Andy Collins speaks - the Elf Wizard

[Mouseferatu]

And with his 20' move and -5 penalty to grapple checks, the low-level halfling wizard survives how? He's still going to be AC 12 against touch attacks, and he's not going to be able to outrun anything.

I can buy that a 10th level halfling wizard might be a better deal than a 10th level elf, but I wonder how the halfling survived past 2nd level in the first place

The same way the elf did--by hiding behind the rest of the party.

Here's the problem. The halfling is better than the elf in many ways that impact the normal role of the arcane caster. The elf is better than the halfling mostly in ways that do not. Most wizards don't close with the foe; if your wizard is being grappled, something's already gone wrong.

A penalty that comes into play only rarely doesn't balance an advantage that has an impact in almost every battle.

 

[BryonD]

Dwarves get perks that make them better at being heavy fighters.
Its been argued that they are overpowered.
I have seen several in play and while they do have clear perks, they have never disrupted the fun for any of the players. Which meets my definition of not broken.

I wouldn't hesitate to play a human fighter. But the dwarf fighter fits the archetype nicely and uniquely.

This seems to be the same for elf wizards. It sounds like a good idea to me.

But elves SHOULD be sorcerers.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

At 1st and 2nd level? Speaking as someone who's played an elf wizard: yes, in almost every battle.

I played an elven wizard in my last game, and I always had my rapier handy so I could take attacks of opportunity. It was extremely handy. But then again, my current wizard is a dwarf with a 16 STR who took martial weapon proficiency as his first-level feat, so what do I know? (Yay, dwarven waraxe! I do 1d10+3 damage...)

I also don't get where Andy's coming from on this.

 

[Nifft]

At 1st and 2nd level? Speaking as someone who's played an elf wizard: yes, in almost every battle.

More than you'd use a crossbow? Bows are worse until you get iterative attacks, or unless you have Rapid Shot.

A Human could have Point-Blank Shot and Rapid Shot, but no Elf is gonna have both of those at 1st or 2nd level. (Of course, the Human wouldn't have a Bow...)

-- N

 

[maggot]

Forget about halfling wizards, Human wizards certainly outshine elves. Human don't have to deal with the CON penalty (which is more severe at d4 hit dice/level than one point of AC will correct), and if a human wizard wanted to shot a bow, he could spend his bonus feat on it. If not, he could spend the bonus feat on metamagic or spell focus, or improved initiative, or dodge, or whatever.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

I agree, but I still think elves should be sorcerers.

And that's an opinion I'm taking to my grave. Do you hear me WotC?!?! MY GRAVE!!!!!

Amen! Preach it BG, preach it!

 

[mearls]

I think the entire "elves don't make good wizards" thing is spot on. In the homebrew campaign I'm building, I use three types of elves. They replace the standard elf and the elves in the DMG. I dropped the penalty to Con, because I think it's the steepest ability penalty you can hand out, sort of like how a bonus to Str is the best stat advantage you can get.

Wood Elves: +2 Dex, -2 Str, favored class ranger
These guys are the typical live in the woods and shoot bows really well elves. AKA Legolas.

Grey Elves: +2 Int, -2 Str, favored class wizard
These guys are the typical hide away from humans deep in the woods elves. AKA Eldrond, even if he is a half-elf.

High Elves: +2 Charisma, -2 Str, favored class sorcerer
These guys are the typical sail across the ocean and get all arrogant about it elves. AKA Galadriel.

I've always really liked breaking elves down into several subraces. Elves vary from humans with pointy ears to ephemeral, fae folk not only in fantasy lit, but in how I've seen people play them.

Anyway, in my experience elves make OK wizards, but they aren't good enough at it to forge a close class/race connection like you see with almost every other race:

Half-orc = barbarian
Dwarf = fighter
Halfling = rogue

Gnomes are sort of in the same boat, too. I think the elves have a few too many legacy features, like the weapon proficiency thing. It drives me nuts that the elves, who are supposed to be great wizards, get a bunch of weapon proficiencies and a god whose domains include war.

Completely off topic - Moradin needs the war domain. Don't do it for me - do it for all the dwarf clerics in D&D minis who are forced into a horridly sub-optimal feat choice.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Another vote for Elves as Sorcerers!

But then again, I don't use favored class in my games, so it doesn't matter too much.

 

[scourger]

I agree, but I still think elves should be sorcerers.

And that's an opinion I'm taking to my grave. Do you hear me WotC?!?! MY GRAVE!!!!!

The "MY GRAVE!!!!!" comment cracks me up!

 

[Turjan]

I usually use gnomes as wizards. They have the same AC bonus like elves (due to their size), but get a nice CON bonus for their concentration check. Plus, they usually start with some handy cantrips on level 1.

In my homebrew, the elves are actually based on gnomes. By using the AU casting system, the question of wizard vs. sorcerer doesn't come up, anyway. And I agree: it's completely beyond me why elves have 'wizard' as favoured class.