Why Half-Elves???

Why Half-Elves?

Why are half-elves mechanically lame in 3e?

So that only real roleplayers will play them. Given that half-elves are half-breeds caught between two worlds, they are a wonderful challenge for a good roleplayer to tackle & thus can actually add something to your world. If they were mechanically effective, then the munchkins would play them, resulting in an artifical glut of supposedly rare individuals & your world would be less interesting - like in every previous edition of D&D. WotC was merely looking out for the interests of your campaign by making the half-elf lame.

Nasma said:

I could never figure out why the half elf was even included as a race, there are no half dwarves or half gnomes in the PHB, so why half elves?

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Well, I did write up some half-dwarves and half-gnomes for the upcoming Dangerous Denizens monster book...
Also half-goblin, half-gnoll, half-githzerai, half-elf/half-orc and half-satyr! I was going to do half-trolls and half-ogres, but since they already appeared in Fiend Folio and Savage Species, they got cut. (The half-hobgoblin is probably the most common half-race in the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting, but it already exists in the KoK setting book and Player's Guide.)

Of course, most half-breed offspring are extremely rare, and occur humans are captured by other creatures and forced to mate, or when diplomatic pairings between dissimilar races occur. A dwarf and human from the eastern Kalamaran Empire might be a possible diplomatic pairing.

Exceptions to the "always half-human" half-races are the half-orc/half-hobgoblin ("uk-karg" from "Strength & Honor: the Mighty Hobgoblins of Tellene"), and the half-elf/half-orc, the "tel-amhothlan," from Dangerous Denizens. (This creature owes its existence to the fact that orcs will often mate with captured elves, and that the Creator of Strife used the elven form in creating his orc race. This was mentioned in "Fury in the Wastelands.") Other half-races may be possible, but so far these are the only two listed on Tellene.

In unusual cases of crossbreeding, the offspring only has a 25% chance to grow to full term (half-breed offspring often develop complications when both parents are of greatly differing races, such as human and gnoll). Half-breeds that survive the birthing process have a 50% chance of surviving past their first month. Those that do survive the first month have a 75% chance to live a normal lifespan, while the other 25% die at middle age. This way, the population of these half-breeds equals no more than 1 half-blood for every 500,000 humans.

So if you want to add half-races in your campaign, while still limiting their existence, this could be one way to do it. (This info is mentioned in Dangerous Denizens as well.)

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Mark Plemmons
Kenzer and Company
www.kenzerco.com
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I see a bit of a problem with half-dwarves. A male human - female dwarf mating would, while disgusting, provide significantly more chance for survival of both mother and child. Female dwarves are built to give birth to dwarves, so something between and human and a dwarf should be no sweat. However, in a male dwarf - female human mating, while likely, would also likely kill both mother and child during the birthing process, since human females are built to give birth to human kids, who are long, not dwarven kids, who are REALLY wide. A cross would be like giving birth to a human child, only twice as thick. This would likely kill both mother and child.

I.E. Should half-dwarves exist, they should be really rare, since male human - femal dwarf matings are really rare, and a male dwarf - female human mating would kill mother and child.

In a word, Tolkien.
That said, the concept of a quarterling is pretty damn funny .

Mark Plemmons said:

Well, I did write up some half-dwarves and half-gnomes for the upcoming Dangerous Denizens monster book...
Also half-goblin, half-gnoll, half-githzerai, half-elf/half-orc and half-satyr!

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I don't know about those other half-breeds, but the number of half-githzerai is definitely increasing. After all, who could resist the exotic charm of the hottest race that Limbo has to offer?

Nifft said:

Lidda is a different kind of Halfling -- the borderline "kiddie porn" kind if you ask me, but you didn't.

-- Nifft

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Ok, I've seen comments like these here and on other boards as well.

AND I JUST DON'T GET IT!

Lidda's a freakin' adult! She's got freakin' boobs! She looks nothing like a kid (at least no kids I've ever seen)!

hunter1828

Angcuru said:

I.E. Should half-dwarves exist, they should be really rare, since male human - femal dwarf matings are really rare, and a male dwarf - female human mating would kill mother and child.

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IIRC weren't the Muls in Dark Sun half-human/half-dwarf? I haven't looked at Dark Sun in a while so my memory is a bit hazy. Another part, IIRC, was that most of the times the mother did die during child birth and that the resulting child was extremly hardy and was also sterile.

One feat for being a human vs:

- Immunity to sleep spells and similar magical effects.
- +2 racial saving throw bonus against Enchantment spells or effects.
- Low-light Vision: Half-elves can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
- +1 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.
- Elven Blood: For all special abilities and effects, a half-elf is considered an elf.

Heck, the bonus to Listen Search and Spot alone is almost worth it. The cost of 1 skill point per level offsets the rest of the benefits. Seems about right to me.

Greg

hunter1828 said:

Lidda's a freakin' adult! She's got freakin' boobs! She looks nothing like a kid (at least no kids I've ever seen)!

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There's stuff in the flavor text about halflings looking like human children to those who are unfamiliar with them... that's where I got the idea that she was supposed to look like a child.

The fact that she's attractive isn't related to her looking like a child IMHO, but the combination (hot + supposed to look like a child) is ... odd.

-- Nifft

PS: But on topic, yeah, I think that MECHANICALLY the Half-Elf gets a fine package. The trouble is that it's so much less than the full Elf gets, and not much at all from the Human parent. In my house rules, I remove the Sleep immunity, and give +1 Skill Point per level instead.

Nifft said:

In earlier editions, Halflings looked like Tolkein's Hobbits -- no-one wanted to get it on with a Hobbit.

Lidda is a different kind of Halfling -- the borderline "kiddie porn" kind if you ask me, but you didn't.

-- Nifft

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I'm pretty sure no one here will ask you about kiddie porn. Ever.

My ex-GF wasn't much taller than Lidda is supposed to be and she was neither a child when I went out with her, nor did she look like a child. As far as all that's concerned. People who are unfamiliar with halflings might assume they are human children the same way that people in Ghostbusters assumed Terror Dogs were dogs or bears. It's like in D20 Modern, people's minds will often make up a plausible solution to something that they can't or don't want to understand. That's all.

Anyway.
Comments like yours are unnecessary and WILL get people riled up. If you don't really think WoTC is promoting something as disgusting as that, don't bring it up. If you do, e-mail them, don't start crap on the boards.