Graduated school at 30 and then had 50 years of mandatory military service. 20 years for Spring Break equivalence. Then filling out paperwork to go be and adventurer. Boom. Done.
Elves physically mature at about the same rate as humans. They aren't considered a full member of society till around 100, true, but in the timeframe we're emulating most cultures allowed young adults and even children of a certain age to drink. Even if it was, in some cases, extremely low in alcohol content. I would not be surprised if most elven cultures allow most elves to drink once they're in their 20s.
On Earth different cultures have different ages for drinking.
Elves have decided that 100 years is when someone is physically and mentally adult. Thus if you're human you'll most likely die before you reach the legal drinking age in an elven city. That's why so many people think elves are stuck up and too reserved.
This also explains why there's so many half elves. Twenty year old elves go to human settlements, get drunk, etc..
Then there's the dwarves who serve alcohol in sippy cups. That's why everybody loves dwarves.
"Well, of course in my first couple of decades, I spent as a mere child, raised and taught as every child is, about our rich history dating all the way back to the Seldarine, and the Blood War between Corellon Larethian and Gruumsh. During my next three decades, I spent most of my days deep in study of every style of swordsmanship, and had many partners, from the soldiers of Neverwinter, to an ambassador from Chult, and many more. Of course, while I practiced the blade, I experimented in magical theory of the Weave, and its deeper connections between myself and the world, I lost myself in the void of this for at least a decade, then, by my 50th birthday, I decided to explore my options for work, and found myself in a wanderlust. Of course, I'd never procreate with any woman, but a good number of ladies graced the side of my bed in the 20 years that followed. Finally, I had decided that society was harsh, but I had not yet experienced the true harshness of the world, and spent the years leading up to my naming ceremony in the wilderness, bringing nothing with me, save the clothes on my back, I became an adept carpenter, and made my own bow and armor, and as I claimed my name, I has decided that I was a Hunter, and that there would be no prey too great for my skills."
His human companion: "Yeah, I accidentally called a devil when I was 12, and now I can shoot lasers out of my index fingers, and speak every language."
I actually covered that completely, while the 100 years of experience is vaster, I wrote a backstory that included three keen details: a high proficiency with swordsmanship, study in magical theory, or knowledge of the arcane, basic knowledge of history, and High proficiency in survival, as well a a reason to use the outlander background, am the reason to be a Ranger.
I never mentioned any great creature the character fought, regions they traveled, just basic experiences that determine proficiencies.
It's also to note, that 100 years is just full adult age, physically they hit adult age much sooner, but their true adulthood is determined by experience, so it could very well be that by the 100th year they'd have much more experience
100 is just when most elves consider the children to be adults. Maybe you broke the mold. Or that’s just what the age of adulthood is culturally, but not physically.
It is not the physical adulthood. Elven children grow, in DnD, exactly as fast as human ones.
But elves are of the idea that physical maturity is not a good way to determine adulthood, especially when they, because of the lore, have another point.
Which is, like someone else said, the moment they start to revisit their own memories, instead of their past lives', during Trance, at around 100 years old.
Yes, in previous editions it was made clear that until they are around 100 years old, elves can relive memories of their past lives during Trance, as opposed to their own
Or they just spent a long time doing something. It's like the Elven equivalent of going backpacking through Europe for a year except on a longer time scale. You took that 30 years off to go work at a bed and breakfast because you liked the view.
Eh, it’d be more logical if we ever actually met one of those slow elves. As it stands they’re literally better in everything then humans *and* are more intelligent so they pick things up faster. Logically speaking they should have achieved *even more* then a humand would in those 100 years
Like, we can find dozens of excuses for it, but at the end of the day it’s just sloppy writing
> Eh, it’d be more logical if we ever actually met one of those slow elves.
I mean, has your DM only had humans be level 0 non combatants? NPCs don't level like PCs, and even if they did, it'd make perfect sense for Glorfinmad the elvish alpaca herder to spend his whole life as a level 0 non combatant because he's only ever doing stuff that, for PCs, would be glossed over in a few sentences by the DM. It's the same reason being 50 years old in real life doesn't automatically mean you'll be a master at anything except for making terrible jokes.
Even if we get in to high level characters, them being high level in the first place is the exception, not the rule, so there's nothing forcing them to get even higher level. Erandis d'Vol is an ancient elvish lich who has spent CENTURIES masquerading as a goddess, and she has stayed at about level 16 for the whole time because nothing has given her a reason to do much beyond maintain her current level of power. She's already the strongest wizard in the world as far as she knows, she already has nations under her thumb, she already has countless people doing all the necessary legwork to unearth he ancient secrets she needs to learn to complete her goal of restoring the House of Vol, so why WOULDN'T she spend her free time watching the latest rendition of Orkthello? Or knitting?
I think it was a pathfinder book where I read that their crafstmen have a habit of doing shit like staring at a block of wood all day and cutting it once. Honestly I think they're a perfect metaphor for players with analysis paralysis that spend the entire session arguing how to approach a door that turns out to not even be locked.
If you live your whole life like that... I guess it isn't surprising if you don't have a lot to show for it after a a paltry century.
The way I do it, elves' lives are like a candle, long lasting but is a slow and steady flame, practical and deliberate. Human lives are like fireworks, brief but vibrant, heard and seen by everyone.
The vast majority of humans in DnD don't even have the drive, talent, training, or opportunities to even reach level 1. For an elf, that's got to be orders of magnitude worse.
Had a PF1e character that was an accountant. He had a mid-life crisis and decided to become an adventurer. After recovering from being feeble-minded by a genie, he decided to go back to being an accountant.
Alternatively since they age very slowly you can do an elf village as a very sedate lost in time kind of deal where nothing much really happens like they take a month to think things over, ent style, and simply write a shorter backstory from when they left said village
I think so. By the time I was twenty there had been two gulf wars, two attacks on the World Trade Center, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Columbine, OKC bombing, the rise of the internet, my hometown getting hit with a tornado wrecking swaths of the town.
While I witnessed it all, all I did during that time was go to school, learn my theatre/writing skills, hunker down when things happened, earn an Eagle Scout rank and work a few jobs.
Unless said character is directly impacted by historical events or played a pivotal role, you don’t really need to state everything they did. It’s your character. Their interaction with history is up to you. Not inevitable and not dictated by anything than the needs of your character and your story.
Not really? They are biologically adults at ~the same time as humans, its just they are considered too inexperienced to be considered full adults by other elves. Kinda like being 21 is technically adult age, but its not the same as 30 ig
Socially and emotionally, yes. But they reach physical maturity in their teens/20s. In FR lore they're considered adults when they can no longer recall memories of elf heaven from their pre-birth afterlives.
Regardless, "I fucked about in the woods for 80+ years then a dwarf threw mud at me and I spaghetti'ed and ran to the nearest town and here I am" is completely valid.
There's the Ember elf character in the Wrath of the Righteous video game. She says to one of the other characters, "We used to play together, but then you grew up and started doing adult things. Don't you remember?"
My first character was actually an elf raised in a human town. His impetus for adventuring was that all his childhood friends had died of old age. Without those ties to the community he felt it was time to move on.
Elves aren't considered adults until they are 100. Physically, there isn't a huge difference between a 16 year old human, and a 22 year old human, but there's a big gulf in maturity and emotional intelligence. Elves have a reputation for being wise. They don't need some immature "teen" elves running around being idiots. They keep those fools locked up learning history, poetry, genealogies, etiquette, and whatnot.
I rp my 83 year old elf with the emotional maturity of a 17 year old human. Very idealistic, passionate about changing the world, full of ideas she thinks have never been thought before. Basically, she's the protagonist of a historical coming of age story.
"Well see I was a court clerk for about 40 years, before I had my mid-life crisis and became an adventurer. Unfortunately understanding patent law doesn't translate to being good at stabbing."
DnD is full of mundane guys who aren't particularly good at fighting, much like a level 1 human fighter is relatively new to the career so should a level 1 elf regardless of age.
I made it work with my 240 year old druid I think.
"Yeah, I was born in a circle and they taught me all this stuff but they were just too....stifling for me. Left first chance I got and ever since I've just been wanderin'. Picked up a few tricks here and there, figured out woodworking and let my magic grow but never really focused on it. I mean, didn't really *need* much more then I already had, right?"
Important to note, in that setting elves are fully immortal unless killed. So even *less* motivation to get things done, especially for a carefree soul.
…how complicated do you need it to be? You just need important moments and elves just spend longer times doing stuff like training or learning.
“I spent 60 years being trained by my village in basic education, 30 learning the way of the warrior, spent 10 as a guardian of the woods. Then the big bad destroyed my village. I adventure to raise money for the survivors and to seek revenge.”
Do people need to catalogue every action year by year? Just extend the time.
Now excuse me, I have other comedy memes to overreact to.
Only if you want to get that detailed, most PCs only need the CliffsNotes version of family, friends, explanation for personality traits, and motivation for adventuring to get the point across. Even then, you'd be surprised how few pages you can fit a biography into, even diaries experience dry spells.
Don't tease me with a good time as I describe in great detail how I percured every dang peble for my 1st decade kindergardener class making sculptures for my dad who doesn't approve of my 3 marks I got wrong on my herbology class.
Father then sent me to obo class when I specifically requested birch flute class. I have even carved my own Reed. Mother still loved me. We went to the market for a new pair of Skepniers slippers so that the camp bunk would not touch my as she called it "perfect feet".
5 years later.
Unfortunately, my 37 years younger brother has father angry. He decided to get engaged with this country human. I decided to tell father off and his ring left a scar. Mother offered to heal it but my thoughts upon it have left it upon my face. Brother was exiled to the humans kingdom and I dear say I fear for my dear brother, and even though I am a teenager of 140 who has yet to graduate from my classes, I set off to the world as an adventurer.
I didn't choose to be an obo playing bard. No I snapped that over my kneecap and as a raging barbarian on account of my unprecedented elf rage towards my father.
No problem with making these types of characters, but people who struggle to even fathom how older dwarven, gnomish or elven characters can be weak or lack immense knowledge or expertise in everything are too set in the adventurer mentality.
Maybe your character \*hasn't\* been an adventurer their whole life.
The idea that dwarves are adults at 50 or elves at 100 isn't because of biological or longevity reasons - people tend to misinterpret cultural nuance with biology and stats in 5e's races because they overlook the "to each their own" precept WotC goes by that assumes the races keep to themselves and to their cultures, kind of as if they were ethnicities and not just different humanoid species - but it's rather that, to elves and dwarves, you have specific experiences, preparations and study of a rich, milenia old culture ("ideally") before you're ready to set out and do your own thing, or to settle down and start a career.
It's that adventurer syndrome telling you "my character wouldn't **just waste their time**! they were a mage at 6 and learned the sword at 9 and um... shit, don't they live to 750? ummmm well this is hard. It doesn't add up."
Elves have no reason to rush... until you decide that, actually, they do!
Maybe your elf was raised among humans, or halflings. Elves still physically mature at the same rate as humans. The 100 year old mark is an "average" for elves from elven society. Maybe you earned your adulthood before that, and there's no problem with it!
Lots of wandering around and trying things but never really doing most of it long to get good until you get a bit older. My understanding from earlier 3.5 books is that elves tend to burn a lot of time, even once they were out of the helpless childhood stage, getting distracted by new hobbies, interests, jobs, or people until they get older and used to actual self discipline enough to commit to something. And even then the details they can get obsessed with can lead them to get real focused on a specific part. So you might have spent 10 years learning to use a sword because you had to keep starting from scratch due to wandering off for year here or there due to some newfound interest, and then spending a year obsessed with trying to figure out the most comfortable, efficient, practical, and aesthetic way to wear your sword , only realizing its the way you were taught in the first place by your master (who'd had the same problem as a young elf) in the end. And that's not even \*really\* considering just mundane, youthful relaxing and sleeping in style stuff.
So when writing their backstory you can sortof focus on the relevant parts and their tribulations in learning them (the parts that affected their class or attributes, for example) and gloss over lots of other parts because you may not even remember them. Which can be fun for us as DMs and also fun for you as the player because its so easy to include the good version of the whole "For you it was a critical part of your life, for me it was just another month and I was absolutely blasted on some new fungus I'd just learned about". I mean think of how carefree you are with a single Saturday, then consider that elves probably treat entire weeks, if not months or year long spans in the same (if not even more) relaxed way.
Unironically, this is partially why i do not, will not, cannot play as elves.
The idea of going on an adventure with friends who, if they survive said adventure, will die of old age by the time you're about a fifth the way through your own. Its one of the few things that causes me existential distress.
I like the opposite half orcs. Even if we all survive this I’m probably not living past 60. While so while the party’s enjoying the beer belly and sports watching age Dunch is dying the corner.
Currently playing an elf Rune Knight— he spent more than three decades living among the (longer-lived and equally slow-paced) stone giants, and has only learned the basics of the runic arts at the beginning of his journey.
LOTS of time watching the sunsets/sunrises, Oh, look a butterfly...swordfighting? Sure, I've got a couple decades to kill...ooop, that's a war don'tcha know....talking to squirrels for a few weeks (they never talked back :'( ) I uh, guess? I'm a druid?! But I went to wizard collage for like 8 years...time I learned alot about magic. Graduation came, but I didn't go because I saw rainbow so, not that. And, now I'm here. How old? I don't know, hunred 'n sumthin'? Not more then 50, prolly. Oh, I planted a tree after wizard school, we can go ask 'im!
I had an idea for a character at one point who's an unknown race that, among other extreme quirks, also can't die of age, and has been around since the formation of the universe. I loved the character concept so much.
And then I started writing their backstory.
Never again.
My elf was 60 years old and he was just finishing his school work and snuck out of the fey wild to chase a dream. 60 years and I made a big deal about his first party, first love, second love etc etc. Time is not equal 😁
Not only that but also just trying to figure out the mentality they would have, and what a lifespan like that would mean for how they see any given situation.
I had a blast structing one for my 173 y/o drow. Did a bit of research on when coming of age is and when they leave school. also helped that i could throw in that he go snapped up by a woman, as handsome men tend to, to block out a bunch of time. And then his marriage once he escaped to a human woman...
Honestly saying they were raising a family who have now all passed from old age is a good time filler.
I’ve have a friend who recently started playing dnd. He was so excited and went full edge mode. His backstory was over 10 pages long and super boring/edgy. He read it out loud very passionately, but everyone at the table was just cringing. Really awkward 15 minutes xD
I played an old elf that was a level 19 warlock and 1 level wizard in their pre caimpaign stuff. Spent a 100 years with the family but went fuck this noble bullshit its boring.
Decided to join a cult and go around the world doing drugs and preaching about their new lord. Also doing some terrible stuff like sacrificing people to their patron and the like. Met a wife after 150 years or so.
Then they decided that they wanted to become immortal with their wife and other warlock friends. Managed to get most of the stuff together just was a pity part of it was sacrificing their patron. So it failed lost all their warlock levels and decided to become a wizard. And that was when they met everybody for the caimpaign.
They were like 400 at the time too so roughly 40 years old. I miss that character. They partied hard to play hard haha.
Done this before but ended up going far beyond 100+ years to make the character feel alien to the world around him. Then to add to all that I basically just made him confused on his own past simply by virtue of how long he had lived as memories started to bleed together.
I also usually talk to my DM and basically just fill in the blanks if they feel like it, which occassionall would lead to fun little threads of a past the character had forgotten about already.
During 200 years he fought a lot of battles, won a lot of wars, killed a lot of creatures, had an amazing experience but a rock hit his head and he forgot everything so that's why he's lvl 1.
Elves arent as active as humans though. 100 years is just a young adult, so what they did is pretty standard for a young adult in a dnd world. Mostly education, socializing and working. With a tiny bit a fluff that leads them to become an adventurer.
Had an elf bard who spent 70 or something years at uni, he failed several times because he spent more focus on partying rather than studying. So yeah more like 65 years or something he spent being drunk until the money his parents gave him ran out
Try making an elf with 20-40 year backstory then! Its not that you are a baby till 100 years. Especially fun if you dont tell your party at the start. No one expects an elf younger than 100 to be out in the world
Make it rather unremarkable since you know elves don't need to be in a hurry at all. It would make sense for them to spend decades simples mastering a very particular skill like singing, meditating or pottery.
Isn't the whole idea behind elves and such being the same level as humans that they *haven't* had epic backstories? Like they live life slow and steady and take a really long time to so anything.
I mean...there's also perspective of the level 1 majority of the world:
That awful monster you killed, The Terror of the Deep Wood?
Actually just a Dire Wolf with a couple aesthetic mutations who rolled max hp.
An absolutely monstrous killing machine compared to level 1 PCs and NPCs who just **wont go down** when doing it on your own. Becomes "rally a mob" worthy if there's an honest to god Pack of them as their would be via their assumed organization.
Their stealth is somewhat decent and assuming average rolls will beat some passive perceptions. Sneaky huge murder beasts make for a great story.
Especially if they were driven out from their normal hunting grounds and accidentally gored/maimed somebody you cared about. Built in motivation to hunt the creature down for you and your childhood friends/members of the community. Don't need your whole home burning down.
Between your band's methodical hunting practices, desire to not simply just slash and burn the environment because you rely on it too (directly for resources, indirectly for the actual game you hunt), and the difficulty of finding the beasts....you begin looking into the base issue of the problem.
The overtaxing of game in certain regions that this dire wolf and their pack called home forced them to begin branching further out. In certain directions they couldn't hunt, either because of geography or a more dangerous predator having claimed there which only naturally led them to your settlement and the tragedy that befell them.
Now forearmed with the knowledge of the why, you're left with what to do. Helping find better methods of hunting and alternatives would possibly prevent this problem from happening again. Putting down the wolves who now know the taste of elf flesh means that threat is quelled. Do you do one? the other? Both? Do you kill the wolves first or work to change your village's hunting practices first? Do you try to relocate the wolves? Or even get the help of more experienced trappers and arcanists to try and tame/domesticate them?
With how Elves are slow to change, this one basic story beat could've taken years to **decades** to fully resolve. Doubly so if you went the tame route, as now you're clearly going to be drafted to help get them acclimated to life in your village, which means you're sticking around long enough for one or two wolf generations to help rear the new pups.
I just did up a high elf wizard a couple weeks back and inadvertently did this. It’s about a page and a quarter in word but I also wrote out a list of bullet points for the main stuff for the DM if they don’t feel like reading it all. It just flowed pretty easily so I wrote it. But that doesn’t mean anyone else will care to read it.
Something something daddy issues something something friend died something became a wanderer.
(Can’t have them do too much, unless they are starting at a higher level)
Not really. Elves tend to hyper focus on one thing or another for about 50 years before moving on to something else. So for the first 100 years, they are just kids doing kid things. The next 50, they are farmers. The next 50 they study magic. Now on the current 50, they are an adventuring wizard. Done, fill in the blanks from there.
You can study something without learn practical uses for it. They may have studied the history of magic, magical theory, and the effect of magic under certain conditions but not how to fling spells around and only start learning practical uses during their adventuring days.
Backstory of my elf Ranger:
“He watched his family get slaughtered by orcs when he was a child of merely 30 years. He then lived in the woods learning to survive and kill orcs before eventually wandering into Waterdeep.”
I had an elf once. They were on their third career, thus explaining their age and also handily allowing me to explain apparently non-overlapping customization choices.
Ah, yes. I think I can help.
You were a knight in the royal guard, protecting the princess. Your kingdom came under attack and you were mortally wounded and your princess threw you in a magic tub to recover. You awoke from a relaxing soak 100yrs later with amnesia, and remember nothing. Like, what are pants? What is food? Fire?
Bro I have a 265 year old wood elf monk and he's essentially famous in his monk order. I have the broad explanation of every year, but not anything too specific.
What I did with mine is basically:
- went to university to study history
- kept working at said university for a couple of decades (and tried their hands at some magic but dropped it)
- said "screw it, I'm gonna do field work" and became an archeologist for some time
- had am accident in a dungeon and got fired so they became an adventurer because sneaking around trap-infested corridors gives you a bunch of skills which are useful as an adventurer
This is why I think elves should live more around 250 years, and still be the longest lived. Have the other long lived races life span reduced too. I think there is a disconnect because DND presents both a Tolkieny enigmatic elf as well as a more relaxed high fantasy adventuring elf.
I had the pleasure of playing an elf character who was a few hundred years old, but level one because his life has been a simple one. He had a human wife, and they worked a farm together. Had a few kids, everyone ages, the wife passed away from age, and the kids set off with their grandkids. Rather than be an empty nester he sold the farm and set out to have an adventure.
I find the thought that anyone who is human in real life could properly roleplay a race as long lived as an elf.
Not saying don't, saying don't worry about the details, your gonna do it wrong (so do I) so don't worry about it.
Spent 100 years in the woods practicing wildshape due to a miscommunication with his teacher. Boom, done. "What war? And why are there so many humans on this continent?"
I mean, that's fairly easy. Elves don't live lives of constant excitement, otherwise only a few would make it to old age. You can also gloss over the finer details of certain events and life activities until you get into the real meat and potatoes.
Perhaps your elf was a guard for 20 years. You can note an exciting case or two, or leave it vague for future storytelling. Maybe they went to school for 10 years, or spent 5 years writing a fancy manuscript that a nobleman instantly destroyed. It's up to you!
HUMANS are known for their ambition. Elves and dwarves typically settle down and focus on a small subset of things until they get dragged into adventuring.
Consider the following. Elves will take 60+ years crafting a handmade chair because they're such perfectionists with no awareness for how the passage of time looks to a race that only lives for between 80 and 120 years. They will take an order for 1 chair, and deliver that chair to the client's children a decade after the funeral, and that child will give it as a wedding gift to their child- the client's grandchild- the very next day. A chair.
The way I always saw it, was since "Elves mature at the same rate as humans" but aren't considered "out of adolescence" until 110, essentially if you want to be an elf who goes on a crazy adventure it's completely realistic for you to leave and go on said adventure at ages 18+, you are still functionally an adult by both human and Elven standards, just culturally you are in your rebellious teenage years, so if you wanna grab your gear and go off on crazy adventures during your adolescence then settle down (if you survive) when you reach adulthood at 110 that would be normal.
Especially if your Elven home didn't offer you many opportunities for advancement, you could leave to seek riches for yourself and seek to spend ages 18-110 gathering and saving for your "adulthood" at which point you re-enter Elven society with all your riches and experience and buy a house and have kids and hang up the ol Sword.
Graduated school at 30 and then had 50 years of mandatory military service. 20 years for Spring Break equivalence. Then filling out paperwork to go be and adventurer. Boom. Done.
Good ol 50 years of deck swabbing, sword oiling, and shield stacking.
Because when an elf wants to get good at deck swabbing, sword oiling, and shield stacking, they don't take shortcuts.
hey man, a pension is a pension.
Decided to try sleep and accidentally took a 3 year nap is another possible addition.
Will throw that in next time I play an elf
So that's why elves don't sleep...
They're just like us waking up from naps, "What year is it? What day it!?!?"
Graduated at 30? LOL, [they were still making macaroni art at 26.](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0629.html)
Thats what makes it hard, my human brain just cant relate to that. Sitting around, doing the exact same thing for 50 years.
Try relating to the fact that at 99 years old you still wouldn't be old enough to drink.
Elves physically mature at about the same rate as humans. They aren't considered a full member of society till around 100, true, but in the timeframe we're emulating most cultures allowed young adults and even children of a certain age to drink. Even if it was, in some cases, extremely low in alcohol content. I would not be surprised if most elven cultures allow most elves to drink once they're in their 20s.
On Earth different cultures have different ages for drinking. Elves have decided that 100 years is when someone is physically and mentally adult. Thus if you're human you'll most likely die before you reach the legal drinking age in an elven city. That's why so many people think elves are stuck up and too reserved. This also explains why there's so many half elves. Twenty year old elves go to human settlements, get drunk, etc.. Then there's the dwarves who serve alcohol in sippy cups. That's why everybody loves dwarves.
"Well, of course in my first couple of decades, I spent as a mere child, raised and taught as every child is, about our rich history dating all the way back to the Seldarine, and the Blood War between Corellon Larethian and Gruumsh. During my next three decades, I spent most of my days deep in study of every style of swordsmanship, and had many partners, from the soldiers of Neverwinter, to an ambassador from Chult, and many more. Of course, while I practiced the blade, I experimented in magical theory of the Weave, and its deeper connections between myself and the world, I lost myself in the void of this for at least a decade, then, by my 50th birthday, I decided to explore my options for work, and found myself in a wanderlust. Of course, I'd never procreate with any woman, but a good number of ladies graced the side of my bed in the 20 years that followed. Finally, I had decided that society was harsh, but I had not yet experienced the true harshness of the world, and spent the years leading up to my naming ceremony in the wilderness, bringing nothing with me, save the clothes on my back, I became an adept carpenter, and made my own bow and armor, and as I claimed my name, I has decided that I was a Hunter, and that there would be no prey too great for my skills." His human companion: "Yeah, I accidentally called a devil when I was 12, and now I can shoot lasers out of my index fingers, and speak every language."
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I actually covered that completely, while the 100 years of experience is vaster, I wrote a backstory that included three keen details: a high proficiency with swordsmanship, study in magical theory, or knowledge of the arcane, basic knowledge of history, and High proficiency in survival, as well a a reason to use the outlander background, am the reason to be a Ranger. I never mentioned any great creature the character fought, regions they traveled, just basic experiences that determine proficiencies. It's also to note, that 100 years is just full adult age, physically they hit adult age much sooner, but their true adulthood is determined by experience, so it could very well be that by the 100th year they'd have much more experience
100 is just when most elves consider the children to be adults. Maybe you broke the mold. Or that’s just what the age of adulthood is culturally, but not physically.
It is not the physical adulthood. Elven children grow, in DnD, exactly as fast as human ones. But elves are of the idea that physical maturity is not a good way to determine adulthood, especially when they, because of the lore, have another point. Which is, like someone else said, the moment they start to revisit their own memories, instead of their past lives', during Trance, at around 100 years old.
Isn’t it also connected to lore stuff? Like them losing the ability to recall stuff from previous lives or something?
It is in FR :) So they get wanderlust to gain new fantastic memories
Yes, in previous editions it was made clear that until they are around 100 years old, elves can relive memories of their past lives during Trance, as opposed to their own
Or they just spent a long time doing something. It's like the Elven equivalent of going backpacking through Europe for a year except on a longer time scale. You took that 30 years off to go work at a bed and breakfast because you liked the view.
They age so slow that it tends to make them slow to accomplish things. Their long life gives them much less motivation.
That's always been my reasoning behind having old elves that aren't super leveled.
It's both logical and canon
Eh, it’d be more logical if we ever actually met one of those slow elves. As it stands they’re literally better in everything then humans *and* are more intelligent so they pick things up faster. Logically speaking they should have achieved *even more* then a humand would in those 100 years Like, we can find dozens of excuses for it, but at the end of the day it’s just sloppy writing
> Eh, it’d be more logical if we ever actually met one of those slow elves. I mean, has your DM only had humans be level 0 non combatants? NPCs don't level like PCs, and even if they did, it'd make perfect sense for Glorfinmad the elvish alpaca herder to spend his whole life as a level 0 non combatant because he's only ever doing stuff that, for PCs, would be glossed over in a few sentences by the DM. It's the same reason being 50 years old in real life doesn't automatically mean you'll be a master at anything except for making terrible jokes. Even if we get in to high level characters, them being high level in the first place is the exception, not the rule, so there's nothing forcing them to get even higher level. Erandis d'Vol is an ancient elvish lich who has spent CENTURIES masquerading as a goddess, and she has stayed at about level 16 for the whole time because nothing has given her a reason to do much beyond maintain her current level of power. She's already the strongest wizard in the world as far as she knows, she already has nations under her thumb, she already has countless people doing all the necessary legwork to unearth he ancient secrets she needs to learn to complete her goal of restoring the House of Vol, so why WOULDN'T she spend her free time watching the latest rendition of Orkthello? Or knitting?
I think it was a pathfinder book where I read that their crafstmen have a habit of doing shit like staring at a block of wood all day and cutting it once. Honestly I think they're a perfect metaphor for players with analysis paralysis that spend the entire session arguing how to approach a door that turns out to not even be locked. If you live your whole life like that... I guess it isn't surprising if you don't have a lot to show for it after a a paltry century.
The way I do it, elves' lives are like a candle, long lasting but is a slow and steady flame, practical and deliberate. Human lives are like fireworks, brief but vibrant, heard and seen by everyone.
The vast majority of humans in DnD don't even have the drive, talent, training, or opportunities to even reach level 1. For an elf, that's got to be orders of magnitude worse.
How is your character 100 years old and only level one?! He's just been chilling in the forest smoking weed. For A HUNDRED YEARS?! ... yeah.
Not JUST chilling and smoking. Also a lot of banging.
That's the most realistic idea I've heard for a DnD character in my life
Had a PF1e character that was an accountant. He had a mid-life crisis and decided to become an adventurer. After recovering from being feeble-minded by a genie, he decided to go back to being an accountant.
As an accountant, I can say that he made a good call
Alternatively since they age very slowly you can do an elf village as a very sedate lost in time kind of deal where nothing much really happens like they take a month to think things over, ent style, and simply write a shorter backstory from when they left said village
I think something like that would be best
Don't elven childhoods last until around 80? That's most of your backstory covered.
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I think so. By the time I was twenty there had been two gulf wars, two attacks on the World Trade Center, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Columbine, OKC bombing, the rise of the internet, my hometown getting hit with a tornado wrecking swaths of the town. While I witnessed it all, all I did during that time was go to school, learn my theatre/writing skills, hunker down when things happened, earn an Eagle Scout rank and work a few jobs. Unless said character is directly impacted by historical events or played a pivotal role, you don’t really need to state everything they did. It’s your character. Their interaction with history is up to you. Not inevitable and not dictated by anything than the needs of your character and your story.
Not really? They are biologically adults at ~the same time as humans, its just they are considered too inexperienced to be considered full adults by other elves. Kinda like being 21 is technically adult age, but its not the same as 30 ig
Socially and emotionally, yes. But they reach physical maturity in their teens/20s. In FR lore they're considered adults when they can no longer recall memories of elf heaven from their pre-birth afterlives. Regardless, "I fucked about in the woods for 80+ years then a dwarf threw mud at me and I spaghetti'ed and ran to the nearest town and here I am" is completely valid.
There's the Ember elf character in the Wrath of the Righteous video game. She says to one of the other characters, "We used to play together, but then you grew up and started doing adult things. Don't you remember?" My first character was actually an elf raised in a human town. His impetus for adventuring was that all his childhood friends had died of old age. Without those ties to the community he felt it was time to move on.
That's actually a good backstory.
Elves aren't considered adults until they are 100. Physically, there isn't a huge difference between a 16 year old human, and a 22 year old human, but there's a big gulf in maturity and emotional intelligence. Elves have a reputation for being wise. They don't need some immature "teen" elves running around being idiots. They keep those fools locked up learning history, poetry, genealogies, etiquette, and whatnot. I rp my 83 year old elf with the emotional maturity of a 17 year old human. Very idealistic, passionate about changing the world, full of ideas she thinks have never been thought before. Basically, she's the protagonist of a historical coming of age story.
…and that’s why I’m level 1.
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IDK dude. I've lived through 9/11, the pandemic, an insurrection. I didn't learn how to swordfight.
Still AC10 too.
I hate to tell you this, but you might be an NPC.
"Well see I was a court clerk for about 40 years, before I had my mid-life crisis and became an adventurer. Unfortunately understanding patent law doesn't translate to being good at stabbing." DnD is full of mundane guys who aren't particularly good at fighting, much like a level 1 human fighter is relatively new to the career so should a level 1 elf regardless of age.
I made it work with my 240 year old druid I think. "Yeah, I was born in a circle and they taught me all this stuff but they were just too....stifling for me. Left first chance I got and ever since I've just been wanderin'. Picked up a few tricks here and there, figured out woodworking and let my magic grow but never really focused on it. I mean, didn't really *need* much more then I already had, right?" Important to note, in that setting elves are fully immortal unless killed. So even *less* motivation to get things done, especially for a carefree soul.
Age 83. Graduated middle school.
…how complicated do you need it to be? You just need important moments and elves just spend longer times doing stuff like training or learning. “I spent 60 years being trained by my village in basic education, 30 learning the way of the warrior, spent 10 as a guardian of the woods. Then the big bad destroyed my village. I adventure to raise money for the survivors and to seek revenge.” Do people need to catalogue every action year by year? Just extend the time. Now excuse me, I have other comedy memes to overreact to.
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Elves learn slowly has always been the conceit. 🤷♂️
I mean considering that 18 is Genius level, 14 is pretty high
"Backstory" isn't supposed to be a character biography. It's supposed to provide enough context for the PC to have a motivation to exist in the game.
Only if you want to get that detailed, most PCs only need the CliffsNotes version of family, friends, explanation for personality traits, and motivation for adventuring to get the point across. Even then, you'd be surprised how few pages you can fit a biography into, even diaries experience dry spells.
My family enslaved me, and it took 70 years to escape(drow)
Don't tease me with a good time as I describe in great detail how I percured every dang peble for my 1st decade kindergardener class making sculptures for my dad who doesn't approve of my 3 marks I got wrong on my herbology class. Father then sent me to obo class when I specifically requested birch flute class. I have even carved my own Reed. Mother still loved me. We went to the market for a new pair of Skepniers slippers so that the camp bunk would not touch my as she called it "perfect feet". 5 years later. Unfortunately, my 37 years younger brother has father angry. He decided to get engaged with this country human. I decided to tell father off and his ring left a scar. Mother offered to heal it but my thoughts upon it have left it upon my face. Brother was exiled to the humans kingdom and I dear say I fear for my dear brother, and even though I am a teenager of 140 who has yet to graduate from my classes, I set off to the world as an adventurer. I didn't choose to be an obo playing bard. No I snapped that over my kneecap and as a raging barbarian on account of my unprecedented elf rage towards my father.
No problem with making these types of characters, but people who struggle to even fathom how older dwarven, gnomish or elven characters can be weak or lack immense knowledge or expertise in everything are too set in the adventurer mentality. Maybe your character \*hasn't\* been an adventurer their whole life. The idea that dwarves are adults at 50 or elves at 100 isn't because of biological or longevity reasons - people tend to misinterpret cultural nuance with biology and stats in 5e's races because they overlook the "to each their own" precept WotC goes by that assumes the races keep to themselves and to their cultures, kind of as if they were ethnicities and not just different humanoid species - but it's rather that, to elves and dwarves, you have specific experiences, preparations and study of a rich, milenia old culture ("ideally") before you're ready to set out and do your own thing, or to settle down and start a career. It's that adventurer syndrome telling you "my character wouldn't **just waste their time**! they were a mage at 6 and learned the sword at 9 and um... shit, don't they live to 750? ummmm well this is hard. It doesn't add up." Elves have no reason to rush... until you decide that, actually, they do! Maybe your elf was raised among humans, or halflings. Elves still physically mature at the same rate as humans. The 100 year old mark is an "average" for elves from elven society. Maybe you earned your adulthood before that, and there's no problem with it!
Lots of wandering around and trying things but never really doing most of it long to get good until you get a bit older. My understanding from earlier 3.5 books is that elves tend to burn a lot of time, even once they were out of the helpless childhood stage, getting distracted by new hobbies, interests, jobs, or people until they get older and used to actual self discipline enough to commit to something. And even then the details they can get obsessed with can lead them to get real focused on a specific part. So you might have spent 10 years learning to use a sword because you had to keep starting from scratch due to wandering off for year here or there due to some newfound interest, and then spending a year obsessed with trying to figure out the most comfortable, efficient, practical, and aesthetic way to wear your sword , only realizing its the way you were taught in the first place by your master (who'd had the same problem as a young elf) in the end. And that's not even \*really\* considering just mundane, youthful relaxing and sleeping in style stuff. So when writing their backstory you can sortof focus on the relevant parts and their tribulations in learning them (the parts that affected their class or attributes, for example) and gloss over lots of other parts because you may not even remember them. Which can be fun for us as DMs and also fun for you as the player because its so easy to include the good version of the whole "For you it was a critical part of your life, for me it was just another month and I was absolutely blasted on some new fungus I'd just learned about". I mean think of how carefree you are with a single Saturday, then consider that elves probably treat entire weeks, if not months or year long spans in the same (if not even more) relaxed way.
Unironically, this is partially why i do not, will not, cannot play as elves. The idea of going on an adventure with friends who, if they survive said adventure, will die of old age by the time you're about a fifth the way through your own. Its one of the few things that causes me existential distress.
I like the opposite half orcs. Even if we all survive this I’m probably not living past 60. While so while the party’s enjoying the beer belly and sports watching age Dunch is dying the corner.
I lived in the woods and didn't get out much.
Bullet points, son
Currently playing an elf Rune Knight— he spent more than three decades living among the (longer-lived and equally slow-paced) stone giants, and has only learned the basics of the runic arts at the beginning of his journey.
\*finishes writing backstory\* Cool, their story is finally done. \*makes a new character\*
LOTS of time watching the sunsets/sunrises, Oh, look a butterfly...swordfighting? Sure, I've got a couple decades to kill...ooop, that's a war don'tcha know....talking to squirrels for a few weeks (they never talked back :'( ) I uh, guess? I'm a druid?! But I went to wizard collage for like 8 years...time I learned alot about magic. Graduation came, but I didn't go because I saw rainbow so, not that. And, now I'm here. How old? I don't know, hunred 'n sumthin'? Not more then 50, prolly. Oh, I planted a tree after wizard school, we can go ask 'im!
I had an idea for a character at one point who's an unknown race that, among other extreme quirks, also can't die of age, and has been around since the formation of the universe. I loved the character concept so much. And then I started writing their backstory. Never again.
The biggest downside to playing an Elf is playing an Elf.
My elf was 60 years old and he was just finishing his school work and snuck out of the fey wild to chase a dream. 60 years and I made a big deal about his first party, first love, second love etc etc. Time is not equal 😁
I do the major events and colour out from there if that makes sense
Not only that but also just trying to figure out the mentality they would have, and what a lifespan like that would mean for how they see any given situation.
I had a blast structing one for my 173 y/o drow. Did a bit of research on when coming of age is and when they leave school. also helped that i could throw in that he go snapped up by a woman, as handsome men tend to, to block out a bunch of time. And then his marriage once he escaped to a human woman... Honestly saying they were raising a family who have now all passed from old age is a good time filler.
He sat in a box for 50 years, one of the PCs accidentally opened the box and he’s been following them like a lost puppy ever since.
I’ve have a friend who recently started playing dnd. He was so excited and went full edge mode. His backstory was over 10 pages long and super boring/edgy. He read it out loud very passionately, but everyone at the table was just cringing. Really awkward 15 minutes xD
I played an old elf that was a level 19 warlock and 1 level wizard in their pre caimpaign stuff. Spent a 100 years with the family but went fuck this noble bullshit its boring. Decided to join a cult and go around the world doing drugs and preaching about their new lord. Also doing some terrible stuff like sacrificing people to their patron and the like. Met a wife after 150 years or so. Then they decided that they wanted to become immortal with their wife and other warlock friends. Managed to get most of the stuff together just was a pity part of it was sacrificing their patron. So it failed lost all their warlock levels and decided to become a wizard. And that was when they met everybody for the caimpaign. They were like 400 at the time too so roughly 40 years old. I miss that character. They partied hard to play hard haha.
I wrote shitty poems for 80 years and eventually felt like taking classes at a college.
Done this before but ended up going far beyond 100+ years to make the character feel alien to the world around him. Then to add to all that I basically just made him confused on his own past simply by virtue of how long he had lived as memories started to bleed together. I also usually talk to my DM and basically just fill in the blanks if they feel like it, which occassionall would lead to fun little threads of a past the character had forgotten about already.
During 200 years he fought a lot of battles, won a lot of wars, killed a lot of creatures, had an amazing experience but a rock hit his head and he forgot everything so that's why he's lvl 1.
Elves arent as active as humans though. 100 years is just a young adult, so what they did is pretty standard for a young adult in a dnd world. Mostly education, socializing and working. With a tiny bit a fluff that leads them to become an adventurer.
Had an elf bard who spent 70 or something years at uni, he failed several times because he spent more focus on partying rather than studying. So yeah more like 65 years or something he spent being drunk until the money his parents gave him ran out
Try making an elf with 20-40 year backstory then! Its not that you are a baby till 100 years. Especially fun if you dont tell your party at the start. No one expects an elf younger than 100 to be out in the world
"Since my early years i have been doing rap battles against Dwarfs all across the land" Now if it is true or not, is up for the dice rolls to decide.
I made a old elf who basically has had a boring generic life and wanted to go out with a bang
Make it rather unremarkable since you know elves don't need to be in a hurry at all. It would make sense for them to spend decades simples mastering a very particular skill like singing, meditating or pottery.
Isn't the whole idea behind elves and such being the same level as humans that they *haven't* had epic backstories? Like they live life slow and steady and take a really long time to so anything.
Exactly, they take their time. It could take them three decades to make a sculpture akin to what Michaelangelo would sculpt in 3 years
Fighting depression for 100 years and try to seek purpose in adventuring.
I mean...there's also perspective of the level 1 majority of the world: That awful monster you killed, The Terror of the Deep Wood? Actually just a Dire Wolf with a couple aesthetic mutations who rolled max hp. An absolutely monstrous killing machine compared to level 1 PCs and NPCs who just **wont go down** when doing it on your own. Becomes "rally a mob" worthy if there's an honest to god Pack of them as their would be via their assumed organization. Their stealth is somewhat decent and assuming average rolls will beat some passive perceptions. Sneaky huge murder beasts make for a great story. Especially if they were driven out from their normal hunting grounds and accidentally gored/maimed somebody you cared about. Built in motivation to hunt the creature down for you and your childhood friends/members of the community. Don't need your whole home burning down. Between your band's methodical hunting practices, desire to not simply just slash and burn the environment because you rely on it too (directly for resources, indirectly for the actual game you hunt), and the difficulty of finding the beasts....you begin looking into the base issue of the problem. The overtaxing of game in certain regions that this dire wolf and their pack called home forced them to begin branching further out. In certain directions they couldn't hunt, either because of geography or a more dangerous predator having claimed there which only naturally led them to your settlement and the tragedy that befell them. Now forearmed with the knowledge of the why, you're left with what to do. Helping find better methods of hunting and alternatives would possibly prevent this problem from happening again. Putting down the wolves who now know the taste of elf flesh means that threat is quelled. Do you do one? the other? Both? Do you kill the wolves first or work to change your village's hunting practices first? Do you try to relocate the wolves? Or even get the help of more experienced trappers and arcanists to try and tame/domesticate them? With how Elves are slow to change, this one basic story beat could've taken years to **decades** to fully resolve. Doubly so if you went the tame route, as now you're clearly going to be drafted to help get them acclimated to life in your village, which means you're sticking around long enough for one or two wolf generations to help rear the new pups.
"They lived in a village, the end"
Magic curse coma, they only remember up to like 24, because they were sleeping for the rest
Magic curse coma, they only remember up to like 24, because they were sleeping for the rest
I just did up a high elf wizard a couple weeks back and inadvertently did this. It’s about a page and a quarter in word but I also wrote out a list of bullet points for the main stuff for the DM if they don’t feel like reading it all. It just flowed pretty easily so I wrote it. But that doesn’t mean anyone else will care to read it.
Amnesia is your friend.
I made a batch of pot brownies and my friends didn't show up, anyways that's why I don't remember that decade of my life.
Im playing a 150 year old dwarf. He has been a clockmaker for 100 years until he became an adventurer.
 ~~rules~~ story
50 years field frolicking 50 years field frolicking while beheading orcs
Something something daddy issues something something friend died something became a wanderer. (Can’t have them do too much, unless they are starting at a higher level)
Not really. Elves tend to hyper focus on one thing or another for about 50 years before moving on to something else. So for the first 100 years, they are just kids doing kid things. The next 50, they are farmers. The next 50 they study magic. Now on the current 50, they are an adventuring wizard. Done, fill in the blanks from there.
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You can study something without learn practical uses for it. They may have studied the history of magic, magical theory, and the effect of magic under certain conditions but not how to fling spells around and only start learning practical uses during their adventuring days.
If you start at lvl one it really doesn’t need to be all that complex
Backstory of my elf Ranger: “He watched his family get slaughtered by orcs when he was a child of merely 30 years. He then lived in the woods learning to survive and kill orcs before eventually wandering into Waterdeep.”
I had an elf once. They were on their third career, thus explaining their age and also handily allowing me to explain apparently non-overlapping customization choices.
Ah, yes. I think I can help. You were a knight in the royal guard, protecting the princess. Your kingdom came under attack and you were mortally wounded and your princess threw you in a magic tub to recover. You awoke from a relaxing soak 100yrs later with amnesia, and remember nothing. Like, what are pants? What is food? Fire?
Bro I have a 265 year old wood elf monk and he's essentially famous in his monk order. I have the broad explanation of every year, but not anything too specific.
It's easy! They went to school for 90 years!
Make a normal back story then timez the years by the multiple of human life times those elf’s can live
What I did with mine is basically: - went to university to study history - kept working at said university for a couple of decades (and tried their hands at some magic but dropped it) - said "screw it, I'm gonna do field work" and became an archeologist for some time - had am accident in a dungeon and got fired so they became an adventurer because sneaking around trap-infested corridors gives you a bunch of skills which are useful as an adventurer
This is why I think elves should live more around 250 years, and still be the longest lived. Have the other long lived races life span reduced too. I think there is a disconnect because DND presents both a Tolkieny enigmatic elf as well as a more relaxed high fantasy adventuring elf.
I had the pleasure of playing an elf character who was a few hundred years old, but level one because his life has been a simple one. He had a human wife, and they worked a farm together. Had a few kids, everyone ages, the wife passed away from age, and the kids set off with their grandkids. Rather than be an empty nester he sold the farm and set out to have an adventure.
Has anybody else running a campaign said "screw it, all races mature at the same rate as humans"?
That's why, despite playing an elf, the character is 20
I find the thought that anyone who is human in real life could properly roleplay a race as long lived as an elf. Not saying don't, saying don't worry about the details, your gonna do it wrong (so do I) so don't worry about it.
Spent 100 years in the woods practicing wildshape due to a miscommunication with his teacher. Boom, done. "What war? And why are there so many humans on this continent?"
I mean, that's fairly easy. Elves don't live lives of constant excitement, otherwise only a few would make it to old age. You can also gloss over the finer details of certain events and life activities until you get into the real meat and potatoes. Perhaps your elf was a guard for 20 years. You can note an exciting case or two, or leave it vague for future storytelling. Maybe they went to school for 10 years, or spent 5 years writing a fancy manuscript that a nobleman instantly destroyed. It's up to you! HUMANS are known for their ambition. Elves and dwarves typically settle down and focus on a small subset of things until they get dragged into adventuring.
That's why half elf 😊
Consider the following. Elves will take 60+ years crafting a handmade chair because they're such perfectionists with no awareness for how the passage of time looks to a race that only lives for between 80 and 120 years. They will take an order for 1 chair, and deliver that chair to the client's children a decade after the funeral, and that child will give it as a wedding gift to their child- the client's grandchild- the very next day. A chair.
The way I always saw it, was since "Elves mature at the same rate as humans" but aren't considered "out of adolescence" until 110, essentially if you want to be an elf who goes on a crazy adventure it's completely realistic for you to leave and go on said adventure at ages 18+, you are still functionally an adult by both human and Elven standards, just culturally you are in your rebellious teenage years, so if you wanna grab your gear and go off on crazy adventures during your adolescence then settle down (if you survive) when you reach adulthood at 110 that would be normal. Especially if your Elven home didn't offer you many opportunities for advancement, you could leave to seek riches for yourself and seek to spend ages 18-110 gathering and saving for your "adulthood" at which point you re-enter Elven society with all your riches and experience and buy a house and have kids and hang up the ol Sword.
As long as I don't havr to read it