I'm working on the design for a Small, Wisdom-based melee Fey Wanderer Ranger with a shield and staff and Misty Step. I'll take the Druidic Warrior fighting style at Level 2 to get access to Shillelagh ASAP to start using Wis for weapon attacks, but I'm wondering what I should do at Level 4. The three options I'm considering for the ASI are 1) increasing Wisdom, 2) Polearm Master, and 3) Magic Initiate - Druid. Here are my conflicting thoughts:
INCREASE WIS: Take advantage of the fact that this is a Single-Ability-Dependent ranger, improving the spellcasting while also improving attacks.
POLEARM MASTER: Increase the chances of making bonus action and reaction attacks, since Fey Wanderer Rangers can add per-attack damage bonuses like Hunter's Mark or per-turn bonuses like Dreadful Strikes. (HOWEVER, this character may often be using reactions for Beguiling Twist and bonus actions for Misty Step or other spells.)
MAGIC INITIATE - DRUID: Swap out Druidic Warrior for Dueling to gain +2 damage on every attack, and also gain a once daily casting of, say, Healing Word.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how each of these choices would shape my character. Your thoughts?
EDIT: FYI, the character will have access to Misty Step through a different mechanic (likely a racial trait or a Level 0 feat).
I would increase WIS if you have a odd WIS score as that means you can grab a juicy WIS half feat to bump up your WIS modifier otherwise Magic Initiate for Dueling is ok. You get slightly more damage and you can also grab a ranged cantrip for those times that melee combat is impossible. An emergency Healing Word is always nice to have for the team.
Polearm Master is not as useful for this character in my opinion, since turn one you will be casting Shillelagh, turn 2 potentially Hunter's Mark and it will be turn 3 before you finally get the bonus action attack, that is if your target did not die or you will have to move Hunter's Mark which delays it another turn. The potential saving grace is the opportunity attacks but you mentioned you may be using Beguiling Twist fairly often so that goes out the window too.
I'm working on the design for a Small, Wisdom-based melee Fey Wanderer Ranger with a shield and staff and Misty Step. I'll take the Druidic Warrior fighting style at Level 2 to get access to Shillelagh ASAP to start using Wis for weapon attacks, but I'm wondering what I should do at Level 4. The three options I'm considering for the ASI are 1) increasing Wisdom, 2) Polearm Master, and 3) Magic Initiate - Druid. Here are my conflicting thoughts:
INCREASE WIS: Take advantage of the fact that this is a Single-Ability-Dependent ranger, improving the spellcasting while also improving attacks.
POLEARM MASTER: Increase the chances of making bonus action and reaction attacks, since Fey Wanderer Rangers can add per-attack damage bonuses like Hunter's Mark or per-turn bonuses like Dreadful Strikes. (HOWEVER, this character may often be using reactions for Beguiling Twist and bonus actions for Misty Step or other spells.)
MAGIC INITIATE - DRUID: Swap out Druidic Warrior for Dueling to gain +2 damage on every attack, and also gain a once daily casting of, say, Healing Word.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how each of these choices would shape my character. Your thoughts?
Why use Melee, rather than Magic Stone and a Sling? It's a lot easier to hand out psychic damage like candy at range. If you want to be a Small SAD Shillelagh-based Ranger with Misty Step, Beast Master with Fey Touched seems like the low-hanging fruit. Just not understanding the draw of the shield and stick, here. It's not like you plan on combining Tricksy Fey with Blind Fighting, since your Fighting Style preferences are Druidic Warrior > Dueling.
Of the three options you listed, +Wisdom seems like the clear choice to me. Most of the Fey Wanderer ability set just gets better with Wisdom on tap.
Why use Melee, rather than Magic Stone and a Sling?
It's simply part of the character concept: a little guy zipping around the battlefield whacking enemies with his staff, charming and inducing fear as he goes.
I'd been planning to take Resilient Constitution later on in this build, but, since both hands are full, would War Caster be the better choice, enabling casting of "S-but-no-M" spells like Absorb Elements and Conjure Animals? Being able to cast spells as opportunity attacks probably won't be all that useful... Or should I simply free up a hand by getting rid of the shield, dropping AC from 17 to 15?
I'm working on the design for a Small, Wisdom-based melee Fey Wanderer Ranger with a shield and staff and Misty Step. I'll take the Druidic Warrior fighting style at Level 2 to get access to Shillelagh ASAP to start using Wis for weapon attacks, but I'm wondering what I should do at Level 4. The three options I'm considering for the ASI are 1) increasing Wisdom, 2) Polearm Master, and 3) Magic Initiate - Druid. Here are my conflicting thoughts:
INCREASE WIS: Take advantage of the fact that this is a Single-Ability-Dependent ranger, improving the spellcasting while also improving attacks.
POLEARM MASTER: Increase the chances of making bonus action and reaction attacks, since Fey Wanderer Rangers can add per-attack damage bonuses like Hunter's Mark or per-turn bonuses like Dreadful Strikes. (HOWEVER, this character may often be using reactions for Beguiling Twist and bonus actions for Misty Step or other spells.)
MAGIC INITIATE - DRUID: Swap out Druidic Warrior for Dueling to gain +2 damage on every attack, and also gain a once daily casting of, say, Healing Word.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how each of these choices would shape my character. Your thoughts?
EDIT: FYI, the character will have access to Misty Step through a different mechanic (likely a racial trait or a Level 0 feat).
This is my favoirte Ranger and I have played a couple of them.
To start with Misty Step is on the Fey Wanderer spell list, so you don't need to use a feat on this. It is nice to have an extra once-a day use but not good enough when you already get it at level 5 anyway. The half feats I list at the bottom would be better IMO (as well as others).
My opinions:
Of the three you list I would go wisdom. This boosts attacks, saves, damage, and your save DC. It is a solid choice.
I would definitely not do PAM. With Fey Wander you want to be doing Beguiling Twist a lot.
MI Druid would be ok but not what I would choose. You don't have HW on your list but you do have goodberry. Goodberry is much better than healing word except for when someone is down. If no one else in the party had HW a generally better option is to cast goodberry either the night before a rest or in the morning when you wake up. Then give a couple berries to each player and they can bring back a downed character with an action by forcefeeding a goodberry. Still not as efffective at this as Healing Word, but HW once a day is not enough for a feat IMO. The +2 damage would be nice, but not enough to spend a feat on when you can get +1 hit, +1 damage, +1 save and +1DC with an ASI.
Other options:
1. Shadow Touched with Cause Fear and +1 Wisdom. Cause Fear is awesome on a Few Wanderer and can be upcast at level 2 to hit 2 enemies. Cast it at the start of a fight and then twist it eve3ry time someone makes his save. You need a way to reliably impose charmed or frightnened. If your party is leaning into your build by building characters that will be throwing frightened or charmed this is not as big a deal, but if they are not you really can't do that well yourself until 9th level when you get Summon Fey. Cause Fear bridges this gap and gives you another spell when you run out of Fey.
2. Telekenesis and +1 Wisdom: Push a frightened enemy away and he can't move closer. Also works well with the tried and true spike growth+telekenisis
3. Telepathic with +1 Wisdom: Nice once a day detect thoughts spell and telepathy on a half feat. If you have a 14+ charisma this works great with your high intimidate, deception and persuasion.
4. Gift of the Gen Dragon half feat with +1 Wisdom: The problem with a melee Ranger is they get hit a lot do to crappy AC and there is not a lot of good ways to counter this. Telekenetci reprisal works well to punish someone for hitting you, it also works well combined with a frightened enemy because if you push them off of you they can't advance to attack you again.
5. Skill Expert and +1 Wisdom: Pick up a +1 Wisdom an extra proficiency and an extra expertise. The ability bonus, proficiency and expertise are all separate so they do not need to correlate to each other. A Fey Wanderer is great at charisma skills as long as you don't completely dump Charisma. Even running a 10 Charisma and you can be the best face in the party. There are 3 skills that you get both Wisdom and Charisma bonuses to: Deception, Intimidation and Persuasion. You get Deception or Persuasion as a FW, usually I try to get another one as a background and then you can use this to get the third and put the expertise anywhere you want. With a 14 Charisma/18 Wisdom you should be running a +9 in tier 2 with proficiency or +12 with expertise
These are all half feats and if you start with a 17 Wisdom you can push it to 18 with one of these or alterntatively take one at 4th and one at 8th.
I'd been planning to take Resilient Constitution later on in this build, but, since both hands are full, would War Caster be the better choice, enabling casting of "S-but-no-M" spells like Absorb Elements and Conjure Animals? Being able to cast spells as opportunity attacks probably won't be all that useful... Or should I simply free up a hand by getting rid of the shield, dropping AC from 17 to 15?
Conjure animals is not an issue. Just sheath your weapon and cast it. Absorb Elements is an issue, but it is the only spell I can think of that would be a problem and remedied by this. I would not get warcaster just for this. Given your play style I also would not get the Absorb Elements spell.
I would max Wisdom to 20 before I considered Resilient.
I had been thinking that Fey Touched with Dissonant Whispers at Level 1 would give 4 extra, early levels of access to Misty Step, would allow me to repel enemies in a way that feels similar to a fear effect, and matched the flavor better than the telekinetic feats. You don't think that's a good option?
I do like Shadow Touched with Cause Fear and had been considering exactly that for Level 8 (shortly after I got Beguiling Twist), depending on the party's ability (or inability) to charm or cause fear. However, just like how Fey Touched's Misty Step becomes obsolete at level 5, Nature's Veil makes Invisibility obsolete at level 10. Although I guess you could still cast it on your friends...
I had been thinking that Fey Touched with Dissonant Whispers at Level 1 would give 4 extra, early levels of access to Misty Step, would allow me to repel enemies in a way that feels similar to a fear effect, and matched the flavor better than the telekinetic feats. You don't think that's a good option?
I do like Shadow Touched with Cause Fear and had been considering exactly that for Level 8 (shortly after I got Beguiling Twist), depending on the party's ability (or inability) to charm or cause fear. However, just like how Fey Touched's Misty Step becomes obsolete at level 5, Nature's Veil makes Invisibility obsolete at level 10. Although I guess you could still cast it on your friends...
It is not bad. It is a free cast of misty step and another spell with a wisdom bonus.
Thematically I love the idea of Dissonant Whispers and it is a great spell, all else equal it is better than Cause Fear. The problem with Dissonent Whispers for this build compared to CF is that it is a lot like fear but does not actually cause "frightened" or "charmed" condition and therefore it can't be used with Beguiling Twist.
When you hit 7th level a ton of the class power is in beguiling twist and it can be used infinite times, the only limit is using your reaction. So you want to use it a lot.
Beguiling Twist is awesome and one of the best tier-2 multi-turn effects in the game for several reasons:
1. It does not use concentration. The original spell used to trigger it often does (like Cause Fear), but once they make their save and you twist it the concentration requirement is gone. You could cast another spell again to get more than one fear or charm going.
2. They don't get a save when you hit them with an attack. This is very uncommon for charmed. They do get a save at the end of a turn but if they make it you twist it again.
3. You can stack the frightened and charmed on the same enemy and he can't attack you but you can block him and keep him from getting to others (can't approach you if frightened) and you can make regular attacks or AOOs on him and he still can't attack you because "charmed"
So if you don't have a way to throw around charmed or frightened every fight then you are losing quite a bit. You do have Cham Person, but that is not as good because it only works on humanoids. They also get advantage on charm person if cast in combat but that is not a big deal because you are going to twist it if they make the save anyway. Like I said if other players back you up and start throwing fear or charmed this is not as big a deal. Fey Wanderer is still a great subclass even without regularly using (abusing) Beguiling twist. With it though, it is probably the most powerful Ranger in the game.
You can also do both feats. Take Fey Touched and DW at level 1. Then take shadow touched at level 4 or 8 and boost it again. I like it at 4th better than 8th because then you already have it when Beguiling Twist comes on and it is 2 free casts at levels 4-6 which are not going to hurt. DW on a frightened enemy would be huge. He would run causing an AOO then he can't come back towards you because he is frightened. You have the free cast as well, so that is at least 1 guy you can do it against without burning a slot.
You can also do both feats. Take Fey Touched and DW at level 1. Then take shadow touched at level 4 or 8 and boost it again. I like it at 4th better than 8th because then you already have it when Beguiling Twist comes on and it is 2 free casts at levels 4-6 which are not going to hurt. DW on a frightened enemy would be huge. He would run causing an AOO then he can't come back towards you because he is frightened. You have the free cast as well, so that is at least 1 guy you can do it against without burning a slot.
I think "both" is what I'm honing in on:
1 & 4: Fey Touched (Wis18, Dissonant Whispers) and Dungeon Delver (for character reasons) <-- still not sure which to take 1st 8: Shadow Touched (Wis19, Cause Fear) 12 & 16: Wis20/Con+1 & Resilient (Con+1)
That leaves the level 19 ASI still open, if we get that far!
ECMO3 -- Well, after working through the details of the build, it became quite clear to me the value I wasn't capturing at levels 5-20 by choosing Fey Touched with its duplicate Misty Step. As a result, I've dropped Fey Touched and moved Shadow Touched earlier in my plan. I'll probably pull in Skill Expert for the remaining open half-feat slot.
1 & 4: Dungeon Delver (for character reasons) & Shadow Touched (Wis18, Cause Fear) <-- still not sure which to take 1st 8: Wis20 12 & 16: Resilient (Con+1) & Skill Expert (Con+1)
ECMO3 -- Well, after working through the details of the build, it became quite clear to me the value I wasn't capturing at levels 5-20 by choosing Fey Touched with its duplicate Misty Step. As a result, I've dropped Fey Touched and moved Shadow Touched earlier in my plan. I'll probably pull in Skill Expert for the remaining open half-feat slot.
1 & 4: Dungeon Delver (for character reasons) & Shadow Touched (Wis18, Cause Fear) <-- still not sure which to take 1st 8: Wis20 12 & 16: Resilient (Con+1) & Skill Expert (Con+1)
Well the character development reasons really makes it hard to compare the two.
From a purely mechanics point of view Shadow touched is a better feat. You will be able to cast as many leveled spells per day as a most 1st level full caster.
But if dungeoun delver is really central to your character's identity and background .... well it is difficult to do that 4 levels into a campaign. As long as Cause Fear is online before 7th level you are not losing anything.
From a purely mechanics point of view Shadow touched is a better feat. You will be able to cast as many leveled spells per day as a most 1st level full caster.
But if dungeoun delver is really central to your character's identity and background .... well it is difficult to do that 4 levels into a campaign. As long as Cause Fear is online before 7th level you are not losing anything.
Yes, when I picture him starting off in levels 1-3, it just makes more sense that he has the Dungeon Delver abilities then rather than the Shadow-Touched ones. And, even though Shadow Touched is stronger, he can do without Invisibility and Cause Fear for a short while -- whereas I expect him to be getting himself into situations from the very beginning when advantage on trap saving throws and resistance to trap damage will be useful!
But I'm really happy to have come to the conclusion that Fey Touched doesn't make sense here.
From a purely mechanics point of view Shadow touched is a better feat. You will be able to cast as many leveled spells per day as a most 1st level full caster.
But if dungeoun delver is really central to your character's identity and background .... well it is difficult to do that 4 levels into a campaign. As long as Cause Fear is online before 7th level you are not losing anything.
Yes, when I picture him just starting off in levels 1-3, it just makes more sense that he has the Dungeon Delver abilities then rather than the Shadow-Touched ones. And, even though Shadow Touched is stronger, he can do without Invisibility and Cause Fear for a short while -- whereas I expect him to be getting himself into situations from the very beginning when advantage on trap saving throws and resistance to trap damage will be useful!
But I'm really happy to have come to the conclusion that Fey Touched doesn't make sense here.
Why would FEY Touched not make sense here? You are playing a FEY Wanderer lol.
ThelonelyMagi -- Fey Touched would make thematic sense, but it doesn't make mechanical sense. It gives you access to the Misty Step spell, but the subclass gives that too, so that particular benefit becomes useless.
ThelonelyMagi -- Fey Touched would make thematic sense, but it doesn't make mechanical sense. It gives you access to the Misty Step spell, but the subclass gives that too, so that particular benefit becomes useless.
Not at all. The feat gives you a FREE casting of Misty Step per long rest which is great on half casters that have a low number of spell slots (well its actually great on any type of character, I mean who doesn't love useful free spells). Not to mention the wide variety of potentially useful 1st lvl spell options the feat gives access to.
ThelonelyMagi -- Fey Touched would make thematic sense, but it doesn't make mechanical sense. It gives you access to the Misty Step spell, but the subclass gives that too, so that particular benefit becomes useless.
Not at all. The feat gives you a FREE casting of Misty Step per long rest which is great on half casters that have a low number of spell slots (well its actually great on any type of character, I mean who doesn't love useful free spells). Not to mention the wide variety of potentially useful 1st lvl spell options the feat gives access to.
Fey Touched is one of my favorite feats, arguably my favorite feat. It is not bad on a Fey Wanderer, however for that particular subclass it is not a as good as other options. Sure it is one extra misty step a day plus a 1st level spell, but misty step is already on the list so unless you are going to misty step 3 times a day at level 5 or 4 times a day at level 7, you are probably better off with a different feat that gives you a different 2nd level spell to use once a day (or more).
For that subclass, Shadow Touched is better mechanically and cause fear (which you can get with Shadow Touched but not Fey Touched) is probably the best 1st-level spell option, bar none for pairing with beguiling twist.
Telepathic is also a better Feat than Fey touched for a Fey Wanderer considering the very high charisma skills and social uses.
The way I look at it thematically is Fey Touched brings some "Fey" to your character, but Fey Wanderer already gets it for free.
I agree that a free Misty Step seems a bit less interesting for a Fey Wanderer, though I disagree with your reasoning. It's not about how often you might want to Misty Step, it's about how early and whether you still want to use other 2nd level spells during that day. Rangers don't have many spell slots to throw around and a free Misty Step can go a long way depending on how spell intensive your playstyle is as Ranger. Summon Beast, Spike Growth, Silence, Pass Without Trace, Locate Object, Healing Spirit, Animal Messenger or any of your 1st level spells upcasted when you need them to be stronger or you run out of 1st level slots ... there are lots of things to use your 2nd level slots on even without Misty Step available from your subclass.
In terms of earlier, you get Misty Step at level 5, so if you are talking about getting it as a 4th level feat one level earlier and it is huge for that level, or on a human or custom if you take it at 1st level. If you are playing a tier 1 game it is a different discussion I think because a lot of the Fey Wanderer mechanics are not in play..
Regarding slots, it is a zero sum game. As long as the "free" spell is something you are reliably going to cast it does not matter if it is misty step or something else. It is one more second level spell. The only time it would matter is if the free spell is something you might not cast (meaning it is wasted) or if it is the only 2nd level spell you want to cast (where you will run out of slots).
Also when it comes to 2nd-level slots Rangers are not shorthanded. At 5th and 6th level they are only one 2nd-level slot less than a full caster, from level 7 on they have the same number of 2nd level slots as a full caster and actually have more 2nd level castings (due to primal awareness).
I'm working on the design for a Small, Wisdom-based melee Fey Wanderer Ranger with a shield and staff and Misty Step. I'll take the Druidic Warrior fighting style at Level 2 to get access to Shillelagh ASAP to start using Wis for weapon attacks, but I'm wondering what I should do at Level 4. The three options I'm considering for the ASI are 1) increasing Wisdom, 2) Polearm Master, and 3) Magic Initiate - Druid. Here are my conflicting thoughts:
INCREASE WIS: Take advantage of the fact that this is a Single-Ability-Dependent ranger, improving the spellcasting while also improving attacks.
POLEARM MASTER: Increase the chances of making bonus action and reaction attacks, since Fey Wanderer Rangers can add per-attack damage bonuses like Hunter's Mark or per-turn bonuses like Dreadful Strikes. (HOWEVER, this character may often be using reactions for Beguiling Twist and bonus actions for Misty Step or other spells.)
MAGIC INITIATE - DRUID: Swap out Druidic Warrior for Dueling to gain +2 damage on every attack, and also gain a once daily casting of, say, Healing Word.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how each of these choices would shape my character. Your thoughts?
EDIT: FYI, the character will have access to Misty Step through a different mechanic (likely a racial trait or a Level 0 feat).
I would increase WIS if you have a odd WIS score as that means you can grab a juicy WIS half feat to bump up your WIS modifier otherwise Magic Initiate for Dueling is ok. You get slightly more damage and you can also grab a ranged cantrip for those times that melee combat is impossible. An emergency Healing Word is always nice to have for the team.
Polearm Master is not as useful for this character in my opinion, since turn one you will be casting Shillelagh, turn 2 potentially Hunter's Mark and it will be turn 3 before you finally get the bonus action attack, that is if your target did not die or you will have to move Hunter's Mark which delays it another turn. The potential saving grace is the opportunity attacks but you mentioned you may be using Beguiling Twist fairly often so that goes out the window too.
Why use Melee, rather than Magic Stone and a Sling? It's a lot easier to hand out psychic damage like candy at range. If you want to be a Small SAD Shillelagh-based Ranger with Misty Step, Beast Master with Fey Touched seems like the low-hanging fruit. Just not understanding the draw of the shield and stick, here. It's not like you plan on combining Tricksy Fey with Blind Fighting, since your Fighting Style preferences are Druidic Warrior > Dueling.
Of the three options you listed, +Wisdom seems like the clear choice to me. Most of the Fey Wanderer ability set just gets better with Wisdom on tap.
It's simply part of the character concept: a little guy zipping around the battlefield whacking enemies with his staff, charming and inducing fear as he goes.
I'd been planning to take Resilient Constitution later on in this build, but, since both hands are full, would War Caster be the better choice, enabling casting of "S-but-no-M" spells like Absorb Elements and Conjure Animals? Being able to cast spells as opportunity attacks probably won't be all that useful... Or should I simply free up a hand by getting rid of the shield, dropping AC from 17 to 15?
This is my favoirte Ranger and I have played a couple of them.
To start with Misty Step is on the Fey Wanderer spell list, so you don't need to use a feat on this. It is nice to have an extra once-a day use but not good enough when you already get it at level 5 anyway. The half feats I list at the bottom would be better IMO (as well as others).
My opinions:
Of the three you list I would go wisdom. This boosts attacks, saves, damage, and your save DC. It is a solid choice.
I would definitely not do PAM. With Fey Wander you want to be doing Beguiling Twist a lot.
MI Druid would be ok but not what I would choose. You don't have HW on your list but you do have goodberry. Goodberry is much better than healing word except for when someone is down. If no one else in the party had HW a generally better option is to cast goodberry either the night before a rest or in the morning when you wake up. Then give a couple berries to each player and they can bring back a downed character with an action by forcefeeding a goodberry. Still not as efffective at this as Healing Word, but HW once a day is not enough for a feat IMO. The +2 damage would be nice, but not enough to spend a feat on when you can get +1 hit, +1 damage, +1 save and +1DC with an ASI.
Other options:
1. Shadow Touched with Cause Fear and +1 Wisdom. Cause Fear is awesome on a Few Wanderer and can be upcast at level 2 to hit 2 enemies. Cast it at the start of a fight and then twist it eve3ry time someone makes his save. You need a way to reliably impose charmed or frightnened. If your party is leaning into your build by building characters that will be throwing frightened or charmed this is not as big a deal, but if they are not you really can't do that well yourself until 9th level when you get Summon Fey. Cause Fear bridges this gap and gives you another spell when you run out of Fey.
2. Telekenesis and +1 Wisdom: Push a frightened enemy away and he can't move closer. Also works well with the tried and true spike growth+telekenisis
3. Telepathic with +1 Wisdom: Nice once a day detect thoughts spell and telepathy on a half feat. If you have a 14+ charisma this works great with your high intimidate, deception and persuasion.
4. Gift of the Gen Dragon half feat with +1 Wisdom: The problem with a melee Ranger is they get hit a lot do to crappy AC and there is not a lot of good ways to counter this. Telekenetci reprisal works well to punish someone for hitting you, it also works well combined with a frightened enemy because if you push them off of you they can't advance to attack you again.
5. Skill Expert and +1 Wisdom: Pick up a +1 Wisdom an extra proficiency and an extra expertise. The ability bonus, proficiency and expertise are all separate so they do not need to correlate to each other. A Fey Wanderer is great at charisma skills as long as you don't completely dump Charisma. Even running a 10 Charisma and you can be the best face in the party. There are 3 skills that you get both Wisdom and Charisma bonuses to: Deception, Intimidation and Persuasion. You get Deception or Persuasion as a FW, usually I try to get another one as a background and then you can use this to get the third and put the expertise anywhere you want. With a 14 Charisma/18 Wisdom you should be running a +9 in tier 2 with proficiency or +12 with expertise
These are all half feats and if you start with a 17 Wisdom you can push it to 18 with one of these or alterntatively take one at 4th and one at 8th.
Conjure animals is not an issue. Just sheath your weapon and cast it. Absorb Elements is an issue, but it is the only spell I can think of that would be a problem and remedied by this. I would not get warcaster just for this. Given your play style I also would not get the Absorb Elements spell.
I would max Wisdom to 20 before I considered Resilient.
ECMO3 --
I had been thinking that Fey Touched with Dissonant Whispers at Level 1 would give 4 extra, early levels of access to Misty Step, would allow me to repel enemies in a way that feels similar to a fear effect, and matched the flavor better than the telekinetic feats. You don't think that's a good option?
I do like Shadow Touched with Cause Fear and had been considering exactly that for Level 8 (shortly after I got Beguiling Twist), depending on the party's ability (or inability) to charm or cause fear. However, just like how Fey Touched's Misty Step becomes obsolete at level 5, Nature's Veil makes Invisibility obsolete at level 10. Although I guess you could still cast it on your friends...
It is not bad. It is a free cast of misty step and another spell with a wisdom bonus.
Thematically I love the idea of Dissonant Whispers and it is a great spell, all else equal it is better than Cause Fear. The problem with Dissonent Whispers for this build compared to CF is that it is a lot like fear but does not actually cause "frightened" or "charmed" condition and therefore it can't be used with Beguiling Twist.
When you hit 7th level a ton of the class power is in beguiling twist and it can be used infinite times, the only limit is using your reaction. So you want to use it a lot.
Beguiling Twist is awesome and one of the best tier-2 multi-turn effects in the game for several reasons:
1. It does not use concentration. The original spell used to trigger it often does (like Cause Fear), but once they make their save and you twist it the concentration requirement is gone. You could cast another spell again to get more than one fear or charm going.
2. They don't get a save when you hit them with an attack. This is very uncommon for charmed. They do get a save at the end of a turn but if they make it you twist it again.
3. You can stack the frightened and charmed on the same enemy and he can't attack you but you can block him and keep him from getting to others (can't approach you if frightened) and you can make regular attacks or AOOs on him and he still can't attack you because "charmed"
So if you don't have a way to throw around charmed or frightened every fight then you are losing quite a bit. You do have Cham Person, but that is not as good because it only works on humanoids. They also get advantage on charm person if cast in combat but that is not a big deal because you are going to twist it if they make the save anyway. Like I said if other players back you up and start throwing fear or charmed this is not as big a deal. Fey Wanderer is still a great subclass even without regularly using (abusing) Beguiling twist. With it though, it is probably the most powerful Ranger in the game.
You can also do both feats. Take Fey Touched and DW at level 1. Then take shadow touched at level 4 or 8 and boost it again. I like it at 4th better than 8th because then you already have it when Beguiling Twist comes on and it is 2 free casts at levels 4-6 which are not going to hurt. DW on a frightened enemy would be huge. He would run causing an AOO then he can't come back towards you because he is frightened. You have the free cast as well, so that is at least 1 guy you can do it against without burning a slot.
I think "both" is what I'm honing in on:
1 & 4: Fey Touched (Wis18, Dissonant Whispers) and Dungeon Delver (for character reasons) <-- still not sure which to take 1st
8: Shadow Touched (Wis19, Cause Fear)
12 & 16: Wis20/Con+1 & Resilient (Con+1)
That leaves the level 19 ASI still open, if we get that far!
ECMO3 -- Well, after working through the details of the build, it became quite clear to me the value I wasn't capturing at levels 5-20 by choosing Fey Touched with its duplicate Misty Step. As a result, I've dropped Fey Touched and moved Shadow Touched earlier in my plan. I'll probably pull in Skill Expert for the remaining open half-feat slot.
1 & 4: Dungeon Delver (for character reasons) & Shadow Touched (Wis18, Cause Fear) <-- still not sure which to take 1st
8: Wis20
12 & 16: Resilient (Con+1) & Skill Expert (Con+1)
Well the character development reasons really makes it hard to compare the two.
From a purely mechanics point of view Shadow touched is a better feat. You will be able to cast as many leveled spells per day as a most 1st level full caster.
But if dungeoun delver is really central to your character's identity and background .... well it is difficult to do that 4 levels into a campaign. As long as Cause Fear is online before 7th level you are not losing anything.
Yes, when I picture him starting off in levels 1-3, it just makes more sense that he has the Dungeon Delver abilities then rather than the Shadow-Touched ones. And, even though Shadow Touched is stronger, he can do without Invisibility and Cause Fear for a short while -- whereas I expect him to be getting himself into situations from the very beginning when advantage on trap saving throws and resistance to trap damage will be useful!
But I'm really happy to have come to the conclusion that Fey Touched doesn't make sense here.
Why would FEY Touched not make sense here? You are playing a FEY Wanderer lol.
ThelonelyMagi -- Fey Touched would make thematic sense, but it doesn't make mechanical sense. It gives you access to the Misty Step spell, but the subclass gives that too, so that particular benefit becomes useless.
Not at all. The feat gives you a FREE casting of Misty Step per long rest which is great on half casters that have a low number of spell slots (well its actually great on any type of character, I mean who doesn't love useful free spells). Not to mention the wide variety of potentially useful 1st lvl spell options the feat gives access to.
Fey Touched is one of my favorite feats, arguably my favorite feat. It is not bad on a Fey Wanderer, however for that particular subclass it is not a as good as other options. Sure it is one extra misty step a day plus a 1st level spell, but misty step is already on the list so unless you are going to misty step 3 times a day at level 5 or 4 times a day at level 7, you are probably better off with a different feat that gives you a different 2nd level spell to use once a day (or more).
For that subclass, Shadow Touched is better mechanically and cause fear (which you can get with Shadow Touched but not Fey Touched) is probably the best 1st-level spell option, bar none for pairing with beguiling twist.
Telepathic is also a better Feat than Fey touched for a Fey Wanderer considering the very high charisma skills and social uses.
The way I look at it thematically is Fey Touched brings some "Fey" to your character, but Fey Wanderer already gets it for free.
In terms of earlier, you get Misty Step at level 5, so if you are talking about getting it as a 4th level feat one level earlier and it is huge for that level, or on a human or custom if you take it at 1st level. If you are playing a tier 1 game it is a different discussion I think because a lot of the Fey Wanderer mechanics are not in play..
Regarding slots, it is a zero sum game. As long as the "free" spell is something you are reliably going to cast it does not matter if it is misty step or something else. It is one more second level spell. The only time it would matter is if the free spell is something you might not cast (meaning it is wasted) or if it is the only 2nd level spell you want to cast (where you will run out of slots).
Also when it comes to 2nd-level slots Rangers are not shorthanded. At 5th and 6th level they are only one 2nd-level slot less than a full caster, from level 7 on they have the same number of 2nd level slots as a full caster and actually have more 2nd level castings (due to primal awareness).