Elven Resistance to Sleep

[ivocaliban]

Do elves even *have* resistance to ghoul paralysis in 3.5e (or even 3e)? I had thought it died out with 2e . . . .

I was thinking the same thing, actually. Mainly because you won't find it mentioned anywhere under the Elf description in the PHB. You find it only in the Ghoul entry in the MM.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Just because you are an elf wizard doesn't mean you have to have a lack of HP. You could very easily sink your largest roll into CON if you want to beef yourself up.

DS

 

[Ranger REG]

I think it should be dropped in 4e, along with things like dwarves' bonuses to hit orcs, dodge bonuses vs. giants, and elven resistance to ghoul paralysis. They rarely come up, and when they do, they are often forgotten til after the fact.

Hah! Only a savvy tactically-minded roleplayer would take advantage of racial benefit when the opportunities arise.

Not my problem if you're playing a nonhuman with a human mindset.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I think elves are weak. A lot of the benefits, like "search for secret doors" are just silly. Players forget that one all the time. The dwarven bonuses are easier to remember; they come up more often. (The good ones; I don't care about +1 to hit vs goblinoids, but +2 save vs magic or poison is really cool and players almost never forget about it).

Actually, Elves perform GREAT at being Rangers... (the best ranger is the Archer ranger who moves in, shoots, and moves back away); Rangers never made very good front line fighters... too little hp anyways

No they don't, at least not at low levels. You can't get Precise Shot at 1st-level as an elf. Unless you like taking -4 to hit all the time... Other than that, they're pretty decent actually. My last ranger PC was a human though. I made the mistake of not taking Precise Shot at first level, and felt pain for two levels as a result. That's not a mistake I want to make again.

For that matter, elven swordsmen, while they're cool, are mechanically weak. DnD shafts light fighters again and again and again. The Swashbuckler classes ... all the ones I've seen are weak. Even in BoNS, the light fighter (what do you call it?) is much weaker than the warblade, even if you completely ignore the maneuvers.

There are numerous spells to prevent you from getting hit, gain temporary hit points, become immune to near-everything.

The Con bonus becomes less important at higher levels, but you've got to live that long. Also, sometimes high hit points are nice at higher levels anyway. There's always a way past a wizard's defenses, even if it's just blind luck on the part of the opponents.

 

[Darklone]

Hmm. Saying that the halforc is a weak race usually only tells me something about peoples attribute generation method... either high point buys or good dice rolling methods.

I've had three groups with point buy 25. The halforcs rocked cause noone else reached str 18 at level 1 (which meant +6 damage with a twohanded weapon).

Dex more important than Con? Most dwarf wizards I've seen had twice as many hp as the elf wizards. That IS a big difference. Much bigger difference than one or two points of AC or Reflex save.

 

[BRP2]

Concerning stat bonuses, what I'm going to do in my next campaign is do away with subrace specific stat bonuses and just let each race(aside from Humans and Half-Elves of course) pick their own stats... Elves are likely to have a choice between:
+2 DEX -2 CON
+2 DEX -2 STR
+2 INT -2 CON
+2 INT -2 STR
And maybe +2 WIS -2 INT for the Wild Elf kind of player.

Should help them out a little bit.

 

[dagger]

In our 3e/3.5 games since Aug 2000, the wizards usually put stat priority in this order:

Int-->Con-->Dex.


Con for HP and to help with terrible Fort saves.
Dex for AC, Reflex, and to help with Ranged Touch Attacks.

I have played 4 wizards from 1st to 17+ and seen many more of various levels. HP are important for wizards, even with contingencies and other defenses.

Wizard killer spells...I have seen it many times.

"You utter a single word of power that instantly kills one creature of your choice, whether the creature can hear the word or not. Any creature that currently has 101 or more hit points is unaffected by power word kill."

"You utter a single word of power that instantly causes one creature of your choice to become stunned, whether the creature can hear the word or not. The duration of the spell depends on the target’s current hit point total. Any creature that currently has 151 or more hit points is unaffected by power word stun."