Alzrius
The EN World kitten
And now we come to that most infamous entry in the PHBR series, PHBR8 The Complete Book of Elves. Strap yours-elves in folks, we're about to look at the book that everyone enjoys dumping on. You know it must be bad if the guy who wrote it issued an apology years after the fact, right?
Of course, as Colin's video makes clear, he's not really apologizing for what's in the book, and you know what? I'm right there with him on that one.
Now, I've brought it up before how Gary Gygax always maintained that his elves (like his dwarves) weren't inspired by Tolkien; rather, they were inspired by the same sources that Tolkien drew upon. And in this particular instance, I believe him. After all, while elves (like all demihumans) had a bunch of advantages compared to your average human, they weren't the mystical Übermensch that Tolkien portrayed them as. They had their class restrictions and level limits like every other demihuman, letting the Homo Sapiens rocket by them when it came time to hit the high levels.
But, as with the dwarves, everyone else who wrote for D&D wanted to make them a race that just stepped straight out of Middle-Earth, and it shows. You know that Evermeet place, from FOR5 Elves of Evermeet? Yeah, that's another "mystical land to the west" that the elves are retreating to. Dragonlance's Silvanesti and Qualinesti lean even harder into the "chosen people" theme (even if they played up the negative repercussions of that), to the point where the Kagonesti of DLS4 Wild Elves felt like they were breaking the mold just by stepping back from that. Birthright's elves always struck me as more grounded than their counterparts on other campaign worlds, but you can still find a lot of the same themes surrounding them in Player's Secrets of Tuarhievel. And don't even get me started on the "High Magic" in Cormanthyr: Empire of the Elves!
All of which is to say that, if Colin McComb can be blamed for anything, it was following through on what everyone clearly expected elves to be like when he wrote this book.
And make no mistake: Colin leans into that hard. From flavor text talking about how, at an elven funeral, the sounds the mourners made was so heartbreaking to hear that the visiting humans dropped dead on the spot, to racial characteristics that sort of had game mechanics (i.e. "manifestation," a force of presence elves have which is suggested to be represented by a +/-3 modifier to reaction rolls), elves get boosted in various small ways that collectively make them seem better than humans in every way. While most of these would quietly be forgotten, I'll note that the idea of the "reverie" - where elves don't go to sleep and dream, but rather slip into a trance and relive portions of their memories - has stuck around in terms of elven lore in D&D (presuming that this is where it originated).
I also got a kick out of how, unlike The Complete Book of Dwarves, this one openly acknowledges the other campaign worlds, talking about how elves are presented in each one. Since I couldn't afford to pick up most of those campaign setting boxed sets, I read these sections over and over, appreciating the glimpse into the myriad worlds of D&D.
Of course, I suspect that the major complaints about the book being broken come from Chapter 9, which strikes me as odd considering that it's not only titled "Optional Rules," but then goes on to say in its second paragraph:
So all the stuff therein, the expanded level limits, special archery tricks, bladesinging, etc. wasn't exactly something a power-gamer could wave under the DM's nose and demand that it be allowed by the Rules As Written.
I suppose they could have done that for the kits, but in all honesty these didn't seem quite as bad to me. I mean, the bladesinger kit has a bunch of bonuses to be sure, but unlike what it says in the optional rules section for bladesingers, their drawbacks go beyond "they're loners" (albeit not much, but they do).
Also, the Monstrous Compendium entries at the end for the avariel (winged elves) and cooshee (elven hounds) were pretty awesome, so I say it's all good. Certainly enough that Colin didn't need to apologize a second time:
Freakin' elves, man.
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
Of course, as Colin's video makes clear, he's not really apologizing for what's in the book, and you know what? I'm right there with him on that one.
Now, I've brought it up before how Gary Gygax always maintained that his elves (like his dwarves) weren't inspired by Tolkien; rather, they were inspired by the same sources that Tolkien drew upon. And in this particular instance, I believe him. After all, while elves (like all demihumans) had a bunch of advantages compared to your average human, they weren't the mystical Übermensch that Tolkien portrayed them as. They had their class restrictions and level limits like every other demihuman, letting the Homo Sapiens rocket by them when it came time to hit the high levels.
But, as with the dwarves, everyone else who wrote for D&D wanted to make them a race that just stepped straight out of Middle-Earth, and it shows. You know that Evermeet place, from FOR5 Elves of Evermeet? Yeah, that's another "mystical land to the west" that the elves are retreating to. Dragonlance's Silvanesti and Qualinesti lean even harder into the "chosen people" theme (even if they played up the negative repercussions of that), to the point where the Kagonesti of DLS4 Wild Elves felt like they were breaking the mold just by stepping back from that. Birthright's elves always struck me as more grounded than their counterparts on other campaign worlds, but you can still find a lot of the same themes surrounding them in Player's Secrets of Tuarhievel. And don't even get me started on the "High Magic" in Cormanthyr: Empire of the Elves!
All of which is to say that, if Colin McComb can be blamed for anything, it was following through on what everyone clearly expected elves to be like when he wrote this book.
And make no mistake: Colin leans into that hard. From flavor text talking about how, at an elven funeral, the sounds the mourners made was so heartbreaking to hear that the visiting humans dropped dead on the spot, to racial characteristics that sort of had game mechanics (i.e. "manifestation," a force of presence elves have which is suggested to be represented by a +/-3 modifier to reaction rolls), elves get boosted in various small ways that collectively make them seem better than humans in every way. While most of these would quietly be forgotten, I'll note that the idea of the "reverie" - where elves don't go to sleep and dream, but rather slip into a trance and relive portions of their memories - has stuck around in terms of elven lore in D&D (presuming that this is where it originated).
I also got a kick out of how, unlike The Complete Book of Dwarves, this one openly acknowledges the other campaign worlds, talking about how elves are presented in each one. Since I couldn't afford to pick up most of those campaign setting boxed sets, I read these sections over and over, appreciating the glimpse into the myriad worlds of D&D.
Of course, I suspect that the major complaints about the book being broken come from Chapter 9, which strikes me as odd considering that it's not only titled "Optional Rules," but then goes on to say in its second paragraph:
So all the stuff therein, the expanded level limits, special archery tricks, bladesinging, etc. wasn't exactly something a power-gamer could wave under the DM's nose and demand that it be allowed by the Rules As Written.
I suppose they could have done that for the kits, but in all honesty these didn't seem quite as bad to me. I mean, the bladesinger kit has a bunch of bonuses to be sure, but unlike what it says in the optional rules section for bladesingers, their drawbacks go beyond "they're loners" (albeit not much, but they do).
Also, the Monstrous Compendium entries at the end for the avariel (winged elves) and cooshee (elven hounds) were pretty awesome, so I say it's all good. Certainly enough that Colin didn't need to apologize a second time:
Freakin' elves, man.
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
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