D&D (2024) D&D species article

[Parmandur]

Elrond chose the life of elves. His brother chose the life of men, and was Aragorn’s many generations ancestor. Yes, he married his cousin.

OK, to be fair, most real people have that level of consamguity with approximately every other human being on the planet.

 

[Parmandur]

I still hope for a sidebar with background feats for humans to make half-eves and half-orcs.

If there isn't, I'm putting some options up on DMsGuild.

 

[Corinnguard]

Elrond chose the life of elves. His brother chose the life of men, and was Aragorn’s many generations ancestor. Yes, he married his cousin.

"I am your cousin, many times removed."

 

[Argyle King]

Which is a good way to do that, I won't disagree. Probably a little more complicated (or should I say, Advanced) than I think WotC would like, but certainly a good method. However, none of them have a dedicated half-elf race anymore. That concept is dying. The question has become what is the best method to emulate mixing, be it trait mixing, feats or purely RP. And we can all disagree about which is best. But I can no longer fault WotC for removing them as dedicated race options since LU, TotV and PF2e already had.

From my understanding, those other games offer character creation components that allow for mixed ancestry to have more significance a palette swap or CoD skin.

 

[Minigiant]

Because without their stat increases they were just inferior elves.
In 2e half elves were just inferior elves without stat manipulation but they were valid for more classes

It wasn't inferior elves.
it was adaptable elves.

Essentially like you said, half elf who can choose to be in more classes that weren't elfish.

People typically played half elf to

• a fey who can dive into human things
• A human who can dive into fey things
• a being who can connect or combine the fey and human

With racial restrictions and ASI gone, you'd have to do is convert them into something else

 

[Corinnguard]

Another thing regarding the simple rules of Mixed Heritage in LU is that you can use them to reskin certain heritages to create new heritages. Two of the heritages in the Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete by Purple Martin Games can be reskinned to create several others. The Harpy heritage and the Merfolk heritage. For instance, you can reskin the Merfolk heritage to create heritages for Sea Elves, Locathah, and Sahuagin.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Elrond chose the life of elves. His brother chose the life of men, and was Aragorn’s many generations ancestor. Yes, he married his cousin.

OK, to be fair, most real people have that level of consamguity with approximately every other human being on the planet.

My father's side of the family is firmly Scottish, and when he was doing some digging along the family tree, he supposedly found a link to the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh/Queen Hatshepsut.

The reality of the math is that after a certain number of generations (don't have the number off the top of my head), you either become an ancestor to every human now alive or every line descended from you dies out.

 

[Charlaquin]

"I am your cousin, many times removed."

63 times, to be precise. Easily a distant enough relationship as to be irrelevant.

 

[Corinnguard]

63 times, to be precise. Easily a distant enough relationship as to be irrelevant.

How did you come up with that number? I agree with you about how distant relationships can become irrelevant, what with elves in LoTR being immortal and High Men being long-lived. I am curious about the math.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I still hope for a sidebar with background feats for humans to make half-eves and half-orcs.

personally my own inclination for the optimal way to pay hommage to half elves and orcs being slightly more 'official' would be to make them dedicated lineage/subrace options under the human, having them as feats IMO runs into making them a tax for character concept.