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Henlein_Kosh
2013-05-29, 12:26 AM
I am currently building a campaign world from scratch, and theese are the different elven subraces I am going to put into that world.

I would like the playground's opinion on theese races, I would especially like you to evaluate the ecl. I've put on them, as I have never been good at getting that right. :smallsmile:

Notes on system:
The system is 3.5, but moderate to heavy houseruled
Some skills have been mashed together, most noticeably: spot and listen have become perception, and hide and move silently have become stealth
Characters only get ONE automatic language, other languages have to be bought as bonus languages or with skillpoints.
The class noble is from Mongoose Publishing's Power Classes series

The Fluff:
The Ancestor Elves are the original elves, the other elven races are decendants of them.Today there are very few Ancestor Elves left, and most of them have withdrawn from the mortal world, into 3 small enclaves.
The Star Elves came into being when the ancestors crossbred with mortals, they are today the most numerous of the elven races, and the most outgoing.
The Leaf Elves are descended from the star elves, but they have withdraw into the deep forrests of the world for many generations, and have evolved in a slightly different direction.
The Ice Elves are like the leaf elves descended from the star elves, but have been isolated in the north for so long that they are now considered a seperate race.
The Mist Elves are the result of ancestors crossbreeding with fey, today they are almost as few as the ancestors themselves.
The Shadow Elves where once ancestors themselves, but when the dark gods came into the world, they were tricked into following them, today the shadow elf community is split in two: thoose who still follow the dark gods and thoose who are trying to redeem themselves.

Ancestor Elves (Elgaet)
* +2 dex, -2 con, +2 int, +2 wis, -2 cha
* Medium sized, speed 30
* Imunity to Magic sleep effects
* Meditation - Elgaet don't sleep, instead they need to meditate 4 hours each day. they are able to perform other tasks during meditation but take -5 to all rolls during meditation.
* Limited Imortality - Elgaet don't die from old age, furthermore they are immune to non-magical diseases.
* Superior Low-light Vision
* +2 racial bonus to perception and search.
* Master of magic: Choose one school of magic, the Elgaet gains +2 racial bonus on save dc's with spells from that school, and +1 on other spells.
* Primary Language: Quenya
* Favored Class: Druid, Noble, or Wizard
* ecl +1

Star Elves (Eltarin)
* +2 dex, -2 con
* Medium Sized, speed 30
* Needs only 4 hours of sleep per day.
* Imunity to Magic sleep effects
* +2 racial bonus vs enchantments
* low-light vision
* Proficient with short- and longbow, and their composite variants, as well as either longsword or rapier.
* +2 racial bonus to perception and search.
* Primary Language: Sindarin.
* Favored class: Ranger or Wizard
* ecl +0

Leaf Elves (Eltoras)
* +2 dex, -2con, +2 wis
* Medium Sized, speed 30
* +1 save vs enchantments
* low-light vision
* Proficient with short- and longbow, and their composite variants, as well as one of Handaxe, Battleaxe or Greataxe.
* +2 racial bonus to Perception, stealth and survival checks made in forrests.
* Primary Language: Sindarin.
* Favored Class: Druid, Ranger or Scout.
* ecl +0

Mist Elves (Eltainis)
* -2 str, +2 dex, -2 con, +2 cha
* Medium Sized, speed 30
* Needs only 4 hours of sleep per day.
* Imunity to Magic sleep effects
* Superior Low-light Vision
* Magical adept: a mist elf with cha 11 or higher may choose either 3 0-level spells or one 1st-level spell form the bard and/or sorcerer spell-list, theese spells are available to him as spell-like abilities 1/day, with a cl equal to his character level. DC's are determined by charisma.
* +2 racial bonus to perception and search.
* Proficient with elven thinblade or elven lightblade
* Primary Language: Sindarin.
* Favored class: Bard or Sorcerer
* ecl +0

Ice Elves (Elturai)
* +2 con, +2 dex, -4 cha
* Medium Sized, speed 30
* Needs only 4 hours of sleep per day.
* Imunity to Magic sleep effects
* low-light vision
* +1 racial bonus to fort saves
* Cold resist 5, and immune to non-lethal cold effects.
* +2 racial bonus to stealth and survival checks made in cold areas
* Primary Language: Sindarin.
* Favored class: Barbarian or Ranger.
* ecl +0

Shadow Elves (Elyrch)
* -2 con, +2 dex, +2 cha
* Medium Sized, speed 30
* Superior Low-Light Vision
* Needs only 4 hours of sleep per day.
* Imunity to Magic sleep effects
* Superior Low-light Vision
* Magical adept: a Shadow elf with cha 11 or higher may choose either 3 0-level spells or one 1st-level spell form the sorcerer spell-list, theese spells are available to him as spell-like abilities 1/day, with a cl equal to his character level. DC's are determined by charisma.
* Journeyman of magic: Choose one school of magic, the Shadow Elf gains +1 racial bonus on save dc's with spells from that school
* +2 racial bonus to perception and search.
* Voice of the deciever: Shadow Elves have +2 racial bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy
* Primary Language: Kiltarin
* Favored Class: Any two of: Paladin, Rogue, sorcerer and Warlock.
* ecl +2

Edit: Lowered ecl for Ice and Mist Elves.
Added the races elven names.

TuggyNE
2013-05-29, 01:12 AM
The LA on these is higher than necessary; only the Shadow and Ancestor Elves deserve any LA, and then only +1, not +2.

You might condense the listings down by giving the Star Elf stats first, and then all the others as just the changes relative to Star Elf (as the PHB handles its subraces).

I like the Tolkienish tendencies, and the general thought of this.

atomicpenguin
2013-05-29, 02:41 PM
I don't know about the mechanics, but Ancestor Elves and Leaf Elves don't really slip off the tongue. At the risk of proposing a cliche, I think High Elves and Wood Elves are better sounding names. Just my opinion.

Palanan
2013-05-29, 05:23 PM
I second the preference for wood-elves, which is very Tolkien, as opposed to Leaf Elves, which somehow reminds me of lettuce. :smalltongue:

As for Ancestor Elves...I agree, it's not the most fluid name, but I've never liked "High Elves" for the snootier-than-thou connotations. That's certainly not what you're going for with the ancestor-elf concept.

Since they were once widespread, and have now retreated to a few small havens, you might call them the haven-elves, if you want to describe them as they are, or perhaps simply the First Elves, if you want to emphasize their status as progenitors.

inuyasha
2013-05-29, 05:50 PM
these actually look like fun

P.S. I suggest old elves or elder elves for a good name :)

Henlein_Kosh
2013-05-29, 11:28 PM
The LA on these is higher than necessary; only the Shadow and Ancestor Elves deserve any LA, and then only +1, not +2.

You might condense the listings down by giving the Star Elf stats first, and then all the others as just the changes relative to Star Elf (as the PHB handles its subraces).

I like the Tolkienish tendencies, and the general thought of this.

After looking through them again, I have to at least partially agree with the LA being too high for some of them, so have reduced it to +0 for Ice and Mist elves.

As to the sugestion of only writing The Star Elves in full, and just the changes for the other races, I prefer it the way I've made it, personally I hate flipping forwards and backwards in the books to see all that a race does.

And if you can't find a bit of Tolkien in your campaign world, you are doing something wrong. :smallbiggrin:


As to all of the suggestions for changes in names: the ones I've chosen are final (unless I get some reason to change them, that makes sense in my warped brain), however, I have added the races Elven names, so you don't have to use the names you don't like. :smalltongue: