Hello adventurers! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the fifth race we’re going to be covering over here in the race series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at the dnd 5e half elf race. The half elf was introduced in the player’s handbook and had a really interesting history in the adventurers league community.
When 5e was relatively new everyone is playing half-elf literally everyone. This was before the variant human came out, so the half-elf made the most sense for any min-maxers. In addition to that it also got darkvision and a lot of dms were using darkness and probably looking back at it now, that habit probably tainted a lot of decisions that are still made today.
Table of Contents
DnD 5E Half Elf Description
“Walking in two worlds but they’re truly belonging to neither, half-elves combine what would someone say are the best qualities of their elf and the human parents: The human curiosity, inventiveness, and also the ambition tempered by the refined senses, love of the nature, and also the artistic tastes of the different elves. Some of the half-elves are living among the humans, set apart by their emotional and also the physical differences, watching friends and loved ones age while time barely touches them.
However others live with the elves, growing restless as they reach adulthood in the timeless elven realms, while their peers continue to live as children. Many half-elves, unable to fit into either society, choose lives of solitary wandering or join with other misfits and outcasts in the adventuring life“.
In any case the half-elf is still perfectly viable, it’s still thriving quite well! Since the variant human was released there was a pretty steep dip in its popularity. However i feel like tasha’s cauldron of everything with its ability score flexibility might actually bring the half-elf back with a vengeance, although it’s a little bit too early to say. With that out of the way let’s take a look at their naming conventions.
Naming Conventions
“Half-elves use either human or elven naming conventions. As if to emphasize that they don’t really fit in to either society, the half-elves raised among humans are often given elven names, and those raised among elves often take human names.”
Hlf-elves are relatively interesting seeing as how they’re literally half-elf and half something else. Usually humans like 99.9% of the time human. As a result half elves use either human or elven naming conventions. As if to emphasize that they don’t really fit into either society.
Hlaf-elves are usually given elven names if raised in human societies and often given human names if raised among the elves. This is really weird. It sets up an interesting dynamic for your character. But as a result they’re kind of pushed into adventuring if not for being shunned elsewhere. It’s a cool little twist on their character that kind of sets them with this feeling that they might never belong anywhere.
That being said! it’s kind of weird in human society because they’re fine as heck. Half-elves are freaking beautiful creatures. A lot of people are like “Oh but tieflings!” yeah you know i get it sure. But in reality well in fantasy reality if you want to look at it like that…there’s no way in hell every tiefling is going to be related to a succubus.
There’s just no way, like you’re going to have some weird demigorgon ones with like tentacles instead of fingers i mean you might be into that. But regardless if they’re not all big breasted small winged hash like….yeah you know what i am saying. They’re not all like that.
But all half-elves are beautiful without question i can’t think of a single way you could make a half-elf ugly. Even the drow half elves would still be fine as heck. In any case with that a little tangent out of the way let’s move on to their traits now.
Traits
Age: Half-elvesmature at the same rate humans do and reach adult hood around the age of 20. Of course they live much longer than humans. However often exceeding 180 years.
Size: Range from 5 to 6 feet tall. Your size is medium.
Alignment: The half-elves share the chaotic bent of thier elven heritage. They value both personal freedom and creative expression, demons trating neither love of leaders nor desire for followers.
So can you be a half-elf in dnd? In terms of their age half-elves are little weird as well. So they mature at the same rate as humans do and they reach adulthood around age 20 but they live a heck of a lot longer than your average joe often exceeding 180 years, that’s their elven blood speaking of course. They’re still really short-lived in comparision to a lot of elves especially if you get like the more feywild, aladrin or even the shadarkai.
However, i feel like 180 years, 200 years that’s kind of where you want to sit. You know especially that’s kind of around like dwarven territory. Yeah..i feel like that’s kind of the huge. In terms of size they’re usually between five to six feet tall. Their size is considered medium and in terms of alignement they have a chaotic bend to them, primarily due to their elven heritage elves are inherently very free spirited.
So the chaotic bend is due to that. They value both personal freedom and creative expression. Demonstrating neither love of leaders nor desire for followers. This is pretty cool and makes them ideal party members, they’re going to really just assist you out of the generosity of their heart, they’re not going to feel any sense of loyalty out of fear or spite towards you. So they’re pretty pretty trustworthy overall. Now let’s move on to some of their mechanics.
Mechanics
- Ability Score Increase: +2 CHA, +1 Two other ability scores.
- Languages: Speak, Read and write common, Elvish, and one extra language.
- Speed: 30ft Walking
- Darkvision: 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.
By raw they get a plus two to charisma and plus one to two other ability scores. Tasha’s cauldron of everything kind of made us he can put whatever, wherever oh all willy-nilly like. However most dungeon masters are like “nah man! you got like over 30 options, you’ll be fine man”. So for that reason i don’t know consult your dungeon master.
In terms of speed they get your average of 30 foot walking speed. It’s not bad, not great just what it is. In terms of languages they can speak, read and write common elvish and one extra language. Consult your dungeon master before you take an exotic or an ancient language.
Pretty please! I refuse to believe that there is any level one adventure who can speak full celestial. I refuse to believe that, there’s no way in heck. You’re a level one and can speak the language of the gods. The only exception maybe asmar, maybe even a larger and maybe.
Outside of that you can buzz off there’s no way and heck your average half-elf is going to be able to speak primordial or celestial or infernal… no dice, no cigar. Unless you have like a really messed up backstory man. But even i don’t know, consult youe dungeon master.
They also gain access to one of the holy grail of abilities dark vision up to 60 feet. Pretty dang good! There are a lot of races that get dark vision in this game so it’s often overlooked. Unless of course you happen to pick a race that doesn’t get darkvision. In which case you’re going to be the butt of a lot of jokes.
Which is all in good taste of course and there are of course ways of getting dark vision, spells, magical items, abilities or even cheesing the heck out of the find familiar spell. But in any case it’s nice to be able to have it just for you know being you or i guess who your parents were. But in any case it’s nice to have just because. That’s not all out lovely half-elf gets they get some more goodies. So let’s check those out.
Other Traits
- Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
- Skill Versatility: You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice.
Much like the elven half of their family, they get fae ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and magic can’t put you to sleep. This is really helpful at early levels where you have to deal with that pesky sleep spell. I admit as a spellcaster there have been numerous occasions where i’ve accidentally put party members to sleep.
Because they’re so goddamn weak. But that was pretty much how that played out. In any case with this nice trait pike wouldn’t have been put to sleep like a little weakling. So it’s pretty cool. And thay also gain access to one of the holy grail of abilities or traits rather..they’ll gain a skill versatility.
You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice…that’s right! just two of your choice whatever it is. This is actually best left decided until after you pick your class and your background. Just to the sheer versatility of it you can really afford to pick and choose what you’re lacking. For that i think it’s absolutely great trait. Now let’s move on to my personal thoughts .
Personal Thoughts
I think the half elf is at least by raw one of the most customizable race out of the gate. They’re not super exciting granted but at least not all of them. There are a handful of the sub races that i’m like “damn man you let this in the book”. But outside of those as a whole it’s just a good race. Like i can’t think of any real drawbacks to this…even if you’re in like a very like racially driven kind of story and there’s like knife ears and terms like that being thrown around.
Half elves are just kind of meh…Like i don’t know if a single human would be like yeah you’re ugly. Especially since he got like that massive plus two to charisma out of the gate and like no one picks charisma as a dump stat. There are handful of people i guess but it’s not like a decision that’s made in seriousness. It’s usually a decision made for better role-play.
In any case they’re just great. As far as good classes go with them anything involving charisma is their modifier. So what class is best for half-elf? warlock, paladin, sorcerer, bard those guys is the best. As well as any characters you just want to be charismatic. So i see a lot of half-elf rogues. But they’re not bad in any way..not really so, feel free to make them whatever especially with the tasha’s rule set if you’re running it. Yeah just have them do whatever.
You can check out our Subraces For Half-Elf:
Wrap Up
That being said! Let me know what you think of the half elfs down beneath in the comment section. Be sure to mention any thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, ideas or stories of your own. With all that out of the way i hope you all have a wonderful day and as awlays happy adventuring.