Post/Author/DateTime	Post
romeo_longsword 07-13-06, 04:11 PM	Typically, they say an elf is not consider as an adult till the age of 110. Say even if he has been peacefully living in a forest, there are surely some danger within, and for 110 years, if you have faced enough of that, you would gain some experience, and from it, how do you logically explain that the 110 adult elf is a level 1 with 1 exp?
Ensjak 07-13-06, 10:34 PM	Well, just think about what a human learns in his/her first 16-22 years of living. Now imagine a culture that's supposed to be 5 times more refined and complicated. BAM 22*5=110. Ta-da! Seriously though, an elf that's 110 is supposed to be just as sheltered as a human in his late teens and early twenties. They spend 110 years being educated and learning the intricacies of their culture. That's why in the PHB it says that half-elves never truly grasp the elven language and culture as well as full elves do because they don't have a long enough childhood to learn everything. Now, if you were any other race or raised by any other race and you were only level 1 by 110, I'd say you have some 'splainin' to do.
Uberwoot 07-14-06, 03:15 AM	I have an additional insight into this matter that comes partly at the hands of Races of the Wild. It is interesting to note that, until roughly the age of 15, elven and human children of comparable age are similarly developed, physically and mentally. Elves reach their full physical growth at about the age of 25; the aforementioned book says that "the random starting age for elves is simply the age at which many elf adventurers feel ready to leave their forests and roam for the first time." Thus, an elf could be any age over 25 and be fully grown- though probably not fully mentally developed. Elves are a very ponderous race, and greatly value the slow road. The way I view elven society, it is probably true that children are brought up being taught to learn things extremely slowly. When learning a task, the elf sticks to the basics until those are mastered, then moves on to the next simplest step; this presents the elven apprentice with a slow but thorough learning that is engrained into the mind. Also, the elf will spend a great deal of time planning each step in his training. Additionally, this shows in the way they develop relationships. They spend great amounts of time intimating themselves with their family, their peers, their elders, and their home (be that the wild or a great elven city). Just a thought, anyway. /Woot
Wyrmul 07-14-06, 06:58 PM	To steal a line, "She'll be ready to become an apprentice soon. Then, in thirty or forty years, she'll take her place among the artisans..." This is truest with the elves. A human will be satisfied with knowing that this much iron, thise much coke, at this much temperature makes decent steel. An elf on the otherhand will be much more careful and thorough, what kind of iron, what kind of coke, in what purities, whith what fuel for the fire, etc. In alot of ways I see them as very Japanese in style, both cultures seem to be very OCD to me. More focused on the process that produces the product than on the product itself.
Fithero 07-16-06, 12:04 AM	Yeah... i was never a fan of the whole "elves start when they are 110" because it would go something like this- 'A human and an elf are born on the same day and are best of childhood friends, they do everything together. On his 20th birthday, the human is carrying the (still infant) elf around in his arms and says to him "What happened to you man? You used to be cool!"' I just believe that its pretty poor to think that it takes an elf 110 years to grow mentally or physically. So in my games we've made it that the lowest age an elf can start adventuring is 20 (+ whatever age mod the class adds). Same with all the other races. Later
Omya 07-16-06, 02:07 AM	A man and a dog were born on the same day, at a few months old the dog thinks: 'How come that stupid human cant even feed itself, walk or do neat tricks like I can, all it does is dribble, cry and lay around in its own **** until a larger human tends to it....' At age seven the human says to the dog: 'Ha! You cant even open windows, read books and you stink and your nearly dead - so there...' Thats kind of like elves and humans. :)
MasterOfPsychic 07-17-06, 11:50 PM	Except that the elf and the human are equal in prowess at grown up ages, save that the elf lives longer...
Omya 07-18-06, 04:37 AM	Except that the elf and the human are equal in prowess at grown up ages, save that the elf lives longer... Equal at what? (Maybe at fighting skill) an adolescent (level one) human and an elf will be about equal but thats just for game balance, think about the other non-crunch things, read a few fey-inspired books or graphic novels to get into the elven/fey/otherworldly/alien mindset of an elf. The level one human just wont get the sweet song on the breeze on hilltide night and silently muse over the meaning this could have and the human definatly wont understand how ironic is is when the butterflies fly thrice round the lilly as the sun dawns. Yes the human may know how to swing a sword and kill an orc (or even the elf) but the elf can hold his longsword in a perfectly beautful syle that is a subtle prayer to the Seldarine and mocks lolth at the same time (its mostly in the splaying of the fingers in the left hand and the exhale of breath as your eyes dart down on the front stroke). If you are playing your elves as just humans with pointed ears something is not right. Elves take longer to develop because they are not human, they are something else, they feel a deep connection to nature and their surroundings, they have a sixth sense and feel a wider range of emotions, have a richer culture and a very complex yet subtle way of living, they arnt in a rush or mortal like humans are. If you want more information on roleplaying an elf check out The Book of Elves (2nd Ed). :) Races of the Wild isnt the greatest book for elves IMO.
Wyrmul 07-18-06, 04:50 AM	It all comes back to levels of deliberateness. Is that even a word? How typicly human of me just slap on some letters to get my meaning across. If I were more elven I would have used excogitating ;) In an elven society there is no concept of "close enough for government work". They have time to acheive perfection. Why speed along making crude and unfinished work? A little extra time an effort, say a decade or so, and the door will never stick regardless of humidity. (Can you tell I just replased three external doors that have warped over the years). Or for a fantasy genre example, a human would write a fantasy novel and come up with a good sounding language as he went. A more elven personality would spend 15+ years creating a language and then write fantasy novels about it (5 points to the first one who can get the refference)
AGM Illmater 07-20-06, 02:32 PM	Sounds like Tolkein to me.
Dell Kallyan 07-20-06, 03:01 PM	Elves can certainly start adventuring early at the DM's discretion. I think we once had a 50 year old elf character who wasn't at the village the day the orcs decided to destroy her village. An elf who has physically grown up can be forced to mature a bit faster by drastic events, just like teenager humans. The elves spend those 110 years learning their language, customs, but most likely they just spend their time pursuing a hobby of some sort. I like to imagine it as being a kid, what did I do with all my spare time in the summer while not at school? Now, spend 100 years doing that instead of a summer. Elves can start adventuring early, but they'd need a really good reason, not just because they are 'curious and want to see the world for themselves!' They need some really powerful personal motivation to actually start adventuring early.
LuckyLeprechaun 07-20-06, 10:53 PM	Now, if you were any other race or raised by any other race and you were only level 1 by 110, I'd say you have some 'splainin' to do. I know this is only a minor thing, but honestly, no matter what race you are it's perfectly logical for you be 110 and level 1. For an example, lets look at the classic NPC, the level 1 commoner. Are all level 1 commoners the same? No, they are all sorts of races, sizes... and ages. The average person never really advances to even second level commoner. Now, we apply the same thing to a level 1 anything. You have a 90 year old level 1 wizard, unusual? Sure, does he have some "'splainin' to do"? Not really. It is perfectly logical for a wizard to spend his life locked up in his house doing weird experiments, while never going outside and killing creatures for Exp. Even a level 1 human fighter who serves as a guard could possibly never actually have much to do on his shifts, at least not enough to get him 1000 exp. Sorry, just caught my eye. EDIT: I suppose you could apply the same idea to elves, they just don't leave to adventure for awhile. They could be physically and mentally adult, but maybe the elves have a ritual or something to finally become an adult and be allowed to leave. I don't know, I never really liked the whole age thing with elves, it really is mostly just a suggested age. If you don't like that age, don't use it, really can be solved pretty easily. Lucky
Puskara 07-23-06, 10:48 AM	I always assumed it went something like this: 1-25 Years Old - Grow to physical maturity 25-110 Years Old - Have kinky elf sex 110-? Years Old - Become a bit senile and start thinking that getting crushed by a giant or eaten by a dragon is more interesting that kinky elf sex :D Puskara
Kendrik 07-24-06, 03:40 PM	Elven society is famous for taking the long view. No one is ever in a hurry, because there is always more time. They take longer to learn things because noone expects them to start a family at 14. Human-You busy? Elf-I've got nothing going on at the moment. Human-Cool! Want to go adventuring for a while? Elf-Sounds good! Just let me plant this field and harvest it real quick, and I'll be right there!