	+2	+2	DR 5/cold iron, spell resistance 16

Class Features

All of the following are features of the aerie monster class.

Class Skills

The aerie's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Escape artist (Dex), Handle animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at First Level: (6 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the aerie monster class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Aeries are proficient with all simple weapons and with the rapier, but not with armor or shields.

Faerie resistance: An aerie with fay hit dice gains damage resistance 5/cold iron.