Elven Class Features
Hello everyone. As you should all be well aware by now, today marks the last day of Elf Week. As such, it seemed only appropriate to devote today to something elf-related. There were some jokes around the office about doing a “Races with Class: Elves” article, and while it would certainly have been fun to create a 20-level class about being a paragon of elfiness, we obviously had to nip that in the bud. It’s far too slippery a slope from that to “Races with Class: Humans,” and I don’t even want to pretend to think about where that would have taken us.
Instead, I’ve prepared some alternate class features for a variety of classes, which are available only to elves. They’re designed to bring a more…elven…feel to the class, representing the elves’ racial approach to whatever it is the class does. Please note that all class features from a given alternate class feature package must be taken; players cannot simply pick and choose.
Elven Fighter
Agile Fighter (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, an elven fighter learns to be more maneuverable on the battlefield, as long as he is not encumbered by armor. As long as the armor the fighter is wearing has an armor check penalty of 0, the fighter gains a +2 dodge bonus to AC. At 7th, 11th, and 15th level, this bonus increases by an additional +2. This class feature replaces the fighter’s normal armor training class feature.
Evasion (Ex): At 19th level, an elven fighter gains the evasion class feature of rogues.
Elven Rogue
The elven rogue is a special case, as it has more changes than just class features. A rogue with this alternate package has a d10 hit dice and a full base attack progression, but loses the sneak attack class feature. Additionally, her Will save is increased from poor to good.
Elven Wizard
Versatile Spellcaster (Sp): Elven wizards are exceptionally quick thinkers, and as such have more flexibility when preparing spells. When preparing spells, at each spell level, you may choose a single spell slot in which to prepare two spells, instead of just one. Both spells must be of the appropriate level for that spell slot, and must not be from one of your opposed schools. For each such spell slot, you may choose to cast either of the two spells prepared in that slot, but not both. When one of the spells is expended, the other is immediately expended as well. This ability in no way grants additional spells per day, just allows more flexibility with those spells. This ability replaces the wizard’s arcane bond class feature.
(For example: Raxen Dale, a 5th-level necromancer, is preparing his spells. He may choose a single 3rd-level spell slot in which to prepare two spells. He does so, preparing both halt undead and vampiric touch. He does the same with one 2nd-level spell slot and one 1st-level spell slot as well. Later, Raxen encounters a horde of zombies. Knowing that vampiric touch will be useless against these undead monstrosities, he casts halt undead. He can no longer use vampiric touch, as it was expended in order to cast the halt undead spell.)