D&D: Fey Go Wild In A New ‘Monster Manual’ Preview
From pixies to arch-hags, the upcoming Monster Manual is full of fey creatures that hail from the Feywild. Here’s what we learned.
Fey is a fascinating category in the Monster Manual. Because, while faerie creatures and even the realm of Faerie are no stranger to D&D – one need only look back at the older editions and books like Deities & Demigods to find mention of Titania and Oberon, the faerie Queen and King, the Feywild is a relatively new addition to D&D.
The Feywild—both the name and the concept—a bright reflection of the Material plane—was invented in 4th Edition. It brings me no small amount of joy that 4th Edition’s ideas and ethos continue on through the later editions. We didn’t appreciate 4E enough when we had it. But 4E aside, the Feywild slots into an archetypal space in D&D—a wild space full of living things, with its dark mirror, the Shadowfell, being all about death and decay.
In the 5th Edition, Fey are creatures from the Feywild. In the 5.5E Monster Manual, there are more Fey than ever, though not all of them originate in the Feywild. Some might just have received a heavy dose of Feywild radiation and become feydioactive, as we learned in a new Monster Manual preview of all things Fey.
5.5E Monster Manual Fey Preview – Pixies Are Just The Start
So what is in store for the Fey in the new Monster Manual? In the video, we catch a glimpse of several new Fey creatures. Several old creatures that weren’t fey but are now are starting with the complete fey-ification of goblins.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. Goblins have been reclassified as Fey starting in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. There’s been a shift in goblins over the last few years in D&D. They’ve gone from being malevolent raiders to malevolent fey raiders. It makes sense to me; they represent the idea of an Unseelie Court. They’re the ones whose idea of a fun, practical joke is to tie your entrails together so you trip and fall before you bleed out.
Goblins have such personality, too. Especially after their turn in Act 1 of Baldur’s Gate 3. And joining them now are Worgs, who have officially become Fey creatures. Meaning, that every type of goblinoid is now a fey of some kind, be they bugbear, hobgoblin, goblin, or worg. Speaking of bugbears, we learned that they have a terrifying new ability: abduct. This will let them carry off victims away from the party, where the bugbear might be at considerably less risk.
We also learned that there’s a new kind of goblin in town: the goblin minion. Consider them the kobolds of the goblin world. Goblin minions are even more pathetic than their regular counterparts, making them perfect to throw at lower-level adventurers in large numbers.
A Monster Manual Full Of Weird Little Fey Guys
Bullywugs, one of two weird little frog guy variants in D&D, are also reclassified as Fey in the 5.5E Monster Manual. And in that, you start to see the thought process behind the reclassification. Fey creatures tend to be the ones full of whimsy. Whether it’s the mischievous whimsy of a pixie or something or the more Peter Jackson-esque whimsy of some gross little guys climbing on top of each other to stab at someone taller than them.
Speaking of Bullywugs, there are going to be more of them. Much as there are more variants of monsters in general. This holds true for the classic Fey creatures. In the video preview, we got to see a number of new variants. This includes new art for a furry, blink-dog-shaped friend.
The regular Satyr gets a higher-level version known as the Satyr Revelmaster. They can lead people through revelries, but whether they are delightful or destructive ones sort of depends on if your DM has read The Bacchae or not.
Centaurs are now Fey in the 5.5E Monster Manual, continuing another trend from Monsters of the Multiverse. And to celebrate, they get a new spellcasting centaur variant that can wield magic as skillfully as the default centaur wields martial weapons.
Pixies also got a higher CR variant, but this feels like more of a nerf. If you’re not sure why, it’s because the “troublesome spellcasting” of the standard, low CR pixie got moved to a CR 5 variant, putting it out of the range of most summoning spells.
It used to be that spellcasters would cast Conjure Woodland Beings and summon eight pixies. Those pixies would then cast Polymorph on your party, transforming you into T. Rexes or Giant Apes, whatever else the situation demanded, granting the party hundreds of ablative hit points and some fairly devastating attacks as well. That is no longer the case for the standard pixie. Instead, you’ll just have to befriend a big one.
More Creatures Are Fey, But Not If You Play Them
There was an interesting tidbit accompanying all of the changes and reveals, though. There may be a disconnect between a monster’s creature type in the Monster Manual and its creature type if you pick it as your species for your player character.
Jeremy Crawford, lead rules designer for D&D, explained that some species are humanoid when they’re PCs because they spend so much time away from the magic of whatever else they become humanoid. He was speaking about elves, who had been retconned into being creatures from the Feywild (an origin story that didn’t exist until 5th Edition) and had, over millennia, become humanoid. But that same thing isn’t true for goblins—or githyanki or githzerai.
To me, this reads more as backwards compatibility issues than anything else. And it feels a little frustrating to hear a flimsy narrative justification as the primary reason that they’d switch it up. But the reason it sounds like it’s backward compatibility more than anything else is that Crawford says creature types from older books like Monsters of the Multiverse won’t be changing.
To me, that reads as “we won’t make you change your old books” more than anything else. Especially since we know it’s not a balance concern either – in the same video, Crawford teases more creatures coming in a new book (presumably the Forgotten Realms player’s guide coming late this year) that will not be humanoid. And there are several extant player species that aren’t humanoid to begin with.
At any rate, the Feywild is looking wilder in the new Monster Manual!
Which of these new creatures is your Fey-vorite?
