Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Afrodyte" data-source="post: 2185699" data-attributes="member: 8713">Interesting.  Not precisely my thing, but I'd probably use them before I use the PHB elves.  By the way, if you want a name more evocative than "Norse elves," perhaps Liosalfar (light elves) would serve since that's the Scandinavian name used for them.There is something about the ability modifiers that rubs me the wrong way.  While the penalties are mechanically balanced, I don't think it really emphasizes the idea you're trying to make with them being more otherworldly than this-worldly.  I believe there's a different way to go about bringing out their detachment from physical reality than a -2 Constitution.  Now, if you said that elves are not as tied to the physical world, so they are not as physically powerful or robust as the average human, that's a different story.  You could justify a -2 Strength instead.  Why the penalty to Strength before one to Constitution?  Well, the idea of elves being less physically powerful (Strength) strikes me as more fitting to them than them being less physically resilient (Constitution).  I don't know why.  Maybe it's just the idea that I find it harder to imagine elven bodybuilders than elven marathon runners.As far as the bonuses, I think that the bonus to Charisma is spot-on as far as the concept is concerned.  However, combined with their substantial penalties, trying to make an elven character that is anything besides a bard is asking for trouble.  Why bard?  The bard is the only class that has a high enough HD and enough skill points that you have a penalty to Constitution and Intelligence and not shoot yourself in the foot if you don't roll very high (13+ for all stats), if you have less than 30-point buy, or if your character concept calls for Strength, Dexterity, or Wisdom to be higher than average.  In addition, you list the favored class as sorcerer, which is just about the only class where penalties to Constitution and Intelligence act as more of a deterrant than the Charisma bonus does an incentive to take the class.  I'm not saying you should use anything not immediately related to class effectiveness as dump stats, but don't make it so that you have to spread your highest scores so thin just to be effective, let alone keep up with the rest of the group.  I'd suggest the following attribute adjustments for an LA +0 light elf: +2 Charisma, -2 Strength.  If you wanted, I think you could add a +2 Wisdom and still be OK.  In fact, a +2 Wisdom would be right up their alley since it helps with awareness and intuition; these are traits I would definitely associate with the otherworldly creatures you describe.Luminescence is really cool.  If you wanted to adjust the potency of the ability, why not make it scale with level?  Starts out as light at 1st level, then goes up to daylight at some other time?  Light resistance is pretty neat too, although a bit limited in scope.  Maybe youd could tie it to their luminescence trait.Aside from the resistance to enchantment spells and effects, the standard PHB elf traits don't really make sense for these elves.  At least, not from what you have so far.  A flavor text writeup would work wonders for showing the main differences between Liosalfar and PHB high elves.  If you wanted to show their more magical natures, perhaps granting more magic-related traits would be ideal.As you have it now, I think they're a bit weak, but with a few minor changes and a few more extras, you'll be good to go.</blockquote>

Verification