The Book of Knights & Ladies is finally out on PDF! A glorious, glorious day.
Having checked the preview on DTRPG, one detail intrigues me greatly: apparently, among the different nationalities your character can belong to there are faeries.
This sounds... well, it sounds interesting, for once. But it also sounds a bit out of place in a game like this one. According to the Great Pendragon Campaign book, it would seem that all but the very weakest faeries are vastly more powerful than most knights, not to mention beginning knights at that. Isn't there a slight issue of game balance involved in letting a player be an elf?

Then again, it also seems that the faerie "nationality" is the only one that doesn't have a "Luck" chart, so perhaps this is not truly an option for players, but for NPC's. That does sound a lot more sensible from a game balance point of view.

Can anybody elaborate a little on this curious little subject? I will buy the book soon anyway, but I am very curious about this. It stands out.

A humble Stranger

It's mainly for the inevitable character who is the offspring of a mortal and one of the Fair Folk. Assorted scenarios involve encounters with denizens of the Other Side, and romance (or seduction) is always an option in Pendragon. It's not really something I'd allow before the Enchantment Of Britain (circa 514, when the Dolorous Stroke occurs) any more than I'd permit continental characters prior to the height of King Arthur's reign.

Isn't there a slight issue of game balance involved in letting a player be an elf?

I'm not sure. They do get +6 on their stats, so they start with 66 points, instead of 63 for all others (57 for Picts). Thats good, but their racial max on siz and str are 14, which is a huge disadvantage in my eyes; they can only increase these with Glory and with a starting siz of 14 it will take a lot of Glory to make a really good fighter (ie 6d6 damage, 37+ HP). The Church Bell Penalty can really spoil the day for even a good knight. Their greatest advantage in my eyes is that they don't start to age until 45, but, then again, at least half of all PCs die before they reach that age.

I think they could be used, as a one-off, unique character, probably a child of a PC. But make sure all players think it's fair, so that they can't come an whine it I do turn out to have been unbalancing.

I'm not sure. They do get +6 on their stats, so they start with 66 points, instead of 63 for all others (57 for Picts). Thats good, but their racial max on siz and str are 14, which is a huge disadvantage in my eyes; they can only increase these with Glory....


Can a stat be raised beyond the racial max?

Yes. With the bonus you get for every 1000 glory points attained. See KAP5.1 p105.

ahhh... thanks, I have KAP 5 and it states the opposite.

From what I gathered, a player can make a character who is the child of a fairy and a human, but it can't be his first character. I think it also says that playing a half-fairy character is disadvantageous (i.e. only experienced Pendragoners who'd like the challenge of it would be interested).

As far as the Arthurian genre, much of BoK&L was inspired by Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, in which some of King Arthur's knights are half-fairy. During summer phase they get a big directed trait towards Lustful. This was taken directly from the text.

So, they're interesting, but difficult to keep alive, if the GM is a stickler for the rules.

Look at some old Ars Magica suppliment that deals with the faeries, they have very interesting rules.


David Peters

ahhh... thanks, I have KAP 5 and it states the opposite.


KAP 5 is ambiguous, due to poor editing, but the errata for it does clarify that you can use glory to raise stats above maximum.