Half Elves

[Aries_Omega]

Normally I don't come across this question in my games, but one of my players threw me a curve ball. I figured if anywhere EN World would have an answer.

We are playing D&D 3.5 with some stuff borrowed from Pathfinder. Usually I have a pretty high amount of humans in my groups. Very few nonhumans. I do have a player who wants to play a half elf. Thing is the plain vanilla half elf is not very common in this region. In this particular region wild elves are much more common. Think the spear wielding Gurgach of Greyhawk or the painted and tattooed Kagonesti of Dragonlance.

So my question is with half elves it is assumed it is human and standard or high elf. What about human and some other kind of elf...like wild elf, sea elf or drow? Does WOTC have an official ruling on it? Have other publishers come up with their answer to that question. What about you DM's and players out there, how have you all addressed this.

 

[Kurashu]

There is a half drow in Races of Faerun.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't recall exactly where, but there is also a dedicated Half-Aquatic Elf in print somewhere- probably a FR sourcebook (my guess, Races of Faerun as well).

Beyond that, though? I can't see there being much rationale for further distinctions.

 

[Shin Okada]

Basically, in PHB "Elf" means high elf (or moon elf in FR). So by default half-elf is half-human/half-high elf. But that racial traits will work for most of the half-non-drow-elves as non-drow elves all share the same traits (except for aquatic ones), hand just have different stat modifiers and favored class.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Perhaps you could replace the +2 racial bonuses to Diplomacy and Gather Information, with things like Survival and. . . Handle Animal? Hide? Intimidate? Whatever your interpretation suggests. I mean for the wild elf version, btw.

And this kind of thing could be done for most of them, if necessary.

Other than that, I see no reason why they would have to be any different. Except in the case of a half-aquatic elf. That might take a bit more figuring out. The other wierd one that springs to mind, Drow, has already been done.

 

[Aries_Omega]

Someone told me to check out Races of Faerun or Player's Guide to Faerun for half elves of a different type...such as mentioned before. Here is another related question...I looked at that. It's what I am looking for...or at least a start.

What about someone who wants a weird high elf/drow combo?

 

[irdeggman]

What about someone who wants a weird high elf/drow combo?

You're asking to open up a huge can of worms and so much genetic detailing that your head will spin.

Don't do it.

Go no farther than 1 type of elf and human.

IIRC elves of different types don't reproduce, I don't ever recall there being an "official" type for them anyway.

 

[Aus_Snow]

There are two sources I can think of, that provide rules for this kind of thing. Maybe three. . .

The two definites are: Book of Templates, deluxe edition (by Silverthorne Games, also reprinted by Goodman Games) and Advanced Bestiary (by Green Ronin). The former has a 'half-creature' template, with which you can combine. . . just about anything, and the latter has something very much alike, called the Amalgam template. Both those books are almost entirely dedicated to templates, in case that wasn't clear already. Worth a look, if you're at all interested in '3rd party' (i.e., non-WotC) products.

The other possibility: Bastards & Bloodlines (also by Green Ronin). Haven't looked at that one for quite some time, however. So don't quote me on that!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Seconded on the recommendation of "Don't Do It!"

Seconded also on the rec for the Book of Templates if you do.

 

[Herzog]

If you're looking for strange half-combinations, look at 'Races of Consequence'.

It combines (all) the standard PHB races into half-races (like half-halforc, half-halfling....)

I also had a look at Bastards & Bloodlines, and although it contains a lot of combinations, they tend to be unbalanced.
That is, they contain high LA creatures with no monster HD. (which, in my experience, will get you characters with lots of powers that will die in the first encounter because of a lack of hp, HD and sufficient saving throws.)