"James posed the following question during last week's chat: 'What's better for elves? Long pointed ears or short pointed ears?' If you have an opinion, sound off on the messageboards."
Personally, I say why not both? Leave some room for variation. Typically, I like elves with shorter points to their ears. But I don't see any reason why there can't be a particular sub-species or familial trait among some elves so that they have longer points. If I had to choose only one length, though, I'd go with short...
Any other opinions?
--Neil
When you say long point . . . is that in reference to the near rabbit size of Night Elf ears in WoW?
Oh my great googly moogly, are long ears so un-needed.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16, 2010 Top 4
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Personally, I say why not both? Leave some room for variation. Typically, I like elves with shorter points to their ears. But I don't see any reason why there can't be a particular sub-species or familial trait among some elves so that they have longer points. If I had to choose only one length, though, I'd go with short...
I'll second the "both" option if I may. If not, I'll have to side with the "longer, anime-style ears."
A. MacLeod
actualy deepends on the art. The more realistic art styles I pefer shorter ears. For more comic style or anime like art, I like the long ears. If had to choose between two I would go with long ears (might be cuase I'm big Lodoss War fan). Hopefully whatever style is picked for elves thier ears will have different look from all other pointy eared races.
A nice median between bunny ears and vulcan ears is my preferance....though I do like the both option too.
Man, I hate long ears. PLEASE make them short.
I say short with a qualification:
A half-elf has ears the same length a human's, but witha point.
Full-blooded elves have ears that are noticably longer than half-elves'.
Creative Director
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The question is now more or less past the point of no return. We've got an elf illustrated in Pathfinder #1. It's at the printer. She has long ears. They don't look like bunny ears to me, but they probably will to some folk. The vulcan ear look is pretty much reserved for our half elves, btw.
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The question is now more or less past the point of no return. We've got an elf illustrated in Pathfinder #1. It's at the printer. She has long ears. They don't look like bunny ears to me, but they probably will to some folk. The vulcan ear look is pretty much reserved for our half elves, btw.
I win! =p This company becomes my favorite game developer more and more every day.
I know that, of course, Pathfinder is stuck being OGL, and nobody at Paizo wants to reinvent the wheel, but I would so have loved to see a completely new take on Elves. Something more than "humans with pointy ears and a couple of extra abilities." It's one of the things I've really liked about Eberron -- that the elves there are so obsessed with immortality that they become positive energy undead. That's new and interesting.
That being said, one of the main reasons I'm excited about Pathfinder is that the crew seems to be finding ways to reinvent everything, without stepping outside of the OGL crunch.
I don't mind long ears.
But, some of the conversation here has put an image in my head of an extremely serious-looking, badass elven warrior or wizard preparing the bring the hurt to someone and positively glowing with magical energy and "epicness."
And atop his head are a pair of big, fluffy white ears with cute pink linings.
Bunny ears =/= long ears. :)
I wouldn't mind longish ears, though preferably not ridiculously long. While I love the Poison Elves comic book, I've always thought the ears were a bit much. They were big enough to count as their own hit location (if you're into such things).
Randy
Prefer short eared elves, but why not leave it up to the individuals? Or are you trying to get consistency in imagery?
My current character in AoW is an Elven Archivist. The picture I drew is very Manga and includes the long WoW ears, but when I visualize the character in game...he's very much the short eared elf.
Perhaps some elves are long eared and some are short eared depending on the region they are from? Heck, in real life, ears and noses continue to grow as someone ages. Maybe in fantasy worlds, the really old elves have really really big ears and long noses?
Long eared elves just allows me to introduce my Elven Ear-Pulling feat (bonus fighter feat). It goes along with my Dwarven Beard-Pulling feat.
I've always preferred having both, with a touch of back story to explain it.
The Elven race is descended from the various Fey folk, with Fey-like long ears. As they became more worldly, less Fey and more mortal, their ears got shorter. Thus you can get a general sense of how far removed an Elf is from their Fey ancestors by the length of their ears.
I prefer the length to top out around "anime" length, or shorter. WoW ears are too long (as are the eyebrows) for my tastes. Then again, its just the art and its very easy to change.
...its just the art and its very easy to change.
Yeah, but then you have all those holes in all your Pathfinder books and GameMastery modules. XD
I just saw the elven rogue, Merisiel, in the blog and it rocks! So, yes, those long ears for me. I have notoriously disliked elves in the past, but perhaps, this will change. Now, it will depend on the attitude: long-eared attitude or short-eared attitude? ;)
ps, I love Kyra too. Something about a cleric with a sword... or the star knives of the previous blog post! EXCITED!
I just saw the elven rogue, Merisiel, in the blog and it rocks! So, yes, those long ears for me. I have notoriously disliked elves in the past, but perhaps, this will change. Now, it will depend on the attitude: long-eared attitude or short-eared attitude? ;)
I've always been a big fan of elves, but never liked that they so often only looked different because of the slightest of pointed ears. The idea that elves could disguise their racial heritage with a hat always kind of irked me. So I'm really excited.
Wayne's elf is the third of the elf pieces we've seen and his elf's ears are perhaps the most understated so far (though still, super cool). The elf headshot we have in Pathfinder #1 has elicited a reaction whenever we show it off around the office, usually something to the effect of "Hehe! Ears!!!" So that seems like a good thing. But every artist brings something different to the look, so expect to see a bit of variation while we're still nailing things down... and probably even after that.
What's for sure though: if someone's an elf, you're going to know it!
ps, I love Kyra too. Something about a cleric with a sword... or the star knives of the previous blog post! EXCITED!
Kyra is Hardcore. I can't say enough good things about her. The tatoos, the robes, everything. No mace and wooden cross for this badass.
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So I'd love to submit to a Pathfider group project...Elves with overly large pointy ears combined with a Magic Frostrifle (which I have done D&D stats and rules compliance for) produced by an inventor Sorcerer and usable as a wonderous item by any, and a Magic built UFO and a series of mysterious abductions of Rural peasants, Livestock, Crop Circles, an Elf Base on the Dark side of the moon, and some investigators from the Kingdom's Secret Police add up to an intense adventure that will take them from first level to 20th as they are forced to develop the tech necessary to oppose this otherworldly force.
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Kyra is Hardcore. I can't say enough good things about her. The tatoos, the robes, everything. No mace and wooden cross for this badass.
I can't wait to see the full-color version. That is one kick-ass character portrait from the scimitar to the holy symbol to all the patterns on the clothes to the stern expression on her face. Hats off to Wayne (even though his feet still need work--heh ;) ).
Oh, yeah... Merisiel is pretty cool, too. I love the large eyes. She looks like she's well prepared for a scuffle.
I prefer half-elves to have the more 'vulcan' style ears and elves to have longer ears. However, if they stick up past the top of the head it makes me cringe, then they're just silly.
Well, I give each type of elves in my world a different ear style, though they go back to the rear of their skull not up; whereas wood/sylvan elves have very long ears like a corn cob or maybe a carrot about the length of their skull and high elves have shorter ears like maybe a baby zucchini or like 1/2 the length of their skull and grey elves have the shortest only a couple inches longer than human maybe like long for a vulcan; half elves about like halflings as portrayed by Vulcans. Keep in mind that the human ear is roughly 1/3 to 1/4 of the length of a human skull. Valley elves have the same as high elves but tend to be floppy :) and bounce when they walk.
ok; elven ears are not hairy or rabbit like; rather sharp and slender like a knife and often tatooed or adorned. They are not dainty.
But every artist brings something different to the look, so expect to see a bit of variation while we're still nailing things down... and probably even after that.What's for sure though: if someone's an elf, you're going to know it!
Great! I love seeing different takes on characters and monsters. Just like a cover song, what's the point if it's identical to the original?
Kyra is Hardcore. I can't say enough good things about her. The tatoos, the robes, everything. No mace and wooden cross for this badass.
Nothing I like seeing more in my religious notables than blades and tats. :)
"I kick ass for the lord!" :D
I like long pointy elf ears as long as the ears are pointy back and up at an angle. Not straight up.
"I kick ass for the lord!" :D
"Clerics - we pray to slay!"
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back from the dead since I was looking through my gazetter again and noticed the ears on the elf in the race modeling picture.
I'm going with shorter than that in my campaign...vulcan style about sums it it up as well. I've seen enough bouncy ear and hopping, flipping elves when I used to play WOW. I'd rather not have that mental image in my rpg game.
Kohl
Long as in Elfquest Ears,
Not as in silly NightElf ears.
Then again, if we gave ears like that to the PF Drow, we could include some fluff about bat-like hearing in the dark. Instead of Infravision, Golarion Drow could have incredibly acute hearing like sonar.
Leave the short Vulcan ears for Half-Elves.
the funky lower half of the drows ears were earrings.
Long as in Elfquest Ears, Not as in silly NightElf ears. ... Leave the short Vulcan ears for Half-Elves.
Ah, Elfquest! That brings back memories! They had some pretty big ears.
I'm a fan of the extra-big elf ears in the art. Some of the pictures lean towards silly-big, but I'm okay with it.
One of the players in my campaign was shocked at the size of the ears when I showed him the picture of Shalelu in Burnt Offerings. I decided to attribute his real world exclamations to his Dwarven character. Now whenever Shalelu deals with the party, she teases the dwarf about his reaction to her ears. Good Times.
Short if your elves are meant to look wise, long if your elves are meant to look capricious.
I prefer longer than Vulcan ears, shorter than Deedlit. Basically I figure the points should not extend beyond the height of the skull.
"I kick ass for the lord!" :D"Clerics - we pray to slay!"
BLOOD AND SOULS FOR MY LORD GORUM!!
(sorry for the jack, but for me that never gets old)
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Blue if your elves are meant to look smurfy.
Elves from the Aylse realm in TORG are blue. ^_^
And I like my elves with long ears. Lodoss Wars long, not Poison Elves long. Let me also chime in that I really like elves in Golarion having the almost solid-colored eyes; it makes them look suitably alien.
Jeremy Puckett
Another vote for long, Lodoss Wars-type ears. Otaku, hardcore and proud over here!
