Should there just be one sort of elf?

[Fenes]

If they stop the "There's an elven subrace perfect for every class you want" splatbooks I am all for it. As was pointed out, it just made race choice a step in optimising a class, and also mae elves far more versatile than any other race.

 

[Jhaelen]

What they should REALLY do is to separate race from culture. I've been quite impressed by the flexibility you gain if a system is doing that consequently.

But since it won't happen in D&D 4th.ed. I'd rather have just a single kind of elf.

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

I'm kinda in favor of the Keebler elves... but until Hasbro is bought out by Kellogg...


One kind of elf please. Two if you really must include their uber-kin, the drow. The rest are merely overblown Tolkienisms.

And the, "but they're magical" excuse seems a weak type of apologia. Gnomes have vastly more 'inherent' magic, yet only a couple of sub-types exist.

 

[babomb]

Why stop there? Let's get rid of ALL the elves.

 

[Gentlegamer]

On a serious note, I hope there will be things like the Traits from Iron Heroes that can be used to define culture characteristics of both humans and demihumans as the players/DM wish.

 

[hong]

On a serious note, I hope there will be things like the Traits from Iron Heroes that can be used to define culture characteristics of both humans and demihumans as the players/DM wish.

4E is the Iron Heroization of D&D (just as 3E was the HEROization of D&D), so I suspect you'll see something like this.

 

[Scarbonac]

Sure get rid of subraces of everything. One elf, one dwarf, one human (bye-bye human-derived monsters, and good riddance!), one goblinoid, one halfling, one gnome, one giant and one dragon, no exceptions!


Especially Dragons; talk about totally made-up munchkin crap. Frost-spitting deagons? Lightning? Acid? Jesus, the only dragons that should exist are fire-breathing dragons, and that's it, by gum!

 

[Gentlegamer]

4E is the Iron Heroization of D&D (just as 3E was the HEROization of D&D), so I suspect you'll see something like this.

I thought it was more the Rolemasterization of D&D . . .

 

[Midknightsun]

And please, no more of that "Wood Elves are as strong as Half-Orcs" nonsense. Wanna play a strong character? Play a half-orc. Wanna play an elf? Then you're lithe and agile.

Agreed. One Elf type, with an allowance for Drow since there so freakishly different.

You want a wild elf? Muss up your hair, beat your head against a rock (don't put a lot of points into INT), pick up a spear, and eat those funny steroid berries (put your points in STR).

Want a grey elf? Be really snotty an make sure your INT is high, while your WIS is low

Wanna wood elf? . . . er wait, like there's even a notable difference between wood and high elves? WTF?

Wanna High Elf?. . . Find some cool herbs


But the idea of having an elf modified to suit just about every major class defeats the purpose of "racial" modifiers. They end up becoming, "I wanna elf that does what I want awesomely well" modifiers.

Your an Elf, you're agile as heck, and slightly less durable. Suck it up, or play a Dwarf.

The rest is a matter of a few different skills and proficiencies, and placement of attribute points.

 

[Jer]

With the (apparent) ability for players to choose racial abilities or class abilities at every level, is there a reason to have 10,000 varieties of elves? Instead, couldn't/shouldn't WotC just put all the elf abilities into the racial ability list and just say that certain abilities are more common in some elf cultures/regions than others?

Something to keep in mind ...

No matter how much streamlining goes on in the initial rulebooks, by the time another decade passes and "5e" is about to be released, all of the stuff that has existed in previous editions of the game will probably have shown up in the current edition.

Unless there are mechanics in the core rules for subraces, by the end of the 4e life cycle we'll probably have gotten updates for all of the subraces that exist now. Because someone will decide they're needed and someone else will decide that they add pages to supplements and there will be legions of fans of the "wood elf" or the "grey elf" demanding an update.

Having said that - I only allow two types of elves anyway - Elves from the PHB and Drow. And, really, Drow are only NPCs in my game (not through any DM fiat or other mechanation on my part, but because no player has ever asked to play a Drow). I wouldn't miss the subraces at all.