Elan vs. Illumians, which ones better?

[WhatGravitas]

Not hard. Elans rock, seriously Nothing cooler than playing an immortal mindbender who can blow powerpoints to buff him/herself up in pinch, doesn't need to sleep much, or eat or drink at all, and is an aberration (so none of those pesky humaonoid-only effects can touch them).

They're like Elves, only cool.

Don't forget, they're all redheads.

How can "floating neon sign" hold up to that?

Cheers, LT.

 

[Klaus]

Two formerly human races.

In one corner we have the Illumians from Races of Destiny who are a secret society of former humans with glowing things around their heads. Their special abilities? To be really good at multiclassing along with having these orbiting glowing sigils...

In the other corner we have the Elan from the Expanded Psionic Handbook, a secret society of generally red-headed former humans with psionic metabolisms. Their special abilities, they can become resilient to damage, resist poisons, not require food and water all with the expenditure of power points, and are able to live forever and have this ill-defined charisma penalty.

Elan.

Because Elan got refluffed in Eberron (Secrets of Sarlona) as being quori spirits forcefully anchored to a mortal body, as punishment for crimes against their kind.

 

[ivocaliban]

I voted for elans simply because I have the XPH and I don't have RoD.

Funny that. I voted for elans simply because I have the RoD and I don't have the XPH.

 

[Piratecat]

Don't forget, they're all redheads.

Technically, they don't need to be; it's just that the current council of Elan overlords who pick new members of the race tend to like redheads. But Elan live forever, so older ones can look like anyone.

I love those little psionic so-and-sos. There are a bajillion cool plot hooks attached to someone who gives up their old life and memory in exchange for a new, eternal life. Cool stuff.

 

[Masquerade]

I like both races and have used both extensively in my campaign, but, because I had to choose, I gave the final vote to the illumian.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Elan all the way.

I'll never forget the shock and horror of the PC assassin in an Ivalician espionage game who attempted to assassinate the wife of the Oligarch of Romanda - and found self-repairing roiling alien energy pulsing through her instead of lifeblood and viscera.

Of course, I didn't mention that she spent all her power points repairing the damage from his initial sneak attack...

Anyway, elans have the awesome distinction of being the only non-human race in the SRD that I can see fitting in most any campaign I'd care to run. They also have one of the coolest schticks/special powers.

 

[Arkhandus]

Elans.

And they're Charisma penalty probably comes a bit from being disconnected from their former lives and the world around them - they've psionically ascended to a different form, though outwardly similar to their old self, no longer chained to mortal needs and desires, and no longer fully-aware of their former existence as lesser beings.

They no longer have the strong influence of memories and mortal impulses to connect with other creatures on a social or emotional level, and maybe they're just less grounded in physical reality. Which maybe reduces their talent for manipulating physical reality through sorcery or whatnot, requiring more studious or philosophical methods to produce such results with the same efficiency as they could have done before the transformation.

 

[Vegepygmy]

To be honest, I think they both suck.

 

[Deekin]

I voted for Elans, but that's becouse I love Dreamscarred Press's Races of the Mind series.

 

[hong]

Elan is kinda dumb. I prefer Nale.