The New DnD Elf (2024 Species Guide)

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Elves have been a major part of Dungeons & Dragons for as long as the game has existed, first starting out as their own separate class before becoming a playable race in later editions. In the decades since then, the fey folk have continued to evolve in DnD, with new subraces like High Elves, Wood Elves, Drow and even aquatic variants appearing on the scene.

Now the new 2024 Player’s Handbook has arrived and made some surprising changes to elvenkind. One of the biggest is that they’ve done away with the popular Half-Elf species entirely, leaving only full-blooded elves as one of several core DnD species. They’ve also introduced a number of minor tweaks to the rules that govern elf characters and offered a radical redesign of how species work as a whole.

So what else has changed with the fair fey folk? Below, we enter the deep woods of DnD 2024 to find out.

What are Elves in DnD 2024?

In the new 2024 Core Books, elves are described as having been created by Corellon, one of the oldest of the core DnD gods. In the early days of their existence, elves could change their forms at will, but later lost this ability when Corellon cursed them for plotting with the deity Lolth, who had tried and failed to usurp Corellon’s dominion. When Lolth was cast into the Abyss, most elves renounced her and earned Corellon’s forgiveness. In punishment, however, Corellon permanently removed their ability to shape shift.

In the ensuring centuries, the elves retreated to the Feywild, where their sorrow was deepened by that plane’s magical influence. Over time, curiosity led many elves to explore other planes of existence, including worlds in the Material Plane where they settled and flourished.

Physically, elves have pointed ears and lack facial and body hair (a notable quirk that hasn’t been noted before in any older DnD materials). They live for around 750 years, and don’t sleep, instead entering a trance when they need to rest. In that state, they remain aware of their surroundings while immersing themselves in memories and meditations.

The new rules also note that if elves inhabit a particular environment for a millennium or more, it alters their physical appearance and grants them certain kinds of magic abilities (a throwback to their early shapeshifting days when they were still held in Corellon’s favor). Drow for example, have been magically transformed by exposure to the Underdark, while Wood Elves retain certain abilities related to the deep forests they dwell in. In the new 2024 rules, there are three specific subspecies (known as “Lineages”) that reflect these environmentally-altered elves:

• Drow: Drow typically dwell in the Underdark and have been shaped by it. Some drow individuals and societies avoid the Underdark altogether yet carry its magic. In the Eberron setting, for example, Drow dwell in rainforests and cyclopean ruins on the continent of Xen’drik.
• High Elves: High elves have been infused with the magic of crossings between the Feywild and the Material Plane. On some worlds, high elves refer to themselves by other names. For example, they call themselves sun or moon elves in the Forgotten Realms setting, Silvanesti and Qualinesti in the Dragonlance setting, and Aereni in the Eberron setting.
• Wood Elves: Wood elves carry the magic of primeval forests within themselves. They are known by many other names, including wild elves, green elves, and forest elves. Grugach are reclusive wood elves of the Greyhawk setting, while the Kagonesti and the Tairnadal are wood elves of the Dragonlance and Eberron settings, respectively.

What’s changed with the new 2024 DnD Elf?

While elves have been around for as long as DnD has existed, the 2024 Player’s Handbook does introduce a number of changes from the previous legacy Elf race that appeared in the 2014 Player’s Handbook. Below are all their species traits and the changes that have been made.

Elf Species Trait	Level	Changed from 2014 Player’s Handbook?	Changes to the 2024 Elf
Ability Score Improvements	1	Yes	Races/species no longer provide ability score improvements. Instead, character nows receive these bonuses from the new DnD backgrounds.
Darkvision	1	No	N/A
Base Speed	1	No	N/A
Trance	1	No	N/A
Keen Senses	1	Yes	In the DnD 2024 rules, elves can choose to have proficiency in the Insight, Perception or Survival skill. In the 2014 rules you only gained proficiency in Perception.
Fey Ancestry	1	No	N/A
Elven Lineage	1	Yes	In the 2014 version you could chose specific elven “Subraces” that granted additional ability score modifiers. In the 2024 rules you can now choose from three starting subraces known as “Lineages.”

How is the new 2024 Elf different from the 2014 Half-Elf?

As noted previously, the Half-Elf has been removed from the 2024 DnD rules as a playable species and there are no “half” options for characters (including the once popular Half-Orc). Below are the key changes to the new 2024 full elf versus the 2014 Half-Elf.

Half-Elf Species Trait	Level	Changed from 2014 Player’s Handbook	Changes to the 2024 Elf
Ability Score Improvements	1	Yes	Races/species no longer provide ability score improvements. Instead, character nows receive these bonuses from the new DnD backgrounds.
Darkvision	1	Yes	N/A
Base Speed	1	No	N/A
Trance	1	No	N/A
Skill Versatility	1	Yes	In the 2014 rules half elves could gain proficiency in any two skills of your choice. In the DnD 2024 rules, full elves can choose between the Insight, Perception or Survival skill.
Fey Ancestry	1	No	N/A
Half-Elf Variant	1	Yes	In the 2014 version you could chose specific half elf variants of Aquatic, Drow, High, Mark/Detection, Mark of Storm and Wood. The 2024 rules no longer feature any “half” species.

What are the new Elf species traits in DnD 2024?

Below are the full list of all the Elf traits using the new 2024 core rules.

• Creature Type: Humanoid
• Size: Medium (about 5–6 feet tall)
• Speed: 30 feet

As an Elf, you have the following special abilities:

• Darkvision: You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
• Fey Ancestry: You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Charmed condition.
• Keen Senses: You have proficiency in the Insight, Perception or Survival skill.
• Trance: You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep. You can finish a Long Rest in 4 hours if you spend those hours in a trancelike meditation, during which you retain consciousness.
• Elven Lineage: Choose a lineage from the Elven Lineages table below. You gain the level 1 benefit of that lineage and when you reach character levels 3 and 5, you learn a higher-level spell, as shown on the table. You always have that spell prepared. You can cast it once without a spell slot, and you regain the ability to cast it in that way when you finish a Long Rest. You can also cast the spell using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level. Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for the spells you cast with this trait (you choose the ability when you first select your lineage at Level 1).

Lineage	Level 1	Level 3	Level 5
Drow	The range of your Darkvision increases to 120 feet. You also know the Dancing Lights cantrip.	Faerie Fire	Darkness
High Elf	You know the Prestidigitation cantrip. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can replace that cantrip with a different cantrip from the Wizard spell list.	Detect Magic	Misty Step
Wood Elf	Your Speed increases to 35 feet. You also know the Druidcraft cantrip.	Longstrider	Pass without Trace

How have Elf subraces changed in DnD 2024?

In the 2014 there were over a dozen “subraces” of Elf, including the Aereni, Eladrin, Shadow Elf, Sea Elf, Shadark-kai, Valenar and Pallid Elf. These are no longer options in the DnD 2024 rules (although given that the game is backwards compatible, you still could potentially play them).

Instead, the 2024 elf features just three subraces, which are now referred to as “Lineages”: the Drow, High Elf, and Wood. Below are the changes to these lineages from their 2014 Legacy version.

Elf Subrace	Changes to the 2024 Elf Lineage
Drow	Light sensitivity has been removed. (In the 2014 rules, you had disadvantage on attack rolls and Perception checks in direct sunlight.)
High Elf	Elf Weapon Training has been removed. (In the 2014 rules, you gained proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.)
Wood Elf	– Elf Weapon Training has been removed (see above). – Fleet of foot has also been removed (this increased your base walking speed to 35) – Mask of the Wild has been removed (this previously allowed you to hide in lightly obscured natural areas).

Is the new DnD Elf worth playing?

In terms of rule changes, the 2024 DnD elf isn’t far removed from its 2014 cousin. Elves are still able to draw on a range of native magical abilities and other than a few minor tweaks (such as Drow no longer being impacted by sunlight) and changes to elven Lineages, nothing here is too radical.

What has changed, however, is how Wizards of the Coast approaches the concept of a species as a whole doing away with racial ability modifiers and the Half-Elf. It’s a shift both mechanically and culturally that really does feel like it has a lot more potentially to bring the once ageless elves into the modern era.

You can find the complete rules for the new DnD elf species in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, which is available now on D&D Beyond and Amazon.

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