37
votes
Is the offspring of an elf and a half-elf an elf or a half-elf?
XGtE suggests the result is a Half-Elf
This book includes a table (p. 62) for determining parent races when your character is a half elf. It includes the possibility of:
One parent was an elf and ...
- 36.5k
33
votes
Accepted
Are half-elves and half-orcs sterile, or can they interbreed with each other(their respective race) like normal races?
Half-elves and half-orcs are not sterile.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything, p62:
Nonhuman Parents. If your character is a half-elf, a half-orc, or a tiefling, you can use one of the tables below to ...
- 6,169
30
votes
Accepted
Can a Half-Elf have Drow Ancestry?
Yes, a half-elf could be half-drow.
Drow and humans can have children, and the resulting children are half-drow. In previous editions, half-drow were a bit mechanically different to normal half-elves, ...
- 66.4k
29
votes
Compatibility of races
Monster Manual p245:
The orcs' drive to reproduce runs stronger than any other humanoid
race, and they readily crossbreed with other races. When an orc
procreates with a non-orc humanoid of ...
- 13.8k
28
votes
Accepted
Is there any major mechanical advantage to playing a Drow Elf (full) rather than a Drow Half-Elf?
Superior Darkvision is the major advantage
The most significant mechanical advantage that a Drow has over a Half-Drow, and indeed most other races, is their 120-foot darkvision. Drow can see in the ...
- 66.4k
26
votes
Accepted
Can a Half-Elf choose the same Ability Score for the +1's of Ability Score Increase?
No, you can't choose the same ability score twice. Here's why:
The intention is usually in the wording - in this case, this,
and two other ability scores of your choice
to me this means you ...
- 1,342
24
votes
Accepted
Sleep's hp total and (half-) elf targets
You have it exactly correct. A (half-)elf in the area of the spell is affected in ascending HP order and sucks up the appropriate amount of the 'payload', it's just going to have no effect, and ...
- 77.8k
23
votes
Accepted
Variant Half-Elf: is this meant to be Keen Senses AND another trait?
The Keen senses option is indeed inherently weaker
Your analysis regarding the Keen senses is correct - it gives you proficiency in a single particular skill when you could have proficiency in two ...
- 54.1k
23
votes
Accepted
Do half-elves get the abilities of both their races?
No
The PHB section (page 39) on Half-elves is quite specific. Half elves get
Ability Score Increase of CHA +2, and two other ability scores increase by 1.
Darkvision to 60'.
Fey Ancestry: You have ...
- 5,973
22
votes
Sleep's hp total and (half-) elf targets
I disagree. Magic can't put the half-elf to sleep; he is immune to magical sleep. The sleep spell will act as if he is not there.
A normal human who is unconscious doesn't get his HP subtracted ...
- 16k
19
votes
Can a Half-Elf choose the same Ability Score for the +1's of Ability Score Increase?
No, you can't choose the same ability twice.
The trait specifies two other ability scores of your choice. This phrasing means that you can't choose Charisma, of course, but it also means you can't ...
- 50.2k
18
votes
Accepted
Does the race of half-elves on Khorvaire in Eberron have its own name?
The technical term is "Khoravar".
From the section on half-elves in the Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron (p. 77-78), under the heading "The Khoravar":
When two half-elves conceive, ...
- 12.7k
15
votes
Is there any major mechanical advantage to playing a Drow Elf (full) rather than a Drow Half-Elf?
In Xanathar's Guide to Everything p. 74, there is an excellent racial feat available only to drow called Drow High Magic, which I think is worth being a full-blooded drow for.
It allows you to cast ...
- 11.1k
13
votes
Accepted
Compatibility of races
It's always the GM's decision how this work in each specific campaign.
To my knowledge, there have never been any orc-elf crossbreeds in official D&D sources and no half-elf/half-orc ones either.
...
- 3,948
13
votes
Sleep's hp total and (half-) elf targets
Ported from the question posed by Mindwin: Are undead and creatures immune to charm excluded from the HP count of Sleep?
Looking at those two fragments:
Creatures within 20 feet of a point you choose ...
- 2,900
12
votes
History and Lore of Elves
The best resource for D&D elves, in my opinion, isn't any book at all, but rather afroakuma’s So You Want to Play an Elf. He is probably the foremost expert on D&D lore on the internet (at ...
- 357k
12
votes
Mixed race from half-elf and half-dwarf
The simplest solution is to use a Custom Lineage
If your table uses, or has access to, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, you can apply the Custom Lineage option (p. 8) to any mix that the books do not ...
- 144k
11
votes
Accepted
Do all Half-Elf subraces forgo the Skill Versatility feature?
The confusion seems to come from the fact that the half-elf page is an aggregation of all text relating to half-elven stats, rather than the actual direct source of this information.
The text you're ...
- 19.4k
11
votes
Do half-elves get the abilities of both their races?
In the core books, no
There's a reason for that. Getting all of the half-elf's bonuses, see @UrhoKarila's answer, and additional elven bonuses would be far more powerful starting out compared to all ...
- 144k
11
votes
Accepted
Is the offspring of an elf and a half-elf an elf or a half-elf?
XGtE suggests that you are free to make it up.
Ideas, not rules (XGtE, 61):
Even though these pages are full of tables [...] they don't make up a
rules system - in fact, the opposite is true. ...
- 19.7k
11
votes
Is half-orc and half-elf a possiblity?
Traditionally no, but it may be possible, if rare.
According to AD&D-era lore, elves cannot breed with orcs at all. In Dragon magazine #60 (April 1982), the article "The Half-Elven Point of View" ...
- 83.9k
10
votes
Accepted
After a Mark of Detection half-elf casts a spell using the Magical Detection trait, can they cast the trait's other spells before taking a long rest?
Yes, you can still use the trait to cast other spells
The spell text clearly differentiates repeatedly between the trait and the spells that are cast with it. If it intended to exclude any use of the ...
- 1,024
9
votes
Sleep's hp total and (half-) elf targets
By my reading of the RAW (Half-)Elves would indeed 1: Be affected by the spell, thereby 2: Have their HP substracted from the total (on their "turn") and 3: Not actually fall asleep. This is because ...
- 142
9
votes
History and Lore of Elves
Your best bet is the published books. If you don't already have it, the Players Handbook has the basic history/lore for the races.
If you've got a bit more cash-to-splash, you can pick up the Sword ...
- 1,855
9
votes
How many proficiencies and languages does a noble half-elf Knowledge Domain cleric start with?
The instructions for building a character and how proficiency bonuses are applied are detailed in the Player's Handbook, Chapter 1: Step by Step Characters.
The specifics relevant to your particular ...
- 83.9k
7
votes
Accepted
What does an Aquatic Half-Elf Variant mean?
"Aquatic Elves" are Sea Elves; therefore, "Aquatic Half-Elves" are half-Sea Elves
The half-elf variant was first published in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (SCAG), which was ...
- 79.7k
7
votes
Is the offspring of an elf and a half-elf an elf or a half-elf?
Probably an Elf
The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (the 5e Forgotten Realms sourcebook) does't specify but the 1e FR Campaign Set has this to say (on page 47 of the Cyclopedia).
Half-elves may ...
- 23.3k
6
votes
How many proficiencies and languages does a noble half-elf Knowledge Domain cleric start with?
8 skills and 6 languages
You can get skill proficiencies from your race, class, subclass, and background.
Race
The half-elf race gets the Skill Versatility trait, which lets you choose two skills to ...
- 50.2k
6
votes
Accepted
To what extent are half-breeds treated as humans?
They can take any race-restricted character option
As pointed out in this answer, in Pathfinder, most half-breeds of humans are also treated members of both parent races, and thus, also treated as ...
- 61.6k
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