Hobbits are Back!

[Dragonhelm]

Screw subrace bloat. Pathfinder's optional alternative racial traits are a lot better than a full statting of 52 different elves.

Subraces do not necessarily equate to having different stats for each variation.

For example, 4e gave us two distinct subraces for base elf - the eladrin and the elf. After Essentials, it became pretty obvious that the new elf stats could be used to represent a woodsy elf or an arcane elf.

I think you could just have one set of stats for halflings, then say that the lightfoot halflings look and act one way, and the hairfoot halflings look and act another way. Make it a cultural thing, not a mechanical.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I always thought elves in BECMI were rather distinct and flavorful with their clans and trees of life. Being the only class that fought well and cast spells was a help in THAT regard.

 

[Banshee16]

Woo! Hobbits are back in the game! Okay, not with the name hobbit, but anyways.

Although, as much as I like my tubby hobbits, it seems kind of stereotypical for the hobbit to be the fat one. Why not a fat human? Or would a chubby human be confused with a dwarf? Surely WotC's artists aren't that bad. And while we're at it, can we have some full-figured female heroes too?

Aside, do you think the more hobbitty halflings has anything to do with the upcoming Peter Jackson film? My money is on yes.

I don't think we need to be making races pudgy. It's only really this century that weight became an issue. For most of historyI don't think people had a stable enough supply of food to even HAVE weight problems (excepting royalty).

I *do* like te idea of characters not all being supermodels. Frankly I'd like a bit less of a fantastic edge to the art. More gritty, medieval, less grandiose. Some of the 2E art was really good at this.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Well, for the same reason that, by and large, most alien races look surprisingly similar - it makes them distinct. There's a reason that you don't see portly Vulcans or short skinny Klingons or whatever. By typecasting a given alien race, you provide a hook for play. Short, stout, likes good food, is a decent enough hook to start from. It lets everyone at the table know that you're playing a halfling.

Look at elves. My main beef with elves is that they don't really ever have much of a hook other than poncy. They aren't distinguished enough and players, IME, tend to play elves as slightly longer lived humans with better vision.

It's one of the reasons I really like Eladrin. They have a nice, built in hook - they teleport, they are from the feywild. Those two things give me something to build on. Physical characteristics are something else that people can use.

I wouldn't mind some of the races being more alien. I lived the Sithi of Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. They were elves....but inhuman. Immortal, slender, but gold skinned, with spooky eyes with slit pupils. They were graceful, but from the perspective of humans they "weren't right" in terms of how their joints worked and how they moved.

I'd love if WotC would fix the aging process for demihumans....too short in 4E. At least fix elves. Maybe not extending the lifespan, but fix their age brackets. An elf could live longer as venerable than it had for all other age brackets together. Contrast that with humans whose max venerable range is almost the same length of time it takes to get to middle age.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

That's the biggest thing I hated about 4e Tieflings, was them all having a set appearance with horns and tails and scaly skin. Especially when compared to 2e Tieflings introduced back in Planescape where there was quite a variety in appearance.

Agreed.

Banshee

 

[Nivenus]

Look at elves. My main beef with elves is that they don't really ever have much of a hook other than poncy. They aren't distinguished enough and players, IME, tend to play elves as slightly longer lived humans with better vision.

On that note, I rather liked the redesign of elves in DA2. Yeah, I know some people thought it was too big of a change, but I much prefer that elves look more distinct than most human ethnicities do.

 

[Jawsh]

I'd love if WotC would fix the aging process for demihumans....too short in 4E. At least fix elves. Maybe not extending the lifespan, but fix their age brackets. An elf could live longer as venerable than it had for all other age brackets together. Contrast that with humans whose max venerable range is almost the same length of time it takes to get to middle age.

I don't see a problem with elves being venerable for a really long time. Recent research into aging actually suggests that humans plateau after age 90, and don't "age" after that, theoretically making long venerability a possibility. (Alzheimer's is a worry, but seems to be a separate thing from the body aging.)

What I do see a problem with is that players always want to tell their story with elves or dwarves or whatever, and age requirements can be hard to rationalize. In keeping with this being "your favourite edition, all over again" of D&D, I'd say the designers should just open it up to the players. Want to play a hundred-year-old elf? Just write that on your character sheet. Want to have a sixteen-year-old elf at the same table? Just do it.

 

[Sammael]

Elven perception of time is really different than ours. To a (classic) elf, what happened 500 years ago is but a generation away; he may have heard first-hand accounts from his parents or relatives. On the other hand, we (humans) have trouble determining the exact nature of events from just 100 years ago.

Along with the perception of time comes another side-effect of longevity: elves do not rush into things. Like, ever. This is both a blessing and a curse, of course, but it stands to reason that they have...

...LOADS of contingencies planned. Our own race gave birth to a number of magnificent strategists and thinkers who had the opportunity to shine during several decades of their lives. Now imagine if Plato, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, DaVinci, Tesla, Napoleon, or Robert E. Lee had lived for 500 years? What sort of plans and advances would they had created?

Next, we come to material wealth. Which, in most accounts of elves, they have no desire for. It is fairly alien to play a member of the race that is entirely devoid of the drive to accumulate wealth.

What do elves want then? Knowledge. Perfection. Harmony. Not necessarily in that order. And they want the other races to recognize them as their superiors. Which irks the other races, of course, mainly because it is true, to a point.

So, please don't play elves as pointy-eared humans.

 

[Jawsh]

So, please don't play elves as pointy-eared humans.

In other words, if you're a noob, don't play an elf. Fair enough, I'd say.

 

[Jawsh]

Elven perception of time is really different than ours. To a (classic) elf, what happened 500 years ago is but a generation away; he may have heard first-hand accounts from his parents or relatives. On the other hand, we (humans) have trouble determining the exact nature of events from just 100 years ago.

I'd honestly like to see whether 5E will address the discrepancy between this and the Knowledge skills, especially History.