Moon Elves is a d20 pdf product from Dark Quest Games. Moon Elves, unlike the title seems to suggest, does not detail a a new subrace of elf, but provides a detailed look at elves in general, including an enormous amount of background detail, catering for anything from myths, to pregnancy, to clothing, to festivals; and includes scores of new elven items, spells and prestige classes. This pdf has a page count of 101 pages, of which 96 pages present an impressively detailed look at elves. Moon Elves normally retails for $6.95. Moon Elves was written using the D&D3e ruleset. This review was done as part of Crothian's Review Project.
Initial Impressions:
Moon elves is a supplement about elves, probably one of the more detailed ones around, providing a lot of details that one would not necessarily find in other books. It's a very complete tome, offering lots of information for DM and player alike - whether you want to flesh out an elven culture or a character. The cover art is by Kallen, depicting a female elf out hunting, while the interior art is by Owen Kuhn, Claudio Pozas and Gillian Pierce. The interior artwork is excellent, depicting various pencil sketches of elves - those by Gillian Kuhn very detailed and inspirational, particularly the armor-clad warrior on page 50. The art adds to a very well edited and written pdf, with good and solid, often inspirational content, although the lack of introduction makes it somewhat difficult to swiftly determine the nature of the pdf, and what the material is all about. The title, Moon Elves, for example, does not refer to a subrace of elves, but rather to the elves as Children of the Moon. An introduction stating as much would've been a welcome addition.
The Details:
The pdf contains four thorough and detailed chapters, covering different aspects of elven culture. As a brief outline, before delving into more detail, the first covers all aspects of elven culture, the second elven items, the third spells and the fourth prestige classes.
Chapter 1: This chapter provides more than most would ever dream of asking for about elves. It gives a detailed, enjoyable presentation on elven culture, covering a host of different topics that can add to a game or spice up descriptions or cultures. Throughout the chapter as various aspects are discussed, the pdf presents journal entries of a half-elf, Aurora Daerwyth, who returns to her elven homeland with her elven cousin, Eridthaign. These
journal entries provide a bird's eye view of elven culture from a story-related perspective, and give some added meaning to the descriptions in the text.
Three different types of elves are presented - the wood elves, the stone elves and the high elves, the latter being kings of elves or elven nobility. Another type of elf, the urban elf, is also discussed but they are relocated elves from the stock of the three types of elves mentioned. Within this framework of types of elves, the pdf presents staggering detail on a variety of topics, including: alignment, character and attributes, social culture (artistic sense, hunting skill, etc.), social gatherings and etiquette, food and drink, life cycle from birth to death, health, pregnancy, clothing and fashion, elven family structures, origins of elves and elven myths, elven special days (weddings, naming days, the winter hunt, etc.) and a brief look at the elven language. That list is by no means exhaustive (!), but it gives
an indication of the variety and flavor contained within this pdf.
Most of the above material is well presented, offering an interesting take and look at the elven culture. Being as it is, it might not be for everyone, given that many do not share this particular view of elves. However, most of the material can easily be molded into a person's particular elven preference, or used as a starting point to create something equally compelling. There's a lot of material that most can make excellent use of in game, even if you do not agree with the particular concept of the elf presented. I found it an enjoyable and enlightning read, offering a look at elven culture from a perspective many books do not have. A very flavorful chapter, with lots to offer on the fluff side, and well worth the read.
Chapter 2: This chapter deals with all manner of elven items, from mundane clothing to different special armors to magical weapons to wondrous items of the elves. It contains a vast number of different elven items, all complete, well-written, and useful without any glaring issues of item balance or cost. Examples include the assassins' bane tunic that can turn aside a wounding blade, goldendew liquor that can maximise the effects of a potion, water gems that hold gallons of water, leaf, doeskin and shimmerleaf as new special materials for armor, the thornball as a throwing weapon, elven signature arrows specially crafted to the archer, and numerous other weapons, arrows, wondrous items and even elven artifacts.
The amount of items makes for a dazzling choice, and there is certain to be something in here that appeals to most, whether they wish to use these as specific elven items or adapt them to other cultures and races. Whether your elf wishes to fight with elven fighting sticks, or you need the philter of fireflies to light the way and drive away the darkness, or wield a moonspear against lycanthropes, this chapter contains a lot of useful and novel items for elves to wield, wear and consume.
Chapter 3: This chapter is devoted to elven magic, including many new clerical domains and spells. Domains include flora, hunting, love, or beauty among others, while the list of spells is impressive and contains a lot of good and useful spells of all levels and all classes. The spells all contain complete and detailed descriptions, although many of them merely enhance various skills or grant enhancements to an elf's various senses.There are
some really nice spells such as the sphere of absorption or star halo, that provide both useful effects, and good visual flavor. Many of the spells are suited to the natural environment as one would expect, such as Eyes of the Bat, Ears of the Fox, Swirl of Leaves, Tree Shield and many others. The variety is good, although not as strong as in the chapter on elven items. There were no obviously overpowerful spells, with most given the appropriate
spell level and balanced effect.
Chapter 4: The last chapter of the pdf deals with several prestige classes. This was to me the weakest section of the book - while the prestige class description slotted in well with the remainder of the pdf, the execution was often a bit weak. Some classes gain almost nothing but skill bonuses as abilities, often extremely high bonuses such as +12 to Bluff for the Master of Tongues at 10th level or +8 to Hide and Move Silently for the Elven Forester at 10th level. The prestige classes are as follows: Elven Forester (forest protectors that can disappear easily within forests and strike with steath), Elven Carouser (a social elf trained in the arts of carousing and with a wide reputation), Elven Noble Warrior (an elven warrior blending leadership, nobility, command and weapon skill inspiring both on and off the battlefield), Elven Spotter (nothing can escape the sight of an elven spotter), Sword Singer (warriors and singers that fight with Special Song Swords and harnass the power of harmony and melody), Lamrida "Runed Blade" (elite elven warriors defending all elven people and fighting with powerful rune-inscribed blades), and Langmatra "Master of Tongues" (elven diplomats).
The Sword Singer and the Runed Blade are the most interesting, offering novel and exciting abilites with their weapons that go beyond a somewhat unexciting though still useful prestige class that gains bonuses to skills and perhaps one or two other abilities. The flavor of these two is also good, and will certainly be used in future games. The Runed Blade fights with a sword that he can imbue with power, different runes that grant it different enhancements and abilites, while the Sword Singer creates musical effects in his blade to sunder enemy blades or daze foes.
The pdf concludes with a brief glosary of words in the elven tongue, a nice touch to the pdf that enhanced the presentation.
Conclusions:
This is a very good and detailed pdf on elves, with an excellent amount of material, well-written, interesting and with some nice flavor touches. It's solid on the mechanics side, although some of the prestige classes are rather unexciting. Apart from the prestige classes, given the nature of the elves presented, the ideas explored might not appeal to everybody's taste in elves as hunters, singers, dancers, etc. Despite these comments, this is a very good pdf, with loads of useful material for any camaign, both for players and DMs, which is an added benefit. Based on overall good and solid quality, great art, wealth of material in both flavor and crunch, but also somewhat weak prestige classes and occasional spell, as well as lack of introduction and the approach to elves not being suited to all, I'd grade this pdf with a good four stars.
