Fey-Touched: All the Best Spell Options for the D&D 5e Feat?

Analysing all the spell options for fey-touched.

How does fey-touched work?

Here’s the full feat listed in the 2024 Player’s Handbook (it works exactly the same for the 2014 version):

“Your exposure to the Feywild’s magic grants you the following benefits.

Ability score increase. Increase your intelligence, wisdom or charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

Fey magic. Choose one level 1 spell from the divination or enchantment school of magic. You always have that spell and the misty step spell prepared. You can cast each of these spells without expending a spell slot. Once you cast either spell 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 spells slots you have of the appropriate level. The spells’ spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat.“

Player’s Handbook 2024 p204

Misty step is a top spell for getting into and out of danger. But you may wonder which other spell to choose and even what options you have. Great questions!

All spells you can take with fey-touched

You can only take divination and enchantment spells with this feat. And they must be level 1 spells. That feels a bit limiting, but fortunately, there are some great options available for you (there are 20 in total, 18 in the Player’s Handbooks and 2 from other sources books).

You can choose from the following spells:

• Animal friendship
• Bane
• Beast bond (Elemental Evil Player’s Companion)
• Bless
• Charm person
• Command
• Compelled duel
• Comprehend languages
• Detect evil and good
• Detect magic
• Detect poison and disease
• Dissonant whispers
• Heroism
• Hex
• Hunter’s mark
• Identify
• Silvery barbs (Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos)
• Sleep
• Speak with animals
• Tasha’s hideous laughter

Just be aware that not all DMs will allow spells outside of the Player’s Handbook.

Which fey-touched spells are best?

There’s no such thing as a single best spell as it largely depends on your play style, character and needs. However, some spells are naturally better than others. So I’ve shared below several really good options to choose from and who might benefit from those spells:

• Hex or Hunter’s mark for enhanced attacks for a whole encounter: Both very similar options that will enhance your damage output every time you make an attack roll. This favours martials making multiple attacks each turn (so increasing the damage output further). You’re best off with a natural spellcaster for repeat castings. This means paladins and rangers are great options (though rangers can grab hunter’s mark anyway). Fighters and monks get the most attacks so will do the most damage with this, but only eldritch knights will get repeat castings. Valor bards, battle smith and armorer artificer could also make decent options with their 2 attacks.
• Silvery barbs for emergency buffs and debuffs: A reaction spell with the potential to turn a hit into a miss can be really useful! Plus you can give an ally advantage too. A really frustrating spell for opponents and works well on any character, especially those that rarely use their reaction.
• Sleep and Tasha’s hideous laughter for incapacitating enemies: If you’d prefer to simply incapacitate your enemies, these spells can work well. Beware that they require concentration so not great for frontline martials that may get battered a bit or for spellcasters wanting to concentrate on something more powerful. You’ll also need a strong spell save DC and target low wisdom enemies.
• Detect magic and speak with animals for out of combat utility: If you’d prefer a bit of out of combat utility, every party should have detect magic available. Speak with animals can be really useful for information gathering. Handily, both these spells can be cast as rituals and aren’t reliant on a strong spellcasting ability (though a high charisma can help with speak with animals). This makes these solid spells for any class, including non-spellcasters.

Who should take fey-touched?

Any character can benefit from fey-touched with misty step being fairly universally useful. There’s also enough variety in level 1 spells to be useful for any class.

Having said that, some classes will gain more from this feat. Spellcasters can repeat cast the extra spells and will be able to perform these spells better.

Characters that want easy teleportation to keep safe, engage in hit and run tactics or to teleport across the battlefield will find this most useful. Classes like monks and rogues can already easily disengage from combat despite the obvious uses for them. Melee bards and artificers might be a good choice as might an eldritch knight, ranger or paladin.

Personally, I really like the idea of grabbing hex for an eldritch knight to enhance your many attacks.

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What do you think of fey-touched and what spells do you plan on choosing for it? Let me know in the comments below.

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