Fey are one of the most under-utilized types of monsters in my experience playing fantasy roleplaying games. Fey are horrific, yet fantastic. They are beguilingly grotesque. These dastardly beautiful creatures are showcased in the Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey Realms from Alluria Publishing. This book, written by Matthew Cicci, received honorable mentions in the Best Monster/Adversary and Best Electronic Book categories of the 2010 ENnie Awards.
My first impression from this 27 page e-book is from the artwork, by Vasilis Zikos. There are a couple of really outstanding pieces, including the Sidhe, Fachen, and Erlking (which is also my favorite monster from the book). The second impression is from the graphic design, I really dig the iconography.
The concepts behind the fey presented in the folio are solid and interesting. For instance, the erlking can only be created from mortals, which are kidnapped by and then subjected to a tortuous rite that transmutes the victim into a new erlking. The author does a good job of reflecting the behavior in the stat block by giving the erlking some unique grappling abilities.
Which brings me to my next impression, Clans of the Fey Realms has a multitude of cool special abilities that make these monsters more than your average dry stat block. Most of the stats look appropriate for the Challenge Rating, but there are a few entries that look pretty powerful for their CR (my favorite fey being an example with a permanent darkness aura and superlative grappling skill).
Monster books are the one supplement I’ll buy from outside the systems I play because the concepts presenting can be used damn near everywhere. Fey Folio wins on two fronts, not only does it present some compelling creatures to throw at your players, it also does it in the Patfinder RPG format, which is the game I find myself currently playing the most. Pick it up from RPGNow! While it’s on sale for 5.25.