D&D’s Most Iconic Species Are Better Than Ever In The 2024 Player’s Handbook

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Elves and dwarves are iconic fictional species across countless fantasy settings, and feature heavily in the world of . Both have been choices for player characters since the very first iteration of the game, and both have reworked rules in the2024And while changes to such staples of the setting can be hard to get used to, the buffs to these species' features provide them both with a much-needed power boost.

While dwarves and elves remain popular choices for player characters, they have been seriously outclassed by newer choices like aasimar, changelings, and firbolg. Especially by the time came out with revamped versions of many species, it felt like some of the older choices had gotten left behind. But with new rules in the 2024 rules, it's easy to see that much work has been put into evening out the power offered to players by their character's species.

The elf in the2014 got a few cool features, but too many of them felt niche. Trance let them rest more quickly and Fey Ancestry helped them resist being charmed, but neither comes up that often in most games. They had proficiency in perception and darkvision, which are both good, but offered to many other species. And their subspecies, the high elf, wood elf, and drow, felt imbalanced in the extra powers they granted.

The new elf focuses more on the species' innate magical connections, granting each subspecies a selection of spells they can cast as they level up. These include options like,, and, many of which will come in handy often. They retain a lot of their old features, keeping Trance, darkvision proficiency, and Fey Ancestry, and get a wider selection for their extra proficiency. They can choose insight or survival if players prefer.

Despite player's concerns over the new changes, the 2024 Player's Handbook offers a new and even better way to play Dungeons & Dragons.

Each subspecies choice gets its own passive features as well. Each gets an extra cantrip that pertains to the typical environment of that type