A combination of human curiosity and elven knowledge, half-elves are arguably one of the most popular races among Dungeons & Dragons players — and, ultimately, one of the most powerful. With their versatility, highlighted by their human and elven lineages, they can maximize the power of several character builds.
As such, it is important for players to consider all variables when crafting their perfect half-elf to best fit their desired play-style (creating a new character can be very imposing for players, after all). From choosing the best class or variant, to understanding and optimizing all racial traits for game-time calls, utilizing the arsenal that half-elves have will prove to make these eternal wanderers a powerhouse for strategic players.
10 Utilize Ability Score Bonuses
Half-elves add a +2 to charisma — something that tieflings and aasimars also do. The difference, however, is that half-elves receive an additional bonus to two other ability scores, each increasing by one, respectively. This means that the half-elf is multifaceted enough to fit any charisma-based class, while ensuring other ability scores aren’t neglected.
If a player chose a charisma-based class, such as paladins, they would have the additional ability score improvement to strengthen other important abilities, like strength or constitution, while still capitalizing on charisma. Knowing this, it’s best to avoid wasting this unique ability on classes that don’t require high charisma.
9 Make Relevant Background Choices
The easiest way to initiate great role-playing opportunities in D&D is with a fleshed-out background. Therefore, creating a strong background concept for your half-elf can help hone your character voice and secure an important role in your Dungeon Master’s story. More than anything, having an established background is an easy way for a player to get to know their own character better.
One easy starting point for a background is to lean into half-elves’ duality; they’re not entirely one or the other, able to simultaneously fit in everywhere and belong nowhere. Perhaps they’re a soldier who only knows their diplomatic, snobbish father, and is on an eternal quest to find their missing human mother.
8 Enlighten Yourself On Racial Traits
Half-elves come equipped with many useful racial traits, and knowing them will prove useful when certain situations arise. Darkvision allows them to see 60 feet into darkness, which can be used for leading dungeon and cave-crawling expeditions. Fey Ancestry, granted from a half-elf’s elven side, allows the player advantage on saving throws against being charmed; moreover, the player cannot be put to sleep by magic.
The most potentially impactful racial trait is Skill Versatility, which is great for skill-hungry players as it allows two additional skill proficiencies. Players who combine this with certain classes and feats could have a half-elf with skill proficiencies across the board (and ultimately be a DM’s worst nightmare).
7 Lean Into Language Use
Being part human and elf, half-elves can speak, read, and write in both Common and Elvish. Additionally, they can also speak, read, and write in one additional language of the player’s choice, which is a surprisingly useful tool to have in a player’s back pocket.
In a situation where the party is interrogating a captive enemy, the DM could thwart their plans by simply deciding the captive speaks a language no one in the party understands. While this could be negated by the spell Comprehend Languages (one of many incredibly handy spells in the game), skillful players may prepare for this by asking the DM which languages are most common in their world and selecting one during character creation. This language array could also be strategically used for talking in front of the DM’s NPCs in a language shared only by party members.
6 Half-Elves And Party Compositions
It’s important to remember that party compositions go beyond combat strategy (and can make for a tricky problem to solve). In a game like D&D, players should also know their position from a role-playing perspective. Depending on the chosen class, a half-elf could prove to be an effective “party face,” the person responsible for speaking to potential allies or other random NPCs.
Considering how high a high-elf’s charisma can be, they have the best chance of persuading strangers or giving the performance of their life (something that could save the party in a lot of situations). Know, however, that the dice have a story to tell, and if that means a failed persuasion check, play off of this and continue to be the charismatic half-elf the party knows and (perhaps reluctantly) loves.
5 Know The Best Spellcaster Classes For High-Elves…
Three spellcasting classes that optimize the half-elf’s abilities are bards, sorcerers, and warlocks. Each class uses charisma for their spellcasting ability, and also use charisma modifiers for actions like making spell attack rolls. It’s recommended that if a player chooses any of these classes, the two additional ability score increases go towards dexterity and constitution. Setting charisma, dexterity, and constitution as the strongest ability scores will make any half-elf spellcaster adaptable enough to suit any build.
For role-playing, the bard fits particularly well with the half-elf’s ability score variety, and can optimize many charisma-based proficiencies for tricky bard-centric skills like performance and deception. Similarly, sorcerers have proficiency in and can employ many charisma-based skills, such as deception, intimidation, and persuasion.
4 …As Well As The Best Melee Classes
Being both a spellcaster and melee class, paladins are the perfect marriage for half-elves. These divine warriors similarly use charisma for their spellcasting ability, and could benefit from pumping their strength score for melee attacks with the extra ability score increase. Causing both physical and magical damage, the paladin’s versatility perfectly aligns with half-elves’ versatility.
For anyone wanting to dump their expertise into as many skills as possible, playing as a half-elf rogue would allow for the best skill proficiency variety. With Skill Versatility, and depending on background, a half-elf rogue could start with more than 8 skill proficiencies. Moreover, using the half-elf feat Elven Accuracy combined with sneak attack rolls would increase the chance for Nat 20s exponentially.
3 Choosing A Potential Variant
Variants grant half-elves racial traits in exchange for the Skill Versatility trait. While the loss of those extra skill proficiencies may seem daunting, this may prove beneficial for other classes. Warlocks, for example, may find the drow half-elf variant useful, combining acquired spells like Darkness with the warlock’s Eldritch Invocation Devil’s Sight.
Players looking to create the perfect storm may choose the Mark of Storm variant from Eberron: Rising from the Last War for their half-elf sorcerer (a potentially very strong build). This keeps the +2 to charisma but adds +1 to dexterity, and allows access to a whole array of storm-based spells — the most useful of which being conjuration spells. Generally speaking, variants can boil down to character choices and background, but should be chosen with class optimization in mind.
2 Don’t Forget About Feats
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything introduced two useful feats for half-elves. As previously mentioned, Elven Accuracy is a tremendously powerful feat that, when paired with a powerful rogue build, could increase the percentage of Nat 20s hit to a dangerous amount.
The second feat, Prodigy, adds another skill proficiency to the half-elf’s arsenal and doubles the proficiency of a skill the player is already proficient in.
1 Capitalize On Chaotic Choices
At the end of the day, fans are playing D&D to have a good time. So naturally, abiding by the half-elf’s innate chaotic tendencies is a perfect way to exploit the fun. With their mixture of human naïvety and elven aloofness, half-elves are the perfect recipe for any player looking to make spontaneous choices and fully commit to out-of-the-box solutions. This mentality perfectly aligns with being chaotic neutral or chaotic good, which are arguably both entertaining and helpful for party dynamics.
Ultimately, half-elves are meant to be adventurers with a sense of wonder and freedom, which lends itself well to being a chaotic character that is both enjoyable to play as and play with.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply