Wood Elf

Wood Elf Features

Source: The Player's Handbook As a wood elf, you have keen senses and intuition, and your fleet feet carry you quickly and stealthily through your native forests. This category includes the wild elves
Ability Scores Dex +2; Wis +1
Speed 35 ft.
Size Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
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 skill.
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. If you meditate during a long rest, you finish the rest after only 4 hours. You otherwise obey all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed.
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.
Elf Weapon Training You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
Fleet of Foot Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
Mask of the Wild You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

Basic Information

Ecology and Habitats

Most elves dwell in small forest villages hidden among the trees. Elves hunt game, gather food, and grow vegetables, and their skill and magic allow them to support themselves without the need for clearing and plowing land. They are talented artisans, crafting finely worked clothes and art objects. Their contact with outsiders is usually limited, though a few elves make a good living by trading crafted items for metals (which they have no interest in mining). Elves encountered outside their own lands are commonly traveling minstrels, artists, or sages. Human nobles compete for the services of elf instructors to teach swordplay or magic to their children.

Behaviour

Elves 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. Like the branches of a young tree, elves are flexible in the face of danger. They trust in diplomacy and compromise to resolve differences before they escalate to violence. They have been known to retreat from intrusions into their woodland homes, confident that they can simply wait the invaders out. But when the need arises, elves reveal a stern martial side, demonstrating skill with sword, bow, and strategy.
Elves take up adventuring out of wanderlust. Since they are so long-lived, they can enjoy centuries of exploration and discovery. They dislike the pace of human society, which is regimented from day to day but constantly changing over decades, so they find careers that let them travel freely and set their own pace. Elves also enjoy exercising their martial prowess or gaining greater magical power, and adventuring allows them to do so. Some might join with rebels fighting against oppression, and others might become champions of moral causes.
Although they can be haughty, elves are generally gracious - even to those who fall short of their high expectations - which is most non-elves. Still, they can find good in just about anyone.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Their hair tends toward browns and blacks, but it is occasionally blond or copper-colored. Their eyes are green, brown, or hazel.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Elves are considered children until they declare themselves adults, some time after the hundredth birthday, and before this period they are called by child names. On declaring adulthood, an elf selects an adult name, although those who knew him or her as a youngster might continue to use the child name. Each elf's adult name is a unique creation, though it might reflect the names of respected individuals or other family members. Little distinction exists between male names and female names; the groupings here reflect only general tendencies. In addition, every elf bears a family name, typically a combination of other Elvish words. Some elves traveling among humans translate their family names into Common, but others retain the Elvish version.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Elvish

Notable Characters

• Gwyn 
• Sebastion Willhollow  (Half)
• Kaster Myrdin 
• Phoebe Willhollow  (Quarter)

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Elf

Scientific Name

Humanoid

Lifespan

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 can live well over 700 years.

Average Height

They range from well over 5ft to just over 6ft.

Average Weight

They are more slender than humans, weighing only 100 to 145 pounds. Males typically weigh more than females.

Average Physique

They are very tall and slender.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Wood elves' skin tends to be copperish in hue, sometimes with traces of green.