Half-aquatic elves have no real society of their own. Born of human and sea elf blood, they are extremely rare, since sea elves rarely venture into human lands. Normally they live alone or in small groups along the shore, or they simply take up life in a human coastal community.
Half-aquatic elves have pale green skin. Their hair can be any human colour, but it usually has a faint green or blue cast to it. As they age, their hair becomes blue-silver. They have slight webbing between their fingers and toes, making them excellent swimmers.
Although they cannot breathe water like their aquatic elf ancestors, half-aquatic elves feel drawn to the sea. If they seem distant or aloof, it’s not because they’re ignoring someone on purpose. They’re always listening to the roar of the nearby surf, or imagining its sound if they travel far from the sea.
Half-aquatic elves reach the age of majority at 20 years old and can live over to be over 180 years in age. Since aquatic elves are larger and heavier than most elves, half-aquatic elves have the same height and weight characteristics as a full-blooded human.
History: Half-aquatic elves do not have a history as a subrace. They are simply too rare to ever form a community larger than a thorp on their own, and even these are almost unheard of. Half-aquatic elves (or the rare family of half-elves) only meet a handful of other half-aquatic elves in the course of their lives.
Outlook: Forced by nature to remain with her air-breathing parent, a half-aquatic elf is cut off — except for short visits — from any aquatic elves with whom she could identify, costing her half of her heritage. Where some people with such an unusual heritage would become bitter outcasts, half-aquatic elves instead tend to be dreamers, content to keep their own company but not resentful of their circumstances. Their human neighbours know much less about aquatic elves than humans in other places know of landbound elves, and therefore have little reason to fear the half-aquatic elf’s elven blood.
Characters: Half-aquatic elves display the half-elven flexibility out of necessity, for their heritage is forever divided against itself. Often loners, half-aquatic elves tend to be rogues, sorcerers or fighters.
Favoured Class: The highest class a half-aquatic elf has is considered her favoured class.
Prestige Classes: Half-aquatic elves can use any prestige classes open to humans. They also have access to the arcane archer, spellslinger and bladesinger prestige classes.
Society: Most half-aquatic elves hail from a beach culture. As children, they often get their sea legs on the family fishing boat. Some such elves are fortunate to have aquatic elf parents who care about them and visit them regularly. When they are on the sea, these children have a guardian angel watching them from the depths.
When half-aquatic elves reach the age of majority — and often before that — they are drawn to the sea. They often work on fishing boats or as pearl divers. They can swim much faster than a human, although not even half as fast as a true sea elf, so they find that employment in and around the water suits them well. As they get older, half-aquatic elves find themselves drawn more and more to the serenity of the sea. More than one half-aquatic elf has been found alone in her boat, having passed away from old age while fishing once again.
Language: Half-aquatic elves speak Common, Elven and the human tongue of their home region.
All half-aquatic elves are literate except for barbarians, commoners and warriors.
Magic: Half-aquatic elves can use the racial spells of both humans and elves. They have no spellcasting traditions of their own. However, half-aquatic elf clerics often choose Water or Ocean as one of their domains. Similarly, half-aquatic elf wizards usually concentrate on water-oriented spells. Water breathing is a true favourite, as it allows the half-aquatic elf to visit the world of her watery heritage, even if only for a little while.
Religion: Half-aquatic elves can choose any human or elven deity as a patron. Many who have contact with their aquatic kin worship Deep Sashelas, the elven god of the deeps. Deep Sashelas is even said to bless unions between sea elves and humans because they often lead to a greater understanding between these two peoples.
A small number of evil half-aquatic elves venerate Umberlee as their patron. However, all half-aquatic elves respect and fear this capricious goddess, like any who earn their living from the sea. She seems to have a fondness for playing with the lives of half-aquatic elves, these individuals caught between the airy world and the one below.
Relations: Half-aquatic elves get along with most of the common races. They usually prefer the company of humans, but they find elves of all sorts fascinating. They enjoy the company of dwarves, gnomes and halflings as well, and they don’t even mind half-orcs. Like their aquatic elf parents, they loathe sahuagin and other evil creatures of the sea.
Equipment: Half-aquatic elves have no unusual racial equipment of their own. However, they can make use of any equipment or weapons special to humans or elves. They have a special affinity for the weapons of aquatic elves, including spears, nets and tridents.
Animals and Pets: Half-aquatic elves keep animals or pets as often as any seafaring humans. Aboard ship, they prefer cats. They like to play with fish and sea mammals in the surf, but they rarely domesticate such creatures.
Regions: The Dragon Coast
Source: Races of Faerûn (Page 61), Player’s Handbook (Page 18)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 years | +1d6 (21—26) years | +2d6 (22—32) years | +3d6 (23—38) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62 years | 93 years | 125 years | +3d20 years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 4’ 10" | +2d10 (5’ 0"—6’ 6") | 120 lbs. | ×2d4 (124—280 lbs.) |
| Female | 4’ 5" | +2d10 (4’ 7"—6’ 1") | 85 lbs. | ×2d4 (89—245 lbs.) |
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 109), Races of Faerûn (Page 60)