The long awaited follow up diatribe for the other components of playing an elf PCs in ACKS. In this post I want to talk about the major implicit features of an elven campaign as they are laid out in Before All Others and ACKS in general.
Level 14, by Death or Denromancy
As Demi-humans elves are consigned to a maximum level lower than their human counterparts. After all, the light of the elves has been extinguished in this age… (or has it?). There are two paths to uncapping your maximum level, the cultivation of a sacred tree to enable powerful ritual magic and transforming yourself into an undead being. As reaching maximum level is the implicit goal of any roleplaying campaign this dichotomy looms over any elf campaign.
Believe it or not, for a properly leveled spellcaster transforming ones self into an undead creature is not that difficult. Sure you risk literally killing yourself and then failing the research throw, but the material cost for an 11th level caster to transform himself in this way is a mere 2,000 gold per HD (11 in this case) plus 5,000 gold per special ability. You’re looking at around 32,000 gold as a base cost to turn yourself into a vampire or mummy lord (essentially you need this amount times three to complete the research, this includes work time and components). This clocks in just south of 100,000 gold which is approximately one sixth of a wish (or any 9th level ritual spell) which makes it relatively cheap in high-level terms.
Conversely, Dendromancy is this whole thing. Ritual magic utilizing sacred trees, Dendromancy, is new to Before All Others and may be host to some of the coolest spells in all published ACKS material. Highlights include literally restoring immortality for all elves in a local domain, and of course uncapping the level of a few specific elven heroes. No (un)dying necessary.
To preform a ritual capable of uncapping one’s level, a tree capable of supporting a Canopy tier ritual is required. Such a tree will be in excess of 750 years old, and be surrounded by a Nemeton (temple) worth no less than 180,000 gold. The ritual itself has a base cost of 100,000 gold, almost 3 times higher than the undead ritual. Granted, such a tree and its Nemeton have myriad additional uses but you’re out a fair bit of gold and time pursuing such a set up.
All this is to say, undeath is the easy way out. As the path of evil often is. Confronting that over the course of a campaign is the main roleplaying object of an elf campaign. The greatest roleplaying happens in the material space. Your character suffers some great loss or setback, the sacred tree is pulled down by orcs. That undead transformation is looking a lot better now huh?
Interpreting Elven Classes
Elves are not humans, and exploring an elven campaign shouldn’t feel like exploring a human one. Elves are melodramatic, capricious and forever young. Elven adventurers are prodigious conjurors and skilled specialists. So follows some thoughts about roleplaying different elven classes.
Antiquarian
The takeaway from this class is that elven society does not produce “thieves” in the same way human ones do. They do not run “syndicates”, they crack safes in abandoned tombs to find lost relics. I am reminded of the museum quest line in the Tribunal expansion of Morrowind where you have to contribute some relics to a Dunmer museum. Elves care about that kind of crap.
Arborist
This class is not really for player characters so I won’t linger. The sacred trees are important, we get it.
Courtier
We notice there is no human “knight” class or similar implicitly noble born warrior-caste archetype. Though I suppose they would be called a patrician given ACKS’ setting. Speaks to the sophistication of the elven people, even in their waning years bloodlines and political institutions carry weight. Elven PCs should pay respect to such things.
Druid
Druids exist in an important dichotomy from crusaders as the eminent adventuring divine caster. We observe that they are also arcane casters, though that is par for the course with elves. They lack the ability to rebuke the undead, and all three sects of druid are seemingly equally present in elven society despite the chaotic implications of the Hypogean sect. The theological and cosmic framework elves exist under seems more pliable and less obvious than human ones. Druids exist as mysterious agents of the gods who are involved in the goings on of elven society to direct and protect more than to elucidate and educate, as druids were also supposedly want to do in pre-roman europe.
Nightblades
Somewhat of an underrated class in my opinion. Creating a class that can cast arcane spells in addition to stealth or fighting is difficult and costly in ACKS, people forget how terrifying that combination can actually be. Sure, having assassins knocking at your door in human societies is rough. What about assassins that can turn themselves invisible? Assassins that can enthrall your guards and advisors with magic? That’s the type of heat assassins are packing in elven society. The takeaway here is that from a roleplaying perspective arcane magic is almost ubiquitous in elf civilization. You should always be waiting for the other shoe to drop on some terrible spell or curse when fighting other elves. Even assassins are the spell slinging specialists who can slay you with but an uttered incantation.
Purveyor
It is an essential Macris-ism that elves must know what interest rates are. If one is to play ACKS at all they must accept the presence of economic simulationism. The question to answer playing as an elven purveyor is why you are not studying magic or the blade with your years? It goes without saying that not every elf is Legolas but there is something sort of ignoble about being a professional merchant-adventurer.
This class also invites the thought of elves and multi-classing. It is entirely possible for an elven purveyor to adventure to a seriously advanced level before he is 85 years young. It might be interesting to allow elves to restart at level 1 in a new class, perhaps retaining some of their hit points or other characteristics.
Ranger
Elven classes which forgo magic instead specialize material skills. Ranger is the strongest example of this. From a roleplaying standpoint the lesson to learn from the ranger is that it is never enough for an elf to just shoot a bow, or reconnoiter the woods. They must do so gracefully and with purpose and in the same forms and traditions that it has been done for the last four thousand years. This class is laden with tricks and features that hone its ability to range elven forests to the extreme.
Spellsinger
In this house, we hold this truth self-evident. If a mechanic changes how you interact with combat or exploration but does not change how you interact with the world is it wrinklegrass and it is bad. I actually like spellsinger purely because of shaded magic. Casting spells on good people is bad for the soul, that may not mean much to you now but it’s the most import thing I’ve ever said. Having so many classes that use arcane magic can cause them to blur together, and spellsinger stands apart both in how it actually uses magic and the consequences it can suffer. This class should serve as a reminder that elves do hold some real claim to the superiority they laud over humans. There are forms of magic so old they are completely alien to other races, which the elves still practice. Elves that still practice spellsinging should take it very seriously. The fate of their soul literally hangs in balance every time they cast.
Spellsword
“John Elf”. I have little to say about this class that hasn’t already been said about a different class. It combines the always present arcane talents with the characteristics of the fighter. It echoes the roleplaying observations made elsewhere in this post within different contexts. That’s not to say the class is worthless or uninteresting, it is the “Fighter” of elves. It is so ubiquitous that to describe it is to almost say nothing at all.
Warrior
Similar to Ranger in that is it not enough for elves to simply have a D8 hit die and a fighter attack throw, they must do so gracefully and with purpose. Fighter, specialized, the ultimate face smasher in a world of magicians and dilettantes. The sub-text that is interesting when rolepalying a warrior is the implication that you are the odd one out for not studying magic. I think a trap to avoid is to regress to being a chud about it. An elven warrior should be proud of the refinement of his art at the expense of all other pursuits. Human fighters are clumsy brutes compared to the art-in-motion of elven swordsmanship and so on. Human fighters claim an almost “blue-collar” brand of self-reliance and hard work compared to the more abstract classes which surround them. I don’t think its right for the warrior to move that way, like I’ve said elves are not and should not be like humans.
Wizard
As we reach the end of this post I start to bear the risk of repeating myself. This class is a wizard amongst magicians. The mage’s mage. What stands out to me here is like druid this class is ordered into smaller specialized traditions. This speaks to elves as specialized and cloistered beings compared to men. All these traditions are zillion years old and they all command respect.
Conclusions
Elf adventuring parties are collections of specialists. Each separately abled but equal, all inheritors of glories long tarnished. Elf PCs should place themselves above petty squabbles over gold and loot, for what ails the elven people is far larger than any pile of treasure.
Contextualizing the campaign as a race to immortality has me very excited to play an elf campaign. It’s fun to allow yourself to indulge some self-importance in character. I am the inheritor of an immortal race. I shall be immortal again. I am an expensive 4000 experience point class with bells and whistles. I will be talking like sephiroth in character.
Anyways, join elf game if you haven’t. I am already almost level 3 I will save you from cream ghouls and other nefarious creatures.