Eladrin, why?

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

They are elves. 4E took the five classic elf subraces--high, grey, wild, wood, and dark--and turned them into three distinct races. High and grey elves merged into eladrin; wild and wood elves merged into 4E-elves; dark elves became (remained) drow.

Since the dawn of D&D, elves had two conflicting identities:

- "Sylvan" elves, who were good with bows and wise in the ways of nature. This image stems from Legolas, the archetypcal elf in Lord of the Rings.

- "High" elves, who were chaotic and excelled with magic and sword. This image comes from Poul Anderson's stories, including Three Hearts & Three Lions and The Broken Sword.

Gygax was a fan of the second type of elf, but D&D players were fans of the first type. Over the years, many elf "subraces" cropped up to cover these: high elves, gray elves (Galadriel-inspired, perhaps?), wood elves, wild elves, etc.

When 4e rolled out, it was decided to make the distinction clearer and, in order to avoid "subraces", the "high" and "grey" elves became the eladrin.

Correct. I would have preferred only one kind of elf, but splitting elves this way makes elven "subtypes" irrelevant and the game less confusing.

Want to play a star elf? Play an eladrin. I think they can get +2 Charisma as one of their stat options. You don't need yet another subrace

I've never used eladrin in 3.x, even though they looked a little interesting, so to me removing eladrins as a planar race isn't a big deal. I suspect for any sort of converted plane-hopping campaign, some changes need to be made, one way or another.

 

[Kzach]

It's not entirely fair to blame 4e on this since the love affair with elven sub-races started way back in 1e and blew out to ridiculousness in 2e. 3.x and 4e just continued the tradition.

 

[Droogie128]

To sum it up, it was to cure the identity crisis elves have always seem to have. It was also to address the "there's an elf for that" issue. Elves from previous editions have been narrowed down into 3 distinct races. The sub races are handled through racial feats now. It's much cleaner.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I believe the eladrin/elf distinction was the best, what could have happened to elves... you could have chosen different names (high elves and sylvan elves), but in the beginning, they really tried to avoid making subraces. IMHO a very good decision.
Maybe teleporting at first level was not considered wisely. But iron shackles of HotF (i got it today!) remedy this easily.

 

[I'm A Banana]

If I had my iron-fisty druthers, there would be one ELF race. It would be good-looking (+2 Cha), good at magic (+2 Int), or good at woodsy stuff (or +2 Dex). It would get proficiency with bows and swords. It would have a racial power that was neither teleportation nor accuracy, but that emphasized the "elfiness" of the creature. Perhaps something like "elven perfection" which, as an encounter power, allows them to forgo rolling a d20 and instead just treat it as if they've rolled a 15, OR gain a +4 to AC against an attack as an immediate interrupt (and if the attack misses, they could shift).

There would also be ELADRIN, who would be an NPC-only race of faerie beings from beyond the veil of the world, who would be tricky and capricious and very magical and generally benevolent, but ultimately all about freedom and independence. These entities may join up with the PC's as ally characters, or as trainers, or have special treasure for them, or can give them special missions.

DROW would be their own thing, too (I'm thinking +2 Cha, +2 Wis or +2 Dex).

HALF-ELVES (and HALF-ORCS) would be a variant human.

But personally part of this is because I'm not enthused about teleportation as a racial power. Especially teleporting such a short distance.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

My only real beef with Eladrin is that including them was not taken as an opportunity to remove half-elves.

 

[Klaus]

If the 4e eladrin-as-a-race hadn't happened, I'd have used elves as a race and "eladrin" as a paragon path (and "leshay" as an epic destiny).

As it is, I'm rather fond of eladrin being the fey race and elves being what happen when you're out of the Feywild for millenia.

I'd also make goblins into fey, and posit hobgoblins as what happens when they're out of the Feywild for too long. And trolls? Also fey.

 

[Ryujin]

My only real beef with Eladrin is that including them was not taken as an opportunity to remove half-elves.

Given that a bit of Fey blood is an oft repeated theme in mythology, that wouldn't have been a good idea. It's essentially an archetype.

 

[The Little Raven]

Given that a bit of Fey blood is an oft repeated theme in mythology, that wouldn't have been a good idea. It's essentially an archetype.

In a number of the inspirational materials, when one is of half-blood, one usually takes after one parent or another. For instance, Elrond and his brother were both half-elves, and Elrond chose to be elfy and his brother chose to be humany, and each effectively had the traits of the chosen favored bloodline, rather than being a hybrid of the two or completely different ala 4e's half-elf.

With current 4e trends, I'd have made half-breed a special Background that gives you the racial keyword (in place of the other bonuses) so that you can qualify for the other feats by race, but you still need to to qualify for other requirements. Thus, a half-elf (human/elf) that chooses to favor human (human racial traits) can take any elf feat that he meets the requirement for (no ones needing Wild Step or anything).

I prefer that to coming up with specific half-races or having to break down exactly how racial traits get divided between pairings.

 

[Ryujin]

In a number of the inspirational materials, when one is of half-blood, one usually takes after one parent or another. For instance, Elrond and his brother were both half-elves, and Elrond chose to be elfy and his brother chose to be humany, and each effectively had the traits of the chosen favored bloodline, rather than being a hybrid of the two or completely different ala 4e's half-elf.

With current 4e trends, I'd have made half-breed a special Background that gives you the racial keyword (in place of the other bonuses) so that you can qualify for the other feats by race, but you still need to to qualify for other requirements. Thus, a half-elf (human/elf) that chooses to favor human (human racial traits) can take any elf feat that he meets the requirement for (no ones needing Wild Step or anything).

I prefer that to coming up with specific half-races or having to break down exactly how racial traits get divided between pairings.

And yet games like Character Law/MERP still created a separate "Half Elf" designation, making the benefit of virtual immortality be based on philosophy, alone. The physical aspects of the two paths, for a Half Elf, seemed to be the same. Or so one would take from reading the stories, that these games are based upon.

In mythology it tended to be a touch of Fey blood, that conveyed various benefits and penalties.