Like I did with my post on the Blink Dog, this post is based not on current prep, but on a monster I’ve greatly enjoyed from past editions of Pathfinder and of Dungeons & Dragons.
This post is going to focus on the Faerie Dragon, a monster I’ve used as a familiar for spellcasters in Baldur’s Gate and Third Edition games way back when I first started playing TTRPGs.
Stat Spread
Strength is very low.
Dexterity is very high.
Constitution is mediocre.
Intelligence is high.
Wisdom is mediocre.
Charisma is high.
The stats suggest a monster that is not going to enter into a stand up fight with an adventurer. It’s smart enough to know that its tiny size and low strength won’t match with the adventurer. This is a monster that if it must attack, will quickly attack then withdraw. Its spell repertoire and breath weapon assist this quick retreat style as well.
Spellcasting
As an innate spell, Faerie Dragons can cast Invisibility heightened to 4th level, allowing it to make hostile reactions while retaining the benefits of invisibility. While invisible, the Faerie Dragon defaults to being undetected, preventing it from even being targeted by its foes unless they use a seek action to make the Faerie Dragon merely hidden. The hidden status still requires a miss chance on any effects targeting the Faerie Dragon. These benefits cannot be ignored when using the Faerie Dragon in your games.
In addition to it’s innate ability to cast Invisibility, the Faerie Dragon is also a spontaneous arcane caster, with 4 slots it can use to cast grease, illusory object, and sleep. Like with the Faerie Dragon’s invisibility, these spells are all ones that would tend to hamper the ability of a foe to get to the Faerie Dragon and allow it an opportunity to escape instead. Again, this is a monster that is setting up a situation to escape from any threat it might encounter rather than entering into a knock down, drag out fight.
The cantrips available to the Faerie Dragon include dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation, and tanglefoot, which are more of the same trickery to allow it to escape from creatures which threaten it. It also contains the first offensive spell in its repertoire: telekinetic projectile. Telekinetic projectile allows the Faerie Dragon to wield some offensive firepower, but again, the list suggests that actually fighting would not be the first reaction of a Faerie Dragon that was threatened. But it does have something to put up a fight if cornered.
Breath Weapon
The Faerie Dragon doesn’t have a breath weapon that deals a ton of damage like a red dragon or white dragon. What it does have is a poison effect that leaves the victim stupefied, suffering a negative modifier to their Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma and related rolls and DCs, and slowed, losing an action each round.
Wisdom just happens to be the stat connected with the Perception checks required to find the Faerie Dragon when it uses its invisibility.
Faerie Dragon Tactics and Strategy
Strategically, the Faerie Dragon realizes that it is tiny and weak and just wants to get the hell out of dodge before the bigger foe squishes it.
Tactically, I see the Faerie Dragon beginning with its invisibility to try and make a clean get away. If it can’t escape so easily, its next move is to deploy the Breath Weapon to hamper attempts to track it while invisible. If the foes still continue to track it, then sleep or grease get used to allow the faerie dragon to escape.
Using the Faerie Dragon in Your Game
This is not a monster you’re dropping to have your party fight it. Because fighting is not what the faerie dragon is built to do. This is going to be someone’s familiar that got loose and needs chased down. This is an encounter that becomes a puzzle for the party where they try to figure out how to sneak up on the thing that is just going to use every ability in its repertoire to escape from the party. These creatures are intelligent, they speak. They are going to have information that the party needs to chase down and have to figure out how to get the Faerie Dragon to stop running and have a chat with them.
Licensing
This post relies on information from the Pathfinder Second Edition Bestiary, copyright 2019, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Alexander Augunas, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Adam Daigle, Eleanor Ferron, Leo Glass, Thurston Hillman, James Jacobs, Jason Keeley, Lyz Liddell, Ron Lundeen, Robert G. McCreary, Tim Nightengale, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Alex Riggs, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Chris S. Sims, Jeffrey Swank, Jason Tondro, Tonya Woldridge, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.
Used pursuant to the Open Gaming License v 1.0a
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