Spelljammer Astral Elves: Spelljammer's Elves In Spaaaaace!

WotC has a preview of Spelljammer's upcoming Astral Elves over on D&D Beyond (following on from their preview of the Giff last week).

Astral Elves can teleport as a bonus action, use divine cantrips, and 'tap into the knowledge of the infinite multiverse' to pick up new proficiencies after a long rest.

Sneak Peek: Play as the Immortal Astral Elf From Spelljammer: Adventures in Space!

The astral elf is a timeless creature with a deep connection to the Astral Sea. Click here for a preview of the new race offered by Spelljammer: Adventu...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Unironically, my fave thing in 5E is all the new elves races.

I like having a fuckton of weird elves to play with, and strange cultures to intermingle. I love that elves can be the default race if you want, and I can legit play fun elf-games. I highly enjoy the fact that this one race, which is spiritually protean, is capable of taking on so many different forms (AS IT SHOULD) and can be found everywhere in the multiverse. It makes sense.

I am totally with you on this. We are nowhere near the apocalyptic ground zero of 2nd Edition elf proliferation, and I love weird fay types in general, so the more freaky elf subtypes the merrier!

 

[Micah Sweet]

I was thoroughly into this preview, love the flavor and style, then read this post which left me feeling like some sort of freaky reality shift. I mean....I don't even....okay then.....

EDIT: and finished the posts. I feel for those who are overloaded with elf options (I survived the entirety of 2nd edition myself so I know!) but I just can't imagine Spelljammer without the space elves. These abilities fit well thematically (ime, ymmv) so I am all for it. And Sacred Flame has never even been a blip on the radar for my gang, who use it often, so once again YMMV.

See, I see space elf as a culture, not a heritage. If WotC separated heritage and culture, I think this sort of thing would be dealt with better.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

See, I see space elf as a culture, not a heritage. If WotC separated heritage and culture, I think this sort of thing would be dealt with better.

Part of Elf lore is that they are magically altered by the locations they live in. Which is why there are so many subtypes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Part of Elf lore is that they are magically altered by the locations they live in. Which is why there are so many subtypes.

That lore is from MToF, designed primarily to give an excuse for why there are so many elves. It certainly didn't have to be that way, and leaving it more open by separating heritage and culture (like Level Up did) would have solved this problem.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Aren't Githyanki basically D&D's Astral "Elves" already? We already have a ton of different elves, and the Gith are basically just yellow-skinned reptilian elves. If they wanted to have the Elven Imperial Navy from Spelljammer, they could have just made that a culture/faction. We really don't need another type of elf, especially when Gith are basically "Astral Elves" already.

 

[Charlaquin]

Aren't Githyanki basically D&D's Astral "Elves" already? We already have a ton of different elves, and the Gith are basically just yellow-skinned reptilian elves. If they wanted to have the Elven Imperial Navy from Spelljammer, they could have just made that a culture/faction. We really don't need another type of elf, especially when Gith are basically "Astral Elves" already.

Sadly, I think the metric is not “do we need another subrace of elves?” but rather “will including another subrace of elves in the book get more people to buy it who might otherwise not?” And since the answer to that is basically always yes, we get a new elf subrace in nearly every book.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sadly, I think the metric is not “do we need another subrace of elves?” but rather “will including another subrace of elves in the book get more people to buy it who might otherwise not?” And since the answer to that is basically always yes, we get a new elf subrace in nearly every book.

Yep at least they don't get the super equipment now.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Aren't Githyanki basically D&D's Astral "Elves" already? We already have a ton of different elves, and the Gith are basically just yellow-skinned reptilian elves. If they wanted to have the Elven Imperial Navy from Spelljammer, they could have just made that a culture/faction. We really don't need another type of elf, especially when Gith are basically "Astral Elves" already.

I'm not sure what makes the gith elves any more than any other race. They have their own origin and character.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

That lore is from MToF, designed primarily to give an excuse for why there are so many elves. It certainly didn't have to be that way, and leaving it more open by separating heritage and culture (like Level Up did) would have solved this problem.

That lore is still the one being used. And it's not really a problem in my opinion.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Aren't Githyanki basically D&D's Astral "Elves" already? We already have a ton of different elves, and the Gith are basically just yellow-skinned reptilian elves. If they wanted to have the Elven Imperial Navy from Spelljammer, they could have just made that a culture/faction. We really don't need another type of elf, especially when Gith are basically "Astral Elves" already.

Cause they wanted the Imperial Elves from Spelljammer to be it's own group, and by their own lore a massive group of elves living in the Astral Plane and Wildspace would become it's own subtype.