The sea elf race in Dungeons & Dragons is deadly on both land and sea, making them the ideal role as an explorer, or a magical master of the water.
The sea elf is one of the playable races in Dungeons & Dragons and it has the potential to be an incredibly powerful character, thanks to its adaptable nature. The sea elves are an aquatic species of elves that rule over underwater kingdoms and reside in the elemental plane of water. There, they battle the alien and monstrous creatures that inhabit the darkest depths of the ocean.
The elves were originally fey creatures that were created by Correllon Larethian, the god of the elves. The elves lost their ability to shapeshift after being banished from Correllon's kingdom, as they sided with Lolth against him. This new race traveled across the multiverse and their form adapted to their setting, such as the prime material plane creating the high elves and the Underdark creating Dungeons & Dragons' drow elves. The sea elves adapted to water, creating the species that exist in the multiverse to this day.
The viability and usefulness of a sea elf character depend heavily on the campaign in question. Most campaigns have a mixture of environments, especially ones that involve a great deal of travel. Sea elves fair best in campaigns where there are water sections. This means they won't be as useful in a desert campaign as they would in a swashbuckling pirate campaign. Depending on the type of campaign the DM is running, a sea elf character can be an incredible asset to the group.
The New Version Of The Sea Elf In Monsters Of The Multiverse
A new version of the playable D&D sea elf race appears in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Like all of the races in the book, it now has D&D's new racial stat bonus rules. In the Player's Handbook and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes rules, a sea elf used to receive +2 to Dexterity and +1 to Constitution. These were decent bonuses, but the flexibility of the new rules means that players have more freedom to create the kind of character they want. They lost access to the Sea Elf Training ability, but they now have cold resistance. A sea elf character is a medium humanoid that has all of the traits of a regular elf. They have 30ft of walking and swimming speed, can breathe on air and land, and have 60ft of darkvision in Dungeons & Dragons. Their Fey Ancestry ability gives them advantage on saving throws against being charmed, they have proficiency in the Perception skill, and their Friend of the Sea ability lets them communicate with aquatic animals.
Sea Elves Are Master Wilderness Scouts
The sea elves' ability to breathe air and water, swim at the same pace as their movement speed, and their Darkvision makes them some of the best choices for the ranger class in the entire game. In campaigns where exploring different environments is key (such as the Tomb of Annihilation campaign), then having a survival expert on both land and sea is an incredible asset. The resistance to cold damage and only needing to trance for four hours at night is the cherry on the cake. A character who needs so little sleep is going to be helpful when camping out in the wilderness in dangerous Dungeons & Dragons campaign locations. The advantage this has over the druid's similar skill set is that the ranger maintains their full fighting capabilities in water, unlike the druid's wild shape, which requires them to turn into a weaker monster and robs them of the ability to cast spells (until they hit level 18, which few characters do.)
One way to improve this concept is to give the ranger some option to scout by air. The much-maligned Beast Master ranger subclass can serve in this regard, as a hawk animal companion can act as an amazing set of eyes to have in the air, especially when combined with the speak with animals or beast sense spells. The Drakewarden ranger subclass from D&D: Fizban's Treasure of Dragons is another option, as its drake companion is a better fighter, and the Drakewarden can communicate with it using the Tongue of the Dragons ability. The only issue here is that the drake companion doesn't gain the ability to fly until the Drakewarden hits level 7, which might be too later for some players.
There are some D&D adventures where the environment itself is as much a foe as any monster. The jungles of Chult in Tomb of Annihilation have chewed up and spat out a lot of adventurers over the years, while the frozen tundra in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden contains the corpses of those who couldn't stand the cold. A sea elf ranger is the best friend to have in these situations, as surviving in the wilderness is what they're best at, and the natural abilities of the sea elf race make them ideally suited to the task.
The Power Of The Sea Elf Drownamancer Build
The Player's Handbook and various Sage Advice columns on Twitter have outlined the rules for underwater combat, which also apply if one person is one land. It's possible to cast spells in D&D while underwater, though a land dweller will start drowning when they do. A creature who is submerged in water gains fire resistance, ranged weapon attacks have disadvantage (except for crossbows, a net, or a thrown weapon), and melee weapon attacks from creatures without a swimming speed have disadvantage, unless the weapon is a dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear, or trident.
For most playable races in D&D, being stuck underwater is a bad position to be in. Not so for the sea elf spellcasters, as they have full access to their abilities while underwater and they gain a ton of resistances in the process. As such, a sea elf spellcaster with access to spells like shape water, control water, and wall of water have potential options to submerge themselves on land. Shape water only has an instantaneous effect, but as it's a cantrip, it can be used in conjunction with a Bonus Action spell, which is one of D&D's most overlooked rules. There are also spells like telekinesis which could create a sphere or block of water to carry the sea elf. A friendly water elemental summoned with conjure elemental could also serve this purpose. All the while, any water slung around is going to inhibit the enemy forces, unless the adventure is an underwater Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
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