1/2 elves lost their feyness

[hazel monday]

Why, oh why, would they keep half-elves in? It's a weak race mechanically

They probably kept them in because their market research indicated that people like them.
As a DM, I always like seeing players pick half elfs to play. Part of the reason for this is because they're mechanically weak. If a player chooses to play a half elf, you know they're doing it for roleplaying reasons rather than number crunching reasons.
And that's always a good thing from my perspective.

 

[Thanee]

With gnomes killed off, Half-Elves don't have much competition for the spot of least popular, least needed and most hated race out there.

Mechanics aside, half-elves are easily one of the more popular fantasy races, IMX.

D&D mechanics just make them kinda... meh.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

Anyone know where the "half-elves are social, good at Diplomacy" idea came from? Is it somewhere in fantasy literature? Because I'm drawing a blank here.

Diplomacy Mechanics were introduced in 3.5 to tart up the lacklustre half-elves a bit. I don't know where that idea specifically came from.

half-elves themselves probably only exist because of Elrond

 

[Klaus]

I think a lot of it comes from Tanis in Dragonlance.

Tanis wasn't skilled at diplmacy, really. Laurana and Elistan were much better at it than Tanis.

 

[Thanee]

Anyone know where the "half-elves are social, good at Diplomacy" idea came from?

I suppose because that seems like a good way to give them the elven charisma and the human adaptability in some fashion.

And yes, I know elves get no bonus to Charisma.

Bye
Thanee

 

[sirwmholder]

I do not think Half-Elves will work that way, as Elves are already essentially Eladrin who lost their 'fenyness' - i.e. their magical connection to the Feywild...

Isn't that odd... I imagine the Feywild as being a very nature conscience plane... the Elves who respect and love nature are cut off from the Feywild... wereas the Eladrin who study Arcane magic are still apart of it...

If Half-Elves are a seperate race, and especially with two other elven races around, they need their own niche...

I may be in the minority here... I have never liked half breed races. I feel that they are an invention to appease the power gamer who wants the best abilities from two distinct races.

Just my thoughts,
William Holder

 

[chitzk0i]

Isn't that odd... I imagine the Feywild as being a very nature conscience plane... the Elves who respect and love nature are cut off from the Feywild... wereas the Eladrin who study Arcane magic are still apart of it...

If I recall, in one of the articles about elves it was stated that the elves left the feywild some time back and as they've adapted to this plane, their connection to the feywild has diminished. On the other hand, the eladrin are supposed to have left much more recently than that.

 

[vulcan_idic]

I feel that they are an invention to appease the power gamer who wants the best abilities from two distinct races.

Except they don't have the best abilities of either distinct race. In fact as the evidence of discussion in this thread seem to indicate they are mechanically weaker than either parent race... so how does that appease a power gamer by any stretch of the imagination? I'm confused...

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I actually think the reason they're axing half-orcs is because half-elves already do the "caught between two worlds" thing better, with all the potential angst and without the NECESSARILY dark backstory. That is to say, you can easily come up with a backstory for a half-elf that doesn't involve rape, which is a lot harder for half-orcs, considering how brutal and evil orcs are supposed to be.

In my homebrew, the majority of the half-orcs come from barbarian lands. Human tribes form mixed communities with orcs and it isn’t rare for a human to marry an orc. They value strength over physical attractiveness, and look forward for a spouse whose physical power can be put to good use in defense of their home. Not a difficult background to come up with, so I don’t think half-orcs need to be the children of rape, unless the DM or the designers of the game want them to be.

Cheers,

 

[The Eternal GM]

I may be in the minority here... I have never liked half breed races. I feel that they are an invention to appease the power gamer who wants the best abilities from two distinct races.

Nope, I don't care for 'em much either. It is why I'm keener on Dragonborn and Tieflings having an ancestry of non-human heritage, but not all being crossbred. Personally, I can do without the half-breeds, particularly the half-elf who has just never seemed to be very interesting to me (Eberron tried hardest I think) but they likely have their fans same as every race.