D&D 5E Feywild Eladrin PC Race

[QuietBrowser]

So, long story short, I loved the Eladrin in 4th edition, but their recent appearance in Unearthed Arcana? Well, it left me feeling cold. Doesn't do the race justice at all. Still... I think there's some untapped potential here.

Back in 4e, the Feywild was ruled over by the Court of Stars, a great byzantine conclave of archfey and their loyal minions, divided into various factions; the Summer Fey, the Winter Fey, the Green Fey, the Gloaming Fey, and the Sea Lords. And Eladrin belonged to all of those factions, taking on distinctive traits as a result. This was even given a nod for players with the Winterkin Eladrin variant race.

Now, the odds of WoTC bringing back Eladrin as their own race, with subraces based on courtly affiliation, are pretty much nonexistent. But, hey, if I like the idea, why not write it up myself? So, that's what I'm here to do; I'd love to have help in tweaking this race and making it stand on its own - without being overpowered. Or underpowered, because I actually tried to be cautious with the subrace abilities here.

Eladrin
Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Intelligence, +1 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
Faerie Resistances: You have Advantage on saving throws against being Charmed, and are Immune to magical Sleep.
Tread the Paths Unseen: You can cast Misty Step with this trait. Once you have used this trait, you must complete a short rest or a long rest before you can use it again.
Feywild Courtier: You belong to one of the factions of the Court of Stars, which informs your further traits as a subrace. Choose the Summer Fey, Winter Fey, Green Fey, Gloaming Fey or Sea Lord faction.

Summer Fey:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Charisma
Faerie Glibness: You have Proficiency in Persuasion and Deception.

Winter Fey:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
Heart of Ice: You have Resistance to Cold damage.

Green Fey:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
Heed the Beasts and Trees: You can communicate simple ideas with Beast type creatures, Plant type creatures, and actual plants. Unlike the Speak with Animals or Speak with Plants spells, you cannot command the obedience of any creature or plant you talk to, but you may be able to persuade them to do small favors for you at the DM's discretion.

Gloaming Fey:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Intelligence
Mystic Birthright: You know 1 cantrip of your choice from the Warlock or Wizard spell lists. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability score for this cantrip.

Sea Lord:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Strength
Amphibious: You can breathe air and water.
Watertreader: You have a Swim speed of 30 feet.

 

[pukunui]

What is this "4th Edition" of which you speak? Everyone knows WotC just went straight from 3e to 5e, like how Windows went straight from 8 to 10 ...

 

[Charlaquin]

Nice! I too would like to see Eladrin as their own race with various subraces. And +1 ain’t, +1 Cha with Fey resistances and 1/short rest Misty Step is perfect. I might even throw the Elf’s Trance on top of what you’ve got there. The subraces could probably use a little work, but the idea is great.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Nice! I too would like to see Eladrin as their own race with various subraces. And +1 ain’t, +1 Cha with Fey resistances and 1/short rest Misty Step is perfect. I might even throw the Elf’s Trance on top of what you’ve got there. The subraces could probably use a little work, but the idea is great.

I'm guessing that "+1 Aint" was supposed to be "+1 Int"? But, seriously, thank you so much for the positive response! I left Trance out because, as I said, I didn't want to make this too powerful (although I personally consider traits like Trance, Powerful Build or Stonecunning to be so marginally useful that they really shouldn't be counted towards a race's power pool). And yeah, I was very conservative with the subraces out of the same fear; I could have gone crazier, but I wanted to talk about the possibilities and what'd be balanced or not with folks.

 

[phantomK9]

What is this "4th Edition" of which you speak? Everyone knows WotC just went straight from 3e to 5e, like how Windows went straight from 8 to 10 ...

Right. It was 3e, 3.5e, 5e....just like that, no 4e at all.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm guessing that "+1 Aint" was supposed to be "+1 Int"? But, seriously, thank you so much for the positive response! I left Trance out because, as I said, I didn't want to make this too powerful (although I personally consider traits like Trance, Powerful Build or Stonecunning to be so marginally useful that they really shouldn't be counted towards a race's power pool). And yeah, I was very conservative with the subraces out of the same fear; I could have gone crazier, but I wanted to talk about the possibilities and what'd be balanced or not with folks.

Yeah, that should have been Int, sorry. I post from my phone a lot so between auto-correct and misclicks a lot of typos slip in. I agree with you about Trance being a ribbon ability, doesn’t really add a lot of utility but is a nice flavorful ability to have. I think your base Eladrin race plus Trance would be spot-on. The subraces are a little trickier to figure out though.

When I design races, I kind of think of them as being worth about one ASI, one of the “half-Feats” that give +1 to one ability score, and one full Feat (with humans being the exception, granting three ASIs and variant humans granting one ASI, one Feat, and one skill, but being more versatile by allowing you to choose the Feat.) Right now, your base Eladrin has +1 to two ability scores, which covers the ASI, Misty Step, which when we compare to Fey Teleportation from Xanathar’s Guide is a little less than half a Feat. With the +1 ability score from Subrace, that leaves you with a little over a Feat worth of stuff to play with between the race and subrace. Fey Resistances I’d say make a decent half-Feat, and with Trance as a ribbon, that makes up for Misty Step losing a language as compared to Fey Teleportation. So the subraces should each grant about half a Feat worth of abilities. So actually maybe they’re about right. A Bonus Cantrip, a damage resistance, some languages, or a swim speed? Yeah, that all feels pretty good upon closer inspection.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Yeah, that should have been Int, sorry. I post from my phone a lot so between auto-correct and misclicks a lot of typos slip in. I agree with you about Trance being a ribbon ability, doesn’t really add a lot of utility but is a nice flavorful ability to have. I think your base Eladrin race plus Trance would be spot-on. The subraces are a little trickier to figure out though.

When I design races, I kind of think of them as being worth about one ASI, one of the “half-Feats” that give +1 to one ability score, and one full Feat (with humans being the exception, granting three ASIs and variant humans granting one ASI, one Feat, and one skill, but being more versatile by allowing you to choose the Feat.) Right now, your base Eladrin has +1 to two ability scores, which covers the ASI, Misty Step, which when we compare to Fey Teleportation from Xanathar’s Guide is a little less than half a Feat. With the +1 ability score from Subrace, that leaves you with a little over a Feat worth of stuff to play with between the race and subrace. Fey Resistances I’d say make a decent half-Feat, and with Trance as a ribbon, that makes up for Misty Step losing a language as compared to Fey Teleportation. So the subraces should each grant about half a Feat worth of abilities. So actually maybe they’re about right. A Bonus Cantrip, a damage resistance, some languages, or a swim speed? Yeah, that all feels pretty good upon closer inspection.

No worries. I understand typos and auto-corrects. As for the races actually being solidly designed by 5e standards... I suspected they might be. I just personally think they look kind of weak and dull, but then that's a problem I have with 5e as a general rule.

Still, maybe there can be racial feats used to bolster these races, if they're on the right track for inherent power-level? The Court of Stars has a very broad purview, and I'm sure that we can pull off some interesting ideas with it.

In fact... should I post a summary of the Court's factions from the 4e Manual of the Planes? Perhaps that might be helpful here.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Nobody spoke up either way, so I figured I might as well...

Summer Fey: This faction is associated with the season of summer, and by extension thematic relatives such as the emotions of hope and passion and the elements of fire and light. It's also associated with good fortune and growth. In 4e, this was the court that eladrin belonged to by default.

Green Fey: This faction is associated with all of the fey tied to nature, be it plants, places or animals. Treants, dryads, nymphs, satyrs and other "wild fey" are typically part of this faction.

Winter Fey: This faction is associated with the season of winter, and by extension thematic relatives such as the emotions of despair, hatred and loss and the elements of cold and darkness. It's also associated with decay and bad luck. We know the most about this "lesser" faction, because we got both a Court of Stars article on its unofficial leader, the Prince of Frost, and a Winterkin Eladrin variant race, which you can read about on the 4e wiki.

Sea Lords: This faction governs those fey tied to the water in some fashion. Simple and straightforward.

Gloaming Fey: This faction consists of fey who are tied to more abstract qualities than the seasons or nature; the preponderance of nocturnal phenomena, such as dreams, darkness, stars, twilight and dusk, is the reason for its name. This is a broad faction, with known archfey including the Maiden of the Moon - a lunar archfey who is dedicated to battling werebeasts, the Prince of Hearts - an archfey tied to love, and the Witch of Fates - the fey's most feared prophet.

 

[QuietBrowser]

So... I really don't like doing this, but I'm desperate: bumping this in hopes of figuring out where to go from here.

 

[jaelis]

They seem pretty good. I think you can afford to give each of the subraces a thematic ribbon in addition to the mechanical benefit. I’d count the green fey ability you have as more of a ribbon though. Maybe let them also cast entangle?