Hacking 2e: Elves

The eponymous Elf of this so-called elfgame, these pointy-eared Tolkien refugees are a true classic. As before, we’ll skip the sociology and jump right in.

 

1. Infravision

Why Elves can see in the dark like Dwarves and Gnomes is beyond me. Certainly they should have better vision than Humans. However, seeing in complete darkness doesn’t really feel like it’s in their wheelhouse. 3e recognized this by changing it to “low-light vision”, which is strangely clinical, but I absolutely agree with its conversion of elf-vision into ‘they can see well in moonlight/starlight/low-light’. It fits the Elf well, and is mechanically simple: they have Darkvision, but only outside, or inside when there is any light source nearby. So, cats, basically.

As noted, the name needs work. This is essentially a souped-up mesopic vision, also known as ‘twilight vision’, which is the name Castles and Crusades went with. It’s a wonderfully elvish name, but unfortunately it also makes me think of sparkly vampires, so I’ll pass on it. This one is difficult to pin a name on, and I can see why they just went with “low-light.”

For now, I’ll just call it ‘Elven Sight’ to differentiate it from Darkvision. This will also allow me to add a bit to the feature. In Tolkien’s works, Elves had the ability to see much further than Men. I think that’d be great to add; it’s not an AD&D original concept, but it fits the theme.

 

2. Magic Resistance

Elves have 90% resistance to “sleep and all charm-related spells”. Seeing as sleep is a charm-related spell, I’m not sure why it needed to be called out, but there it is. This feature uses the Magic Resistance rules from Chapter 9: Combat, meaning that Elves get to roll a percentile and ignore any charm-related spells on a result of 01–90. They still get a saving throw, if applicable, even if they fail! It’s perfect for the Elf.

As with the others, let’s convert this to a roll-under score. Elves get a Charm Resistance Score of 18, with all the same rules as above.

 

3. Elven Weaponry

+1 to Attack Rolls with any bow (except crossbows), short swords, or long swords. A great bonus and worth keeping, as it’s quintessential. For the hack, that’d be a +1 ATTAC (Addition to Target AC) with the same listed weapons.

 

4. Surprise Trait

Opponents get a –4 to surprise rolls against Elves. This comes with a few caveats: it doesn’t work when wearing metal armor, and the Elf either has to be alone or with other Elves and/or Halflings. It also drops to –2 if they need to open a door.

The Elf’s ability to “move so silently” is a strange one, as it is overlaps with another feature: the Rogue’s Move Silently skill. In 2e, successful use of this skill “improves the thief’s chance to surprise a victim.” With the Thief, the DM is given license to pick a modifier to surprise, yet the Elf gets a hard value and isn’t subjected to the same 1/3 speed restriction. Added to this, the surprise rules already call out the modifier for a silent opponent on Table 57 of the PHB: –2, which is half of what they’ve given the Elf.

It’s a bit muddled. My thought is to just give the Elves a modified version of the Move Silently skill.

 

5. Find Secret Doors

Elves are door-finders, able to sniff out concealed and secret doors using, yet again, a d6 check. When searching, they’ve got a half chance of finding concealed doors, and a one-third chance for secret doors; they just flat-out sense concealed doors 16% of the time without even trying.

In a previous draft of this text, I dived into Ability checks and how Wisdom checks apply to perception and finding hidden items [LINKS]. I’ve talked about that a bit in the linked posts, though I didn’t dive too far into this one specific use. In reviewing my prior draft, I realize that this isn’t going to be fleshed out properly until I dive into Skills and how they relate to Ability Checks. Skills keep rearing their head in these demihumans and will likely continue to do so, but for now I’ll kick that particular can down the road.

Here, I’ll just make this another roll-under skill to be tested against, like the Dwarves’ Dungeon Sense Score. That’d be a score of 10, to keep our 50% on concealed doors. Let’s bump up the chance for finding secret doors to be the same, so we have only a single score to deal with. I’ll provide another optional –6 modifier for the DM to use when passively wandering by concealed doors, which gives a slightly improved 20% chance.

 

 

6. The Hacked Elf

Elves are graceful, proud, enigmatic, and perceptive. They love magic and song. They make their homes in old forests, lush valleys, and other beautiful places where they can be close to nature.

Elves have the following traits:

Elven Sight: Can see in low-light environments (outdoors on a starry night or indoors with minimal light sources) as though it were daylight, up to 60 ft. In daylight, can see twice as far as humans.

Elven Senses: Gains Find Hidden Doors skill with a score of 10, which can be tested to find concealed or secret doors when actively searching. This skill is passively tested when passing concealed doors with a –6 penalty to the score.

Strength of Will: Gains Charm Resistance with a score of 18, which must be tested whenever attacked by any Charm magic; success means the magic has no effect. If failed, can still roll Saving Throws.

Cultural Weaponry: +1 ATTAC (Addition to Target AC) when using any bow (but not crossbows), long swords, or short swords.

Silent Step: Gains Move Silently skill with a score of 20. When used by an Elf, the skill has the following changes:
- Always considered to be in use
- No penalty to movement
- Penalty to opponent Surprise Score is increased to –4
- Cannot be used with metal armor

 

7. Final Note

I’ve modified my language a bit from the Dwarf entry, as I’m facing up to the idea that most of these are skills. Heck, this entire system is just extending the concept of nonweapon proficiencies to everything, so I’ll continue to lean into it.

I’m continuing to use the term ‘tested’ for ability/skill checks. I have no idea why, but I like it better than ‘checked.’ I might change it; it’s not like this is going to print tomorrow. I’ve also just sort of slipped in ‘passively tested’, which hopefully makes sense on its face.

I’m happy with giving the Elf the Move Silently skill with a maxed-out score and a bevy of alterations. It needs to be distinct from the actual thief skill, without overlapping for actual Elven Thieves, and I think this does the job.

Okay, I can shelve the Elf for now. Next up is the Gnome.