How Does Half Elf "Surprising" Benefit a Character?

[NinjaPaladin]

[MENTION=6761960]Tun Kai Poh[/MENTION]: I would allow the same thing, or Human instead.
[MENTION=91777]Dungeoneer[/MENTION]: Yesssss. Although I have on occasion had luck with a Wood Elf sorcerer as well. The chance to gather energy and then cast an empowered spell in the same turn can be a great deal of fun. And I am a huge sucker for the Dark Elf's "Cruel".

 

[keterys]

Personally, I think the right house rule is to just make it +1.

Dodges the whole issue and is really okay, honest. At least compared to several of the races.

 

[MichaelGreene]

Alternative Half-Elf Racial Power: Dual Heritage = a nice fix

This is the best fix I've seen to this "class-preferential" racial power:

Hmm... I'm not allowed to post links yet, so I'll just post the whole alternative half-elf racial power description...

Dual Heritage
Special: You can choose this instead of Surprising when you create your character. When you make this choice, you also need to choose one Elven sub-race for your parentage.
Roll Initiative twice as if you had the Human's "Quick to Fight" racial power. If the second roll is lower than the first, you gain the power of the Elven sub-race that you chose for this battle.
Champion Feat: Once per day you can use your Elven power even if your second initiative roll was higher

If you want to see the source and some additional discussion, just google "13th age half-elf dual heritage" and it's probably the first link.

I've already printed out the "Dual Heritage" alternate power and tucked it into my 13th Age rulebook at the Half-Elf description page.

 

[Sixheadeddog]

Dual Heritage
Special: You can choose this instead of Surprising when you create your character. When you make this choice, you also need to choose one Elven sub-race for your parentage.
Roll Initiative twice as if you had the Human's "Quick to Fight" racial power. If the second roll is lower than the first, you gain the power of the Elven sub-race that you chose for this battle.
Champion Feat: Once per day you can use your Elven power even if your second initiative roll was higher

... It'd be REALLY awesome if you could use Surprising to mod the Dual Heritage roll...

TWO YEARS A NECRO! But still. Honestly the easiest and best fix is just to make it a +1 mod instead. This keeps it closer to the intent of the original Half-Elf ability, and it ensures everybody gets something.

 

[diaglo]

In 13th Age, the racial power for half-elves is called "Surprising." It allows the player to subtract one from his/her d20 rolls once per battle.

How could this possibly benefit the PC?

it is like that guy next to you in stop and go traffic that you keep watching to see how you are doing in your lane. surprise he moved over in front of you after moving ahead and now you've lost track or sight of him.

 

[TarionzCousin]

it is like that guy next to you in stop and go traffic that you keep watching to see how you are doing in your lane. surprise he moved over in front of you after moving ahead and now you've lost track or sight of him.

That guy was a half elf???

That would explain the glitter and leaf paint job on his car.