Has anyone House Ruled the Half-Elf???


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I give half-elves additional skill points as humans do (that is, four extra skill points at first level, one skill point every level thereafter). I think this is both balanced (the half-elven racial bonuses are about worth a feat of choice -- they're sort of useful, but don't really enable you to maximize your strengths the way a bonus feat does) and conceptually appropriate, as it makes half-elves a good choice for skill-intensive, generalist classes like bards and rangers, which are classic half-elf archetypes.
 

I haven't actually done anything with them (haven't had a player take one), but I have considered giving them HALF the Human's Skill Points bonus... TWO at first level, and one EVERY OTHER LEVEL, thereafter. This, and half the Elf's sensory bonuses makes them -=duh!=- half-human/half-elf!
 

Steverooo said:
I haven't actually done anything with them (haven't had a player take one), but I have considered giving them HALF the Human's Skill Points bonus... TWO at first level, and one EVERY OTHER LEVEL, thereafter. This, and half the Elf's sensory bonuses makes them -=duh!=- half-human/half-elf!

But how do you give them half a feat? :D

I like the full human skill points, myself. either that or the ability to choose a couple of skills to always be class skills (wandering childhood/jack of all trades by neccessity/etc)

kahuna burger
 

My fellow DM and I have thought long and hard on this issue. No one ever plays a half-elf, and when they have in the past, it was for the role-playing aspect of being from two different worlds, and yet none (yada yada yada, I'm Tanis).

In 3e, they get nothing but the "Any" favored class (Has anyone ever suffered multiclassing penalties? No one in my games...) and a watered down series of elf abilities, minus the best of them. This certainly doesn't push anyone to take the race, especially since their lack of ability modifiers doesn't push them toward any race in particular.

Here's an as-of-yet-untested idea that adds flavor two the half-elf without really giving them much power.

Racial Abilities:
* +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution. Half-elves, like their elven parent, suffer from a weak physical construction when compared to their human parent. Half-elves, in order to survive with no true homeland or people, generally develop strong personalities and learn how to deal with people from many different cultures.
* Medium Size: as medium size creatures, half-elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Base Speed: 30ft.
* Immunity to sleep spells and similar magic effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.
* Low-Light Vision: Half-elves can see twice as far a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain their ability to discern color and detail under these conditions.
*+1 bonus on spot, listen and search checks. Half-elves share in some of their elven parent's keen senses.
* Elven Blood.
* Favored Class: Bard.

How do you all feel about that?

[edited to replace sleep/enchantment resistance]
 
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Maximillian said:
My fellow DM and I have thought long and hard on this issue. No one ever plays a half-elf, and when they have in the past, it was for the role-playing aspect of being from two different worlds, and yet none (yada yada yada, I'm Tanis).


:p yeah, yeah, tanis was just Spock with more open angst. (and the dwarf was McCoy! dude!)



Racial Abilities:
* +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution. Half-elves, like their elven parent, suffer from a weak physical construction when compared to their human parent. Half-elves, in order to survive with no true homeland or people, generally develop strong personalities and learn how to deal with people from many different cultures.
* Medium Size: as medium size creatures, half-elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Base Speed: 30ft.
* Low-Light Vision: Half-elves can see twice as far a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain their ability to discern color and detail under these conditions.
*+1 bonus on spot, listen and search checks. Half-elves share in some of their elven parent's keen senses.
* Elven Blood.
* Favored Class: Bard.

How do you all feel about that?

pretty good, though I'd still consider giving them the bonus skill points. And isn't con considered one of the "good" stat boosts that doesn't directly offset with cha? like it better than the default though...

Kahuna Burger
 

Yeah, but it's just reversed dwarf, isn't it? I think there's a lot of hypocritical stuff going on. Look at this:

+2 str = -2 int/chr

+2 dex = -2 str

+2 dex = -2 con

+2 con = -2 chr

+2 con = -2 str

Now... someone is getting shafted here, but I'm not sure who. The rules in the DMG don't work on all the PHB races, so I really don't care anymore what the stat adjustments are supposed to be like. Also, have you noticed that mental stats are "inferior" by-the-book, but there are no +0 ECL races with a mental stat bonus, save some wacky subraces of elf? Conspiracy!
 

Maximillian said:
Here's an as-of-yet-untested idea that adds flavor two the half-elf without really giving them much power.

Unless you keep the +2 save bonus vs. enchantments and immunity to sleep spells, it seems like you're actually weakening half-elves (particularly since you're removed the "favored class: any" aspect as well.

I do like the idea of an ECL 0 race with a bonus to CHA (none in WotC products that I'm aware of), and I think the rationale for that stat shift -- and for having bard as a favored class -- makes a lot of sense. Those are both very cool changes.

Compared to full elves, half-elves miss out on the automatic search feature, half of the skill check bonuses and all of the free weapon proficiencies. Personally, I'd do the following:

Half-Elves:

- +2 CHA, -2 CON
- Medium size
- Base speed 30 ft.
- 4 extra skill points at first level and 1 extra skill point at each additional level
- +1 racial saving throw bonus vs. enchantment spells and effects
- Low-light vision
- +1 racial bonus on Listen, Search and Spot checks
- Elven blood
- Automatic languages: Common and Elven
- Bonus Languages: Any
- Favored Class: Bard

I think this might actually be slightly too strong: I'm essentially equating the save bonus and skill bonuses with the bonus feat and favored class versatility that humans receive (although I did also drop the sleep immunity and half of the save bonuses that the default half-elf receives).

A possible alternative would be dropping the extra skill points and swapping back in the sleep immunity, plus the ability to add one skill to their list of class skills at first level (as Kahuna Burger and others have mentioned).

d20 Dwarf mentioned in another thread that the WotC design team tends to shy away from giving mental stat shifts (like CHA) to ECL 0 races, but I don't know if I agree with that practice. There are exceptions to this -- sun elves and gray orcs in FR, I believe (and maybe others) -- but it might be something to consider.
 

Actually, the omission of the +2vs. Enchantment and immunity to sleep was a typo on my part... I'll edit it back. I think that the bonus skill points is too much.

What I really wanted to do was find some sort of other ability that would encourage half-elven bards (especially if the bard is a more potent class in 3.5). I couldn't think of any, however.

I also think that bonuses to mental stats should be allowed. I have a +2 Wisdom/+2 Constitution, -2 Strength race in my game, which hasn't caused me any problems. I know those are overbalanced, by-the-book, but I think they work out well with the racial abilities the race receives.

d20 Dwarf talked about that in his response to criticism of his Dragon article, ne? That article also featured some mental stat bonus +0 ECL races, as I remember. I don't know what the big deal is. I like to keep races with mental stat penalties to a minimum in my games. Everyone on equal footing.
 

Maximillian said:
Now... someone is getting shafted here, but I'm not sure who. The rules in the DMG don't work on all the PHB races, so I really don't care anymore what the stat adjustments are supposed to be like. Also, have you noticed that mental stats are "inferior" by-the-book, but there are no +0 ECL races with a mental stat bonus, save some wacky subraces of elf? Conspiracy!

I posed a similar question in another thread (this one: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44275), and d20 Dwarf mentioned that from what he had heard it was because the mental stats boost things that are not easily raised in other ways -- like skill points and bonus spells.

I can kind of understand that, but as you pointed out it makes very little sense given that STR is mechanically overvalued, with a +2 being balanced by a -4 elsewhere -- and in the case of the half-orc, that -4 is split between two supposedly mechanically superior mental stats. Bizarre indeed. :D

From what I've seen, third party publishers seem to either ignore the "STR is worth more" quirk, or turn it on it's head -- FFG's Mythic Races, for example, includes at least one race that gets a -2 STR balanced out with a +2 to two other attributes. ;)
 

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