If two different elven sub-races have a child, what sub-race is the elven child?

ecliptic · Oct 19, 2005

For example if a Sun Elf and a Moon Elf mate, what would their child be? I had plans of having a Star Elf that had Gold Elf and Star Elf parentage. Is there any kind of official ruling on this?

dcollins · Oct 19, 2005

No official ruling. Player or DM picks one.

kenobi65 · Oct 19, 2005

Kender.

shilsen · Oct 19, 2005

What he said.

ecliptic · Oct 19, 2005

I just want a ruling on if they breed true or not, or do they become some weird mix.

Sejs · Oct 19, 2005

ecliptic said:
For example if a Sun Elf and a Moon Elf mate, what would their child be? I had plans of having a Star Elf that had Gold Elf and Star Elf parentage. Is there any kind of official ruling on this?

Pick one or the other as far as stats are concerned. Things such as physical appearance are totally up to whomever.

There are no official hybrid subrace rules. Just pick whichever one is more predominantly expressed.

Drowbane · Oct 19, 2005

When two elves from different backgrounds meet, thier children are of a new subrace

How else you explain the 20 different elven subraces since 1e?

(there are 11 just in 3e...)

domino · Oct 19, 2005

Arguably, you could do a punnet square break down.

Let's say you have a Wood Elf and a High elf having a baby. High elves have +2 dex, -2 con. Wood elves have +2 str, -2 int.

Thus, we get a punnet square that looks like this.

Code:

                                Wood Elf
High Elf   [U]    +2 str                    -2 int[/U]
 +2 dex  |     +2 dex +2 str |  +2 dex -2 int |
         |-------------------|----------------|                    
-2 con   |     +2 str -2 con |  -2 int -2 con |
         |-------------------|----------------|

boolean · Oct 19, 2005

In the interest of keeping it simple, I'd say that the child has 100% of the racial (game-mechanic) properties of one parent. Maybe some minor cosmetic similarities to the other parent.

Either determined randomly (50/50, again for simplicity), or have the child favour the parent of the same gender (Gold Elf father and Moon Elf mother, boys are Gold Elves, girls are Moon Elves).

Nonlethal Force · Oct 19, 2005

Or, you could do like the half-elf from human/elf breeding and give them normal stats and all racial elf abilities just with the numbers halved.

The normal stats (I.E. no racial modifiers) may sound strange ... but to use the example from a few posts up ...

Hig elf (+2 DEX, -2 CON) and Wood Elf (+2 STR, -2 INT) could very easily get an averaged value of their stats (+1 DEX, -1 CON, +1 STR, -1 INT) and since nobody in their right mind wants a race with +/- 1s in it then you just ignore them all figuring they just averaged out into a statistical "normal" person. So the stats are nothing. any special abilities where both races get +2 to a skill check, the child gets +2. Any racial abilities where only one parent gets a +2 to a skill check, the child gets +1. Any modifiers that provide a mere +1 to something and only one parent as it ... well, these are ignored for the purpose of the child.

That should allow it to be balanced. Granted, its a fair amount of averaging work ... but if you aren't in it for the true crossbreed, then just go with the suggestion above with let the player pick which one it more likely resembles and go with that. In the long run, that answer is the easier one and that answer is the one I'd personally pick.