With the recent release of D&D’s newest adventure module, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Dungeons & Dragons fans now have access to even more fun character options linked to the Feywild. While the book contains new monsters and items, for some players, some of the most exciting new inclusions are the new race options available to players.

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One of these new options is one of the most quintessential types of fey in fantasy: fairies! As new races often bring a lot to the table both mechanically and within the lore, there’s a lot of new information to take in. So today we’re going to look at the new Fairy race and explore everything you need to know about them!

7 Fairies Are Fey

bitterblossom fairy mtg art

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but as beings associated with the Feywild, much like centaurs, fairies count as fey. While in many scenarios this will have little bearing on gameplay, in some corner case scenarios such as those relating to spells that directly reference Fey, fairies may be affected. For example, spells like Detect Evil and Good and Protection from Evil and good each have effects that could detect or ward against a fairy character respectively,

6 Appearance

fairy wizard d&d

When making a fairy character, players have a great deal of freedom when deciding how they look. Toting appearances akin to diminutive elves, fairies come in a wide range of skin tones and with a variety of wing types.

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While some fairies may have more human-like skin tones, others may have blue or green skin, inspired by their relation to quicklings and sprites respectively. Wings of fairies also come in a variety of forms with some appearing moth-like while other are akin to those of various species of butterfly.

5 Flight

fairy fighter d&d

By and large, one of the biggest selling points to playing as a fairy is the ability to fly. Flying opens up tons of unique strategies in and out of battle, providing a character with stellar mobility. While a fairy can only access their flight if they aren’t wearing medium or heavy armor, the usefulness of this mobility cannot be overstated. Allowing characters to avoid combat, traps, and natural obstacles alike, flight is a stellar resource for any character to have. Currently, very few other races and D&D have constant access to flight, with the only other innately flying races being aarakocra and the winged variant of tiefling.

4 Small-Sized

pixie d&d

While fairies in various forms of fiction are commonly depicted as tiny creatures, when playing a Fairy in D&D, the character is considered to be classified as a small-sized creature.

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This puts them to be a comparable size to races like gnomes, halflings, goblins, and kobolds rather than the size of tiny sprites and quicklings a party may encounter in their travels. Luckily, as we'll soon explain, fairies do have access to a trick that allows them to become tiny-sized when needed!

3 Innate Spellcasters

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Like tieflings, fairies are capable of innately casting certain spells regardless of their class, opening up tons of fun build options and providing a great deal of added utility to a character. While at level one Fairies can innately cast the Druidcraft cantrip, as they level up, they gain access to two more spells, Faerie Fire and Reduce/Enlarge. While Faerie Fire can be used to deal with invisible foes, Reduce/Enlarge can be used flexibly, shrinking one’s self to a tiny size, becoming the size many may expect from faeries, or even enlarging a party’s fighter, barbarian, or paladin to make them even more dangerous in combat! These spells allow fairies to access unique utility options that can benefit any party, even if the fairy happens to be a martial class like a fighter.

2 Flexible Ability Score

spellstutter sprite fairy art

Following the trend set in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, rather than having predetermined ability score improvements, a player building a fairy can distribute three points across their ability scores as they see fit as long as all three points aren’t allocated into the same stat. This allows a player to optimally allocate their fairy’s scores to fit a wide variety of class options, from spellcasters to fighters.

Both long range spellcasters such as warlocks and sorcerers, and long-ranged physical attackers like fighters and rogues can ensure they have optimal ability scores while making incredible use out of the race’s access to both flight and useful utility spells.

1 Fey Influence

bitterblossom fairy art

In addition to their appearances often being influenced by different types of fey, the personalities of fairies are often influenced by these creatures as well. While a fairy influenced by pixies may be kindhearted and inclined towards good, those influenced by sprites may have a serious and focused disposition, while fairies influenced by quicklings may be prone to mood swings. As beings of the Feywild are most often known to be creatures of extreme emotion, this would likely be an element found within a fairy, regardless of which specific type of fey influenced them.

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