Should Eladrin Be A Playable Race?
I like eladrin. They’re like elves, but… elfier. They invoke the mythic feeling of Tolkien’s Eldar elves. And after reading about them in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, I don’t want to let my players create eladrin characters.
Hear me out.
Flavors of Fantasy
I have two distinct tastes where high fantasy is concerned. I predominantly like to play in fantasy worlds even more cosmopolitan than traditional D&D settings. I like worlds where an arcanaloth can run a magic shop down the road from a post office run by an aarakocra. Planescape is a perfect example of this, a setting in which not just humans, but dwarves, elves, and halflings from comparatively mundane worlds like Faerûn feel like fish out of water. It takes fantasy to its logical, madcap extreme.
But I also like fantasy worlds like Tolkien’s Middle Earth or the Earth of Norse mythology, humanocentric realms where elves and dwarves are fantastical creatures on par with the fey or perhaps even fiends. In Middle Earth, elves are an ancient race so magnificent that they cannot remain in the world. They constantly hear the call of the Valar and must return to the Undying Lands of Valinor. They are beings of supreme supernatural power that no human could ever truly match.
D&D is not Middle Earth. Even in the grittier worlds of the D&D Multiverse, like Mordenkainen’s home realm of Greyhawk, humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings share a bespoke equality. They are all common races, as dictated by the Player’s Handbook. By casting elves as one of the common races of the Multiverse, D&D has made elves feel common. This is perfectly reasonable if you want to play a game of heightened fantasy in Planescape or heroic fantasy in the Forgotten Realms, but it does make it difficult to achieve that mythic Tolkienian feeling.
Enter the eladrin. If you want to recapture that mythic feeling in D&D, you should consider never letting your players play as them.
Who are the Eladrin?
“All kinds of elves live in the Feywild, but one subrace — the eladrin — has adopted it as their home. Of all the elves, eladrin are closest in form and ability to the first generation of elves. Some could pass for high elves, but most are distinctly eladrin in appearance: very slender, with hair and skin color determined by the season with which they feel the closest affinity. And their eyes often glimmer with fey magic.”
—Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
Okay, I was being a bit dramatic when I said you should never let your players play as an eladrin, but hear me out. Eladrin are elves who never left the Feywild, and thus are more akin to the elves’ fey ancestors in power and demeanor than their cousins who dwell on the Material Plane. They are to elves as elves are to humans; they take everything fantastical about the elves—their sense of whimsy, their elegant features and graceful motions, and smug sense of superiority—and turn it up to eleven. Even the high elves think it’s all a bit much.
In game terms, eladrin are an elven subrace that enjoy benefits such as a limited teleportation ability called Fey Step. Their most important trait, however, is their attunement to the seasons. An eladrin’s appearance, powers, and even elements of their personality can change with their season, which they can change whenever they complete a long rest.
Each one of the four seasons of eladrin also appears as a CR 10 monster in the Bestiary section. They’re chaotic neutral, so eladrin are a perfectly reasonable adversary for any group of adventurers to encounter, especially if their actions are harming nature or the Feywild, endangering the object of their powerful obsessions, or even just being a nuisance. As the haughtiest and most fey of the elves, eladrin are prone to fits of passion worthy of an Archfey.
No Players Allowed?
If you’re playing in a typical “heroic fantasy” D&D setting like the Forgotten Realms, the eladrin open new possibilities. By filling a similar mythic niche to the one that Tolkien’s Eldar elves occupied in The Lord of the Rings, the eladrin make it easier for Dungeon Masters to create realms in their campaign setting that possess the legendary mystique of Rivendell and Lothlorien; places just real enough to feel tangible, but also somehow greater than the mundane simplicity of home.
If you really want your players to view eladrin as an exalted people that stand apart from the troubles of the Material Plane, the easiest way to do this is to ask your players not to create eladrin characters. Thanks to all the new lore for elves presented in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, even playing a “regular” elf can be a novel experience.
If the tone of your game isn’t your concern, then you should also consider how an eladrin character will affect the cohesion of the adventuring party. Eladrin are forces of fickle chaos that consider themselves superior to nearly all other living beings. This is all excellent roleplaying fodder, but think about who you’re playing with for a moment. If your players are the kind to make trouble and then try to excuse it by saying “But I was just doing what my character would do,” then including eladrin as a playable subrace will probably hurt your campaign in the long run. Giving your players the option to play as fey or fey-adjacent characters is almost always a bad idea unless you have the emotional fortitude to take your problematic friends aside and try to work out a solution.
A Case for Eladrin as Player Characters
That said, there's no right way to play D&D. I wouldn't let my players create eladrin characters in a game with a mythic tone unless someone pitched me a really excellent reason, but that doesn't mean it could never work. Flatly banning a new player race might be a bridge too far for you. If one or more of your players are excited about this gorgeous and fantastical new type of elf, you should just let them play it. D&D is all about having a shared narrative experience, and your players’ choices should inform the narrative. Even choices as simple as “My character is an eladrin paladin who follows the Oath of the Ancients” can set the story on a wild and unexpected path, and it is your job as the Dungeon Master to embrace the chaos and learn to engage with the curveballs your players throw at you, so long as they’re doing so in good faith.
Eladrin characters fit cozily into games that embrace the wet-‘n-wild heightened fantasy of Planescape, but they are not so far from home in games of mythic fantasy. Legolas joined the Fellowship of the Ring, after all. In fact, Legolas is an excellent example of an elf (or in our case, eladrin) heightening the mythic tone of a story through his familiarity rather than detracting from it. The entire point of the Fellowship of the Ring was that all races of Middle Earth, even the exalted elves, had to band together in order to defeat the Dark Lord Sauron.
You can heighten the drama of your story if you frame your player’s eladrin character as an ominous portent—a sign that things have grown so dire that even the Feywild has sent its people into the Material Plane. Or, the eladrin character could be an outcast from their homeland, forced to wander the Material Plane estranged from their magical homeland.
Here’s a table of Ideals you can use for eladrin characters to explain why they have left the Feywild and have joined an adventuring party, all while maintaining the mythic feeling of their race. You can use these Ideals instead of (or in addition to) the Ideals suggested by your background.
d6 |
Ideal |
1 |
Duty. I was tasked with leaving the comfort of my homeland to undertake a quest that may save all worlds from destruction. (Good) |
2 |
Desperation. I fled the Feywild in order to save my own life, and… oh dear. I can’t figure out how to get back. (Any) |
3 |
Fate. I was called to this world by a mysterious voice on the wind. I suspect it was the guiding voice of Fate. (Lawful) |
4 |
Curiosity. You humans fascinate me, and… oh, by Corellon, you wood elves are so quaint! I simply must learn everything about you. (Chaotic) |
5 |
Exile. The Archfey are so fickle, even the tiniest slight could spell exile—or worse. Please, don’t ask what I did… I don’t want to talk about it. (Any) |
6 |
Despair. I care nothing for the eternal splendor of my homeland. All things were meant to die—and things in this realm die ever so quickly. (Evil) |
Eladrin in Your Campaign
Do the eladrin have a home in your campaign? If they didn’t before you read Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, will you try to create a niche for them? Adding new races and creatures to a carefully crafted campaign setting can be an exhausting task, and players asking to create a character of a race you never added to your setting can be the source of many hours of rewriting.
How have you handled eladrin in your home campaign?
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in a five-room apartment/dungeon in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and his two kitten-shaped fey tricksters, Mei and Marzipan. You can usually find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
"Kender as a halfling sub-race"
Yes, if you were going to include Kender as a PC race, that's how it should be done, but...
Outside of a Dragonlance setting book why on earth would you want to?
If anything you guys should add the vryloka back into 5e
What a poor understanding of Tolkien's elves and eladrins, how low must be cultural level and skill of storytelling of such dungeon master.
Doesn't worthy of more words.
In my campaign, Eladrins are affected by cold iron (i.e. any regular metal weapon) much like Demons are, both having vulnerability to it.
So, the prime material planes are fairly dangerous to Eladrins, and they mostly remains in the Feywild, where cold iron is rare.
Honestly, I'd have to disagree with banning any race from a campaign. One of my favorite characters I ever played was a neutral evil silver dragon mage. The reason I loved playing Silverstreak was because as the player, I had to hide my character's sociopathic tendencies from the rest of the party, all the while trying to further my own goals subjugation of the rest of the Blood Isles. Another character I loved was a neutral elven mage who became evil believing that he had to to save his people from human encroachment. His path to the dark side led him to becoming a playable vampire, and eventually a demon lord(unplayable). And the reason I loved these characters so much was because they were fantastical. They weren't the mundane dwarven fighter or lawful good paladin. In my opinion, characters like these sort of force role play and add depth to a campaign. D&D, of any edition, IS high fantasy. And as such, any race should be playable. In 5th edition, there is the dragonborn race. The dragonborn are a direct ripoff of Dragonlance's Draconians, who were purely evil. Yet now they're not and they're a playable race.
a player in my campain is gonna play as an eldrin druid
and created difrend spell list for all the seasons
I'm actually playing as an Eladrin in my group's current campaign, so needless to say, I disagree with your conclusion.
However, I've got something of an unusual case. The basic premise I approached my DM with was a person who believed he was a human nobleman but is actually a changeling (as per old celtic mythology) placed by a fey of some reknown, probably an archfey in game terms, with a geas to accomplish some long term goal. There's an actual changeling race around, but it didn't really fit what I was going for - seemed more like a playable doppelganger than a child of a Sidhe. So my DM suggested an Eladrin, under the effects of True Polymorph to maintain cover in a city where elves of any sort are ghettoized. Further to that cover, rather than having a youngster talk about dreams about being an elf in the feywild, because kids can't keep secrets, he's under the effects of a Memory Modify spell that strips him of any trace of his eladrin identity.
I'd expected to lose the modify memory and the geas first, since remove curse will wipe those both out along with whatever curse the cleric was actually trying to break, but apparently the BBEG is a sadist and decided to dispell the polymorph only. So I now have a week to figure out how someone raised in an elf-hating household will react to being seemingly turned into an elf, then having his more experienced allies tell him that it was a dispelling and that polymorph doesn't go permanent that fast... And when he wakes up, he also gets to react that he's gone from being an autumn orange elf to a winter white elf, because that's definitely what his mood is like.
I dunno. In a campaign I'm in, I'm playing an Eladrin cleric, and it works out rather well. Our DM likes to push races to the extreme, and We can't stop in town for people finding out about my heritage. Eladrin can work rather well, but it all depends on the campaign.
While I personally disagree with this article, it doesn't matter, because my group would NEVER let me get away with banning something that was AL legal.
Thank you, @TheKoboldHero. I hold a personal bias against elves, as I believe that they are over-played and slightly unbalanced. Humans, half-elves, and halflings are comparatively powerful and yet relatively uncommon. Many exotic races such as tiefling, dragonborn, and drow are overused and appear far too commonly to fit in the world.
An eladrin is an excellent addition to current elves...if only because their outside perspective lends itself to a fresh take on elves in general.
They do not have to embody the ultimate ideals of high elves...in fact, their chaotic nature means they can have distinct personalities entirely separate from what your typical "elf" might have.
I do enjoy the mechanic of shifting emotions...I flavored it as a good 'ol celestial eladrin who, upon receiving a task to investigate a looming threat on the Material Plane, ventured there to do some good...****y for his mind to fracture immediately upon arrival.
See, celestial eladrin have the divine spark they get from living in Arboria...and eladrin who leave their homeland lose that spark. My eladrin cannot cope with this, and is in flux with his emotional state...but he begins to see the merits of mortal emotions. Profound sadness from missing his home...the raw adrenaline from combat...it makes him more human than a typical elf. He begins to enjoy the company of humans, short-lived they may be.
Dipped a "Divine Soul" sorcerer for his celestial heritage...went into "College of Sword" bard for his main class. He is a bladedancer of Lliira...a goddess who dwells in his homeland. He protects beauty and innocence, while revelling in feasts and festivals...yeah, he's enjoying messing around with mortals.
At least, when he's not stuck in his Winter personality...then he's just a brooding, homesick mess.
A campaign with an Eladrin, Tiefling, Aasimar, Shadar-Kia, and one or all the different Genasi would be a fun one. All sent as representatives of their planes to defend against something truly destructive.
I can definitely see some players I’ve had that I wouldn’t want playing an Eladrin for the reasons you gave. However, I also have myself played an Eladrin as a player. I find it an experience that is great after you’ve played one or two other characters a fair amount, especially when designing your backstory. For me, my backstory didn’t tell a lot of he Feywild where he came from; it mentioned some of his past in terms of magic, his family, but then plunged into the tragedy that brought him to being an adventurer: his wife died of a disease that his abjuration magic couldn’t ward off. This made him seek something else he could protect, and sought to strengthen his magic. This led him to protecting the material plane, where he spent time as a guardian before a large threat arose which required that he find other worthy individuals of the task. This allows for a character who, I believe, fits for both that high Elven position and a more relatable position, and also gives a reason for why he’s here adventuring in the material plane.
Honestly, I had an Eladrin basically ruin a DnD group to the point where nobody really wanted to play anymore. It started with that player constantly just taking the spotlight with really overblown roleplaying, even when what he was doing made zero sense, and then devolved into him metagaming his seasons thing to get different spells. Even after talking with him about it, he kept going until we finally decided to just stop meeting.
I feel like this entire arguement falls apart once you notice that Legolas was still in the party.
DMs are not the only ones who enjoy weaving an aura of ancient alien qualifies into characters. I quite enjoy trying to capture and portray something wholely unique and frankly I think I often do better at it than my DMs do. My DMs have other talents, this is my talent. DnD is about collaborative world building. Sometimes the best DMs sit back and let players do their work with world building for them. Allowing a player to create and expand upon the more mystical elves via their player character can be a highly rewarding experience.
I love the Eldrain and I think that you are very right about them, and very wrong. The Eldrain Personality change with their seasonal form. They are very chaotic, but the DM could say, "Okay, you can only change your season when the appropriate season changes, and only in that order, so, start at summer, go to fall when the season changes, and so on and so forth" They are chaotic, but any good DM probably has many loose cannons already and has some ropes to bind them, so it is not a good race for a new DM, but for a seasoned one, it is a good race. I do like your idea, and the ideals, but I think that you were slightly incorrect.
yup
Good article.
Having witnessed two players in two campaigns play Eladrin now, I am inclined to let them join a campaign subject to a simple yes/no question: "Are you prepared to play this character as a strange and wondrous creature in a world much more mundane by comparison?" It is clear the DMs of said campaigns did NOT ask that question beforehand, or if so, did not receive an honest answer: All I get is "sullen warlock" and "naïve party girl". Disappointing.
Eladrin should be a player character race separate from Elves, because I think that some elven racial traits don't really suit Eladrin and the subrace needs to be more Eladrin and less Elf.
I don't think that a race should be "banned" because some lore on them can cause you to see them like this.
I have in my world dwarves of great power, CR 10 and higher - yet my player character is a dwarf, and it doesn't change anything
And another player is a satyr and they are not ruining anything by being fey.
It is not eladrin that cause these problems but rather the limited and very strong words based reading of lore that this article makes