Fey Touched is an intriguing feat that was released with Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Adding a wonderful bit of flavor, some intriguing roleplay options, and a versatile set of benefits, early on this feat is definitely one of the potential winners of the new guide to come out of the new group of 5E feats.
So is Fey Touched any good?
The Fey Touched feat is a surprisingly strong and versatile feat that can do some serious work. Best suited for caster classes, this new 5E feat is generally considered best for warlocks, bards, and monks, however it’s a rock solid choice that can be worked into any class.
Want the full deep dive on this new 5e feat? We’ve got you. One of the most fun feats to come out of Tasha’s, it’s also wonderfully versatile and very underrated when it comes to power level.
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Breaking Down the Fey Touched Feat
Let’s take a look at this versatile and surprisingly effective feat out of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
Directly from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything:
Your exposure to the Feywild’s magic has changed you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20
- You learn the misty step spell and one 1st-level spell of your choice. The 1st-level spell must be from the divination or enchantment school of magic. You can cast each of these spells without expending a spell slot. Once you cast either of these spells in this way, you can’t cast that spell in this way again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast these spells using spell slots you have of the appropriate level. The spells’ spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything p.79-80
There’s a lot to break down here with an undeniably intriguing feat, so let’s get to it!
Benefit #1: Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1 (up to 20)
I LOVE the versatility of this. The fact that you can adjust the stat-boost as you see fit definitely adds a bit extra. Especially for those character builds who have another feat that gives a +1 to a casting stat – already moving a stat block from 19 to 20. In those rare situations where a feat’s ability score would otherwise be wasted, you can just pop the ability boost over to another ability you want boosted.
Keep in mind that regardless of what stat you use for your normal spell casting, the spells learned under this feat are cast using whatever stat you boost here – so be careful not to move a 9 to a 10 or 11 to a 12. You still want mastery over the spells you learn.
Benefit #2: You learn the Misty Step Spell and can cast it once per long rest without expending a spell slot.
Misty Step is one of the most underrated D&D spells in all of 5E. Braden’s Tabaxi Warlock used this spell to incredible effect, and many players who love warlock can tell you how great even a once a day misty step is to save your hide when things turn bad fast.
Multiple players I’ve talked to believe this alone makes it worth taking as a feat for some builds – especially since after the one free use it can also be cast again with appropriate spell slots.
This doesn’t count against prepared spells for classes that have to prepare them, and for classes with limited spell slots and spells to learn (warlock) this is a very intriguing
Benefit #3: You learn one 1st-level spell of your choice from divination or enchantment schools of magic that you can cast without using a spell slot once per long rest.
While this can feel limiting at first, there’s no lack of great spells in the divination and enchantment schools of magic to choose from. Even at level one.
For example, just a few of the spells on the table with this benefit include:
- Bane
- Bless
- Charm Person
- Comprehend Languages
- Detect Magic
- Detect Evil and Good
- Hex
- Hunter’s Mark
- Identify
- Speak with Animals
- Sleep
That’s a ton of utility, some underrated battlefield control, and even some damage dealing to boot. This variety also gives you plenty of useful options from a roleplay perspective, as well.
Benefit #4: You can cast Misty Step or the 1st-level spell you chose with this feat up to three times with the appropriate spell slot level.
Many feats you can cast two spells for free once and then that’s it until a long rest. While that does apply here, the difference is that Misty Step and whatever other spell you choose can still be cast using spell slots you have, as well. At least up to three times. That extra bit of versatility makes a big difference.
Since these don’t have to be prepared with this feat, that makes them “extras” for classes that must prep spells like the wizard and for light spell classes like the warlock, those extra spells available can be super powerful.
Who Should Take the Fey Touched Feat?
Two classes really stick out immediately, although there are plenty of builds for classes in the next section that could definitely make a splash here.
Warlocks stick out immediately. This can work great story-wise depending on your patron or style of warlock. From a mechanical standpoint, misty step is great for any combat based warlock, or warlock caught too close to the front lines who wants to back off and use Eldritch Blast to its full potential. Which between those two styles, should be all warlocks.
Add in an extra spell to a very limited pool on top of the ability to re-cast misty step and this is a feat that fits with a warlock in every way, shape, and form.
Bards are the other obvious choice. Spellcasters who need to be close enough to affect the battlefield, but who don’t want anything to do with an enemy that closes the distance, misty feat as an additional spell is a boon. Considering bane is one of the strongest low level bard spells, if you had a build where this had to be ignored, it’s a chance to pick it back up for the rotation.
Also imagining a bard wandering into the Fey Wild isn’t hard at all. Not to anyone who has ever played, or played with, a bard in 5E.
5th Ed Classes that should always take the Fey Touched Feat
- Bards
- Warlocks
Who Should Consider Taking the 5E Fey Touched Feat?
This section is a bit stranger as there’s a clear “A-Tier” and “B-Tier” of classes that should consider this feat. As some of these classes could easily be moved up a level with some relatively common builds while there are a couple who should still consider it for various reasons, but are closer to the “Never Take” group than the “Strongly Consider.”
So the “A-Tier” among the classes that should look at taking the Fey Touched feat would be:
- Artificers
- Druids
- Fighters
- Monks
- Rangers
- Rogues
- Sorcerers
- Wizards
Not only is misty step an amazing spell that these classes can all use, the spellcasters can use it more than once while also bringing in versatile first level spells that offer some powerful modifiers.
An artificer with hunter’s mark or hex? A surprised ranger who can misty step out of danger and unleash long-range hell? A monk giving bless to his armored frontline comrades before misty stepping into a better location to use his/her mobility to flank the enemy’s most vulnerable? The possibilities here are really remarkable.
These are are classes that can make good work of the extra spell, as well a the use of misty step. For some, like rogue (unless arcane trickster) and monks, this could seem counter-intuitive since they don’t get the benefit of being able to cast the learned spells multiple times.
However, the monk is the melee class that loves mobility yet because of unarmored and lower hit die, they tend to be the melee class that dies the most. Misty Step is HUGE for getting out when things go wrong.
Ditto for the rogue who gets in his/her sneak attack but then is clearly (perhaps magically) spotted and needs to cheeze it out of there.
If you have a DM willing to home rule that a monk’s fists can act as monk weapons then move the monk up to the always take and use hunter’s mark for your other spell. You might lose that bonus action turn one for casting it but after that, an extra d6 for all three or four attacks when using flurry of blows? Yup.
While not as high a priority, Paladins, Clerics, and Fighters should also consider this feat in certain circumstances.
In most parties, these are going to be heavy armored tanks designed to frontline with the barbarians in the party. That makes misty step less useful as a spell unless things go horribly, horribly wrong. At least the way it’s usually used.
But you can teleport 30 feet to any space you see…and that means if the barb, fighter, and cleric have this handled, the paladin can move forward to the enemy caster’s face and deliver some smites.
The feat can still be useful – paladins and clerics have many great spells and getting an extra bless, bane, or hunter’s mark can make a huge difference.
Add in that emergency movement when things are going wrong and you need out now, well it’s not a bad feat to have in the back pocket to make it happen.
Should Fighters Take the Fey Touched Feat?
For Eldritch Fighters my response is “Hell Yes.” In fact, I’d consider moving Eldritch Fighters into the “must take” category. For even the normal fighter – you have extra ability score boosts. Think about the ability to use misty step to bypass a front line and unleash a flurry of attacks on an enemy back row.
Then use your bonus action to cast hunter’s mark and add a d6 to your next four melee attacks (at high levels). That’s a lot of damage. If your concentration survives another round, action surge the next round and add a d6 to your next eight melee attacks and watch the DM weep bitterly.
If you’re an Eldritch fighter that spell can be re-cast when you lose concentration so you just keep attacking with extra damage. That is insane. It’s a unique look at the build, but devastatingly effective.
5E Classes That Should NEVER Take the Fey Touched Feat
Sorry, this just isn’t a feat for barbarians. But they’re already constantly enraged so I doubt this will hurt their feelings too much.
5th Ed classes that should almost never take the Fey Touched Feat:
- Barbarians
Final Feat Grade for 5E Fey Touched
Fey Touched Feat Grade: A
Is the 5E Fey Touched Feat Worth It?
Absolutely. Fey Touched is a powerful feat and while it won’t be right for every class, neither is Sharpshooter or Polearm Master/Sentinel, but all those feats are incredibly powerful. Extremely versatile, working with a wide array of builds, there’s a lot to love about what Fey Touched brings to the table and the sheer number of ways it can be used.
This is one of the most versatile feats yet in all of 5E and in the hands of an experienced player can become entertainingly OP. This is the best type of feat: one that is great mechanically, story-wise, and roleplaying and offers an incredible variety of ways to play it while offering exceptional value.
I have very, very few A grades for feats in all these guides but Fey Touched gets one of them. This is an outstanding feat all the way around and should always be at least considered as a feat choice.
Fey Touched Feat FAQ
Is Fey Touched a good feat?
In a vacuum by itself Fey Touched is one of the best feats in all of 5E D&D. While it won’t be right for every build, it is an extremely versatile feat that includes one of the most underrated spells in the entire game, an additional spell, as well as an ability score improvement. About the only class that can’t find benefit here is the barbarian.
Are Fey Touched spells considered prepared?
Fey touched spells are always considered prepared and ready for use, but they do NOT count against your prepared spells as clerics, druids, paladins, or wizards. In other words, they’re always available in addition to your prepared spells for the day.
What spells can I take with the Fey Touched Feat in 5E?
Divination Spell Choices
- Beast Bond
- Comprehend Languages
- Detect Evil and Good
- Detect Magic
- Detect Poison and Disease
- Gift of Alacrity
- Hunter’s mark
- Identify
- Speak with Animals
Enchantment Spell Choices
- Animal Friendship
- Bane
- Bless
- Charm Person
- Command
- Compelled Duel
- Dissonant Whispers
- Heroism
- Hex
- Hideous Laughter
- Sleep
- Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
Note: These lists can expand with additional books in the future.
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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.