Don't generalize to all elves from the examples of Elrond, Galadriel, etc.
Middle-Earth includes a lot of very mundane elves. Consider, for example, the sleeping/drunken jailers in Thranduil's dungeon in The Hobbit.
So be careful. When Tolkien writes that elves were the wisest and the fairest, he doesn't necessarily mean that the typical elf is inherently wiser and fairer than the typical person. More likely, he means that in the estimation of humans (or perhaps in the estimation of hobbits, depending on whether you consider Tolkien's works to be narrated from a human or a hobbit point of view) the very wisest people were predominantly or exclusively elves, and that the very fairest people were predominantly or exclusively elves. And that is more readily explained by the elven lifespan (living longer, they tend to have more XP and thus more levels, and also more ability tweaks that apply due to mature/old/venerable age categories) and elven culture (e.g., in a culture that values music, even low-CHA members of the culture are likely to invest skill points in Perform).
I'm running a campaign in Middle Earth and I essentially don't tweak the elves at all in "game terms". I run them straight from 3.5E, except for the age table. I have all races, including elves, attain physical adulthood at 18 (of course some cultures have a social concept of adulthood that is different, such as hobbits at 33 or whatever it is). I also rule that an elf does not die of old age, but when reaching maximum age must make a Will save (DC 20) or leave Middle-Earth during the following year. An elf that does not leave must make a new Will save every +4d% years, with an additional +1 to the DC each time.
Oh, and I give a starting elf the option to take a +2 racial bonus to CHA in lieu of the +2 racial bonus to DEX. But I also give dwarves (STR instead of CON) and halflings (WIS instead of DEX) a similar option.
Middle-Earth includes a lot of very mundane elves. Consider, for example, the sleeping/drunken jailers in Thranduil's dungeon in The Hobbit.
So be careful. When Tolkien writes that elves were the wisest and the fairest, he doesn't necessarily mean that the typical elf is inherently wiser and fairer than the typical person. More likely, he means that in the estimation of humans (or perhaps in the estimation of hobbits, depending on whether you consider Tolkien's works to be narrated from a human or a hobbit point of view) the very wisest people were predominantly or exclusively elves, and that the very fairest people were predominantly or exclusively elves. And that is more readily explained by the elven lifespan (living longer, they tend to have more XP and thus more levels, and also more ability tweaks that apply due to mature/old/venerable age categories) and elven culture (e.g., in a culture that values music, even low-CHA members of the culture are likely to invest skill points in Perform).
I'm running a campaign in Middle Earth and I essentially don't tweak the elves at all in "game terms". I run them straight from 3.5E, except for the age table. I have all races, including elves, attain physical adulthood at 18 (of course some cultures have a social concept of adulthood that is different, such as hobbits at 33 or whatever it is). I also rule that an elf does not die of old age, but when reaching maximum age must make a Will save (DC 20) or leave Middle-Earth during the following year. An elf that does not leave must make a new Will save every +4d% years, with an additional +1 to the DC each time.
Oh, and I give a starting elf the option to take a +2 racial bonus to CHA in lieu of the +2 racial bonus to DEX. But I also give dwarves (STR instead of CON) and halflings (WIS instead of DEX) a similar option.
