Elves

Game Mechanics Summary: Base Movement of 12//, base AC of 10, chaotically aligned in most cases, low-light vision, bow mastery, stealth and hear-noise bonuses, long-lived, weak against empathic attacks.

In the tradition of Tolkien, Elves are very tall and handsome creatures, standing, on average, 6'4". They tend to have brown or auburn hair and eyes of green or hazel. They have slimmer build than their human counterparts, and their ears fluted as opposed to rounded, like in humans.

Elves are hearty outdoors types who believe in coexisting with, as opposed to conquering, nature. Because of their strong links with nature, they tend to be a bit anemic in their supernatural beliefs, thinking that which cannot be seen or touched is unimportant. 

Text Box: Prejudice is a funny thing.  In the ancient days, a rich man hated a poor, and a Northern hated a Southern.  Light skins hated dark skins,, and just about every religion hated each other.    "Then the Great Cataclysm came, and all Humans were equal in each others eyes, for now Elves, Dwarves, and Changelings came.  For a while man hated the Changed Ones, for jealousy burned for God touched the Changed.  And the Elves and Dwarves still war against one another.   "Finally, we Fey came, and man truly knew fear.  And what man fears, he hates.  We Fey were enslaved, murdered, and ostracized.  'Demon', you called us.    "Now man has accepted us too.    "Indeed, prejudice is a strange thing with man.  What he once feared, he now tolerates, and what he now tolerates, he may someday think of as equal."   --- Indigo Jalaqua, Fey Sociologist.

Elves are a reclusive lot, and rarely venture out of the forests they inhabit. They live in small, loosely knit nomadic societies. Non-Elven adventurers should be forewarned that Elves tend to think themselves vastly superior to other races. This air of superiority, combined with their xenophobia, has provoked many a war against the Elves. This has only served as reinforcement for their reclusive ways. 

Elven societies tend to have fully neutral (or Apathetic) alignment although individual elves may possess any alignment.

It is known that Elves can see in ways that a Human cannot. The eyes of an Elf are much more sensitive to dim light than a human's. This is due to the high density of light-sensitive rods that make up the Elven retina. Thus an Elf can see adequately in all but the blackest night, which translates in game terms to a +4 bonus versus any low-light penalties, so long as the darkness is not complete or supernaturally caused. This gift does not come without a price. An Elf faces a -1 penalty to any save versus light-based attacks.

One of the useful Elven abilities is their skill at blending in with their natural surroundings. In a heavily forested area, an Elf can attempt to move without being seen. An Elf player character attempting to move without being seen has a 20% chance of success. This power has a similar has an effect similar to the innate power Camouflage. If an Elf happens to be an Investigator (or related subclass) or any character class that uses Stealth, the Elves’ innate power of Stealth is cumulative with any Stealth capabilities granted by the character class.

An Elf also has superior hearing. Perhaps it is the shape of their ears that give them such a formidable perception of sound. In any event an Elf has an innate hear noise rating of 30%. This is roughly twice the human norm. This is not to say that an Elf can hear things from farther away, but instead can hear things at normal distance better. Thus their hearing bonus is more akin to a magnifying glass than a telescope.

One final note on Elves: they have managed to take bow crafting and hunting to an art form. Any bow created by an Elf is by nature +1 to hit. Additionally an Elf using any kind of bow (other than crossbow) hits at +1 to hit. Finally, an elf using a bow that he has personally crafted can shoot at +3 to hit. Their hunting proficiency checks function at +2. 

Elves are the product of genetic engineering whose purpose was to extend the normal Human life span. While the overall goal of the experimentation was successful, the product was a race of tall, spindly people who don't care much about anything and cannot interbreed with normal Humans. An Elf can expect to live for 420 years. An Elf's apathetic ways leave it the most vulnerable of the five races to empathic attack: their resistance is a mere 5%.