Why do elves trance?

[Ferret]

Gez, that is so amazingly cool, not only am I unworthy, but so is everyone else.

 

[skinnydwarf]

What I remove for elves is their immunity to sleep. The trance is something they can do, a learned technique that could, actually, be learned by non-elves as well. The natural rest of an elf is sleeping, like everybody else, from puppies to great wyrms.

However, the elves have very poor memories, and no real notion of time. They live in the present, the past is all blurry, and the future is just idle speculations. The discovery of the trance technique allowed them to overcome these racial limitations, by refreshing their memories in their mind; allowing them to build their own civilizations.

Elves need to trance at least once per month, otherwise they begin to lose memories, and eventually, levels above 1. Then they lose Int points until they reach the animal-like score of 2.

Elven education is so very lengthy because young elves need to be tamed as much as they need to be taught. Only once they master the trance can they really be educated.

Jeez, you must hate elves almost as much as I do. And I'm a dwarf!

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

I'd like to state for the record that Elves trancing is the most asinine thing in the core D&D rules. Elves not being able to grow beards is also stupid.

 

[Steverooo]

Elven trance is certainly Tolkinesques, but is watered down, in D&D, like so much else. I wasn't aware of the Roger Moore article, though.

I still want to use 90% resistance to Sleep & Charm!

 

[bluegodjanus]

The elven trance always seemed silly to me. Probably because I prefer my elves to not sleep. What gets me more is that after four hours of trance an elf is fully rested, but an elven spellcaster still has to rest eight hours to regain spells.

 

[diaglo]

I still want to use 90% resistance to Sleep & Charm!

but the text is Sleep and Charm magic... not the mundane stuff. like trying to seduce an elven maiden to go to bed with you.

 

[Gez]

Ah-ah! That's why elven natality is so low! If they can't sleep at all, they can't sleep with each others!

 

[der_kluge]

Robert, I don't know who that chic on the right is, but I think I'm in love.


And I'm no biologist, but it seems to me that long life span = slower heart functions = less energy = more sleep.

Maybe I have it backwards though. But I would think elves should have to sleep 12 hours a night!

 

[Gez]

I think that if they are to give some validity to their claims of closeness to the fey, they ought to dream a lot and thus sleep a lot.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

A while back Gez wrote something utterly cool about Elven dreams that I saved to my computer. If it's alright with him, I'll post it when I get home.