UA: New Race Options, Eladrin and Gith

The Eladrin ability score adjustment needs to be: +2 Charisma, +1 any other.

Charisma and all of its connotations [charm, innate magic, bardic song, etcetera] is what best represents the Fey Elf concept.

Intelligence is an accident of D&D only having Wizard class in the beginning, but it has merit in folklore too.

Dexterity is irrelevant.

Maybe handsized sprites connote Dexterity, but humansized spirits of magic, less so.



Edit.

Elves can work better this way:

Wood Elf: +2 Dexterity
High Elf: +2 Intelligence
Eladrin Elf: +2 Charisma

That is what the Elf feels like.



Edit.

High Elf
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence (!)
Trance
Investigation skill proficiency
Languages: Elven, Sylvan, and Common
Cantrip
Elven Armor (permanent Mage Armor, appears as supple chain armor or as invisible force)
High Elf Weapon Training (longsword proficiency, treat as finesse weapon and spell focus)
(Darkvision too?)



Edit.

Eladrin are a group of elves that are native to the Fey Plane. They feel like a separate race of Elf with their own four subraces. The concept of the Eladrin evolves across the editions, and their association with the four seasons seems to enjoy traction. They consolidate well into four kinds of Eladrin, each one corresponding to a season.

Eladrin Elf
• Spring: +2 Charisma, +1 Dexterity (Ghael, Coure)
• Summer: +2 Charisma, +1 Strength (Firre, Bralani)
• Autumn: +2 Charisma, +1 Intelligence (Tulani)
• Winter: +2 Charisma, +1 Wisdom (Noviere, Shiere)

 

[Chaosmancer]

Maybe not every choice has to be optimal, heck its impossible for all of them to be optimal.

I think "optimal" is just a little too complicated to shoe-horn into one choice, because DnD has such a breadth of options that it is completely fair to ask "optimal for what"

I built a gnome cleric, and I did so for the incredibly potent wisdom saving throw that gave me, because the Advantage on all mental saves and the proficiency in Charisma and Wisdom meant that even though I only had a +1 and +3 respectively when I started, I was nearly as good at those saves as you can possibly be.

The choice was optimal for the aspect I wanted.


And, if someone wants to play a wizard, but also wants to have a high AC, Mountain Dwarf is the most optimal choice for that intersection of desires.

Optimal cannot be "the highest ability score" because we have multiple different scores and numbers that can be optimized and by the very nature of scarcity you have to give up one or more in the pursuit of others.

I just think things are too complicated to pigeonhole, though I agree that by a pure definition optimal is only a single choice, the game defies you to be optimal in all areas of play, and there is a tight race between various paths once you begin widening the scope of what you are trying to optimize.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

One other consideration is that at least in my opinion, +2 vs. +1 is generally meaningless, with regular point buy you can't start with higher than a +3 modifier, and there are diminishing returns on your point expenditures that don't exist when you use your ASI, so instead of going for the 17 (15 +2), you generally want to set two stats at 16, which always comes out to 7 and 9 points with a +1 and +2. It's immaterial whether you have the forest gnome AS setup (+2 Int, +1 Dex) or the high elf one (+2 Dex, +1 Int) because they both come out to the same points spent for 16 Dex/16 Int, which you generally need for a reasonable AC and Spell Save DC/Spell Attack Bonus.

In other words: High Elves do make for more or less optimal wizards already, as much as any other race I can think of does, depends on the wizard build of course.

 

[Odunayo]

The Gith, by contrast... man, there's just something missing! They are awesomely cool races, with lots of fun fluff and a really unique place in the game, but this writeup just doesn't excite me at all. And I say that as someone who just finished a big Githyanki focused storyline, so I'm well versed in the race and their ethos and culture. They've taken the traits from the Monster Manual, and make a race that is mechanically fine, but just very dull.