Elf characters may be warriors, wizards, priests, thieves, or multiclass combinations. If they are multiclassed, they may select from fighter/mage, fighter/thief, mage/thief, or fighter/mage/thief kits. If a player chooses a multiclass kit, he or she should be familiar with the abilities and limitations of the classes in the Player's Handbook. The character's abilities will be further modified by subrace, as noted in this chapter.
Note: Elf PCs may become bards only if they adopt the Elven Minstrel Kit.
Standard Elf Abilities[]
Unless otherwise stated, each elf has the following abilities:
- Elves are 90% resistant to sleep- and charm-related spells. Even if they fail a check, they get the save usual for such spells.
- Elves gain a special bonus to find secret or concealed doors. Passing within 10 feet of a secret door, elves will detect it on a roll of 1 on a 1d6. If they search a 10-foot-square area, elves can find a secret door on a roll of 1 or 2 on a 1d6. Elves find concealed doors on a roll of 1, 2, or 3 on a 1d6.
- Elves gain a special bonus with bows, excluding crossbows. When firing a bow, an elf gains a +1 to hit. This does not apply to damage unless a specially made bow is used that takes advantage of a Strength bonus.
- Elves are especially good with short and long swords. Like their abilities with bows, they gain a +1 to hit (but not on damage) when using one of these weapons. This is in addition to any bonuses of the weapon itself.
- Elves move through forests and other natural terrain silently and almost invisibly. As long as elves are not attacking, they can only be spotted by someone who can spy invisible objects. When elves move through the woods, if they are careful, they will appear only as shadows of the leaves of trees, dancing in the undergrowth. This is of immense value to elves, who can thus gather information about their enemies—enemies who often do not even suspect an elven presence.
- Finally, elves have the ability to give their enemies a - 4 penalty to a surprise roll if the elf is: 1) moving alone, 2) is 90 feet away from the rest of their party, or 3) is with other elves or halflings and all are in nonmetal armor. If the elf must open a door or screen to get to the enemy, the penalty is reduced to —2.
The Elf Subraces[]
Each elf subrace has different talents and hindrances in an adventuring career. Each achieves levels differently and at a different rate than the others.
Some, such as the drow, have a large number of benefits while suffering few disadvantages. (Of course, the major disadvantage to being a drow is being a drow.) Subraces that have more advantages require more experience points to advance to the next level than those with few advantages.
A player character created from a specific elf subrace will have a number of adjustments to the standard character abilities. These are defined as follows:
- Ability Score Adjustments. Adjustments to be added to, or subtracted from, the base ability scores when creating characters in a subrace.
- Ability Scores. The minimum and maximum scores characters of a subrace may have after the initial adjustments have been made. A character who does not meet the minimum requirements of a subrace cannot be a member of that subrace. Scores over the maximum must be reduced.
- Languages. The languages members of a subrace typically know. Elves may speak either a specific form of Elvish or "Elvish common," depending on the campaign. Even if they are speaking a specific form of Elvish, elves can usually understand most of what is being said in another dialect; pronunciation and usage of some of the words may be different, but Elvish is basically Elvish.
- Infravision. The range of the subrace's infra vision.
- Special Advantages. Abilities of a given subrace that set them apart from others.
- Special Disadvantages. The disadvantages of a subrace that offset its advantages.
- Additional Experience Cost. The penalty for playing a naturally powerful subrace. Because certain subraces have a number of advantages that other subraces do not, they must work harder to become better in their chosen professions. Experience adjustments for high ability scores cannot be taken by races with additional experience costs. A +10% experience cost means that a character of that subrace must earn an additional 10% of experience points normally required to increase in levels. Multiclass characters must gain the necessary points per level plus an additional 10% for each class. As with any multiclassed PCs, they may advance in one level while remaining fixed in another.
The Elf Subraces
Random Elf Generator[]
The Random Elf Generator allows the DM to create believable elf PCs and NPCs quickly and easily. He or she should feel free to adjust the results to suit a campaign and playing style. The Level Compared to PCs Table is only for NPCs.
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