Race: Elflings

[Dungannon]

ELFLINGS

Elflings are the rare result of breeding between elves and halflings. Only about 1 in 4 couplings will result in in an elfling offspring, the rest producing no offspring at all. Elflings are most commonly encountered in halfling communities, where that more tolerant breed has few problems raising them. Full grown elflings range in height from 3 & a half to four & a half feet and in weight from 50 to 100 pounds. They are light skinned and dark haired with brown or green eyes.

Racial Traits
+2 Dex, -2 Str, -2 Con
Medium-size
Elfling base speed is 30'
Low-light Vision: Elflings can see twice as far as humans in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+2 racial bonus on Climb, Hide, Listen, Search and Spot checks.
+1 racial bonus on all saving throws.
Elf and Halfling blood. Elflings are considered elves and halflings for all special abilities and effects.
Automatic Languages: Common plus Elven or Halfling(second language depends on which race the Elfling was raised with). Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Orc and Sylvan.
Favored Class:

Physical Characteristics

                 Base Ht Ht Mod Base Wt Wt Mod
Elfling, male:   3' 4”   +2d6   50 lbs. x(1d4) lb.
Elfling, female: 3' 2”   +2d6   40 lbs. x(1d4) lb.

Age

Adulthood Middle Age Old Age   Venerable Max Age
40 years  125 years  188 years 250 years +3d% years

Starting Age Modifier
Barbarian,Rogue, Sorcerer: +4d6
Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger: +6d6
Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard: +9d6

 

[Rystil Arden]

Hmmm...You know that even elves don't gain free weapon familiarity on elf exotic weapons, right?

 

[Dungannon]

Hmmm...You know that even elves don't gain free weapon familiarity on elf exotic weapons, right?

I'm assuming that's because there are no Elf Exotic Weapons in the SRD. I added that just in case somebody proposed an Elf Exotic Weapon in LEW. Same thing holds for halflings. That way the base is already covered.

 

[Gli'jar]

I hope responses are not only reserved for the official judges. I am not an official judge and the following are only my opinions...

You are looking at a possible character that can be shorter than a dwarf, or even shorter than the tallest gnome, but would be considered medium and still possess the full (medium) movement rate. Make them small and cut the movement to 20'.

In addition to the con and str penalty, due to their heritage, lack of acceptance why not a cha penalty. I just see any +4 bonus as a bit overloaded, probably my own bias...

They get 14 points of racial bonuses to 7 skills and +1 on all saves, a little rich for me.

Racial weapon proficiency, why both especially if they are only raised by one race. If it is only one should make it clearer. My opinion is to drop it altogether as half orcs and half-elves don't get it.

Side note: Make them sterile, it can explain the very rare result, difficulty of their birth, and/or being shuned.

Anyhow my two cents.

 

[orsal]

A good start -- I like the idea of having a wider selection of half-breeds than the core rules provide -- but several issues with this. Let me go point by point.

ELFLINGS

Elflings are the rare result of breeding between elves and halflings. Only about 1 in 4 couplings will result in in an elfling offspring, the rest producing no offspring at all. Elflings are most commonly encountered in halfling communities, where that more tolerant breed has few problems raising them.

So far so good.

Full grown elflings range in height from 3 & a half to five & a half feet and in weight from 50 to 100 pounds. They are light skinned and dark haired with brown or green eyes.

A huge range. The tallest is over half again as tall as the shortest, and the largest is twice as heavy as the smallest. No core race has as wide a spread for heights (although humans and half-orcs have even more of a spread for weight). The tables you give below seem better to me, at least regarding height (max 4'6" for males, 4'4" for females).

Racial Traits
+4 Dex, -2 Str, -2 Con

No way. As a general rule, a half-breed race should be somewhere in between the two parent races. Elves and halflings both have +2 Dex, so why should a cross-breed get any more than that? I'd stick with +2, and discuss a little longer whether the -2 penalty should be to Con, Str, or both. (If it's both, it should be because there are enough other pluses to balance; if not, I'm not yet decided which of the two should get the minus.) Don't worry if it gives you the same ability distribution as one of the pure races -- half-elves get the same as humans, after all, without a hint of the elven adjustments.

Medium-size
Elfling base speed is 30'

Borderline, but they must be classed as something. I can live with either.

Low-light Vision, 60'

Why not use the same text as for elves and half-elves in the SRD: "twice as far as a human". After all, exactly how far a human can see in poor light depends on just how poor the light is.

+2 racial bonus on Climb, Heal, Hide, Listen, Search and Spot checks.
+1 racial bonus on all saving throws.

It looks like you've got the majority of skill bonuses for each race, but not all. Reasonable, especially if the final version ends up with +2 Dex, -2 Str, -2 Con. But why Heal? Where does that come from? I realize that there is a precedent for a crossbreed race to get a bonus not accruing to either parent (half-elves get +2 to Diplomacy and Gather Information), but I don't see a particular reason for this.

+2 racial bonus on Wilderness Lore checks in the environment they were raised in, either forest or plains.

Wilderness Lore meaning Survival, of course. This is a 3.5/e game. But why this race? No other race gets such a bonus. There is of course space for a DM at her own discretion to give such a bonus to anyone, in that all-encompassing category known as the circumstance bonus. But I don't se why elflings should be singled out for such a perk.

Elflings gain proficiency with elf or hafling exotic weapons as if they were martial weapons.

Confusing, since there are no such weapons. Maybe omit this, and if we later define any elven weapons we can specify that they are martial for elves, half-elves and elflings.

Elf and Halfling blood. Elflings are considered elves and halflings for all special abilities and effects.

If they have elven blood, then they should probably also have elven sleep immunity, just like SRD half-elves.

Automatic Languages: Common, Elven and Halfling. Bonus Languages: Gnome, Goblin, and Orc.

I'd give them a choice either elven or halfling as an automatic language. For a character with average intelligence with no particular linguistic training, three languages is a lot. Whichever they don't take as an automatic language can be a bonus language. I'd also give them more bonus languages -- maybe even any language on the elf or halfling list. At the very least, any race should have at least as many available bonus languages as the highest intelligence bonus possible, which in this case would be 4.

Physical Characteristics

                 Base Ht Ht Mod Base Wt Wt Mod
Elfling, male:   3' 4”   +2d6   50 lbs. x(1d4) lb.
Elfling, female: 3' 2”   +2d6   40 lbs. x(1d4) lb.

This gives max 4'4", min 3'6", average 3'11" for males, 2" less on all counts for females. Compare to elves (max 5'5", min 4'7", average 5', same for males and females) and halflings (max 3'4", min 2'10", average 3'1", with 2" less for females). Your elflings are about halfway in between. They're also in between the smallest Medium SRD race and the largest Small SRD race, so it's a tossup whether to make them medium or small. (I lean toward Small for any race whose average height is below 4', but it's not a big deal.)

For weight, we have max 98 lb, min 52 lb, average 67.5 lb for males, 10 lb less for females. Compare elves (157 lb, 87 lb, 109.5 for males, 5 lb less for females) and halflings (38 lb, 32 lb, 35 lb; 5 lb less for females). Reasonable, and not worth arguing too much about -- after all, all that really matters is the range, since players are free to choose anything between max and min.

Age

Adulthood Middle Age Old Age   Venerable Max Age
40 years  125 years  188 years 250 years +3d% years

Starting Age Modifier
Barbarian,Rogue, Sorcerer: +4d6
Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger: +6d6
Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard: +9d6

Reasonable, and not particularly important.

(BTW, Gli'jar, of course non-judges' feedback is welcome. In fact, none of the posts made before yours is by a judge.)

 

[Knight Otu]

I'm assuming that's because there are no Elf Exotic Weapons in the SRD.

No, it's simply because they don't receive such a bonus. When 3.5 was released, Wizards had a lot of potential weapons for both races to add, but they didn't. I am also pretty sure that a designer specifically said that they did so to show that sometimes there may be more than one possible approach for the same principle (straight proficiency, like elves, or weapon familiarity, like gnomes and dwarves).

Overall, the race appears as though the race receives a bit much in benefits. I'm not sure if I like them at medium size. Maybe a Frail Build ability (opposite of Powerful Build), if they must be medium?

 

[Dungannon]

Okay, let's see if I can tackle two posts at once here.

I hope responses are not only reserved for the official judges. I am not an official judge and the following are only my opinions...

I welcome responses from everyone. This is my first attempt at designing a race so I appreciate all the feedback.

You are looking at a possible character that can be shorter than a dwarf, or even shorter than the tallest gnome, but would be considered medium and still possess the full (medium) movement rate. Make them small and cut the movement to 20'.

As orsal says, it's borderline. They're roughly the same height as dwarves, with the possibility of being taller, that's why I selected medium.

In addition to the con and str penalty, due to their heritage, lack of acceptance why not a cha penalty. I just see any +4 bonus as a bit overloaded, probably my own bias...

No way. As a general rule, a half-breed race should be somewhere in between the two parent races. Elves and halflings both have +2 Dex, so why should a cross-breed get any more than that? I'd stick with +2, and discuss a little longer whether the -2 penalty should be to Con, Str, or both. (If it's both, it should be because there are enough other pluses to balance; if not, I'm not yet decided which of the two should get the minus.) Don't worry if it gives you the same ability distribution as one of the pure races -- half-elves get the same as humans, after all, without a hint of the elven adjustments.

Lack of aceptance is more on the part of the elven parents and my belief that they are less tolerant of halfbreeds as opposed to any inherent "flaw" with the elfling race. The +4 is appearing to be a bit much, though. I'm definitely revisiting that point.

They get 14 points of racial bonuses to 7 skills and +1 on all saves, a little rich for me.

It looks like you've got the majority of skill bonuses for each race, but not all. Reasonable, especially if the final version ends up with +2 Dex, -2 Str, -2 Con. But why Heal? Where does that come from? I realize that there is a precedent for a crossbreed race to get a bonus not accruing to either parent (half-elves get +2 to Diplomacy and Gather Information), but I don't see a particular reason for this.

I'm beginning to wonder why I added Heal here as well.

Racial weapon proficiency, why both especially if they are only raised by one race. If it is only one should make it clearer. My opinion is to drop it altogether as half orcs and half-elves don't get it.

Confusing, since there are no such weapons. Maybe omit this, and if we later define any elven weapons we can specify that they are martial for elves, half-elves and elflings.

I put this in because, even though there are no elven or halfling racial weapons right now, I may introduce one or two later on and wanted this race to have the ability to use them. I guess I can drop it from here and simply add it to the actual weapon proposal.

Why not use the same text as for elves and half-elves in the SRD: "twice as far as a human". After all, exactly how far a human can see in poor light depends on just how poor the light is.

Good point, I just assumed that meant 60'. I'll definitely be changing this part to reflect what it says for elves & half-elves.

Wilderness Lore meaning Survival, of course. This is a 3.5/e game. But why this race? No other race gets such a bonus. There is of course space for a DM at her own discretion to give such a bonus to anyone, in that all-encompassing category known as the circumstance bonus. But I don't se why elflings should be singled out for such a perk.

Okay, I admit I stole this part from another sourcebook. It didn't make much sense to me, but I threw it in there anyway. What can I say, I was on a creative roll and got carried away. Looks like I'll be removing it for the final draft.

If they have elven blood, then they should probably also have elven sleep immunity, just like SRD half-elves.

I figured the +1 bonus on all saving throws as enough of a racial bonus. Same reason I didn't say elflings get additional bonuses to charm or fear.

I'd give them a choice either elven or halfling as an automatic language. For a character with average intelligence with no particular linguistic training, three languages is a lot. Whichever they don't take as an automatic language can be a bonus language. I'd also give them more bonus languages -- maybe even any language on the elf or halfling list. At the very least, any race should have at least as many available bonus languages as the highest intelligence bonus possible, which in this case would be 4.

Okay, maybe elven or halfling depending on the race that raised them does make more sense as the auto language with the other being a bonus choice. I thought just combining the elven and halfling lists of bonus languages was a bit much, but if others feel as you do then I can easily change that.

Side note: Make them sterile, it can explain the very rare result, difficulty of their birth, and/or being shuned.

Arrgh. This was actually mentioned in my rough draft, don't know how I forgot to put it in what I posted here.

 

[orsal]

I thought just combining the elven and halfling lists of bonus languages was a bit much, but if others feel as you do then I can easily change that.

Lots of bonus languages isn't overpowering, because it doesn't affect the number of languages any particular character will know, just provides more flexibility in character design. The other issues have more relevant balance considerations. If you end up taking too much of both elf and halfling special abilities, just using -2/+2/-2 ability modifiers could balance that out.

 

[IcyCool]

A couple of suggestions:

Change base speed to 20', if you insist on making them medium size.

Ditch the racial bonus to Heal checks, and just give a flat +2 racial bonus to Survival checks

Change the weapon proficiency bit to read as follows:
"Weapon Familiarity: Elflings treat any elven or halfing exotic weapons as martial weapons."
This reads more like the dwarven entry for Weapon Familiarity.

Give them Common and their choice of either Halfing or Elven as automatic languages (so that they only get two). Also list Halfing and Elven as bonus languages.

 

[Knight Otu]

I'd rather get rid of weapon familiarity for this race entirely, as neither elves nor halflings have it. Sure, as pointed out earlier, there are precedents for giving a half-race benefits unique to that race, but weapon familiarity is ultimately a cultural trait.