Starting a new campaign on Thursday and as a new player, I'm beyond excited! I am looking to do a half-elf druid with a bit of a twist but would love some opinions on if/how it would be possible. Basically, I want to have been raised human and my ears, the most distinguished part of being half-elf, do not reveal themselves until I reach adulthood when my Mother dies. I then leave my home in search of answers / my Father hence, how I meet up with my group. The DM is super open to the idea but I'm trying to determine a cause for the ears not developing until later. Also, if there is a way to disguise them from my companions initially so that they view me as human.
As far as knowing the elvish language, my thought here is stolen from Harry Potter when he doesn't know he can speak slytherin until he hears it for the first time.
Being so new to the game, I figured this would be a great backstory of my newness to the game and not really fully knowing what's going on or what is expected at first.
Perhaps your mother was using some kind of illusion to hide your ears, and when she passed on, the enchantment was lost.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Your mother was buying from an herbalist what was essentially polyjuice potions (or I prefer powders), tinged with human DNA, that she baked into your meals all your life without telling you, for reasons only you the player know. When she died, the doses stopped and the ears came through, as well as your darkvision. She could have told you on her deathbed the truth of the powder and your heritage.
You could have some leftover doses of the powder that you use when you want to hide the ears.
A lot of this depends on how deep into Elven lore your DM or yourself want to dive into and how close to Faerun your setting is following.
There would actually be little that your Human Mother could do in order to hide your elven ancestry, that she would want to is very unusual unless you were playing in a Anti-Elf setting. Half-elves don't have very pronounced ear points. If need be it could be hidden with a simple disguise kit or, more drasticly, a knife to remove the point completely.
The main issue will be the growth. Half-elves live to be 180 years old on average. That does not mean you have +90 years on humans. Every stage of your life is 2x as long as a human's. What this means is that when human kids are reaching adulthood between 15 to 20, you would still have the maturity of a 7-10 year old physically speaking. Half-elves don't reach maturity until 30 to 40 years or so of age.
(Makes you feel better, Elves don't reach maturity until 100.)
Another issue is why your Elven father would leave his son. For Elves, experiences are their life. And nothing is worse for them than missing out seeing or being part of something occuring. Especially something as short lived as a non-Elven lover or a half-Elven child. Everytime he would go into a Trance, he could relive those memories with his child and lover no matter how many decaces or centuries later it is.
Every stage of your life is 2x as long as a human's. What this means is that when human kids are reaching adulthood between 15 to 20, you would still have the maturity of a 7-10 year old physically speaking. Half-elves don't reach maturity until 30 to 40 years or so of age.
This is not true. Half-elves mature at the same rate as humans by RAW. from the Half elf listing:
Age
Half-elves mature at the same rate humans do and reach adulthood around the age of 20. They live much longer than humans, however, often exceeding 180 years.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Every stage of your life is 2x as long as a human's. What this means is that when human kids are reaching adulthood between 15 to 20, you would still have the maturity of a 7-10 year old physically speaking. Half-elves don't reach maturity until 30 to 40 years or so of age.
This is not true. Half-elves mature at the same rate as humans by RAW. from the Half elf listing:
Age
Half-elves mature at the same rate humans do and reach adulthood around the age of 20. They live much longer than humans, however, often exceeding 180 years.
*Reviews notes*
Ah, there's the conflict. 3.5 had the maturity rate half the speed of humans. I'd homebrew that for my setting because it makes sense biologically, but it isn't strictly true using just 5e
This is all super helpful - thank you so much! Been researching and have decided my character will be from Silverymoon in N. Faerun. I think I'm going to go with the idea of a powder and make it part of my quest - to find more until I learn more of my heritage.
Thank you all so much for the input and happy rolling! =)
This is all super helpful - thank you so much! Been researching and have decided my character will be from Silverymoon in N. Faerun. I think I'm going to go with the idea of a powder and make it part of my quest - to find more until I learn more of my heritage.
Thank you all so much for the input and happy rolling! =)
Make sure to work with your DM, don't make yoru Elf Dad a Deadbeat, make him heart broken because he could never record the memories of his young son onto his life and his future lives.
The DM is super into this whole concept and while I don't know what will happen, I do suspect that he is already planning the elf Dad as being a part of this story in a big way. Also, it's elf daughter =)
Every stage of your life is 2x as long as a human's. What this means is that when human kids are reaching adulthood between 15 to 20, you would still have the maturity of a 7-10 year old physically speaking. Half-elves don't reach maturity until 30 to 40 years or so of age.
This is not true. Half-elves mature at the same rate as humans by RAW. from the Half elf listing:
Age
Half-elves mature at the same rate humans do and reach adulthood around the age of 20. They live much longer than humans, however, often exceeding 180 years.
*Reviews notes*
Ah, there's the conflict. 3.5 had the maturity rate half the speed of humans. I'd homebrew that for my setting because it makes sense biologically, but it isn't strictly true using just 5e
That's odd really, I hardly touched 3e, and my memory of 2e was that they were the same as humans. I was wrong, in 2e the base starting age of a human is 15+d4 years, and a helf is 15+d6 years....so on average only ~1 year difference for maturity. I'm pretty shocked that 3e would have been so far afield.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
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Hi all!
Starting a new campaign on Thursday and as a new player, I'm beyond excited! I am looking to do a half-elf druid with a bit of a twist but would love some opinions on if/how it would be possible. Basically, I want to have been raised human and my ears, the most distinguished part of being half-elf, do not reveal themselves until I reach adulthood when my Mother dies. I then leave my home in search of answers / my Father hence, how I meet up with my group. The DM is super open to the idea but I'm trying to determine a cause for the ears not developing until later. Also, if there is a way to disguise them from my companions initially so that they view me as human.
As far as knowing the elvish language, my thought here is stolen from Harry Potter when he doesn't know he can speak slytherin until he hears it for the first time.
Being so new to the game, I figured this would be a great backstory of my newness to the game and not really fully knowing what's going on or what is expected at first.
Welcome any input, thank you!
-Kylee
Perhaps your mother was using some kind of illusion to hide your ears, and when she passed on, the enchantment was lost.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Your mother was buying from an herbalist what was essentially polyjuice potions (or I prefer powders), tinged with human DNA, that she baked into your meals all your life without telling you, for reasons only you the player know. When she died, the doses stopped and the ears came through, as well as your darkvision. She could have told you on her deathbed the truth of the powder and your heritage.
You could have some leftover doses of the powder that you use when you want to hide the ears.
A lot of this depends on how deep into Elven lore your DM or yourself want to dive into and how close to Faerun your setting is following.
There would actually be little that your Human Mother could do in order to hide your elven ancestry, that she would want to is very unusual unless you were playing in a Anti-Elf setting. Half-elves don't have very pronounced ear points. If need be it could be hidden with a simple disguise kit or, more drasticly, a knife to remove the point completely.
The main issue will be the growth. Half-elves live to be 180 years old on average. That does not mean you have +90 years on humans. Every stage of your life is 2x as long as a human's. What this means is that when human kids are reaching adulthood between 15 to 20, you would still have the maturity of a 7-10 year old physically speaking. Half-elves don't reach maturity until 30 to 40 years or so of age.
(Makes you feel better, Elves don't reach maturity until 100.)
Another issue is why your Elven father would leave his son. For Elves, experiences are their life. And nothing is worse for them than missing out seeing or being part of something occuring. Especially something as short lived as a non-Elven lover or a half-Elven child. Everytime he would go into a Trance, he could relive those memories with his child and lover no matter how many decaces or centuries later it is.
This is not true. Half-elves mature at the same rate as humans by RAW. from the Half elf listing:
Age
Half-elves mature at the same rate humans do and reach adulthood around the age of 20. They live much longer than humans, however, often exceeding 180 years.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
*Reviews notes*
Ah, there's the conflict. 3.5 had the maturity rate half the speed of humans. I'd homebrew that for my setting because it makes sense biologically, but it isn't strictly true using just 5e
This is all super helpful - thank you so much! Been researching and have decided my character will be from Silverymoon in N. Faerun. I think I'm going to go with the idea of a powder and make it part of my quest - to find more until I learn more of my heritage.
Thank you all so much for the input and happy rolling! =)
Make sure to work with your DM, don't make yoru Elf Dad a Deadbeat, make him heart broken because he could never record the memories of his young son onto his life and his future lives.
The DM is super into this whole concept and while I don't know what will happen, I do suspect that he is already planning the elf Dad as being a part of this story in a big way. Also, it's elf daughter =)
That's odd really, I hardly touched 3e, and my memory of 2e was that they were the same as humans. I was wrong, in 2e the base starting age of a human is 15+d4 years, and a helf is 15+d6 years....so on average only ~1 year difference for maturity. I'm pretty shocked that 3e would have been so far afield.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha