Yaarel
He Mage
In general, I agree with the OP, players need a way to mechanically represent a character who comes from an ancestry of more than one species.
In specific, I disagree about the "Half-Elf". In my eyes there is zero information loss, since it was little more than high-Charisma Human with Darkvision. If the player cares about Darkvision, then pick the Elf stats, and if not, pick the Human stats, but in either case make sure to choose Abilities and Background that feel appropriate to the character concept. The character concept that the "Half-Elf" was continues fully as a "Human-Elf".
Meanwhile the Human feat choice can hypothetically select a feat that grants Darkvision. In my eyes, Darkvision is merely worth a cantrip, albeit among the best cantrips. The design space of a "level 0" feat (representing something that existed before the character ever gained a level in a class) can grant Darkvision plus an other cantrip to represent a Human having a High Elf among ones ancestors.
With regard to mixing traits from diverse ancestors, "Species Feats" are the game design solution.
• Every officially playable species now has a design space of about 1½ feats.
• Likewise a level-0 Background Feat is worth about a ½ feat.
Normally, the Background Feat is strictly cultural and learned while growing up. However, in the case of the Human Species Feat choice, it could be used to select a Species Feat from one of the other Species to represent a nonhuman parentage.
In other words, when a player creates a character, the player can choose three Species Feats to define the character concept. Each Species Feat is worth about a ½ feat. But a few unusually powerful ones are worth about a full feat, thus count as a choice of two Species Feats if selected. Every species has its own list of Species Feats to choose from. When organizing the earlier versions of D&D Elves into separate feats, there are a number of Elf Species Feats that a player can choose from when building an Elf character. There even turn out to be a number of Human Species Feats to choose from when building a Human character − and these Human feats are pretty good! Finally, when creating a character deriving from multiple species, the player can choose their Species Feats from the lists of more than one species.
An example of what this design approach looks where all traits organize into Species Feats to choose from, is here in this thread: to mix Multi-Species Traits.
Thus with regard to the Original Post, to build a Human-Elf character select three feats from both the Human list and the Elf list. Some of the Elf Species Feats pertain to a specific elven adaptation, such as High magical ancestry, Wood magical ancestry, Udadrow magical ancestry, Sea magical ancestry, or whatever feat or feats make sense for the character concept.
In specific, I disagree about the "Half-Elf". In my eyes there is zero information loss, since it was little more than high-Charisma Human with Darkvision. If the player cares about Darkvision, then pick the Elf stats, and if not, pick the Human stats, but in either case make sure to choose Abilities and Background that feel appropriate to the character concept. The character concept that the "Half-Elf" was continues fully as a "Human-Elf".
Meanwhile the Human feat choice can hypothetically select a feat that grants Darkvision. In my eyes, Darkvision is merely worth a cantrip, albeit among the best cantrips. The design space of a "level 0" feat (representing something that existed before the character ever gained a level in a class) can grant Darkvision plus an other cantrip to represent a Human having a High Elf among ones ancestors.
With regard to mixing traits from diverse ancestors, "Species Feats" are the game design solution.
• Every officially playable species now has a design space of about 1½ feats.
• Likewise a level-0 Background Feat is worth about a ½ feat.
Normally, the Background Feat is strictly cultural and learned while growing up. However, in the case of the Human Species Feat choice, it could be used to select a Species Feat from one of the other Species to represent a nonhuman parentage.
In other words, when a player creates a character, the player can choose three Species Feats to define the character concept. Each Species Feat is worth about a ½ feat. But a few unusually powerful ones are worth about a full feat, thus count as a choice of two Species Feats if selected. Every species has its own list of Species Feats to choose from. When organizing the earlier versions of D&D Elves into separate feats, there are a number of Elf Species Feats that a player can choose from when building an Elf character. There even turn out to be a number of Human Species Feats to choose from when building a Human character − and these Human feats are pretty good! Finally, when creating a character deriving from multiple species, the player can choose their Species Feats from the lists of more than one species.
An example of what this design approach looks where all traits organize into Species Feats to choose from, is here in this thread: to mix Multi-Species Traits.
Thus with regard to the Original Post, to build a Human-Elf character select three feats from both the Human list and the Elf list. Some of the Elf Species Feats pertain to a specific elven adaptation, such as High magical ancestry, Wood magical ancestry, Udadrow magical ancestry, Sea magical ancestry, or whatever feat or feats make sense for the character concept.
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