Fey Wanderer Ranger: D&D 2024 Optimisation Guide

Enact fey fury upon your foes. Or just charm them with your dazzling charisma with his updated ranger subclass.

What is the fey wanderer?

Not all rangers are the lonely, brooding types that skulk around forests and mountains, staying out of sight and out of mind. Some rangers are enigmatic individuals with a cool charisma and a certain mystical charm about them.

Fey wanderers exude these characteristics and more. They are touched by the magic of the fey themselves. This has altered these rangers in both physical and personal attributes, making them more outgoing, magical and even just looking more fey-like.

Unlike stereotypical rangers you might find in the likes of Lord of the Rings, rangers in D&D actually typify a broad range of wandering, wild-living folk. Such individuals don’t just traverse the forests and valleys of Faerun, they travel the astral sea and the various planes of the multiverse. Some such rangers might just have experience in the Feywilds. Many fey wanderers are exactly these types of rangers.

Originally released in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the fey wanderer subclass has been refreshed for D&D 2024. With sweeping changes coming to the ranger class itself, the subclasses naturally needs brand new advice too. And my guide below will go through exactly that, from tactics to build optimisation.

At a glance

Half caster, half martial class
Solid utility class that leans into the exploration elements of the game
Gain more and better spells than other rangers.
Rely on things like the charmed and frightened condition as well as charismatic abilities to manage friend and foe alike

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

Not much has changed, with Tasha’s version of the fey wanderer working fairly well. The only change is that summon fey replaces dispel magic as a prepared spell (but you can also get dispel magic from the standard ranger spell list now anyway).

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Fey wanderer features

Dreadful strikes – Lv3

How it works

Add 1d4 psychic damage to each weapon attack (1d6 at level 11).

Tactics

Your attacks hit just that little bit harder. That’s an average of 2.5 extra damage per turn at 3rd level, 5 at 5th level and 7 at 11th level.
While not a huge amount, it is enough to make you want to be making more weapon attacks than using your action for spells for instance.
It also makes dual wielding a more interesting opportunity, especially if you throw in things like the nick weapon mastery, dual wielding feat and two weapon fighting style (check out my guide on dual wielding to understand how these all interact together). Just be aware that rangers are notorious for having a lot of demands on their bonus action, so perhaps taking the nick mastery and two weapon fighting style is the way to go here to preserve your bonus action.
The main issue you have here is an enemy can only be affected by this extra damage once per turn so if you do want to cause lots of extra psychic damage, you may need to keep switching targets, which isn’t always optimal.

Fey wanderer spells – Lv3

How it works

All of these prepared spells are excellent options and work nicely with a ranger’s capabilities. Some later features enhance what you can do with these spells so I’ll talk tactics for some of these later on. Just be wary of the conflict from trying to use multiple concentration spells making some combinations of spells challenging.

Otherworldly glamour – Lv3

How it works

Gain a bonus to charisma checks equal to your wisdom modifier and gain proficiency in deception, performance or persuasion.

Tactics

Finally, a ranger that can dabble as a party face. You probably won’t be as adept as a bard at this, but adding your wisdom modifier to charisma checks is about as good as being proficient, especially with what should be quite a high wisdom score.
If you’re proficient in charisma skills, it becomes like having expertise in these skills making you incredibly persuasive.
Your main issue will be grabbing enough charisma skills. Fortunately, there’s the skilled origin feat which can give you 3 new skill proficiencies. You can also grab skill expert as a general feat for a proficiency and an expertise.

Beguiling twist – Lv7

How it works

You get advantage on charmed and frightened saving throws. You can also force another creature to take a charmed or frightened saving throw if someone within 120ft of you passes a charmed or frightened saving throw.

Tactics

Notice that you can inflict charmed or frightened on someone whether the successful check was made by a friend or a foe. This means you can actively encourage extra charmed and frightened saving throws on your enemies. You’ve got charm person to accomplish this, but your allies can also join in the fun with their own spells and effects.
If you do combine this with charm person, your extra attempt at charmed isn’t subject to advantage when in combat against the target making it easier to charm an enemy in combat with a level 1 spell.
Your fey summon is capable of inflicting the charmed condition making mirthful a particularly compelling option for your summon to take and give you extra chances at charming.
You’ll want to ensure your wisdom is as high as possible to help this strategy succeed.

Fey reinforcements – Lv11

How it works

You can cast summon fey for free once per long rest. You can also shorten the duration to 1 minute and cast it without having to use your concentration.

Tactics

You only need 1 minute in combat so casting this without concentration is very useful when trying to balance multiple concentration spells (as rangers do).
As mentioned above, mirthful fey summons are particularly effective for a fey wanderer.

Misty wanderer – Lv15

How it works

You can cast misty step for free a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier per long rest. You can also take an ally with you.

Tactics

Use this to help get wounded or vulnerable allies to safety (as well as yourself).
It can also be useful for scaling difficult heights, enabling you to bring someone else up that tall building with you.

Building a fey wanderer

Fey wanderers are a little unique for rangers in the sense that you can lean into the charisma elements of the class as well as combining improved spellcasting and combat abilities. This makes them surprisingly well rounded, but can mean a bit of conflict in how you build them.

Below is an example of a well optimised build, but feel free to lean more heavily into other aspects of a ranger too.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Dexterity: You’ll need this or strength for combat but because you may want to lean into charisma too with a fey wanderer, I’d avoid a strength build unless you plan to ignore the charisma side of things entirely.
Wisdom: The effectiveness of your spells and face skills rely on this so needs to be highly invested in.
Constitution: You’ll need the resilience from this as a martial class. It’ll also help you maintain concentration on certain spells. And you’re likely to be making a lot of concentration saving throws, especially if you’re jumping headlong into melee combat.
Strength: You can opt for a strength build if you want but as mentioned above, you’ll do so to the detriment of charisma when dexterity can easily service you in the combat department. Still, a strength fey wanderer can work if you want.
Charisma: Not your biggest priority as wisdom can compensate for your charisma, but If you want to be absolutely oozing with charm, then investing a bit here is a good idea.

Options to avoid

Intelligence: Of no worth to a ranger.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	10
Dexterity	14	14
Constitution	14	13
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	15	15
Charisma	12	12

Skills

Recommended options

Athletics: Acrobatics will often be better for a ranger with their bigger focus on dexterity, but isn’t an option as standard. Athletics is a decent option though especially for a strength build.
Perception: Crucial skill for a scout and highly used.
Stealth: Used a lot and great for a scout as well as just being great for investigating and bypassing combat.
Insight: A good skill for social situations. You’ll likely want to actually get involved in these as a fey wanderer.
Investigation: Great option for an exploration class.
Deception: Top face skill and with investment in wisdom and charisma, you can become really good at this.
Persuasion: Same situation as deception, though arguably even more important for a party face.

Options to avoid

Survival: It feels like if anyone should have this, it’s a ranger. The problem is it just comes up too rarely to be of much use.
Animal handling: Just comes up too little to recommend.
Nature: Another rarely used skill.
Performance: Your least important face skill and with limitations to the face skills you can grab, I’d just leave this as it doesn’t come up a lot.

Species/race

There are a few things to consider when choosing a species for a fey wanderer:

Resilience: Rangers can mix it as frontline and ranged martials so the tougher you are, the better you’ll be in melee.
Innate spellcasting: As a spellcaster, you can repeat cast spells and have the wisdom to back this up. Fey wanderers tend to be the better of the ranger subclasses for spellcasting so this can be worthwhile leaning into.
Damage dealing: Fey wanderers want to be landing as many attacks as possible to maximise on their dreadful strikes. This means that enhancing their damage output can be even more profitable.
Utility class: Rangers are something of a utility class. Species that can aid this are usually a good option.

Recommended options

Aasimar (2024): Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage increases your hardiness. For celestial revelation, I’d lean on inner radiance for the extra damage. Necrotic shroud can work if you have a decent charisma too and temporary flight is always useful. Expect to use flight for accessing hard to reach places and enemies or to launch projectiles from the safety of the skies. A bit of healing is a decent emergency option too.
Dragonborn (2024): You don’t get much in the way of AoE damage as a ranger, especially with the option of being a frontline martial. This makes a Dragonborn’s breath weapon a useful tool. You can use it in place of one of your attacks too (though you will have to forego one of your dreadful strikes, this is more powerful though). Temporary flight again lets you get to hard to reach enemies. Plus there’s a resistance for better durability.
Dwarf (2024): An extra hit point per level is great for a frontline warrior. And for even more resilience, you have resistance against poison and advantage on saving throws against the poisoned condition.
Goliath (2024): Faster movement makes you even better at traversing the battlefield. Your giant ancestry grants some very useful options too. For a ranger, the durability of the stone giants, knocking enemies prone with hill giant and extra damage from fire giants are all great options.
Gnome (2024): A forest gnome will get you minor illusion (great for stealth and distractions) and speak with animals, useful if you need to speak with any animals. You can repeat cast speak with animals, but can also cast it as a ritual. Gnomish cunning is great for added resilience.
Human (2024): A great option if you want to lean more into the utility aspects of a ranger. An extra skill and feat will help here, while a regular supply of heroic inspiration is always useful. Grabbing skills is particularly important for you as you need to play both scout and face.

Options to avoid

Elf (2024): A skill is useful but fey ancestry is wasted, as are certain spells as you either already get them (like misty step) or damage dealing cantrips won’t work with dreadful strikes. It’s not a terrible option though, and a Wood Elf is probably a decent shout if you do want to play an Elf.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 as the ability score increases previously tied to your race/species are now linked to your background. Remember that you can either choose to increase one of the ability score options from a background by 2 and the other by 1, or you can choose to increase all 3 ability scores by 1.

You also get an origin feat linked to your background too.

Primarily, you want to focus on increasing key ability scores with the associated origin feat being your next priority. As such, I’d suggest the below are your best backgrounds for a fey wanderer:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Acolyte	Intelligence, wisdom, charisma	Magic initiate (cleric)	Insight, religion	Calligrapher’s supplies
Charlatan	Dexterity, constitution, charisma	Skilled	Deception, sleight of hand	Forgery kit
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves’ tools
Entertainer	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Musician	Acrobatics, performance	One musical instrument
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Guide	Dexterity, constitution, wisdom	Magic initiate (druid)	Stealth, survival	Cartographer’s tools
Sage	Constitution, intelligence, wisdom	Magic initiate (wizard)	Arcana, history	Calligrapher’s tools
	Strength, dexterity, wisdom	Tavern brawler	Acrobatics, perception	Navigator’s tools
Soldier	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Savage attacker	Athletics, intimidation	One kind of gaming set
Acolyte	Dexterity, wisdom, charisma	Lucky	Insight, stealth	Thieves’ tools

You’ve got a lot of options for a fey wanderer as your capabilities are pretty broad. Wayfarer is one of your better options with great options for just about any way you want your character to lean. If you’re happy foregoing a wisdom increase, a charlatan could be a great option just for the skilled feat. The other skills you get in deception and sleight of hand are great for a fey wanderer too.

Feats

At 1st level, you can grab an origin feat through your background and from level 4, you can pick up a general feat (or another origin feat if you want) instead of an ability score increase.

General feats are all half feats now as they give an ability score increase and the traits of a feat. But you’ll only get +1 to an ability score rather than the +2 you’d get from increasing your ability score. Make sure you go with a feat with an appropriate ability score increase.

Below are some feats I’d recommend for a fey wanderer:

Origin feats

Alert – Going early in combat is always handy to get some damage in before your enemies do.
Lucky – More ways to be reliable at important rolls is universally beneficial.
Magic initiate – Grab some more spells, including a couple of cantrips. Things like minor illusion and guidance are good for a stealthy, utility class while something like thunderclap and thunderwave are great for melee combat. You should have the wisdom to back these kinds of spells up too.
Musician – A universally great feat for dishing out heroic inspiration. Great for altruistic rangers. Plus you can ensure you have some heroic inspiration available too.
Savage attacker – Decent enough damage dealing feat to make your attacks a little more powerful. You should be attacking most turns so you should get your money’s worth from this feat.
Skilled – You could grab acrobatics over athletics to match your dexterity or sleight of hand to play a backup rogue. Alternatively, lean more heavily into face skills with things like persuasion, intimidation and deception.
Tough – You’re a martial and may be required to take a bit of a beating, even if your preferred place is shooting a bow at the back. This will help here by giving you more HP.

General feats

Actor: This could work if you’re going big on face skills and want to do disguises and impersonations.
Defensive duelist – Better AC at the expense of your reaction is a strong option if you’re wielding a finesse melee weapon.
Great weapon master – Excellent option for a strength build if you just want to deal more damage. You’ll get to land extra attacks occasionally with your bonus action too.
Inspiring leader – Great for granting temporary hit points to the party. Go for the wisdom increase to make this work best.
Mage slayer – Best against mages, but having what is practically legendary resistance is also great.
Sentinel – Good for a melee ranger, especially if you’re fighting with an ally.
Shadow-touched – Invisibility is great for a stealthy class plus you get an extra spell. Make sure you increase your wisdom for this.
Sharpshooter – Great for a primarily ranged ranger.
Skill expert – Great for becoming more of a skill expert. Plus you can get proficiency (and even expertise) in a skill you don’t normally have access to, like sleight of hand. Become the best possible face with expertise in persuasion, then max out your wisdom and charisma for near instant pass persuasion check!
War caster – You’re mainly here for improved concentration (important for maintaining hunter’s mark, summon fey and some of your other spells), which is enough to be honest.

Weapons

The weapons you choose will depend largely on how you want to fight and what weapon mastery properties you want to be using:

Pure damage: Go for two-handed weapons like a greatsword, greataxe, glaive, halberd or maul.
Sword and shield: If you want to go heavier on defense, you’ll need a one handed weapon like a longsword, battleaxe, morningstar or warhammer
Two weapon fighting: If you want to fight with two weapons for the extra offhand attack, you’ll need to use light weapons. Handaxes, shortswords and scimitars are best for this. To make this work best, you’ll want to invest in things like two weapon fighting, dual wielder and/or the nick weapon mastery property. Nick is pretty much essential for this build to free up your bonus action if you do want to dual wield.
Ranged: A longbow is likely your best option here. Crossbows need reloading which is no good once you get an extra attack (unless you take crossbow expert). If you’re strength based, you could go with thrown weapons like a trident or handaxes if you want to dual wield or attack at range with a shield.

If you want some help choosing a weapon mastery property, you can check out my weapon mastery guide to work out how best to utilise these properties.

Armor

If you’re a strength build, go for 14 dexterity and take medium armor like half plate (or a breast plate if you want to be able to sneak around). If you’re going for a dexterity build, go for studded leather.

If you want some extra protection, a shield is a good option but it will diminish your damage output.