Best version of Eladrin?

[Psion]

I like eladrin as CG, elven court inspired celestials. I like 4e's eladrin mechanically and flavorfully, but I wish they had called them something else.

I like Eladrin as personifications of benevolent chaos.
(...)
4e Eladrin are fine as a race of more fey'ish elves, but I truly wish the 4e design team hadn't hijacked the Eladrins' name and given it to them. There's a difference between reconcepting and reinvisioning a monster and just taking its name and giving it to a completely different monster.

Demiurge and Shemeska speak my mind on this issue.

 

[Rel]

IFKWIM... wait, you already went there, didn't you?
-blarg

Though it seems statistically likely, I can neither confirm nor deny having gone there.

I do think that one possible caption for that pic is: "The Eladrin will be ready to go on the adventure in about...five minutes."

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've developed my own version for Urbis. Basically eladrin are the "nobility" of the elves whose ancestors made a pact with some very powerful fey entities, and were blessed with their powers in exchange. The children of eladrin are ordinary elves - but the children of the elven noble houses are enchanted with the blessings of the fey shortly after birth, in a ritual that turns them into eladrin for the rest of their lives.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Demiurge and Shemeska speak my mind on this issue.

I'm a little less annoyed by fey being actual fey instead of CG Outsiders than my peers here. Fey can be fey. I'm cool with that. I don't even mind them being called "eladrin" and being fey rather than CG outsiders.

But it really should be the term for the group and not the term for a particular flavor of elf.

In fact, I think this bears repeating.

There's a difference between reconcepting and reinvisioning a monster and just taking its name and giving it to a completely different monster.

AND AGAIN

There's a difference between reconcepting and reinvisioning a monster and just taking its name and giving it to a completely different monster.

Don't make me quote it a third time, WotC!

 

[diaglo]

i use the faerie version.
they are a bit more like michael moorcock versions of elric

 

[scruffygrognard]

I dig the Planescape eladrin (due, largely, to Tony Di Terlizzi's awesome art).

 

[FunkBGR]

Eladrin = Rockseer's in my campaign.

I just finished running The Night Below, and that's the closest equivalent. We transmogrified their teleport to have to be in contact with earth or rock, and then gave them a skill bump or something to compensate for the general teleport.

 

[Shroomy]

I'm a little less annoyed by fey being actual fey instead of CG Outsiders than my peers here. Fey can be fey. I'm cool with that. I don't even mind them being called "eladrin" and being fey rather than CG outsiders.

But it really should be the term for the group and not the term for a particular flavor of elf.

The transition wasn't hard for me since the 2e and 3e versions of the eladrin already seemed pretty fey to me (plus, its kind of hard to have chaotic good exemplars without the chaotic alignment or alignment themed planes).

KM, I'm not sure what you mean by the last part of this quoted statement. Do you think that "eladrin" should have been used as a general term for fey?

 

[am181d]

In my main 4e game, Eladrin took a weird turn and wound up as immortal elders of faerie who incarnate on the mortal plain when they get bored to play games. (Eladrin games tend toward "Hunt the Monster" or "Start a War".) When they die, they go back to being immortal, so they tend to be pretty flighty. To get into character, my Eladrin player thought of it like playing WoW.

 

[Rechan]

I always feel a little hamstrung when dealing with player races and changing their fluff. Because usually people say "I want to play x" when I want to have X have a distinctly different feel. Unless that player is a method actor, then just having X in the party generally degrades their otherness if that PC isn't playing up the oddness.