SOURCE: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

Rating the Benefits of Fey Touched

Benefit #1 – 

Increase your intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20 

Half an ASI. Many feats offer half an ASI as part of their benefits, but it’s particularly relevant for Fey Touched. Increasing any of these will directly influence the power of your magical abilities, so most spellcasters will use it to boost their existing casting statistic.

Benefit #2 – 

You learn the Misty Step spell, then another 1st-level spell of your choice from the Divination or Enchantment schools

Two spells. Misty Step is strong, the other is chosen from a pair of very good schools with a lot of options from all classes. Each spell can be cast once for free, then cast again if you’ve got actual spell slots from your class. 

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How This Feat Functions

Misty Step – A bonus action 30ft teleport sounds simple until you realize just how many uses, and how much utility, this brings to any character who has it. 

• Every class can use this. Melee characters get in the fight. Ranged characters find the perfect range. Spellcasters line up their targets with flawless perfection. 
• Teleport to any unoccupied space within 30ft that you can see. Peer under the crack in the locked door. Boom. Now you’re inside. Just make sure you have a way out. 
• Teleportation doesn’t trigger attacks of opportunity. Mage mispositions and ends up surrounded? Haha. No. Now they’re gone. 
• Casting on a bonus action means no interruption when taking the Attack action, so it doesn’t slow down the DPS of the frenzied Barbarian. 
• Only verbal components mean this can be cast with hands full, and also when grappled, restrained, etc. Yes, this means you can literally blink out of the tentacular grasp of the actual Kraken using Misty Step. 

For all these reasons, Misty Step is commonly seen as an essential spell. Anyone who can take it probably should take it. 

Casting The Spells

Fey Touched lets a character cast Misty Step and their secondary spell once each without requiring any investment from the character. 

Characters can also recast these spells using any spell slots they have from their class, including upcasting their secondary spell using higher-level spell slots. 

Both spells are cast with the stat that is boosted when taking this feat, offering the choice of all three mental stats, which lets the feat slot neatly into almost any build. 

Secondary Spell Choices

Fey Touched lets a character pick a second spell that can be cast with the same restrictions as the first. Despite being locked to choices from the Divination and Enchantment spell schools, there are some standout choices that any character might lean towards. 

Bless – Bless isn’t just one of the best first-level party buffs in the game. It remains a strong buff all the way up to the end game.  

This is a spell that someone in the party should have. Even once per day, casting this for the biggest encounter you’re going to face is such a massive boost to overall party power, that it’s even worth dropping a turn of DPS on, for example, the Rogue or Ranger. 

Command – Choose from a whole mess of debuffs, or think up your own. This spell requires a little bit of thought for maximum effectiveness, but a well-timed command can shut down one or multiple targets for entire turns. As a choice, this is clearly better for casting classes who can upcast this with their own slots to affect multiple targets.  

Compelled Duel – Normally Paladin-exclusive, Compelled Duel can force an opponent to focus on you rather than your allies, and casts on a bonus action, so it’s a great first-round opening gambit for someone swinging a sword. 

Dissonant Whispers – Reasonable damage for a first-level slot, plus failing a save forces the target to spend their reaction and run away. 

Already good for gaining ground, the major boon here is realizing that the movement from the target procs attacks of opportunity from everyone around them. Suddenly, someone surrounded by the party is taking 2 or more attacks out of the normal turn order. That’s a sudden damage spike that can turn entire encounters. 

Gift of Alacrity – If you’re allowed this spell, it’s excellent. +1d8 to initiative is a massive boost, the 8-hour duration is an entire adventuring day, and it requires zero stat investment, making this the perfect fire and forget spell for the big, smashy warriors to cast. 

Gift of Alacrity is technically homebrew content from Critical Role, but it’s on D&D Beyond, so should be fine for most GMs to say yes to. 

Hex – Add 1d6 Necrotic damage to every attack you land on a creature, as well as conferring disadvantage on ability checks of your choice to the same target.

Hex is the premier damage spell of the Warlock. Bolting it onto the chassis of any other character just proves its effectiveness. The damage boost is big, and the disadvantage can be surprisingly useful if, for example, there’s a grappler in the party. 

Word of warning. Hex requires somatic components, so Hunter’s Mark is the better spell for melee characters who might not have their hands free. 

Heroism – Temporary HP equal to your casting modifier, at the start of every turn, adds up fast. At +5 to your stat, this could easily be 15 or 20 HP. 

For secondary support casters, this is significantly stronger if you target multiple allies, especially in fights where a lot of AOE damage is being thrown around.  

Tasha’s Hideous Laughter – Utterly disable one target for the duration. This spell has a lot of conditional riders, but landing it on a target lets you literally ignore them as long as they keep failing saves. Far stronger on characters who pump their casting stat. 

Hunter’s Mark – +1d6 weapon damage to the target of your choice, as a bonus action, plus advantage on checks to track and find them. 

This is only green because Hex is better, but for weapon users looking for a big boost in damage, Hunter’s Mark is great. 

Speak With Animals – Utility spells like this tend to be used so infrequently that many casters can’t spare the spell slots. However, a Rogue or Paladin who’s specced into the Persuasion skill can see a lot of use out of a single cast that doesn’t eat any class resources. 

Silvery Barbs – This spell is crazy. As a reaction, force a foe to roll again for an attack, skill, or saving throw, choosing the lowest. This is disadvantage. Except it’s reactive, and activated outside of the usual turn order.  

Then give an ally of your choice advantage on the next roll they take. 

Best of all, this spell requires absolutely no save or check, meaning it’s a powerful and viable choice for literally every character in the game. 

Key Stats

Fey Touched increases a character’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by one. 

The spells granted by this spell are cast using this stat. Spellcasting classes should obviously put the point into their casting stat, and any other class has the flexibility to increase the stat they use most for skills and class abilities. 

Ideal Characters for Fey Touched

Top Classes

Hexblade Warlock – A teleport and an extra spell per day sound like superlative choices for the best sword-swinging spellcaster subclass in 5e. Literally, everything on offer here is fantastic. From combat buffs, to support spells, to out-of-combat utility that doesn’t eat into the Warlock’s limited spell slots. Choose whatever you want and go wild. 

Barbarian – Who likes appearing right in the enemy’s face, two-handed ax already halfway through its downward swing? That’s right. The Barbarian. Especially when enemies start to gain mobility options that this class commonly doesn’t have access to. 

For secondary spells, certain subclasses make utility spells a great choice. Or just stack more damage using Hunter’s Mark. That’s good too. 

Rogue – Ranged Rogues are the best users of this feat, but any Rogue can make great use of it. A teleport to make sure Sneak Attacks keep landing on the right target, or that the Rogue doesn’t get squashed straight after, is nice. So is extra damage. But best of all are options, in a class that has limited access to magic, but otherwise has all the skills to utilize them best.  

Bard – A good number of these spells are already on the Bardic spell list, but for a primary caster, the Bard has a surprisingly limited spell list. At level 5, a Bard only knows 8 spells total, meaning grabbing this feat increases spells known by a ridiculous 25%. 

The Magical Secrets class ability already expands options, but most Bards don’t get this until level 10. It also helps that most of these are things the class can make use of, and probably want as well.  

Race or Subrace Choices

Eladrin – Access to a pseudo-Misty Step multiple times per day, plus an interesting little rider effect. If you’re taking the Fey Touched feat mostly for Misty Step, the Eladrin race might potentially be a better option.  

Tiefling – Resistances, Darkvision, mental stat buffs, and a whole mess of spellcasting, which can be tailored by choosing from one of nearly a dozen Bloodlines. 

Forest Gnome – Advantage on saves against a good chunk of spells is amazing for a caster, as is a cantrip and a ribbon effect related to animals that might just come in useful with a little creativity.  

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Other Magical Feats – Magic Initiate, Shadow Touched, the Strixhaven feats. All offer more magical might to any character who takes them, whether that’s through similar spells per day as this feat, or a whole mess of cantrips and more. 

Ritual Caster – Turn yourself into a budget spellcaster, by learning to cast ritual spells outside of combat. Wizard is the best option and only requires 13 Int to qualify, putting it within reach of most builds. Cleric and Bard are less good, but still solid options for Wis and Cha characters, respectively. 

Strategies for Maximizing Fey Touched Effectiveness

Spells for Non-Spellcasters

Spells for the non-magically inclined amongst the party are broadly divided into two options: Combat buffs, and non-combat utility. 

In terms of combat boosts, Bless remains the standout, especially for ranged characters like Rogues and Rangers, who are much less likely to get hit and lose concentration when it matters. 

For raw damage, Hex or Hunter’s Mark are both great, especially since neither requires a saving throw to do its thing. 

We also have to mention Silvery Barbs here. The spell is simply gross, especially since it casts as a reaction and doesn’t suffer from a low casting stat. Every player in the party could have a use of this spell stored up their sleeve, and still have it feel incredible. 

Outside of combat, Gift of Alacrity is obviously great. Going first in combat is always big, and this lasts the whole day. But so are spells like Speak With Animals, which open up your social options with a much wider net, especially if you have the relevant skills to go alongside it. 

Spells for Spellcasters

As a primary caster, your options go way up. You’re free to focus on spells that require saving throws, as you are the character who will get the most use out of them. 

Especially look for spells like Command or Heroism, which can be upcast to become much stronger, and spells that apply debilitating conditions, like Dissonant Whispers, or, again, Command. (Hey, it’s a good spell, okay.)

Finally, we’re going to mention Silvery Barbs again. A caster probably already has their preferred roster of spells, but little to do with their reactions. 

Being able to burn spell slots to force disadvantage on enemy rolls without requiring a save is, frankly, obscene, and Silvery Barbs would be worth casting if that’s all it did. 

The fact that you also get to hand out one use of advantage as well, as a reaction, for free once per day, plus as many times more as you need to cast it, is one of the strongest options available for this feat. 

Final Thoughts on Fey Touched

There are very few characters that can’t get something out of Fey Touched. Misty Step by itself is a very strong option to have on hand, even only once per day. The remaining spell is chosen from two schools that have a wide array of useful and powerful spells. 

There’s a reason you commonly find Fey Touched at the top of strongest feat lists. The simple fact is; that the feat is just very very good.