Has anyone House Ruled the Half-Elf???

[haiiro]

Since half-elves can arise in many different ways (elven mother, human father; human mother, elven father; two half-elf parents) I figured that I would give them a choice.

EITHER 4 skill points at 1st level + 1 skill point at every subsequent level
OR 1 bonus feat at first level
OR Elven weapon proficiencies

That's an interesting idea, and it certainly helps to make half-elves more unique, but I'm not sure it's balanced. I don't think the elven weapon proficiencies are anywhere near as good as either of the human abilities, and personally I also think that the extra skill points are slightly stronger than the feat.

Have you ever had a player take the weapon proficiencies over one of the other two options?

 

[Lord Ravinous]

Seems like the Human Skill pts are predominate, thats what I was thinkin'. Although I found Al's very interesting, it leaves room for the players that dont want a generic half-elf.

Is there any word on whether WotC will be redoing some of the races for 3.5?

 

[Mike Sullivan]

That's an interesting idea, and it certainly helps to make half-elves more unique, but I'm not sure it's balanced. I don't think the elven weapon proficiencies are anywhere near as good as either of the human abilities, and personally I also think that the extra skill points are slightly stronger than the feat.

Have you ever had a player take the weapon proficiencies over one of the other two options?

If you want to make a twinky cleric-archer, it's very useful to get the elven weapon proficiencies.

 

[Al]

That's an interesting idea, and it certainly helps to make half-elves more unique, but I'm not sure it's balanced. I don't think the elven weapon proficiencies are anywhere near as good as either of the human abilities, and personally I also think that the extra skill points are slightly stronger than the feat.

Have you ever had a player take the weapon proficiencies over one of the other two options?

To be fair, I've never had a player take the weapon proficiencies, but I fairly often get fighter-types going for the feat over the skill points, and it gives them quite a comprehensive boost in low-level combat.

 

[Steverooo]

Is there any word on whether WotC will be redoing some of the races for 3.5?

Revision Spotlight says Half-Elves/Orcs aren't being revamped.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Give Elves +2 Charisma and -2 Strength. Those abilities aren't balanced, but Elves get a lot of cool stuff to work with and most Elf archetypes wouldn't be too hurt by the Strength knock. Charisma also makes sense as a bonus for Elves. If this seems really bothersome, give them back the +1 bonus to hit with their racial weapons that they had in 2e. Makes them better archers naturally and compensates for their lower Strength in melee.

Let Half Elves keep the +2 Charisma without a negative modifier somewhere else. Current wisdom seems to place Charisma as being the least important stat, mechanically, and it predisposes Half Elves towards the Bard.

With the Half Orc modifications I proposed in the other thread, I think this makes the hybrid races playable, without making either better than their non-human parent. Human remains the most versatile (and in my opinion, powerful) player race.

Now, if we could only tweak Dwarf in a way to make Half Dwarves a viable option, you'd all get the pleasure of hearing me giggle like a little schoolgirl.

 

[haiiro]

If this seems really bothersome, give them back the +1 bonus to hit with their racial weapons that they had in 2e. Makes them better archers naturally and compensates for their lower Strength in melee.

The only thing about this is that it effectively adds Weapon Focus to the elf several times over (not quite as versatile as being able to choose the weapon, but still basically a feat/weapon), which seems problematic.

Let Half Elves keep the +2 Charisma without a negative modifier somewhere else. Current wisdom seems to place Charisma as being the least important stat, mechanically, and it predisposes Half Elves towards the Bard.

How do you feel about the bard-oriented half-elf variants that have been posted towards the top of this thread?

 

[dren]

half-elf house rules

I disallowed them.

Hey shivamuffin, I'm with you here. Of course, I also got rid of drow and grey elves as well because of campaign reasons (they were all killed!)

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

The only thing about this is that it effectively adds Weapon Focus to the elf several times over (not quite as versatile as being able to choose the weapon, but still basically a feat/weapon), which seems problematic.

It's several different feats, true, but since they're not the actual feat, they don't provide a ladder into a prestige class or for better feats. Also, since it's equivalent to Weapon Focus, the character can only apply one of those feats at a time.

Choosing Weapon Focus repeatedly is such a suboptimal use of feats that I didn't think it would be too powerful to give the Elf the benefit automatically.

How do you feel about the bard-oriented half-elf variants that have been posted towards the top of this thread?

I don't think a Constitution penalty fits Half Elves the way it does Elves, and I think the FC: Any is the best ability for them to pick up from their Human parent. I'm attached to Half Human hybrid races having FC: Any.

 

[Ravellion]

I am very glad they got rid of the +1 bonusses in the first palce thank you very much. Getting +1 on a weapon you aren't proficient in is not very useful - of course, though you couldn't really use the weapon, you did have years of training in it

The rationale is also skewed - Dwarves should get +1 to Axes since they get 25 years of intensive battle trainig etc. etc. blah blah blah.

Nope, you can keep those +1s where they belong. In 2nd edition that is.