I’ll be honest I never heard of Eladrin until I picked up the 4th edition Players Handbook and then I thought – um so they put sun elves into the PHB and changed their name.  Then I read the entry for elves and thought – so they changed the magic loving elves that I grew up with since Basic Dungeons and Dragons into wood/wild elves which have been an expansion only race since the beginning.

I was a bit disappointed – but I can accept it.  At least they gave them reasonably decent art in the PHB, which is more than I can say for the Tiefling or the Dragonborn.  Sorry, but those need to go.

So what is an Eladrin?  Well it is much like the Tolkein elf that you would find in Rivendell whereas the “elf” is more like the Tolkein elf that you would find in Murkwood.  Oh I’m sure there were other influences but I doubt you’ll find any stronger than that.  Wizards couldn’t very well take the Middle Earth names so they chose Eladrin.  Either that or somebody was sitting around with the Forgotten Realms Players Guide from 3rd edition and realized that players often opted for ether sun elves or wood elves given the choice because the stats for high elves were kinda blah.

Personally I would have switched the two.  I would have kept elves as the magic loving race they have been since the beginning and then made the Eladrin into the wild dexterous tree huggers that elves now are.  I think for the sake of continuity this would have worked out better.

All that said, why has my experience been playing an Eladrin?  I ran an Eladrin wizard and I like it.  It has taken me a moment to get used to them, but they are probably my favorite race.  I have a soft spot for magic.  My very first character was a magic-user (died a horrible death on the Isle of Dread) and I’ve been hooked ever since.  I can’t say I would always pick Eladrin over other races, but I would certainly pick them over the new elves and I won’t be rolling up a Dragonborn anytime soon.

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