ZEITGEIST Zeitgeist in 5e: high elves vs. eladrin

[eamon]

I'm going to start a Zeitgeist campaign in 5e, and I'm wondering what to do with Eladrin (which don't exist in 5e) and High Elves (which aren't mentioned in Zeitgeist).

What's the most natural way to embed Zeitgeist in 5e?

A few choices I could make are:

• Eladrin in; high elves out: Eladrin mechanics can simply be those of High Elves but without the cantrip and with a 4e-esque fey step; players cannot pick the High elf as written. Downside: takes away a standard PHB choice from the players.
• Eladrin and high elves are seperate but related: I can rule Eladrin are like High elves, but without the cantrip and with fey step (aka misty step); this leaves High Elves in the setting - but where to put them? Downside: need to fit a new, fairly common race into the setting: high elves.
• Eladrin *are* High Elves: No mechanical or settings changes needed. Downside: High Elves can't teleport, so quite a bit of fluff is incongruous or needs replacing. It lessens the impact of the gold-ring limitation, and that was a neat invention, really.

Or maybe there's some other choice. What would you do?

 

[Samuel Cole]

I would replace the Eladrin with High Elves, and give them a racial teleport cantrip. There's already enough stuff in the setting without trying to find room for more races. (Gnomes and halflings, in particular, seem to be included in lanjyr out of obligation rather than because they make the setting more interesting.)

And there's nothing wrong with "taking away a standard PHB choice from the players." D&D has so many options that it's often easier to define a game world's flavor by restricting options than by introducing new ones, and you should feel free to do so.

 

[skotothalamos]

I agree with everything he said.

 

[eamon]

And there's nothing wrong with "taking away a standard PHB choice from the players." D&D has so many options that it's often easier to define a game world's flavor by restricting options than by introducing new ones, and you should feel free to do so.

Yeah, when you put it that way... A specific issue I faced was that I dove into this Zeitgeist+5e without thinking through all the prep, and a player had already built a high elf fighter - with a cantrip - before I posted here. His fighter is getting somewhat customized, but eladrin will be synonymous with high elves and will have a racial teleport instead of a cantrip.

Thanks for the perspective!

 

[skotothalamos]

An option could be to let High Elves choose to either take a once-per-short-rest Misty Step or to take their cantrip. Maybe in the past, the Elfaivaran culture taught everyone how to teleport, but now it is a secret kept by the Vekeshi. Many modern high elves channel their innate magic in other ways, getting a cantrip instead.

 

[eamon]

An option could be to let High Elves choose to either take a once-per-short-rest Misty Step or to take their cantrip. Maybe in the past, the Elfaivaran culture taught everyone how to teleport, but now it is a secret kept by the Vekeshi. Many modern high elves channel their innate magic in other ways, getting a cantrip instead.

Hmm, not a bad idea! Let's see, if misty step was a special trick, you'd assume (A) it's clearly more powerful (since it was such a pervasive, defining, ability and pretty much every eladrin learnt it), and that (B) now that it's less common, the gold-ring habits of modern police would have watered down - if there are few eladrin about, and most can't teleport, why take such expensive precautions? I really don't see (A) - teleport is powerful, but hardly head-and-shoulders above a cantrip. (B) I can imagine, especially if you play up the fear of vekeshi retributions - it's not as if it's unheard of for people to take costly measures to try and protect against what they perceive as terrorism, even if it's likely not a rational investment. Still, there's no need to make it a rare choice today!

So in this alternative variant, the only real change necessary is to tweak the flavor such that although some eladring can't teleport, most can. That sounds like it's cohesive with the rest of the setting, and it's more flexible that just removing the 5e-default cantrip. As a downside, it may mean many players pick the non-teleporting option, and that dilutes the impact of Zeitgeist's unique flavor. Given the fact that a player already had his heart set on a cantrip, this probably would have been the better option, but for me alas that ship has sailed: I've already told the players how high elves will work and the PC in question has already survived the first session .

 

[eamon]

Or how about another option: High Elves can have both the teleport and the cantrip; however their innate magic isn't powerful enough for both. When they use an innate cantrip or teleport, they can't do the other until after a short rest.

 

[skotothalamos]

That seems good, too; it's like Divine Channeling, but for Elves. The key is to maintain the worldbuilding while allowing the player to do what he likes.

 

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

And now we have eladrin subrace from the DMG:

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Elf Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
Fey Step. You can cast the misty step spell once using this trait. You regain the ability to do so when you finish a short or long rest.