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Sidhelien Elves
There is an ancient race of elves who call themselves the Sidhelien (SHEE-lin). The Sidhelien hold court in deep, mist-wreathed vales in the darkest heart of the ancient forests. These elves are a graceful but reclusive race, suspicious of humankind. Early in their history they contested human settlement of the vast forests where they live, and a strong current of ill will towards the human nations still runs strong in the elven woods.
Sidhelien elves stand as tall as humans, but they're far more slender and graceful. Most average between 5’6” and 6’ in height, but weigh only 120 to 140 pounds. They are pale, with fair skin and dark hair, and their features are exquisitely formed. Elves possess an unearthly beauty, and their perfect voices can hold a mortal spellbound. Unfortunately, elves are very con-cious of their perceived superiority and treat others with coldness or condescension.
Sidhelien elves are creatures of faerie and starlight, gifted with immortality and powers of mind and body beyond those of humankind. They're neither a force for good nor a force for evil; an elven wood can be perilous for human travelers, but even more so for goblinoids or gnolls. The elven heart is unfathomable to mortals; they're moved to wild delight, dark melancholy, or burning rage with the only the slightest of causes. More than anything else, elves are unpredictable, doing what pleases them from one moment to the next.
Sidhelien elves resist aging and normal disease, only magical diseases such as lycanthrope can harm them. They cannot see in total darkness, but can see by starlight or moonlight as well as a human sees by daylight. They don't need to sleep, but they can become physically exhausted and must rest quietly, studying spells or standing watch, for about as long as a human needs to sleep. Sidhelien elves can move over heavy snow, softs and, or a mountainside as easily as a human walks across a level surface.
The Sidhelien are not the run-of-the-mill elves that most might expect. These elves, though civilized enough that their music can bring tears to the eyes of even the roughest forester, also have a core of savagery that permeates their being. Having lived with the brutal humanoids for thousands of years, the elves have had to learn to deal harshly with those who oppose them. Besides, they've watched everything they built over the past millennia come crashing down around them with the arrival of the humans such a short time (about two of their generations) ago.
As such, they harbor deep hatred in their collective breast for those who've dispossessed them. This extends to humans or humanoids, or whoever stands in the way of the elven dominion. However, there are elves who take a more rational view to the whole thing, seeing the humans as the next step and a needed catalyst for change. These elves look to the humans for ways to improve the elven kingdoms, to teach the kin the realities of living in modern world.
The Elven Court has fractured from a single large kingdom into many small ones, just as the human has scattered. Every Sidhelien settlement now has its own version of the Elven Court, but none of them can match the glories of the original. They hope to reunite the elven lands to recapture the beauty and grace of the past.
These elves are aware that gods exist, but they do not pay homage to them. Particularly after their deception and betrayal of a god, the Sidhelien have been adamant in their refusal to worship human gods. To the elves, spiritual development is the responsibility of the individual. The path that an elf takes is a decision that only he or she can make. So strong is this belief that if an elf chooses to worship one of the human gods, so be it. The only restriction placed upon such rare individuals is that they not discuss their religious ideologies within Sidhelien realms.
+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -Wisdom*, -2 Strength, -2 Constitution: Sidhelien elves are nimble in body and have strong personalities, but their form is frail and they are also a race with changing moods or emotions which made it hard for them to see things as other do.
*Because of their amnesty and distrust of other races, especially humans, and also because of what is offered in description.
Medium: Sidhelien elves are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Sidhelien elves have a base speed of 30 feet.
Low-Light Vision: Sidhelien elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light. On a bright night, they can see by moonlight as well as a human can see by day.
Elven Immunities: Sidhelien elves are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.
Keen Senses: Sidhelien elves receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.
Weapon Familiarity: Sidhelien elves are proficient with longbows (including composite longbows), longswords, rapiers, and shortbows (including composite shortbows), and treat any weapon with the word "elven" in its name as a martial weapon.
Distrusting: A Sidhelien elves takes a -4 to diplomacy checks when interacting with none elves.
Timeless: Gifted with near immortality, Sidhelien elves do not suffer the ravages of time and are thus immune to aging attacks and normal disease. An adult elf’s age has no effect on her physical or mental ability scores. Sidhelien elves do not need sleep, but they can become physically exhausted and must rest quietly for about as long as a human needs to sleep.
Nature Stride: Sidhelien elves may move through natural thorns,overgrown areas, heavy snow, soft sand, a treacherous mountain or similar natural terrain at their normal movement rate and without suffering damage or penalty.
Alignment Restriction: Unpredictable and fey, Sidhelien elves must follow a non-lawful alignment.
Languages: Sidhelien elves begin play speaking Common, Elven. Those Sidhelien elves with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Celestial, Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan.
Interesting but underpowered.
I would let go of the distrusting part. let the players role play it, or decide to be the exception among their kind.
-2 to both STR and CON is brutal. +2 DEX and CHA, -2 CON is fine.
Wow. I like these elves. They sound like my elves but far more advanced.
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I would let go of the distrusting part. let the players role play it, or decide to be the exception among their kind.
-2 to both STR and CON is brutal. +2 DEX and CHA, -2 CON is fine.
Getting rid of Distrusting is fine, it is an ability I added in ... yet I should note that originally the abilities, in 3.5 D&D, were +2 DEX and CHA, -2 Str, -2 CON and I added the -2 Wis. I feel having an extra ability penalty helps balance it out, especially because of the Timeless racial trait.
Perhaps have it either as +2 DEX and CHA, -2 Str, -2 CON or +2 DEX and CHA, -2 Wis, -2 Str
Remove the -2 to Wisdom. This is represented well enough by the penalty to diplomacy. Perhaps consider making it a -4 penalty to any sort of social interaction with non-elves. Their mindset just doesn't translate due to isolation whether it is diplomacy, bluff, sense motive, and perhaps even apply to knowledge about other races (such as history or know(local)) due to the elven superiority complex. The lesser races aren't worth knowing. I would probably even give a +4 to all those same things when it came to interacting with elves of knowing things related to elves.
Considering giving the race the following for otherwise having both the -2 to con and strength:
3/day of create water, light, and know direction
2/day of Blend or Call Animal or Calm Animal
While that is a lot of SLA, they're 0 and 1st level spells and help represent their connection to nature more fully.
While the timeless is neat, in actual game play it really isn't useful. They can still die normally, it's really just immunity to disease.
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Okay, how about this:
+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Strength, -2 Constitution: Sidhelien elves are nimble in body and have strong personalities, but their form is frail.
Elven Supremacy: Seeing themselves as the most ancient and advanced races and with a hatred or distrust of those who are not elves, the Sidhelien look down on other races except elves. This race takes a -4 penalty to all of social interaction skill checks with non-elves, yet also gains a +4 bonus to all social interaction skill checks with elves. This bonus and penalty also applies to knowledge checks.
Sidhelien Magic: Sidhelien with Charisma scores of 11 or higher also gain the following spell-like abilities: 3/day of Create Water, Light, and Know Direction. 2/days the race can chose from either Blend, Call Animal or Calm Animal. The caster level for these effects is equal to the Sidhelien's level. The DC for these spells is equal to 10 + the spell's level + the sidhelien's Charisma modifier.
Seems pretty good to me. I feel the knowledge, SLA, and social interaction part really sets them apart from other elves so they're not just so generic.
Just have a trait of 'fey-blooded'. Or, you simply go with the default, non-Golarion, and elves are already tied to the Fey Courts in various ways, and 'elf' actually indicates fey racial ties to an extent.
The difference would be that true fey are reborn promptly if killed, and elves are not, although they may end up reincarnated.
==Aelryinth
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@Aelryinth
How about This:
Fey Blooded: Sidhelien are treated as Fey, in addition to Humanoid, for any effect related to race.
The Sidhelien Elf now be found on Google Docs.
in addition to Humanoid: Elven.
That would be fine, AFAIK. You might want to change their Elven Supremacy to include Fey, if you're going to do this, and call it Sidhe Supremacy.
It would be also interesting if there was a real race of Elves in the worlds, and your Sidhe don't consider them 'real elves', just a step up from humans.
==Aelryinth