Sylvae Elf

## **Sylvae Elves**

 Average Lifespan
 Average Height
 Average Weight

### **Summary**

Sylvae Elves are the mysterious, tattooed inhabitants of the Sylvae Forest. They keep true to the ancient Elven traditions, living one with nature. Sylvae Elves are raised to respect nature, and to treat it equally and without waste. They much prefer to be in the woodlands than any city or town.

### **Physical Description**

Slightly tan-skinned Elves who populate the Sylvae Forest. They tend to be taller than most Humans, and have slightly shorter, pointy ears than their Sol counterparts. All Sylvae Elves have a graceful and slender figure, but can still be powerful. They are born with either brown, ginger, green, or black hair, and have round eyes with intense coloration.

### **Society**

Sylvae Elves are peaceful by nature. They believe in living peacefully with the other races, and not overly harming nature. Sylvae Elves waste nothing they harvest from nature, and use every part of the plant or animal. When maturing to adulthood, all Sylvae Elves are tattooed, as part of a trial, with the symbols of their clan and magical runes symbols representing their favorite parts about nature. They prefer to stay in their Forest and guard it from outsiders instead of traversing the world.

###  **Standard Racial Traits**

* **Ability Score Racial Traits**: Sylvae Elves are nimble, both in body and mind, but their form is frail. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, and –2 Constitution.
* **Size**: Sylvae Elves are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* **Type**: Elves are Humanoids with the elf subtype.
* **Base Speed**: Sylvae Elves have a base speed of 30 feet.
* **Languages**: Sylvae Elves begin play speaking Common and Elven. Elves with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Celestial, Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.

###  **Defense Racial Traits**

* **Elven Immunities**: Sylvae Elves are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.

### **Feat and Skill Racial Traits**

* **Keen Senses**: Sylvae Elves receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.

### **Magical Racial Traits**

* **Elven Magic**: Sylvae Elves receive a +2 racial bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance. In addition, elves receive a +2 racial bonuson Spellcraft skill checks made to identify the properties of magic items.

### **Offense Racial Traits**

* **Weapon Familiarity**: Sylvae Elves are proficient with longbows (including composite longbows), longswords, rapiers, and shortbows (including composite shortbows), and treat any weapon with the word “elven” in its name as a martial weapon.
* **Guerilla Combat**: Sylvae Elves are extremely comfortable in the trees, and gain a +1 racial attack bonus against all creatures when in forests.

### **Senses Racial Traits**

* **Low-Light Vision**: Sylvae Elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.

### **Alternate Racial Traits**

The following alternate racial traits may be selected in place of one or more of the standard racial traits above. Consult your GM before selecting any of these new options.

* **Ageless Patience**: Some families of elves have been strongly influenced by rigidly honorable non-elven cultures. This attitude, combined with elven longevity, produces elves of extraordinary patience, who can produce better results when taking their time than they could under time constraints. These elves gain a +2 racial bonus when taking 20 on skill checks. This racial trait replaces elven magic and keen senses.
* **Arcane Focus**: Some elven families have such long traditions of producing wizards (and other arcane spellcasters) that they raise their children with the assumption each is destined to be a powerful magic-user, with little need for mundane concerns such as skill with weapons. Elves with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on concentration checks made to cast arcane spells defensively. This racial trait replaces weapon familiarity.
* **Darkvision**: Though uncommon, some groups of elves are born with darkvision, rather than low-light vision. In many cases this is taken as a sign of a drowin the elf's ancestry, and can lead to persecution within the elf's home community. Elves with this racial trait gain darkvision with a range of 60 feet, but also gain sensitivity to light and are dazzled in areas of bright light or within the radius of a daylight spell. This racial trait replaces low-light vision.
* **Desert Runner**: Some elves thrive in the deepest deserts, forever roaming across burned and parched lands. Elves with this racial trait receive a +4 racial bonus on Constitution checks and Fortitude saves to avoid fatigue, exhaustion, or ill effects from running, forced marches, starvation, thirst, or hot or cold environments. This racial trait replaces elven magic.
* **Disinterested Observer**: Elves who frequently interact with shorter-lived species often come to rely on their ability to weight out such impatient races. These elves gain a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls and skill checks made as part of readied actions in combat. This racial trait replaces the elven magic and weapon familiarity traits.
* **Dreamspeaker**: A few elves have the ability to tap into the power of sleep, dreams, and prescient reverie. Elves with this racial trait add +1 to the saving throw DCs of spells of the divination school and sleep effects they cast. In addition, elves with Charisma scores of 15 or higher may use dream once per day as a spell-like ability (caster level is equal to the elf's character level). This racial trait replaces elven immunities.
* **Elemental Resistance**: Elves who dwell in the most extreme environments, from arctic wastelands to volcanic plains, develop natural resistance to the dangers of their homelands over the course of a few generations. Elves with this racial trait gain elemental resistance 5 to acid, cold, electricity, or fire. This choice is made at character creation, and once made it cannot be changed. This racial trait replaces elven immunities.
* **Elven Arrogance**: Some elves are so convinced of elven superiority, or else otherwise so xenophobic, that they have difficulty seeing the point in communicating with “lesser” races. Their racial bonus on saving throws against enchantments increases by 1 (to +3) against such effects from non-elf humanoids, but they begin play speaking only Elven, and if they have high Intelligence scores, they can select bonus languages from only 1 ancient language, Celestial, Draconic, and Sylvan.
* **Envoy**: Elves often have trouble relating to neighbors of other races, especially those with much shorter lifespans. As a result, some are trained in minor magics that are particularly useful when dealing with non-elves. Elves with this racial trait and an Intelligence score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like abilities once per day: comprehend languages, detect magic, detect poison, and read magic. The caster level for these effects is equal to the elf's level. This racial trait replaces elven magic.
* **Eternal Grudge**: Some elves grow up in secluded, isolationist communities where generations-old slights and quarrels linger as eternal blood feuds. Elves with this racial trait receive a +1 bonus on attack rolls against humanoids of the dwarf and orc subtypes because of special training against these hated foes. This racial trait replaces elven magic.
* **Fey Magic (2 RP)**: The character has a mystic connection to one terrain type, selected from the ranger's favored terrain list. The character selects three 0-level druid spells and one 1st-level druid spell. If the character has a Charisma score of 11 or higher, when in the selected terrain, she gains these spells asspell-like abilities that can be cast once per day. The caster level for these effects is equal to the user's character level. The DC for the spell-like abilities is equal to 10 + the spell's level + the user's Charisma modifier. These spells are treated as being from a fey source for the purposes of the druid's resist nature's lure class feature and similar abilities. This trait replaces keen senses.
* **Fey Thoughts (1 RP)**: Select two of the following skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Fly, Knowledge (nature), Perception,Perform, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Swim, or Use Magic Device. The selected skills are always class skills for the character. This trait replaces racial weapon familiarity.
* **Fleet-Footed**: While all elves are naturally lithe and agile, some also are naturally speedy and have a strong desire to rush into situations rather than worrying about looking ahead. Elves with this racial trait receive Run as a bonus feat and a +2 racial bonus on initiative checks. This racial trait replaces keen senses and weapon familiarity.
* **Forlorn**: Elves raised outside of elven communities—are accustomed to other races' brevity of life. Although they lose the opportunity to train in traditional elven arts, these elves pick up a bit of their adoptive parents' skills. They gain Skill Focus as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces elven magic and weapon familiarity.
* **Lightbringer**: Many elves revere the sun, moon, and stars, but some are literally infused with the radiant power of the heavens. Elves with this racial trait are immune to light-based blindness and dazzle effects, and are treated as one level higher when determining the effects of any light-based spell or effect they cast (including spell-like and supernatural abilities). Elves with Intelligence scores of 10 or higher may use light at will as a spell-like ability. This racial trait replaces the elven immunities and elven magic racial traits.
* **Loremasters**: Some elves are steeped in lore older than most civilizations. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), and Spellcraft checks. This racial trait replaces elven magic and keen senses.
* **Memories Beyond Death**: Some elves are born with sensitive souls that absorb insight from others and from the spirits of the deceased. These elves gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against fear effects. They also choose two Knowledge skills and always treat those skills as class skills. If they take a class that grants either or both of those skills as class skills, they gain a +1 racial bonus on the overlapping skill or skills. This racial trait replaces elven immunities and elven magic.
* **Overwhelming Magic**: Some elves obsess over the fundamentals of magic, training for decades to add layers of potent spellwork before they ever begin practicing true spells. This builds a foundation that makes their magic increasingly difficult to resist. These elves gain Spell Focus as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces elven magic and weapon familiarity.
* **Retreat Magic**: Some elves specialize in magic that fools foes into misjudging elven numbers and locations. These elves gain a +1 racial bonus to their caster levels for the purpose of determining the range and duration of all conjuration and illusion spells that they cast. This racial trait replaces elven magic.
* **Silent Hunter**: Elves are renowned for their subtlety and skill. Elves with this racial trait reduce the penalty for using Stealth while moving by 5 and can make Stealth checks while running at a –20 penalty (this number includes the penalty reduction from this racial trait). This racial trait replaces elven magic.
* **Spirit of the Waters**: Some elves have adapted to life in tune with the sea or along the reedy depths of wild rivers and lakes. They gain a +4 racial bonus on Swim checks, can always take 10 while swimming, and may choose Aquan as a bonus language. They are proficient with longspear, trident, and net. This racial trait replaces elven magic and weapon familiarity.
* **Urbanite**: Elves who live in cities for more than a century can grow to know the ebb and flow of social situations just as their forest-dwelling cousins know the rules of the wild. Elves with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks made to gather information and Sense Motive checks made to get a hunch about a social situation. This racial trait replaces keen senses.
* **Woodcraft**: Elves know the deep secrets of the wild like no others, especially secrets of the forests. Elves with this racial trait gain a +1 racial bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks. In forest terrain, these bonuses improve to +2. This racial trait replaces elven magic.