Homebrew Blood Elf Species Details

Blood elves are spread out far and wide, restrained to not one particular city or continent, but rather, appearing any and everywhere. The outcasts of the Elven hierarchy, they are often considered the taboo black sheep most other elves would prefer to ignore. However, blood elves have been a topic of fascination for mages and scholars for centuries, since their first documented appearance.

Perhaps it’s the rumors that surround them regarding their equally blessed and cursed countenances, or maybe it has more to do with their close-fisted secrecy when it comes to the mystical qualities of their blood.

Blood Elf Origins 

Blood elves are divided by their bloodlines––oftentimes, they can trace their lineages back to their very first progenitor. Every bloodline has their own story of how they came to be, with some descending from champions of the gods of blood and bone, while others are the result of several centuries of irreversible blood sorcery. Whatever the case, almost every family's history is rich with lore and rife with outside speculation.

The Bloodline Origins table provides suggestions on the origin of your character's blood elf bloodline. Roll randomly or work with your Dungeon Master to determine how the bloodline came to be.

Bloodline Origins 

BLOOD DISPOSITIONS 

Every blood elf's bloodline has blood that manifests and appears differently. One blood elf may be pale and wan, due to their blood being sickly and thin. Another may be perpetually flushed due to their blood being robust and bright. While it serves no mechanical benefit, it's important to consider how your character bleeds and how the blood symbolizes the origins of the lineage.

Roll on or choose an option from the Blood Temperament table to determine what your character's blood looks like.

Blood Temperaments 

 

Blood Elf Traits

As a blood elf, you have the following racial traits.

Age

Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old. 

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Dexterity score increases by 1. 

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid but are also considered an elf for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be an elf.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. 

Size

Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep. 

Hematic Curse

When you are taken down to half your hit point maximum, choose between making all Dexterity saving throws or all Constitution saving throws with disadvantage. 

This effect ends when you are healed back over half your hit point maximum and can be triggered any time you are at half-health. 

Sanguine Gift

When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can call on the strength of your bloodline to imbue yourself with a measure of fortitude. Instead of being knocked unconscious, you can sacrifice a hit die to instead regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus you proficiency bonus. 

You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Trance

Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.