It's clearly a case for a house rule. I suggest you look into the bladesinging rules from the Complete Book of Elves, and let elves start with elven weapons with which they have +1 to hit.
D&D 5E (2014) The woes of the elf and his longsword
- Thread starter Mondas711
- Start date
Don't get me wrong, while I do realize that a character needs to be effective, my character doesn't need to be min/maxed perfectly. I will build a dueling style elf that uses a longsword because I have made this character for several editions since I first made him for AD&D first edition. I guess the real problem is that I want to play the character in adventurer's league and the way the rules are now I will have to start a 15 strength and I always started a 16 before. If the point buy system allowed me to buy up to a 16 or 17 because I cannot use a racial modifier for strength instead of capping at 15 this situation could have been avoided. Oh well, I will just bring his strength up at 4th level and the longsword will make perfect sense him at that point.
By douchebags you mean my races mortal enemy for thousands of years?
In the US there were many people after World War II that would not use German or Japanese products, just because of the hatred still felt for those countries.
And that is a "short" war against two countries. Imagine that your people had been at odds for thousands of years.
I can completely see not wanting to use a weapon with a stigma associated to it, regardless of utility.
BigVanVader
First Post
Yes, petty humans did do that. But you would think that the average Elf would be smarter than that.
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
The kind that also armors them in leather and chainmail bikinis with a black spider motif, and uses hand crossbows as backup weapons.
I'm looking at you, Lolth.
Krakenspire
First Post
Elves use longswords because of the artistic component. Swordplay is an art form as is magic. A longsword equipped eldritch knight is the epitome of elvish warrior culture because it imitates Corellion. Intelligence, dexterity and strength combined in a spectacular whole. Elves don't value dexterity because all elves have it. Like in our society you value what is unique and different, not what is run of the mill. So an elf that is strong enough to be a master longswords-elf is something to be cherished and admired. Hence why all elves learn the longsword. Perhaps its also good strengthening exercises for running around in the forest and climbing things etc.... The other elvish weapons are practical day to day weapons that any elf can pick up and use effectively to defend their home from goblin raiders as they are simple enough (from an elvish perspective) to be. Or perhaps a longsword is a status symbol, where those who use one show how amazing they are vs the everyone can use a shortsword crowd. So all the elvish mums and dads want to keep up with the Leafjoneses and enroll their little elflings in longsword classes....
Now lets go to Eberron, where Valinar Elves don't give a crap about longswords and want to emulate their ancestors (not this Corellion character they've never heard of). They are proficient with Falchoin (I would guess longsword in 5e or perhaps a greatsword, though historically it was just a heavy one handed scimitar), scimitars and double scimitars (which is probably a fancy way to say two scimitars with two weapon fighting style re-skinned under the current rules) short bows and long bows. One weapon there for strength using characters and others for your fancy dex characters with all the curvy blades because that's the style at the time.
I do expect with time there will be racial specific feats that take advantage of racial weapon profs in some manner, and you can have your bladesinging, longswords-elf in no time.
Now lets go to Eberron, where Valinar Elves don't give a crap about longswords and want to emulate their ancestors (not this Corellion character they've never heard of). They are proficient with Falchoin (I would guess longsword in 5e or perhaps a greatsword, though historically it was just a heavy one handed scimitar), scimitars and double scimitars (which is probably a fancy way to say two scimitars with two weapon fighting style re-skinned under the current rules) short bows and long bows. One weapon there for strength using characters and others for your fancy dex characters with all the curvy blades because that's the style at the time.
I do expect with time there will be racial specific feats that take advantage of racial weapon profs in some manner, and you can have your bladesinging, longswords-elf in no time.
Don't forget their encouragement of treachery and sleep poison against enemies who are tough, poison resistant, or who don't sleep.
Sword of Spirit
Legend
That's why they gave them a +2 Strength rather than the customary +1 from a subclass. Otherwise they would be a horrible option for warrior types compared to hill dwarves. With the +2 Strength a fighter can feel confident that they are a choosing an effective warrior with either dwarf subclass.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Good point. So to clarify what I meant by "it's something to consider when designing your own races": when designing your own classes, don't be afraid to create "overpowered" options that are mechanically better than the norm, if the "overpowered" benefits have anti-synergy with each other.
Sacrosanct
Legend
Do elves have a higher INT than humans?
Seriously though, that's not a very good argument. For one, the damage of a long sword is arbitrary; a behind the scenes mechanic. I'm pretty sure a person, in character, will not see a label on a long sword that says, "1d8 dmg". And secondly, and has been pointed out, people favor less efficient tools all the time for cultural and national/regional pride reasons. Otherwise every army would use the same standard issue assault rifle, every person would drive the same car, etc.
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