Pathfinder 2nd edition Readthrough: Elves, Knife-ears immortal


Disclaimer: I was not a fan of the PF 2e dev diaries, or of the play-test. This does not mean I'm going to do nothing but bash this book, and I legitimately hope to be pleasantly surprised, but keep in mind this read-through is likely to be very biased. A fair bit of it is also for comedic purposes. It is by no means a declaration that people should not play PF 2e, that people are wrong for enjoying it, or anything along those lines

The Elf
Knife-ears, never allowed as an unarmed weapon in too many editions.
Next up, the elf, whose fluff is around what you expect, cursed with absolutely no character flaws except being really sad that all their friends are going to die before they do, and not much else. Emphasis on Beauty, grace, etc., and little of forests. I'm keeping my raw animal eating stalker anyway. Anyway, the artwork is of an Elvish Painter. Interesting pick of class there, I personally feel that they were a bit under-powered in 1e, but maybe this is their time to shine in the limelight. They also have an ancient empire in all but name that they are trying to rebuild. Anyway, 30 ft. movement speed, medium size, language spread, Bonuses to Free pick, Int, and Dex, penalty to Con with a base HP of 6. Do not put one of these in melee unless you like the terms paper mache doll applied to your character at the start. Low-light vision as well.

We have our five sub-types of Elves, as covered here
-Artic Elf: Essentially the same as the Forge Dwarf except cold effects instead of heat, making it a little less useful since Cold comes up less than Heat. Still better than the hypothetical Sonic Gnome.
-Cavern Elf: Trade your Low-light Vision out for Darkvision. Bland if a pretty good trade.
-Seer Elf: Get Detect Magic for free, and get +1 to Identify Magic and Decipher Writing of a magical nature. The skill bonuses support a caster class, so I suppose the free Detect Magic just frees up an early cantrip slop
-Whisper Elf: Assuming Seek is a perception check, this lets you do it in a 60' cone and gives +2 to the check if you do it within 30' A really restrictive version of a perception check, but probably worth it all the same. It doesn't explicitly state it can detect invisible creatures but I would rule that you can.
-Woodland Elf: Ah, my creature eating savage elf is cannon. kinda. You always get to Take Cover (I'm guessing an AC bonus vs ranged) and get better climbing speeds, but only with trees and forest terrain. Very limited in use, arguably the least worth it of the five.
Ancestry Feats
As a reminder, you only get five of these total, to anyone saying that the Dwarf can take Stonecutting as a flavor pick. Anyway, as far as the Elf goes
At level 1
-Ancestral Longevity: A hundred years makes an elf around 16 in human years, so I don't know if I'd call that minimum age requirement long. Each day you pick a different skill to be counted as Trained in, which is essentially becoming the party jack of all trade at will, which should probably last as long as Trained is relevant to anything.
-Elven Lore: The exact same as Dwarf Lore, except with Arcana and Nature. Gonna bet Humans don't have this.
-Elven Weapon Familiarity: Same as the Dwarven one except it's the Longsword, Longbow, Composite Longbow, Rapier, Shortbow, and Composite Shortbow. I think I might be sensing favoritism. That or Dwarves really need to become associated with more weapons.
-Forlorn: You are so sad people die around you like maylifes, you get +1 to saving throws vs emotion effects. Successes become critical success. Dwarf had this against a less likely effect, as a heritage, without the +1, whereas Elf just has this as a Feat.
-Nimble Elf: 5' of speed. Decent, extra range is always nice. Not much else to say.
-Otherworldly Magic: Free Cantrip, yeah, Elf is OP.
-Unwavering Mien: Hey, you no longer get sleep immunity, just reduced effect, but now mental effects have their duration reduced by one round. At least it's ally and enemy effects. Still, this feat is OP
At 5th Level
-Ageless Patience: If you take twice as long for a perception or skill check, get a +2 bonus, and you don't crit fail on a natural 1. Not as useful as some of the other feats here, but still decent.
-Elven Weapon Elegance: Again the same as the Dwarf counterpart except for Elves
At 9th level
-Elven Step: If I interpret this correctly, this lets you take a five foot step twice as a single action. Useful for getting out of reach weapon range, moving through tight spots, etc.
-Expert Longevity: Upgrades the skill from Ancestral Longevity to Expert to keep pace with prof. bonuses.
At 13th level
-Universal Longevity: Free change to the skill you picked for the Longevity ability once per day, letting you reroll till you get what you need.
-Elven Weapon Expertise: See Elven Weapon Elegance

The elf seems pretty powerful, more so than the dwarf because it doesn't have any feats that really could be called bad or even that situational.

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