So, l just bought the Player bundle, and was excited to see that it came with some breeds of half elfs (drow, sea, high, and wood). However, despite the fact that one of their racial abilitys says "A half-elf of _______ descent can forgo Skill Versatility and instead choose (Ability/s of parent's elven breed)", I don't get a choice. If l want to use the skill Versatility, l have to use the base Half-Elf.
Could you please fix this, by making there be a actual option to choose between Skill versatility and the special feature for each of the breeds?
Edit:I know it's possible, cause half woodelfs have the option to choose 1 of 3 wood elf racial traits. This would just add a 4th to them, and add a choice for the others. It shouldn't be hard to fix, and would be of great benefit to all half elf users. (Because why should we have to spend our time homebrewing a special version of each breed, when a dndbeyond staff member can quickly do the exact same thing, but have it officially fix the issue for everyone)
Mechanically speaking, there is no difference between a “base” Half-Elf and any of the Half elf variants who choose to retain Skill Versatility. There is only a mechanical difference if one forgoes skill versatility for another feature. Because of this, I don’t see the need to allow a variant half elf to choose skill versatility; in point of fact it would go against the way variant races work to do so.
To put it another way: if I want to play a half-elf whose elven parent was an aquatic elf, but I want to retain Skill Versatility and not have a swimming speed, all I need to do is to choose the “base” Half-Elf and note in my back story that my elven parent was an aquatic/sea elf. I can even decide that some of my character’s physical attributes look more like an aquatic/sea elf than a wood or high elf.
That said, am I missing something in what you want to do?
Mechanically speaking, there is no difference between a “base” Half-Elf and any of the Half elf variants who choose to retain Skill Versatility. There is only a mechanical difference if one forgoes skill versatility for another feature. Because of this, I don’t see the need to allow a variant half elf to choose skill versatility; in point of fact it would go against the way variant races work to do so.
To put it another way: if I want to play a half-elf whose elven parent was an aquatic elf, but I want to retain Skill Versatility and not have a swimming speed, all I need to do is to choose the “base” Half-Elf and note in my back story that my elven parent was an aquatic/sea elf. I can even decide that some of my character’s physical attributes look more like an aquatic/sea elf than a wood or high elf.
That said, am I missing something in what you want to do?
No, you're completely right, It's just the matter of having "(Drow) Half-Elf" as your race, rather then "Half-Elf, Who by the way is half drow."
I know there's no mechanical difference, It's a matter of aesthetic, and let's you be upfront about your heritage. "Half-Elf" Could be anything, but youcan get a good idea of what you're getting (flavor wise) when the sheet says "(High) Half-Elf".
Or in another words, it would be nice to be "a (Wood) Half-Elf with Skill versatility" Rather then "a Half-Elf who's backstory says they had a wood elven parent"
Ah, i see. One way to approach that is to make a homebrew copy of the half-elf and rename it.
Yeah, but why should each of us have to make a homebrew to fix a error on the websites part? The racial traits specifically say that the half elf breed can choose to replace the skill with a elven trait, but it's currently mandatory, which shouldn't be the case. And if it's something we can homebrew, it should be able to be fixed in a afternoon by one of the D&DBeyond staff.
Ah, i see. One way to approach that is to make a homebrew copy of the half-elf and rename it.
Yeah, but why should each of us have to make a homebrew to fix a error on the websites part? The racial traits specifically say that the half elf breed can choose to replace the skill with a elven trait, but it's currently mandatory, which shouldn't be the case. And if it's something we can homebrew, it should be able to be fixed in a afternoon by one of the D&DBeyond staff.
I don’t think it’s an error. It’s how every other variant race works: the variant always has something different than the parent race. I don’t think Wizard of the Coast’s intention was to have people choose “Half-Elf Drow Variant” but be mechanically identical to the standard “half-elf.” Rather I think their intention was to say “you can be a standard half-elf (whose elven parent can be of any elven race), or you can be one of these variants, that swap out skill versatility for another feature.”
Then maybe the wording should be changed to "By choosing to be a half-elf of _______ descent you forgo Skill Versatility and instead gain (elven racial trait)".
Then maybe the wording should be changed to "By choosing to be a half-elf of _______ descent you forgo Skill Versatility and instead gain (elven racial trait)".
Agreed, but DDB can't change the wording, only WOTC can.
…but youcan get a good idea of what you're getting (flavor wise) when the sheet says "(High) Half-Elf".
Yeah, a Half-Elf who needs to lay off the blight ichor. 😂😂
Actually, it doesn’t say “(High) Helf-Elf,” it says “High Half-Elf.” To be grammatically Correct it should state either “Half-High Elf,” or “Half-Elf (High).”
Edit:I know it's possible, cause half woodelfs have the option to choose 1 of 3 wood elf racial traits. This would just add a 4th to them, and add a choice for the others. It shouldn't be hard to fix, and would be of great benefit to all half elf users. (Because why should we have to spend our time homebrewing a special version of each breed, when a dndbeyond staff member can quickly do the exact same thing, but have it officially fix the issue for everyone)
It isn’t actually that simple though because this system is not fond of features offering choices within options in the character builder. When you pick one of those three options for the half-wood elf, none of them give you a choice of proficiencies. The half-high elf has two options, and one of them does let you pick a Cantrip, but for some reason any modifiers using a subtype that contains the phrase “choose a [whatever]” don’t function when attached to an option. It gets even worse when that option is attached to a subrace or variant race for some reason. Choices nested within options nested within choices… it throws a tilt.
And to tell the truth, technically there really is no such thing as a High Half-Elf, Wood Half-Elf, Drow Half Elf, or Aquatic Half-Elf at all. Technically speaking there are just Half-Elves, and some of them
HALF-ELF VARIANTS
Some half-elves in Faerûn have a racial trait in place of the Skill Versatility trait. If your DM allows it, your half-elf character can forgo Skill Versatility and instead take the elf trait Keen Senses or a trait based on your elf parentage:
A half-elf of wood elf descent can choose….
A half-elf of moon elf or sun elf descent can choose….
A half-elf of drow descent can choose….
A half-elf of aquatic heritage can choose….
DDB had to invent the “Wood Half-Elf” to make it work in their system, in the actual book they are referred to as “half-elve[s] of moon elf or sun elf descent.”
To be accurate to RAW there should really only be Half-Elf, and then a series of choices under that single race. If DDB is likely to change anything it would be to get rid of the “Wood/High/Drow/Aquatic Half-Elf” variants entirely and just incorporate them all under “Half-Elf” since that’s the way WotC actually wrote it. They only reason they did it the way they did it in the first place was to get around the technical limitations of their software.
So, l just bought the Player bundle, and was excited to see that it came with some breeds of half elfs (drow, sea, high, and wood). However, despite the fact that one of their racial abilitys says "A half-elf of _______ descent can forgo Skill Versatility and instead choose (Ability/s of parent's elven breed)", I don't get a choice. If l want to use the skill Versatility, l have to use the base Half-Elf.
Could you please fix this, by making there be a actual option to choose between Skill versatility and the special feature for each of the breeds?
Edit:I know it's possible, cause half woodelfs have the option to choose 1 of 3 wood elf racial traits. This would just add a 4th to them, and add a choice for the others. It shouldn't be hard to fix, and would be of great benefit to all half elf users. (Because why should we have to spend our time homebrewing a special version of each breed, when a dndbeyond staff member can quickly do the exact same thing, but have it officially fix the issue for everyone)
Mechanically speaking, there is no difference between a “base” Half-Elf and any of the Half elf variants who choose to retain Skill Versatility. There is only a mechanical difference if one forgoes skill versatility for another feature. Because of this, I don’t see the need to allow a variant half elf to choose skill versatility; in point of fact it would go against the way variant races work to do so.
To put it another way: if I want to play a half-elf whose elven parent was an aquatic elf, but I want to retain Skill Versatility and not have a swimming speed, all I need to do is to choose the “base” Half-Elf and note in my back story that my elven parent was an aquatic/sea elf. I can even decide that some of my character’s physical attributes look more like an aquatic/sea elf than a wood or high elf.
That said, am I missing something in what you want to do?
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No, you're completely right, It's just the matter of having "(Drow) Half-Elf" as your race, rather then "Half-Elf, Who by the way is half drow."
I know there's no mechanical difference, It's a matter of aesthetic, and let's you be upfront about your heritage. "Half-Elf" Could be anything, but youcan get a good idea of what you're getting (flavor wise) when the sheet says "(High) Half-Elf".
Or in another words, it would be nice to be "a (Wood) Half-Elf with Skill versatility" Rather then "a Half-Elf who's backstory says they had a wood elven parent"
Ah, i see. One way to approach that is to make a homebrew copy of the half-elf and rename it.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
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Yeah, but why should each of us have to make a homebrew to fix a error on the websites part? The racial traits specifically say that the half elf breed can choose to replace the skill with a elven trait, but it's currently mandatory, which shouldn't be the case. And if it's something we can homebrew, it should be able to be fixed in a afternoon by one of the D&DBeyond staff.
I don’t think it’s an error. It’s how every other variant race works: the variant always has something different than the parent race. I don’t think Wizard of the Coast’s intention was to have people choose “Half-Elf Drow Variant” but be mechanically identical to the standard “half-elf.” Rather I think their intention was to say “you can be a standard half-elf (whose elven parent can be of any elven race), or you can be one of these variants, that swap out skill versatility for another feature.”
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
Then maybe the wording should be changed to "By choosing to be a half-elf of _______ descent you forgo Skill Versatility and instead gain (elven racial trait)".
Agreed, but DDB can't change the wording, only WOTC can.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
Yeah, a Half-Elf who needs to lay off the blight ichor. 😂😂
Actually, it doesn’t say “(High) Helf-Elf,” it says “High Half-Elf.” To be grammatically Correct it should state either “Half-High Elf,” or “Half-Elf (High).”
Jokes, grammar irritations, and banter aside:
It isn’t actually that simple though because this system is not fond of features offering choices within options in the character builder. When you pick one of those three options for the half-wood elf, none of them give you a choice of proficiencies. The half-high elf has two options, and one of them does let you pick a Cantrip, but for some reason any modifiers using a subtype that contains the phrase “choose a [whatever]” don’t function when attached to an option. It gets even worse when that option is attached to a subrace or variant race for some reason. Choices nested within options nested within choices… it throws a tilt.
And to tell the truth, technically there really is no such thing as a High Half-Elf, Wood Half-Elf, Drow Half Elf, or Aquatic Half-Elf at all. Technically speaking there are just Half-Elves, and some of them
DDB had to invent the “Wood Half-Elf” to make it work in their system, in the actual book they are referred to as “half-elve[s] of moon elf or sun elf descent.”
To be accurate to RAW there should really only be Half-Elf, and then a series of choices under that single race. If DDB is likely to change anything it would be to get rid of the “Wood/High/Drow/Aquatic Half-Elf” variants entirely and just incorporate them all under “Half-Elf” since that’s the way WotC actually wrote it. They only reason they did it the way they did it in the first place was to get around the technical limitations of their software.
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