Level Up (A5E) Sea Elf question

[Micah Sweet]

It really depends on how much you want them to be distinct. Personally, I would have had Tieflings, Aasimar, and Elementaari all be distinct heritages, but that's not the way that A5e decided to go, so it's a matter of taste.

That's true. Planetouched certainly feel like different subraces.

 

[Corinnguard]

It really depends on how much you want them to be distinct. Personally, I would have had Tieflings, Aasimar, and Elementaari all be distinct heritages, but that's not the way that A5e decided to go, so it's a matter of taste.

This idea needs to be brewed in a homebrew. What would these three look like if they were their own heritages?

 

[Morrus]

I would normally say a culture (as with wood, high, and shadow elves) but being able to biologically breathe underwater isn't a learned trait.

 

[Corinnguard]

I would normally say a culture (as with wood, high, and shadow elves) but being able to biologically breathe underwater isn't a learned trait.

Is holding one's breath for several minutes, a learned trait? Maybe for an A5e take on the Sea Elf, we replace the ability to breathe underwater to where Sea Elves are really good at holding their breath. And it's something they and anyone else can learn in Sea Elf culture.

 

[Morrus]

Is holding one's breath for several minutes, a learned trait? Maybe for an A5e take on the Sea Elf, we replace the ability to breathe underwater to where Sea Elves are really good at holding their breath. And it's something they and anyone else can learn in Sea Elf culture.

Yeah, that approach would turn it into a culture.

 

[xiphumor]

Is holding one's breath for several minutes, a learned trait? Maybe for an A5e take on the Sea Elf, we replace the ability to breathe underwater to where Sea Elves are really good at holding their breath. And it's something they and anyone else can learn in Sea Elf culture.

And it's absolutely a learnable trait. Several real life human cultures do that.

 

[Corinnguard]

I think that for a Sea Elf Culture, I am going to take heed of the Similar But Different sidebar in Adventurer's Guide when developing it. Their culture is similar to Mariner Culture in that they probably have something like that culture's Seafarer and Sea Legs traits. But instead of predicting the weather for the next 24 hours, I could see them being proficient with the spear, trident, light crossbow and net, and having a swim speed of 30 feet and the ability to hold their breath for 15 minutes at a time.

I also like the idea of their towns being ship towns, a flotilla of ships sometimes dozens of vessels strong in all shapes and sizes. I came across this idea in PF1's Inner Sea races.

 

[Selganor]

How "aquatic" are Sea Elves anyway? Are they amphibious and can live in air and under water?

As a culture there might be some sort of ritual that may change their ability to hold their breath for a while to full water breathing.

Or if water breathing is a heritage gift, a Paragon gift may be to grant someone the effect of the water breathing spell.

That's what I like with A5E... there are so many options where you may vary things and none of it has to be "wrong"

 

[Tessarael]

To be effective underwater, they need three to five things:

• Darkvision. Elves get this already.
• Swim speed. I cost this at 1/4 of a feat.
• Water breathing, or holding breath for an extended duration. This is a fairly weak ability, I cost it at 1/10 of a feat, about half the cost of a cantrip.
• Spell casters also need a way to cast spells with vocalized components. and Bards need a way to perform too.
• You may also need the ability to water proof items, and prevent them from corroding in the highly corrosive salt water environment.

The Sea Elf heritage could give Sea Elves a cantrip without verbal component with target self that permits breathing and vocalizing underwater while concentrating on it. (This is consistent with a heritage like High Elf that grants a cantrip.) Ah, there's the Circular Breathing cantrip for this purpose.

The 2nd level spell Alter Self gives Amphibian as one of the options, allowing you to breath underwater and gain a swim speed, while you concentrate for up to one hour. A spell that only gave that benefit would be 1st level in my opinion, and also suitable as a starting heritage ability - it could be regained on a short rest.

Another possibility is for them at 3rd character level to optionally gain the use of the Subtle Spell metamagic, once per short rest, allowing a spell to be cast without vocalized or seen components. (This is essentially a weaker version of the Metamagic Adept feat.) Non-spell casters should get an alternate power instead, like the ability to move and attack underwater without penalty (à la Freedom of Movement) for an hour. I'd cost this at 1/4 of a feat.

From a DM perspective, this is all a bit moot. Either you have an adventuring party where there's a mechanism for everyone to adventure underwater, such as the Water Breathing spell or everyone is a water dwelling or amphibious race; or your adventures are mostly not in the water. So unless all the PCs are using racial abilities or magic items (i.e., there's some cost to this), the Sea Elf racial abilities have little benefit on a regular adventure.

 

[Tessarael]

Writing this up as a culture, I would make it similar to Shadow Elf:

Aquatic Elf

• Superior Darkvision: The range of your darkvision increases to 120'; or if you didn't already have darkvision, you gain 60' darkvision. This functions underwater, including in murky water albeit with half this range.
• Aquatic Elf Weapon Training: You have proficiency with the net, spear, trident, and crossbows.
• Aquatic Lore:
  • At 1st level, you learn the Circular Breathing cantrip. You've also learned how to protect your items from in water proof containers, with protective oil, and similar to minimize the risk of water damage and corrosion - this can be done freely during short rest and long rest downtime.
  • At 3rd level, you learn one 1st level spell of your choice, that you can cast without spending a spell slot once per long rest.
  • At 5th level, you can cast Alter Self once per long rest, and add it to your spell list.
  • The spellcasting ability for these spells is whichever is highest of your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.
• Languages: You can speak, read, write and sign in Aquan, Common, and Elvish.