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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8751494" data-attributes="member: 58172">Elves are ultimately immaterial astral spirits made out of thought, or fey spirits. They dont have genetics.That said. Some chose to materialize and take on bodies of flesh and blood. But these elves can have whatever genetics they want, because magic.Indeed, according to D&amp;D, the elves adapt fluidly to any environment, implying that while material, their genetics are fluid. Elves use magic to intentionally genetically engineer their own DNA.In any case, it is the individual character concept that determines where the ability score improvements belong. A statistical average is irrelevant because outliers are outliers.Personally, I resent &quot;agile elves&quot;. According to my reallife culture, elves are personifications of fate and magic, and sunlight. Arrows and Dexterity are irrelevant, and belong to the folkbelief of someone elses culture. I dont want someone elses fantasy racism to interfere with my cultural understanding of what an elf is.If the default ability score improvements for an elf are +2 to Intelligence, Charisma, or Wisdom, and +1 to any other, I wouldnt complain. Essentially the elf is a &quot;mental race&quot; that specializes in magic. But this predeterminism would also be wrong, because D&amp;D also has traditions of elves with high Strength and high Dexterity, and there is no reason for any fantasy racism to interfere with these elf concepts either.D&amp;D has many different kinds of elf. There are Intelligence sun elves central to the 3e Forgotten Realms setting, and Intelligence-Charisma eladrin elves central to 4e core. These elves lack Dexterity, and as mental races, are closer to personifications of magic.Allowing every D&amp;D race to include individual character concepts with floating ability score improvements is a win for the D&amp;D game as a whole.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 8751494, member: 58172"] Elves are ultimately immaterial astral spirits made out of thought, or fey spirits. They dont have genetics. That said. Some chose to materialize and take on bodies of flesh and blood. But these elves can have whatever genetics they want, because magic. Indeed, according to D&D, the elves adapt fluidly to any environment, implying that while material, their genetics are fluid. Elves use magic to intentionally genetically engineer their own DNA. In any case, it is the individual character concept that determines where the ability score improvements belong. A statistical average is irrelevant because outliers are outliers. Personally, I resent "agile elves". According to my reallife culture, elves are personifications of fate and magic, and sunlight. Arrows and Dexterity are irrelevant, and belong to the folkbelief of someone elses culture. I dont want someone elses fantasy racism to interfere with my cultural understanding of what an elf is. If the default ability score improvements for an elf are +2 to Intelligence, Charisma, or Wisdom, and +1 to any other, I wouldnt complain. Essentially the elf is a "mental race" that specializes in magic. But this predeterminism would also be wrong, because D&D also has traditions of elves with high Strength and high Dexterity, and there is no reason for any fantasy racism to interfere with these elf concepts either. D&D has many different kinds of elf. There are Intelligence sun elves central to the 3e Forgotten Realms setting, and Intelligence-Charisma eladrin elves central to 4e core. These elves lack Dexterity, and as mental races, are closer to personifications of magic. Allowing every D&D race to include individual character concepts with floating ability score improvements is a win for the D&D game as a whole. [/QUOTE]

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