D&D (2024) Half Race Appreciation Society: Half Elf most popular race choice in BG3

[Frozen_Heart]

How grouped species are probably depends on A: How easy travel is, and B: How long ago different species started migrating and meeting in a cooperative way.

A setting with a long history and easy/fast travel will probably be very multicultural. While a setting with less regular travel and more recent transitions from animals to sapients will probably have very monolithic societies.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

One potential solution for the different types of elves could be separating background and culture. Adding an additional step to character creation.

The cultures would all have to have very generic and catchall names to work in every setting, but an 'aquatic' culture could gain a water breathing ability without it being just a spell selection.

So to make a sea elf it would be:

• Species: Elf (Fey Ancestry, Keen Senses, Trance)
• Culture: Aquatic (Amphibious, Friend of the Sea)
• Background: ---
• Class: ---

 

[Micah Sweet]

One potential solution for the different types of elves could be separating background and culture. Adding an additional step to character creation.

The cultures would all have to have very generic and catchall names to work in every setting, but an 'aquatic' culture could gain a water breathing ability without it being just a spell selection.

So to make an aquatic elf it would be:

• Species: Elf
• Culture: Aquatic
• Background: ---
• Class: ---

If only there was a well-regarded and very awesome version of 5e that did exactly that...

 

[Scribe]

One potential solution for the different types of elves could be separating background and culture. Adding an additional step to character creation.

The cultures would all have to have very generic and catchall names to work in every setting, but an 'aquatic' culture could gain a water breathing ability without it being just a spell selection.

So to make an aquatic elf it would be:

• Species: Elf (Fey Ancestry, Keen Senses, Trance)
• Culture: Aquatic (Amphibious, Friend of the Sea)
• Background: ---
• Class: ---

Heres the problem....

I dont gain the ability to breath underwater, because I was born in a fishing village or port, just as I do not gain Wings, because I was born wherever Avarial are born. Humans are still 'Humans' even in a fantasy setting, and Culture is still 'Culture' its not...whatever it would be to facilitate a magical transformation of ones biology and physiology!

As Micah notes, its been done, but...its absolutely nonsense to me.

A Sea Elf breathing water, and an Avarial having wings are no more problematic than me having brown eyes.

 

[Cadence]

If only there was a well-regarded and very awesome version of 5e that did exactly that...

It really feels to me in A5e that water breathing fits under Heritage as a possible Heritage Gift and not Culture (going by the main rule book anyway). Is there a supplement where they give water breathing from a Culture?

I note that what is given for Deep Gnome Culture extends the Heritage's Darkvision if any to 120', and gives 60' if the Heritage didn't have it.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

A Sea Elf breathing water, and an Avarial having wings are no more problematic than me having brown eyes.

Thing is, you having brown eyes doesn't change your stats in any notable way compared to people with green, blue, or red eyes. So a lot of people view the different elves as basically different human races having different stats.

I view the different elven types as full on subspecies. Irl, there are even many subspecies which can't even interbreed with each other. However to many people, subspecies gets uncomfortably close to races.

I honestly think it's impossible to make everyone happy here, as it's clear that some people view two different elf types as just different cultures of the same species, while others view them as different as an orc and a plasmoid.

There is no bridging that gap.

I dont gain the ability to breath underwater, because I was born in a fishing village or port, just as I do not gain Wings, because I was born wherever Avarial are born. Humans are still 'Humans' even in a fantasy setting, and Culture is still 'Culture' its not...whatever it would be to facilitate a magical transformation of ones biology and physiology!

Tbh I was kind of picturing some cultures would be more magical than others. In a 'eurocentric LotR' type of setting, a water based human culture would be 'seafaring', while a water based elf culture would be 'aquatic'.

With the 'seafaring' culture giving nonmagical abilities, while the 'aquatic' culture gives magical ones.

However anyone making their own setting would have the option to completely mix things up and have a culture of waterbreathing humans.

 

[Mistwell]

I wonder if some of the issue here is the improper use of the term "species" when really what's meant here is "genus". Homo Sapiens are the same genus as Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis, but they're not each a sub-species of humans but rather are each their own species with Homo Sapien being named Human. Steven Erikison (a trained archaeologist and anthropologist) has both Homo Sapiens (named humans) and Neanderthals (named Imass) in his fantasy setting for the excellent Malazan series. The Imass became immortal undead through a ritual (renamed T'lan Imass) but that's besides the point. I've never once heard someone claim or imply any type of racism by his use of both species from the same genus in his novels.

So for example:

Genus: Elf
Species: Sea Elf

Genus: Elf
Species: High Elf

Genus: Homo
Species: Homo Sapien (Human)

Genus: Dwarf
Species: Mountain Dwarf

Genus Dwarf
Species: Hill Dwarf

This doesn't solve for Elf-Human. Much like we don't have a name for Human-Neanderthal despite that genetically being a type which did exist. We have found evidence of a half Neanderthal and half Denisovan based on bone genome analysis. And of course there is DNA evidence of Neanderthal DNA in Homo Sapiens.

 

[Mistwell]

One potential solution for the different types of elves could be separating background and culture. Adding an additional step to character creation.

The cultures would all have to have very generic and catchall names to work in every setting, but an 'aquatic' culture could gain a water breathing ability without it being just a spell selection.

So to make a sea elf it would be:

• Species: Elf (Fey Ancestry, Keen Senses, Trance)
• Culture: Aquatic (Amphibious, Friend of the Sea)
• Background: ---
• Class: ---

As people have rightly pointed out, innate water breathing is not cultural.

 

[Scribe]

I wonder if some of the issue here is the improper use of the term "species" when really what's meant here is "genus".

Improper use of words, (culture, species, race, innate) absolute is a driver in how this topic is flawed.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It really feels to me in A5e that water breathing fits under Heritage as a possible Heritage Gift and not Culture (going by the main rule book anyway). Is there a supplement where they give water breathing from a Culture?

I note that what is given for Deep Gnome Culture extends the Heritage's Darkvision if any to 120', and gives 60' if the Heritage didn't have it.

I could see water breathing as a cultural thing under the right circumstances, but normally yes, heritage gifts are the way to go.