Fey Teleportation is a very interesting feat introduced to 5E D&D via the racial feats guide in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Adding in some magic from the Fey realm, High Elves reconnect with their Fey ancestry through intense study, finding a deep connection that reveals itself through magical properties.
Fey teleportation is a 5E racial feat for High Elves that gives them a +1 boost to their intelligence, the Misty Step spell with one free cast per day, and the ability to learn to read/write/speak Sylvan.
This was actually quite a strong feat when it came out, but it’s since been replaced by the feat it inspired: Fey Touched. Let’s still take a look at this feat, what it offered when it came out, and why it was replaced in the minds of most players.
Breaking Down the Fey Teleportation Racial Feat
Let’s take a loot at this lineage-based feat designed for High Elves and what it brings to the table.
Directly from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything:
Prerequisite: Elf (high)
Your study of high elven lore has unlocked fey power that few other elves possess, except your eladrin cousins. Drawing on your fey ancestry, you can momentarily stride through the Feywild to shorten your path from one place to another. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Intelligence or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You learn to speak, read, and write Sylvan.
- You learn the misty step spell and can cast it once without expending a spell slot. You regain the ability to cast it in this way when you finish a short or long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, p. 74
Let’s break down these benefits in more detail to see
Benefit #1: Increase your Intelligence or Charisma by 1, up to a maximum of 20.
A basic +1 half feat. This mitigates some of the loss from taking a feat over a +2 ability score increase or a +1/+1 ability score increase, but doesn’t make for a good feat in and of itself.
Benefit #2: You learn to read, write, and speak the Sylvan language.
Cool little flavor bonus. Reads well, fits with D&D lore, and languages can be useful, but it’s limited as a feat benefit because there are so many ways in-game to learn more languages in 5E.
Benefit #3: You learn the Misty Step spell and can cast it once for free without expending a spell slot once per long rest and can cast it more using appropriate spell slots. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for the spell.
Misty Step is an amazing spell and to be able to cast it once for free per long rest is just amazing. This spell can help you redefine the battlefield, escape what is rapidly becoming a TPK, or help you get out of a bad situation and reset yourself in a better spot for battle. The fact you can also cast this spell using an appropriate spell slot, and this spell doesn’t count against your spell limits is fantastic.
This alone could make for a good feat but when combined with the +1 stat, that then makes this a really good feat, or at least it did until it was replaced.
How Good Is Fey Teleportation?
When it was released, Fey Teleportation was an excellent racial feat and one that it made sense for an elf to take prior to the release of Tasha’s. In a vacuum, this feat is pretty great. The problem is that D&D items, feats, and classes don’t exist in in a vacuum, they have to be compared to the other options in 5th edition!
And this is why Fey Teleportation would have been an incredibly powerful feat when first released, and on paper it still is, but let’s compare it to the Fey Touched that was obviously inspired by Fey Teleportation.
| Fey Teleportation (Xanathar’s) | Fey Touched (Tasha’s) |
|---|---|
| Increase your INT or CHA by +1 | Increase your INT, CHA, or WIS by +1 |
| Learn Misty Step spell, can cast once per long rest without expending spell slot, INT must be the spell casting modifier. | Learn the Misty Step spell, can cast once per long rest without expending the spell lot, the spellcasting ability is the Ability Score increased by the player with this feat. |
| Learn to read and write Sylvan language. | Learn an additional 1st-Level spell from enchantment or divination style of spell and cast once per long rest without expending a spell slot. This spell, like Misty Step, can also be cast more using available spell slots. |
| Only available to High Elves. | Available to all player character builds. |
More versatility in choosing stats, not being tied to Intelligence for casting, and learning an additional spell instead of learning a language that will almost never be used?
Once Tasha’s came out, Fey Teleportation was all but replaced by Fey Touched. For a sports reference, it’s like a Pro Bowl quarterback getting injured and losing his job to a future Hall of Famer. So a Drew Bledsoe-Tom Brady or Don Majkowski-Brett Favre scenario.
Fey Teleportation was great when it came out, and in a vacuum it’s still good but looking above when we compare the two it’s obvious who the clear winner is.
Who Should Take Fey Teleportation?
- Probably no one at a table using Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything as one of the core rule books
Back in the day, High Elf Wizards, Warlocks, Bards, or Sorcerers would get the most out of this feat, and it would be a useful addition before the party headed into the Fey Wild for a mission…presumably being forced to do so after having no other choice.
In modern games, it’s a relic of early 5th Ed.
Final Thoughts for 5E Fey Teleportation Feat
When Xanathar’s first came out, Fey Teleportation was an outstanding option, but very limited because it was not just only for elves but just one sub-race of elves, the High Elf. That said, it’s clear that this feat helped inspire the more widely accessible, more versatile, and just better overall. While I love the languages of D&D, reading and writing Sylvan does not make up for one less spell known, one less free cast of that spell, a more versatile +1 ability score, and not being stuck with Intelligence as a casting score when you’re not a wizard or artificer.
So in other words, with the new feats from Tasha’s, it just doesn’t make sense to ever choose this feat. Even if you were a High Elf Wizard…why not take the free cast of another spell that doesn’t count against prepared spells?
Fey Touched is one of my favorite feats, and I’m happy Fey Teleportation paved the way for it, but as for Fey Teleportation itself, it’s unfortunately past it’s prime for a practical choice for a feat.
Fey Teleportation Feat FAQ
Is Fey Teleportation the same as Fey Touched?
No. These feats are very similar and it’s clear that this one was the inspiration for Fey Touched, which came out later, but they’re not the same. They are so similar with some main points that it never really makes sense to take Fey Teleportation anymore.
Can I take Fey Teleportation and Fey Touched?
As long as you’re playing a High Elf character you can, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. It would be basically wasting one feat or ability score increase.
Is there any reason to take Fey Teleportation anymore?
Unless the DM doesn’t allow Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, not really. Fey Touched has pretty thoroughly replaced what this original racial feat had to offer players.
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Proud to embrace the locally created moniker of “Corrupt Overlord” from one of the all time great Lords of Waterdeep runs, Shane is one member of the Assorted Meeples crew and will be hard at work creating awesome content for the website. He is a long-time player of board games, one time semi-professional poker player, and tends to run to the quirky or RPG side of things when it comes to playing video games. He loves tabletop roleplaying systems like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Werewolf, Fate, and others, and not only has been a player but has run games as DM for years. You can find his other work in publications like Level Skip or Hobby Lark.