Editing Elf (section)

===OD&D/BECMI===
Back in the earliest days of D&D Elf was a class, not a race. That's how long they've been in the game.

The Basic D&D version of the Elf was a [[Gish]] class, combining elements of [[Fighter]] and [[Wizard|Magic-User]]. As such, they required a minimum [[Intelligence]] of 9 to qualify for the character, and needed high [[Strength]] and [[Intelligence]] to gain bonuses to XP gathering. They had a D6 hit dice, started play with the Set Spear vs Attack and Lance Attack fighter manuevers, were immune to the paralysis attack of [[ghoul]]s, and had a 1 in 3 chance to detect secret or hidden doors.

Technically maxing out at 10th level, they gained a fairly small selection of mostly low-level spells, maxing out at 3 spells for each level from 1st to 4th and 2 level 5 spells upon hitting 10th level. [[Companion Set]] relented, a bit: as with Dwarves and Halflings they could keep gaining experience after 10th level going to [[Fighter]] levels as "Attack Rank", by [[What|the alphabet]]. The ''Elves of Alfheim'' [[Known World Gazetteers|Gazetteer]]'s internal [[splatbook]] just overturned all that, declaring the ABC plan the '''Elf Lord''' option. A high-level elf could instead focus on enhancing their spellcasting abilities, becoming an '''Elf Mage'''.

For those who care, the Companion / Elf Lord maxed out at Attack Rank M. At Rank D, they gained the Fighter Combat Options and could make 2 attacks per round. At G, they halved all damage taken from breath weapons (quartering it if they passed their saving throw). At K, they could make 3 attacks per round.

The [[Hollow World]] subsetting, and the Champions of [[Mystara]] [[splatbook]], both introduced variant elf classes.

The Hollow World produced the Elf Warrior, an elf who, for whatever reasons, couldn't learn magic and so focused on their combat skills instead, complete with rules for "[[multiclassing]]" to "proper" Elf and gaining spellcasting at a later date. This works because the Hollow World setting has a unique trait where native PCs ''cannot'' become magic-users unless they have at least a 16 in [[Intelligence]]... which is almost twice the Intelligence required to qualify for the Elf race in the first place! So, Hollow World Elf PCs don't get to learn spells, but in a trade off, they advance faster - halving their XP costs up till level six, at which point their XP costs become a little over half. But, as the suppression of magic actually stems from an environmental factor in the Hollow World itself, warrior elves who find their way up to the surface can go on to learn elven magic; they do this by paying off the "missing" experience, and once they have as many "elfin wizard" levels as they do elfin warrior levels, they switch over to just using the normal elf XP levels. If these elves then return to the Hollow World, they retain their spellcasting ability; having learned how to cast in the first place, they are no longer affected by the thaumic "static" that saturates the inner world.

Champions of [[Mystara]] produced the variant racial class of Elf [[Shaman]], an elf who used [[cleric]] magic alongside [[wizard]] magic but who was less effective as a fighter as a result.

[[Known World Gazetteers|Dawn of the Emperors: Thyatis and Alphatia]] introduced the ''Forester'' class, a human trained by elves who thusly has learned to blend martial skills and magic the same way that they do. Mechanically, this functions identically to the Elf class, but loses the Immunity to [[Ghoul]] Paralysis and Infravision traits. This was, in a sense, a prototype of the [[Half-Elf]], which itself appeared in BECMI in issue #178 of [[Dragon Magazine]], as part of the serial [[The Voyage of the Princess Ark]].

Dragon issue #178 also introduced Elf variant classes for Elven [[Cleric]]s, [[Paladin]]s, [[Knight]]s and [[Avenger]]s.

[[Mystara]] does have its share of elven subraces, although mechanically these aren't as distinct as their AD&D counterparts. 
* '''Shadow Elves''' kind of fill the [[drow]] niche, being subterranean elves, but aren't as outright malevolent as drow and are albinos rather than photonegative-colored. They do have an evil counterpart in the '''Schattenalfen''', who have a [[vampire]]-like allergy to sunlight and culturally borrow from the worst traits of the [[Aztec]]s. See the [[Shadow Elf]] page for more.
* '''[[Aquatic Elf|Aquatic Elves]]''' inhabit the seas of Mystara and were made playable in PC3: The Sea Peoples.
* The [[Hollow World]] is home to three elven cultures that've gone extinct on the surface. '''Blacklore Elves''' are remnants of the technology-embracing elves of [[Blackmoor]], and live an existence of utterly meaningless luxury and ease doted upon by [[golem]]s in the shape of futuristic [[robot]]s, with absolutely nothing to do or strive for and trying to fill the hideous boredom of their existences. You can actually play these, but they are treated as Warrior-Elves who start with no useful weapons (their culture's only native weapon, the Torch, is a magical lighter that doubles as a heat ray-blaster and doesn't work outside of their native territory) and no armor proficiency, but in compensation completely ignore the ''Cultural Bias'' rule. The '''Gentle Folk''' are the ultra-passive and docile root-stock of elfdom; PCs of this race can begin play as either Warrior-Elves or Elves, but they have no starting armor proficiencies or weapon proficiency other than a staff - they can, however, freely take up arms and armor by adopting them from other cultures, representing how they are mutants who do have an aggressive streak or self-preservation instincts: this frees them from the experience penalties aspect of ''Cultural Bias'', but nothing else (overcoming the pacifism and docility is a roleplaying-only flaw). Finally, the '''Icevale Elves''' are the Mystaran equivalent of a [[Snow Elf]]; mechanically, these are just Warrior-Elves or Elves with a culture loosely based on Iron Age Icelanders.