Shouldn't the sea elves have the same ability as Tritons being able to withstand the drawbacks of the depths? or it's just left to the DM's discretion ?
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
The ruling that I use (after reading Volos and Mordenkainens) is that Tritons live and build communities in these greater depths, it is incredibly rare for a Triton to leave the sea and venture on the land.
Sea Elves have made their homes in the Oceans shallows and that elemental plain of water, I interpret this as they are no strangers to water and the sea but don't spend there times in the depths (they also lack the 'amphibious' trait so cant spend lots of time under water without magical aid).
Of course it is all up to DMs discretion in their campaign and how they want to play it.
Even should sea elves be able to breathe under water: not all oceanic species are depth-tolerant; which is one reason why in oceans you find certain creatures at certain depths and no higher or lower in the water column. Siphonophores, for example, can only live at great depths, where the pressure keeps their bodies stable. If they rise beyond a certain depth, they burst. Likewise, most pelagic species are crushed by pressure if they descend past a certain depth.
The other thing to remember is that the sea floor is not at the same depth throughout the ocean. In some places, it's a mere 50 feet, while in other it's over half a mile.
The big explanation is that Tritons are native to the elemental plain of water. They are sea creatures that have adapted the ability to come on land. Sea elves are elves, land creatures, that have adapted to an aquatic environment.
The subrace Deep Sea Elves, have the depth resistance.
Deep sea elves ? Which source book is it from ?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
Even should sea elves be able to breathe under water: not all oceanic species are depth-tolerant; which is one reason why in oceans you find certain creatures at certain depths and no higher or lower in the water column. Siphonophores, for example, can only live at great depths, where the pressure keeps their bodies stable. If they rise beyond a certain depth, they burst. Likewise, most pelagic species are crushed by pressure if they descend past a certain depth.
The other thing to remember is that the sea floor is not at the same depth throughout the ocean. In some places, it's a mere 50 feet, while in other it's over half a mile.
The big explanation is that Tritons are native to the elemental plain of water. They are sea creatures that have adapted the ability to come on land. Sea elves are elves, land creatures, that have adapted to an aquatic environment.
Just FYI.
The average depth of Earth's oceans is about 12,100 feet or about 2.3 miles while the deepest spot on Earth, in the Marianas trench is 36,200' or almost 7 miles deep. The pressure at that depth is over 1000 atmospheres.
"Child of the Sea. You have a swimming speed of 30 feet, and you can breathe air and water."
Since they can breath either air or water they are fully amphibious. They just didn't get a separate entry in their stat block for it.
As for the Guardians of the Depths feature for Tritons -
"Guardians of the Depths. Adapted to even the most extreme ocean depths, you have resistance to cold damage, and you ignore any of the drawbacks caused by a deep, underwater environment."
Since the drawbacks of a deep underwater environment aren't really defined it is mostly up to the DM. However, water is most dense at about 4C so the temperatures drop off quickly below about 200m tend to be pretty stable near this temperature below 500m or so ... so the cold resistance of Tritons comes into play while elves would probably need special clothing to go any deeper.
I've always thought of sea elves staying in the relative shallows where there is still light and growing things - coral reefs, kelp forests, etc.
Most of the deep sea floor is essentially a barren wasteland relying on detritus falling from above. That's not really where I'd picture elves to live. It helps to differentiate tritons a bit more by having them in different environments.
Aquatic elves have formed three distinct community groups based on which bodies of water they choose for their settlements. There are sea aquatic elves, who take to the open seas, lake aquatic elves, who prefer the more isolated freshwater bodies inland, and the deep aquatic elves, who dwell entirely in the darkest reaches of the deep ocean. Each develops distinct cultural traits of their own, as listed below.
Ancestral Traits
Aquatic elves are of elven ancestry, though with enough differences to qualify as a distinct ancestry. They resemble elves with bluish or greenish tinted skin, with long, webbed fingers and toes, and visible gills on their ribs. They also have nictitating membranes that protect their eyes.
The ancestry of the aquatic elves has granted them certain traits as result of millennia of adaptation to living underwater.
Age. Aquatic elves age at the same rate as other elves, reaching physical maturity at about the same age as humans. The elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth, however, to encompass worldly experience. An aquatic elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.
Size. Aquatic elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking and swimming speeds are 30 feet.
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
Protected Eyes. Aquatic elves have nictitating membranes that protect their eyes from the water in which they swim. You cannot be blinded by gases or liquids that reach your eyes and you have advantage on saving throws against Blindness.
Aquatic Elf, Deep
Cultural Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Wisdom by 1.
Alignment. Deep aquatic elf communities more often than not adopt a stoic attitude about the burdens and pressures they bear, both the literal water pressures of the depths and more metaphorical ones. As such they tend toward neutrality.
Inured to the Deeps. Deep aquatic elves spend time in the chilly waters of the depths. You have resistance to cold damage.
Magics of the Deep. Deep aquatic elven community members develop special magical abilities to aid them in the austere and challenging environments in which they live. You know the light cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the sanctuary spell once with this trait. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the hold person spell once with this trait, requiring no material components. You regain the ability to cast these spells with this trait when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Aquan.
Aquatic Elf, Freshwater
Cultural Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Intelligence by 1.
Alignment. Compared to the lively migrations of the sea elves and the dangers and darkness of the deeps, the lake aquatic elf communities live relatively quiet lives. They tend to form orderly communities and, as such favor law.
Lake Gardeners. Many lake aquatic elven communities focus on growing and harvesting various fisheries and sea plants. Given the limited size and nature of their environment, however, they take great care to achieve sustainable balance. You have proficiency in the Nature and Animal Handling skills.
The Magic of Stillness. Lake aquatic elven communities are defined by the stillness of their waters. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the sleep spell once with this trait. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the silence spell once with this trait, requiring no material components. You regain the ability to cast these spells with this trait when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Aquan.
Aquatic Elf, Sea
Cultural Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Charisma by 1.
Alignment. Sea aquatic elf communities tend to embrace the wide-open nature of the oceans, moving about freely and reveling in the variety of life in the reefs and surface waters. This joie de vivre tends them toward chaos.
Wandering Schools. Many sea aquatic elven communities migrate, following schools of fish and ocean life. Others prefer to remain in particular places for longer periods, forming homes from coral. Regardless, sea aquatic elves are skilled at finding their way around the waters. You have proficiency in the Survival skill.
Sea Speaker. Sea aquatic elves dwell among the schools of fish and creatures of the surface ocean waters. You can cast speak with animals at will with this trait, but you can target only beasts with a swim speed that are Medium or smaller.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Aquan.
The so-called 5e SRD website has the following disclaimer: "This site is *not* intended to bring *only* official content from Wizards of the Coast, but instead to be a constantly growing resource of the best Open Game Content for 5e." ... so much if not all of the content found there is not official though of course folks are welcome to use whatever they like in the games they run.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Shouldn't the sea elves have the same ability as Tritons being able to withstand the drawbacks of the depths? or it's just left to the DM's discretion ?
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
The ruling that I use (after reading Volos and Mordenkainens) is that Tritons live and build communities in these greater depths, it is incredibly rare for a Triton to leave the sea and venture on the land.
Sea Elves have made their homes in the Oceans shallows and that elemental plain of water, I interpret this as they are no strangers to water and the sea but don't spend there times in the depths (they also lack the 'amphibious' trait so cant spend lots of time under water without magical aid).
Of course it is all up to DMs discretion in their campaign and how they want to play it.
Even should sea elves be able to breathe under water: not all oceanic species are depth-tolerant; which is one reason why in oceans you find certain creatures at certain depths and no higher or lower in the water column. Siphonophores, for example, can only live at great depths, where the pressure keeps their bodies stable. If they rise beyond a certain depth, they burst. Likewise, most pelagic species are crushed by pressure if they descend past a certain depth.
The other thing to remember is that the sea floor is not at the same depth throughout the ocean. In some places, it's a mere 50 feet, while in other it's over half a mile.
The big explanation is that Tritons are native to the elemental plain of water. They are sea creatures that have adapted the ability to come on land. Sea elves are elves, land creatures, that have adapted to an aquatic environment.
Ongoing Projects: The Mimic Book of Mimics :: SHARK WEEK
Completed Projects: The Trick-or-Treat Table
My Homebrews: Races :: Classes :: Spells :: Items :: Monsters
The subrace Deep Sea Elves, have the depth resistance.
Deep sea elves ? Which source book is it from ?
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
Just FYI.
The average depth of Earth's oceans is about 12,100 feet or about 2.3 miles while the deepest spot on Earth, in the Marianas trench is 36,200' or almost 7 miles deep. The pressure at that depth is over 1000 atmospheres.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceandepth.html
As for sea elves from MToF:
"Child of the Sea. You have a swimming speed of 30 feet, and you can breathe air and water."
Since they can breath either air or water they are fully amphibious. They just didn't get a separate entry in their stat block for it.
As for the Guardians of the Depths feature for Tritons -
"Guardians of the Depths. Adapted to even the most extreme ocean depths, you have resistance to cold damage, and you ignore any of the drawbacks caused by a deep, underwater environment."
Since the drawbacks of a deep underwater environment aren't really defined it is mostly up to the DM. However, water is most dense at about 4C so the temperatures drop off quickly below about 200m tend to be pretty stable near this temperature below 500m or so ... so the cold resistance of Tritons comes into play while elves would probably need special clothing to go any deeper.
I've always thought of sea elves staying in the relative shallows where there is still light and growing things - coral reefs, kelp forests, etc.
Most of the deep sea floor is essentially a barren wasteland relying on detritus falling from above. That's not really where I'd picture elves to live. It helps to differentiate tritons a bit more by having them in different environments.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Aquatic Elf
Aquatic elves have formed three distinct community groups based on which bodies of water they choose for their settlements. There are sea aquatic elves, who take to the open seas, lake aquatic elves, who prefer the more isolated freshwater bodies inland, and the deep aquatic elves, who dwell entirely in the darkest reaches of the deep ocean. Each develops distinct cultural traits of their own, as listed below.
Ancestral Traits
Aquatic elves are of elven ancestry, though with enough differences to qualify as a distinct ancestry. They resemble elves with bluish or greenish tinted skin, with long, webbed fingers and toes, and visible gills on their ribs. They also have nictitating membranes that protect their eyes.
The ancestry of the aquatic elves has granted them certain traits as result of millennia of adaptation to living underwater.
Age. Aquatic elves age at the same rate as other elves, reaching physical maturity at about the same age as humans. The elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth, however, to encompass worldly experience. An aquatic elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.
Size. Aquatic elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking and swimming speeds are 30 feet.
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
Protected Eyes. Aquatic elves have nictitating membranes that protect their eyes from the water in which they swim. You cannot be blinded by gases or liquids that reach your eyes and you have advantage on saving throws against Blindness.
Aquatic Elf, Deep
Cultural Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Wisdom by 1.
Alignment. Deep aquatic elf communities more often than not adopt a stoic attitude about the burdens and pressures they bear, both the literal water pressures of the depths and more metaphorical ones. As such they tend toward neutrality.
Inured to the Deeps. Deep aquatic elves spend time in the chilly waters of the depths. You have resistance to cold damage.
Magics of the Deep. Deep aquatic elven community members develop special magical abilities to aid them in the austere and challenging environments in which they live. You know the light cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the sanctuary spell once with this trait. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the hold person spell once with this trait, requiring no material components. You regain the ability to cast these spells with this trait when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Aquan.
Aquatic Elf, Freshwater
Cultural Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Intelligence by 1.
Alignment. Compared to the lively migrations of the sea elves and the dangers and darkness of the deeps, the lake aquatic elf communities live relatively quiet lives. They tend to form orderly communities and, as such favor law.
Lake Gardeners. Many lake aquatic elven communities focus on growing and harvesting various fisheries and sea plants. Given the limited size and nature of their environment, however, they take great care to achieve sustainable balance. You have proficiency in the Nature and Animal Handling skills.
The Magic of Stillness. Lake aquatic elven communities are defined by the stillness of their waters. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the sleep spell once with this trait. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the silence spell once with this trait, requiring no material components. You regain the ability to cast these spells with this trait when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Aquan.
Aquatic Elf, Sea
Cultural Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Charisma by 1.
Alignment. Sea aquatic elf communities tend to embrace the wide-open nature of the oceans, moving about freely and reveling in the variety of life in the reefs and surface waters. This joie de vivre tends them toward chaos.
Wandering Schools. Many sea aquatic elven communities migrate, following schools of fish and ocean life. Others prefer to remain in particular places for longer periods, forming homes from coral. Regardless, sea aquatic elves are skilled at finding their way around the waters. You have proficiency in the Survival skill.
Sea Speaker. Sea aquatic elves dwell among the schools of fish and creatures of the surface ocean waters. You can cast speak with animals at will with this trait, but you can target only beasts with a swim speed that are Medium or smaller.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Aquan.
The deep sea elf appears to be from this website: https://www.5esrd.com/database/race/aquatic-elf/
It appears to be completely homebrewed and unofficial. The official 5e srd is here https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/SRD-OGL_V5.1.pdf and doesn't mention them.
The so-called 5e SRD website has the following disclaimer: "This site is *not* intended to bring *only* official content from Wizards of the Coast, but instead to be a constantly growing resource of the best Open Game Content for 5e." ... so much if not all of the content found there is not official though of course folks are welcome to use whatever they like in the games they run.