Spelljammer Astral Elves: Spelljammer's Elves In Spaaaaace!

WotC has a preview of Spelljammer's upcoming Astral Elves over on D&D Beyond (following on from their preview of the Giff last week).

Astral Elves can teleport as a bonus action, use divine cantrips, and 'tap into the knowledge of the infinite multiverse' to pick up new proficiencies after a long rest.

Sneak Peek: Play as the Immortal Astral Elf From Spelljammer: Adventures in Space!

The astral elf is a timeless creature with a deep connection to the Astral Sea. Click here for a preview of the new race offered by Spelljammer: Adventu...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Shardstone]

Yeah, teleporting a few times per day and casting sacred flame sure makes me think of Spock.

I think the Spock call-out is much more to their written culture in the upcoming books, not the abilities they have. They aren't just Spock, and you shouldn't have the expectation that Spock = Astral Elves, just that there is connective tissue to explore a similar idea. After all, how could Spock ever be an entire player race, and how could his race be the same in D&D when D&D has magic and Star Trek doesn't?

 

[Mind of tempest]

Unironically, my fave thing in 5E is all the new elves races.

I like having a fuckton of weird elves to play with, and strange cultures to intermingle. I love that elves can be the default race if you want, and I can legit play fun elf-games. I highly enjoy the fact that this one race, which is spiritually protean, is capable of taking on so many different forms (AS IT SHOULD) and can be found everywhere in the multiverse. It makes sense.

look I honestly dislike elves as they fill up a niche I like and I would like different options instead of elf mark 999.
but it is nice that someone enjoys the elves.

 

[Weiley31]

One thing I will say is this.

Why is every elf getting misty step? I feel as if I get a thousand different ways to misty-step via race + feats + certain subclasses these days.

I guess, in a way, it's one way of "representing" the airy-faelike movement that Elves are known for now that Racial scores are being downplayed in that regard with representing race/culture. Giff, no matter the stats get Firearm Mastery+Advantage on STR Checks/Rolls to represent their strength. A Halfing with a 20 STR is pretty dang strong, but a Hippo is out benching them at the Bench Press..............till the Gnome Barbarian comes into town.

 

[Shardstone]

I guess, in a way, it's one way of "representing" the airy-faelike movement that Elves are known for now that Racials scores are being downplayed in that regard with representing race/culture. Giff, no matter the stats get Firearm Mastery+Advantage on STR Checks/Rolls to represent their strength. A Halfing with a 20 STR is pretty dang strong, but a Hippo is out benching them at the Bench Press..............till the Gnome Barbarian comes into town.

I track with that but...misty step?

Cmon....misty step?

Give me something with some juice! Give me like, idk silent image, crown of madness, make some new spells, etc. Misty step? How many times am I expected to be misty stepping per day WotC?!?!?! Argh!!

 

[Shardstone]

look I honestly dislike elves as they fill up a niche I like and I would like different options instead of elf mark 999.
but it is nice that someone enjoys the elves.

Wait until the Elf-1000 comes around

 

[Weiley31]

Cmon....misty step?

Give me something with some juice! Give me like, idk silent image, crown of madness, make some new spells, etc. Misty step? How many times am I expected to be misty stepping per day WotC?!?!?! Argh!!

What can I say, Elves are the X-Men Nightcrawlers of 5E. They just BAMF all over the place. Or you just flavour it as how Drizzt can "Misty Step"/Teleport around in the recent/newer Dark Alliance game.

 

[Charlaquin]

The UA astal elf gave a choice of cantrip: Sacred Flame, Light, or Dancing Light.

While only mentioned in passing, I got the impression from the DNDBeyond sneakpeak that there will be no choice, all astral elves have Sacred Flame as the cantrip.

Thoughts?

It said “astral elves get access to some divine cantrips that are typically reserved for clerics, sacred flame being chief among them.” Sounds like still a choice between a few options with Sacred Flame called out as “chief among them” because it’s the only combat one. It’s possible Dancing Lights could have been swapped out for something else though, since it’s not a Cleric cantrip.

 

[Remathilis]

Based on Monsters of the Multiverse, we have:

High elf (borders of the feywild or other magical places)
Wood elves (forests or primal places)
Drow elves (Underdark or other dark places)
Sea elves (under water)
Eladrin (feywild)
Shadar Kai (shadowfell)
Astral elves (astral plane)

It seems a lot of previous elves (dusk, moon/sun, wild, etc) got rolled into these. My only complaint is the number of teleporting elves, but those seem to be the rare planar types rather than the common prime types.

 

[Weiley31]

Hmmm, I wonder if in the 2024 update, the High/Wood Elves get a teleport added on.

 

[Yaarel]

The article didn’t mention Radiant Soul, and says they get one skill and one weapon when they trance. I’d eat my PHB if they didn’t have Darkvision.

For me, the British elf-sidhe hybrid is a nocturnal spirit. Darkvision makes sense.

But the Norse elf is a manifestation of sunlight. It has no business being anywhere near darkvision. Oppositely, it should be emanating an aura of light, and imbuing luxurious luminosity.

In any case, where the 5e astral elf is "solar" and "radiant", I prefer it lacks Darkvision and instead has a free choice of any cantrip. That said, make Darkvision a normal cantrip that even a human Wizard can take. (In other words, delete the slot-2 Darkvision spell, and rewrite as a cantrip instead.)



UA Radiant Soul − yeah, I am pretty sure the designers deleted this feature, which is why there is Misty Step instead. But Misty Step is way more powerful than Radiant Soul. Radiant Soul is nice, but one doesnt want to ever be in the situation to need to use it. So its infrequency reduces its value. But again, not dying is nice!


UA Astral Knowledge − oh, I overlooked that. So the new version is: 1 skill + 1 tool/weapon. I am fine with that. In my campaigns, tool proficiencies are powerful. Skills can be too. Here, I suspect, they deleted the "Keens Senses" Perception proficiency, but players who want it, can use Astral Knowledge to gain the Perception skill proficiency.