I don't believe you go NPC until you run out of refresh, even if you make your Choice.
1. As a Changeling, you only have access to powers that are included in your fae heritage. So no Unseelie Magic for Troll-born and no Inhuman Toughness for Half-Pixies.
The rules disagree with you. Pg. 75 YS
I don't see anything that looks like "becomes an NPC" on that page. However, the page before says "often becoming an NPC as his power costs rise to exceed his refresh", which suggests that the usual rules for crossing the line into NPCdom apply.As Luminous said: YS75 "If taking on another ability reduces your character's refresh to zero or otherwise fulfills all the "musts" of a faerie of the appropriate type, the changeling's Chice is made and he becomes a full faerie, never mortal again, and now fully subject to the will of the Faerie Courts."
I'm also not entirely convinced that no fey have free will. The Wyldfae seem to have some element of it, in that they can choose between Summer and Winter, and Harry scrupulously avoided using compulsions on Toot (Morgan tried to come down on him about it - sure, he was looking for any excuse, but he seemed to think he might have had a case).
The underlined portion means "If you now have all the powers of your fae parent, you are now fully fae (an NPC)."
Fully fae means you don't have free will. You are bound to your nature. If they meant for there to be an option to be fully fae and be a PC, then there would be a Fae template.
Fully fae means you don't have free will. You are bound to your nature. If they meant for there to be an option to be fully fae and be a PC, then there would be a Fae template.
As Luminous said: YS75 "If taking on another ability reduces your character's refresh to zero or otherwise fulfills all the "musts" of a faerie of the appropriate type, the changeling's Chice is made and he becomes a full faerie, never mortal again, and now fully subject to the will of the Faerie Courts."
The underlined portion means "If you now have all the powers of your fae parent, you are now fully fae (an NPC)."
Also, for all the talk about monster characters not having full will and going against the novels themes, White Court Vampires are full monsters that only look (but are not) human, and are explicitly suggested as a PC template for high refresh games. Which makes perfect sense, since Thomas would obviously be a PC. Heck, Mouse is suggested as a possible PC, and he's clearly not human.
Eduardo Penna
If the Choice was meant to make them go NPC, then they would be specifically noted (like the Red Court Infected on page 80).
Keep in mind that most of the fey we see Harry dealing with are those in the upper reaches of power: Mab, Maeve, Leanansidhe. That's some serious refresh cost there. And one changeling we saw go fey became the Summer Lady. There's a lot more leeway at the lower levels - when Morgan is ready to kill Harry in Storm Front for breaking the Fourth Law, the argument is meaningless if Toot doesn't have free will (or something like it).
Last, in the game, the idea of "free will" is a sliding scale. A White Court Virgin in a "Feet in the Water" game who kills using her Emotional Vampire abilities becomes an NPC and loses all of her free will - but the exact same character in a "Chest Deep" game is a viable PC.
Lea has free will or she wouldn't have turned against her nature (as a servant of the Winter Court) to plot against Mab.I personally got the impression that the ritual athame that Cowl gave her had her enchanted and that's why she was plotting against Mab.
Toot and other unaligned fey obviously have free will, or they wouldn't be able to pick and choose sides.
The Knights
can also act in affairs not directly related to
Faerie, making them the primary outlet of the
Faerie Courts for intrigue in the mortal world.
This relative freedom is, of course, enabled
by the fact that Sidhe Knights must be
mortal—i.e., human.
One problem I see as far as playing a Fae goes, is that by being bound by their nature, it would be impossible to refuse a compel that was tied to that nature. As far as gameplay mechanics goes, that tells me that the Fae are just not in the class of things meant for PC's. A mortal with an aspect that says they never lie can buy out of his compels, but a Fae can never do the same, no matter how many fate points the GM gives them.
Keep in mind, though, that when you
buy out of a compel, what you’re really
buying out of is the potential complication
that could arise from what’s proposed.
You’re giving yourself the option of a
response that’s not as dramatic. So you don’t
have to say, “No, my brother doesn’t show
up on my doorstep.” You might say, “Man,
I’ve got a lot going on right now in this
story…look, here’s a fate point, and let’s say
I call an ambulance and just get him to the
hospital.”