Changing Seasons as an Eladrin

[Catullus64]

Other people with Eladrin PCs or major NPCs, how do you govern and think about the change of seasons? The writeup in Mordenkainen's Tome is the sort of "eh, do what you want" kind of text which 5e (God bless it) has a lot of. So I'm curious to court examples of Eladrin season changes in play, not just from players but also from DMs who have had to figure out some of the cosmology behind it.

Do you fluctuate pretty frequently based on whim? Do you have any correspondence with the physical seasons in-world? The particular Eladrin's age? Or do you pick with one season and ignore the others?

My current philosophy (with the first Eladrin character I've played for anything longer than a one-shot) is that he has a default season appropriate to his phase of life; he's young (for an Elf) and generally carefree, so he defaults to a Spring persona. Big events, like falling in love or the loss of a party member, might cause brief shifts in season, but he'll typically revert back to spring after a few days.

(Incidentally, this helps vary up his Bardic roster; singing madrigals and other such cheerful tunes all the time gets monotonous. This comment also serves to low-key boast about composing my own bard songs.)

Any interesting stories of Eladrin seasonal roleplay?

[Foxhound438]

I would imagine it might change most as you age - As you're young, you're mostly spring, adulthood brings summer, post "mid-life crisis" age is fall, and by the time you're old you're winter.

[Pixel_Kitsune]

Players can make their own choices but I tie it to the story they're in.

I use the 2e and 3e Eladrin mythos so they're celestials. Had a plot line involving Androlynne and the eladrin working with the players was perpetually fall out of combat, winter when s/he knew a fight was coming and finally went to spring when the storyline ended and they rescued some of the children.

[Randomthom]

Eladrin PC in one of my games has a "default" season they're in most of the time (autumn) and their personality reflects this. Sometimes when something changes her mood to depressed or emotionally cold (winter), vibrant or caring (spring), angry or fiery (summer) she'll briefly change her appearance (somewhat like Tonks' "Don't call me Nymphadora" moment in Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix if you're familiar) to match the mood change to a season.

[Silly Name]

I see Eladrins as very chaotic, spur-of-the-moment beings. I agree with other comments that give them a "dominant" season, but I also like to play up how flighty they are when using them as NPCs, so an Eladrin going through a lot of emotions and stress could rapidly change seasons until they calm down and settle back to their "default".

They're also extremely sensible to the world around them, so a change in the weather has a good chance of being reflected by the Eladrins. You know when it rains and it feels melancholy, not really sad but sort of "cozy winter evening" mood? That makes Eladrin more likely to switch to Autumn and Winter, depending on their inclination.

Of course, when running them as PCs or recurring, important NPCs, I'd tone this down a bit for the sake of not slowing the game. Maybe making a Winter Eladrin laugh doesn't result in a full-blown shift, but just a brief moment of their skin changing and the room lighting up as if Spring passed by.

[Unoriginal]

I think that at least for the still-mortal-Eladrin, it's more fitting that they change seasons as the mood strikes them.


Eladrin having a consistant season would be quite against their themes, IMO. Maybe once they grow older and more Fey they start becoming embodiments of a specific season and mindset, though.

[Master O'Laughs]

The Eladrin changes his season based on his mood. Since he is young and does not have fine control of his emotions, his season can change weekly or daily depending on the experiences he goes through.

I have thoughts on as he matures he will gain mastery over them and choose a season to display more than others.

[Evaar]

RAW you can change your season once per long rest. Humans change their moods more often than that, so I don’t think of Eladrin as flighty. Rather, I think of them as passionate.

I also don’t let the seasons radically shift my character’s personality, but rather try to frame his personality as viewed through the lens of the seasons. So for example he’s always a bit reckless, but exactly how is framed by the season. In Winter, his primary season, he hates hesitation, constantly wants to push forward, and strikes to kill as swiftly as possible. In autumn, he leans more towards reckless hedonism, in spring it’s more about mischievousness. He doesn’t generally shift to summer as it’s opposite of his usual season.

[Silly Name]

RAW you can change your season once per long rest. Humans change their moods more often than that, so I don’t think of Eladrin as flighty. Rather, I think of them as passionate.

I also don’t let the seasons radically shift my character’s personality, but rather try to frame his personality as viewed through the lens of the seasons. So for example he’s always a bit reckless, but exactly how is framed by the season. In Winter, his primary season, he hates hesitation, constantly wants to push forward, and strikes to kill as swiftly as possible. In autumn, he leans more towards reckless hedonism, in spring it’s more about mischievousness. He doesn’t generally shift to summer as it’s opposite of his usual season.

This is a very good take. The Season should be an emotion or mood driven to the extreme within an established character, not a complete personality shift. That gets boring fast, and very taxing for both you and other players.

[Spartan_MD]

My eladrin fighter changes seasons many times during the game. I have another player role a d4 with each number corresponding to each season (and corresponding personality). Adds a level of chaos and fun.

[TigerT20]

RAW you can change your season once per long rest. Humans change their moods more often than that, so I don’t think of Eladrin as flighty. Rather, I think of them as passionate.

Except elves are already known to be flighty in general and eladrin are supposed to be the uber-elves, the most elvish elves to ever elve.

(Ok aside from that I agree with tou, but I do feel that they should have quite a fickle and changeable personality within their main traits)

[PhantomSoul]

I've got an Eladrin in a current campaign, and rolling at the end of Long Rests to decide whether to change season. To keep things slightly constrained so that there's some predictability for other player( character)s, the roll doesn't directly decide which form I take, but instead just whether I change season at all. Whenever the roll says to shift, I shift to the next season in order (not to a random season). I haven't played the character enough to be sure what the ideal speed of cycling is and therefore what the ideal number on the d20 should be the cutoff, but it's off to a good start at the very least.

I can imagine strong campaign events could trigger breaking that system and motivating a departure, but then the shift might even be more striking because it goes against the established cycle.