Half-elf (Dungeons & Dragons)

Gary Gygax originally claimed Dungeons & Dragons elves draw very little from J. R. R. Tolkien's version of the elf. However, multiple academics have argued that aspects of elves and half-elves in Dungeons & Dragons are directly traceable to Tolkien's portrayal. Alluding to a 1977 cease-and-desist order, Wired wrote that "D&D cocreator Gary Gygax’s nods toward fantasy forefather Tolkien—including elves, dwarves, halflings (hobbits), and orcs—were so obvious that Tolkien Enterprises threatened to take copyright action." And in 2000, reports the Strong National Museum of Play, Gygax "stated that the Tolkien works had a 'strong impact' on the development of Dungeons & Dragons". Michael J. Tresca, in the book The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games (2014), wrote that before Tolkien's work, "the most modern depiction of elves that would influence the fantasy genre was Lord Dunsany's novel ''The King of Elfland's Daughter'' (1924)" which "firmly establishes that elves can breed with humans (more echoes of half-elves)" and "elven women in particular as something to be greatly desired by human men". ==Publication history==

Original Dungeons & Dragons The half-elf first appeared as a player character race in the Greyhawk supplement to the original 1974 edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition The half-elf appeared as a player character race in the original ''Player's Handbook (1978). The half-elf also appeared in the original Monster Manual (1977). The half-elves of the Dragonlance setting were detailed in Dragonlance Adventures'' (1987). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition The half-elf appeared as a character race in the second edition ''Player's Handbook (1989). The half-elf also appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989), and Monstrous Manual (1993). Options for the half-elf character race were presented in Player's Option: Skills & Powers (1995). The planar half-elf for the Planescape setting was detailed in The Planewalker's Handbook (1996). The half-breed aquatic elf for the Forgotten Realms setting appeared in Sea of Fallen Stars'' (1999). Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition The half-elf appeared as a character race in the third edition ''Player's Handbook (2000), and Monster Manual (2000), and in the 3.5 revised Player's Handbook and Monster Manual (2003). The half-human elf was presented in the 3.5 revised Dungeon Master's Guide (2003). Half-elves, including half-aquatic elf and half-drow, were detailed for the Forgotten Realms setting in Races of Faerûn (2003). The aquatic half-elf, the arctic half-elf, the desert half-elf, the fire half-elf, the jungle half-elf, and the half-elf paragon were detailed in Unearthed Arcana'' (2004). Half-elves in the Eberron campaign setting are also known as the khoravar. The madborn half-elf of the Eberron setting appeared in Five Nations (2005). The aquatic half-elf appeared again in Stormwrack (2005). The deepwyrm half-drow appeared in Dragon Magic (2006). Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition The half-elf appeared as a character race in the fourth edition ''Player's Handbook (2008) and the Essentials rulebook Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms (2010). They were also featured in the March 2010 article "Winning Races: Half-Elves" in the magazine Dragon'' #385. Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition The half-elf appeared as a character race in the fifth edition ''Player's Handbook (2014); the half-elf and half-orc were the only two supported mixed ancestries in the core rulebook. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (2020) included updated options for player character races – in the Player's Handbook, the half-elf received an automatic bonus to the Charisma ability while Tasha's included the option to decouple pre-determined ability scores from race choice. The edition also includes variant options with different mechanical benefits depending on the specific elven ancestry, such as aquatic, drow, high-elf, or wood-elf. In August 2022, Wizards of the Coast launched the One D&D public playtest to update Dungeons & Dragons''. The first playtest document removed the option of distinct rules for half-elves and half-orcs and replaced it with rules for mixed parentage where a player selects mechanical traits from one parent's race and has the choice of how their character visually appears with characteristics of both parents. The ''Player's Handbook'' (2024), as part of the 2024 revision to the 5th Edition ruleset, does not include rules for species (previously described as races) with mixed ancestry; however, the designers noted this revision to the core rules is backward compatible so players have the option of adapting the 2014 rules for half-elves and half-orcs. On this shift in design, lead designer Jeremy Crawford commented, "frankly, we are not comfortable, and haven't been for years with any of the options that start with 'half'. The half construction is inherently racist so we simply aren't going to include it in the new ''Player's Handbook''". On adding khoravar to 5th Edition, Crawford stated, "we are actually embracing Eberron's own lore by getting at the fact that the khoravar [...] have always objected to being called half-elves". ==Fictional description==

Half-elves, as their name implies, are the offspring of humans and elves. Half-elves are a subrace unto themselves, blending the features of human and elf. Half-elves look like elves to humans and like humans to elves (hence their elven description as "half-human"). They do well with elves, humans, gnomes, dwarves, and halflings, a social ease reflected in racial bonuses to the Diplomacy and Gather Information skills. In the case of conflicts between elves and humans, however, each side suspects a half-elf mediator of favoring the other. The drow despise them, referring to them as 'Mongrel half breeds'. Half-Elves have curiosity and ambitions like humans but they have sense for magic and love for nature like their elven parents. Their skin is paler than human skin and they are taller and bigger than elves. Half-Elves have long ears like elves. They live about 180 years. Campaign settings The main character of the initial Dragonlance series, Tanis Half-Elven, is a half-elf, as his name implies. In the Eberron campaign setting, half-elves (also known as khoravar) consider themselves a separate people from humans and elves both and "breed true"; they bear the dragonmarks of Storm and Detection. Wargamer highlighted that "the Khoravar are technically distinct from the Half-Elves of the Forgotten Realms setting. They were apparently originally descended from humans and elves, but they evolved to become a species of their own". == Reception ==

Gus Wezerek, for FiveThirtyEight, reported that of the 5th Edition "class and race combinations per 100,000 characters that players created on D&D Beyond from" August 15 to September 15, 2017, half-elves were the third most created at 10,454 total, preceded by elves (16,443) and humans (25,248). The three most popular class combinations with the half-elf were bard (1,808), warlock (1,401) and rogue (1,325). Wezerek noted "some of the common character choices can be explained by the game's structure of racial bonuses". Josh Williams of Screen Rant stated that "half-elves are popular because they're a great choice for those wanting to play as a fantasy race without stepping too far away from humanity". Williams commented that "half-elves struggle to fit in" when growing up but "thanks to being born of two worlds, half-elves are perfect for players wishing to be the charismatic diplomat of the group". They highlighted that in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st and 2nd editions, elves had a 90% chance to resist certain spells, whereas half-elves had a 30% chance; "inversely, some traits of elven parentage" are fully inherited and half-elves have a broader range of class options, similar but not to the same extent as humans. Carpenter opined that by explicitly incorporating "halfway-between racial categories", Dungeons & Dragons implies that a blend "of elven or orc blood with human (for human is always the referent of the unspecified 'half') constitutes something wholly distinct from its parent races" and this notion reinforces the boundaries of the "pure" and "unmixed" races, thereby supporting "a doctrine of racial difference". Byrd commented that these races "are notable for being specifically outlined during the character creation process in many versions of the game", however, Dungeons & Dragons is moving away from having these two as distinct races. Homes believed that part of the current revisions "applied to race, half races, and the drow" are a reflection of the "longstanding tensions in gaming spaces. They also reflect the extent to which audience approaches toward narrative subjects change over time". Law also noted that some players are "not satisfied with" proposed rule changes in the August 2022 One D&D playtest document and that "while assigning special stats to mixed heritage characters was always a little strange," the playtest alternative where players choose a single parent "to determine traits feels wrong, especially since Dungeons and Dragons is trying to be more racially-sensitive. These fans think doing so erases the impact of their character's heritage, and undermines the spirit and importance of what coming from multiple ethnicities means for both real and fictional people". Jenny Melzer of CBR also noted how this change was considered controversial but argued that this design shift by Wizards of the Coast "will actually improve gameplay options while moving the game forward in its quest for greater inclusivity" and that it "opens things up for cultural blending across all species in the game, no longer limiting it to orcs and elves". == References ==