Elves and dwarves are iconic fictional species in countless fantasy settings, and play a large role in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Both have been choices for player characters since the first iteration of the gameAnd both have reworked rules in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. And while changes to such staples of the setting can be difficult 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 at this time Monsters of the Multiverse Came out with revamped versions of many DND Kinds, it felt like some of the older choices were left behind. But with new rules in 2024 Player’s Handbook Rules, it is easy to see that much work has been put into evening the power offered to players by the species of their character.
Improvements to the eleven species in D&D 2024 PHB
A more magical focus than before
The elf in the 2014 Player’s Handbook Got a few cool features, but too many of them felt niche. Trance allowed them to rest faster and Fey Ancestry helped them resist his charms, but doesn’t come that often in most DND Games. They have skill in perception and darknessWhich are both good, but offered to many other species. And their subspecies, the high elf, wood elf, and drow, felt unbalanced in the extra powers they were given.
The new elf focuses more on the species’ innate magical connectionsGive each subspecies a selection of spells they can cast as they level up. These include options like Fairy fire, Misty stepAnd Pass without traceMany 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 wide selection for their extra proficiency. They can choose Insight or Survival if players prefer.
Related
Each subspecies choice gets its own passive features. Each gets an extra cantrip related to the type of elf’s typical environment, drow get better darkvision, and wood elves have a faster movement speed. All in all, the drive is largely unchanged, save for better spell selection and the removal of sunlight sensitivity. But The wood and high elf subspecies benefit greatly from their own spell listsWhich they didn’t have before in the fifth edition.
Dwarves have more versatile abilities to use in D&D 2024 PHB
One particular feature goes from useless to amazing
Dwarves are no slouches in earlier versions of the rules, with Plenty of powers that have elevated them beyond other choices. But they’ve always had one feature that’s pretty useless: stonecunning. As written, it allows dwarves to have a better chance of succeeding on history checks to identify the origins and features of stone. Players are lucky if they get to use this feature once in a campaign.
Now, Stonecunning is one of the dwarf’s best abilities; It can be used as a bonus action for a dwarven character to gain tremorsense for ten minutes, basically allowing them to know where anything and anyone touching the ground within sixty feet of them is. It’s great for avoiding the downsides of being blind and finding creatures that are hiding or invisible, and it can be used multiple times per day.
Related
besides that, The dwarf subspecies are consolidated together, so each gives buffs to the dwarf in general. All dwarves gain enhanced darkvision, once a feature only for duergar, and they all gain one extra hit point per level. Finally, their speed is made 30 feet instead of 25, and they keep their poison resistance. Despite the consolidation of subspecies taking some elements of player choice, dwarves with all these features are very powerful.
How will the revised species stack up against others in the 2024 Player’s Handbook?
Origin features change the game
Of course, these two species aren’t the only ones getting reworked in the new one Player’s Handbook. There are 10 total species in the new bookIncluding the man, goliath and halfling. Regardless, it seems the goal of this species update was to make them all equally viable choices for player builds. And besides that, they are all affected by the way that the new book rules player origins.
Player origins include the species and background of a character, and the amount provided by each is evened out. Species no longer determine ability score increasesAnd some of the most powerful species have their features worked a little. It remains to be seen how some of the most powerful DND Species, like the Yuan-ti with their poison immunity and spell resistance, are getting updated in the new rule set, but it seems likely that they will have their features.
This comes with the added bonus of a feat at first level, determined by a character’s 2024 PHB Background, as well as backgrounds feeling more important in general. In the previous books of the fifth edition they felt at best like ribbon features; Now, they are built to carry weight directly to character species, which should help balance the different choices players have for character creation. All in all, the rebalancing done in the new Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook Should make more builds viable for players to create, and the elf and dwarf more tempting as options for players to choose from.
Source: Dungeons and Dragons / YouTube