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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nyeshet" data-source="post: 3562931" data-attributes="member: 18363">I only see one problem with your elves: how you interpret CG. Many characters in the game are CG - NPCs and PCs alike, yet none of them can exactly be described as being horrified at the thought of harming - let alone killing - another sentient being. Also, chaos is perhaps the alignment best suited to adapting to a situation, for it ever looks for a new path to tread, yet you seem to suggest that the elves (being mostly CG) are incapable of adapting to humans - despite having literally two thousand years with which to do so. Presume that the cycle happens the first time as you stated: the elves are forced to flee, find a new sanctuary, and adapt to a new setting and situation (combat with humans). Centuries pass with little change, little or no significant contact with humans. Then once again the humans are upon them. The elves living there are the same ones that faced the humans once before! While the humans have changed somewhat over the centuries, some of their tactics are the same - and the elves recognize those tactics, know what did not work last time and what did. The elves are also known for their high level of magic use. Having literally centuries to study and tease out the paths and spells of magic, I would expect them to have more high level mages than humans (albeit fewer mages over all). That alone should give them an edge. And why do you presume that the elves find it difficult to adapt to human ways? Why would they even need to resort to human ways to combat them? They have a long and strong tendency (not quite a tradition, due to being Chaotic) of martial-ism - look to their common proficiencies in longsword and bow. They may not be starting too many wars, but they should be more than able to defend themselves just based upon that, I would think. Humans lack the 'near invulnerability while in a temperate forest' you have given the elves, but they can manage to survive in a forest quite well enough despite the (far more) problems they face with such. And they manage to survive in frontier regions, traveling on roads, living in towns, etc - without any of the advantages of the elven abilities you mention. If humans can do so, why couldn't elves, who have an edge over humans in surviving in forests. Sure, in cities they are only slightly over humans (due to natural disease immunity), but if humans can survive in a city (including CG humans), why couldn't elves?I suppose the only reason elves might be difficult to play in your games is the presumption that CG means horror at harming any being for any reason, but then that is matter of your interpretation of alignment more than a matter of elven nature. Remember, CG is as much Chaotic as Good, and Chaos is the very soul of adaptability. So long as their foes are evil or at least harmful and non-good, I can easily see a CG character being able to harm them in return if sufficient cause exists - due to their (CG) alignment, rather than in spite of it, as you seem to presume. One can readily imagine a CG freedom fighter: using deceptions to confuse their foes, guerrilla warfare, ranged strikes, and swift flanking attacks followed by just as swift a retreat to whittle away at their forces while maintaining their own numbers and health to the best of their ability, and so forth. CG combatives would be more likely to move in small groups hitting where they wish than in massed armies, or perhaps they might come as a barely organized horde upon their foes, but it can be easily imagined. Personally, I'd be more willing to accept the idea of LG dwarves being stimmied by their cultural traditions than CG elves, for at least the Lawful nature of the dwarf discourages non-traditional approaches, innovations, and so forth. Not much, perhaps, but certainly far more than the Chaos of the elven nature. Being Chaotic, Elves don't have traditions, they have tendencies.</blockquote>

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