Hello adventurers! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the fourth episode of our half-elf subrace series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at one of the better sub races in general the mark of detection half-elf. This subrace is found in the eberron:Rising from the last war book and is very commonly banned by a lot of dungeon masters for just being too good in a lot of cases.
You’ve heard me talk about it before in previous races and i’m likely going to have to address it every time at least at a glance so i am sorry about that, but you know these articles have to be readable independent of one another at least to some degree. So the half-elf mark of detection it’s a little bit strange as so far as to say “it does override the versatility trait you get, but it also overrides the ability scores you get from being a half elf initially”.
So just bear that in mind you still do get your fey ancestry (It is a racial trait…You have advantage on the saving throws against being charmed, and of course magic can’t put you to sleep). and you do still get your darkvision but you just get more than that. In any case let’s move on and now to discussing its trait.
Traits
Upon opting for the mark of detection you get +2 to wisdom and +1 to any other ability score. More than likely you’re going to go for charisma but it kind of depends on your overall build i suppose.
Of course you’ll also gain deductive intuition: When you make an investigation or insight check, you can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the ability check.
You can use this essentially in an unlimited amount of time so long as the check occurs of course. So it’s really a handy feature to have and if you thought that was all and you know if you’re looking at any other the half elf subraces that aren’t from eberron that would be about it but there’s a little bit more. Let’s check out their other traits
Other Traits
You also gain access to magical detection: You can cast the detect magic and detect poison and disease spells with this trait. Starting at 3rd level, you can also cast the see invisibility spell with it. Once you cast any of these spells with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells. And you don’t require any material components for them.
This is really cool and it’s a good way of adding magical utility to your character without sinking any points into a spellcaster or wasting any of your feats.
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | detect evil and good, detect poison and disease |
| 2nd | find traps, detect thoughts |
| 3rd | nondetection, clairvoyance |
| 4th | arcane eye, divination |
| 5th | legend lore |
It’s quite nice and these are spells that are going to be viable at honestly every level of play. If anything they’re going to become more viable in later levels which is a common worry for a lot of these racial based spells for lack of a better term for them as they have a tendency of dropping off at a certain point.
However detect magic, detect poison and disease and see invisibility are all likely to scale up as you level which is quite nice. And they have access to one of the better extended spell lists, detect evil and good, detect poison and disease at level one, at level two detect thoughts and find traps. At third level clairvoyance, nondetection, at fourth level arcane eye, divination and at fifth level legend lore.
In any case all that being said! You know there’s a lot of good gems on here detect evil and good is renowned as one of the best low level spells. At least for giving you an edge in combat. Detect poison and disease is super handy in terms of utility angle. Detect thoughts is very similar. Find traps i consider to be one of the biggest wastes of a spell title in 5E in general.
It’s probably my least favorite spell to be completely honest with you. The clairvoyance, nondetection however are quite good. Arcane eye is hilarious if you use it for in certain ways. Divination is kind of similar and legend lore quite good overall clearly.
And it’s worth noting just because you have access to the spells doesn’t mean you can necessarily cast them, you have to have the relevant spell slots for them and they do take up your choices so. You know bear that in mind when yuou’re using these. I understand it looks a little strange on the chart but that’s how it actually works. So…yeah in any case lets move on to my personal thoughts.
Thoughts
The mark of detection half-elf is leaps and bounds beyond all of the other sub races we’ve covered and is a substantial improvement in almost every way to the half-elf in general. Don’t get me wrong versatility is a great trait but you know for the ability to be a better investigator be able to cast some of the more useful spells in the game and gain access to one hell of an extended spell list.
It’s a no brainer in most cases. That being said though! you know maybe if you aren’t a caster at all and you have no need for spells then it’s probably not worth it for you. However for the majority of spell casters this is a more than viable option by every standards i can reasonably think of.
Conclusion
Let me know what you guys think down beneath, mention any thoughts, questions, comments or concerns you have regarding the mark of detection. It’s just a very strong choice as far as i can tell though. In any case thank you so much for reading this article guys i really do appreciate it and i hope you all have a great day and as always happy adventuring.