D&D 5E (2024) Solasta 2 and the 1/2 elf

[Scars Unseen]

Tanis is a pretty bad example, since there is nothing, other than his words, that indicate that he is not 100% human. Infravision? 30% Charm resistance? Never mentioned in the novels. Multiclassed ranger/cleric (the only unique feature and main reason for playing a half elf in 2nd edition)? Nope, vanilla fighter (ignoring the level cap).

Novels aren't really a great source of data for a mechanics-focused argument one way or the other due to novel characters not needing to adhere to game mechanics in the first place.

Personally, I don't see this as an argument that can be resolved. Some see the mechanical representation of traditional half-races and important, and some see it as superfluous. No amount of examples or rationale is going to convince anyone to change their stance on that. If I had two people with opposing viewpoints on this at my table, I'd give preference to the one wanting inclusion due to the fact that they would likely be the one wanting to play such a character (not that the other might not want to play a half-elf; they just likely wouldn't mention anything at a 2024 edition game because they already had what they wanted). But what happens at the table and what goes into a book are two different discussions, and I wouldn't tell either party they were wrong in regards to that.

If I had a say in the matter, I'd rather go the route with the greatest number of options. Maybe divide races up into core and minor features, and say that you can switch the minor features of one race with another to create a half-anything (which means you got to choose which core and minor combination you got for any pair of races). I might also go a step further and throw in racial feats that can be taken, possibly with some being only allowed to half-races so they could have something unique to themselves.

 

[Thagdal]

It's not unprecedented in D&D. Setting aside the obvious race-as-class from Basic D&D, 3.5E had the Savage Species book, which allowed you to play monstrous characters and level them up as their race. There was also the Unearthed Arcana book, which gave little 3 level racial paragon classes. Nothing will really have as much impact as a good DM and group of players leaning into the characters and shared world, but that's true of practically every aspect of the game. If there was enough interest in more mechanically prominent racial features, it could definitely be done without leaving D&D's lane.

AD&D had races that gained features as they leveled, instead of all abilities at first level (eg thrikreen, drow) as another example.

 

[Thagdal]

I suspect it's a lot older, at least in concept. For example: Iolanthe - Wikipedia. I can't remember the exact text, but I'm pretty sure elf and fairy are used interchangeably in that source.

Which raises the key question: which half is elf, the top or the bottom?

The right side of course.