From mischievous faeries to haunting hags disguised as a helping hand, this article lists the top 1o Feywild Creatures in the Monster Manual of D&D 5e and explains what makes them awesome to run in your campaign!
Top 10 Feywild Creatures in D&D 5e
1. Hag
Hags are some of the most iconic and fun-to-run D&D creatures – and I can see no better setting to fit these old witches into than the Feywild! While hags come in many different variants, my personal favorite is the night hag. Like other kinds of hags it can change its appearance to look like a friendly humanoid, but it can also enter the Ethereal Plane at will and haunt the nightmares of a sleeping creature that it touches. That’s just the recipe for a fun, creepy, and different kind of encounter!
2. Pixie
These cute, curious, and yet shy creatures has Feywild written all over them to the extent that could be on the official postcard sent from the realms of the Archfey. Armed with innate powers of invisibility these tiny tricksters – who present themselves like princes and princesses of the fey – are always on the lookout for new friends and love to play harmless tricks on visitors to test their temper. If your adventuring group is visiting the Feywild, don’t miss your chance to have an invisible pixie tie together the boots of the party’s stubborn fighter!
Pixies also shower pixie dust in their wake which has magical properties and is often used as a component in spells and the crafting of magic items – it even has some fun, albeit random, properties if you shower yourself in it. This dust can be a great way to reward your players after encountering (and maybe helping or at least impressing) a group of pixies in the Feywild.
3. Sprite
Sometimes mistaken with the mischievous pixies, sprites are actually quite different. While both tiny fey creatures, sprites are firm warriors, protectors, and judges of the forest who even can sense a creature’s current emotional state and alignment. They don’t indulge in frivolous fun like pixies – but unlike pixies, they may also make for great allies in times of trouble! Having a pack of sprites ride into battle on the back of blink dogs to assist the PC’s in their endeavor to protect the forest from an evil spirit is both cool, fun, and something that should happen in the Feywild.
4. Satyr
In D&D, these Greek-inspired, horned humans with a furry lower body and hooves of goats are hedonistic revelers who crave the wildest dances and the strongest drinks, most often without thought to the consequences, this behavior has on others! While I did say that this list would feature monsters from the Monsters Manual, the original stat lock for satyrs is quite boring in all honesty, so I’ll make an exception and point you to the satyr reveler from Mythic Odysseys of Theros. What makes the satyr reveler much more fun to run in your game is its Enthralling Performance ability that can charm creatures watching it perform to idolize the satyr – and take part in its revels. Imagine the party suddenly finding the stern wizard of the group indulging in drinks and dance as it has been charmed by a half-goat-half-man playing the flute!
5. Treant
Assuming we’ve all watched Lord of the Rings, we know that trees are not to be trifled with! Treants are ancient and legendary guardians and protectors of the wild and are a great way to show that something is amiss in a part of the Feywild. Besides being a cool Feywild-themed creature, a treant also packs quite a punch, although I’d say they are quite weak for their challenge rating of 9. Whatever the case, having a treant running rampant, or having old trees in the forest starting to awake as treants, is a great way of foreshadowing that something out of the ordinary is going on.
6. Unicorn
A unicorn is a legendary creature with cool regional effects, a decent statblock (it’s only CR 5, but it’s quite strong for that), and, of course, a weird horn attached to its forehead. Unicorns have an immense presence in mythological tales – as blessed mounts and protectors of the forest, even as blood-vending machines for the likes of you-know-who – and you don’t want to miss the chance to run a unicorn as a divine guardian of the forest at some point in your Feywild campaign.
7. Faerie Dragon
In a similar fashion to pixies, faerie dragons are invisible tricksters who love to pull pranks. However, their mind is sharper, and since travelers can play into their dragon nature by offering it “treasure” (exotic food for example) in exchange for information, a faerie dragon can be a great way to give the PCs much-needed information in a fun encounter!
8. Displacer Beast
A displacer beast looks like six-legged black panthers with weird tentacles sprouting from its shoulders – which already makes it a great creature to run in a Feywild setting to me. Displacer beasts have an extremely cool ability to displace light in a manner so it appears several feet away from its actual location, which makes it a lot harder to hit it. The extremely powerful (even overpowered) rare magic item displacement cloak is also crafted from a displacer beasts hide!
While this guide focuses on the creatures in the Monster Manual, I’d recommend you checking out the nyxborn creatures in Mythic Odysseys of Theros such as a fleecemane lion, if you like the displacer beast. Nyxborn creatures resemble ordinary mortal creatures but with a “starry gleam” of Nyx while not in direct sunlight. You may also want to check out the theran chimera and an amphisbaene (a two-headed snake) from Theros!
9. Dryad
A dryad is a fey creature bound to a tree. While that may not sound particularly cool, it is. Dryad’s are shy and reclusive creatures who act as guardians of the woodlands and even work with other sylvan creatures to defend their forests. They even have an ability called Fey Charm! I also like the fact that they are bound to a specific tree – they stay forever youthful and alluring as long as that tree is healthy – which I think can be used to easily implement dryads in a fun way in most Feywild campaigns. For example, a dryad whose tree is destroyed becomes mad.
10. Will-o’-wisp
A will-o’-wisp is an undead ball of light that lures creatures into dangerous places such as quicksand pits, poisonous areas of a forest, or even the lairs of monsters. A will-o’-wisp can appear anywhere, but using a bobbing lantern or another kind of light to lure your PC’s somewhere just works much better in Feywild where everything is already mysterious – and where the evil ball of light might be mistaken for a friendly pixie.
Honorable Mention: Eladrin
Yes, I know. I’m only supposed to be listing creatures from the Monster Manual, but hear me out! The eladrin has always existed as elves dwelling in Feywild, but with Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes they became a playable race for PCs and were also introduced as creatures with their own statblock (one for each of the four seasons that eladrins can associate themselves with).
Eladrins are in many ways like the elves who live in the Material Plane, but they are more ruled by their emotions and can even change physically in order to match their temperament. While some Eladrins are humanoid (those a PC can play, for example!) most of them have, according to WotC, become fey creatures due to their time in the Feywild! Introducing these intelligent and emotional fey elves can, in my opinion, be a great way to tie your Feywild campaign together.
Conclusion
That concludes our picks for the most awesome creatures of the Feywild to run in D&D 5e!
With The Wild Beyond the Witchlight coming up we’re finally getting a campaign set in The Feywild, and I hope this list of cool fey creatures from the Monster’s Manual will help you on your future adventures in this awesome setting!
We’re also ramping up for WotC’s next official 5E release with some enchanting Feywild content over at patreon.com/eventyr where we previously released the fairytale adventure Colorful Cruelty. In this fanciful adventure, a group of 6th-10th-level characters must free a Fey Dragon from twisted Fomorians!
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S. K. Valeur
Creative engine, cheerleader, and co-founder of Eventyr Games, S. K. Valeur is the beating heart of the Eventyr team. When he isn't busy brewing up magical marvels – or equally magical craft beer! – he's either exploring the wonders of VTT, managing logistics and manufacturing, or writing articles about 5E.