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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7308842" data-attributes="member: 58172">I havent played Basic. I notice, the original D&amp;D Elf race lacks Dexterity. Its high score represented by an ability score mimimum (not a bonus) is Intelligence for its spellcasting ability. By recommendation, the next important ability is Strength for its swordfighting.It seems, when the 1e Monster Manual first came out, the assumption ot Intelligence and Strength are still in place. Only later did the 1e Players Handbook come out, which then said the 'high elf' got a bonus to Dexterity. But the other Elf cultures lacked Dexterity. Not until 1e Unearthed Arcana did some other cultures receive a Dexterity bonus as well.It is interesting how unimportant Dexterity was for the Elf originally, and how late in the tradition it showed up. It seems a frustrating development because the physical ability as the primary bonus has since distorted the feel of the Elf as a physical - nonmagical - flavor that feels alien to the archetype of the Elf as a magical creature.The tradition seems to remember that the Elf is supposed to be about magic, thus made its favored class be Wizard. But it then lacked mechanics to substantiate the wizardry.In any event, the best way to represent the original D&amp;D Elf in 5e seems to be some thing like:Basic ElfIntelligence score minimum 13Or maybe even:Basic ElfIntelligence score minimum 13Strength score minimum 11</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 7308842, member: 58172"] [B][/B] I havent played Basic. I notice, the original D&D Elf race lacks Dexterity. Its high score represented by an ability score mimimum (not a bonus) is Intelligence for its spellcasting ability. By recommendation, the next important ability is Strength for its swordfighting. It seems, when the 1e Monster Manual first came out, the assumption ot Intelligence and Strength are still in place. Only later did the 1e Players Handbook come out, which then said the 'high elf' got a bonus to Dexterity. But the other Elf cultures lacked Dexterity. Not until 1e Unearthed Arcana did some other cultures receive a Dexterity bonus as well. It is interesting how unimportant Dexterity was for the Elf originally, and how late in the tradition it showed up. It seems a frustrating development because the physical ability as the primary bonus has since distorted the feel of the Elf as a physical - nonmagical - flavor that feels alien to the archetype of the Elf as a magical creature. The tradition seems to remember that the Elf is supposed to be about magic, thus made its favored class be Wizard. But it then lacked mechanics to substantiate the wizardry. In any event, the best way to represent the original D&D Elf in 5e seems to be some thing like: Basic Elf Intelligence score minimum 13 Or maybe even: Basic Elf Intelligence score minimum 13 Strength score minimum 11 [/QUOTE]

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