Half-elves

[rounser]

I am considering taking out half-elves and half-orcs as possible race choices for PCs, and introducing the "Elvish Ancestry" and "Orcish Ancestry" feats which can be taken by humans at 1st level instead.

It's an interesting idea, but...

If these feats simply give you the half-orc or half-elf racial stats on top of human ones, all you've done is created a half-elf or half-orc with one extra skill point per level because they just spend the human's bonus feat on the ancestry.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

BiggusGeekus: What would you have done with the half-elf?

You're asking me?

Augh. OK. Well, assuming a generic campaign...

... I wouldn't do much of anything. Remember that the halfies are supposed to be the excpetion. What kind of hero would Tanis have been if he had been a "dime a dozen"?

To keep the halfies unique I would sugest keeping them unique. No NPCs must be a halfie. I mean zero. Zip. Nada. None. The players get to play one because you don't want to screw the players unless you have a good reason (i.e. you feel like it).

But the bottom line , IMHO, is to make the players feel like they did something special by playinng a halfie without making it typical.

 

[laiyna]

half elf is stat/ability wise the weakest race there is. In a combat heavy campaign its the worse posible option you can choose (even worse then asimar or tiefling). But in a Role Play Campaign it gives very intresting situations if you got a good GM.

Lai

 

[Frostmarrow]

half elf is stat/ability wise the weakest race there is. In a combat heavy campaign its the worse posible option you can choose (even worse then asimar or tiefling). But in a Role Play Campaign it gives very intresting situations if you got a good GM.

Lai

The half-elf is weak stat wise. This was done in order to make them rare. That is also why the half-orc pays four points for that +2 Str. It isn't supposed to be as attractive as playing human.

 

[Kichwas]

From my point of view the Half Elf has the least meta gaming reasons of all the races in 3E to play. Even that half orc comes out ahead when chosen 'for the right reasons'. For the half elf I simply cannot find any reasons for it to excell in any given area meta gaming wise.

It's a great role play choice, but not in any way that I've found a valid power gamer choice.

If I'm wrong; that's great. Because I'd like to know what meta gaming angle there is on the race.

 

[the Jester]

I've yet to play a half-elf in 3e, but I never found them overpowering in older editions of the game. In 3e their lowlight vision and other elven abilities are good enough that, combined with their semihuman abilities (any favored class!), I think half-elves are balanced. And I have a cool concept for a half-elf bard, Sarcastro, who'll take ranks in perform: insults, satire, etc.

A note about bloodsingers and required races... one of the specified abilities of half-elves is "elven blood: for all special abilities and effects, a half-elf is considered an elf." (PH, pg. 18.) The examples given are weapons and magic items with racially specific powers; but I think it's logical to extend this to requirements for prestige classes.

I'd think that exceptions would specifically state something under requirements excluding half breeds.

 

[Kichwas]

Conceptually, I have a problem with the half-and-half races. Do humans and orcs or humans and elves interbreed so often that there is such a sizeable population of half-elves and half-orcs?

How I saw it for Fahla:

1. Humans in Fahla are actually a half breed between Elf and Orc. Like the mestizo's (what popular American belief calls 'Mexican') they have become a race of their own over time.

2. The 'half races' breed with their own and thus continue and become their own race in their own right.

3. Humans do continue to breed with Elves and Orcs both voluntarily and involuntarily.
3a. Often in Fahla as part of slave breeding programs.

Points 2 and 3 minus 3a are also seen in parts of Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, and Kalamar. As well as many other settings.

 

[Gez]

As long as they're only wannabes...

Full elves were the überhumans, half-elves were the überhuman wannabes.

That has quite changed, happifully.

 

[Gez]

Few metagaming reason ? I don't know. If there was a feat granting low-light vision but that can be taken only at 1st-level (and I believe there's one such in the Kalamar Player's Guide), I can see lots of human taking it. People who never leave dungeons will favor darkvision (and take dwarf, half-orc, half-drow, or deep halfling) but otherwise low-light vision is always a superior choice.

Trust me, it's frustrating for a rogue to not be able to sneak attack because it's dark and the darkness give concealment to your target.

Then, since you solved the feat vs. vision thing, you got still the skill points vs. bonus against enchantments and sleep. It's fair exchance, IMHO.

 

[Kichwas]

Yeah Kalamar has a Low Light vision feat "Fey Blood". But it has stiff regional requirements and unlike the regional feats of FR or OA you cannot qualify for Kalamar's regional feats by taking 2 ranks in knowledge of that area.