Elf
As an ancient people, elves have seen great change and have the perspective that can come only from watching the arc of history. Elves value kindness, intellect, and beauty, with many elves striving to improve their manners, appearance, and culture. Their studies delve into a level of detail that most shorter-lived peoples find excessive or inefficient. Elves are often rather private people, steeped in the secrets of their groves and kinship groups. They're slow to build friendships outside their kinsfolk, as elves who spend their lives among shorter-lived peoples often become morose after watching generations of companions age and die.
SUB-ETHNICITIES
Ancient
In your long life, you've dabbled in many paths and many styles. A typical ancient elf is at least 100 years old, though you might be younger at the GM's discretion. Choose a class other than your own. You gain the multiclass dedication feat for that class, even though you don't meet its level prerequisite. You must still meet its other prerequisites to gain the feat.
Arctic
You dwell deep in the frozen north and have gained incredible resilience against cold environments, granting you cold resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1). You treat environmental cold effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible cold becomes extreme, extreme cold becomes severe, and so on).
Cavern
You were born or spent many years in underground tunnels or caverns where light is scarce. You gain darkvision.
Desert
You live under the desert's blazing heat, gaining incredible resilience to warm environments. You gain fire resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1), and environmental heat effects are one step less extreme for you (incredible heat becomes extreme, extreme heat becomes severe, and so on).
Seer
You have an inborn ability to detect and understand magical phenomena. You can cast the detect magic cantrip as an arcane innate spell at will. A cantrip is heightened to a spell rank equal to half your level rounded up. In addition, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to checks to Identify Magic and to Decipher Writing of a magical nature. These skill actions typically use the Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion skill.
Whisper
Your ears are finely tuned, able to detect even the slightest whispers of sound. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus when using the Seek action to find hidden or undetected creatures within 30 feet of you. When you target an opponent that is concealed from you or hidden from you, reduce the DC of the flat check to 3 for a concealed target or 9 for a hidden one. This benefit doesn't apply if you can't hear or if the creature is incapable of making sound (for example, if it's affected by a silence spell).
Woodland
You're adapted to life in the forest, the deep jungle, or a similar environment, and you know how to climb trees and use foliage to your advantage. When Climbing trees, vines, and other foliage, you move at half your Speed on a success and at full Speed on a critical success (and you move at full Speed on a success if you have Quick Climb). This doesn't affect you if you're using a climb Speed.
You can always use the Take Cover action when you are within forest terrain to gain cover, even if you're not next to an obstacle you can Take Cover behind.
Drow
As a drow, you are infused with the magic of the Underdark, an underground realm of wonders and horrors rarely seen on the surface above. You are at home in shadows and, thanks to your innate magic, learn to conjure forth both light and darkness. Your kin tend to have stark white hair and grayish skin of many hues.
The cult of the god Lolth, Queen of Spiders, has corrupted some of the oldest drow cities, especially in the worlds of Oerth and Toril. Eberron, Krynn, and other realms have escaped the cult's influence—for now. Wherever the cult lurks, drow heroes stand on the front lines in the war against it, seeking to sunder Lolth's web.
High/Sun
As a high elf, you have a keen mind and a mastery of at least the basics of magic. In many of the worlds of D&D, there are two kinds of high elves. One type (which includes the gray elves and valley elves of Greyhawk, the Silvanesti of Dragonlance, and the sun elves of the Forgotten Realms) is haughty and reclusive, believing themselves to be superior to non-elves and even other elves. The other type (including the high elves of Greyhawk, the Qualinesti of Dragonlance, and the moon elves of the Forgotten Realms) are more common and more friendly, and often encountered among humans and other races.
The sun elves of Faerun (also called gold elves or sunrise elves) have bronze skin and hair of copper, black, or golden blond. Their eyes are golden, silver, or black. Moon elves (also called silver elves or gray elves) are much paler, with alabaster skin sometimes tinged with blue. They often have hair of silver-white, black, or blue, but various shades of blond, brown, and red are not uncommon. Their eyes are blue or green and flecked with gold.
Pallid/Moon
The pallid elves are a mystical and insightful people with skin as pale as the surface of Exandria's largest moon. They emerged from the Pallid Grove this century and wander the world with childlike curiosity.
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.
Sea
Sea elves fell in love with the wild beauty of the ocean in the earliest days of the multiverse. While other elves traveled from realm to realm, the sea elves navigated the deepest currents and explored the waters across a hundred worlds. Today, they live in small, hidden communities in the ocean shallows and on the Elemental Plane of Water.
Shadow
Sworn to the Raven Queen's service, the mysterious shadar-kai venture into the Material Plane from the Shadowfell to advance her will. Once they were fey like the rest of their elven kin, and now they exist in a strange state between life and death. Eladrin and shadar-kai are like reflections of each other: one bursting with emotion, the other nearly devoid of it.
While generally taller than humans, elves possess a fragile grace, accentuated by long features and sharply pointed ears. Their eyes are wide and rounded, featuring large and often vibrantly colored pupils that make up the entire visible portion of the eye. These pupils give them an alien look and allow them to see sharply even in very little light.
Elves gradually adapt to their environment and their companions, and they often take on physical traits reflecting their surroundings. An elf who has dwelled in primeval forests for centuries, for example, might exhibit verdant hair and gnarled fingers, while one who's lived in a desert might have golden pupils and skin. Elves reach physical adulthood around the age of 20, though they aren't considered to be fully emotionally mature by other elves until closer to the passing of their first century. A typical elf can live to anywhere between 600 & 900 years old.
The inborn patience and intellectual curiosity of elves make them excellent sages, philosophers, and wizards, and their societies are built upon their inherent sense of wonder and knowledge.
Elves hold deeply seated ideals of individualism, allowing each elf to explore multiple occupations before alighting on a particular pursuit or passion that suits her best. Elves bear notorious grudges against rivals, but these antagonistic relationships can sometimes blossom into friendships over time. An elf keeps their personal name secret among their family, while giving a nickname when meeting other people. Elves, due to their intimate relationship with the Arcane, known all to well to keep their true names a secret. A single elf might be known by many names by associates of different ages and regions.
Elven names consist of multiple syllables and are meant to flow lyrically—at least in the Elven tongue.
Elves are often emotional and capricious, yet they hold high ideals close to their hearts. They prefer deities who share their love of all things mystic and artistic.
Popular Edicts find beauty in nature and art, explore things others would keep hidden, demonstrate superiority to your rival
Popular Anathema abandon your own path, force another creature to do something
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