Half elf ages pathfinder

The following section determines a character's starting age, height, and weight. The character's race and class influence these statistics. Consult your GM before making a character that does not conform to these statistics.

Age

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. Alternatively, roll the dice indicated for your class on Table: Random Starting Ages and add the result to the minimum age of adulthood for your race to determine how old your character is.

Table: Random Starting Ages

With age, a character's physical ability scores decrease and his 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.

When a character reaches venerable age, secretly roll his maximum age and record the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his maximum age dies of old age sometime during the following year.

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.

Table: Aging Effects

1 At middle age, –1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. 2 At old age, –2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. 3 At venerable age, –3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Height and Weight

To determine a character's height, roll the modifier dice indicated on Table: Random Height and Weight and add the result, in inches, to the base height for your character's race and gender. To determine a character's weight, multiply the result of the modifier dice by the weight multiplier and add the result to the base weight for your character's race and gender.

Table: Random Height and Weight

Carrying Capacity

These carrying capacity rules determine how much a character's Equipment slows him down. Encumbrance comes in two parts: encumbrance by armor and encumbrance by total weight.

Encumbrance by Armor: A character's armor determines his maximum Dexterity bonus to AC, armor check Penalty, speed, and running speed. Unless your character is weak or carrying a lot of gear, that's all you need to know; the extra gear your character carries won't slow him down any more than the armor already does.

If your character is weak or carrying a lot of gear, however, then you'll need to calculate encumbrance by weight. Doing so is most important when your character is trying to carry some heavy object.

Table: Carrying Capacity

Encumbrance by Weight: If you want to determine whether your character's gear is heavy enough to slow him down more than his armor already does, total the weight of all the character's items, including armor, Weapons, and gear. Compare this total to the character's Strength on Table: Carrying Capacity. Depending on the character's carrying capacity, he or she may be carrying a light, medium, or heavy load. Like armor, a character's load affects his maximum Dexterity bonus to AC, carries a check Penalty (which works like an armor check penalty), reduces the character's speed, and affects how fast the character can run, as shown on Table: Encumbrance Effects. A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or Skills that are restricted by armor. Carrying a light load does not encumber a character.

If your character is wearing armor, use the worse figure (from armor or from load) for each category. Do not stack the penalties.

Lifting and Dragging: A character can lift as much as his maximum load over his head. A character's maximum load is the highest amount of weight listed for a character's Strength in the heavy load column of Table: Carrying Capacity.

A character can lift as much as double his maximum load off the ground, but he or she can only stagger around with it. While overloaded in this way, the character loses any Dexterity bonus to AC and can move only 5 feet per round (as a full-round action).

A character can generally push or drag along the ground as much as five times his maximum load. Favorable conditions can double these numbers, and bad circumstances can reduce them by half or more.

Bigger and Smaller Creatures: The figures on Table: Carrying Capacity are for Medium bipedal creatures. A larger bipedal Creature can carry more weight depending on its size category, as follows: Large ×2, Huge ×4, Gargantuan ×8, Colossal ×16. A smaller Creature can carry less weight depending on its size category, as follows: Small ×3/4, Tiny ×1/2, Diminutive ×1/4, Fine ×1/8.

Quadrupeds can carry heavier loads than bipeds can. Multiply the values corresponding to the creature's Strength score from Table: Carrying Capacity by the appropriate modifier, as follows: Fine ×1/4, Diminutive ×1/2, Tiny ×3/4, Small ×1, Medium ×1-1/2, Large ×3, Huge ×6, Gargantuan ×12, Colossal ×24.

Tremendous Strength: For Strength scores not shown on Table: Carrying Capacity, find the Strength score between 20 and 29 that has the same number in the "ones" digit as the creature's Strength score does and multiply the numbers in that row by 4 for every 10 points the creature's Strength is above the score for that row.

Armor and Encumbrance for Other Base Speeds

The table below provides reduced speed figures for all base speeds from 5 feet to 120 feet (in 5-foot increments).

The half-elven race began (and still continues to a small degree) as the product of relationships between humans and elves, but has developed into a true-breeding race. Half-elves combine human and elven traits, and as a consequence tend to be considered outsiders by both races. On the other hand, the combination of human skill with elven beauty makes them good artists and entertainers as well as well-traveled adventurers.^[1]

Appearance

Half-elven males on average stand a few inches taller than human males, while half-elven women stand a good deal taller than their average human counterparts: about five to six inches. Half-elves are shorter than elves, and have pointed ears, although not nearly as elongated as those of their elven ancestors. They retain the lean build and comely appearance of the elves, while their skin, while fair, takes its color from their human lineage. Some half-elves look more like their human ancestors, while others favor their elven progenitors in appearance. This variance can often lead to social stigmas, as the more human-looking half-elves are more-easily accepted in human society, and vice versa.^[2][3]

Genealogy

Most half-elves do not have one elven and one human parent, but come from such a pairing that is many generations in the past.^[3] Others are born from two half-elven parents, or even a half-elf with a full elf or human. These different varieties are all still considered half-elven, although in appearance they may resemble one lineage more than the other.^[4]

Half-Elf heritages

Shensen, an aquatic half-elf.

Most half-elves' ancestry traces back to the standard elven ethnicity found in such places as Kyonin or the Mierani Forest in Varisia. Half-elves from other elven cultures exist, and display distinctive features and attributes. Some of these half-elf heritages include:^[5]

Society

Because most half-elves do not fit completely into either human or elven culture, they tend to adapt to the society in which they feel most comfortable. This versatility makes them excellent survivors, and quite indispensable, as they work hard to seek acceptance from those around them. Among humans, half-elves are also appreciated for their elven beauty, height, and grace, while the elves appreciate in them the same traits they value in humans: spontaneity, freedom, and excitement. Their dual ancestry can create a conflict within them, as their elven and human sides clash, and their elongated elven sense of time finds itself in opposition to their human impulsivity. This conflict often leads to a mental fragility that belies their outward beauty, and often ends in madness.^[3]

Childhood

There is no such thing as a "standard" half-elven childhood. Many are born into loving families and nurturing communities that teach them their values, be they human or elven. Others are born into environments that are less supportive and understanding of their mixed nature, and in these, the half-elven child must constantly fight for acceptance and recognition. This need for self-reliance can often foster traits that serve them well in their search for their own meaning in life, apart from that of their birth community.^[4]

Half-elves raised in human societies often have particularly difficult adolescences, as they mature slower than their siblings or friends. This can lead them to be scarred by experiences for which they are not emotionally mature enough. Similarly, those raised among the elves often become frustrated with their parents slow, dispassionate responses geared towards raising a child over the course of a century rather than a few decades. Such children often leave the elven communities early to try to find a faster-paced existence elsewhere.^[4]

In human society

Half-elves who live among humans often keep their emotional distance, as they fear becoming too attached to their shorter-lived neighbors. Capable of living over 150 years, half-elves can watch three or more generations of humans come and go while they barely seem to age. Older half-elves will become nostalgic, spend their time reminiscing of people they have lost. Half-elves often adapt the customs, dress, and mannerisms of their adopted communities, while others prefer to stand out. Those who want to blend in often go to extremes to do so, and often develop mental issues in their effort to adapt.^[3]

Language

Most half-elves have learned both Taldane and Elven, no matter whether they grew up in human or elven communities. Their names are often drawn from a wide range of human or elven cultures, or else are unique. Many are quite ordinary, designed to blend in, or else carry Elven inflections. Cathran, Eandi, and Reda being common among women, and Gouard, Satinder, and Zirul among men.^[3]

Religion

Being versatile creatures, half-elves worship a large selection of deities. Those with altruistic tendencies venerate such deities as Cayden Cailean, Desna, Sarenrae, or Shelyn, while those who take a more impartial viewpoint on the world worship Calistria, Irori, or Nethys. Half-elves who embrace their darker emotions find themselves drawn to Lamashtu or Zon-Kuthon.^[3]

On Golarion

Although large parts of Golarion are unknown, it is safe to assume that half-elves live everywhere where their parent races co-exist. Even so, half-elves as a race do not have a country or region that they consider their homeland. Very few settlements even have a half-elf majority, although most live in human communities, often becoming artists or entertainers.^[3] One exception is the town of Erages in Kyonin, where they exist separately from the full-blooded elves of that nation.^[6]

References

Paizo published Bastards of Golarion, a sourcebook featuring half-elves.

For additional resources, see the Meta page.

Half-Elves

Also see the elf creature listing.

Half-elves are not truly an elf subrace, but they are often mistaken for elves. Half-elves usually inherit a good blend of their parents’ physical characteristics.

• Humanoid (Elf).
• Medium: As Medium creatures, half-elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Half-elf base land speed is 30 feet.
• Immunity to sleep spells and similar magical effects, and a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against enchantment spells or effects.
• Low-Light Vision: A half-elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• +1 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.
• +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks.
• Elven Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-elf is considered an elf.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Elven. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic).
• Favored Class: Any. When determining whether a multiclass half-elf takes an experience point penalty, her highest-level class does not count.
• Level Adjustment: +0.

Back to Main Page → 3.5e Open Game Content → System Reference Document → Races

A half-elf is born to an elf and a human, or to two half-elves. The life of a half-elf can be difficult, often marked by a struggle to fit in. Half-elves don’t have their own homeland on Golarion, nor are populations of half-elves particularly tied to one another, since they often have very disparate human and elven traditions. Instead, most half-elves attempt to find acceptance in either human or elven settlements.

Half-elves often appear primarily human, with subtly pointed ears and a taller stature than most full-blooded humans. Half-elves lack the almost alien eyes of their elf parents, though they do have a natural presence—and often a striking beauty— that leads many to become artists or entertainers. Despite this innate appeal, many half-elves have difficulty forming lasting bonds with either humans or elves due to the distance they feel from both peoples as a whole.

Half-elves live longer than other humans, often reaching an age around 150 years. This causes some of them to fear friendship and romance with humans, knowing that they’ll likely outlive their companions.

Playing a Half-Elf

You can create a half-elf character by selecting the half-elf heritage at 1st level. This gives you access to elf and half-elf ancestry feats in addition to human ancestry feats.

You Might...

• Keep to yourself and find it difficult to form close bonds with others.
• Strongly embrace or reject one side or the other of your parentage.
• Identify strongly with and relate to other people with mixed ancestries.

Others Probably...

• Find you more attractive than humans and more approachable than elves.
• Dismiss your human ethnicity and culture in light of your elven heritage.
• Downplay the challenges of being caught between two cultures.

The following section determines a character’s starting age, height, and weight. However, not every race is described here. 

The character’s race and class influence these statistics. Consult your GM before making a character that does not conform to these statistics.

Age

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. Alternatively, roll the dice indicated for your class on Table: Random Starting Ages and add the result to the minimum age of adulthood for your race to determine how old your character is.

With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his 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.

When a character reaches venerable age, secretly roll his maximum age and record the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his maximum age dies of old age sometime during the following year.

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.

Height and Weight

To determine a character’s height, roll the modifier dice indicated on Table: Random Height and Weight and add the result, in inches, to the base height for your character’s race and gender. To determine a character’s weight, multiply the result of the modifier dice by the weight multiplier and add the result to the base weight for your character’s race and gender.

¹ This category includes barbarians, oracles, rogues, and sorcerers.
² This category includes bards, cavaliers, fighters, gunslingers, paladins, rangers, summoners, and witches.
³ This category includes alchemists, clerics, druids, inquisitors, magi, monks, and wizards.