Published on November 3, 2022, Last modified on November 4th, 2022
High elves are fairly ubiquitous across Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, which makes their race specific feat, Fey Teleportation, an interesting choice for characters looking for more movement options (and poise)
Mila Pesic - Wizards of the Coast - Faerie Guidemother
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What Is Fey Teleportation 5e?
With the release of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, we saw the first batch of feats designed for specific races. These feats offer a better glimpse of how these fantasy races operate, but are they good?
We’ll be covering the Fey Teleportation feat today, which is the racial feat for high elves. Let’s dig in!
How Does Fey Teleportation Work?
You can pick up this special racial feat as long as you’re a High Elf. With it, you get three benefits:
You increase your INT or CHA by 1 to a max of 20.
You learn the misty step spell and can cast it once between rests without needing to use a spell slot.
You also learn the Sylvan language, meaning you can speak, write, and read it.
Is Fey Teleportation Good?
In our 5e Feats Tier List, Fey Teleportation was given a B Tier rating, making it a niche feat that can improve some builds in D&D 5e.
Misty Step is a fantastic spell. If your spell list doesn’t have it, this is a solid way to get it. Builds that will particularly love this are Bards, Paladins, and Artificers. All classes that don’t innately have access to Misty Step but will benefit from the +1 to CHA or INT should consider Fey Teleportation.
If you are interested in this feat Fey Touched (A Tier) is a better version, if you don’t care about learning Sylvan.
Fey Teleportation 5e Interactions
While most feats can bring up some interesting scenarios, Fey Teleportation doesn’t. The only strange interaction I could find is that wizards cannot copy this spell into their spellbook because it isn’t in written form. However, other caster classes can use it all they want.
Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Fey Teleportation?
The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Fey Teleportation 5e feat is for a specific class/subclass.
Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
Orange Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
Green is a good option
Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized
Fey Teleportation is best on builds that:
Want or need evasion.
Need half an ASI for their builds.
Don’t want to get the Fey Touched feat.
Already benefit from the High Elf racial bonuses.
Fey Teleportation is in direct competition with Fey Touched, one of the best feats in 5e. The distinction is that Teleportation locks you into playing as a High Elf, meaning you’ll need to capitalize on the +2 DEX/+1 INT. This mostly leaves it to casting classes or half-casters that use INT as a spellcasting stat.
The most significant determining factor for this is purely up to how many short rests you have on a given adventuring day. Because Fey Teleportation recharges on short and long rests, you can theoretically get several free casts per day. However, if you typically only take long rests, it will be much worse.
Artificer: Moving around the battlefield is excellent, and extra INT is always good. I would argue that this is better on Battle Smith and Armorer so they can move around in fights more easily.
Barbarian: Neither of these stats benefits you, but a free misty step isn’t awful. However, in the grand scheme of things, you’re better off with an offensive feat like Great Weapon Master.
Bard: Getting extra CHA is great for bars, but there are better feats out there. If you really want to get misty step, I would suggest picking up the Fey Touched feat instead, as you can get two spells in one feat.
Cleric: Clerics can always use some extra CHA, but they aren’t usually known for needing to be highly mobile. For some melee-focused subclasses, you might get a little extra mileage. But, in most cases, Fey Touched does the same thing and more.
Druid: Neither of these stats increases really synergize with druids, which makes this a hard feat to recommend. Wild Shaped druids can’t cast spells, and spellcasting druids don’t really need the added mobility, so look elsewhere for a feat to improve your druid build.
Fighter: Neither of these stats work for most fighters. However, Eldritch Knights get a pass, as they can use the INT. However, they should probably look at Fey Touched for more spells instead. It gives them more spell options, and they can cast misty step with spell slots.
Monk: Both of these stats do nothing for monks. I’d also argue that monks are already mobile enough not to need misty step, so I’d pass on this feat. Grabbing something like Crusher or Mobile would go a long way in damage or mobility, far past just one spell per day from this feat.
Paladin: A couple of subclasses already get access to misty step, making this feat useless for them. As far as the other Oaths go, this isn’t a bad feat, but I still feel that Fey Touched does everything this does and more.
Ranger: Some subclasses already get misty step, paired with the fact that neither of these stats benefits you at all, makes this feat a pass. Fey Touched is still a better feat if you need mobility, and it can actually give you WIS for spellcasting.
Sorcerer: Extra CHA is nice, but being a high elf doesn’t add to your class since you don’t need INT. This is another case where Fey Touched is just too good to pass up if you need mobility since you can get more spells out of it.
Warlock: You don’t get much out of this aside from the +1 CHA, and you can already learn misty step as a spell. Fey Touched is better overall, since this feat/race combo is a waste of stats for warlocks. DEX and INT from high elf don’t benefit you in any way, regardless of your build.
Wizard: INT is your main stat, and this feat/race combo adds +2 overall. However, the limitation of one cast per day is a bummer, especially when you can learn the spell from another source. Fey Touched still performs better since you can get more spells and cast them more often.
While racial feats are really interesting to spice up your character, they directly compete with a lot of build variety. Because you’re locked into that race, you have to hope that both the feat and subclass you choose also work well with that feat.
What are your thoughts on racial feats overall, or Fey Touched vs. Fey Teleportation? Let us know your thoughts below!
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Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Mithral best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond.
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