As someone that has played at least 5 different rangers, fey wanderer is top 3 for me. Fun fact, dreadful strikes says that a TARGET can only take that damage once per turn. So just have 2 targets....🤷🏾♂️ Beautiful when you're an archer
That once per target thing is very much intended game design and it’s so good. I’ve played this subclass for years as a Tabaxi and it’s god tier for a skirmisher play style.
Right. Especially great if your first shot drops the target that you had hunter's mark on, and then you can shoot the next target with dreadful strikes and move the hm!
I have a +6 to my charisma checks and I plan on raising my wisdom either by asi or by items. +6 to intimation and right now +9 to persuasion, performance, and deception. I am the closest my party has to a bard
I actually just started one of these in a campaign with friends, and I chose the dancing shadow option but flavored it to do more than just dance. My character's story is that they were sold to a band of Shadar-Kai at a younger age and managed to escape, but their shadow retained some of the energy from there. In reality, my character IS the shadow and the body is being controlled by someone with an ulterior motive, and "my shadow" is basically trying to sign language that to the party. I've worked it out with the DM ahead of time, and I'm so excited to see it pan out
My second ever character was a fey wanderer/arcane archer eladrin. The mix was oddly satisfying, and for being two meh damage dealing subclasses, they propped each other up well (plus winter eladrin just meant bonus misty steps AND beguiling twists!). It was easy to explain the arcane shots as being extra fey flavored fun. He was a trip to play and such a huge learning curve to juggle all those things in battle. So RIP Bevan, thank you for teaching me so much about dnd combat, making me fall in love with rangers, and I'm sorry that campaign fizzled out!
Not to mention that he's completely sleeping on the Summon Fey spell giving him a free, once per round Charm effect for the level 7 ability to feed off of.
@@Brion57042 Right? And the Fear spell at level 9, then the fey reinforcements? Treantmonk's "Quiver: The Terrifying Ranger" is an excellent showcase on what can be done with this subclass.
found the channel the other day and I am really enjoying it! I dig your perspective and comprehensive format while also keeping it concise. Going to keep watching through your catalogue :D
I made a Fey Wanderer Ranger who uses both Favored Foe and Dreadful Strikes to get the most damage he can out of two-weapon fighting. It's a nice little bonus.
I made a goblin fey wanderer/assassin rogue and I'll tell you that it is so good in roleplay especially with the dancing shadow. Definitely my favorite ranger
This! Yes, this is absolutely something I recommend as someone who has played this class multiple times for a variety of characters. Honestly, it’s really really good for those that want a wisdom strong character and still need a charisma strong character if the party lacks it. What’s better? You can take insight and have that pretty strong while still having strong charisma skills too. This is the best intrigue build, least to my experience. Honestly there is a ton of good things about this build. Have fun with it! A few stories from my builds with this subclass is - a human child that fell into the feywild, trained there, and when they finally returned to the material plane, realized so much time had passed there that their family had all long passed away. There is more there in that one as it’s still an ongoing campaign, but that was the starting concept. - Another I had I used a yuanti with excepted I wanted to twist the origin and just used the mechanics of the race but rework how my character came about. Namely, I started with the idea that my character was actually from a snake egg, was intended to be a normal snake but the egg was in an area of such concentrated fey-like magic (it was the ambient magic of that world which is sorta sentient like) that it transformed my character from a snake to a humanoid and instilled them with a strong purpose to clear out the “poison” (magical corruption) of the land. The locals considered my character an ominous sign but also the lore was the land would create a “hero” to help “purge the poison” whenever the place was most in need. So basically my character I leaned into how deeply in tune they were with the nature of their homeland and had a very strong sense of purpose in healing. In fact, she largely was a healer for the party when she wasn’t focusing arrows down on high value targets. Her devotion and generosity was what saved the party several times. This campaign wrapped up with the party fracturing (not the player group, just was the natural flow of our characters) over a difference in morals and ending up on opposing sides of a rebellion of the people to celestial oppressors (and there was heavy implications that the celestials no longer had contact or favor of the god they once served and were simply taking over the people). So yeah, it was quite cool to turn my healer feywanderer ranger into a kick butt rebel leader who actually reconnected the locals with their god and was a very effective spymaster too (I had gathered an army of snakes by then and regularly used them for espionage with “beast sense” among other skills). But seriously, if you want to lean into those more intrigue and espionage stories and skills, I fully recommend a feywanderer ranger for it. I have played as both a very kind, stoic, and righteous character all the way up to a chaotic but well intentioned prankster who is a tiny bit feral from being a wild child of Nature. You can do a lot with an intuitive build like this.
Great video. I would point out that you said that when you cast Summon Fey using Fey Reinforcements for free it only lasts one minute. However that is optional. You can cast it for free as the regular spell, OR cast it for free and modify it so it doesn't require concentration. Yes, the summon is only for one combat, but your ranger can then concentrate on other spells - such as Hunter's Mark. Thanks for this video!
My favourite fey wanderer multi class is with the undead warlock, 1 level dip, gaining its form of dread, allows you to make the most of your charm and fear abilities, attack from range keep your enemies at bay with fear and summon all manner of creatures to attack others across the battlefield
Not sure of how it would play out mechanically, but I really like the idea of a Hexblade/Fey Wanderer. Like the cursed weapon is actually bound with some ancient ArchFey's soul, who ended up on the wrong side of some power feud, ages ago.
I adore this subclass, but two things that annoy me to no end are the fact that in the new OneDND playtest this subclass IS being added, but the new archfey warlock gets the fey wanderers capstone feature at level 3 with extra effects & ability to cast it as a reaction to taking damage as a dedicated caster and they get one more extra attack than half caster rangers AND they can use their primary casting stat as their bow attack and damage modifiers. and also it’s so sad they didn’t put hypnotic pattern in the extra spells, yeah it’s a very powerful spell but it would be so perfect for this subclass, but they put in dispel magic? as a half caster? weird
The ribbon feature of the "cosmetics" can be a blast. Running from a werewolf when you smell of lavender making you easier to track. The dancing shadow pantomiming to give subtle tips at the DMs discretion.
One campaign I was in, we had a distinct lack of front line, skill monkey, and party face. I was like, screw it, Fey Wanderer Ranger Lizardfolk, let's see how much I can fill all by myself.
If you want control over future channel content, guaranteed question answering, and more, head over to my Patreon. If you want the most control over when and what videos get made, follow this link: patreon.com/EntertheDungeon
Would like to add that HM is still very useful at lower levels, especially since if you need to use two-weapon fighting its online for both attacks (just no modifier on the 2nd attack), plus moving it around so you only need to use 1 spell slot when you only have 2-3 total. We always take free damage :)
The feywild gift gives me an idea. I'm creating my own experimental ttrpg (heavily inspired and modified from pathfinder 2e and I've never dm'd before lol). The idea is to create a far more simplified system for less game mechanically inclined or people who don't want to learn everything. But I got my sister roped in to create a character to later play, and she focused really heavily on her character being obsessed with flowers. So i think I'll adapt that spell as a way to explain this obsession and lead to later development both storywise and mechanically. Also I'm a huge component that the game mechanics should always support the story/roleplay. As such my players will have the opportunity to develop mechanics/abilities/skills completely outside their "class" or normal rules as long as they put a focus on it in roleplay and it makes logical sense in that world.
Definitely under selling the power of the higher level abilities particularly fey reinforcement. That’s a concentration spell not requiring concentration so nothing stopping you from having a couple of mirthful fey out there in a tough fight using their charm ability and helping proc your beguiling twist. Also this is a class that screams use of the druidic warrior fighting style if you dont have the ability scores to spread around. Now you are single score dependent. I will somewhat agree on the 15th level ability because you better switching to druid or cleric to boost the power if your fey companions
I LOVE the Fey Wanderer as a subclass from the spells, to the features, and the amazing flavor options. It's one of my favorites! However, my only criticism of the class is that it's not chaotic enough. This class would've been a great opportunity to retool Wild Magic for another class like they did with the Wild Magic Barbarian. It just feels like a disappointingly huge missed opportunity in my opinion. Maybe one day we'll get some optional features or something. But until then no matter how much I love the class I don't think they went far enough.
There absolutely is something to break in this subclass if you're a min maxer. The wis mod to cha checks applies to any skill based casting check that uses your casting stat like say the Telikinisis spell. Go 3 levels Fey Wanderer & everything else Lore bard. Jack of all trades affects it too. It's a 5th level spell but still max both cha & wis & only things with really high str can break it & that's if they roll really well when you roll really bad but that's why you have cutting words and silvery barbs. Admittedly this is the only spell I could find that applies but legendary resistance does not apply to contested skill checks. Your better than Vader Make that ancient red dragon spin in the air restrained like a naughty kitten while your party takes free shots at it.
Wouldn't the realm wanderer basically be the horizon walker? Like when i look at this subclass i see a social ranger. And as a poor mans bard or rogue, this was a way to make it so if you didnt have a charisma user, you could get by in a pinch with a ranger.
The Horizon Walker conclave acts as guardians against otherworldly magic. Their kit is all about finding extraplanar creatures and dealing with them. They can use planar energy but are never really changed by it. I'd say that they occupy two separate niches with one embracing the other planes and one fighting against the planes. I do agree though that this is the social ranger!
Currently playing a Relora (deerlike) fey wanderer druidic warrior tanger / wild fire druid kidnapped by a pix temporal circle in a "stranger in a stranger land." Out of time and Lost their ancestral primordial forest in search of a mysterious Wiz-Herd to help get home. The heart of the non-human fun-sized advenuring party. Heart of gold and a fiery personality. Fey animal friends, a lucky phroug, antlers on fiery wolf, fox, and rabit. A sunrise gift makes each dawn a new day. Ooo, fiery butteries popping out of the morning campfire. Fiery sprites dance around the fire. Someone wake up the druid. No water. Remember what happened last time.
I like to think the fey Wanderer gained their power by learning them from the fey but when they left the feywild they lost their memory of learning it and mostly use it through musle memory.
Oops, my Tabaxi ate a butterfly and now I’m going to kill a big wizard for killing a fey queen who realistically did deserve to get stabbed. Fey Wanderer is fun, I’ve played it for 3 years now and have just hit 15th level with it. It plays great as a skirmisher based support build where you can slip in and out of combat with stuff like Mobile and cause havoc with your CC features/spells. I ended up getting a massive Feywild arc added to the campaign that should be kinda finalizing once we kill a BBEG who’s connected to pretty much everyone fairly soon. My longest running and second oldest character as well at this point. Wanna play a different Ranger subclass at another table kinda soon so I think that’ll be a fun comparison.
Making a Fey Wanderer / Lore bard. that is complete balance. Bouncing Crown of Madness or Hypnotic Pattern? Wow! But ya, not good on single dragon combat, hence picking up Bard to help the party
Fey Wanderer is interesting, i just have no interest at all at building or playing Fey Wanderer. I look forward to when you cover the Drakwarden, the Monster Slayer, and the Swarmkeeper. Those are my favorite ranger subclasses.
Re-read fey reinforcements my guy. you get one free cast of summon fey per long rest, and WHEVER you cast the spell you can change it's duration to one minute, to the BENEFIT of it no longer requiring concentration. Non-concentration summoning spells are immensely powerful, even if you Gotta finesse the timing a bit, especially on the ranger since all of its best spells are competing for concentration. Pick mirthful fey spirit for beguiling twist shenanigans and I promise you, you will be running a fucking CLINIC. Best variation on this build I've personally seen was a ranger who just maxed wis like he was a full caster and picked up the druidic warrior fighting style for shillelagh so his attacks still had potency. Sure his first turn was sometimes a bit of a nothing burger, just summoning a fey and applying shillelagh, but his damage would immediately ramp up to be considerable while also applying all sorts of conditions-- and god forbid i give him a turn or two of prep before combat, he would start summoning non concentration fey spirits and would snap the action economy over his knee. All that being said, I DO agree with your assessment of Misty Misty wanderer. I miss the UA take on that feature where instead you could as a bonus action force a creature to make a wisdom save, and on failure they lost the ability to see or hear you for 24 hours, only getting additional saves at the end of turns you successfully. Much more interesting and unique.
I think we have two different takes on the ability and that's ok! For me, I'm not overwhelmed by the slow start of the Fey Wanderer. I look at the ability like a solar beam from the Pokemon series. The move takes 1 turn to charge and then fires on the second turn for insane damage. But, when you calculate the damage of the move over the 2 rounds, it is actually middling. For an action, you're doing 2d6 + 6 piercing and force damage while likely getting a charm or fear condition off. If you're not fully dipping into wisdom, that's also far from guaranteed. A normal fey spirit might only be rocking with a +6 to hit at level 11 which is far from competitive. Then, due to the fey spirit's small hit point pool (30 hit points), I wouldn't expect it to survive more than 1 turn in tier 3 combat. What I've seen be more effective is to cast summon fey and spells like shillelagh out of combat, then come in swinging for massive damage turn 1. But, since summon fey only lasts for 1 minute, most Rangers tend to just burn the spell slot and guarantee they'll have a buddy round 1. Since combats usually last between 2 - 3 rounds according to WotC (and my own experience), not taking full advantage of the most important round (the 1st round) is a big deal. Then when you compare this ability to other 11th-level Ranger abilities like Stalker's Flurry or Distant Strike, I think it feels underpowered. But that build does sound awesome and something that I might try in a future one-shot. I think combining a full-wisdom Fey Wanderer like the one you mentioned with a few levels of Circle of the Shepherd would be great fun.
As someone that has played at least 5 different rangers, fey wanderer is top 3 for me. Fun fact, dreadful strikes says that a TARGET can only take that damage once per turn. So just have 2 targets....🤷🏾♂️ Beautiful when you're an archer
I cannot believe in 3 years my players and me never figured this out. Thanks for sharing this!
Yep thats how i played it too
That once per target thing is very much intended game design and it’s so good. I’ve played this subclass for years as a Tabaxi and it’s god tier for a skirmisher play style.
Right. Especially great if your first shot drops the target that you had hunter's mark on, and then you can shoot the next target with dreadful strikes and move the hm!
My favorite thing about Beguiling Twist is turning a failed Charm into a Fear
“Oh, alright. I suppose being nice isn’t always the solution.”
I have a +6 to my charisma checks and I plan on raising my wisdom either by asi or by items. +6 to intimation and right now +9 to persuasion, performance, and deception. I am the closest my party has to a bard
I actually just started one of these in a campaign with friends, and I chose the dancing shadow option but flavored it to do more than just dance. My character's story is that they were sold to a band of Shadar-Kai at a younger age and managed to escape, but their shadow retained some of the energy from there.
In reality, my character IS the shadow and the body is being controlled by someone with an ulterior motive, and "my shadow" is basically trying to sign language that to the party. I've worked it out with the DM ahead of time, and I'm so excited to see it pan out
How'd it go?
@@legionlegion6675 I died to a nasty crit from an Orc lmao
@@kinsan89 dang.
@@legionlegion6675 dice gods are fickle like that
My second ever character was a fey wanderer/arcane archer eladrin. The mix was oddly satisfying, and for being two meh damage dealing subclasses, they propped each other up well (plus winter eladrin just meant bonus misty steps AND beguiling twists!). It was easy to explain the arcane shots as being extra fey flavored fun. He was a trip to play and such a huge learning curve to juggle all those things in battle.
So RIP Bevan, thank you for teaching me so much about dnd combat, making me fall in love with rangers, and I'm sorry that campaign fizzled out!
That sounds epic! How did you build that character?
There's nothing to break on the fey wanderer? Oh my poor, sweet, innoncent, summer child
a 1 level of undead warlock, even with the minimum of a 13 charisma, is amazing on the fey wanderer
Not to mention that he's completely sleeping on the Summon Fey spell giving him a free, once per round Charm effect for the level 7 ability to feed off of.
@@Brion57042 Right? And the Fear spell at level 9, then the fey reinforcements? Treantmonk's "Quiver: The Terrifying Ranger" is an excellent showcase on what can be done with this subclass.
found the channel the other day and I am really enjoying it! I dig your perspective and comprehensive format while also keeping it concise. Going to keep watching through your catalogue :D
i think this ranger is better with a wis focus with trying to grab sheilgh from druic warrior or from a nature cleric or magic stone for long range
need that drakewarden video asap lmaooo
I made a Fey Wanderer Ranger who uses both Favored Foe and Dreadful Strikes to get the most damage he can out of two-weapon fighting. It's a nice little bonus.
I have a wood elf Fey Wanderer I’m totally in love with and waiting to play.
I made a goblin fey wanderer/assassin rogue and I'll tell you that it is so good in roleplay especially with the dancing shadow. Definitely my favorite ranger
This! Yes, this is absolutely something I recommend as someone who has played this class multiple times for a variety of characters. Honestly, it’s really really good for those that want a wisdom strong character and still need a charisma strong character if the party lacks it. What’s better? You can take insight and have that pretty strong while still having strong charisma skills too. This is the best intrigue build, least to my experience. Honestly there is a ton of good things about this build. Have fun with it!
A few stories from my builds with this subclass is
- a human child that fell into the feywild, trained there, and when they finally returned to the material plane, realized so much time had passed there that their family had all long passed away. There is more there in that one as it’s still an ongoing campaign, but that was the starting concept.
- Another I had I used a yuanti with excepted I wanted to twist the origin and just used the mechanics of the race but rework how my character came about. Namely, I started with the idea that my character was actually from a snake egg, was intended to be a normal snake but the egg was in an area of such concentrated fey-like magic (it was the ambient magic of that world which is sorta sentient like) that it transformed my character from a snake to a humanoid and instilled them with a strong purpose to clear out the “poison” (magical corruption) of the land. The locals considered my character an ominous sign but also the lore was the land would create a “hero” to help “purge the poison” whenever the place was most in need. So basically my character I leaned into how deeply in tune they were with the nature of their homeland and had a very strong sense of purpose in healing. In fact, she largely was a healer for the party when she wasn’t focusing arrows down on high value targets. Her devotion and generosity was what saved the party several times. This campaign wrapped up with the party fracturing (not the player group, just was the natural flow of our characters) over a difference in morals and ending up on opposing sides of a rebellion of the people to celestial oppressors (and there was heavy implications that the celestials no longer had contact or favor of the god they once served and were simply taking over the people). So yeah, it was quite cool to turn my healer feywanderer ranger into a kick butt rebel leader who actually reconnected the locals with their god and was a very effective spymaster too (I had gathered an army of snakes by then and regularly used them for espionage with “beast sense” among other skills).
But seriously, if you want to lean into those more intrigue and espionage stories and skills, I fully recommend a feywanderer ranger for it. I have played as both a very kind, stoic, and righteous character all the way up to a chaotic but well intentioned prankster who is a tiny bit feral from being a wild child of Nature. You can do a lot with an intuitive build like this.
Great video. I would point out that you said that when you cast Summon Fey using Fey Reinforcements for free it only lasts one minute. However that is optional. You can cast it for free as the regular spell, OR cast it for free and modify it so it doesn't require concentration. Yes, the summon is only for one combat, but your ranger can then concentrate on other spells - such as Hunter's Mark. Thanks for this video!
finally my favorite subclass. FINALLY.
I always felt this fits the Firbolg like a glove with its abilities.
My favourite fey wanderer multi class is with the undead warlock, 1 level dip, gaining its form of dread, allows you to make the most of your charm and fear abilities, attack from range keep your enemies at bay with fear and summon all manner of creatures to attack others across the battlefield
Oh, I'm first. It was fey-ted to be.
Boooooooooo
JK, I love puns, nice one my guy
Not sure of how it would play out mechanically, but I really like the idea of a Hexblade/Fey Wanderer. Like the cursed weapon is actually bound with some ancient ArchFey's soul, who ended up on the wrong side of some power feud, ages ago.
I adore this subclass, but two things that annoy me to no end are the fact that in the new OneDND playtest this subclass IS being added, but the new archfey warlock gets the fey wanderers capstone feature at level 3 with extra effects & ability to cast it as a reaction to taking damage as a dedicated caster and they get one more extra attack than half caster rangers AND they can use their primary casting stat as their bow attack and damage modifiers.
and also it’s so sad they didn’t put hypnotic pattern in the extra spells, yeah it’s a very powerful spell but it would be so perfect for this subclass, but they put in dispel magic? as a half caster? weird
The ribbon feature of the "cosmetics" can be a blast. Running from a werewolf when you smell of lavender making you easier to track. The dancing shadow pantomiming to give subtle tips at the DMs discretion.
One campaign I was in, we had a distinct lack of front line, skill monkey, and party face. I was like, screw it, Fey Wanderer Ranger Lizardfolk, let's see how much I can fill all by myself.
If you want control over future channel content, guaranteed question answering, and more, head over to my Patreon. If you want the most control over when and what videos get made, follow this link: patreon.com/EntertheDungeon
Finally my favorite Ranger subclass . Let's a go!
Would like to add that HM is still very useful at lower levels, especially since if you need to use two-weapon fighting its online for both attacks (just no modifier on the 2nd attack), plus moving it around so you only need to use 1 spell slot when you only have 2-3 total. We always take free damage :)
The feywild gift gives me an idea. I'm creating my own experimental ttrpg (heavily inspired and modified from pathfinder 2e and I've never dm'd before lol). The idea is to create a far more simplified system for less game mechanically inclined or people who don't want to learn everything. But I got my sister roped in to create a character to later play, and she focused really heavily on her character being obsessed with flowers. So i think I'll adapt that spell as a way to explain this obsession and lead to later development both storywise and mechanically. Also I'm a huge component that the game mechanics should always support the story/roleplay. As such my players will have the opportunity to develop mechanics/abilities/skills completely outside their "class" or normal rules as long as they put a focus on it in roleplay and it makes logical sense in that world.
Definitely under selling the power of the higher level abilities particularly fey reinforcement. That’s a concentration spell not requiring concentration so nothing stopping you from having a couple of mirthful fey out there in a tough fight using their charm ability and helping proc your beguiling twist. Also this is a class that screams use of the druidic warrior fighting style if you dont have the ability scores to spread around. Now you are single score dependent. I will somewhat agree on the 15th level ability because you better switching to druid or cleric to boost the power if your fey companions
I LOVE the Fey Wanderer as a subclass from the spells, to the features, and the amazing flavor options. It's one of my favorites! However, my only criticism of the class is that it's not chaotic enough. This class would've been a great opportunity to retool Wild Magic for another class like they did with the Wild Magic Barbarian. It just feels like a disappointingly huge missed opportunity in my opinion. Maybe one day we'll get some optional features or something. But until then no matter how much I love the class I don't think they went far enough.
My fav ranger is here huzzah!
MY FAV TOO WOOO
Oath of ancients Paladin is also really good if you have the stats.
There absolutely is something to break in this subclass if you're a min maxer. The wis mod to cha checks applies to any skill based casting check that uses your casting stat like say the Telikinisis spell. Go 3 levels Fey Wanderer & everything else Lore bard. Jack of all trades affects it too. It's a 5th level spell but still max both cha & wis & only things with really high str can break it & that's if they roll really well when you roll really bad but that's why you have cutting words and silvery barbs. Admittedly this is the only spell I could find that applies but legendary resistance does not apply to contested skill checks. Your better than Vader Make that ancient red dragon spin in the air restrained like a naughty kitten while your party takes free shots at it.
Wouldn't the realm wanderer basically be the horizon walker? Like when i look at this subclass i see a social ranger. And as a poor mans bard or rogue, this was a way to make it so if you didnt have a charisma user, you could get by in a pinch with a ranger.
The Horizon Walker conclave acts as guardians against otherworldly magic. Their kit is all about finding extraplanar creatures and dealing with them. They can use planar energy but are never really changed by it. I'd say that they occupy two separate niches with one embracing the other planes and one fighting against the planes. I do agree though that this is the social ranger!
@@enterthedungeon yeah that's fair I can understand the thinking the way.
Currently playing a Relora (deerlike) fey wanderer druidic warrior tanger / wild fire druid kidnapped by a pix temporal circle in a "stranger in a stranger land."
Out of time and Lost their ancestral primordial forest in search of a mysterious Wiz-Herd to help get home.
The heart of the non-human fun-sized advenuring party. Heart of gold and a fiery personality. Fey animal friends, a lucky phroug, antlers on fiery wolf, fox, and rabit. A sunrise gift makes each dawn a new day.
Ooo, fiery butteries popping out of the morning campfire. Fiery sprites dance around the fire. Someone wake up the druid. No water. Remember what happened last time.
Fey wild gifts would be cool if i weren't playing a fey already lol
I'd love to see Why You Should Play X Warlock videos.
I like to think the fey Wanderer gained their power by learning them from the fey but when they left the feywild they lost their memory of learning it and mostly use it through musle memory.
Love this class
Oops, my Tabaxi ate a butterfly and now I’m going to kill a big wizard for killing a fey queen who realistically did deserve to get stabbed.
Fey Wanderer is fun, I’ve played it for 3 years now and have just hit 15th level with it. It plays great as a skirmisher based support build where you can slip in and out of combat with stuff like Mobile and cause havoc with your CC features/spells. I ended up getting a massive Feywild arc added to the campaign that should be kinda finalizing once we kill a BBEG who’s connected to pretty much everyone fairly soon. My longest running and second oldest character as well at this point. Wanna play a different Ranger subclass at another table kinda soon so I think that’ll be a fun comparison.
Making a Fey Wanderer / Lore bard. that is complete balance. Bouncing Crown of Madness or Hypnotic Pattern? Wow! But ya, not good on single dragon combat, hence picking up Bard to help the party
huge fan!
Fey Wanderer is interesting, i just have no interest at all at building or playing Fey Wanderer. I look forward to when you cover the Drakwarden, the Monster Slayer, and the Swarmkeeper. Those are my favorite ranger subclasses.
Re-read fey reinforcements my guy. you get one free cast of summon fey per long rest, and WHEVER you cast the spell you can change it's duration to one minute, to the BENEFIT of it no longer requiring concentration. Non-concentration summoning spells are immensely powerful, even if you Gotta finesse the timing a bit, especially on the ranger since all of its best spells are competing for concentration. Pick mirthful fey spirit for beguiling twist shenanigans and I promise you, you will be running a fucking CLINIC. Best variation on this build I've personally seen was a ranger who just maxed wis like he was a full caster and picked up the druidic warrior fighting style for shillelagh so his attacks still had potency. Sure his first turn was sometimes a bit of a nothing burger, just summoning a fey and applying shillelagh, but his damage would immediately ramp up to be considerable while also applying all sorts of conditions-- and god forbid i give him a turn or two of prep before combat, he would start summoning non concentration fey spirits and would snap the action economy over his knee.
All that being said, I DO agree with your assessment of Misty Misty wanderer. I miss the UA take on that feature where instead you could as a bonus action force a creature to make a wisdom save, and on failure they lost the ability to see or hear you for 24 hours, only getting additional saves at the end of turns you successfully. Much more interesting and unique.
I think we have two different takes on the ability and that's ok!
For me, I'm not overwhelmed by the slow start of the Fey Wanderer. I look at the ability like a solar beam from the Pokemon series. The move takes 1 turn to charge and then fires on the second turn for insane damage. But, when you calculate the damage of the move over the 2 rounds, it is actually middling. For an action, you're doing 2d6 + 6 piercing and force damage while likely getting a charm or fear condition off. If you're not fully dipping into wisdom, that's also far from guaranteed. A normal fey spirit might only be rocking with a +6 to hit at level 11 which is far from competitive. Then, due to the fey spirit's small hit point pool (30 hit points), I wouldn't expect it to survive more than 1 turn in tier 3 combat.
What I've seen be more effective is to cast summon fey and spells like shillelagh out of combat, then come in swinging for massive damage turn 1. But, since summon fey only lasts for 1 minute, most Rangers tend to just burn the spell slot and guarantee they'll have a buddy round 1. Since combats usually last between 2 - 3 rounds according to WotC (and my own experience), not taking full advantage of the most important round (the 1st round) is a big deal. Then when you compare this ability to other 11th-level Ranger abilities like Stalker's Flurry or Distant Strike, I think it feels underpowered.
But that build does sound awesome and something that I might try in a future one-shot. I think combining a full-wisdom Fey Wanderer like the one you mentioned with a few levels of Circle of the Shepherd would be great fun.
If you’re not multiclassing this with hexblade and maxxing wis/cha then you’re wrong.