Dissecting the 5E D&D Fey Creature Type

December 6, 2021

Salutations, nerds! I know I express a special love of each fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type every time I tackle a new one but listen. The fair folk are a whole thing with me. I really love them in folklore and they’re super fun in 5E D&D as well. Fey are tricky but not always nice as well as prideful and vain but not always easily buttered up. If you know your fairy tales then you know fey can be easy enough to navigate around but do not lose sight of how the fey don’t see morality the same way as most humans.

Fey creatures in 5E D&D

In the same way celestials are tied to the higher planes and fiends to the hells, fey are tied to the Feywild. In folklore this was also kind of true except the realms of fairy were referred to as their Hollow Hills and like in many other cases time was said to flow much differently there than it does on the Material Plane.

You can spend a night dancing among the fey and come home to find 1000 years have passed in your absence unless you take careful measures not to allow this to happen. Of course, the fey aren’t trying to trap you but this is a very good reflection of the creatures themselves because often they aren’t trying to cause any trouble — they just have interesting senses of humor and very little idea of the consequences for creatures who are not them.

“Fey are magical creatures closely tied to the forces of nature. They dwell in twilight groves and misty forests. In some worlds, they are closely tied to the Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie. Some are also found in the Outer Planes, particularly the planes of Arborea and the Beastlands. Fey include dryads, pixies, and satyrs.” — from the 5E D&D Monster Manual

Things Fey Do

Be prepared for a lot of charm effects, magic spells, spell resistances and tricky things like the ability to become invisible. Of course there are fey who lean into darker shades of fairy tales — the kind to lure you into the swamp to drown you for instance — and those are likely to have darkvision and voices capable of killing or knocking you out where you stand.

All in all the fey in 5E D&D are capable of doing a lot of different things and from a design perspective this is a bit of a gift. A fey creature is more about a feeling they have than a certain set of features they tend toward.

Fey are creatures of legend. Not like, in a very powerful kind codified Legendary way (though they certainly can be) but in a, “Do not wander the woods at night lest the wisps lead you off your trail,” sort of way. They’re stories of nature, of the inspiring supernatural lover who brings you to inhuman highs and then leaves you to wither in their absence and of trolls under bridges turning to stone when the daylight hits them.

If you know the vibe then you know the vibe.

Five Fey of Note

Blink Dog. The goodest boy. Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. He is a dog that can teleport. If you look at the illustration they appear pretty intimidating but there’s a good reason they’re favored by many rangers as companions.
Dryad. They can step through trees to get away from you and are very alluring. Dryads are tree spirits and pretty much exactly what you’d expect. They love nature and aren’t above pretending to seduce a lumberjack and killing him to protect their groves.
Green Hag. It’s worth noting this is the highest challenge rating fey in the Basic Rules. There are fey as high as CR 20 now and everything in between but if you look in the Monster Manual then CR 6 is the highest you’re going to get and I feel like this really drives the point home that fey are specifically the stuff of folktales. The terror of your own backyard. Hags are like the evil queen in Snow White — they can be invisible, they can disguise themselves with illusions and…well I guess the evil queen never actually ate children, did she?
Pixie. They’re Tiny, they’re mischievous and they basically stay invisible until they are disrupted or no longer want to stay invisible. They can stay invisible while they’re attacking you too. Of course, a pixie is much more likely to just hide your left sock and giggle while it watches you look for it.
Satyr. Goat men who are gonna charm you with playing their pan pipes. They’re fun loving, not above a good prank and can often be found in the company of dryads if you catch my drift. (You can’t see it but I’m winking at you.)

Are you playing anything fey adjacent in your 5E D&D games? Got an eladrin in the party? Managed to find yourself on the wrong end with a deal with a hag? Please, tell me all about it in the comments below, tweet me about it @Nerdarchy or me @Pyrosythesis or connect with us on Facebook and as always, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — A selection of fey creatures of note from 5E D&D. We’re big fans of fey themes and concepts in our games. [Composite images courtesy Wizards of the Coast]