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

[Frozen_Heart]

Flying elves were in a UA, and I used that (and older edition material) to add them to my game. There are already aarakocra and variant tieflings with wings anyway, and WotC's blind insistence on backwards compatibility means they're here to stay.

If you don't like something, remove it in your game. Don't deny it to others by trying to force it out of the rules. That goes for all of this.

I don't mind flying species, and won't ban them if i decide to try DMing again.

But elves are already loaded with features and abilities. Adding wings on top of that is kinda yikes.

 

[Scribe]

Water Breathing is a spell.
Longstrider is a spell.
Darkvision is a spell.

All true statements.

Breathing underwater for a Sea Elf is not magical, it is innate.
Running faster for a Wood Elf is not magical, it is innate.
Seeing better in the dark for a Drow is not magical, it is innate.

These statements are also true. Heres another one.

Culture is not Biological, and Biology is not Culture.

And yet another.

Words have meaning, and we dont get to just change them to suit our argument.

 

[CreamCloud0]

It depends on the spell description of the cantrip. A Waterbreathing cantrip can easily be "always on".

so, sea elves are permanently under the effects of waterbreathing cantrip 24/7 their entire lives even in antimagic but you'd rather explain this as it being the culturally learned cantrip's fault and not simply an innate biological function of a specific subgroup of elves???

 

[Frozen_Heart]

A fish can breathe underwater, but that's definitely not a spell.

 

[Yaarel]

so, sea elves are permanently under the effects of waterbreathing cantrip 24/7 their entire lives even in antimagic but you'd rather explain this as it being the culturally learned cantrip's fault and not simply an innate biological function of a specific subgroup of elves???

As part of the flavor of being a magical creature, the innate spells of an Elf can be effected by antimagic, just like the innate spells of other creatures can.

Unless the Elf happens to have traits from Triton ancestry, the waterbreathing derives from magic and is vulnerable to antimagic.

 

[Yaarel]

A fish can breathe underwater, but that's definitely not a spell.

A fish isnt an Elf.

However some Elf Druids might shapeshift into a fish.

 

[CreamCloud0]

As part of the flavor of being a magical creature, the innate spells of an Elf can be effected by antimagic, just like the innate spells of other creatures can.

Unless the Elf happens to have traits from Triton ancestry, the waterbreathing derives from magic and is vulnerable to antimagic.

except their waterbreathing isn't because of magic, it's because of biology.

 

[Yaarel]

except their waterbreathing isn't because of magic, it's because of biology.

So make it Triton biology. Sea Elf be a multispecies, a "half race" sotospeak.

Alternatively, have waterbreathing be because of magic. So any Elf can do it.

Or make Sea Elf a completely separate species, aka Nixie aka Nereid.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I've always viewed the different elf traits as caused by magic (their innate magic changes them depending on the environment they and their ancestors are born in). But the actual changes caused by that are biological and innate.

So the water breathing will keep working in an antimagic field because they have gills.

 

[Scribe]

I've always viewed the different elf traits as caused by magic (their innate magic changes them depending on the environment they and their ancestors are born in). But the actual changes caused by that are biological and innate.

So the water breathing will keep working in an antimagic field because they have gills.

Exactly.