Fairy Playable Race Guide for D&D 5e

Mischief and magic. Learn to play as a Fairy with our optimisation guide

What are fairies?

Flying creatures native to the Feywild, Fairies are small, elf-like creatures with natural magical abilities. Their whimsical nature makes them renowned for their trickery and practical jokes.

Fairies in D&D are larger than the stereotypical fairies of popular culture, fitting into the small category of creatures rather than the tiny size designated for pixies and sprites.

Originally introduced as a playable race in Wild Beyond the Witchlight and later republished in Monsters of the Multiverse, playing as a fairy is mainly beneficial for their ability to fly. You can learn about all their features and traits below.

Is a Fairy the right character for me?

Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for a Fairy you might consider the following:

Choose a Fairy if you like…

Flying
Being safe from the action
Having innate spellcasting abilities

A Fairy might not be for you if…

You want to charge headlong into combat
Want to be quite serious
Don’t want to deal with spells

If you think a Fairy isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative flying race, you could consider an Aarakocra or an Owlin.

Racial traits

Ability Scores	+2 to one ability score and +1 to another or +1 to 3 different ability scores
Creature Type	Fey
Size	Small
Lifespan	About 100 years
Speed	30ft (walking and flying)
Languages	Common and 1 other
Traits	Fairy Magic, Flight
Resistances	None
Proficiencies	None
Darkvision	No
Innate Spellcasting	Druidcraft, Faerie Fire, Enlarge/Reduce
Book found in	Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Tactics

Fly to safety: Flight is a fantastic ability. It’s not only great for reaching high up, awkward to reach places, but in combat, it’s a great way to get safe. Grab a bow or some spells and simply fly out of range of enemies and blast away at them. Alternatively, if you’re a rogue, you can use some hit and run tactics by attacking, disengaging and flying out of melee range. Enemies cans till shoot you of course, and beware of being knocked prone, but otherwise, you’re in a much safer place.

Make yourself dextrous: You can’t fly while wearing medium or heavy armor, this means going for light armor (or no armor). With that in mind, I’d opt for a high dexterity build, which tends to work for most ranged characters anyway (ranged weapons use dexterity). You’ll typically want to avoid classes that rely on heavy armor (like a paladin).

Innate spellcasting: The Fairy’s innate spellcasting isn’t amazing, but it’s OK. faerie fire is important for disabling the effects of invisibility and someone should always have an option like this available in the party. Enlarge/reduce has some decent utility. At low levels, an extra d4 damage for a minute isn’t bad but at higher levels, there are better things to do with your actions. Advantage on strength checks could be handy if you have a barbarian that likes to grapple while making yourself tiny can be good for espionage. Unless you fit this criteria though, it has limited appeal. Sadly, druidcraft is so basic that it has little use.

Which classes work well for fairies?

Fairies give you the power of flight as well as a few innate spells. That’s all there is, but flight is a powerful ability and enough of a reason to take a fairy. Faerie fire is a good foil for invisibility and gives advantage while enlarge/reduce can allow you to become tiny which has useful stealth impacts. Growing in size also means your weapon attacks do a little more damage too.

The best use for flight is to stay away from danger so fairies naturally work well as spellcasters and other more vulnerable and ranged classes. Flight is also great out of combat too for scouting and scaling meaning rogues and bards also benefit too. Their innate spells can be complemented with the spell slots of a spellcasting class for extra uses too.

Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Fairy based on how well the ability score increases and racial traits work with each class:

Artificer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐

Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐⭐

Monk ⭐⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐⭐⭐⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for Fairies

Ranged classes and spellcasters are your friends here, though you’ll also want to make sure your innate spells complement your class nicely as well. With the above in mind, I’d recommend the following classes for Fairies:

Artificer
Cleric
Druid
Rogue
Warlock

There’s a bit of a mix here but with each of these classes, you’re going to want to use flight to stay away from danger while you blast ranged weapons and spells at your enemies. Faerie fire will give you advantage on weapon and spell attacks so spells like eldritch blast on a warlock are ideal for Fairies. In combat, this does mean that enlarge/reduce may be used less due to it and faerie fire being concentration spells but it can be used to give a fighter an extra d4 damage on each of their attacks (or reduce an enemy’s damage output, though they do get a save against that so normally works better as a buff.

Artificers can be particularly effective as Fairies as artillerists can use faerie fire to grant advantage to themselves and their artillery. Just don’t take a melee based artificer subclass like the battle smith.

Rogues work a little differently for Fairies, but you can use them in melee to aid in gaining sneak attack, then use disengage as a bonus action and fly our of range. Taking the mobile feat can also save your bonus action if you want to use it on something else like dashing or the help action if you’re a mastermind.

Worst classes for fairies

As fun as it is to play a barbarian fairy, they don’t tend to complement each other well. For a start, flight is little good when you’re going to be in melee combat all the time. On top of this, as a small creature, you normally can’t wield the d12 weapons that make barbarians so deadly. As purely close-combat specialists, monks also fare poorly when paired with fairies, though flight at least gives you a little more manoeuvrability. Most paladins will also struggle to invest enough in dexterity to make light armor a good option, especially when you’ll be relied on to be the party tank.

About Fairies

Appearance

Fairies have an appearance similar to Elves but have a pair of wings on their backs and are much shorter standing about 2-4ft high. While this does make Fairies fairly small, it is larger than they’re usually portrayed in popular culture, though they are able to use their innate spellcasting to shrink even smaller. when needed

All Fairies have certain unique features that differentiate them from others of their kind. This can include features like bird’s wings, multicoloured skin, large ears, a horn on their head (like a unicorn’s) or even a set of insectile legs. The magic that surrounds the Feywild and its denizens can be chaotic in nature meaning Fairies can end up with these unusual features.

Personality

Fairies are joyful, fun and whimsical. They enjoy playing practical jokes at the expense of others, especially mortals and don’t like to take life too seriously. They enjoy crossing over into other planes so they can play their pranks on more unsuspecting victims too. They are not cruel beings though, and in moments of true need, can be known to provide protection and support rather than mockery.

While they may be good-natured folk, Fairies are capable of protecting themselves and their own, utilising the power of flight and innate magical ability to fight others.

How to roleplay as a Fairy

While Fairies can have varying personality types, many fit the whimsical, mischievous nature described above. I’ve popped down some ideas for how to roleplay a typical Fairy below:

Mischief maker: Fairies love practical jokes. Normally, these are harmless enough, but find chances to cause trouble for unsuspecting victims, including your own party.

Free-spirited: Fairies tend to be a carefree bunch. While you likely have things and people you care about, you’ll want that carefree nature to bubble at the top of your personality. Of course, it could simply be a mask for darker feelings and fears.

Eccentric fey nature: Fairies are eccentric creatures and many have eccentric features. Consider what unusual quirks your fairy might have and what odd physical features they might have too.