NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8704420" data-attributes="member: 58172">Heh. It sucks for me.I love the astral elf.But I sympathize with the groans about the bloat of elf races.4e systematically reduced the D&D elf traditions down to three essential elves. Eladrin, elf, drow. To good effect.5e even carried over these three from 4e, as high, wood, and drow. But then the self-discipline ended pretty much immediately. The elf races explode into shadarkai, sea elf, eladrin proper, Eberron shadow mark elf, Wildemount palid elf, and now astral elf.I want to go back to reducing elf races down to three − but I want the astral elf to be one of these three!It seems to me:• 5e astral = 5e eladrin = 5e shadarkai = 5e aevendrow = 4e eladrin = 3e FR sun = 1e grey = 1e faerie = 1e valleyAll of these are primarily magical. These have or do well to have Misty Step and a cantrip as race features. Everything else is cultural backgrounds.• 5e high = 5e Eberron shadow mark = 5e Wildemount palid = 3e FR moon = 1e high = 5e udadrow = 4e/3e/1e drowThese are a gishy blend of physicality and magic. Everything else is cultural backgrounds.• 5e wood = 5e sea = 5e lorendrow = 5e Eberron drow = 4e elf = 3e FR wild = 3e FR wood = 1e wood = 1e grugachThese are primarily physical − often to the point of rejecting magic albeit primal magic might persist. Everything else is cultural backgrounds.Even now. A systematic simplification back down to three elf races only − as long as each of these three has mechanics that are versatile with freedom of choice, and as long as the backgrounds offer enough mechanical oomph to handle significant cultural capabilities − can satisfactorily represent all of the hundred-plus elf races in the D&D traditions.</blockquote>

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