Changeling

Gwendolyn Kestrel (Dragon #304)

A child, born hale and healthy, might suddenly seem weak and sickly a day or two after its birth. In another family with only brown and green eyes, a child grows up to have beautiful violet eyes flecked with gold. Anxious, superstitious parents often view such events with a secret fear: They now harbor a changeling in their home. Sometimes these fears are warranted. Sometimes a human, half-elven, or elven babe is taken by a fey and replaced with a changeling - a child with a touch of fey blood that looks enough like the other race to pass. For example, a seelie court fey might have had a love affair with a lesser fey and the resulting child might look too human to be accepted into the seelie court, a grig might have played a prank, switching several fey and non-fey babies, or the politics of the seelie and unseelie courts might have made a fey fear that its child would be used as a hostage or killed by its rivals.

Changelings represent a viable player character race. As such, they're a way for DMs to introduce diverse fey into the campaign and for players to experience the realm of the faerie. A changeling might seek to find his birth parents, leading to adventures among the fey on the Material Plane or even on the Plane of Faerie. There can be many reasons why a fey would put its child to foster as a changeling.

Physical Description: Changelings are humans born with a touch of fey blood. They look like attractive humans but often have one odd feature such as eyes of two different colors, slightly pointed ears, golden hair, and so on.

Relations: Changelings tend to not fit in and are social outsiders in whatever mortal community they grow up. They're often loners, spending much of their time away from their community. They often find solace in natural environments such as quiet glades, wild moors, or rocky hillsides.

Alignment: Changelings can be of any alignment, though they tend toward neutrality and goodness.

Religion: While changelings often feel a deep spirituality, they don't often conform to the norms and expectations of standard human or elven religions.

Language: A changeling child grows up speaking the languages common to its foster parents, and, if able to frequent natural places, Sylvan.

Names: Changelings bear the names that their foster parents intended for their own child. Often, as the child grows up, a moniker will be added such as a preface of "Odd" or an epithet such as "the Strange" or "the Weird."

Adventurers: Changelings are drawn to careers that allow them to spend most of their time outdoors and in natural settings. They often serve as rangers, guiding folk through dangerous landscapes, or as druids, protecting the land and its creatures. Loners who have no strong connection to their community, changelings are often affected by wanderlust and choose the life of an adventurer.

Changeling Racial Traits

The following abilities are racial traits of changelings.

Sample Changeling: Changeling

Other Races and Monster Races
Races of Faerûn
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