D&D 5E need to know the balance of a trait.

[Mind of tempest]

Then I guess the answer to your original question is neither option is broken, and can be equally advantageous relatively speaking.

It's not that elves have a story because of darkvision. In fantasy fiction, elves are described as having sharper, more sensitive vision than humans. This is in part from their greater vitality and mystical nature. The elvish story itself implies darkvision, and thus the special sense is added to their package to represent them at the table better.

could you help me get the basic story?

 

[Baron Opal II]

Of elves?

Elves are creatures with strong ties to the vital nature of the world and that of Faerie. They are exceptionally long lived, if not immortal, humanoids that are seen as physically attractive to humans. They move with a dancer's grace and are highly perceptive of their surroundings. Because of their ties to Faerie or the Natural World, sometimes they have strong connections to magic.

Stories of D&D elves draw strongly from the Lord of the Rings stories by JRR Tolkien as well as Irish (Tuatha de Danan), English (Sidhe Court), and Nordic (ljosalfar) myth.

If you are looking at winged and/or four armed humanoids from actual myth to inspire you, perhaps stories of the Garuda from India and SE Asia might be of interest. I'm not very familiar with their stories, but I think Garuda is a big deal mythologically in ... Thailand? They might have some inspirational material. I think a number of Indian stories have some many-limbed folk, but I'm not sure.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

You have no lore. So why would anyone want play this?

I think you overestimate the degree to which people universally care about the "official" lore of things. Give me a four-armed character option and I'll come up with some lore for my new four-armed character. If I happen to like the lore provided I'll incorporate it, if not I'll ignore it.

 

[bedir than]

I think you overestimate the degree to which people universally care about the "official" lore of things. Give me a four-armed character option and I'll come up with some lore for my new four-armed character. If I happen to like the lore provided I'll incorporate it, if not I'll ignore it.

I think you overestimate people's interest in mechanics. Tens of millions people play and mechanics posts on the mechanic nerd forums get a few hundred views

 

[Mind of tempest]

I think you overestimate the degree to which people universally care about the "official" lore of things. Give me a four-armed character option and I'll come up with some lore for my new four-armed character. If I happen to like the lore provided I'll incorporate it, if not I'll ignore it.

I think you overestimate people's interest in mechanics. Tens of millions people play and mechanics posts on the mechanic nerd forums get a few hundred views

I believe both matters and that they must be properly wed together I just ask over one particular set of choices.
the official lore was to be in another thread.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I think you overestimate people's interest in mechanics. Tens of millions people play and mechanics posts on the mechanic nerd forums get a few hundred views

Right, and when those tens of millions of people pick a character race, they have the whole spectrum of levels of engagement in the provided lore. Personally I find the more inhuman the physical characteristics (extra arms, wings, antennae, shapeshifting ability etc.) the more likely players are to pick it because they like the physicality and just come up with their own lore for it. It's the various similar nearly-human-but-with-different-height-and/or-ear-pointedness races that people are more likely to pick based on lore.

Radical biomechanical differences like additional appendages are evocative enough of differences from humans that the physicality is likely to decide the lore, and there is nothing wrong with nailing down the physicality first.

 

[bedir than]

Radical biomechanical differences like additional appendages are evocative enough of differences from humans that the physicality is likely to decide the lore, and there is nothing wrong with nailing down the physicality first.

We're talking about a specific case where the creator cannot decided on whether there should be four arms or wing solely based on the mechanics.

 

[Mind of tempest]

We're talking about a specific case where the creator cannot decided on whether there should be four arms or wing solely based on the mechanics.

well, I am using part of his reasoning but I want to know which ones still let me have other abilities hence the balance issue.