Holiday Present - The Elf PHB entry

[Deep Blue 9000]

I'm guessing most people just put the bonuses provided by the familiar on their character sheet and then stuffed their familiar in their character's backpack or whatever to ensure that the familiar was always nearby.

With another party member, though, it's not quite so easy. I don't think the party elf would take to kindly to being shoved into a backpack so his aura bonus is always nearby and therefore in effect.

Personally, I like the idea of just giving his non-elf allies a +1 to perception. Maybe I'll put some time on it if new PCs keep leaving and joining the party, like in order to get the +1 bonus, the non-elf character has had to have gained a full level with the elf in the party.

Alternately, I might just bump up the elves' racial perception bonus to +3 and just get rid of the aura ability altogether.

I doubt I'll leave it as it is, though. I just think its clunkiness isn't worth what the ability adds to the game.

I think its also matter of increasing expectations and understanding. This annoying bookkeeping was rife in 3E but wasn't recognized as a problem. Nowadays we know it is bad and despise it when we see it.

 

[WayneLigon]

6'0" - 130#

5'11" - 130#

5'11 - 115#

5'11 - 125#

Skinny, for the males, but within the average. Those women don't have ribs showing or looking like they're about to fall over from hunger. Given than at elf has a slighter average frame than a human, they probably look like humans that have about 10-15 more pounds on average.

 

[Traycor]

Yet they are archers? *snip* But the arrows, I doubt there is enough dead-fall wood to keep a race of archers stocked?

lol. Do you have trees in your yard? I have to go out every couple of days and clear the many many dead branches out of my front and back yards. If elves live in forests, they would have more than enough wood for arrows and bows.

Besides... it's not like they are shooting arrows all the time. Most of the arrows would be used in mundane hunting.

 

[FadedC]

It seems like if your really worried about people not remembering their elven perception bonus, you can just tell them to write it on their sheet as a passive bonus. They are going to have it in the vast majority of circumstances anyway, it's probably much easier to remember to subtract 1 from your perception every time you and the elf are seperated then it is to remember to add 1 everytime he is around.

 

[TwoSix]

The thing with the bow proficiency is that it forces house ruling any time you have a non-standard background for an elf.

If you have an elf raised by different races, if the elf's culture simply does not have bows for some reason, if there's nothing to make bows out of, etc etc etc.

Culture-based standard racial abilities are annoying, not game breaking, but annoying. :\

The other option would be to remove any "cultural" abilities from the races. Of course, then you'd have to house-rule in anything the character may have learned from their culture, or just presuppose no one has any culture.

Or break them apart, and have there be a race selection and a culture selection. Of course, if you're running a non-standard game, you're going to have to house-rule in your own cultures.

Out of those options, I think I'll take race = culture.

 

[Asmor]

The other option would be to remove any "cultural" abilities from the races. Of course, then you'd have to house-rule in anything the character may have learned from their culture, or just presuppose no one has any culture.

Or break them apart, and have there be a race selection and a culture selection. Of course, if you're running a non-standard game, you're going to have to house-rule in your own cultures.

Out of those options, I think I'll take race = culture.

How about option 3: Culture as a defined option.

The simplest method, of course, would be to just give everyone a cultural feat. Most elves take proficiency with bows as their cultural feat.

The more interesting idea, though, is to make culture a choice just like race and class. So define three or four cultures for every race, but don't restrict cultures to the race... For example, a dwarf raised by humans could select a human culture.

 

[Rechan]

How about option 3: Culture as a defined option.

The simplest method, of course, would be to just give everyone a cultural feat. Most elves take proficiency with bows as their cultural feat.

The more interesting idea, though, is to make culture a choice just like race and class. So define three or four cultures for every race, but don't restrict cultures to the race... For example, a dwarf raised by humans could select a human culture.

And that woudl cause more "WotC is insisting on shoving their culture up my homebrew".

 

[Stone Dog]

Screw it, I think I HATE just about everything that I've read about 4th edition, including the idea that a 4th Edition was needed at all.

All this time in this neighborhood must be giving you an ulcer then. How fun!

 

[Zamkaizer]

I can guarantee that, by now, no one in this thread is ever going to forget about Elves' perception bonus.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

Screw it, I think I HATE just about everything that I've read about 4th edition, including the idea that a 4th Edition was needed at all.

You mention this roughly 4 times each time a thread is posted on the forum, regardless of its topic. I'd say you got started quite a while ago.