New article - Elves, Eladrin and Drow. Oh, my!

[kennew142]

I'm just glad that the drow now have dark skin because they are the chosen the Lolth, and Lolth is the goddess of the New Moon. When I read in earlier versions that their skin was a curse, I was reminded uncomfortably of the many mark-of-cain arguments 19th century racists made.

 

[DandD]

Elves turning to savage... Gruumsh... Now, that's something new...

 

[LostSoul]

This is inspiring.

I am thinking of a house rule of sorts, not yet having seen eladrin:

Eladrin are immortal, unchanging. They have some kind of racial ability, called Passion (that scales with level). It gives them a nice fat bonus to whatever they are trying to do.

Once they use it, the character's race changes to Elf.

edit: And drawing inspiration from the above post, Elves have Hatred and it changes them to Orcs.

 

[TerraDave]

Not bad.

Though they need to make up their minds on elf clerics...

 

[Lackhand]

This is inspiring.

I am thinking of a house rule of sorts, not yet having seen eladrin:

Eladrin are immortal, unchanging. They have some kind of racial ability, called Passion (that scales with level). It gives them a nice fat bonus to whatever they are trying to do.

Once they use it, the character's race changes to Elf.

edit: And drawing inspiration from the above post, Elves have Hatred and it changes them to Orcs.

Obviously, I've no more view on what the rules Will Be than you do. But perhaps granting a stack of hero points when they cash in? Or Destiny Points from Saga?

That sounds really cool.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Not bad.

Though they need to make up their minds on elf clerics...

As I posted in the other thread about elves being Clerics, it seems to me that the idea is based primarily on the mechanics of the Wisdom bonus, rather than being the best cultural selection for a PC.

Since PCs are not usually the "typical" member of the race, it should not be that big a deal.

 

[TerraDave]

There is also a lot of implied world material being tossed around here. Things like "As kingdoms and empires grew and collapsed -- the human realm of Nerath, the dragonborn Arkhosia, the tiefling Bael Turath"

This is a radical change from previous editions where the implied setting was maybe supported by a sample pantheon and then some flavorful names attached to spells. It is also a 180 from the Spell Compendium's change to completely strip the flavorful names from spells.

Either way it sounds like they might be injecting a lot of fluff into the core rules.

Its been a pretty strong trend...but I am not sure where we will see it in the core books. The elf entry from the PHB just touches on this, and mentions the gods.

 

[Rechan]

My, it's quite the elf-gasm today, isn't it?

 

[Bishmon]

As I posted in the other thread about elves being Clerics, it seems to me that the idea is based primarily on the mechanics of the Wisdom bonus, rather than being the best cultural selection for a PC.

I think it has to do more with the fact that there's no druid or other explicit nature-priest in the PHB, so they used clerics with the understanding that they were talking about a cleric of a nature deity.

 

[Zamkaizer]

My, it's quite the elf-gasm today, isn't it?

Hey, it's Christmastime. And nothing's more appropriate for Christmas than Elves.