Elves - Love em or Hate em?

[MonsterMash]

are there any half halflings?

Wouldn't that be a quarterling?

Elves - Of course they're great fricasseed

Personally I voted don't care - most treatments of elves in D&D make me go "meh!"

 

[Turanil]

I'm working at taking elves back to their more folkloric roots, a la the Broken Sword by Poul Anderson, without giving them any fancy-schamcy abilities.

An excellent novel indeed, and a good way to portray interesting elves. However, I am fed up with D&D vanilla elves.

 

[Darmanicus]

Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em! Nasty little, pointy eared, hoighty, toighty freaks!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My hat of Eilistraee knows no limit!

Seriously, I dislike them (and even worse, drow) in literature. They're stuck-up and pretend to be superior - and there's a version in nearly every fantasy and science fiction book you can find.

In most DnD books featuring elves (even those featuring my favorite, Elaith Craunolber), you can't see any elven weaknesses. None at all. They even take alcohol better than humans, not to mention being better at everything from crafting to magic, fighting and raw brainpower. In a battle, the elf never gets hit, therefore not exposing any weaknesses. (There's no good reason for that. Especially if the battle involves a certain drow and a certain overly buffed orc.)

Mechanically, they're a bit weak (Con penalty!) but I think the vanilla-flavored elf is way better than the million and one subraces available for them.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

But I also dislike dwarves (when they're rude, crude, unwashed berserkers)

That's like saying "I also dislike water (when it's wet)

they are trying to bring about the end of the human race through the practice of breeding half-elves.

Maybe they want to grant the human race a boon by giving them an extra couple of decades to live in? You want to deny us that?

proof? you need proof?

very well...

are there any half halflings?

I don't think so. Though many have stepped up to Lidda with a proposal like that.

Whatever the girls told you: Size does matter sometimes (e.g. when your future child will be about your size at birth).

half dwarves?

I think not!

I don't hope so. But alas, my hopes are in vain. See the Mul. They're from Dark Sun, half human, half dwarf, magically bred. Read about them, and about what happens to the human mother at birth.

the only ones who have seen the path that humanity is being led down are the Orcs. so celebrate. Join our orc bretheren in steming the tide of elven breeding progroms!

Yuck!

Well, since 3.5 came out, I've seen more dwarf spellcasters than elf spellcasters.

I consider myself blessed. Since 3e came out, I saw three dwarven characters, played by two different people. One player was member of the Old Guard of 2e, and insisted that he had to be a crotchety little berserker with a serious drinking problem and thinking that he should be able to reach a good agreement with every other dwarf despite his complete lack of diplomacy or charisma; The other player has power-gaming tendencies, anyway (several PrC's taking at one level and the like). Though he's a decent roleplayer nonetheless, and won't complain when his wings are clipped a little, so that's OK.

(Con bonus + bonuses vs. ALL spells vs. Con penalty and immunity to sleep spells)

Which only shows that the race needs to be cut down to size.

 

[Mercule]

That's like saying "I also dislike water (when it's wet)

UH??

Dwarven berserkers are pretty much an oxymoron -- it's an image I've never understood, at least as "normal" or in D&D. Dwarves are LAWFUL, as a race. They have a tendancy toward stability, self-control, and even-temperedness; which is pretty antithetical to berserking. If anything, Barbarian should be a restricted class to dwarves (automatic -20% XP?).

The inverse is true about elven paladins, which is also an odd notion.

I really don't think either one would be viewed as particularly sane by their respective races. It'd be like Ayn Rand showing up at a Communist Party rally.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

UH??

Cut out the berzerkers then, and use warriors.

And many do play dwarven barbarians or battleragers. A mix of fighter/barbarian can be even more powerful than a normal fighter, you know.

 

[TerraDave]

Loved em, hated em, not cared...people need to make more use of multiple choice polls...

...as they currently exist in TerraV, they are fine.

 

[lukelightning]

I'm also tired of elves being The Elder Race. "We elves have been around forever and invented magic and fought dragons blah blah blah."

If I ran a D&D campaign, I would make the elves being a new, young race; they have been in the world for only a thousand years or so...or even less. There are all sorts of mysterious backstories you could create for this; ranging from "the elves are humans born with a touch of 'fey'" to "nobody knows where the elves came from, not even the elves themselves" to "a wizard did it."

 

[Orius]

Personally, I hate the bastards.

If you're talking about standard D&D elves as typically portrayed, I couldn't agree with you more.