D&D General elf definition semantic shenanigans

Crimson Longinus said:

I get that people sometimes over interpret things

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Minigiant said:

The veneer is not thin.

Elves are like dogs, They share many characteristics. Their organs are all the same and weakens and strengthened in the same ways.. However they vary heavily in size, color, weight, and ear, mouth, and nose shape.

But just like you can tell 4 different dogs are all dogs, you can tell 4 different elves they are all elves.

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Remathilis said:

Create one set of stats that can describe every dog breed from Chihuahua to Great Dane. It's impossible. You couldn't even do that for each major subgroup of dogs (herding, hunting, toy, etc). You at best get a couple of overlapping traits like keen senses, but you absolutely couldn't even assign ability score mods to every breed of dog.

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Crimson Longinus said:

I really don't think "winged elves" or "water-breathing elves" should be elves. Like they seem physiologically drastically different. We wouldn't consider tritons or angels to be subspecies of humans.

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Remathilis said:

Create one set of stats that can describe every dog breed from Chihuahua to Great Dane. It's impossible. You couldn't even do that for each major subgroup of dogs (herding, hunting, toy, etc). You at best get a couple of overlapping traits like keen senses, but you absolutely couldn't even assign ability score mods to every breed of dog.

Yet we think we can sum up all of the elves in D&D with one set of stats and maybe 3-4 variants. One set of stats can cover Athasian elves and Eladrin.

It's. Not. Possible.

So yeah, we can do that, but it's going to require either making Athasian elves use the PHB elves or getting rid of Athas support. (Lather rinse repeat for Eberron, Krynn, Faerun, etc...)

Or, you know, decide the concept of elves is fluid enough that there needs to be 49 flavors of elf and they all can't get hundreds of pages of lore.

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Minigiant said:

Pfft that's easy.

mastiff

make it small for a small dog
make it tiny for a tiny dog
make it large for a large dog
Use rules for sizes.

6 words
Stop Focusing on ability score adjustments.
Even in AD&D a race description took up half a page plus tables.

+X to Y -X to Z never mechanically meant much. Having a 12 never meant much in any edition.

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Crimson Longinus said:

Not really. In many fantasy setting there are cultures directly inspired by the real world. I get that people sometimes over interpret things, but thinking that Kara-Tur is analogous to Asia and Harad is analogous to Africa is not a case of that. The similarity is explicit and intentional.

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Mind of tempest said:

question is aquaman human is Angle of the xmen human?
as in other than some necessary changes do they, think act and live fairly human-standard lives in their respective setting?
I would say both are human but possibly divergent enough to be true sub-races but clearly human in the ways we tend to think of ourselves.

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Micah Sweet said:

At the risk of being flippant, the idea that fantasy cultures are analogous to real life ones and that this needs to limit our design is a choice, and the idea that it isn't a choice is also a choice.

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Crimson Longinus said:

Yes. As we are being flippant (I don't mind that,) you can choose to be racist or you can choose not to.

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Crimson Longinus said:

But that's totally crap rules. German shepherd can be dangerous. My miniature poodles aren't. They should not have the same rules, it is silly beyond belief.

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