Meskellian
Elves
Elven Features
Elven Classes
Elven Advancements
A people adrift in the world. Born among other species, they have no identifiable culture or society of their own. Many times simply found mysteriously abandoned at a home and sometimes biologically born to non-elf parents, they are subject to the cultures of the people they find themselves among. It is rare but not unheard of for them to be abandoned to non-sentient creatures… it is possible that known cases of this are rare because it often does not end well for the child.
Citizens of the Dodekapolis on average are probably the most receptive to this phenomenon and at the very least treat them as one might expect an adopted child to be treated. Dwarven holds react with indifference at best, most often extreme annoyance, and not uncommonly hostility. Elves mature at a rate similar to humans, so an infant elf’s inability to take care of itself (much less assist in manual labor) is of great distress to a hold. Goblin hordes treat elf children the same as they would goblins… they are judged by their competence. They get a couple years of nursing like any baby, but once strong enough to walk confidently, they’re expected to work, train, and study. Many goblins have learned that an elf’s resistance to poison, disease, and aging make them an incredibly valuable asset to the horde.
Elves raised in the Dodekapolis are overwhelmingly friendly, trusting, quick to make friends, and quicker to forget them. It becomes apparent to anyone who manages to know one long enough however, that their minds operate in a fundamentally different fashion than most. They are frequently flippant and casual about things others find significant and this can easily come off as callous, ignorant, arrogant, or even outright malicious. The truth is that often there is no deeper meaning to their faux pas… someone endeavoring to understand a city elf’s neuroses are almost certainly on an increasingly maddening road to nowhere. More infuriatingly, city elves are likely to remain blissfully unaware of such frustrations, or to notice but not understand. Their perpetual youth, rapid scarless healing, and immunity to disease and most poisons only compounds this obliviousness to the struggles of others.
City elves generally have little desire to pursue a career long enough (if they choose one at all) to master it and will usually spend only a few months to a couple years developing a skillset or endeavor before moving to the next. Most commonly they make their living in a profession where these traits are advantageous, such as criminal pursuits or being friends for hire. Only elves who manage to break from the hedonistic social drifting that comes so easily in a large city have a chance at true friendship.
Elven Features
All elves start with the following features:
Elf Competencies
Violence: Choose one from daggers and shortbows.
Trickery: Choose one from acrobatics, deception, perception, persuasion, sleight of hand, stealth, and thieves’ tools. Alternatively, you may choose two game skills or three performance skills.
Languages: Trade and Elvish.
Elf Traits
Aging. Elves mature by 16 and do not age past ‘mature’.
Resilience. Your Reflex increases by 2.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Elf Immunities. This trait is not granted to characters with more than one species. You are immune to disease, infection, common poisons, and scarring.
Ultravision. You can see into the ultraviolet spectrum. This allows you to see a great number of things you normally wouldn’t such as plant markings, certain UV-emitting fungi, and territorial markings from animals.
Planar Origin. Though not necessarily where you were born or grew up, different planes of existence have different kinds of elves. Choose one of the following origins:
THE PRIME MATERIAL
The foundations of the Prime might be shattered, but…
Pheromones. As an action, you can improve a creature within five feet of you’s disposition towards you by one step for up to a minute. The effect immediately ends if you get more than five feet from the creature. The creature’s disposition changes to one step lower than it was before once the effect ends.
Two-Faced. You have advantage on deception checks against friendly characters.
Languages. You are competent in your choice of Beasttongue (choose one), Dwarvish, Goblin, or Halfling.
FAERIE
From what some consider the true home of elvenkind…
Blemishless. Wounds you suffer that heal do not scar, and broken bones always set perfectly.
Old Soul. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
Wisps. As an action, you can produce up to six glowing lights in a 20 foot diameter area no more than 100 feet from you. They may be no greater than 3 inches in any dimension, can be of any color visible to you, and may appear as either small animals or simple motes. They shed dim light in a 20-foot radius.
As a bonus action, you may change the color of or move any number of the lights up to 20 feet in any direction, though a light will disappear if it moves more than 20 feet from any other light.
Languages. You are competent in Sylvan.
PRIMEVAL AQUA
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
Waterwhisperer. As an action you can speak to a small area of unattended water (no larger than a foot in any dimension), convincing it to change in various ways:
- Change its flow in any direction up to 5 feet.
- Change its color or opacity.
- Freeze the water. While frozen, you may shape it with your hands as though it were firm clay.
- Shape the water or animate it to depict an image.
Swim Speed. Your swim speed is equal to your walking speed.
Languages. You are competent in Aquan.
PRIMEVAL AURA
Gliding. In the direction of the wind, you have a fly speed equal to the wind speed.
Windwhisperer. As an action, you can whisper to any creature you can see in the direction that the wind is blowing. Any creatures between you and the target also hear the message.
Languages. You are competent in Auran.
PRIMEVAL IGNA
Flamewhisperer. As an action, you can commune with bodies of flame or magma. They will give directions anywhere in their radius of light or answer questions about anything that’s happened within their radius of light in the past five minutes.
Restless Stride. You suffer no negative effects of travelling at a fast overland pace and can use Stealth when travelling overland at a normal pace.
Ignan Resistance. You have immunity to nonmagical fire damage, and resistance to magical fire damage.
Languages. You are competent in Ignan.
PRIMEVAL TERRA
Matters of Court. You have resistance to poison damage.
Stonewhisperer. As an action, you can commune with unworked stone. It will answer simple yes/no questions about anything that has ever touched it. For example, it knows numbers of creatures or objects, their general shape, the passage of time, but it doesn’t understand speech, intent, or the function of objects/creatures.
Languages. You are competent in Terran.
Elven Classes
These are added to the list of classes you can choose to begin play with (no need to pay xp to gain it). These are also added to the list of advancements you may take from experience.
by:
seanbyram