D&D General So how do Half-Elfs feel different to Elfs?

[DEFCON 1]

This is wrong. It's not the exact same. The half-elf would not be a fish out of water, but rather a fish in a pond with a slightly different fish. Enough to feel different, but not enough to be out of water.

And I personally would say not enough to warrant making a special species write-up for them in the Species chapter of the PHB, when any individual player could just roleplay those aspects of their "mixed species" character if they wanted to. Getting three or four rather bland species features doesn't suddenly make them legitimate. They can be legitimate characters just by playing them as legitimate mixed species characters while gaining an extra skill and cantrip (or whatever lame species features you get from the Human or Elf write-ups.)

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

And I personally would say not enough to warrant making a special species write-up for them in the Species chapter of the PHB, when any individual player could just roleplay those aspects of their "mixed species" character if they wanted to. Getting three or four rather bland species features doesn't suddenly make them legitimate. They can be legitimate characters just by playing them as legitimate mixed species characters while gaining an extra skill and cantrip (or whatever lame species features you get from the Human or Elf write-ups.)

I'd go so far as to say that the cultural differences between half-elf and human and all permutations of elf are far greater than the cultural differences between high elves, wood elves, sea elves, even drow; and yet all these elf "subraces" have their own statblocks and reams and reams of paper have been printed about them over the past 50 years of D&D. Again, I'm biased, I do self-identify with half-elves, but I fail to see how the concept is any more or less legitimate than sea elves.

 

[Yaarel]

Elves are an important thought experiment:

Tomorrow, advancing medical technology solves all of the challenges to longevity. Humans stop aging and never die of old age. What do human cultures look like, a century from now, a millennium from now?

With magic analogizing accelerating technology, and the Elf species eternally youth, these are an opportunity to parse out such a reallife future.

 

[Maxperson]

And I personally would say not enough to warrant making a special species write-up for them in the Species chapter of the PHB, when any individual player could just roleplay those aspects of their "mixed species" character if they wanted to. Getting three or four rather bland species features doesn't suddenly make them legitimate. They can be legitimate characters just by playing them as legitimate mixed species characters while gaining an extra skill and cantrip (or whatever lame species features you get from the Human or Elf write-ups.)

Bland to you, though, equals appropriate to me. Abilities don't have to be unique to warrant inclusion in the PHB. The half-elf, despite those "bland" traits, it still one of the most popular races. They would not have the traits of a human OR elf, but a mix of the two.