Again you as a single individual with summon fey CAN NOT charm more than 1 person. 1 person has to SUCCEED their check for you to TRY to charm the second with beguiling twist. That is still a total of 1 charm, not 2, not 3, not multiple, 1.
You absolutely 100% can. I have played this subclass a lot, on multiple tables with multiple DMs I know what I am talking about here.
At 11th level you can have up to 4 Fey on the battlefield so that is up to 4 NOT just 1. Every single Fey on the battlefield casts a charm every single turn as long as one of those charms is saved against the Ranger can use beguiling twist and put it on someone else. If there are 4 Fey on the battlefield and they all use their bonus action that is 4 people you can charm THAT TURN ALONE. If one of them succeeds on their save then you charm 3 but can twist it and charm or frighten a 4th (or put it on one of the 3 that failed). The charm lasts one minute so over the course of the battle you are going to have a ton of them floating around. It is "multiple". Going Nova by the end of turn 4 you will have cast a charm 10 times (potentially charming 10 different enemies). You will have used beguiling twist up to 4 times and retargeted if any of those succeeded on their save.
There will always be at least 3 creatures on the battlefield after summon Fey is cast in combat: the enemy, the Fey (which is immune to charm but not frightened) and the caster (Ranger who is not immune to charm but saves with advantage). Because of this you can ALWAYS put multiple effects on an enemy. Worst case with 1 Fey and 1 enemy it takes several turns, but you can still do it. With 2 or more Fey you can do multiple effects in one turn on the same enemy.
Example with just 1 Fey:
Round 1: Ranger casts summon Fey. Fey casts charm on enemy (Enemy is now charmed)
Round 2(Enemy is still charmed unless he took damage): Fey casts charm on Ranger, Ranger saves and twists that into fear on enemy - Enemy is now charmed by Fey and Ranger and frightened by Ranger
Round 3 (Enemy still charmed unless he took damage, still frightened unless he saved at the end of his turn): Fey casts charm on Ranger, Ranger saves and twists it int charm on enemy. Enemy is now charmed by Ranger and Fey, frightened by the Ranger and separately charmed by the Ranger due to beguiling twist. Since the twist effects are not canceled by damage the Fey and the Ranger wail away with impunity. The Fey steps away (not using charm) to stay out of combat. The Ranger stays in combat. The enemy can't chase the Fey because of frightened, cant attack the Ranger because of charmed. He saves against the twist at the end of his turn. If he saves against frightened then we start at it again.
Now that example had only 1 single Fey but you can do it with multiple Fey and normally you would, or you would have a spell you could cast yourself to speed up the process (cause fear being the best). With multiple Fey it is just more charms until someone succeeds and you can twist it. If you start the battle with a Fey already there you can do it on the first turn. With more Fey it is easier and faster because you have more chances to succeed on your save thereby enabling twist. The real limiting factor is 1 reaction per round, so if the enemy makes his save you will need to wait until the next round.
I know what I am talking about here because I have played this build a lot, this is basic tactics for a Fey Wanderer.
he fey has more mobility, but it has to teleport TO the target, not AWAY from the target to trigger it's charm, cutting its mobility and actively putting it in harms way.
Not "to the target" Within 10 feetof the target, which for most targets is far enough away that it can just walk away after this. Even if the target has a 10 foot reach it can still disengage because Fey Step is a bonus action and they have a 40 foot move which is more than most enemies. Not all, but most. So yes the Fey can move away from the target after using Fey step.
You get 3rd level spells at level 9 with a Ranger not 5, so druid multi-class only delays it 1 level AND you have more spell slots, more spells prepared and no Ranger doesn't have "better" 3rd level spells. Yes you get better around level 12.... welcome to the thread where it is about Ranger not doing well into the 11-13 or 14 range and not having an effectiveness drop off right as we are wrapping up the campaign glad you could join us.
The 5 was a typo, I was typing a lot of numbers, I meant 9. The point is my single class Ranger is getting 3rd level spells before the Druid.
The Ranger/Druid does not have a lot more spell slots, it is very few extra. At level 11 the Ranger/Druid can cast 4 1stl, 3 2nd, 3 3rd and 2 4th level.
The single class Ranger can cast 4 1st, 3 2nd and 3 3rd.
So the Ranger/Druid can cast EXACTLY 2 more spells than the Ranger at level 11 and they are both 4th level slots which he has no actual spells for.
But wait, the Ranger can also cast 3 more spells a day from primal awareness (and a 4th if he is a Fey Wanderer). So if you really want to start counting numbers, the single class 11th Ranger can cast more spells than a 5/6 Ranger/Druid.
Finally yes you would not have multi-attack at 5 if you didn't take ranger to 5, but the field damage is going to be more than the attack damage anyway.
But you have to hit to get the field damage and if you have two attacks you are far more likely to hit.
Also you will need to be 6th level to do this in the multiclass, while a single class Ranger can do it at 5 and do it far better (math below).
So you miss out on, about 1d8+6 at this point.
You have less of a chance of moving the target. A level 5 Ranger with an 18 strength and a Rapier has a +6 to hit and a base damage of 1d8+4. Assuming he has a secondary hand axe for ranged attacks that is 1d6+4. If the enemy has no ranged attack and has to move back there is also 12d4 of spike growth damage hanging on a failed save and with a 16 wisdom the Ranger has a 14DC.
The way this fight will go with multiattack - the Ranger will attack with the Rapier, if the enemy is missed the Ranger attacks a second time with the Rapier. The first time the enemy is hit with a rapier it needs to make a save or be moved (and take the movement damage). If it is hit and fails its save on the first attack the Ranger makes his second attack is with his hand axe.
Going with an enemy with an AC 16 and a Strength save of +3:
A Ranger/Druid making 1 attack will average 13 DPR and the enemy will only be moved through the spikes 27% of the time
The Ranger making 2 attacks will average 21 DPR and the enemy will be moved through the spikes 40% of the time
, but for the trade that by 8 you will have 3rd level spells
So 1 level earlier than a single class Ranger who had multiattack for the last 3 levels.
and by 10 you will have 4th level spells and you will actually see 5th level spells at 12 by the time the campaign is coming to a close. Since you are already prescribing a play style that is "Cast a concentration spell, then cast a spell that doesn't use your concentration" for your first 2, and most important, actions with the fey thing you might as well get to that style earlier. By the time your martial bits matter in either case, the fights should be wrapping up.
Two different builds here. The spikegrowth movement is a swarmkeeper build, not a Fey Wanderer build. The Fey wanderer is going to cast summon Fey in turn 1. If it is a big battle he is going to keep casting it.
You are right about becoming more of a caster. One of my characters was a Rogue1/Fey Wanderer 15. She had a girdle of Giant strength but was not using weapons very often. When she did she did a ton of damage (sneak+favored Foe/guardian of nature+dreadful strikes+weapon+7) but she did not do that often. Most of the time she used summon Fey, cause fear through shadow touched (sometimes upcast) and a wand of fear to control the battlefield. The party had no front liner at all. We were an evoker a Bard/Clerc, a Roge and my character. We had a ton of control and we were usually only actively fighting one or two enemies at a time because the rest of them were all tied up, charmed frightened or otherwise restricted from attacking.
Edit: Getting more fey on the field means you are using your action, and after the first cast all of your spell slots to put a Fey on the battlefield, and all but 1 need to be the 1 minute variant so you don't use your concentration. That is super boring and definitely not the most effective thing to do with your action. You nova'd all of your fey in one fight, and you have nothing else for the rest of the day. If this is the last fight of the day what did you do in the other 5 fights? If it is your first fight of the day..... then all I have to say is this:
Having a lot more spells as in a lot more spell OPTIONS not casts, and even if we were going to count casts, you now have to talk about ritual casting. The druid multi class has bigger casts, and MORE OPTIONS both inside and outside of combat as well as ritual casting. You can prepare way more spells as a druid, even with a multi-class than you can know as a ranger. At level 11, most creatures you will face are large and have a reach and most of them have more than 40 feet of movement. or let me correct, that I face at 11. We are specifically still talking about 11, 12 and 13 here. I said 1 charm per turn, so what I said matches, and you are assuming you are going to succeed against your own spell dc every turn and they are going to fail every turn. That is massive assumption, and not realistic at all, and again assuming the fey lives that long, which a summon with 30 health and an AC will not live that long at the games I am at. But hey each table is different I guess.
And at 15, this dynamic changes, Guardian of Nature makes a big difference and the 15th level feature of ranger makes a difference as well, but by 15 you are also talking about having 6th level spell slots and knowing 5th level spells with the druid multi-class and having the 10th level druid features. Everything is a trade off, and so far I am absolutely winning this trade by going druid after 5.
That is super boring and definitely not the most effective thing to do with your action.
Very debatable. There are more than just a few people who enjoy minion builds and there arguably aren't many more effective things to do with your action than to control the battlefield. Damage isn't everything.
Right, but each action is only adding one more creature to the control list. Plant growth could control the whole field. Conjure animals could as well and it is a minion summon feature. Take 6 levels of shepherd druid for more and better summoning. Level 2 spell spike growth can as well. Summon another fey is much worse than all of that. And if you want to play minion build great, that doesn't usually mean summon the same thing 4 times.
(Also again, nova'd all of his best spell slots in 1 fight, this isn't just about action economy but resource economy as well. Both got tossed)
Edit: Getting more fey on the field means you are using your action, and after the first cast all of your spell slots to put a Fey on the battlefield, and all but 1 need to be the 1 minute variant so you don't use your concentration. That is super boring and definitely not the most effective thing to do with your action. You nova'd all of your fey in one fight, and you have nothing else for the rest of the day. If this is the last fight of the day what did you do in the other 5 fights? If it is your first fight of the day..... then all I have to say is this:
Every Fey gets an action and a bonus action and they go right after you. In terms of action economy you are trading your ONE action for ONE action ONE bonus action and a possible reaction for every turn until it is killed. That is a good trade on the very first turn of combat and those are actions you add every turn. The reactions are also huge because of the number of enemies charmed and opportunity attacks.
Further mathematically Summon Fey cast at 4th level will do 4d6+14, which will do about as much damage as 1 martial (or more than a martial using a d8 weapon like). If you cast it at 3rd level, 2 of them will do more damage than a martial. So by the second round of combat even if I do nothing they are doing as much damage as most martials are IN ADDITION to charming 2 enemies a turn.
Action economy is what makes this spell so great, you cast a spell and you are not very far behind even on the first turm and way, way ahead after the first couple rounds.
Lets do the math: 18 strength/18 Wisdom 13th level Ranger with a greatsword against AC17 through 3 rounds of battle (I am not going to count criticals to make the math easier). I specifically chose a greatsword so it was the highest damage I could do with a Ranger:
Ranger who is not using summon Fey and is using action to attack with Favored Foe and dreadful strikes:
Round 1: 19 damage with 2 attacks vs AC 17 (0.6% chance to hit, 11 damage from sword 3.5 dreadful strikes and 3.5 favored foe if at least 1 attack hit)
Round2: 19 damage (38 total)
Round3: 19 damage (57 total)
Total after 3 rounds 57 damage
Ranger casting Summon Fey for 2 rounds then attacking:
Round 2: Ranger 0 damage, 2 Feys 25 damage and 2 charms (total 42 damage and 3 enemies charmed)
Round 3: Ranger 19 damage, 2 Fey 25 damage and 2 charms (total 86 damage and 5 enemies charmed)
So after three turns the Ranger who cast Summon Fey is almost 30 points ahead in terms of damage and pulling away while also having multiple enemies charmed and adding 3 more to that list every turn.
The only point he is behind at all is the very first round and he is only 3 damage behind. I did this comparison with a greatsword to maximize the damage done by the Ranger. Using
At level 11, most creatures you will face are large and have a reach and most of them have more than 40 feet of movement.
I don't agree that most will have more than 40 feet, I think about half of them will at that level, but keep in mind he starts 10 feet away and if he disengages they need to chase him 50 feet and purposely go out of their way to kill the Fey.
This is aside from the fact that most CR11 foes will not usually kill a Fey in 1 turn with attacks, some of them will usually do it, others might do it with a breath weapon, still others could do it with above average or great rolls, but it is incorrect to say most will kill a fey with one attack action. Further this assumes they made their charm save which "is a huge assumption" on your part. I gave you an example with a CR15 purple worm above -the chance he can kill a Fey that tries to charm him on turn 1 is less than 15%, and that is CR 15.
Here is all the CR11 creatures from the SRD and the chance they have to kill a Fey that tried to charm them on the 1st turn (this includes the chance of beating the charm because you have to do that to harm it at all):
Behir: chance to kill in one turn 32% with breath weapon, 27% with attacks
Djinni: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 41% with scimitars
Efreeti: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 32% scimitars, 18% with hurl flame
Gynosphix: Note: Immune to charm,- chance to kill Fey in 1 turn using claws 11%*. Chance to kill in one round using claws and all 3 legendary actions to attack Fey 60%*, Chance to Banish Fey 65% (not technically dead and comes back on concentration failure)
*note for Gynosphinx this does not include an attempt to frighten sphinx and cause disadvantage on attacks
Horned Devil: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 12% using fork and tail.
Rhemoraz: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 17% bite
Roc: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 16% beak and claws
So there is all of the CR11 monsters in the SRD, the best one only has a 32% chance to take down a Fey in one turn. A Giosphinx is the only one who has even a better than even chance of doing it in an entire round, that is only because it is immune to charm and it needs to use all 3 legendaries to do it.
This is aside from the fact that an enemy that uses an entire action to kill a Fey did not target the party, and if we are fighting one enemy, it should be substantially more powerful than us, meaning one of his actions is worth more than one of ours.
I did not include the math on the saves regarding using the twist on the Ranger. I can calculate that for given enemy if you really think it would help your argument. The Ranger is going to save more often than he is going to fail due to advantage, but keep in mind with more than 1 Fey if he fails his save the next Fey can try to charm him. As you pointed out the reaction does not trigger until he makes his save. The chance of failing multiple in a row is very low so the chanced of successfully triggering the reaction once multiple Fey are on the battlefied is high.
As for number of fights you are absolutely right and that does matter and I have played a Ranger who used all their spells early in the day. But on the other hand a Ranger is a martial character, I can still be effective with no spells at all. I have abilities like extra attack, a combat style, lands strid, Vanish and dreadful strikes that are at will, I also have limited use abilities like natures veil, tireless and favored foe. All of these improve performance in martial combat without even reaching into your spells. When I was playing the Ranger I mentioned earlier, she nearly ran out of spells on the second fight of the day once (completely ran out except for speak with animals and beast sense). It was a fight with 4 flying dragons simultaneously from a flying castle, and she burned through most of the charges in her wand of fear, she was using misty step, ensnaring strike, upcast ensnaring strike, summon Fey. She had a Fey who fey stepped on top of one of the dragons and was shaken off, plummeting to their death. We thought (incorrectly) we would get a long rest but we didn't. I even joked "I guess I am going to have to play her like a proper martial". The DM got a laugh out of that but she was still effective in that role. Not as fun, but still effective, and a lot more effective than one of the party full casters who nearly ran himself out of spells.
Just a reminder the "summon fey at 4th level" is technically an argument for Ranger/druid subclass since you get that a whole level earlier. Of course you don't get to have 2 of them. But compare the "Summon fey" ranger to the Shepherd Druid/Fey Ranger that conjures animals on his first turn and attacks the rest. I think the number of grapples and attacks become unfavorable to you by comparison. (6 druid,5 ranger).
Just a reminder the "summon fey at 4th level" is technically an argument for Ranger/druid subclass since you get that a whole level earlier. Of course you don't get to have 2 of them. But compare the "Summon fey" ranger to the Shepherd Druid/Fey Ranger that conjures animals on his first turn and attacks the rest. I think the number of grapples and attacks become unfavorable to you by comparison. (6 druid,5 ranger).
One level earlier, but you can only summon 1 due to concentration and if you lose concentration it goes away.
I can do that math, what animal do you want me to use for conjure animals, what enemy do you want them to be fighting and how many of them and what weapon do you want the Druid-Ranger using?
Conjure animals is a powerful spell but a big negative is they have to roll initiative which can put them right before the Druids next turn in a worst case scenario. The Fey go right after the Ranger. This is ideal because it means they always get an action and a bonus action and are effectvin the fight before the next turn after the Ranger. Also as you get more on the battlefield it becomes easier to make blocking movements and positioning.
Just a reminder the "summon fey at 4th level" is technically an argument for Ranger/druid subclass since you get that a whole level earlier. Of course you don't get to have 2 of them. But compare the "Summon fey" ranger to the Shepherd Druid/Fey Ranger that conjures animals on his first turn and attacks the rest. I think the number of grapples and attacks become unfavorable to you by comparison. (6 druid,5 ranger).
One level earlier, but you can only summon 1 due to concentration and if you lose concentration it goes away.
I can do that math, what animal do you want me to use for conjure animals, what enemy do you want them to be fighting and how many of them and what weapon do you want the Druid-Ranger using?
Conjure animals is a powerful spell but a big negative is they have to roll initiative which can put them right before the Druids next turn in a worst case scenario. The Fey go right after the Ranger. This is ideal because it means they always get an action and a bonus action and are effectvin the fight before the next turn after tSurehe Ranger. Also as you get more on the battlefield it becomes easier to make blocking movements and positioning.
Sure lets call it Giant Badgers why not. Badgers are fun. Also remember it lasts an hour, so precast is fine here, also also it will last more than 1 fight and I can still spend spells on non-concentration stuff. And/or just attack. And bear totem gives advantage to strength checks, and their attacks are magical for overcoming resistances so make sure to account for the fact that a majority of higher level creatures have resistance and half the fey damage thank you. Oh druid ranger is using Shillelagh + dueling with a shield. so 1d8+7, pole arm master for giggles so on turns when they have their bonus action available they can also attack with it for 1d4+7. Also with bear they have 11 Temp hit points and +4 health. So their health is all 28 each and they can start underground.
Ok I think I am tracking most of that. This is neither a spell nor a class I am very familiar with so if I make a mistake I think that is why.
I am not sure what "+4 health" and their "health is all 26" means, is that +4hps?
Giant Boar - 1 summoned by conjure animals (2 using 5th level slot)
AC12, 45 hp(+11 temp) , +5 to hit, 2d6+3 damage, charge for an extra 2d6 and DC13 strength save to knock enemy prone. Is there anything else I need with that?
I will say the Fey Damage at 3rd level is 1d6+3 piercing plus 1d6+3 force. Very few creatures are resistant to force damage.
Ok I think I am tracking most of that. This is neither a spell nor a class I am very familiar with so if I make a mistake I think that is why.
I am not sure what "+4 health" and their "health is all 26" means, is that +4hps?
Giant Boar - 1 summoned by conjure animals (2 using 5th level slot)
AC12, 45 hp(+11 temp) , +5 to hit, 2d6+3 damage, charge for an extra 2d6 and DC13 strength save to knock enemy prone. Is there anything else I need with that?
I will say the Fey Damage at 3rd level is 1d6+3 piercing plus 1d6+3 force. Very few creatures are resistant to force damage.
What enemy do you want them fighting?
Sorry meant Giant Badgers. or normal boars. you get 8 of them not 1. And you have to look at the Shepherd druid subclass features. At level 6 they add +2 hit points PER hit die of the creatures and they add magical attacks. and the totem adds 5+ druid levels temp HP and advantage on strength checks and saves.
I was going to go with something common like a stone gollum, but realized it wouldnt be fair to they fairy because of charm immunity, then did the same thing with the guardian Naga. Lets just go with Horned Devils.
Edit: something else to consider is remember the beasts can all grapple if they need to with advantage.
11th level PC stats (using same for both): W20, C10, AC16 hp70 (I am going to fgive the Druid D10s to make this easier)
I will do this using deterministic damage and saves, then I will assume all effects at the end of the turn. What this means is there is no randomness. Damage is base damage multiplied by the chance and in the case of the Fey summoner to hit multiplied by the chance that the devil is not charmed. What this means is the Devil will do average damage considering the chance he can do damage. I will post those explicits on the next post. I will also not consider concentration at all (assume all concentration saves are made).
For the infernal wound I am going to apply the damage against the propensity to hit and the propensity to save and consider a still living creature is going to use an action to try to close it and thereby modify its attacks and or charm in the round forward in a stochastic fashion.
That is super boring and definitely not the most effective thing to do with your action.
Very debatable. There are more than just a few people who enjoy minion builds and there arguably aren't many more effective things to do with your action than to control the battlefield. Damage isn't everything.
Right, but each action is only adding one more creature to the control list. Plant growth could control the whole field. Conjure animals could as well and it is a minion summon feature. Take 6 levels of shepherd druid for more and better summoning. Level 2 spell spike growth can as well. Summon another fey is much worse than all of that. And if you want to play minion build great, that doesn't usually mean summon the same thing 4 times.
(Also again, nova'd all of his best spell slots in 1 fight, this isn't just about action economy but resource economy as well. Both got tossed)
With the Fey Wanderer it's not directly about the summoning, it's about spreading the charmed or frightened condition. No other class is able to give it for a whole minute and without needing to keep up with concentration or such. Summon Fey helps with that immensely. Sure the enemy can save against it every round but if they succeed the save you can throw it to another enemy, effectively bouncing it between them the whole time even before your summons do their thing. The Fey Wanderer is potentially one of the strongest battlefield controller from level 11 on. Not to mention since the 11th feature summons don't necessarily require your concentration you can STILL cast spike growth or entangle or such on top of that.
Nobody tosses anything here. Some builds nova, some don't. That's just how things are. Paladins often nova everything in only one or two fights and then are worse Fighters too. As with any nova build you gotta know when to nova and when not.
Charm monster spell wants a word, careful with the 'no other class" if you mean no other martial maybe, but no other is not accurate. (also again any time you are not using your concentration it only lasts a minute so you are using your action to summon it.) in this case best thing is probably have it pre-cast as concentration and then use your first action to summon a second one. Then as long as your targets are not immune to charm you have something. Of the creatures CR11-14 nearly 30% of them are immune to charm. So a little under 1/3, and 80% of them have wisdom as a saving throw proficiency. So it is a good thing that the fey gives him a second chance. Hope he stacked wisdom. (i do wish I could look up magic resistance because this factors in as well, but nope not easy to search.
That is super boring and definitely not the most effective thing to do with your action.
Very debatable. There are more than just a few people who enjoy minion builds and there arguably aren't many more effective things to do with your action than to control the battlefield. Damage isn't everything.
Right, but each action is only adding one more creature to the control list. Plant growth could control the whole field. Conjure animals could as well and it is a minion summon feature. Take 6 levels of shepherd druid for more and better summoning. Level 2 spell spike growth can as well. Summon another fey is much worse than all of that. And if you want to play minion build great, that doesn't usually mean summon the same thing 4 times.
(Also again, nova'd all of his best spell slots in 1 fight, this isn't just about action economy but resource economy as well. Both got tossed)
With the Fey Wanderer it's not directly about the summoning, it's about spreading the charmed or frightened condition. No other class is able to give it for a whole minute and without needing to keep up with concentration or such. Summon Fey helps with that immensely. Sure the enemy can save against it every round but if they succeed the save you can throw it to another enemy, effectively bouncing it between them the whole time even before your summons do their thing. The Fey Wanderer is potentially one of the strongest battlefield controller from level 11 on. Not to mention since the 11th feature summons don't necessarily require your concentration you can STILL cast spike growth or entangle or such on top of that.
Nobody tosses anything here. Some builds nova, some don't. That's just how things are. Paladins often nova everything in only one or two fights and then are worse Fighters too. As with any nova build you gotta know when to nova and when not.
Charm monster spell wants a word, careful with the 'no other class" if you mean no other martial maybe, but no other is not accurate.
Aye and fails as soon as it gets attacked, lets it know it was charmed by you and has advantage on the save if you're already fighting it. Also costs a 4th level slot every time you attempt it while the 11th level feature only costs your reaction and something to get the engine started (like a summoned Fey for example or heck even an enemy trying to charm/frighten someone in the party).
Right the fey one breaks on damage as well. Most creatures at this level already have advantage on the save AND you can upcast with a 5th level slot (since full casters have those at this level) and get more than 1 creature with a single action cast. And the feature you are talking about with the reaction is thankfully NOT 11th level and is actually only 7th level which only works if they succeed their save, as I said before, so it works as a pseudo advantage.
Right, I was specifically referring to it from the offensive trick side. I think it is much better as a defensive ability than an offensive one. Having advantage on the save, succeeding the save and turning it back to me is much preferable to the pseudo advantage or the trick where you charm yourself to bounce it and hope they fail the save.
I guess I will give credit that it is flexible and flexible features are always good.
Since there is only one enemy I am going to calculate the ally attacks together.
The way summoned Fey works is the Fey goes right after the Ranger, that means new Fey summoned go between the Ranger and the last Fey. further I am going to have all Fey attack since this is one enemy. That is not the bst way to go against a lone enemy, but the only way I can do it mathematically without programming a simulaition. That means early Fey might have their charms canceled by Fey that hit later and it dramatically drives up the damage the devil can do. As a result after there is more than 1 Fey they are going to try to get a twisted frightened in by charming the Ranger. The base chance of this working is 41% with 2 Fey on the battlefeild, 51% with 3 Fey on the battlefield and 54% with 4 Fey on the battlefield. That includes the effect of the Ranger succeeding and the devil failing. This eliminates the charm for the "new" Fey and regressively eliminates it for up to the next two by 25% and 6%. Being frightened reduces the devils chance to hit by 20% and restricts movement. The way I am going to handle this is I am going to ignore movement but apply a flat 10% reduction on the devils damage when 2 or more Fey are on the battlefield and make one of the Fey not targetable at all (he is Fey stepping towards the Ranger) when there are 2 Fey or more in the fight. The same Fey can not be non-targetable two turns in a row.
Badgers first turn and 2nd-8th badger every turn - chance to hit 30% damage 5 claws 5 bite. total damage=3
Badger with wound - chance to hit 30%, chance to not be wounded 28%. total damage=1
PC Druid -chance to hit 60% damage 10 attack, 10 extra attack, 8 PAM. total damage=17 (I will assume shillelagh is precast)
PC Ranger - chance to hit 60% damage 10 attack, 10 extra attack, 8 PAM=17 +3.5 dreadful strikes +3.5 favored foe 96% chance to hit. total damage=24
Fey - chance to hit 60% damage 7piercieng halved to 3, 7 force. Total damage 6
If all Fey attack reduce damage of one Fey by 1 to account for possibility he is wounded.
Devil fork badger: chance to hit 0.95 damage 15. Total damage=14
Devil tail badger: chance to hit 0.95 damage 10 + 10 wound with a 70% chance of failed save. total damage 0.95*(10+0.70*10)=17 some of this takes affect the next turn but it goes before the guy who is hit goes so it is ok to count it here.
Note below - fey 1, Fey 2, Fey 3 etc refer to turn order. When the first fey summoned is killed Fey 2 becomes Fey 1 for the Devil's damage purposes the NEXT turn.
Devil fork Fey 1: chance to not be charmed 55%, chance to hit 80% damage 15. total damage =7
Devil fork Fey 2: chance not to be charmed by Fey 2 (72%) chance to hit 80% damage 15. total damage= 9
Devil Fork Fey 3: chance not to be charmed by Fey 3 (84%) chance to hit 80% damage 15, total damage= 10
Devil tail Fey 1: chance to not be charmed 55%, chance to hit 80% damage 10+10 wound with 70% chance not to save. total damage= 7
Devil Tail Fey 2: chance to not be charmed by Fey 2 (72%), chance to hit 80% damage 10+10 with 70% chance not to save. Total damage =10
Devil tail Fey 3: Chance not to be charmed by Fey 3 (84%) chance to hit 80%, damage 10+10 with 70% not to save. total damage =11
Devil fork on PC with no Fey alive at start of devil turn: 75% chance to hit, 15 damage. Total damage = 11
Devil fork on PC with 1 or 2 Fey alive at start of devil turn: 55% chance to not be charmed by Ranger, 75% chance to hit total. damage = 6
Devil Fork on PC with 3 Fey alive at start of devil turn: 20% chance to not be charmed by Ranger, 75% chance to hit. total damage = 2
Devil Tail on PC with 0 Fey alive at start of devil turn: 75% chance to hit. 10 + 10 with 80% chance to fail save = 14
Devil tail on PC with 1 or 2 Fey alive at start of devil turn total damage = 7
Devil tail on PC with 3 fey alive at start of devil turn = 3
Conjure Animals
For initiative we will assume 2 badgers go before Druid, 4 between Druid and Devil and 2 after Devil. We will run up to the Devils turn and then do turn-to-turn based on the devil thereafter.
Before devils turn
6 Badgers-18 damage
Druid-17damage
1. Devil- kills one badger, wounds the other and takes it to 11
6 badgers - 18
wounded badger -1
Druid-17
2. Devil kills 2 badgers
5 badgers - 15
druid 17
3. Devil - kills badger, wounds badger
3 badgers-9
wounded badger-1
druid-17
4. Devil - kills 2 badgers
2 badgers-6
druid-17
5. Devil - kills 1 badger wounds 1
wounded badger 1
Druid - 17
7. Devil - kills last badger deals 25 to druid
At this point the devil has taken 153 damage, the Druid has taken 25 and there are no allies left on the field
Using summon Fey
Fey 1 attacks - 6
1. Devils turn Devil does 21 damage to Fey 1 (9hps left)
Fey1 and Fey 2 attack for 11
Fey 1 not targetable next turn
2. Devils turn, Devil does 25 to Fey 2 (accounting for potential for being frightened)
Fey 1, 2 and 3 attack for 17
Fey 2 is not targetable
3 Devils turn. devil kills Fey 1 with 2 fork attacks, hits Fey 3 for 10 (20hp lef)
Fey 2, Fey3 and Fey 4 hit for 17
Fey 2 is not targetable.
4. Devil - Devil hits fey 3 for 19 (1hp left)
Fey 2, Fey 3 and Fey 4 hit for 17
Ranger hits for 24
Fey 3 is not targetable
5. Devil - Devil kills Fey 2, deals 17 to Fey 4
Fey 3 and Fey 4 hit for 11
Ranger hits for 24
Fey 4 is not targetable
6. Devil- Devil kills Fey 3, deals 12 to Ranger
Fey 4 hits 6
Ranger hits for 24
7 Devil - kills Fey 4 deals 7 to Ranger
At this point The devil has taken 157 and the Ranger has taken 19
It is pretty darn close and I did not plan it that way. Note I did not consider either positioning or loss of concentration.
Also this assumes the Fey are going to attack every turn. That is not really the right way to play this ability against one enemy, that is the way to play it against large numbers. Against one enemy, The right way to play it is attack first then Fey step. If the first Fey fails to charm he draws the bad guys AOO. Once one Fey successfully charms him the rest do not attack him. They either try to get the ranger to twist or only use their charm. Any Fey after the first successful charm that succeed in charming close into melee range and ready an action to attack if the devil moves (which is a little different than an AOO). Fey who fail at charm disengage if he has not used his AOO or just leave and ready an action if he closes within reach. What this does is put the Ranger and any fey who succeeded in charm in contact with the lone enemy. If he moves he draws attacks from all of them. He does not need to move out of reach either, he just has to move.
This draws the battle out longer because you are doing less DPR but you are putting a lot of enemies in contact, he can't attack anyone easily but they can attack him. It also puts up physical barriers to movement that he has to go around.
Charm monster spell wants a word, careful with the 'no other class" if you mean no other martial maybe, but no other is not accurate.
Charm monster is a 4th level spell, you ca only use it on one enemy, you can only use it once, he has advantage on the save in combat and you can't do anything if he makes the save.
Summon Fey allows you to put down what is effectively a charm monster spell every single turn, including the turn you cast it and it is not at disadvantage if you are in combat, if an enemy saves you can try to charm or frighten another and the Fey gets an action and reaction on top of all that.
Of the creatures CR11-14 nearly 30% of them are immune to charm. So a little under 1/3, and 80% of them have wisdom as a saving throw proficiency.
There are 14 CR 11-14 enemies in the SRD. Only 1 is immune to charm (Gynoshphinx)
Now I did not look at every creature in the monster manual, but I don't think you are going to get nearly to one third. I will also note that 5 SRD CR 11-14 have legendary resistance.
The Fey Wanderer is potentially one of the strongest battlefield controller from level 11 on. Not to mention since the 11th feature summons don't necessarily require your concentration you can STILL cast spike growth or entangle or such on top of that.
I would say it is one of the best controllers from level 7 on if you have the right party makeup (one with an enchanter, dragonborn w/dragonfear or lionen) or if your Fey Wanderer has feats (Shadow touched-cause Fear) or if you can buy magic items (wand of fear, mace of terror). In that case I would say you are one of the best controllers from level 7 on, while still being really good in martial combat.
It is crazy when you have cause fear up on a melee enemy that can't close for combat, he is over there dodging and waiting to finally save, he finally makes his save, you twist it on to a second enemy who is already engaged giving him disadvantage (and drop concentration) then on your turn before the first guy goes you cast the spell and hit him with cause fear again.
The guy made his save which let you drop concentration on the first spell and double the number frightened people on the battlefield with another cast.
Right, I was specifically referring to it from the offensive trick side. I think it is much better as a defensive ability than an offensive one. Having advantage on the save, succeeding the save and turning it back to me is much preferable to the pseudo advantage or the trick where you charm yourself to bounce it and hope they fail the save.
I guess I will give credit that it is flexible and flexible features are always good.
Beguiling Twist is best as an offensive ability with multiple enemies that your party targets with the triggering effect. It works best with spells or abilities that cause charmed or frightened and cause multiple saves - wand of fear, cause fear (which is a great spell in its own right that upcasts well), Dragonborn with dragonfear, the fear spell or hypnotic pattern if you have a wizard. These are awesome. If you target multiple enemies chances are one of them will save allowing you to retarget another enemy with the initial cast. Many of these spells also use a "save every turn" or "save when hit" where if you use it one turn you have a lot of twist opportunities down the road. This is by far the most effective use of it and it is where the battlefield control form the ability comes from.
Bouncing it off yourself is far less effective and fighting a lone enemy gimps the ability a lot. I mentioned it because we were talking about fighting one enemy. Also I think summon Fey specifically is the only spell that works with this, where tons of spells and abilities work with the broader offensive use above.
As far as defensive uses, Dragons are where I have used it the best. Someone in the party will generally make the save against dragonfear the first turn and others in the party won't but they will save in future rounds. So like every round you are twisting frightened on to the dragon (or if he is already frightened twisting charm) because HE decided to use his fear ability one time. We faced a white Dragon and my Ranger burned through every legendary he had over 4 or 5 rounds because he used dragonfear one time.
Edit: Getting more fey on the field means you are using your action, and after the first cast all of your spell slots to put a Fey on the battlefield, and all but 1 need to be the 1 minute variant so you don't use your concentration. That is super boring and definitely not the most effective thing to do with your action. You nova'd all of your fey in one fight, and you have nothing else for the rest of the day. If this is the last fight of the day what did you do in the other 5 fights? If it is your first fight of the day..... then all I have to say is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsYil1zPabA 1:52-2:12
Having a lot more spells as in a lot more spell OPTIONS not casts, and even if we were going to count casts, you now have to talk about ritual casting. The druid multi class has bigger casts, and MORE OPTIONS both inside and outside of combat as well as ritual casting. You can prepare way more spells as a druid, even with a multi-class than you can know as a ranger. At level 11, most creatures you will face are large and have a reach and most of them have more than 40 feet of movement. or let me correct, that I face at 11. We are specifically still talking about 11, 12 and 13 here. I said 1 charm per turn, so what I said matches, and you are assuming you are going to succeed against your own spell dc every turn and they are going to fail every turn. That is massive assumption, and not realistic at all, and again assuming the fey lives that long, which a summon with 30 health and an AC will not live that long at the games I am at. But hey each table is different I guess.
And at 15, this dynamic changes, Guardian of Nature makes a big difference and the 15th level feature of ranger makes a difference as well, but by 15 you are also talking about having 6th level spell slots and knowing 5th level spells with the druid multi-class and having the 10th level druid features. Everything is a trade off, and so far I am absolutely winning this trade by going druid after 5.
Right, but each action is only adding one more creature to the control list. Plant growth could control the whole field. Conjure animals could as well and it is a minion summon feature. Take 6 levels of shepherd druid for more and better summoning. Level 2 spell spike growth can as well. Summon another fey is much worse than all of that. And if you want to play minion build great, that doesn't usually mean summon the same thing 4 times.
(Also again, nova'd all of his best spell slots in 1 fight, this isn't just about action economy but resource economy as well. Both got tossed)
Every Fey gets an action and a bonus action and they go right after you. In terms of action economy you are trading your ONE action for ONE action ONE bonus action and a possible reaction for every turn until it is killed. That is a good trade on the very first turn of combat and those are actions you add every turn. The reactions are also huge because of the number of enemies charmed and opportunity attacks.
Further mathematically Summon Fey cast at 4th level will do 4d6+14, which will do about as much damage as 1 martial (or more than a martial using a d8 weapon like). If you cast it at 3rd level, 2 of them will do more damage than a martial. So by the second round of combat even if I do nothing they are doing as much damage as most martials are IN ADDITION to charming 2 enemies a turn.
Action economy is what makes this spell so great, you cast a spell and you are not very far behind even on the first turm and way, way ahead after the first couple rounds.
Lets do the math: 18 strength/18 Wisdom 13th level Ranger with a greatsword against AC17 through 3 rounds of battle (I am not going to count criticals to make the math easier). I specifically chose a greatsword so it was the highest damage I could do with a Ranger:
Ranger who is not using summon Fey and is using action to attack with Favored Foe and dreadful strikes:
Round 1: 19 damage with 2 attacks vs AC 17 (0.6% chance to hit, 11 damage from sword 3.5 dreadful strikes and 3.5 favored foe if at least 1 attack hit)
Round2: 19 damage (38 total)
Round3: 19 damage (57 total)
Total after 3 rounds 57 damage
Ranger casting Summon Fey for 2 rounds then attacking:
Round 1: Ranger 0 damage, 4th level Fey 17 damage and 1 charm (total 17 damage 1 charm)
Round 2: Ranger 0 damage, 2 Feys 25 damage and 2 charms (total 42 damage and 3 enemies charmed)
Round 3: Ranger 19 damage, 2 Fey 25 damage and 2 charms (total 86 damage and 5 enemies charmed)
So after three turns the Ranger who cast Summon Fey is almost 30 points ahead in terms of damage and pulling away while also having multiple enemies charmed and adding 3 more to that list every turn.
The only point he is behind at all is the very first round and he is only 3 damage behind. I did this comparison with a greatsword to maximize the damage done by the Ranger. Using
I don't agree that most will have more than 40 feet, I think about half of them will at that level, but keep in mind he starts 10 feet away and if he disengages they need to chase him 50 feet and purposely go out of their way to kill the Fey.
This is aside from the fact that most CR11 foes will not usually kill a Fey in 1 turn with attacks, some of them will usually do it, others might do it with a breath weapon, still others could do it with above average or great rolls, but it is incorrect to say most will kill a fey with one attack action. Further this assumes they made their charm save which "is a huge assumption" on your part. I gave you an example with a CR15 purple worm above -the chance he can kill a Fey that tries to charm him on turn 1 is less than 15%, and that is CR 15.
Here is all the CR11 creatures from the SRD and the chance they have to kill a Fey that tried to charm them on the 1st turn (this includes the chance of beating the charm because you have to do that to harm it at all):
Behir: chance to kill in one turn 32% with breath weapon, 27% with attacks
Djinni: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 41% with scimitars
Efreeti: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 32% scimitars, 18% with hurl flame
Gynosphix: Note: Immune to charm,- chance to kill Fey in 1 turn using claws 11%*. Chance to kill in one round using claws and all 3 legendary actions to attack Fey 60%*, Chance to Banish Fey 65% (not technically dead and comes back on concentration failure)
*note for Gynosphinx this does not include an attempt to frighten sphinx and cause disadvantage on attacks
Horned Devil: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 12% using fork and tail.
Rhemoraz: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 17% bite
Roc: Chance to kill Fey in one turn 16% beak and claws
So there is all of the CR11 monsters in the SRD, the best one only has a 32% chance to take down a Fey in one turn. A Giosphinx is the only one who has even a better than even chance of doing it in an entire round, that is only because it is immune to charm and it needs to use all 3 legendaries to do it.
This is aside from the fact that an enemy that uses an entire action to kill a Fey did not target the party, and if we are fighting one enemy, it should be substantially more powerful than us, meaning one of his actions is worth more than one of ours.
I did not include the math on the saves regarding using the twist on the Ranger. I can calculate that for given enemy if you really think it would help your argument. The Ranger is going to save more often than he is going to fail due to advantage, but keep in mind with more than 1 Fey if he fails his save the next Fey can try to charm him. As you pointed out the reaction does not trigger until he makes his save. The chance of failing multiple in a row is very low so the chanced of successfully triggering the reaction once multiple Fey are on the battlefied is high.
As for number of fights you are absolutely right and that does matter and I have played a Ranger who used all their spells early in the day. But on the other hand a Ranger is a martial character, I can still be effective with no spells at all. I have abilities like extra attack, a combat style, lands strid, Vanish and dreadful strikes that are at will, I also have limited use abilities like natures veil, tireless and favored foe. All of these improve performance in martial combat without even reaching into your spells. When I was playing the Ranger I mentioned earlier, she nearly ran out of spells on the second fight of the day once (completely ran out except for speak with animals and beast sense). It was a fight with 4 flying dragons simultaneously from a flying castle, and she burned through most of the charges in her wand of fear, she was using misty step, ensnaring strike, upcast ensnaring strike, summon Fey. She had a Fey who fey stepped on top of one of the dragons and was shaken off, plummeting to their death. We thought (incorrectly) we would get a long rest but we didn't. I even joked "I guess I am going to have to play her like a proper martial". The DM got a laugh out of that but she was still effective in that role. Not as fun, but still effective, and a lot more effective than one of the party full casters who nearly ran himself out of spells.
Just a reminder the "summon fey at 4th level" is technically an argument for Ranger/druid subclass since you get that a whole level earlier. Of course you don't get to have 2 of them. But compare the "Summon fey" ranger to the Shepherd Druid/Fey Ranger that conjures animals on his first turn and attacks the rest. I think the number of grapples and attacks become unfavorable to you by comparison. (6 druid,5 ranger).
One level earlier, but you can only summon 1 due to concentration and if you lose concentration it goes away.
I can do that math, what animal do you want me to use for conjure animals, what enemy do you want them to be fighting and how many of them and what weapon do you want the Druid-Ranger using?
Conjure animals is a powerful spell but a big negative is they have to roll initiative which can put them right before the Druids next turn in a worst case scenario. The Fey go right after the Ranger. This is ideal because it means they always get an action and a bonus action and are effectvin the fight before the next turn after the Ranger. Also as you get more on the battlefield it becomes easier to make blocking movements and positioning.
Sure lets call it Giant Badgers why not. Badgers are fun. Also remember it lasts an hour, so precast is fine here, also also it will last more than 1 fight and I can still spend spells on non-concentration stuff. And/or just attack. And bear totem gives advantage to strength checks, and their attacks are magical for overcoming resistances so make sure to account for the fact that a majority of higher level creatures have resistance and half the fey damage thank you. Oh druid ranger is using Shillelagh + dueling with a shield. so 1d8+7, pole arm master for giggles so on turns when they have their bonus action available they can also attack with it for 1d4+7. Also with bear they have 11 Temp hit points and +4 health. So their health is all 28 each and they can start underground.
Ok I think I am tracking most of that. This is neither a spell nor a class I am very familiar with so if I make a mistake I think that is why.
I am not sure what "+4 health" and their "health is all 26" means, is that +4hps?
Giant Boar - 1 summoned by conjure animals (2 using 5th level slot)
AC12, 45 hp(+11 temp) , +5 to hit, 2d6+3 damage, charge for an extra 2d6 and DC13 strength save to knock enemy prone. Is there anything else I need with that?
I will say the Fey Damage at 3rd level is 1d6+3 piercing plus 1d6+3 force. Very few creatures are resistant to force damage.
What enemy do you want them fighting?
Sorry meant Giant Badgers. or normal boars. you get 8 of them not 1. And you have to look at the Shepherd druid subclass features. At level 6 they add +2 hit points PER hit die of the creatures and they add magical attacks. and the totem adds 5+ druid levels temp HP and advantage on strength checks and saves.
I was going to go with something common like a stone gollum, but realized it wouldnt be fair to they fairy because of charm immunity, then did the same thing with the guardian Naga. Lets just go with Horned Devils.
Edit: something else to consider is remember the beasts can all grapple if they need to with advantage.
Ok giant badger:
AC10, HP28 (13+4+11 temporary), bite +3 1d6+1, claw +3 1d6+1
11th level PC stats (using same for both): W20, C10, AC16 hp70 (I am going to fgive the Druid D10s to make this easier)
I will do this using deterministic damage and saves, then I will assume all effects at the end of the turn. What this means is there is no randomness. Damage is base damage multiplied by the chance and in the case of the Fey summoner to hit multiplied by the chance that the devil is not charmed. What this means is the Devil will do average damage considering the chance he can do damage. I will post those explicits on the next post. I will also not consider concentration at all (assume all concentration saves are made).
For the infernal wound I am going to apply the damage against the propensity to hit and the propensity to save and consider a still living creature is going to use an action to try to close it and thereby modify its attacks and or charm in the round forward in a stochastic fashion.
Summoned creatures will be attacked first.
Charm monster spell wants a word, careful with the 'no other class" if you mean no other martial maybe, but no other is not accurate. (also again any time you are not using your concentration it only lasts a minute so you are using your action to summon it.) in this case best thing is probably have it pre-cast as concentration and then use your first action to summon a second one. Then as long as your targets are not immune to charm you have something. Of the creatures CR11-14 nearly 30% of them are immune to charm. So a little under 1/3, and 80% of them have wisdom as a saving throw proficiency. So it is a good thing that the fey gives him a second chance. Hope he stacked wisdom. (i do wish I could look up magic resistance because this factors in as well, but nope not easy to search.
Right the fey one breaks on damage as well. Most creatures at this level already have advantage on the save AND you can upcast with a 5th level slot (since full casters have those at this level) and get more than 1 creature with a single action cast. And the feature you are talking about with the reaction is thankfully NOT 11th level and is actually only 7th level which only works if they succeed their save, as I said before, so it works as a pseudo advantage.
Right, I was specifically referring to it from the offensive trick side. I think it is much better as a defensive ability than an offensive one. Having advantage on the save, succeeding the save and turning it back to me is much preferable to the pseudo advantage or the trick where you charm yourself to bounce it and hope they fail the save.
I guess I will give credit that it is flexible and flexible features are always good.
Since there is only one enemy I am going to calculate the ally attacks together.
The way summoned Fey works is the Fey goes right after the Ranger, that means new Fey summoned go between the Ranger and the last Fey. further I am going to have all Fey attack since this is one enemy. That is not the bst way to go against a lone enemy, but the only way I can do it mathematically without programming a simulaition. That means early Fey might have their charms canceled by Fey that hit later and it dramatically drives up the damage the devil can do. As a result after there is more than 1 Fey they are going to try to get a twisted frightened in by charming the Ranger. The base chance of this working is 41% with 2 Fey on the battlefeild, 51% with 3 Fey on the battlefield and 54% with 4 Fey on the battlefield. That includes the effect of the Ranger succeeding and the devil failing. This eliminates the charm for the "new" Fey and regressively eliminates it for up to the next two by 25% and 6%. Being frightened reduces the devils chance to hit by 20% and restricts movement. The way I am going to handle this is I am going to ignore movement but apply a flat 10% reduction on the devils damage when 2 or more Fey are on the battlefield and make one of the Fey not targetable at all (he is Fey stepping towards the Ranger) when there are 2 Fey or more in the fight. The same Fey can not be non-targetable two turns in a row.
Badgers first turn and 2nd-8th badger every turn - chance to hit 30% damage 5 claws 5 bite. total damage=3
Badger with wound - chance to hit 30%, chance to not be wounded 28%. total damage=1
PC Druid -chance to hit 60% damage 10 attack, 10 extra attack, 8 PAM. total damage=17 (I will assume shillelagh is precast)
PC Ranger - chance to hit 60% damage 10 attack, 10 extra attack, 8 PAM=17 +3.5 dreadful strikes +3.5 favored foe 96% chance to hit. total damage=24
Fey - chance to hit 60% damage 7piercieng halved to 3, 7 force. Total damage 6
If all Fey attack reduce damage of one Fey by 1 to account for possibility he is wounded.
Devil fork badger: chance to hit 0.95 damage 15. Total damage=14
Devil tail badger: chance to hit 0.95 damage 10 + 10 wound with a 70% chance of failed save. total damage 0.95*(10+0.70*10)=17 some of this takes affect the next turn but it goes before the guy who is hit goes so it is ok to count it here.
Note below - fey 1, Fey 2, Fey 3 etc refer to turn order. When the first fey summoned is killed Fey 2 becomes Fey 1 for the Devil's damage purposes the NEXT turn.
Devil fork Fey 1: chance to not be charmed 55%, chance to hit 80% damage 15. total damage =7
Devil fork Fey 2: chance not to be charmed by Fey 2 (72%) chance to hit 80% damage 15. total damage= 9
Devil Fork Fey 3: chance not to be charmed by Fey 3 (84%) chance to hit 80% damage 15, total damage= 10
Devil tail Fey 1: chance to not be charmed 55%, chance to hit 80% damage 10+10 wound with 70% chance not to save. total damage= 7
Devil Tail Fey 2: chance to not be charmed by Fey 2 (72%), chance to hit 80% damage 10+10 with 70% chance not to save. Total damage =10
Devil tail Fey 3: Chance not to be charmed by Fey 3 (84%) chance to hit 80%, damage 10+10 with 70% not to save. total damage =11
Devil fork on PC with no Fey alive at start of devil turn: 75% chance to hit, 15 damage. Total damage = 11
Devil fork on PC with 1 or 2 Fey alive at start of devil turn: 55% chance to not be charmed by Ranger, 75% chance to hit total. damage = 6
Devil Fork on PC with 3 Fey alive at start of devil turn: 20% chance to not be charmed by Ranger, 75% chance to hit. total damage = 2
Devil Tail on PC with 0 Fey alive at start of devil turn: 75% chance to hit. 10 + 10 with 80% chance to fail save = 14
Devil tail on PC with 1 or 2 Fey alive at start of devil turn total damage = 7
Devil tail on PC with 3 fey alive at start of devil turn = 3
Conjure Animals
For initiative we will assume 2 badgers go before Druid, 4 between Druid and Devil and 2 after Devil. We will run up to the Devils turn and then do turn-to-turn based on the devil thereafter.
Before devils turn
6 Badgers-18 damage
Druid-17damage
1. Devil- kills one badger, wounds the other and takes it to 11
6 badgers - 18
wounded badger -1
Druid-17
2. Devil kills 2 badgers
5 badgers - 15
druid 17
3. Devil - kills badger, wounds badger
3 badgers-9
wounded badger-1
druid-17
4. Devil - kills 2 badgers
2 badgers-6
druid-17
5. Devil - kills 1 badger wounds 1
wounded badger 1
Druid - 17
7. Devil - kills last badger deals 25 to druid
At this point the devil has taken 153 damage, the Druid has taken 25 and there are no allies left on the field
Using summon Fey
Fey 1 attacks - 6
1. Devils turn Devil does 21 damage to Fey 1 (9hps left)
Fey1 and Fey 2 attack for 11
Fey 1 not targetable next turn
2. Devils turn, Devil does 25 to Fey 2 (accounting for potential for being frightened)
Fey 1, 2 and 3 attack for 17
Fey 2 is not targetable
3 Devils turn. devil kills Fey 1 with 2 fork attacks, hits Fey 3 for 10 (20hp lef)
Fey 2, Fey3 and Fey 4 hit for 17
Fey 2 is not targetable.
4. Devil - Devil hits fey 3 for 19 (1hp left)
Fey 2, Fey 3 and Fey 4 hit for 17
Ranger hits for 24
Fey 3 is not targetable
5. Devil - Devil kills Fey 2, deals 17 to Fey 4
Fey 3 and Fey 4 hit for 11
Ranger hits for 24
Fey 4 is not targetable
6. Devil- Devil kills Fey 3, deals 12 to Ranger
Fey 4 hits 6
Ranger hits for 24
7 Devil - kills Fey 4 deals 7 to Ranger
At this point The devil has taken 157 and the Ranger has taken 19
It is pretty darn close and I did not plan it that way. Note I did not consider either positioning or loss of concentration.
Also this assumes the Fey are going to attack every turn. That is not really the right way to play this ability against one enemy, that is the way to play it against large numbers. Against one enemy, The right way to play it is attack first then Fey step. If the first Fey fails to charm he draws the bad guys AOO. Once one Fey successfully charms him the rest do not attack him. They either try to get the ranger to twist or only use their charm. Any Fey after the first successful charm that succeed in charming close into melee range and ready an action to attack if the devil moves (which is a little different than an AOO). Fey who fail at charm disengage if he has not used his AOO or just leave and ready an action if he closes within reach. What this does is put the Ranger and any fey who succeeded in charm in contact with the lone enemy. If he moves he draws attacks from all of them. He does not need to move out of reach either, he just has to move.
This draws the battle out longer because you are doing less DPR but you are putting a lot of enemies in contact, he can't attack anyone easily but they can attack him. It also puts up physical barriers to movement that he has to go around.
Charm monster is a 4th level spell, you ca only use it on one enemy, you can only use it once, he has advantage on the save in combat and you can't do anything if he makes the save.
Summon Fey allows you to put down what is effectively a charm monster spell every single turn, including the turn you cast it and it is not at disadvantage if you are in combat, if an enemy saves you can try to charm or frighten another and the Fey gets an action and reaction on top of all that.
There are 14 CR 11-14 enemies in the SRD. Only 1 is immune to charm (Gynoshphinx)
Now I did not look at every creature in the monster manual, but I don't think you are going to get nearly to one third. I will also note that 5 SRD CR 11-14 have legendary resistance.
I would say it is one of the best controllers from level 7 on if you have the right party makeup (one with an enchanter, dragonborn w/dragonfear or lionen) or if your Fey Wanderer has feats (Shadow touched-cause Fear) or if you can buy magic items (wand of fear, mace of terror). In that case I would say you are one of the best controllers from level 7 on, while still being really good in martial combat.
It is crazy when you have cause fear up on a melee enemy that can't close for combat, he is over there dodging and waiting to finally save, he finally makes his save, you twist it on to a second enemy who is already engaged giving him disadvantage (and drop concentration) then on your turn before the first guy goes you cast the spell and hit him with cause fear again.
The guy made his save which let you drop concentration on the first spell and double the number frightened people on the battlefield with another cast.
Beguiling Twist is best as an offensive ability with multiple enemies that your party targets with the triggering effect. It works best with spells or abilities that cause charmed or frightened and cause multiple saves - wand of fear, cause fear (which is a great spell in its own right that upcasts well), Dragonborn with dragonfear, the fear spell or hypnotic pattern if you have a wizard. These are awesome. If you target multiple enemies chances are one of them will save allowing you to retarget another enemy with the initial cast. Many of these spells also use a "save every turn" or "save when hit" where if you use it one turn you have a lot of twist opportunities down the road. This is by far the most effective use of it and it is where the battlefield control form the ability comes from.
Bouncing it off yourself is far less effective and fighting a lone enemy gimps the ability a lot. I mentioned it because we were talking about fighting one enemy. Also I think summon Fey specifically is the only spell that works with this, where tons of spells and abilities work with the broader offensive use above.
As far as defensive uses, Dragons are where I have used it the best. Someone in the party will generally make the save against dragonfear the first turn and others in the party won't but they will save in future rounds. So like every round you are twisting frightened on to the dragon (or if he is already frightened twisting charm) because HE decided to use his fear ability one time. We faced a white Dragon and my Ranger burned through every legendary he had over 4 or 5 rounds because he used dragonfear one time.