Homebrew Arctic Elf Species Details
Elves are a magical people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it. They live in places of ethereal beauty, in the midst of ancient forests or in silvery spires glittering with faerie light, where soft music drifts through the air and gentle fragrances waft on the breeze. Elves love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world.
SLENDER AND GRACEFUL
With their unearthly grace and fine features, elves appear hauntingly beautiful to humans and members of many other races. They are slightly shorter than humans on average, ranging from well under 5 feet tall to just over 6 feet. They are more slender than humans, weighing only 100 to 145 pounds. Males and females are about the same height, and males are only marginally heavier than females. Elves’ coloration encompasses the normal human range and also includes skin in shades of copper, bronze, and almost bluish-white, hair of green or blue, and eyes like pools of liquid gold or silver. Elves have no facial and little body hair. They favor elegant clothing in bright colors, and they enjoy simple yet lovely jewelry.
A TIMELESS PERSPECTIVE
Elves can live well over 700 years, giving them a broad perspective on events that might trouble the shorter-lived races more deeply. They are more often amused than excited, and more likely to be curious than greedy. They tend to remain aloof and unfazed by petty happenstance. When pursuing a goal, however, whether adventuring on a mission or learning a new skill or art, elves can be focused and relentless. They are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. They reply to petty insults with disdain and to serious insults with vengeance.
ARCTIC SUBRACE
Arctic elves typically dwell in frozen tundras or atop snowy mountains. Arctic elves typically do not stray from their homelands; adventure and travel is difficult due to their inability to withstand warm climates. Thousands of years of evolution resulted in the arctic elves having skin that is smooth like ice, but incomparably strong against the colder weather. Arctic elves can have skin ranging from white to blue, and almost all of them have white hair though some do have blue hair. Due to their immunity to cold damage and frozen climates; they have a natural resistance to disease.
In most areas of Avelor, arctic elves are referred to as simply the snow elves. The arctic elves that do adventure and travel from their home continent of Borealis often stay north, or find areas where they can manipulate the terrain and weather enough to allow them survivable conditions.
Arctic Elf Traits
Your elf character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of thousands of years of elven refinement.Coldskin
Due to growing up in a land plagued by snowstorms, blizzards, and ice, your evolution has resulted in your defining feature to be bright and brilliant fully blue eyes.
Frozen Blood
As your blood flows slower, you take longer to bleed out. Creatures that perform Medicine checks on you have advantage.
Immunities/Vulnerabilities
You are immune to cold damage and resistant to lightning damage, but your affinity for cold climates leaves you vulnerable to fire damage.
Ability Score Increase
Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
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.
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
Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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.
Keen Senses
You have proficiency in the Perception, Survival, and Stealth skills. When in a frozen or snowy environment, you double your proficiency bonus for any Stealth checks.
Fey Ancestry
You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
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.
Frostvision
Even in conditions that would result in another race being unable to see their surrounding, like blizzard conditions or extreme frozen wind, your vision is not impaired. You maintain your full field of vision and take no lasting effects or damage.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.
Child of Winter
You know the Ice Knife and Ray of Frost cantrips.
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