Hello adventurers! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for taking a look at the third episode of our race series. At least the third race we’re covering depends on how you look at it. Because depending on the playlist you’re looking at it’ll be a different number but this is the third race that is discussed in the player’s handbook and that’s kind of what we’re going off of more or less so yeah it’s a little weird.
In any case we’re going over the elf ladies and gentlement which i know a lot of you have been looking forward to, because you all love them. Literally they’re just a fantastic race and they’re almost universally recognized existing in almost every fantasy genre i can think of and in like prominent roles whether or not you’re looking at books or tabletop role-playing games or just straight-up videos games and always have been a fan favorite. And dnd is certainly no exception. The elves also have like a lunacres amount of sub-races to them. In any case let’s dive into their naming conventions.
Naming Conventions
So the elves…if you’re not super familiar have a really weird kind of lifespan where they’re kind of still connected to their version of heaven and then that event connection eventually fades and then they get towards the end of the life and then they rejoin with it. So it’s kind of weird in that regard, so in a lot of ways the children elves are more in touch with their spiritual heritage. Even their elders are which is kind of interesting.
So when they’re children they typically have prety short but still similar names. Their child names are like “ara, bryn, del, eryn, faen, innil, lael, mella, naill, naeris, phann, rael” kind of stuff like that! just keep it short one syllable ish. Have it ended in order and it should be relatively in keeping with the lower set forth by wizards of the coast however feel free to have your own spin on it.
They also do have distinctions between male and female names which is interesting because a lot of other races don’t but elves do. Under male names you’ll see “adran, aelar, aramil, arannis, aust, beiro, berrian, carric, enialis, erdan” they have typically two syllables ending in an “is” or “an” or an “ick” typically just make a sound whimsical and it should work fine.
Female Names are no real exception to that rule this kind of whimsical sounding such as “adrie, althaea, anastrianna, andraste, antinua, bethrynna, birel”
Under Family Names they typically relate to part of their heritage, so have it relate to like that i’m not even going to try and buthcher these but yeah so they do kind of have a first and a last name just like humans do. They have child names and they progress they get a little bit more sophisticated very similar to like dan becoming daniel or danny becoming daniel kind of like thatso it does fall in line with conventional naming tactics even in the english-speaking language.
The family names are “amakiir(gemflower), amastacia(starflower), galanodel(moonwhisper), holimion(diamonddew)”
That being said! For the love of god make it easy to pronounce spare your poor dungeon master. But there are tons of easy to pronounce elven names you could probably come up with, let me know down beneath if you have any cool examples. Now let’s move on here to their traits.
Traits
Under age: They live a pretty long time. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be about 750 years old. Talked about a long life. They are one of the longest lived races in 5e. At least as far as playable races are concerned there’s tons of monsters and things of that nature that are essentially immortal.
And elves get pretty close by most definitions. That being said! However based on what stage of the life cycle they’re in, they might have different tendencies. Once again modern kind and stoma foes goes into this in great detail i’m probably not sadly. This is the example that was given in the phb.
So that’s what i’m gonna roll with but if you really do have that itch for deep lore..tons of articles on it that have done it way better than i could ever hope to and i’m not so arrogant to believe otherwise, just check them out.
In any case under Size: They range from under 5 feet over six feet tall and have slender builds, regardless your size is medium and that’s all you really need to know from a mechanical angle.
Under alignment: Elves love a freedom, variety and self-expression, so they lean strongly towards the gentler aspects of chaos. They tend toward good as well. So chaotic good is typically where they line up, however given the back story and given even what subrace you are that’s likely to change. Some of them will even change based on the time of year, so do bear that in mind as well.
Now let’s get on to the good stuff and the reason why..i know the vast majority of you are here. Let’s get on to their mechanics, the elves have a lot of really cool and interesting stuff. So let’s check them out.
Mechanics
Under ability scores out of the gate they get a +2 to dexterity. Which is pretty great, you never want to have dex as your dump stat. I mean i don’t know i wouldn’t say never i’m actually playing a character with dex as my dumpster right now. It’s not advisable, it’s been more of a headache than it’s been worth. So i don’t know take it with a grain of salt.
Their base walking speed is 30feet. They can speak, read and write common and elvish and they have dark vision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. So dark vision up to 60 feet. Pretty dope stuff.
They’re actually one of the stronger mechanical races in the PHB at least as it relates to kind of role play opportunities. In any case let’s move on to some of their other traits because the elves has a lot.
Other Traits
They also gain Keen senses which gives them proficiency in the perception skill which is also awesome. They gain Fey ancestry you have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and magic can’t put you to sleep.
This is actually really beneficial when it comes to, if you’re in a party with allies who are abusing the sleep spell. I’ve actually put a party member to bed recently in the middle of the combat session. I forgot how low he was in hit points and i’m kind of a dummy and a coward so.
So if you had fey ancestry this wouldn’t have been a problem, so it’s really interesting and one of their best traits is called trance.
Trance
“Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious for four hours a day. After resting this way you gain the same benefit that a human does from sleeping eight hours.”
This is really interesting and once again there’s a lot of lore reasons for this. But from a mechanical angle this is how you create a decaf coffee lock. If you’re unfamiliar with the coffee lock builds..it’s a source for a warlock multi-class and it basically gets you a ton of spell slots.
The way you do it is with no sleep however if you want to do it at a discount, a good way to do it is using trance so you gain an extra four short rests. Essentially while everyone else is taking the long rest. That’s kind of the best way to use this however in a more real world kind of general game sense.
The less time you need to take a long rest, the more likely you are to take completed long rests. It’s a long time, long-standing tradition of the dungeon masters to interrupt the party midway through their rest and having them kind of have to restart it. It’s kind of cruel but happens a lot.
This is a good way of making sure that even if that does happen, you can head your bets where you still gain the benefit of a longrest. Which is really nice. That being said, let’s move on to my personal thoughts now.
Thoughts
Like most of you and i would imagine most people in general. I’m a very big fan of the elves. I think they’re great, i think they’re staple of dnd, i think everyone recognizes them and i think they do a great job in terms of being brand ambassadors for the fantasy genre as a whole.
And if we’re talking strictly 5E or for talking strictly playability you’ll be very hard pressed to find a race that has more lore attached to them that has more flavor attached to them and is so versatile. The elf race isn’t customizable as a default. So it’s nothing like the simic hybrid for example where you can kind of tweak the race itself.
But the sheer amount of sub races it gives you more than enough versatility to kind of make whatever you want happen.
Conclusion
That being said! let me know what you think of the elves down beneath in the comments section. Be sure to mention any thoughts, questions, comments or concerns you have regarding them. As always any cool stories and experiences or build ideas and i’m sure you have a ton of them. So just drop them down beneath, that being said! i hope you all have a great day and as always happy adventuring.