UA: New Race Options, Eladrin and Gith

The Eladrin ability score adjustment needs to be: +2 Charisma, +1 any other.

Charisma and all of its connotations [charm, innate magic, bardic song, etcetera] is what best represents the Fey Elf concept.

Intelligence is an accident of D&D only having Wizard class in the beginning, but it has merit in folklore too.

Dexterity is irrelevant.

Maybe handsized sprites connote Dexterity, but humansized spirits of magic, less so.



Edit.

Elves can work better this way:

Wood Elf: +2 Dexterity
High Elf: +2 Intelligence
Eladrin Elf: +2 Charisma

That is what the Elf feels like.



Edit.

High Elf
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence (!)
Trance
Investigation skill proficiency
Languages: Elven, Sylvan, and Common
Cantrip
Elven Armor (permanent Mage Armor, appears as supple chain armor or as invisible force)
High Elf Weapon Training (longsword proficiency, treat as finesse weapon and spell focus)
(Darkvision too?)



Edit.

Eladrin are a group of elves that are native to the Fey Plane. They feel like a separate race of Elf with their own four subraces. The concept of the Eladrin evolves across the editions, and their association with the four seasons seems to enjoy traction. They consolidate well into four kinds of Eladrin, each one corresponding to a season.

Eladrin Elf
• Spring: +2 Charisma, +1 Dexterity (Ghael, Coure)
• Summer: +2 Charisma, +1 Strength (Firre, Bralani)
• Autumn: +2 Charisma, +1 Intelligence (Tulani)
• Winter: +2 Charisma, +1 Wisdom (Noviere, Shiere)

 

[Yaarel]

Because psionics is a mental phenomenon, it is important for a psionic race to be a mental race with a higher than average Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.

So, when translating the Gith into 5e, it helps to make sure any psionic flavor makes sense.

For the Githzerai, the psionics makes alot of sense. They are Jedis. Done.

Some people (including me) want the Monk class to include a nonmagical mixed-martial-arts style archetype. But, the high magic archetypes for the Monk class feel strongly psionic to me.

So psionic Monk Githzerai Jedis. Great.



The problem is the Githyanki. They are necromantic (?), arcane (?), ‘Gishes’ (!), but are incompetent at magic (?), yet are psionic (?), Dexterity Fighters (?), with astral silver cord-cutting swords (!) ... what was their flavor again?

The Githyanki flavor is a hot mess. This subrace lacks any coherent flavor.



One approach to coherency is to delete all traditions connecting Githyanki to psionics. Rationale. Githyanki were enslaved and experimented on by psionic Mindflayers. Therefore Githyanki hate psionics and anything connected with psionics. Therefore, Githyanki hate Mindflayers. Therefore, Githyanki hate Githzerai because Githzerai are psionic. Therefore Githyanki turned to arcane necromancy instead, in order to defeat their Mindflayer enslavers. Therefore, Githyanki are now necromancers. Therefore all the Gith are skeletal in appearance.

The Githzerai broke away from the Githyanki, after they all escaped from the Mindflayer.

So.

Githyanki have racial features that make them a decent arcane Fighter-Wizard Gish. In other words, in Githyanki culture, the Eldritch Knight class enjoys prominent status. Except, the Githyanki version of the Eldritch Knight especially focuses on the school of Necromancy.



Racial Ability Scores.

+2 Strength helps the Fighter aspect of the Eldritch Knight.
+1 Intelligence helps the Wizard aspect of the Eldritch Knight.


This is what the Githyanki ‘Gish’ has come to mean in D&D culture.

 

[Yaarel]

Nobody is really bothered by high elves.

In D&D tradition, the High Elf is supposed to ‘favor’ the Wizard class.

The problem with the 5e High Elf is. They make substandard Wizards. Their cantrip is redundant. The High Elf +1 Intelligence is suboptimal.

 

[Mistwell]

In D&D tradition, the High Elf is supposed to ‘favor’ the Wizard class.

The problem with the 5e High Elf is. They make substandard Wizards. Their cantrip is redundant. The High Elf +1 Intelligence is suboptimal.

And yet, it's a core rule, for three years now, and a group of one is the only real advocate for changing that. It's not getting comments in surveys from people. It's not getting people clamoring to playtest alternatives, or uploading alternatives to the marketplace, or publishing alternatives elsewhere. There is no demand for this change. Why not just leave it to a house rule in your game and let it go? I see no hope of any official change to the high elf for 5e, ever.

 

[Chaosmancer]

In D&D tradition, the High Elf is supposed to ‘favor’ the Wizard class.

The problem with the 5e High Elf is. They make substandard Wizards. Their cantrip is redundant. The High Elf +1 Intelligence is suboptimal.

Uh... I'd say I have to disagree on both counts.

The Cantrip is not redundant, a level 1 wizard only has 3 cantrips, you most likely want at least 4. Shocking Grasp for emergency melee escape, Fire Bolt, Minor Illusion, and a utility cantrip. High Elf allows you to start with that instead of waiting until level 4. Increasing magical versatility is the main thrust of a wizard.


+1 Intelligence is not sub-optimal, unless by sub-optimal you mean "Not the absolute best it could possibly be". +1 is better than a +0, which is what most sub-races get towards Intelligence. In fact, the only ones who beat a +1 Intelligence buff are Gnomes, who are also supposed to be a highly wizard focused race.

And focusing solely on the bonus to Intelligence to determine an optimal choice is a little short sighted, Elves have the best Dexterity modifier, which is a major determining factor in a wizard's AC, and they receive an additional 2 hours of time during long rests to do things such as prepare spells, scribe scrolls, and write new spells in their spell books.

I'm sure we could go point by point, but I think the discussion needs to start with, there are more places on the spectrum than "The Best" and "Sub-optimal and needs to be upgraded"

 

[maceochaid]

Thinking about the changing season fluff I suddenly wondred . . . as great as it is for the mercurial Eladrin PC, does it cause problems for the courts? Does a courtier of the Summer court have Winter moods? Or is a member of the Winter Court an Eladrin who is fixed in Winter? Does that take away from his Eladrin-ness?

Also, how do you think 5e should handle the Coure, Shiere, Bralani, Firre, etc? Should they just be NPC's? Should they be a Faction? When prestige classes come back? Eladrin only archetypes?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Thinking about the changing season fluff I suddenly wondred . . . as great as it is for the mercurial Eladrin PC, does it cause problems for the courts? Does a courtier of the Summer court have Winter moods? Or is a member of the Winter Court an Eladrin who is fixed in Winter? Does that take away from his Eladrin-ness?

Also, how do you think 5e should handle the Coure, Shiere, Bralani, Firre, etc? Should they just be NPC's? Should they be a Faction? When prestige classes come back? Eladrin only archetypes?

In the DMG, it says there are elves with the celestial type (instead of humanoid) living in Arborea. It would be easy enough to make the coure, shiere, bralani, etc. templates that can be added to those celestial elves (and something similar for the celestial dwarves of Arcadia, and the goblins/hobgoblins/orcs of Archeron). That would differentiate them more from their more mundane kin, and be good filler for a future manual of the planes.

 

[Saeviomagy]

An ability better than one of the best 2nd level spells (because it has no components) given out each short rest...

That seems way too good.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/dd-survey-0 survey up

 

[Alexemplar]

+1 Intelligence is not sub-optimal, unless by sub-optimal you mean "Not the absolute best it could possibly be". +1 is better than a +0, which is what most sub-races get towards Intelligence. In fact, the only ones who beat a +1 Intelligence buff are Gnomes, who are also supposed to be a highly wizard focused race.

Not to be an arse- and keeping in mind that I agree with you 100%...

Yeah, "Not the absolute best it could possibly be" *is* exactly what sub-optimal means. It is below optimal. Doesn't mean it's bad. Doesn't even mean it's under-performing. It just means it's not the absolute best.

And again, I'm totally with you in that way too many people are hung up on not getting that extra +1 or +2 here or there in every single stat without regards to any other factors.

 

[gyor]

Maybe not every choice has to be optimal, heck its impossible for all of them to be optimal.