Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.

We’ve heard a bit about fomorians back when we discussed cyclopes, and now we finally arrive at their own entry. I believe fomorians appeared in 3.x, and might date from earlier, but their lore for 4e is mostly new.

They appear only in the Monster Manual - the Monster Vault nas no F monsters at all. I believe this is a major missed opportunity on their part, since 4e fomorians are super awesome. If I had to pick a list of “essential” 4e monsters I would definitely have picked fomorians over, say, duergar or ropers.

The Lore

Creatures native to the Feywild are often more fantastical reflections of those from the world or other places. That doesn’t just apply to animals, either. The Fomorians arose as fey reflections of the Titans, those mighty creations of the primordials.

Fomorians are Titan-sized, with purple-gray skin and a horribly deformed countenance. They see themselves as the most important beings in the universe, and so pay homage to no god or primordial. They live in the Feywild’s version of the Underdark, inside huge caves lit by glowing crystals and filled with subterranean ecosystems.

In the center of these caves are majestic castles and fortresses, where the fomorians dwell surrounded by all sorts of finery. A fomorian’s clothing and equipment is always masterfully crafted, in stark contrast to the ugliness of their bodies and hearts. All of this is built by the cyclopes they enslaved eons ago.

Every fomorian has the Evil Eye: one of their eyes is much larger than the other, and its stare can cause all sorts of unpleasantness to their enemies. Rumor has it the Evil Eye is a gift of Gruumsh to allow them to inflict more pain upon Corellon’s creations, but no one knows if that’s really true. Fomorians don’t like Gruumsh any more than they like any other deity.

The Numbers

Fomorians are Huge Fey Humanoids with the Giant keyword, and their power level is indeed comparable to that of a Titan - mid-Paragon to early-Epic elites. Their signature traits are trained Perception, Truesight 6, and an Evil Eye ability that does something different for every variety of fomorian, usually complementing its other abilities. They are typically Evil.

We get two stat blocks in the MM. There are more on the MM2.

Fomorian Warrior

A Level 17 Elite Soldier with 332 HP, this fomorian wears hide armor and fights with a mace. Its basic attack has Reach 3, and deals a good chunk of extra damage against immobilized creatures. Its Evil Eye (minor action; Ranged 5 vs. Will) immobilizes (save ends), giving you an obvious combo.

Updating the fomorian warrior to MV standards would involve fixing the damage, and likely making the basic mace attack mark for a turn as an effect and giving it a reaction mace attack against people who ignore the mark.

Fomorian Painbringer

This spellcaster is a Level 19 Elite Controller with 362 HP. It wears hide and fights with a flail, with a Reach 3 basic attack.

Its Evil Eye (minor action; Ranged 5 vs. Will) makes the target take a goodly amount of automatic damage whenever it damages the fomorian. This lasts until the fomorian uses the ability against someone else. As a separate ability, the painbringer also gains +2 to all attacks made against the victim of its evil eye.

Its other abilities are Funnel Pain (Ranged 8 vs. Will), which does physical damage; and Painful Visions (Close Burst 4 vs. Will), which dazes all affected targets (save ends). That last one is an encounter power, but the others are at-will.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

The sample encounter is level 19: a warrior, a painbringer, and four assorted cyclops slaves. The book also says you can find all sorts of evil underground fey in their domain, as well as visiting dignitaries from the drow or other similarly inclined people.

The two stat blocks we get here seem a little underwhelming to me, given the lore, but they do their jobs relatively well. We get a much more varied selection of fomorians when we hit the MM2.