Races of Legend: Decoding Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, and Humans in D&D

Andrew: 0:31

Welcome to Legends, loot and War, the most epic podcast in all the lands, hosted by your intrepid dungeon-eering duo, andrew, myself and Joe. Hello, In this extraordinary episode we delve into the very heart of Dungeons Dragons, exploring the most common and beloved races that grace the realms the mighty dwarves, the ethereal elves, the mischievous halflings and the resolute humans. Today we have a special guest. You may or may not hear him. My wife and I have adopted another cat and he is being currently housed and home in the recording studio, so that's where he is, but he is affectionately known here as Fizz Band the Fabulous. If you are familiar with any of the D&D lore, you might recognize that name. He is our current little black cat running around, so you may hear him making some noise on the episode. He is our honored guest for today. So today we are going to talk about the most common races. There are nine races in all in the basic rules of D&D, so the free rules. So when you are creating a base character, these are the races that you are going to start off with. We have Dwarf, elf, halfling and Human. Those are the four most common races. Those are the ones that we are going to be talking about today. In the following episode we are going to talk about Dragonborn, the Gnomes, half Elves, half Orcs and Teflings. So, joe, what are your feelings about? Let's talk about the common races. So how do they relate to D&D and how do they fit into the lore of D&D as a whole?

Joe: 2:47

Well, it all varies based upon the lore behind the world that you actually end up in, of course, but the actual different races and how they interact are part and parcel of how you get a story. I mean, you need differing sides. So you have the Elves and the Dwarves, who you know just about. In any movie, show, book that you read, there is always an innate distrust or friendly animosity between the two of them. So it's like how they deal with each other and it changes it, and how they bring their own flavor to the game, to their character and to the game. And then when you play them, it alters it even further because it alters your personal aspect into it. So you can have a dwarf, that is, you know, like we'll talk about all the traits of it. We have a dwarf, tough and resilient, and you don't have to play him that way. But that's how they are and the Elves tend to. You know. All you have to do is look at the relationship between Legolas and Gimli and you'll see that these, they have a mutual respect for each other, but there's that, you know, friendly, underlying animosity, that kind of they jive at each other, jive at each other back and forth, and that's what brings you the flavor of the world. You know you go into a situation. A dwarf reacts differently than an elf, than a human, than a half.

Andrew: 4:15

I think it's really interesting because, at least for me, this was one of the first times that I really spent a lot of time diving into, kind of the background of each of these races, and because I think maybe one of the I think one of the first characters I played maybe was a human, the human wizard, yes Fian.

Joe: 4:39

Fian.

Andrew: 4:41

Playing a human wizard, but I think that was the last time I played one of the basic races. I went all over the place. But I think it's been really interesting reading about them, reading about kind of their history, of what place they play within the world of D&D, and it was very interesting and I'll talk about this a little bit when we talk about the dwarves. It led me to create my first dwarf character, but I'm really excited to play in our upcoming Tiamat Part 2 campaign, so that should be fun. I'm looking forward to that.

Joe: 5:23

And from a DM perspective, you know when people play different types of characters, you have to alter your battle planning and your game planning, Because when you would approach something one way for an elf and another way for a dwarf and a third way for a human, they were halfling so like the idea being that it creates this diversity. This, you know, pardon me, I'm taking a Star Trek concept infinite diversity and infinite combinations. Take anything you want and put it with anything you want, and that gives so much flavor. It's like a good soup. You can keep adding the right flavors and you can get something that tastes great, Though I don't like soup, so I'm the exception to that rule.

Andrew: 6:08

That's probably not the best metaphor, then.

Joe: 6:10

It is for everybody else who likes soup, I see.

Andrew: 6:12

So for you soup lovers out there, we've got the metaphor just for you, I think it's. I'm really looking forward to getting into the next episode as well, when we start talking about, like the dragonborn and the half elves and the tieflings, things like this, because a lot of these characters some of their back story. You think of the half elves. They're not all elf, not all human or whatever the other half is, and they're not necessarily accepted in either community. So there's some really interesting things that come into play when you create these characters and that was with me, Like my first character that I was ever able to make.

Joe: 6:54

I made a half elf because I liked the way that the stat bonuses worked out for you when you got into it, but the way that the backstory was created. I was able to use a little creativity. I made a fun backstory, gave him a background of tragedy until somebody came along and helped him and gave him a new purpose. And you know, the half elf is a fun little race to play.

Andrew: 7:17

Everything is I think there's a lot that can be done with the back stories, you know, based on kind of how how Wizards of the Coast has built these, built these races in the world of D&D. There's a lot that you can do with them and, yes, each will talk about each of them have their own kind of ability, score bonuses and things like this that come into play as well. So all of those, all those things will come into play when you, when you create one of these characters. So it's a good. That's why we're going to start off with the races, because that's really kind of the top level where you're going to work from when, when building your character. So. So, speaking of races, let's dive into, we'll start diving into the races themselves. Absolutely, let's do it. So let's talk about dwarves. Joe, let's talk about the dwarves first, and kind of what the what the backstory is of dwarves. I mean, I think everybody is familiar with, with Snow White and the seven dwarves and kind of the concept of a dwarf. But what? What is a dwarf as far as Dungeons and Dragons is concerned?

Joe: 8:30

Well, dwarves are your Smiths, your stalwart companions. There's a probably apocryphal old saying from D&D about Dwarves. They say after the first hundred years you go from an acquaintance to a friend, meaning that they don't do anything very, very quickly. But when they do it, they do it with gusto and strength and they stand by what they do. Dwarves will be friendly to just about anybody, but to really earn a Dwarves trust, that's the one that you know and they bring that with that trust. They're skills. They're skills with a hammer the hammer for iron and making weapons and armor or other goods, or in their stonework, whether they're miners. Dwarves are naturally good diggers and miners that find all of the natural resources, the golds, the gems and stuff like that, and you know they can get into trouble by doing that, but they have this innate love of stone and metal.

Andrew: 9:41

Dwarves are really known as masons, and we'll talk about this. One of the features, one of the racial traits they have is something called stone cunning. That we'll get to when we talk about all of the traits, but there's a couple things that you talked about that they don't do anything quickly and I think one of the reasons behind that is part of their background is that Dwarves live to be more than 400 years old. So 100 years is nothing to a dwarf compared to a human, who probably might live there. Yeah, I was just saying well, it would be lucky if they lived that long. So time for dwarves is not the same thing as time for humans. They have seen so much more over their lifetimes than a human has. They've probably known multiple generations of families in their lifetimes, so there's a lot more experience that comes to them. I love part of the description talks about you said they're known for their affinity for stonework. I love the concept there. They're underground environments so they also have another ability called dark vision, so they can see up to 60 feet in the dark in tones of gray, but they can still see in the dark as they're used to being an underground environment. They're highly skilled in the things that they do, whether it be armor making or weapon making or masonry.

Joe: 11:26

You said something there that's actually really important is that they pretty much exclusively exist underground. They will come out to adventure, they will come out and become the smith of a town or a city or something like that, but when they fall back into their clans and their kingdoms, they will almost definitely be underground, with just a few scant little buildings above ground, because this is where they feel at home. Their clan or their kingdom will almost always be inside a mountain, inside some type of hill or some type of cavern and that's what really comes down to their home.

Andrew: 12:10

If they're the local smith in town and they've built themselves a home in town, is this like a windowless? So what is this environment? Are they building something into the ground? What does a dwarven home look like? I don't know the answer to that question.

Joe: 12:29

I don't either, but I would imagine that it would obviously be made out of stone. I don't think that they would be windowless, because their home would probably also be their shop and while they may prefer the darkness, their customers are going to usually want to have some type of light in it. And you also bring up a good point, they might. You know. Hey, I got my shop up here on the main level, but I'm going to go down two, three levels and have my home underground. That's a possibility. But I think dwarves, while they're not the most adaptable of races, I think they are adaptable enough that they would just as easily live in a house that is above ground, just to get by. I mean, you know those who travel, they're the ones who you know they're looking for something different. Indeed.

Andrew: 13:16

Another thing that really jumped out to me in doing all the research for these races. I love this little phrase that I read here the dwarves are unwavering allies and formidable foes. So when you make friends with a dwarf you've got a strong bond of friendship there. But if you are on the other side of that dwarf and you are an enemy or someone that the dwarf is having to fight, you know good luck to you. The dwarf is not going to give up easily.

Joe: 13:54

Oh, absolutely, and that's what it is is like their trust and their loyalty. It comes from their clan. You know their clan family base, living whether their clans are independent settlements or inside a greater, larger kingdom. That loyalty to whoever they decide to give it to is absolutely unwavering. And to be on the other side of them, you know, you don't see a lot of dwarven magic users and the reason why you don't is because they are tough creatures. They are very strong people and they tend to have very powerful armor. They tend to make themselves powerful armor and in game they will talk about this in a little bit they're predisposed to armor and extra hit points. So you typically are going to make a dwarf who's going to be a fighter, who's going to run right into the middle of that combat and, yeah, maybe it'll be easy to hit him a couple of times, but guess what? It's going to take a lot of hits to bring them down and that's why they're formidable. They're powerful with, like, their axes or the occasional sword and they can hold on in battle.

Andrew: 15:04

Yeah, they are there. They're quite the quite the tough fighter. So let's talk, let's talk a little bit about the, the background of dwarves and some of these racial traits that that come into play. Let's talk about how those, how those impact the, the play when you are, when you are role playing a dwarf. So we talked about a talk about a couple of these things already. Again, they live very long lives, greater than than 400 years old typically. So they've, they've, they've seen a lot, they've, they've been through a lot. So you're not not a lot phases them, you know. So they again, they've, they've, they've been through multiple generations of humans and other races. So so they've, they definitely know what kind of, know what's going on this and Joe mentioned they are clan based. So they are they, they stick to their clan. It's a very tight knit group. That's their, that's their community. So they, they've got a clan and they're, they're always going to be loyal to that clan. So, whether you know, again, most of them will stay in the mountains and the hills and and and and stay together there, whether they're mining stone, jewels, building you know, other metals to to make weapons and armor, or if they, if they go into a town, like we keep talking about the Smith. You know they go into a town as a, as a worker. They're still still there. There is that loyalty to the clan so that they haven't abandoned the clan by by going into into a town and working there. They're there. They're still always truly loyal to to that clan. And what's now my, my favorite part Talking about talking about the racial traits. So first thing we'll talk about is the ability scores. So we have all the ability scores that we've talked about and, joey, you want to review what the what the ability scores categories are for our, our listeners.

Joe: 17:10

So the six? There are six of them. There are strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. Strength is pretty self explanatory how strong you are. Dexterity is how easy you can move or how accurately you can do something with your hands. Constitution is how well you can hold up against certain things and ties directly into hit points. Intelligence is how smart you are. Wisdom is how well you can use the knowledge that you have. And charisma is how well you can communicate with people.

Andrew: 17:46

Excellent, thank you. So the one, so the dwarves get a increase to their constitution score of a plus two. That's right. So how does that? So let's say, let's say so we'll get into when we talk about rolling up a character, when you roll the dice to determine what your ability scores are. So let's say, let's say you roll a, you get a 14. Right, and you apply a 14 to your constitution. So a 14 is what? A plus two already. That's correct. So so that gives you a plus two. And then, if you add plus two to the 14, you're up to 16.

Joe: 18:36

So now you're at a plus three for for constitution correct, that's correct and that'll be your modifier on anything that you do. That's based upon your constitution. That's what we're talking about a plus two plus three.

Andrew: 18:49

So there are modifiers for saving throws. I mean most, most commonly.

Joe: 18:54

Right when you're trying to resist against poison or some other gaseous effect. That's where the constitution saving throw would come in.

Andrew: 19:01

So if you, when you are rolling your dice for your ability scores, remember that if you are building a dwarf, you have a plus two to the constitution, so it will, it'll help improve that that score over overall.

Joe: 19:17

Now, like we said, the constitution does tie in directly to your hit points. So when you add that plus two to your constitution, you're basically guaranteeing an additional one hit point for every level that you gain, because that's part of how the hit points are calculated. So that's one of the reasons why we're constantly talking about how they're. They're formidable and they're stalwart companions. They have a stiff, stronger constitution that carries them forward.

Andrew: 19:49

Yeah, they're they're again very tough, and I'll talk about the tough feet Because I, I well, I added that, so there, I'll get into that later.

Joe: 20:03

That's the problem with talking about the ND. Is that one? Thing can lead to another, which turns into a rabbit hole of conversation. So we're going to try to stay more focused.

Andrew: 20:11

Yes. So let's, let's talk about the age. So I mentioned this a couple of times again. Average age is about 350 years old. They, they, many, live, live beyond 400. Their dwarves are considered to be young all the way up until age 50. So Wouldn't that be nice, Right? I know For forever young dwarves. So dwarves are considered young up until the age of 50. When we're going to talk about speed, so so one more time, a movement in Dungeons and Dragons, especially when it comes to battle, when when you're in in in a battle circumstance and how far you can move, the speed that you can move on any one turn is up to 25 feet for a dwarf.

Joe: 20:58

So this is like one of the few downsides about being a dwarf. The typical movement for most races is actually 30. So you're actually moving five feet less than everybody else. Well, you gotta think about it. Shorter legs, sturdier bodies Again, you know it's a common reference. Go back to Lord of the Rings. You know Gimli had a hard time keeping up with them on the run. Why they're not as agile?

Andrew: 21:25

Yes, and when we talk about the like a battle map for for Dungeons and Dragons, things are. Things in D&D are mapped out in in usually five foot grid spaces, so you'll you'll see a grid map for movement. So each, each space on the grid is typically equal to five feet. So you're moving five spaces as opposed to six spaces for for typical other kind of medium sized characters. Another thing that dwarves have is dark vision, which we mentioned. So. So dark vision is this ability to see in dim light within 60 feet, as if it were bright light, and in complete darkness, as if it were dim light, but you're, you're not able to discern any type of color, just shades of gray, but you still in darkness. You still will have the ability to see because, again, they're used to being underground in the mines and in in those circumstances. So their eyes have adapted to to that type of low light environment and giving them dark vision. How about? How about dwarven resilience, joe?

Joe: 22:38

So dwarven resilience again fits into the stalwart kind of concept that we've been talking about it. They have resistance against poison damage. Now, poison is a type of damage that you can take in game. Usually it is separate from anybody's you know, sword or club damage, but it's an additional type of damage. So what happens is you typically have to roll a saving throw in order to avoid taking this particular type of damage, or to even or to half it, given certain circumstances. By rolling you, by being a dwarf, being a tough character, tough constitution you have, you have advantage to resist that type of damage and just carry on.

Andrew: 23:28

So when we talk about this concept of advantage, really what we're talking about is for when you're rolling the d 20, you can roll two of them at the same time, or all the same one twice, but what happens is you'll roll a d 20 twice and take the higher value of those two. That that's. That is what is meant by having advantage. So let's say, for I'm just going to roll some dice and I got a three on that one and a one on that one.

Joe: 23:58

That advantage was really useful.

Andrew: 24:00

That advantage did me no good. So if I rolled a one and a three, I would probably, I would probably be I would. I would lose, I would be experiencing that poison damage. I would be poisoned at this point.

Joe: 24:14

Yeah, you would definitely end up taking that damage fully, or I don't know. Rolling like that on advantage is kind of rare.

Andrew: 24:27

That was, that was that's. That's one of the. I don't normally roll with these dice. These are just some extra dice that I have sitting here, so it's a good thing that I don't typically roll with these dice, because that is, that is a terrible roll. Now, we know you are, you don't use them. You know I'm a dice goblin, so I got numerous sets. Anyway, let's talk about another feature of dwarves and it's what is referred to as dwarven combat. So dwarves again, being being armorers and weapon makers, they, they have proficiencies with certain weapons. Those are the battle axe, the hand axe, the light hammer and the war hammer. I am, I am using the war hammer for my, my new dwarf. But, joe, again, we've talked about some of these terms, but when we say they have proficiency, how does how does that, what does that word proficiency mean and how does that impact what they do with those weapons?

Joe: 25:33

So proficiency is when you have a typical, well rounded knowledge or capability on a item or a type of armor or a skill or something like that. So every character has what's called a proficiency bonus and as you level up, everybody's proficiency levels up at the same level, the same rate. So everybody's going to have a party who's all on the same level, going to have the same proficiencies. The variation comes in what you're going to be proficient in. Now you got to think about the idea of a war hammer. War hammer is going to be something that's big and heavy, and not even most fighters, though they're proficient in it. But most people are not going to be used to using such a weapon. The dwarves will be. This is part of their bread and butter hammers. And now we're just going to take the hammer and supersize it and start whacking people with it. Think a little bit of the idea of Thor's hammer in the Marvel Universe, but now add a handle to it that's about four to six feet long and start whacking people.

Andrew: 26:43

But what? What benefit did they get? What? What benefit does proficiency give them? So? What's our wielding that that weapon.

Joe: 26:50

So what happens is, when you roll to hit somebody with that weapon because you're proficient, not only will you be able to use that stat bonus, which is, in this case, will be strength, but you'll get that proficiency bonus as well. So this is some of the math that comes into the game, which, when you use the D&D Beyond, it's all done for you on in the the character sheet. So when you attack, your attack is based upon your dice roll, the stat that that weapon uses, in this case strength, whatever your bonuses and strength, and then you add your proficiency to it. So this will make it more likely that you're going to hit somebody because you have proficiency, you're well using this item, you're you're good at using this item or this weapon.

Andrew: 27:44

So for, for example, I'm going to bring up here and D&D Beyond my, my new dwarf, thoradin Ironbeard.

Joe: 27:55

Good Dwarvish name.

Andrew: 27:56

Great Dwarvish name. Funny, he doesn't look Dwarvish, so A Dwarvish princess, exactly. So the proficiency bonus comes in on the attack roll, not the damage roll. That's correct. So. So what happens is so if I were to roll the D20 to attack so if I want to, I'm, I'm Thoradin, I'm about to attack my enemy I'm going to roll the D20 to attack and I rolled a 15, so maybe this is a very strong enemy, maybe their and this goes against their armor class. So maybe their armor class is 16 or 17, it may be higher. So if I roll just a straight 15, I would miss my attack, would miss. That's correct. Now what I get to do is because I'm using the Warhammer and it uses the Strength modifier. I actually have, based on all the combinations, I actually have a 20 for Strength, which gives me a plus five, so I could add five to that 15.

Joe: 29:11

I think we should make a note that this is not a first level character. This is an eighth level character, so he's had the ability to level up his stats, which we'll talk about in other episodes, but so it's not like he's at level one getting a plus eight to attack. He's getting a plus eight to attack because he's a level eight character, and I apologize for the interruption.

Andrew: 29:30

Not at all, thank you. Yeah, so it is a higher level character, so yeah, so I would, based on my Strength modifier, I would be able to add five to that roll and because I am proficient in the Warhammer, I also get to add my proficiency bonus, which at this point is a three. So I can add the five and the three for a total of eight to that roll of 15, giving me a 23. So the 23 would definitely hit that enemy, pretty much almost any enemy. At that point, a 23 would pretty well hit.

Joe: 30:01

So the enemy you're likely to come across at that level.

Andrew: 30:03

Yes, exactly. So that's why these ability score modifiers and proficiency bonuses and things like this help to elevate your character based on the race you've chosen. So, all the way back to the beginning of this conversation, dwarven Combat gives you proficiency in those four weapons Battleaxe, handaxe, lighthammer and Warhammer so you add that proficiency bonus to your attack roll to help you more regularly, be more likely that's what I'm looking for being more likely to hit when you make that attack to the enemy. So let's dive into. Okay, so that's a lot of the racial traits and things like that. So, as far as Dwarves are concerned, there are two sub races to the Dwarven race. As far as the basic rules are concerned, there are hill dwarves and mountain dwarves, and there's a couple of additional things that those two races, those two sub races, get as part of their racial traits. So hill dwarves will get a plus one to their wisdom and they also have what is called Dwarven Toughness, which means their Dwarven Toughness means their maximum HP will increase by one and then increases by one at every level increase.

Joe: 31:27

So it's just another additional because they are again it comes back to that Fortitude, that Stull Warp.

Andrew: 31:31

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, they're very strong, very tough, so that Dwarven Toughness gives them additional hit points as they develop as a character.

Joe: 31:43

Yeah, the other ones is the Mountain Dwarves. Yes, now, mountain Dwarves, you can imagine, is somebody who's gonna live in a mountain as opposed to a hill, which, if you think about it, the mountain probably has more stone. So there comes the plus two to the strength, to the strength stat, and this is because they probably have to work a little bit harder, their tougher environment and they have an increase to that stat of their strength. The other one is Dwarven Armor Training. The, you know, the Mountain Dwarves are probably ones that you would think of that might be a little bit more proficient at using armor and stuff like that. And now these have proficiencies in light and medium armor so that they can actually use armor. That's not typical of their race. They typically use a heavier armor. This gives them the proficiency to use it and it won't generate any penalties.

Andrew: 32:38

Yeah, that plus two to strength can be extremely helpful for Mountain Dwarves. That's one of the things that really helps my the character Thorin, the character that the Dwarf character that I recently made is a Mountain Dwarf, so he's got that plus two to his strength. So that's why all of that adds into your how much damage you can do and your likelihood to hit when you make an attack. So that's a lot of ooh, that was a lot about Dwarves. There's a lot to talk about with these common races. We're gonna dive right into the next of the four common races and let's talk about elves, joe. So this is not your cookie making keyboard elf here. No they don't make cookies, Not that we know of you. Could, I guess? I suppose, you could make a character that lives in a tree and makes cookies, and that's what they do. Maybe that's their backstory. So if you're ever writing a backstory for an elf, maybe they're of the keyboard clan and they were cookie makers and now he's gone on to become a great warrior fueled by vanilla or fudge cookies whatever they are. The fudge-straped cookies, ooh, fudge-straped cookies.

Joe: 33:56

Can we make a cookie monster elf Maybe that's a perfect enemy an elf that's turned evil and becomes a cookie monster and he's eating all the keyboard cookies.

Andrew: 34:07

I think the keyboard elves make a cookie golem, like it's like a fudge golem and it just flies, you have two options.

Joe: 34:14

You can either hit it with a sword or you can take a bite out of it Right exactly. So yeah, the elf, that was a really weird rabbit hole, wow.

Andrew: 34:23

Okay, elves, back to the elves and Dungeons and Dragons.

Joe: 34:30

So elves are again. You hate to dwell on Lord of the Rings, but it really does tend to paint a good picture of them. They tend to be somewhat aloof from other people and other races. They like their separation. They don't wanna become involved if they can't help it. They have a closer connection to nature. Doors are in caves and stuff like that. Your elves are more likely to be found in the woods, maybe even above the woods, in tree houses up there. They'll live by the seashore and there are a subrace of sea elves in the world. There are tons of different variations of the elves and they all tend to dwell more towards the nature aspect. They're elegant, they're more calm. Dwarves are rough and tumble and they get into it. Elves are more elegant. They tend to have more wisdom and they're a very, very old race. They are longer lived, so they tend to be more calm again. More calm, more natural grace.

Andrew: 35:39

They've seen a lot, so it's very similar to A racial memory.

Joe: 35:42

Yeah, they learn and they know a lot more because they have the ability to pass that knowledge down. They tend to be kind of dexterity. We're good with dexterity. They're quick, they're agile, they can move quickly and this gives them really good with the typical elf weapon, the bow.

Andrew: 36:02

Indeed, and it's interesting because, again, in doing all the research for this, I love some of the things that jumped out, because it talks about possessing a natural grace, yeah, and excelling in archery and stealth, which I thought was really interesting, and I love the concept of they have this inherent magical connection. They are there if you're going to create a spellcaster. Elves are a great race for spellcasters. They've again, they've been around the age up to upwards of 750 years old, so they've been around a long time. They know a lot of history, they've learned a lot and they've seen a lot over their many centuries of life, so that gives them some advantages that other races might not have.

Joe: 36:57

And that grace that they possess, that turns into the trait where you get a bonus of plus two to your dexterity score. That makes it more easy to move around, to be quick and nimble, and that kind of fits in with where they were talking about that grace that they inherently have as a race and as a species.

Andrew: 37:15

Yeah, that's, that's a great, a great point. Yeah, you get a plus two to dexterity. The speed for for elves is they're kind of the typical, about the same size as humans, as humans. So they've got a speed of 30 feet, so they get to, they get to move that 30 feet per turn.

Joe: 37:35

They all have their own version of dark vision. They tend to dwell inside forests and other nature locations like that, and it gives them their own version of dark vision because, you know, they're frequently hid from the, the moon and the stars because of the forest above them. That's not to say that elves don't live on the plains, but as a genetic, you know, basic racial trait, they tend to have better vision in the dark than a human which has no dark vision at all, and we should talk about that in a little bit.

Andrew: 38:06

That's right, and some of the things, some of the other nice bonuses to to having an elf character is. So we talk about all the, all the abilities, all the skills, and so there's a skill referred to as perception. So how do you, how well do you, perceive things in the environment around you? So, because, because elves have such keen senses, they have proficiency in perception. So again, we talked about proficiency earlier. That proficiency score gets added into your perception checks when, when you're performing those. So again, whatever you roll on on the d 20, you can always add in that proficiency bonus to that. There's also what is known as fate ancestry. So elves have advantage on saving throws against being charmed. Also, magic cannot put them to sleep. So this is just some again, some of their benefits of their race. They, they are very kind of well attuned to to magic and and the and arcana. So they, they cannot They've got advantage on being charmed and I was a magic camp put them to sleep.

Joe: 39:20

Now, sleep is very interesting for the elves because normally and we talked about this briefly in our ABCs of D&D Normally you need to take a long rest in order to recover from hit points and other stat abilities. Tramps, elves, don't need that. They get a trance which is basically four hours of meditation, gives them the same recuperative abilities and capabilities as any other race. Going to sleep for an eight hour day or having an eight hour long rest, which makes them very useful for doing posting watches at night during when they are taken night. So you don't have to have half of your party staying up for two hours at a time. You can just have the elf take care of the rest of it.

Andrew: 40:10

Yeah, that that's a really great feature. Again, I can. I completely forgot. I mean I've, I think I've. I haven't played an elf before, but I think we've had. We've had elves.

Joe: 40:18

We've had a party, yeah.

Andrew: 40:19

And I don't know if we, if we always remember that fact that they only need four.

Joe: 40:24

When we were playing with Liz, she always reminded us that, she always reminded you guys that she had the capability, so that you know we could benefit from it. Yeah, that.

Andrew: 40:32

that's a. That's a nice, nice little bonus for. For the elves Now, similar to the dwarves in the, in the basic rules there are a couple sub races to two elves, there are what are known as high elves and also wood elves. So the high elf gets a couple bonuses. One of those is a plus one to intelligence. So a high elf, just looking at some of the basic rules here, they've got a keen mind and mastery of at least the basics of magic. So this is, this is someone they've, they've, they've got a lot of schooling, they've got a lot of training. So they they have this plus one to to their intelligence score.

Joe: 41:16

They also think of the mouth, for is how they can use in Harry Potter. They walk around, like you know, the nose is up and they don't want those type of people.

Andrew: 41:24

Yes, yeah, they are there. Yes, they, these are. These are the ones that have attended Ivy League, the Ivy League schools of of of Faerun. So this is, this is who you're, who your high elves are. They also have other skills in elf weapon training, which gives them similar to the dwarves. These elves have proficiencies. The high elves have proficiency with a long sword, short sword, short bow and long bow. So, again, bows are our typical weapons for for elves, but the, the high elves themselves, have proficiency with those short bows and long bows. Lastly, for the high elf, the cantrips, what are known as cantrips. These are, these are basic spells that do not require use of Spell slots. They get to know one cantrip of their choice from the wizard spell list. So, again, they've, because they live so long, they've studied so much, they know the arcane war.

Joe: 42:25

So this is just something they've picked up on their in their their years of schooling and studying specifically that high elf, who has that additional intelligence right which the wizard class is tied to the intelligence modifier for magic. So they'll ties together nicely. So they get this cantrip because they are more in tune to it, that magic. And how about our wood elves? So what elves have a little bit more basis in wisdom and if you really want to, you know, kind of delve into it a little bit. To put it into our own words, these are ones that are probably more likely to live in the woods and live in the forest and they're going to have maybe less book knowledge, which is that intelligence, and more real world knowledge, street smarts, if you will, that's your wisdom.

Andrew: 43:09

These are the street.

Joe: 43:11

These are the street, smart elves, the ability to use the knowledge already obtained, not to necessarily have so much more. Now they have the same elven weapon training, proficiency long sword, short sword, short bow and long bow they have the same ones. This is a genetic, a generic trait that all elves share. They're also very fleet of foot, and you got to again think about this if you're in the woods, what's going to be your primary source of food? Animals, probably hunting deer or some similar animal creature. They're going to be more light of foot. That means they get a base walking speed of 35. So the hill, the high elf, they're stuck at the 30. But when you're a wood elf, you can move an extra five feet because you're used to moving quickly, moving in around trees and stuff like that, and very agile, Correct. And then the last one, the last trait is something called the mark of the wild. So that would be mask of the wild. I apologize, mask of the wild. So basically, you can hide when you're lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist and other phenomenon, natural phenomena. Basically, hiding is an action that we haven't discussed because it's one of the miscellaneous ones and what it does is it makes it so that nobody can see you, but because you have this mask of the wild trait, you're able to blend in with nature better than the average person, which makes you more likely to hide.

Andrew: 44:43

Did you watch the series Lost? No, I did not. This reminds me of Ben Linus and the people that were originally on the island before the castaways got there. They were always in bare feet, but they were always sneaking around in the woods and no one ever heard them. They were very stealthy. That's what I think of that group of people when I think of Mask of the Wild that they're used to, or the Lost Boys of Peter Pan, people that are used to living in the woods and in the wild, and they just have adapted and developed this ability. Now this brings us up to Halflings.

Joe: 45:28

I love the Halflings.

Andrew: 45:29

One of my favorites. Joe, talk about Halflings and who they are.

Joe: 45:35

Well, the coolest thing about this, I think, about their real life lore, is that when they originally wrote them into D&D I think it was Guy Gax himself he called them Hobbits as well, and he ended up in a lawsuit with the Tokyo State and they had to change the term from Hobbits to Halflings. Halflings are basically the most jovial people that you'll ever come across in D&D. For those of you who may be somewhat familiar with the Drizdor and books by RA Salvador, they have a Halfling in there called Regis, and Regis is a man who has great appetites for fun, food, fancy things. He likes to enjoy his life, but at the same time, he knows when to buckle down. He knows when to get into it.

Andrew: 46:26

All the F's Food, fun, fancy things, absolutely All the F's, triple F's, all the F's. What's all about?

Joe: 46:35

So they were obviously inspired by the Hobbits and if you watch again, I hate to keep coming back to it, but it's such a good reference material the Lord of the Rings and you see how the Hobbits live More or less a simple existence, followed by a lot of fun, with getting together and having some drinks and enjoying themselves. However, in D&D they tend to have a little bit more of an exploratory spirit than the ones in Tokyo's universe has. They love their peace and they have a strong sense of community, and they abide mostly in little hills or rural areas where they have wide fields, that they can live a simple life. They're very agile as well and they're known to have luck. There's actually a phrase that goes on it's a luck of a halfling. They're known to have the ability to get lucky in most of their things and beyond that, that rolls into, that rolls out from it. They have their ability to get out of trouble if they're about to get into trouble. They're fast talkers, they're street smart. They can make those changes.

Andrew: 47:48

They're quick of wit and mind. What I find interesting about them is they're again, as they're technically, hobbits. They're hobbits without calling them hobbits. Yes, they are, they're what are considered. So they're different sizes of characters. Most characters fall into the medium range Humans, even when you get into the Dragonborn. The Dragonborn are considered medium-sized characters, kind of height-wise and build-wise. But halflings are small. They're only about three feet tall, 40 to 45 pounds, and they're. I love the one thing that again in all the research that I was doing, they survive by avoiding notice. And then I love the other comment, or at least avoiding offense.

Joe: 48:47

They're fast talkers. When they think that they might have offended somebody, they're very quick at trying to change the concept and the thought. And that makes them excellent rogues, scouts and stealthy characters, because they can get in and out, and if they can't, they're usually pretty fast talking on trying to explain why they're there, indeed, and that brings up some of the racial traits for the halflings.

Andrew: 49:11

So their ability score increase is a plus two to dexterity. And, joe, what is the explanation for dexterity, as you like to say?

Joe: 49:21

Dexterity is about how quickly and how agile you are in getting around. It also has to do with how good you are with using your hands at doing certain tasks.

Andrew: 49:33

Yeah. So dexterity is very important for when we start talking about the classes like rogues and things like that. So we'll talk about how important that bonus is to your dexterity score. Age wise similar. They hit adulthood around their early 20s but again, they are a long lived race, generally going into the mid 200s. So they again, they've been around a long time, they've seen a lot, so they've developed a lot of skills over that time. And being small, their speed, just like the dwarves, is 25 feet, so they don't have that ability to kind of they struggle to keep up with the longer-legged humans and elves. Now, joe, talk about one of my favorite things Lucky, lucky.

Joe: 50:30

We have a friend who gets a feat that gives people the lucky trait and she's, like, phenomenal at using it at all the right times. When you are a halfling, you have the lucky trait. This is what we were talking about the ability to get in and out of situations. When you roll a one on anything that you do with a d20, you're attacking, you're trying to avoid getting poisoned, you're trying to jump out of the way of a trap, you're trying to talk your way into anything. If you roll a one which is an automatic failure because you can't get anything better, you are allowed to re-roll and use the new dice roll. You have to use the higher dice roll. Yeah, you have to use yes.

Andrew: 51:13

So hopefully, unlike my rolls earlier that were a one and a three that three wouldn't have done me much better, but hopefully at least you take your chances on trying to re-roll a one and try to get something higher and hopefully that critical failure will at least be some sort of success.

Joe: 51:32

And this is different than advantage, where you roll two dice at the same time. You roll and then, if you hit a one, you can roll again. This is not like you have advantage, and so you hit a two, three, four, five. No, no, you're stuck with that. But if you hit that one, that's when you can re-roll. So you still have to roll one dice and then another.

Andrew: 51:51

So not only do they have the lucky kind of trait, another one is brave, which means so these are, these are brave creatures. And I find this interesting because it says they have advantage on saving throws against being frightened. Is that brave, or is that just not not so smart like you? Do you not know better to be frightened? But they are. They are brave creatures Again. Being around for for several hundred years they've seen a lot, so they are brave. So that means if they are rolling a saving throw against being frightened, they have advantage. They get to roll 2D20s on that and see which one is, and they can take the the better of the two roles. So that's, that's another feat that they have. Lastly, the on the trait side, the racial traits, for for halflings we have halfling nimbleness.

Joe: 52:48

This is a really cool trait that I don't think we've ever had anybody in any of our games actually play as a halfling. I don't think you're right, but this is a really cool trait where you can actually move through the space of any creature that is larger than you. Now, when you're playing the game regularly, you can move through an ally space and not take any penalty, but this means any creature. So you can actually move through your enemy space and you'll be fine. You can step around him, because what are you, your three foot tall, he's six foot. You can kind of zoom in between his legs, get around him to the other side. I mean, this is kind of a cool little thing. When you're playing the official rules, in order to get advantage you have to be an opposite sides of a creature from your, from your, your ally. Well, this lets you run right through him and get over there instead of you know having to go around him.

Andrew: 53:40

You're basically kind of like running through the legs of your, of your, your enemy or somebody else, because you're that much, that much smaller than them. Similar to our other races, there are sub races. For for halflings, there are what are known as the light foot and the stout sub races. Now, light foot light foot sub race has a plus one to the charisma score.

Joe: 54:06

So yeah, the charisma, the choice for charisma, so that they're they're easier to, they're light on their feet verbally, meaning that they can talk around things a little bit better than most people.

Andrew: 54:16

Light on their feet verbally.

Joe: 54:19

Yes.

Andrew: 54:19

Interesting, Literally and and figuratively. They are light on their light on their feet, hence light foot.

Joe: 54:27

They didn't have the stouts. Yes.

Andrew: 54:30

That's that's. That's the Guinness sub race of halflings.

Joe: 54:36

They get a plus one to their Constitution which beefs up their ability to survive certain elements and will help towards their HP. They also have stout resilience, which is very similar to the Dwarven resistance which you have advantage on saving thrones against poison. But you also have resistance against poison damage which is a step further than what the dwarves have. Resistance, remember, means that if you do take that poison damage, you only have to take half of it because you are resilient against it.

Andrew: 55:10

Resistance.

Joe: 55:13

Or did you know that resistant.

Andrew: 55:15

Yes, because you are resistant against you can say resilient. I guess they are resilient creatures as well. So it's just, they are both resilient and resistant. That covers the sub races of halflings, aka don't call them hobbits yes, the light foot and the stout. So everything kind of at this point has had multiple sub races. So you get some nice little additional features to your, to your characters, as you, as you build them. Three down, three down, one to go. Here we go, here we go. Last but not least, of the four most common races in Dungeons and Dragons, there's the, the common, I guess probably the most common race of within the world of D&D.

Joe: 56:02

This is, this is what we are humans by. After all, as a human, there really is no preset with the dwarves. You know you got that tough, built in sturdy character. With the elves, you know this kind of the preset for magic or a range attack with the bow. You know the halflings, they're kind of they're a little more free. But with a human there is no preset because we are so variety in a varietus in ourselves we don't need have a preset, so you can be anything.

Andrew: 56:35

Varietus.

Joe: 56:36

It might be the wrong word. Yes, varied, varied, thank you that we are so varied as a species. There we go, we, we can do anything, and and you really look at it, and you can be a wizard, a fighter, a sorcerer, a rogue, whatever. And when we talk about the stats and the traits that come along with it, you're going to see that the human was designed to be the universal. Whatever you want to be, it has that capability of belt into it.

Andrew: 57:06

Well, I think that that's it when, when I was prepping for this episode, one of the one of the one word that really came up a couple of times was this word adaptable, I think. I think humans as a race are very adaptable, very they. They can kind of go into any situation and and kind of blend in. You know, you think of, you think of immigrants that come from one country to another and and they adapt to new environments, new culture, you know the integrate culture. So there there's, I think there's a great adaptability and diversity as far as humans are concerned. You know, when you think of, when I think, a lot of the other races, they're, they're very straightforward and kind of already fleshed out, as you know, like when you think of a dwarf, you know, you think of size, you know they're, they're, they're very similar. There's, there's, I would say there's probably not as much diversity as you would have with with the human race. So I think, I think you get a lot of diversity of character and ability and and all that again, playing, playing different classes, whether it, whether it be the, the arcane wizard, or the rogue, the bard, the musician.

Joe: 58:20

Yeah, and I think I think we're avoiding. One more aspect that makes the human so popular is that dwarves don't necessarily get along with elves, and vice versa. A lot of the other races tend to be, you know, exclusive to themselves, interacting with each other in, you know, necessary times and for some trade. I think you come across as that. Humans are so varied in and of ourselves. Yes, I almost did it again. We are, so I can be taught. We are so varied in and of ourselves that when, when, when, when, a, when, a, when a dwarf looks at somebody else, they see somebody else. When a human looks at somebody else, dwarf looks at somebody else and says, oh, look how they're different. A human says look how we're the same. Something about the human race in almost every single fantasy or or or sci-fi setting that you come across is the human races, the ones that bring communities together, and most of the big cities that have all these different races in them, they're usually founded and mostly populated by humans, because we human races are the ones that bring everybody together. We don't care if you're a dwarf, we don't care if you're an elf. We look past those things more frequently than the elves and the dwarves do. We don't have a need for it.

Andrew: 59:39

Yeah, I think one of the other interesting things as far as humans are concerned is because they are such so much more short lived than than the other races. In in D&D, you know, there there's this kind of the sense of urgency to do something and make something of yourself in such a short amount of time. When you, when you've got other races that are living for hundreds of years, they're not not so much of a rush as we might be to to do things. So. So I think I think it brings a lot of flavor to to what a what a human would do as far as some of the other other races are concerned.

Joe: 1:00:14

The ultimate variety that we can spread out and we do as humans in the game, because there's only so much time, right.

Andrew: 1:00:23

So let's talk about what's how the racial traits for for humans, and I find this interesting. So in in reading about it, it talks about the ability score increase, that each ability score increases by one. Yeah, which?

Joe: 1:00:37

is a huge thing I mean. So the human race in in the players handbook is one of the few, the only races, I think, that doesn't really have a subclass. And when you look at the different subclasses in the players handbook, the fifth edition basic players handbook, every other race, every other sorry subrace, not subclass, every other race has a subrace where they get additional ability points awarded to them based upon what subrace they picked. The human race is the only one that doesn't have that. There's no predefined measurement. So what it comes in is everything gets a plus one. You don't get plus two here and maybe a plus two here. Everything gets a plus one because it shows the, the, the, the ability, that, the very widespread capabilities of humans. We can do anything, adaptability where we're very. That's what I was thinking.

Andrew: 1:01:35

Yeah, adaptability, we're very adaptable, so we, we kind of have skills, that that that cover the, the whole gamut of abilities, from strength and dexterity to charisma and wisdom and intelligence. So it's kind of where the the jack or Jill of all trades, so to speak, as far as those, those abilities scores are concerned. So, yeah, so out of all six you get a plus one to each of them, which is which is really helpful. Obviously, the age of humans. We, we, we know kind of how humans age, reaching adulthood in their late teens. We're the one race out of the four common ones to live less than a century, so we don't, we don't make it that long. So, again, there's that sense of urgency to, to make something of ourselves and do something and accomplish something, leave a leave, a legacy for for the generations that that come after us. And speed wise humans, again, are the medium, medium size. So they, they have a speed of 30 feet. So, and remember, on those on those grid maps, typically it's a five foot grid, so you're moving six bases. Now, there there aren't sub races to to humans there, we're not going to get into them all because there's there's nine of them, but there are different in the basic rules. There are different ethnicities, for for humans they don't.

Joe: 1:02:55

They don't give you any additional abilities or features, but just think of them as the regular ethnicities that we come across, except they've been, you know, changed and made specifically for the D&D. There's just a lot.

Andrew: 1:03:11

There's a lot of them feel will I'll. I'll post a link to to some more information on the on all the ethnicity, so you can read through them, but they are in the basic rules. Again, if you go on D&D beyond, the basic rules are free, so feel free to jump into them and and take a look.

Joe: 1:03:29

And it's important to note that there are no proficiencies with the humans. You don't get that early proficiency in a sword or a bow or a hammer. And again, this is not to necessarily detract from the humans. It is a balancing since the humans get plus one in every ability score. But it's to make it point that there is no limitation on a human you can do anything, you can be anything you want, so anyway, so that that's covered.

Andrew: 1:04:06

That covers the four most common races out of the nine. For Dungeons and Dragons, out of the basic rules, we will next episode we're going to cover the other less Less common races, the Dragonborn gnomes, half elves, half orcs and tieflings, and we will cover all that in the next episode. We want to thank you for joining us for for this conversation. Jody, you have any parting thoughts about about the races? I do. I try to reiterate this to everybody that I know.

Joe: 1:04:48

I try to reiterate this to everybody that I've ever introduced the game to and anybody who's ever talking about different races and stuff like that. I've talked to some people like, well, I really like this race for X, Y and Z, but it doesn't really fit into their basic racial traits. No, it doesn't have to. I mean, I come back to Drisdorward and he's a drow elf who are bent, hell bent drow or hell bent on controlling everybody and killing everybody. They can't control. But there are always variations on a theme. If your character is a dwarf who maybe likes nature and he wants to be a and I'm thinking again of Drisdorward and there's a there's a dwarf who is a druid, and you know you can have that, you can do whatever you want. These racial classes are, these racial features are guidelines that should fit 90%, 99%. But if you want to create something outside the norm, go for it. You want to create a dwarf that loves magic or an elf that loves to be in the forge and and likes to dig rocks? Hey, go for it. Never let yourself be limited by what's brought into the book, because there is no limitations.

Andrew: 1:06:03

That's a really good point I love again. I think I've mentioned this in previous episodes. The one thing that I love about D&D is is the, the diversity and inclusion that you don't have to just just with humans, you don't have to do what's typical of of who you are. You know you can, you can. You can be the dwarf who loves to be a druid and loves nature. You know you can. You know we'll talk in the next episode about these, these half races, the half elf and the half orc, and and how, how, what difficult time they have because they're not necessarily accepted in in either society of the, of the, of the elves or humans. You know for a half elf. So how do you, how do you play that? So there's, there's some really interesting things that you can do with these characters and you don't be, don't be truly tied to, to what you read on the page that says this is, this is who this is. You know, feel free to, to explore the, the options out there and create the character that that most fits what, what you want it to be.

Joe: 1:07:17

It's like the pirate code. It's more like guidelines.

Andrew: 1:07:21

Exactly they're. They're guidelines, not not rules. So thank you again. We really appreciate you listening. Please support the podcast you know legends, loot and lore dot supercast dot com. We would love to have you subscribe, get some exclusive access on our discord server. There's there's tons going on there. Feel free to email us with questions. Podcast at legends, loot and lore dot com. We will happily answer listener questions on on future episodes. So please do that and we will. We will talk to you next episode have a great one everybody. Thanks for listening.