Eladrin
by Prince Phantom
Because Elves weren’t fey-themed enough, Eladrin are about as Fey of a race as you could possibly be. They get all the usual Elf abilities, plus one of the best teleport effects in the entire game. Let’s dive in.
Eladrin Features
Darkvision: If there was ever an Elf that shouldn’t get this, I’d say it’s the one that lives in a realm devoid of nighttime, but obviously the designers disagree.
Fey Ancestry: Resistance to charm effects is both potent and fitting for a denizen of the Feywild.
Trance: At first glance, this probably reads like a ribbon feature, however with the right build and playstyle it can be game changing. This essentially cuts our long rest time from 8 hours to 4 hours, and while that alone isn’t a huge deal, what it does is give us 4 free hours every day to do whatever we want without slowing our party. There are myriad ways to spend this time, like copying spells into a spellbook, scribing scrolls, creating alchemical items, crafting magic items slowly over time, taking short rests and recovering pact slots that you spent on long duration spells like Death Ward, and so, so much more. If you’ve got even an ounce of creativity (and some magic, martials don’t really have much to do with downtime), then you’ll definitely find something productive to do with those 4 hours.
Fey Step: This feature gives us a 30ft bonus action teleport akin to Misty Step proficiency times per day, but it’s better than Misty Step because it isn’t a spell and skirts the rules for bonus action spellcasting, allowing us to cast a leveled spell on the same turn we use this. It also comes with a bonus effect depending on which season you currently represent, and since you can swap seasons on each long rest, you won’t be stuck with any one selection if you find it isn’t working well for you. Let’s break it down.
Autumn: This forces a Wisdom save on two creatures within 10ft of where we end up after teleporting, charming them on a failed save. This is pretty hard to use in combat, as normally we will be wanting to teleport away from enemies, and if we are looking to move towards them to make melee attacks, the charm breaks as soon as we or our allies attack, so that doesn’t really work either. This is the weakest option in my opinion.
Winter: This forces a Wisdom save on a creature within 5ft of where we teleported from and inflicts fear on a failed save. This is more in line with what I want to be doing. If we teleport away from an enemy and they fail their save, they are now unable to approach and chase us back down, making this an excellent defensive feature and my pick for the best of the four, assuming you’re not running into a lot of enemies who are immune to fear.
Spring: This allows us to instead teleport a different creature within 5ft of us, rather than teleport ourselves. Note that we still have the option of teleporting ourselves, this just gives us a new option. There are definitely situations where this will help, but if you are trying to get an ally out of a bad spot, I’d really prefer to be teleporting with them like with Thunder Step or Dimension Door, rather than leaving myself standing there.
Summer: This deals fire damage equal to our proficiency bonus to enemies who are near where we teleported to. This runs into the same problem as Autumn, where I don’t see myself teleporting towards enemies very frequently, and the damage isn’t enough to change my mind.
To summarize, I’d probably stick with Winter most of the time, switching to Autumn occasionally for roleplay and utility purposes (charm is actually most effective outside of combat), and using Spring or Summer when I know I’ll be facing enemies that are immune to fear. Still, that’s a lot of versatility wrapped up in this ability, and it stands out as one of the best racial teleportation options, only rivaled by its Shadowfell counterpart the Shadar-Kai.
The Eladrin is easily one of the best two Elves alongside the Shadar-Kai, and which is better depends on what day you ask me. Fey Step is just that good of a feature, and to have all the other Elf goodies alongside it is amazing.
Final Rating: 5/5
Tome of Foes Eladrin (Legacy)
This is a legacy race and may not be available at all tables. Check with your DM before selecting this option.
The only real differences between this and the revised Eladrin is that only get one use of Fey Step and it is regained on a short or long rest (at the vast majority of tables this will mean many less uses each day), and the Summer step deals damage equal to our Charisma modifier. That definitely seems like a weird choice and I’m glad they changed that. This is still objectively a good race, but it’s clearly outclassed by its revision.
Final Rating: 4/5
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