Spelljammer Astral Elves: Spelljammer's Elves In Spaaaaace!

WotC has a preview of Spelljammer's upcoming Astral Elves over on D&D Beyond (following on from their preview of the Giff last week).

Astral Elves can teleport as a bonus action, use divine cantrips, and 'tap into the knowledge of the infinite multiverse' to pick up new proficiencies after a long rest.

Sneak Peek: Play as the Immortal Astral Elf From Spelljammer: Adventures in Space!

The astral elf is a timeless creature with a deep connection to the Astral Sea. Click here for a preview of the new race offered by Spelljammer: Adventu...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Weiley31]

been done.
View attachment 255414

Hey look a Locathah!

 

[Yaarel]

look do you know what bugs me about the elves they get a million subtypes to fill up the magical smart people race slot, but we make a million different big strong hard to kill guys, could we not split the difference or something? like make a million variations of dwarf or goliath and at least a couple new magical smart guy options?

I agree that 5e (and D&D generally) has too many nonmagical brutes. It needs to spend more effort to distinguish these from each other.

For me, it is important to make the goblin Fey to make it less orc. 4e made orc related to Giant thus helped distinguish it further. In my eyes, the goblin is a kind of fairy and is innately magical. But the orc is inherently nonmagical.

The dwarf is different things to different people, and there can be races that are quite different from each other. The Tolkien dwarf is simply a short human ethnicity, thus a nonmagical creature. 1e went so far as to say the dwarf was unable to do magic, except its Cleric could gain divine magic. The Norse dwarf is a nature being relating to earth and fateful magic relating to curses. It is the same heights as humans, but now in 5e, a player can choose whatever Medium bodytype they want, so height is no longer an issue.

So, similar to the elf, it seems possible to divide the dwarf into two races: an elemental (or possibly a non-undead shadow) "magic dwarf" and a material "physical dwarf". The hill and mountain are physical dwarf cultures. The duergar is a magic dwarf culture that prefers Invisibility and Enlarge for its choices of innate magic.

• Magic dwarf cultures: Wizard, Artificer, Druid

• Physical dwarf cultures: Fighter, Paladin, Cleric

 

[Vaalingrade]

Has there ever been like an explicitly swole elf sub group? Like big, ripped dudes with pointy ears and a sad superiority complex?

 

[Yaarel]

Has there ever been like an explicitly swole elf sub group? Like big, ripped dudes with pointy ears and a sad superiority complex?

1e elves are high Strength.

1e wood elf ≈ +1 Str, +1 Dex
1e grugach elf ≈ +2 Str, +1 Dex

The Basic elf ≈ Str and Int ≈ Fighter/Magic-User (no Dex)

3e is what removed Str from elven races.

 

[Jer]

Has there ever been like an explicitly swole elf sub group? Like big, ripped dudes with pointy ears and a sad superiority complex?

Just get some elves to move to Venice California and Muscle Beach Elves will soon become a thing.

 

[Yaarel]

In the 1e Monster Manual, the Intelligence of the high elf is "High and up", in other words, 13+.

But in the 2e Monstrous Manual, the Intelligence is "High to Supra (14-20)". A high elf with Intelligence 20 is a normal part of the elven bell curve. A DM can approximate it as Int 12+2d4.

Note, the stats for the "elf" is actually for the standard "high elf". A 1e player character tended to roll 3d6 for each score, regardless of the race characteristics.

But the 5e 2014 Players Handbook is correct to correlate its high elf traits with an Intelligence score improvement.

...

Now in 5e, I am so happy, the player can improve whichever scores they feel like!

If a player likes the grugach flavor, then pick a physical elf race, invest in Strength, and bump it up by +2. Done. If a player wants their physical elf to show off roguish Dexterity instead, then do that. If a player wants an alfar or a sidhe that excels in Charisma, then pick a magic elf race and do that. No problem.

The 50th anniversary edition is a relief.

 

[vecna00]

Just get some elves to move to Venice California and Muscle Beach Elves will soon become a thing.

Now I'm having flashbacks of that Boost Mobile commercial with Travis Barker being led down the rabbit hole of competitive bodybuilding.

 

[Fandabidozi]

Someone post an Elves. Elves Everywhere. Toy Story meme.

 

[gantzerteo]

Dudes. Elves are the more marketable race in DnD, even more than Dwarves since a lot of noobs still think that a dwarf is a man suffering from dwarfism. That's the answer to "Why another elven subrace"?
Add that Amazon's The Rings of Powers is beyond the corner with probably all the cool cgi elves actions ala Legolas.
And, Elves are the most 80ish sci-fantasy aka spelljammering race in DnD so why not? Easy peasey and profitable.

What more could a company want?

 

[doppelganger]

Yeah, teleporting a few times per day and casting sacred flame sure makes me think of Spock.

Think transporters and phasers.