Hate is such an overused term these days, that it has lost much of the impact that the word deserves. Enough on that; one of my pet peeves.
As a DM, I have no problem using them as NPCs. As a player, I have never once played one, or a 1/2-elf for that matter. The folk just don't ring with me, like some others do. I'm very happy not playing them.
I hate how mundane and boring the elves are. They're literally just humans with pointy ears. Trouble is that as a player race, they really cannot be as magical and interesting as I'd like them to be - for which reason they're not in my games (a player race, that is).
That gives me the space to do something with the elves: They're universally powerful spell casters (like, they're not even remotely fair), they live for as long as they can be bothered (barring untimely end at the end of a spear), their beauty makes mirrors crack, they are legendary in every way - undergrowth bends to let them pass, nature provides food if they're hungry, they have no trade or production, every elf item is a unique (and propably magical) work of art. Also, they're famously, notoriously cold, wicked and calculating.
Also, they're just barely not quite extinct yet, I believe the game world in question has ... 5 that I recall.
I present the elves as the archtypical old wives tale - too powerful, too 'special' for any adult to believe in. People will laugh at you for thinking the elves were ever real, 'oh, do you believe in dragons too, har har har!'
Humans of the world in question are rather pigheaded in their disbelief. They'll look at elven ruins, laugh with derison, and claim it must be some ancient human tribe. Of course, certain scholars know the elves were real, there are books and paintings and tapestries and various artifacts. Anyways, yea, I have elves as presented in the PHB.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Have you tried eladrin before? They are the most colorful elves out there, and they can change style and fashion once every long rest. Their fey step is also pretty fun. The legacy version can fey step every short/long rest (better for lower level campaigns) , while the current one can fey step based on PB that recharge on long rest (better for higher level campaigns). There is also the DMG version eladrin, which is basically the legacy eladrin with super bland fey step, but they have elf weapon training as compensation for being boring (which is not really worth it in my opinion).
I hate how mundane and boring the elves are. They're literally just humans with pointy ears.
And dwarves are just stocky humans with beards, orcs are just humans with large teeth, and dragonborn are just humans with scales, etcetera etcetera.
All races need to be approximately balanced in 5e so they're all valid picks for players. Ergo, you can't get Tolkien/Paolini-esque "ancient and superior race" elements hard coded into them. Two of the three PHB subraces already have innate spellcasting; it's not massive, but in D&D terms that's fairly exceptional all on its own. It's not a flaw in the writing for elves to not be a tier above mere mortals in D&D, it's a deliberate design choice to keep them accessible and balanced. Plus WotC has sadly started moving away from giving us good write-ups of a race's societal structure in a given setting anymore, which also contributes to the feeling of sameness.
Now, that said, if you want to run your campaign differently, that's your prerogative, although purely as a personal take I find the various permutations of "elves are better" to be rather overdone by this point, both in the aforementioned "older, wiser, and better race" sense and the "race of magical sociopaths" sense of Pratchett and similar works. Anymore, I find the more grounded portrayals more engaging. Just a personal take though, not a criticism of your approach.
Have you tried eladrin before? They are the most colorful elves out there, and they can change style and fashion once every long rest. Their fey step is also pretty fun. The legacy version can fey step every short/long rest (better for lower level campaigns) , while the current one can fey step based on PB that recharge on long rest (better for higher level campaigns). There is also the DMG version eladrin, which is basically the legacy eladrin with super bland fey step, but they have elf weapon training as compensation for being boring (which is not really worth it in my opinion).
Oh, I play elves (occasionally) in other people's games. It's not that.
But as a GM, I like my fantasy races to be truly and surely ... wild, different, not mistakable for humans with longer ears. So my elves are this thing (evil, powerful, technically extinct), and my dwarves are another, and so on. I never use anything premade. I ... well, I mean, there'll be gnolls and goblins and what not, but they'll be different from anything you could look up. Similar stat blocks, perhaps. Different cultures, tactics, abilities (in terms of .. gnolls are masterful skirmishers, using terrain, ranged weapons, traps, tamed beasts and so on - goblins are ingenious little bastards, their lairs hellish pits of traps and defensive installations and crossfire of poisoned crossbow bolts, and it's simply much easier to trade with them than to try and fight them - and so on).
I read Tolkien at age 11 (and forward a few years, they're big books) and I was enthralled. Totally. But the pictures I have of the elves are nothing compared to what they are presented as in the books. So, over the years, I changed that. But what I changed it into isn't really .... a player race =)
It's also not Tolkien, by even the wildest stretch.
And dwarves are just stocky humans with beards, orcs are just humans with large teeth, and dragonborn are just humans with scales, etcetera etcetera.
All races need to be approximately balanced in 5e so they're all valid picks for players. Ergo, you can't get Tolkien/Paolini-esque "ancient and superior race" elements hard coded into them. Two of the three PHB subraces already have innate spellcasting; it's not massive, but in D&D terms that's fairly exceptional all on its own. It's not a flaw in the writing for elves to not be a tier above mere mortals in D&D, it's a deliberate design choice to keep them accessible and balanced. Plus WotC has sadly started moving away from giving us good write-ups of a race's societal structure in a given setting anymore, which also contributes to the feeling of sameness.
Now, that said, if you want to run your campaign differently, that's your prerogative, although purely as a personal take I find the various permutations of "elves are better" to be rather overdone by this point, both in the aforementioned "older, wiser, and better race" sense and the "race of magical sociopaths" sense of Pratchett and similar works. Anymore, I find the more grounded portrayals more engaging. Just a personal take though, not a criticism of your approach.
I know all that. I even said so: You can't play the elves.
I'm not saying I succeed at everything. I'm a so-so game master. I'm horrible at combat, but I delude myself that I'm actually really, really good at fluff, story, background, all the wishy-washy soft stuff that's basically just language.
So what I'm going for is a sense of wonder and mystery. I tell the players that elves are an old wives tale - no one takes that stuff seriously. But as you approach Madripor, you can see the tall tower right at it's center. Once inside the city, that tower cannot be found anywhere.
If anyone digs deeply enough, they'll find rumors that the city was built around an old elf tower - but then, some long but unknown time ago, that tower disappeared.
People will make up various stories to explain the truth they can plainly see: Oh, that's just the bell tower on the cathedral - it looks much taller from afar.
And so on. It's just one small story (among dozens, just in Madripor), and it's not like it should be any wild revelation to anyone who plays RPG's.
But my elves are different (and you can't play them), my dwarves are different (and you can't play them either). My orcs are different, but playable, because I haven't given them any super powers, just a real and workable culture and a place in the world beyond random raiders and cannon fodder.
And now I sound like the most restrictive GM ever - and maybe I am, but if so, that's fine.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Personally, I've never hated elves. In fact, I'm kind of sick of the disrespect elves have been getting lately. I get that people are sick of the image of the "superior and perfect elves" but it seems like now elves have just become an easy target in games and fantasy books. Take the Witcher and Dragon Age series where elves have become an enslaved and discriminated against people at the bottom of the hierarchy. Or in some books like Dungeon Crawler Carl where elves are just the butt of every joke with them being portrayed as so haughty and look down their noses at people just so the characters can stick it to them. To me, they've just become a punching bag. I miss the days of the wise and mysterious ancient people they were portrayed as in Lord of the Rings. While they didn't always live up to being the "wisest" of the races, they were still a proud and noble people.
I've always hated how elves are presented in fantasy to just be literally better in every way than any other race. I especially hate how strong stat wise they are in general in dnd raw its more than ridicules. My last campaign we had 6 players 4 were just elves of some kind because they're so much better than any of the other options.
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There's nothing wrong or boring about being a Human Fighter with a Sword and Shield. It's all about HOW you play them, WHO they are, and WHAT they do!
Personally, I've never hated elves. In fact, I'm kind of sick of the disrespect elves have been getting lately. I get that people are sick of the image of the "superior and perfect elves" but it seems like now elves have just become an easy target in games and fantasy books. Take the Witcher and Dragon Age series where elves have become an enslaved and discriminated against people at the bottom of the hierarchy. Or in some books like Dungeon Crawler Carl where elves are just the butt of every joke with them being portrayed as so haughty and look down their noses at people just so the characters can stick it to them. To me, they've just become a punching bag. I miss the days of the wise and mysterious ancient people they were portrayed as in Lord of the Rings. While they didn't always live up to being the "wisest" of the races, they were still a proud and noble people.
You've also got to figure Fantasy fiction has for decades favored elves often making them better than everyone and usually they are the ones who were the slave masters who conquered the world. If anything new writing flipping the script is just something thats been a long time coming.
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There's nothing wrong or boring about being a Human Fighter with a Sword and Shield. It's all about HOW you play them, WHO they are, and WHAT they do!
I do like the Dunmer and the Drow. You know, I was reading this thread for a minute and realized I don't think of Drow as "Elves". I have never played an Elf that was not a Drow.
Elves came first in Tolkien's creation story. Elves came first in Elder Scrolls. It does seem as if the other races aren't as crucial in history.
Personally, I've never hated elves. In fact, I'm kind of sick of the disrespect elves have been getting lately. I get that people are sick of the image of the "superior and perfect elves" but it seems like now elves have just become an easy target in games and fantasy books. Take the Witcher and Dragon Age series where elves have become an enslaved and discriminated against people at the bottom of the hierarchy. Or in some books like Dungeon Crawler Carl where elves are just the butt of every joke with them being portrayed as so haughty and look down their noses at people just so the characters can stick it to them. To me, they've just become a punching bag. I miss the days of the wise and mysterious ancient people they were portrayed as in Lord of the Rings. While they didn't always live up to being the "wisest" of the races, they were still a proud and noble people.
The issue is when the 'Wise and Mysterious Ancient People' who are better than everyone at everything are playable. The entirety of Tolkien's books could be summed up as "man, shit was dope back in the day. ...oh well, guess we'll just give up now," with the elves hailed as being Superior Beings steeped in the splendor of a bygone, irretreivable Golden Age. Too pure and heartbroken to remain in this age of mud, blood, guns and fire that filthy dirty Mankind is ushering in, despite being so incredibly powerful that ten or fifteen elves could've defeated Saruman's whole-ass horde and gotten to Mount Doom to chuck the macguffin into the Mmacguffin-hole in, like...an afternoon.
When you make Superior Beings that are supposed to be better than everyone else at literally everything playable, you wind up where D&D is at right now - with elves dramatically overrepresented and everybody clamoring to be the Superior Being, with the result that they become as mundane and unremarkable as everyday humanity. There's nothing mysterious about a party of six PCs with four elves in it.
If you want Wise, Mysterious Elves who live for a hundred thousand years and have skill, wisdom, knowledge and passion greater than any entire city of lesser folk? You cannot make them playable. They're strictly NPCs, and ones the party cannot encounter very often at all. Even then, people will wonder why ten or fifteen of these demigods don't just wander out and solve all the world's problems in an afternoon if it'd be no big deal for them to do so.
Personally, I've never hated elves. In fact, I'm kind of sick of the disrespect elves have been getting lately. I get that people are sick of the image of the "superior and perfect elves" but it seems like now elves have just become an easy target in games and fantasy books. Take the Witcher and Dragon Age series where elves have become an enslaved and discriminated against people at the bottom of the hierarchy. Or in some books like Dungeon Crawler Carl where elves are just the butt of every joke with them being portrayed as so haughty and look down their noses at people just so the characters can stick it to them. To me, they've just become a punching bag. I miss the days of the wise and mysterious ancient people they were portrayed as in Lord of the Rings. While they didn't always live up to being the "wisest" of the races, they were still a proud and noble people.
The issue is when the 'Wise and Mysterious Ancient People' who are better than everyone at everything are playable. The entirety of Tolkien's books could be summed up as "man, shit was dope back in the day. ...oh well, guess we'll just give up now," with the elves hailed as being Superior Beings steeped in the splendor of a bygone, irretreivable Golden Age. Too pure and heartbroken to remain in this age of mud, blood, guns and fire that filthy dirty Mankind is ushering in, despite being so incredibly powerful that ten or fifteen elves could've defeated Saruman's whole-ass horde and gotten to Mount Doom to chuck the macguffin into the Mmacguffin-hole in, like...an afternoon.
When you make Superior Beings that are supposed to be better than everyone else at literally everything playable, you wind up where D&D is at right now - with elves dramatically overrepresented and everybody clamoring to be the Superior Being, with the result that they become as mundane and unremarkable as everyday humanity. There's nothing mysterious about a party of six PCs with four elves in it.
If you want Wise, Mysterious Elves who live for a hundred thousand years and have skill, wisdom, knowledge and passion greater than any entire city of lesser folk? You cannot make them playable. They're strictly NPCs, and ones the party cannot encounter very often at all. Even then, people will wonder why ten or fifteen of these demigods don't just wander out and solve all the world's problems in an afternoon if it'd be no big deal for them to do so.
And this is exactly why I take TES approach to Elves where they dont live much longer than humans (I typically set like get an extra 20 years tops) and find small ways to reduce how busted they are by taking away trancing on long rest. You only have to sleep 4 hours raw compared to literally everyone elses 8? No thats just too much.
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There's nothing wrong or boring about being a Human Fighter with a Sword and Shield. It's all about HOW you play them, WHO they are, and WHAT they do!
Well, if the thread's necro'd anyway, I might as well add my two cents.
As to concept and lore:
Elves, when you take only their basic concept as understood by pop culture, are not inherently interesting, and that is chiefly because all of their "standard" traits are straightforwardly positive. That is not to say they are necessarily or originally uninteresting. What I'm saying is that at leaset some work must be done by each setting to make them interesting, and that some settings do that work, but some do not.
I don't mind Tolkien's elves. (a) They're not the main characters (aside from Legolas and even he's, yeah, probably the least important of the Fellowship) and thus are not really "competing" with the other species for focus; and (b) I think it's reasonably clear that their arrogance caused a lot of the current age's problems. I like Dragon Age elves. They're underdogs. I like D&D-standard Drow in theory. The writing on them is often painfully clumsy in practice, but... spooky cave elves. Okay. That's cool. I also really like Eberron elves. They're weird, and elves could use a good weirdening, but they don't strictly feel unelfy.
"My" elves (or at least my high elves, which I treat as just a term for elven nobles, not a biologically distinct group) are overbearing imperialists who've done a nice job making enemies of most of their neighbors, and a lot of the more over-the-top hype in official lore is basically propaganda. But that's my setting, and I did it because it fits well with other elements of the world (chiefly: humans are not the majority in most places, so their kingdoms can't take up most of the map like they do in a lot of settings). I wouldn't expect or want it everywhere.
But I would want something, and "They're not down to earth" or "They like pretty things too much" or "They're vaguely arrogant about how awesome they are" or "They used to be way more awesome back in the good old days" aren't really something.
As to mechanics and variety of options:
Elves are popular. Popular things get attention. It's like the Forgotten Realms getting such disproportionate content compared to other settings. Disappointing if it's not your favorite, but it only makes sense. I've been on the short end of "The thing you like is popular, so I hate it" too many times to be too harsh.
But, like, by that same token, gimme more dwarves, like sea dwarves who live in submerged caves and ride dragon turtles or something. New goblinoids, like special underdark ones or whatever. Are there Feywild goblinoids? That seems like an obvious idea. How about some goliath variants taking after different types of giant? And let us play winged kobolds, you cowards. (Disclaimer: That last one is a joke. ... Mostly.)
So, like, I also get it. I'm not an elf guy myself. But "elves get too much attention" is kind of the converse of the actual problem, I think.
But, like, by that same token, gimme more dwarves, like sea dwarves who live in submerged caves and ride dragon turtles or something. New goblinoids, like special underdark ones or whatever. Are there Feywild goblinoids? That seems like an obvious idea. How about some goliath variants taking after different types of giant? And let us play winged kobolds, you cowards. (Disclaimer: That last one is a joke. ... Mostly.)
. . .
Regarding this off-topic point, one DM that I play with allows winged kobolds, Urds, as PCs: Flight 30 (They aren't fast, and they noisily flutter about like an ungainly butterfly, but they can cross over a pit or pond with little effort.) Easily encumbered, and no armor allowed (Cannot fly if carrying a load greater than their body weight; maximum body weight, 30lb.). When airborne, urds become tempting targets (Mine has been shot down twice, luckily from very low altitudes.). In this campaign at least, this little urd has caused no balance issues, beyond negating some obstacles, nor ruffled any feathers on the other players at the table. Perhaps your DM and group could accept an urd in the party, with the above sensible restrictions.
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Hate is such an overused term these days, that it has lost much of the impact that the word deserves. Enough on that; one of my pet peeves.
As a DM, I have no problem using them as NPCs. As a player, I have never once played one, or a 1/2-elf for that matter. The folk just don't ring with me, like some others do. I'm very happy not playing them.
I hate how mundane and boring the elves are. They're literally just humans with pointy ears. Trouble is that as a player race, they really cannot be as magical and interesting as I'd like them to be - for which reason they're not in my games (a player race, that is).
That gives me the space to do something with the elves: They're universally powerful spell casters (like, they're not even remotely fair), they live for as long as they can be bothered (barring untimely end at the end of a spear), their beauty makes mirrors crack, they are legendary in every way - undergrowth bends to let them pass, nature provides food if they're hungry, they have no trade or production, every elf item is a unique (and propably magical) work of art. Also, they're famously, notoriously cold, wicked and calculating.
Also, they're just barely not quite extinct yet, I believe the game world in question has ... 5 that I recall.
I present the elves as the archtypical old wives tale - too powerful, too 'special' for any adult to believe in. People will laugh at you for thinking the elves were ever real, 'oh, do you believe in dragons too, har har har!'
Humans of the world in question are rather pigheaded in their disbelief. They'll look at elven ruins, laugh with derison, and claim it must be some ancient human tribe. Of course, certain scholars know the elves were real, there are books and paintings and tapestries and various artifacts. Anyways, yea, I have elves as presented in the PHB.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Have you tried eladrin before? They are the most colorful elves out there, and they can change style and fashion once every long rest. Their fey step is also pretty fun. The legacy version can fey step every short/long rest (better for lower level campaigns) , while the current one can fey step based on PB that recharge on long rest (better for higher level campaigns). There is also the DMG version eladrin, which is basically the legacy eladrin with super bland fey step, but they have elf weapon training as compensation for being boring (which is not really worth it in my opinion).
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And dwarves are just stocky humans with beards, orcs are just humans with large teeth, and dragonborn are just humans with scales, etcetera etcetera.
All races need to be approximately balanced in 5e so they're all valid picks for players. Ergo, you can't get Tolkien/Paolini-esque "ancient and superior race" elements hard coded into them. Two of the three PHB subraces already have innate spellcasting; it's not massive, but in D&D terms that's fairly exceptional all on its own. It's not a flaw in the writing for elves to not be a tier above mere mortals in D&D, it's a deliberate design choice to keep them accessible and balanced. Plus WotC has sadly started moving away from giving us good write-ups of a race's societal structure in a given setting anymore, which also contributes to the feeling of sameness.
Now, that said, if you want to run your campaign differently, that's your prerogative, although purely as a personal take I find the various permutations of "elves are better" to be rather overdone by this point, both in the aforementioned "older, wiser, and better race" sense and the "race of magical sociopaths" sense of Pratchett and similar works. Anymore, I find the more grounded portrayals more engaging. Just a personal take though, not a criticism of your approach.
Oh, I play elves (occasionally) in other people's games. It's not that.
But as a GM, I like my fantasy races to be truly and surely ... wild, different, not mistakable for humans with longer ears. So my elves are this thing (evil, powerful, technically extinct), and my dwarves are another, and so on. I never use anything premade. I ... well, I mean, there'll be gnolls and goblins and what not, but they'll be different from anything you could look up. Similar stat blocks, perhaps. Different cultures, tactics, abilities (in terms of .. gnolls are masterful skirmishers, using terrain, ranged weapons, traps, tamed beasts and so on - goblins are ingenious little bastards, their lairs hellish pits of traps and defensive installations and crossfire of poisoned crossbow bolts, and it's simply much easier to trade with them than to try and fight them - and so on).
I read Tolkien at age 11 (and forward a few years, they're big books) and I was enthralled. Totally. But the pictures I have of the elves are nothing compared to what they are presented as in the books. So, over the years, I changed that. But what I changed it into isn't really .... a player race =)
It's also not Tolkien, by even the wildest stretch.
I know all that. I even said so: You can't play the elves.
I'm not saying I succeed at everything. I'm a so-so game master. I'm horrible at combat, but I delude myself that I'm actually really, really good at fluff, story, background, all the wishy-washy soft stuff that's basically just language.
So what I'm going for is a sense of wonder and mystery. I tell the players that elves are an old wives tale - no one takes that stuff seriously. But as you approach Madripor, you can see the tall tower right at it's center. Once inside the city, that tower cannot be found anywhere.
If anyone digs deeply enough, they'll find rumors that the city was built around an old elf tower - but then, some long but unknown time ago, that tower disappeared.
People will make up various stories to explain the truth they can plainly see: Oh, that's just the bell tower on the cathedral - it looks much taller from afar.
And so on. It's just one small story (among dozens, just in Madripor), and it's not like it should be any wild revelation to anyone who plays RPG's.
But my elves are different (and you can't play them), my dwarves are different (and you can't play them either). My orcs are different, but playable, because I haven't given them any super powers, just a real and workable culture and a place in the world beyond random raiders and cannon fodder.
And now I sound like the most restrictive GM ever - and maybe I am, but if so, that's fine.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Personally, I've never hated elves. In fact, I'm kind of sick of the disrespect elves have been getting lately. I get that people are sick of the image of the "superior and perfect elves" but it seems like now elves have just become an easy target in games and fantasy books. Take the Witcher and Dragon Age series where elves have become an enslaved and discriminated against people at the bottom of the hierarchy. Or in some books like Dungeon Crawler Carl where elves are just the butt of every joke with them being portrayed as so haughty and look down their noses at people just so the characters can stick it to them. To me, they've just become a punching bag. I miss the days of the wise and mysterious ancient people they were portrayed as in Lord of the Rings. While they didn't always live up to being the "wisest" of the races, they were still a proud and noble people.
I've always hated how elves are presented in fantasy to just be literally better in every way than any other race. I especially hate how strong stat wise they are in general in dnd raw its more than ridicules. My last campaign we had 6 players 4 were just elves of some kind because they're so much better than any of the other options.
There's nothing wrong or boring about being a Human Fighter with a Sword and Shield. It's all about HOW you play them, WHO they are, and WHAT they do!
Lycanthropy is the spice of night.
You've also got to figure Fantasy fiction has for decades favored elves often making them better than everyone and usually they are the ones who were the slave masters who conquered the world. If anything new writing flipping the script is just something thats been a long time coming.
There's nothing wrong or boring about being a Human Fighter with a Sword and Shield. It's all about HOW you play them, WHO they are, and WHAT they do!
Lycanthropy is the spice of night.
I do like the Dunmer and the Drow. You know, I was reading this thread for a minute and realized I don't think of Drow as "Elves". I have never played an Elf that was not a Drow.
Elves came first in Tolkien's creation story. Elves came first in Elder Scrolls. It does seem as if the other races aren't as crucial in history.
Elves are always starting crap. With everyone.
The issue is when the 'Wise and Mysterious Ancient People' who are better than everyone at everything are playable. The entirety of Tolkien's books could be summed up as "man, shit was dope back in the day. ...oh well, guess we'll just give up now," with the elves hailed as being Superior Beings steeped in the splendor of a bygone, irretreivable Golden Age. Too pure and heartbroken to remain in this age of mud, blood, guns and fire that filthy dirty Mankind is ushering in, despite being so incredibly powerful that ten or fifteen elves could've defeated Saruman's whole-ass horde and gotten to Mount Doom to chuck the macguffin into the Mmacguffin-hole in, like...an afternoon.
When you make Superior Beings that are supposed to be better than everyone else at literally everything playable, you wind up where D&D is at right now - with elves dramatically overrepresented and everybody clamoring to be the Superior Being, with the result that they become as mundane and unremarkable as everyday humanity. There's nothing mysterious about a party of six PCs with four elves in it.
If you want Wise, Mysterious Elves who live for a hundred thousand years and have skill, wisdom, knowledge and passion greater than any entire city of lesser folk? You cannot make them playable. They're strictly NPCs, and ones the party cannot encounter very often at all. Even then, people will wonder why ten or fifteen of these demigods don't just wander out and solve all the world's problems in an afternoon if it'd be no big deal for them to do so.
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And this is exactly why I take TES approach to Elves where they dont live much longer than humans (I typically set like get an extra 20 years tops) and find small ways to reduce how busted they are by taking away trancing on long rest. You only have to sleep 4 hours raw compared to literally everyone elses 8? No thats just too much.
There's nothing wrong or boring about being a Human Fighter with a Sword and Shield. It's all about HOW you play them, WHO they are, and WHAT they do!
Lycanthropy is the spice of night.
Well, if the thread's necro'd anyway, I might as well add my two cents.
As to concept and lore:
Elves, when you take only their basic concept as understood by pop culture, are not inherently interesting, and that is chiefly because all of their "standard" traits are straightforwardly positive. That is not to say they are necessarily or originally uninteresting. What I'm saying is that at leaset some work must be done by each setting to make them interesting, and that some settings do that work, but some do not.
I don't mind Tolkien's elves. (a) They're not the main characters (aside from Legolas and even he's, yeah, probably the least important of the Fellowship) and thus are not really "competing" with the other species for focus; and (b) I think it's reasonably clear that their arrogance caused a lot of the current age's problems. I like Dragon Age elves. They're underdogs. I like D&D-standard Drow in theory. The writing on them is often painfully clumsy in practice, but... spooky cave elves. Okay. That's cool. I also really like Eberron elves. They're weird, and elves could use a good weirdening, but they don't strictly feel unelfy.
"My" elves (or at least my high elves, which I treat as just a term for elven nobles, not a biologically distinct group) are overbearing imperialists who've done a nice job making enemies of most of their neighbors, and a lot of the more over-the-top hype in official lore is basically propaganda. But that's my setting, and I did it because it fits well with other elements of the world (chiefly: humans are not the majority in most places, so their kingdoms can't take up most of the map like they do in a lot of settings). I wouldn't expect or want it everywhere.
But I would want something, and "They're not down to earth" or "They like pretty things too much" or "They're vaguely arrogant about how awesome they are" or "They used to be way more awesome back in the good old days" aren't really something.
As to mechanics and variety of options:
Elves are popular. Popular things get attention. It's like the Forgotten Realms getting such disproportionate content compared to other settings. Disappointing if it's not your favorite, but it only makes sense. I've been on the short end of "The thing you like is popular, so I hate it" too many times to be too harsh.
But, like, by that same token, gimme more dwarves, like sea dwarves who live in submerged caves and ride dragon turtles or something. New goblinoids, like special underdark ones or whatever. Are there Feywild goblinoids? That seems like an obvious idea. How about some goliath variants taking after different types of giant? And let us play winged kobolds, you cowards. (Disclaimer: That last one is a joke. ... Mostly.)
So, like, I also get it. I'm not an elf guy myself. But "elves get too much attention" is kind of the converse of the actual problem, I think.
Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral
Regarding this off-topic point, one DM that I play with allows winged kobolds, Urds, as PCs: Flight 30 (They aren't fast, and they noisily flutter about like an ungainly butterfly, but they can cross over a pit or pond with little effort.) Easily encumbered, and no armor allowed (Cannot fly if carrying a load greater than their body weight; maximum body weight, 30lb.). When airborne, urds become tempting targets (Mine has been shot down twice, luckily from very low altitudes.). In this campaign at least, this little urd has caused no balance issues, beyond negating some obstacles, nor ruffled any feathers on the other players at the table. Perhaps your DM and group could accept an urd in the party, with the above sensible restrictions.