Feystag

The Feystag is often whispered in woodcutter's tales for their mastery over magic which makes them fearsome opponents.

Description
These creatures can run on all fours and stand erect. Their limbs are clawed, they have coats of dusty brown hair, and antlers rise from their feline-like heads.

Ecology
This creature has a feline head, adorned with a set of frond-branched antlers much like those of a stag. Its coat is dusty brown and its eyes seem to hide an alien intelligence. Though it looks like it can run on all fours, it stands erect on its hind legs.

The feystag, also known to herald as the calygraunt, is a woodland being with an odd mastery over magic. The beast is often whispered of in woodcutters’ tales, in taverns where adventurers and miners gather. The feystag makes its lair only in the deepest woods, caverns, and delvings, where strange magical forces are said to lie.

A feystag is usually a solitary forager (except during mating cycle, when it hunts with its mate). It habitually scouts out new territories, discovering springs, caverns, hiding places, and areas where pitfalls and snares can be set – often a feystag lair is surrounded by traps. The creature hoards magical items, delighted in their use and always trying to acquire more.

A few feystags dwell among humans in remote forest communities. They often bargain with or sell information about items brought to them, or they become sages.

The same creatures that prey on the common deer are also likely to prey on the feystag. Feystags are friendly with korred, centaurs, and satyrs. They prefer to eat plants. particularly mint, certain mosses, and mistletoe.

Combat
The feystag’s ability to control its opponents’ magic items makes it a fearsome opponent. A feystag senses the auras of enchanted items, and it can often identify the type, specific functions, and even "strength" (number of charges, uses, or spells remaining) of a magical item from but a glance. It can gain control of such items, gleefully using them to cause chaos and wreak havoc on unsuspecting creatures.

A feystag prefers to use its powers rather than fight in melee combat. The feystag's two clawed forearms can awkwardly wield one-handed weapons or rake with its claws.

Control Magic Item (Su): A feystag may attempt to take control of a magic item that it has successfully identified, as a standard action at a range 20 feet. A feystag must make a successful Use Magic Device check to gain control of an item. The DC and modifiers for this check are the same as listed under the Identify Magic Item ability, except that the feystag has no automatic +6 competence bonus. If the item is intelligent, the modifier from its highest attribute score is added to the DC for the feystag’s attempt to control it.

Once a feystag has gained control of an item, it controls that item indefinitely. A feystag only loses control of an item if another character bears the item and attempts to wrest control of the item from the feystag in one of various ways. If the item is controlled by a physical means, the bearer need only perform the action that activates the item to cancel the feystag’s control. If the item is controlled by a command word, the bearer must speak the command word to override the feystag’s long-range commands. If the item is activated by will or mental command, the bearer must make an opposed Use Magic Device check (or Charisma check, if the bearer does not have that skill) against the feystag’s Use Magic Device check. If the bearer’s result is higher, the feystag loses its control over the item. If the feystag’s result is higher by more than 5, the bearer must make a successful Will save (DC 12) or suffer from confusion, as the spell, for 1d6 rounds. If the bearer does not gain control, and is not confused, he may make another attempt in the next round. The save DC for the confusion effect is Charisma-based.

A feystag cannot attempt to control any item that it has not first identified. A feystag cannot attempt to control any item that it has tried to control and failed, as well as any item that it has lost control of, for the next 24 hours.

Activate Magic Item (Su): A feystag can activate one magic item per round, as a free action, and can choose from any item within range that it has control of. If a feystag activates an item that can operate continuously for more than one round and does not require concentration to maintain, this item will continue to operate even if the feystag later activates another item or attempts to control another item in subsequent rounds. A feystag must consciously activate the items it controls, as they do not activate automatically.

A feystag can choose exactly how an activated item will function, so long as the same choice is available to anyone able to use the item normally. Effects that are centered on the bearer or that target the bearer (such as winged boots) always effect that individual, not the feystag. For magic items which have effects that must be aimed in a particular direction (such as cones or lines), roll 1d8 and consult the "Missing With a Thrown Weapon" diagram on page 158 of the Player's Handbook. Use the wielder of the item as the targeted square; the effect begins from the indicated direction. For example, if the feystag attempts to activate an elven wizard's wand of cone of cold, roll 1d8 and consult the table. If a "5" is rolled, the cone begins in the top center square.

A feystag cannot attempt to activate an item that requires some sort of physical action to operate, unless it is in possession of the item. This includes anything that needs to be read (such as scrolls), anything that needs to be ingested or applied to a body or object (such as potions and oils), anything that needs to be touched to something or requires that the user touch something while using it, or anything requiring a lever, button, or switch to be manipulated.

Greater Arcane Sight (Sp): A feystag is under the effect of a continuous greater arcane sight effect, as the spell (caster level 13th). Unlike the spell, this power only detects magic items. A feystag sees such magical auras in variations of brightness according to magical strength.

Immunities (Ex): A feystag is immune to all mind-affecting effects (including charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).

Identify Magic Item (Su): A feystag may study a single magic item within a 60-foot range, as a free action once per round, to determine its magical properties. This ability functions like the identify spell, except that it only takes a single round to gain the full effect.

A feystag must make a Use Magic Device check to successfully discover how to activate or control the properties of an item. The DC for this check is 15 for most items (except for those listed under the skill’s description in the Player’s Handbook). A feystag automatically gains a +6 competence bonus on identification attempts. A feystag gains a +2 circumstance bonus to the check if it is actually handling the item, and a gains a +5 circumstance bonus to the check if it has observed the item in use (these do not stack, and only the highest bonus is used). If the feystag has been subject to magical or psionic attack within the last 2 rounds, it suffers a -4 penalty to the check and cannot apply either of the above circumstance bonuses. If the item is a minor artifact, the feystag suffers a –4 penalty to the check, and if the item is a major artifact, the feystag suffers a –10 penalty to the check (these penalties do stack with all other modifiers).

Nondetection (Su): A feystag is under a constant nondetection effect.

Reference
1984 TSR, Inc.

Originally found in Dragon Magazine #89 (“Creature Catalog” as the Calygraunt, September 1984, Ed Greenwood)

The Ruins of Myth Drannor boxed set (1993)

Monstrous Compendium Annual One (1994).