Waller
Legend
Whatever it ends up being called. Some thoughts. Needs some juggling.
Split species and cuture. No ability score adjustments. You choose those yourself with point buy. Text says something like:
"Many half-orcs are very strong; your half-orc does not have to be. Similarly, many elves are very dextrous, but your elf does not have to be." So while most halflings are not as strong as humans, you can play a mighty halfling weighlifter if you want. He's awesome.
The species part of it give syou stuff like darkvision, size, fey ancestry, or dwarven toughness.
A lot of the other stuff is shifted from species into background. Your background gives you languages, proficiencies, stuff you'd learn.
Included in the backgrounds are ones which emulate the cultural stuff from the PH. Like dwarven combat training, that's in a specific dwarven background.
But your dwarf might take a background which has nothing to do with dwarven combat training because he wasn't brought up by dwarves or something.
So, the elf would look like this:
----
GONE Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
SPECIES Age. Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.
GONE Alignment. Elves love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not. The drow are an exception; their exile into the Underdark has made them vicious and dangerous. Drow are more often evil than not.
SPECIES Size. Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
SPECIES Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
SPECIES Darkvision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
SPECIES Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
SPECIES Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
SPECIES Trance. Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
BACKGROUND Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.
...
(High Elf)
GONE Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
BACKGROUND Elf Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
BACKGROUND Cantrip. You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.
BACKGROUND Extra Language. You can speak, read, and write one extra language of your choice.
--
So you can take the species and the right background to play the default elf from the original 5E rules, and its pretty much the same when it comes out the other end, or take the species and a totally different background and play one who is very different. The old default elf is now an option or choice.
Split species and cuture. No ability score adjustments. You choose those yourself with point buy. Text says something like:
"Many half-orcs are very strong; your half-orc does not have to be. Similarly, many elves are very dextrous, but your elf does not have to be." So while most halflings are not as strong as humans, you can play a mighty halfling weighlifter if you want. He's awesome.
The species part of it give syou stuff like darkvision, size, fey ancestry, or dwarven toughness.
A lot of the other stuff is shifted from species into background. Your background gives you languages, proficiencies, stuff you'd learn.
Included in the backgrounds are ones which emulate the cultural stuff from the PH. Like dwarven combat training, that's in a specific dwarven background.
But your dwarf might take a background which has nothing to do with dwarven combat training because he wasn't brought up by dwarves or something.
So, the elf would look like this:
----
GONE Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
SPECIES Age. Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.
GONE Alignment. Elves love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not. The drow are an exception; their exile into the Underdark has made them vicious and dangerous. Drow are more often evil than not.
SPECIES Size. Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
SPECIES Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
SPECIES Darkvision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
SPECIES Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
SPECIES Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
SPECIES Trance. Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
BACKGROUND Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.
...
(High Elf)
GONE Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
BACKGROUND Elf Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
BACKGROUND Cantrip. You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.
BACKGROUND Extra Language. You can speak, read, and write one extra language of your choice.
--
So you can take the species and the right background to play the default elf from the original 5E rules, and its pretty much the same when it comes out the other end, or take the species and a totally different background and play one who is very different. The old default elf is now an option or choice.
