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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8818390" data-attributes="member: 6799660">EGG may have wanted to keep humans the dominant character type. However, he (and subsequent TSR authors, culminating in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Book_of_Elves" target="_blank">Colin McComb</a>) kind of messed that up by making them really really interesting (mechanically, thematically, and lore-wise) with downsides that often wouldn't matter* (and were often circumvented anyways).  Virtually every Tolkien-ism about how cool elves were eventually made their way into D&D, fighter-mage types are a highly preferred style of play**, and their other main role as CG outdoorsy types was also a popular character theme. Also they and/or their half-human offshoots were the only demihumans allowed in various special classes like rangers, paladins, and non-illusionist specialty wizards. TSR-era D&D often felt like is was focused on 'humans (for unlimited advancement), elves/half-elves (for all sorts of added benefits at a given level), or everything else (for those who like challenges, I guess).  *plenty of games where an elven racial level limits would never trigger, especially after UA and then 2nd edition upped those numbers (and BX and BECMI pushed the limit on the elf class to 12th)**plus in 1E and BX/BECMI they could cast in armor, and in 2E no one could, but specifically 'elven' armor was the one workaround.</blockquote>