D&D 5E Half Elf variant abilities in SCAG

[gyor]

Crap, you're right. Ex-nay on the upidstay.




Merfolk don't suffer penalties outside of water - except that they can't walk, since they have a big giant tail fin instead of legs. And while 5e may not force them to breath via gills, a lot of settings do. "The Little Mermaid" certainly did.

In any case, wild elves and winged elves (and star elves, unless those are supposed to be Eladrin in the 5e Realms) aren't represented yet in D&D yet either. Let's not single out just Sea Elves, and instead be consistent. The reason Half-Sea Elves got to join was because they've been a much more consistentpart of the game.

You can still play all those (except Elderin for some reason), in AL, you just use the rules for the other Elven subraces instead, which makes sense for Star Elves (basically another high elf subrace) and Wild Elves (related to Wood Elves), but absolutely insane for aquidic, lythari, and winged elves.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Merfolk don't suffer penalties outside of water - except that they can't walk, since they have a big giant tail fin instead of legs. And while 5e may not force them to breath via gills, a lot of settings do. "The Little Mermaid" certainly did.

With a 10' walking speed, they are apparently pretty good at hopping around on their tails.

In any case, wild elves and winged elves (and star elves, unless those are supposed to be Eladrin in the 5e Realms) aren't represented yet in D&D yet either. Let's not single out just Sea Elves, and instead be consistent. The reason Half-Sea Elves got to join was because they've been a much more consistentpart of the game.

I honestly don't even know what star elves are. What edition/product were they from? I figure it's reasonable enough to put out stats for avariel in the same book with sea elves, even if they have traditionally been more FR specific than the latter.

 

[Marandahir]

In 4th edition, Eladrin were referred to as Sun Elves, Moon Elves, Star Elves, Grey Elves and High Elves. In 4th Edition lore, the Moon and Sun Elves, both considered High Elves in previous editions, discovered their close kinship (read: same stats) with the Eladrin when the Plane of Faerie came back into contact with Faerûn.

Clearly, High Elf and Eladrin are different things now in 5e Realms. That's why I wondered if Star Elves was their way of talking about those Faerie Elven kin, since the Star elf sidebar says that they live close to the Feywild.

 

[pukunui]

I honestly don't even know what star elves are. What edition/product were they from?

Star elves make a brief appearance in the 3e FR adventure, The Twilight Tomb. Not sure if they appear in anything else before or after that. *goes to check the FR wiki*

EDIT: According to the wiki article, they're mentioned in 3e's Unapproachable East and Player's Guide to Faerûn books, as well as The Grand History of the Realms. So it looks like they're a 3e invention.

According to the lore, they are a lot like moon elves. They've been living in a demiplane called Sildëyuir, but some of them went to the Yuirwood region after their realm came under attack during the events of The Twilight Tomb.

 

[pukunui]

This just in from Jeremy Crawford on Twitter: "The half-elf's Keen Senses option in the SCAG is, alas, superfluous. Take one of the juicy options below it."

 

[CapnZapp]

I think that the high elf cantrip will see a lot of play in my games

That's great