Unearthed Arcana Four New Elf Subraces in Unearthed Arcana

This month's Unearthed Arcana article gives us four new elf subraces to playtest. "After the positive response to the eladrin a couple of months ago in Unearthed Arcana, we decided to explore four more elf subraces: avariel (winged elves), grugach (the wild elves of Greyhawk), sea elves, and shadar-kai (deathly servants of the Raven Queen)."

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[SkidAce]

Funny anecdote...

In my world, kobolds are highly area/terrain/association morphic. Just a generation or less depending on intensity/proximity and you have sub breeds. (the basic kobold is the yip yip dog type).

So dragonic kobolds. Kobolds that are worshiping a pig demon, start growing orc like tusks etc. Fishy kobolds (murlocs). Beast kobolds, etc.


So one day, a player in character noted that elves are also very morphic and adaptive to the environment. He was beginning to speculate a connection to kobolds when the rest of the group "shushed" him quickly.

They were in the High Elven Battle Academy feasthall...

 

[Lylandra]

Sure, you can use whatever reason is appropriate to explain why there are so many elven subraces. But it boils down to (in your cases quite literally) "Word of God". There is no real, actual reason to exclude other races like orcs from more subrace options (like, those who really have different ways of living or physical qualities based on setting) or to simply not create a race at all (Undine, Merfolk) just to have another color coded elf. Besides marketing reasons, of course

 

[Chaosmancer]

Sure, you can use whatever reason is appropriate to explain why there are so many elven subraces. But it boils down to (in your cases quite literally) "Word of God". There is no real, actual reason to exclude other races like orcs from more subrace options (like, those who really have different ways of living or physical qualities based on setting) or to simply not create a race at all (Undine, Merfolk) just to have another color coded elf. Besides marketing reasons, of course

I think I agree with this the most.

We can make it make sense in any way you want, but I'd rather see some more interesting races and options than more elves.

I find the Firbolg's from Volo's and the Goliaths kind of interesting mechanically (Goliath's not so much culturally) and it could be cool to have actual subraces for those, I'd be curious to see some differing versions of dwarves and gnomes, what about Dragonborn?

There are lots of different things we could do rather than 51 flavors of Elf, and some of them might even be more interesting to look into.

 

[Yaarel]

I would enjoy the game more if the design of the Elf race lets the player choose which traits the Elf character expresses. So far, 5e has twelve Elf cultures, yet none of them are the kind of D&D Elf that I want. If it would be easier to swap in the desirable traits, I would already have the kind(s) of Elf that I am looking for. Only one customizable Elf design is necessary, instead of tens of special snowflake Elf designs. The Elf is a central archetype of D&D, and it is important that players are satisfied with the Elf that they want to play.

 

[R_Chance]

Sorry, but I believe you missed a significant part of my objection and why I call many elf subraces lazy. I have bolded it below.


Most elf subraces are basically this:
"They're ice elves. They live in the arctic, so they get different stat bonuses and have cold resistance. Culture? Ehhh, they're elves. But with ice."

No actually I agreed with that part. That's why I said the culture should adapt to the environment. I should have made that clearer I guess

 

[MechaPilot]

No actually I agreed with that part. That's why I said the culture should adapt to the environment. I should have made that clearer I guess

Ah. My mistake then.

 

[R_Chance]

Sure, you can use whatever reason is appropriate to explain why there are so many elven subraces. But it boils down to (in your cases quite literally) "Word of God". There is no real, actual reason to exclude other races like orcs from more subrace options (like, those who really have different ways of living or physical qualities based on setting) or to simply not create a race at all (Undine, Merfolk) just to have another color coded elf. Besides marketing reasons, of course

Uh, and "word of god" is a bad idea in a fantasy game? In my game it was a pair of wars involving lots of magic, chaos, and Elves who had essentially become gods. One war against a Demonic incursion followed by a civil war among the Elves (leading to the 4 Elvish sub-races; High Elf, Wood Elf, Sea Elf and Dark Elf). Thousands of years of war which nearly destroyed the world and magic well beyond the capability of "modern" magic.

Don't worry, I only have 3 Orc sub-races. Only 2 Goblin, because my Goblins are individually highly variable and tribes will sport different characteristics depending on their environment. 3 Dwarvish, 5 if you count Gnomes and Kobolds (degenerate Dwarves in my game). Oh, and Goblins (and Hobgoblins) are related to Elves. And Orcs to Humans. Then there are the Fey... and Centaurs and all those other "part of this, part of that" creatures. *sigh* It gets complex and less than PG. Arghh!!! And Giants and Dragons (my world started with only one type of each).

This explanation of diversity was the result of a long running (43 year old currently) campaign working to explain all the various sub races with a DM having degrees in history and cultural anthropology...

*edit* My Humans (not counting their racially diverged cousins, i.e. Orcs, and half breeds like Half Elves and Half Orcs, sport 3 main and a number of minor cultures, which differ in significant ways, but not physically.

 

[Azzy]

While more elven subraces are (and have been) uninspired, I think it's a good thing to support options from previous editions (now if we can get some of those other, non-elven, races, too).

 

[MechaPilot]

While more elven subraces are (and have been) uninspired, I think it's a good thing to support options from previous editions (now if we can get some of those other, non-elven, races, too).

Sure, but they should give us some significant cultural difference to enhance the roleplaying aspect of the subraces as well, instead of just altering the mechanics and slapping a "_____ Elf" sticker on it.

 

[cbwjm]

Sure, but they should give us some significant cultural difference to enhance the roleplaying aspect of the subraces as well, instead of just altering the mechanics and slapping a "_____ Elf" sticker on it.

I don't think so. Only a brief description is really needed. If they want to put in cultural information for them then that is more for a setting book in my opinion. The players and DMs should be adding the information for the culture to the subraces if they use them.

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