Holiday Present - The Elf PHB entry

[Lackhand]

Looks Very Good To Me.

I worry about stat inflation -- if 4d6 drop lowest to taste and point buy are assumed equal, a character with this base race just has more stat than anything from 3.x or earlier. This guy is 4 points up over a pre-4th edition elf!

I wonder whether the point-buy somehow takes that into account? I assume not. Stylistically, I'm offended. Practically, I don't really care.


What a christmas present!

Edit: Eladrin live 300 years, R&C said, right? (my FLGS sucks monkeys, and doesn't have any copies for me. I tries to supports them, I does...)

Woah, characters die quicker now. I sort of like that, since it puts some oomph in "I knew your grandfather when he was a boy", since the speaker no longer needs to be thinking "and I was already 500 then! ha-HAH!".

On the other hand, perhaps there are elven glades where those who dwell age not, and mark the passing of time in the outer world with the ease of long practice.
And maybe there are some power hungry wizards, scheming adventurers, and aged kings who want to cheat death, each for their own reason?

Hmmm.

 

[Stalker0]

"Shifting" sounds like what you do when you take five-foot steps.

Yep, my guess is well.

In 3.5 you can't take 5 foot steps in difficult terrain (which isn't one of the most commonly known rules out there mind you). Likely this rule continues in 4e, with the elf being the exception.

The elven racial power certainly seems nice, but the feat does seem weak. Then again, its a +2 to an attack roll every encounter, and likely if your using your racial power its an attack you definitely want to hit.

 

[Glyfair]

I worry about stat inflation -- if 4d6 drop lowest to taste and point buy are assumed equal, a character with this base race just has more stat than anything from 3.x or earlier. This guy is 4 points up over a pre-4th edition elf!

Stat inflation is really irrelevant unless you are converting from a previous edition (and even then you can take that into account). As long as the internal system is consistent, I see no problem.

I do expect that future races without stat bonuses (or with only one) will have compensating racial abilities, though. I wonder is there will still be certain stats worth more than others in 4E (from a design standpoint).

 

[architect.zero]

Thank you, WoTC!

It's about time we started to see what's behind the curtains. This is great. A whole race write-up, a bit of related art, and a peek at some mechanical bits.

I like it too. I'm still cautiously optimistic, but this is looking very promising. (From a guy who hasn't played a non-human in... over 24 years. I reserve excitement for the human write up. )

 

[Rechan]

I'm guessing Nature is Survival/K:Nature?

 

[Lackhand]

Stat inflation is really irrelevant unless you are converting from a previous edition (and even then you can take that into account). As long as the internal system is consistent, I see no problem.

I do expect that future races without stat bonuses (or with only one) will have compensating racial abilities, though. I wonder is there will still be certain stats worth more than others in 4E (from a design standpoint).

Yup, I agree: the next paragraph was my real, albeit badly put, point: The obsessive half of me cares. The part that likes to have fun said "buh. Okay."

I suspect stats are all worth the same, now, because strength always adds to the damage you deal without a power / with a base power.
But consider the paladin's smites we saw... And depending on how many of these you get, you might only make a small number of unenhanced attacks per combat, and never with quite as cool an effect.

However, despite all the stats being equally worthy now, you could definitely design a race that "cheated" -- bonus to strength, bennies when using (say) wizard powers; it's not as synergistic as this elf is (bonus to dex and wis and archery == it all works together!), so you could probably give more strength and greater benefits than we see here, since they really don't cross.

Which I have no problem with. Ogre magi are scary.

 

[Sammael]

The only thing I don't like is that "Nature" is an actual skill name. Everything else looks interesting.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

Ooh, a Wisdom bonus. Intriiiiguing. Especially since the Eladrin are the magicky (and by association, smartypants) of the two.

I like that the 3.5 iconics appear as sample names. It's a nice little throwback now that they're leaving us (right?).

And it's good to see personality traits appear in the book. I expect it'll be a lot like the PHB2, which I found extremely useful for PCs and NPCs alike.

That "never cut living trees" line is still a bit bothersome, but eh.

 

[A'koss]

Looks good. Nothing there really shocking or surprising but looks to me like a good foundation.

 

[Cadfan]

Very interesting.

Notice the height/weight ratio. They're about the same height as humans, almost, but they weigh significantly less.

+2 wisdom makes them better survivalists, and synergizes nicely with tracking, spot, listen, and so forth.

7 square movement implies that movement is different based on race. Even if 7 squares is typical, they wouldn't bother to point it out unless it was different for different races within the same size category. I appreciate this.

+2 wisdom and +2 perception = +3 total.

Shift probably equals the old 5' step, except now it may be more than 5' sometimes. Sounds good to me.

Note that the "Group Awareness" grants a typed bonus. That's a loose end we know about now.

I wonder if every race gets a per encounter ability. Elven Accuracy is an ok one, but either it only works for combat characters, or "attack roll" is a term which encompasses spellcasters these days, or a lot more spells require attack rolls.

The feat Elven Accuracy... not sure if it is weak or not. Its designed for low level play, and you do get to use it once per encounter.

A lot of the elf entry from 3e has been dropped, and I honestly don't miss it. I like this version of the elf.