D&D 5E [Homebrew] − Elf Ability Scores

[Yaarel]

I am thinking about the Elf getting +2 to two abilities, but then being allowed to cash in the abilities to gain Elven racial feats, similar to how the Variant Human works.

Typically, the choice of which abilities to improve has more to do with the cultural values of the community that the Elf comes from. Certain communities value Intelligence, certain ones value Wisdom, and so on. Thus all the members of this shared community work together to cultivate the ability, enhance it, and optimize benefit from it. While it is possible for an individual Elf to deviate from the community (like a Drow Elf that is +2 Strength or whatever), probably it requires a special backstory.



Note, the Half-Elf should get +2 to *any* ability and +1 to two others.

Because of the Human parentage the Half Elf depends less on which Elf community they descend. Excellent Dilettante with even a +2 to back it up.

 

[snickersnax]

I am thinking about the Elf getting +2 to two abilities, but then being allowed to cash in the abilities to gain Elven racial feats, similar to how the Variant Human works.

Typically, the choice of which abilities to improve has more to do with the cultural values of the community that the Elf comes from. Certain communities value Intelligence, certain ones value Wisdom, and so on. Thus all the members of this shared community work together to cultivate the ability, enhance it, and optimize benefit from it. While it is possible for an individual Elf to deviate from the community (like a Drow Elf that is +2 Strength or whatever), probably it requires a special backstory.

Interesting... I've always thought of racial ability scores as genetic. Cultural values can influence genes, but for elves the time frame for this must be eons. Of course with magic, especially feywild magic, science goes right out the window. If you had an elf with +2 strength and +2 constitution, you might think he was a mountain dwarf He could even be 4 and 1 /2 feet tall and weight 200 lbs.

 

[Yaarel]

Interesting... I've always thought of racial ability scores as genetic. Cultural values can influence genes, but for elves the time frame for this must be eons. Of course with magic, especially feywild magic, science goes right out the window. If you had an elf with +2 strength and +2 constitution, you might think he was a mountain dwarf He could even be 4 and 1 /2 feet tall and weight 200 lbs.

Humans are close to that too, with genetic engineering and ‘designer babies’. For Elves, they have been doing genetic shapechange magically for thousands of years.

 

[snickersnax]

[MENTION=6588]pogre[/MENTION]

The 1e Elf lives around twelve centuries. They are highly magical, and it is certain they would use their magic research to figure out ways to prolong their lives as long as possible.

That said, if an Elf is more than a 100 years old, then they are probably already beyond Level 20, in Epic Tier.

There probably needs to be an in-game explanation why these huge populations of Epic Elves dont hang around in Material World, doing whatever they please..

The 1e solution to this was level caps. I guess that was simulating the elven culture of medium ambition. Maybe there should a trade off for trying to attain high levels that most elves aren't willing to sacrifice. Perhaps loss of Downtime or experience point or level decay. I mean usually when you think RL humans who have super high "levels", they don't do anything other than focus on their vocation. Maybe getting to level 20 isn't really high on the elven priority.

 

[Yaarel]

Thousands, maybe millions and millions of Elves, all of them alive and at Epic levels, where do they all go?

One explanation might come from Norse traditions.

There the Norse Elves, the Alfar know via prescience, that the entire universe is about to be destroyed. This future event is also known as the Ragna·rǫk, literally the ‘reckoning (against) the rulers’, where the ruling nature spirits of the cosmos are found unworthy and are put to death, or more accurately, are permitted to die.

The destruction of existence itself threatens the Alfar as well. By their own advisory intellect, they are currently making plans to survive the destruction of existence. The Alfar are sky nature spirits who inhabit the highest clouds, and associate with the solar corona, the aura of light around the sun. But they ascend even higher to the highest levels of the heavens, and even to a level outside the heavens, outside universe. There they build structures that can continue to exist, even when all else ceases to exist. One such place is called, Gim·lé, literally ‘Gem shelter’, apparently a remote outpost made out of gemmy crystal, that can withstand the extinction of existence. (Perhaps, it is within an artifical demiplane.) The other Alfa structures seem to help dampen and mitigate the destruction of heavens. For example, the sun and moon will come to an end, but before they completely disintegrate, a newborn sun and moon will be able to spring from them. The Alfar themselves, however, will gather at places like Gim·lé to hunker down in safety as existence itself unravels.

When the Alfar gather in the places that they are preparing, they will also bring with them a select group of other nature spirits, including Humans, who the Alfar foreknow will be able to survive in a new ecology of compassion.



So, the Elves allow their Elven children a 100 years of ‘play’ with Humans as their playmates (or among the less worthy sometimes their playthings). After that they are considered moreorless to have ‘graduated’ to Epic life and serious business. A few Epic Elves remain in the Material Plane, but these are ‘babysitters’ whose responsibility is to look after the interests of Elves, albeit according to their Elven laissez-faire parenting style.

Elves mature at the same speed as Humans. So the mind and body of a Norse Elf is comparable to the mind and body of Human. They respond with similar emotions and ambitions. Yet, from the longterm perspective of the Elves, this 100 years of exploration is considered a carefree time of innocence, in contrast to the cataclysm that awaits all things.


[MENTION=6888204]snickersnax[/MENTION]

You are right about 1e listing level caps for Nonhuman races. But these limitations were mostly rejected by the D&D community. Personally, I have never seen them in force in a 1e campaign, even among otherwise 1e rulelawyers. But even if so, if I remember correctly, the 1e Elf can gain Unlimited levels in Druid. Druid magic of nature itself, involving lifeforce and physical elements is easily applicable to the trope of magically saving the universe from cosmic self-annihilation. The 1e PH Druid class itself had a maximal level, but supplements found ways for Druids to go beyond to higher levels. In any case, racial level limits are a less desirable solution.

An in-game explanation seems plausible. The Elves simply see the creatures of the universe as doomed and a lost-cause. So those that reach Epic ‘adulthood’ dont bother to interfere with them. Instead, they focus on saving those who they can.

 

[Yaarel]

Interestingly, according to the Norse view, the Elves (Alfar) are superhumanly beautiful and charming.

But it must be said, the Mountain Giants (Berg·risar) are described as equally beautiful, or possibly even more beautiful.

As a kind of Jǫtnar, it is important to remember, not all Jǫtnar are of giant size. Some are tall, big as a mountain, or even as big as a continent. But many Jǫtnar are the same size as Humans. Likewise the sizes of the Berg·risar vary. The Jǫtnar are nature spirits, being the psychic presences of the natural features of the land (or glacier). Thus the psychic presence of a mountain comprises a vast visage, but the spirit of an interesting feature of rock may be human size.

In any case, the superhuman beauty of the Alfar is non-unique. It is a feature of certain other races as well.

 

[Yaarel]

I want to stay true to the Elf archetype. They really are beautiful, they really are magic itself, they really are smart, and wise, and charismatic.

(Heh, due to the reallife archetype of the Elf, it is easy to turn them into a Mary Sue when translating them into a gaming character. But I am familiar with much of the reallife lore, and I want to have something that is recognizably a ‘true’ Elf.)

An Elf also has a ‘dark’ side, literally. And when dealing with cruel humans, the Elf can become cruel, ruthless, and merciless.

For Elf characters, I want to emphasize the reallife Medieval trope, how the same Elf can become angelic, beautiful and luminous to behave in ways that seem ‘Good’, or else can become beastly, grotesque and dark-dwelling to behave in ways that seem ‘Evil’. It always depends on the human group that they are engaging. Either way, the British may well have it right, that there is always a sense of play, whether it comes across as childlike enthusiasm or as sadistic jokes.

It might be accurate to classify the Elf as Unaligned. But ultimately, they are servants of a higher Good purpose. They probably dislike becoming their darker self, but cant help it. Their own Elven fate is inseparable from the fates of a specific group of humans, often a family.



As Player Characters, the fluctuation between Good and Evil behavior can be handled different ways. At one end of the spectrum, the DM gives the player complete narrative control. So, if they are in a mood to play a Good Elf, the player narrates how off-camera the NPC Humans are ‘being Good’ in various scenarios. If the player decides to ‘go dark’, then they explain what went wrong with their bonded NPC Humans, storytelling how how the Human interrelationships started to become more Evil. Usually, the shift is a gradual transition with a Neutral phase. But the flip can also be drastic from Evil to Good or vice-versa, if the Humans enact sudden life-altering changes of mind and heart.

At the other end of possibilities, the Good-Evil fluctuation can be handled mechanically, similar to the Madness mechanic in the DMG, or the corruption points in the Tolkien campaign setting of the Adventures in Middle Earth.

Or somewhere in between, with the DM creating adventures for the Elf player to save their group of Humans, and to help prevent their going dark.

It depends on what kind of setting the players and the DM want to explore.

 

[Yaarel]

I want the one Elf race design to be able to build various types of Elves. This diversity of Elf types are going to show up anyway, and are already showing up. I want to contain them all in one design space.

I am looking at how the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide (for the Forgotten Realms setting) suggests how generate ‘Variant Half Elves’. Its design is pretty much how I want to design ‘Variant Elves’.

With regard to the Half Elf, the Standard Half Elf gets:
• +2 to Cha score, +1 to two other scores
• Darkvision 60
• Fey Ancestry (advantage on save vs charm)
• Skill Versatility (proficiency in any two skills)

Now the Variant Half Elf can swap out Skill Versatility, and instead get one of the features that are specific to the type of Elf that the Half Elf descends from.

So, the Variant Half Elf can choose one of the following to build a distinctive type of Half Elf:
• High Elf Cantrip
• Wood Elf Fleet of Foot (base speed 35)
• Wood Elf Mask of the Wild (hide in light natural obscurement)
• Aquatic Elf Swim (base swim speed 30)
• Half Elf Skill versatility (proficiency in any two skills)
• Elf Keen Senses (proficiency in Perception skill)
• High Elf Weapon Training (sword and bow)
• Wood Elf Weapon Training (sword and bow)

Notice that these options are wildly unequal, with some being traps. But the point is, the design is set up to allow players and DMs to generate very different kinds of Half Elves, using the same design space.

 

[TheLoneRanger1979]

Finally Constitution: Originally D&D elves had a constitution penalty. Fey from the Old English means feeble or sickly. Yeah they live a long time, but constitution and potential lifespan are unrelated in the rest of D&D. Tolkien's elves were fleeing Middle Earth because they were so sensitive to negative conditions. If anything I might give elves the opportunity to take a -2 con for another +2 in another stat.

Hmm, even by the Third Age, even though old and world weary. the elves are many things but not more sensitive to negative conditions then humans. They were still harder to slain, had more stamina and inner strength and were completely immune to diseases. They were leaving the world because of the "call of the West". And this only applied to the Noldor and the Sindar. It was not until much later ages that the remaining wild elves (that never left ME) faded away into the spirit world. And even that transition might not be due to a "constitution penalty".

To the OP, i generally like how the different elven weapon training allows for different ability to govern the prof bonus. Also the whole idea of CHA being their primary "stat" has so merit if we take the elves as "natural" casters, i.e. magic is part of their nature, or better yet their spirit and "soul".

 

[Yaarel]

@snickersnax

It might be worth mentioning, the use of the word ‘Fey’, is an other example of the D&D tradition using the wrong terminology.

The correct term, for the nature spirit is, ‘Fay’ with an ‘a’. Its etymology derives from Latin Fatum to Late Latin Fata to Old French Faie, to Anglo-French Fay (as in Morgan le Fay).

A related Old French term enters Middle English as Fairie (spelled variously, as Faierie, Faerie, Fayry, Fairy, etcetera). This derives from Faie + erie. (Compare wizardry, wizard + ery.)

Technically, a ‘Fay’ is the name of the nature spirit, a spirit of Fate, always female.

In the sense that speaking the words that predict Fate, extends to mean, the power of words to change Fate and reshape reality: the word ‘Fairie’ becomes the Middle English word meaning ‘magic’. (Compare wizardry.) So a ‘Fairie Knight’ means a magical warrior, and ‘Faerie’ describes any kind of magical creature.

Occasionally, the word ‘Fairie’ also served a place name, for the place of the Fay. In other words, a kind of spirit world. (Compare how fishery, being fish + ery, is a place where fish are.) So, Faerie was both the realm of the Fay and the realm where magic comes from.

Fairie = n. ‘magic’, the activity of the Fay who speak words that change Fate.
Fairie = n. the realm of the Fay, the realm of magic
Fairie = adj. ‘magical’
Fairie = n. any kind of magical creature, or any creature from Fairie.

Thus the female is called a ‘Fay’, but the male is called a ‘Fairie man’ or ‘Fairyman’, meaning a man from the land of the Fays. But the man too is a magical being and a wielder of magic.



As an aside. By the time of the Renaissance and Shakespeare, the term ‘fairie’ so strongly associated with a specific kind of magical creature, the land spirit of southern England that Shakespeare describes as ‘fairy’. It became necessary to use a different word for other kinds of magic creatures. So they started using the word ‘magic’, from Greek Magos whence Latin Magus and English Mage. So the story of the three wise men, sometimes called the Three Magi, are understood to be three ‘mages’.



The English word ‘Fey’ with an ‘e’ is completely unrelated. It comes from the Old English word Fæge, from the Old Norse word Feigr. It is an adjective describing one who knows that oneself is about to die. Loosely it gets defined by words like ‘doomed’, but it is an otherworldy state of mind, maybe like when a prisoner is about to be executed, and the guards call out, ‘Dead man walking’, as he is escorted to the execution. This is what ‘Fey’ means. The etymology is loosely related to the word ‘Foe’ in the sense of a deadly enemy.



As often, D&D misuses reallife vocabulary. It uses ‘fey’ with an ‘e’, where properly it would be ‘fay’ or ‘faerie’.

So a ‘Fey’ person who is about to die might well have a low Constitution. However, a ‘Fay’ person who personifies Fate is nigh unkillable, and may well have high Constitution.

No big deal, just kinda interesting.