I searched the player's handbook a while ago for the sleep deprivation rules but I don't remember finding anything, even though I recall having been told about such rules.
Apart from asking if any one can cite them, is there anything official on insomniac characters, so it will not be just roleplaying, but actually having an effect on the game?
[RPG] An insomniac character, how could that work
character-creationdnd-3.5eroleplayingsleep
Related Solutions
To make your question short, and to see if I understood it correctly, we're talking about a player who made his character a certain one and roleplays it entirely different. You added that you think that it comes from inexperience, and that he created this character after you said "no" to some "freak-character"-ideas. You want to help him roleplay the character he created.
As I see it, this problem is made from two smaller ones. The first is that he doesn't see his character as interesting because the character "is normal and normal is boring". The second is that you wanna help him understand why the way he plays the character does not fit the story-world of your game.
Helping him understand that "normal is not boring
This is the more important problem, as it stands in the basis of the entire problem. If he'll see that normal characters can be interesting his "anti-persona" will perish and he'll roleplay a normal character and not a freak one. The main trick here is to show him that normal characters are not entirely normal, i.e. "no person is like the others". In order for that to work, we need to give the character depth.
The easiest way to give depth to a character is through internal conflicts. Having goals and all is nice, but without something that blocks oneself from achieving them it is far less interesting. First thing to do is to go over his character's background and see if he implemented there an internal conflict for his character. If so, show it to him and talk with him about it. If no, sit with him and help him to come with one. The internal conflict doesn't have to be extravagant, but it needs to be there. An example one might be that he loves Vincent's sister but secretly hates Vincent himself, or another like Loves the sister but thinks that he's not good enough for there. I'll take the second one as an example for this section.
The conflict gives us a few things, a few added benefits. It gives the character 2 conflicting goals: "Get the sister and prove that I'm worthy". Now, with those two we also get a kind of an achieving-plan: "If I'll show her that I'm worthy, by getting something amazing done, she'll want me and I'll be able to get her". More than that, the character gets the knowledge that each advancement in order to achieve one goal will drive the other one to the far end.
But the first conflict is even more interesting. The character here has the knowledge that he needs the brother in order to save his lover, but he just can't stand being near the brother. He'll drive the mission onward for two reasons but he'll have doubts about his lover- if he'll marry her he'll be stuck with this brother of hers.
To make long story short, simple conflicts can show the player that even normal characters are interesting and unique. When combined with goals they force the character to take certain steps along the roads, to commit certain actions along the way, that he won't want to do but will make him doubt himself and question himself and see that his problem are far more interesting than those of every freak that he'll encounter.
Another nice way to help him see the importance of conflict is through showing him and analyzing with him certain protagonists that are normal people, from the stories and movies and series (of any form)that he likes. He'll see quite quickly that the conflicts make them interesting.
But he may say that it is not enough. For that there are a few more literary tools that might help him see why normal people are interesting. The first one is having flaws (internal or external) and the second one is using "The Ghost".
Flawed characters are characters that just like normal people aren't perfect. Those flaws can be internal (self-doubts, for example, or a mild paranoia) or they can be external (they're look frightens ordinary people, for once, or a missing hand for the other). The idea is that the character has to deal with the flaw, and one day to find the strength to overcome it. The fight for the overcoming act makes the character far more interesting. A nice example of that can be seen in The Rain Man, where he learns at the end that he can count on strangers/"dumb" persons like he's brother. Another nice example can be seen in the story of The Ugly Duckling who although looking terrible learned to acknowledge himself and to accept the way he looks, to accept his difference.
"The Ghost" is an event from the past that just like a ghost haunts the character to this day. Again, trying to cope with it is what builds a deep character. One example for this can be seen in the movie Inception, where we literally have a ghost- Cob's wife. Another example for this can be seen in the movie Casablanca, where he has to deal with his broken relationship with Ilsa. This Ghost is far more interesting as the originator of the Ghost actually comes back to his life. In Frozen we see another kind of a Ghost- the act that one feels guilty about. Elsa actually killed her sister.
All of these techniques are there for one reason- to make regular people interesting, to give depth to the characters, to make them human beings with goals and drives and psychology.
Helping him see that his character doesn't fit the world
After he understands that he doesn't have to be a freak in order to be interesting, he will be far more understandable about playing a character that fits the world. Then, try to explain to him as calmly as you can what it is in the way he played his character that doesn’t fit the world.
Explain to him that the characters are in a world where being a freak is bad, where achieving one's goals is the ideal. Each and every one for himself, as the saying goes. Give him examples from the way he played his character and analyze with him, in a one-on-one conversation where his way of acting came from. Use the background he created to illustrate to him where your problem comes from.
Then ask him what problems he has with his character, and together try to find a solution. Maybe let him be just a little bit freakish. Maybe he needs to just create a different character. This is basically between you and him. After that show the updated character to the group and get their approval.
When combining those two, you'll get a player who his far more willing to both play the character while also seeing the problems with the way he played his character before.
Combining the two solutions
When combining the two solutions you get a better player, who understands for the future also how to create regular characters that are not freaks yet far more interesting than those freaks will ever be able to be. Furthermore, you get a player who is willing to play his character as written while still making the character fit into the world. Hope any of these helped you.
Bluff Works - In Character (IC) Only
So long as Elan and Human are indistinguishable at a glance, Bluff will do what you need. If they're obviously different just by looking, you'll also need Disguise or magic.
The harder part is keeping it a secret Out of Character (OOC). If you don't want the other players to know, then you'll have to take some extra measures.
Poison
You can get away without revealing that you have poison immunity for a long time, because most poisons allow a save anyway. So even a normal Human can shrug off really strong poisons, and you can just pass it off IC by saying you have a strong fortitude or are just lucky.
OOC, you're going to have to roll the fortitude save along with everyone else. The DM will have to know that you're never affected and handle it accordingly, no matter what you roll. The really hard part here is that the players will notice pretty quickly that you're making saves even with a 2 for poison, while not making saves for other things with bad rolls.
You can handle that either by having the DM roll all your saves for you (if you're the only one doing it, then it's obvious something is up), or when you roll badly, pretend you're affected by the poison when you're really not. This will require IC Bluff checks as necessary (to act like you're poisoned), as well as OOC acting like your character is affected.
Not Sleeping
IC, you can pretend to sleep. OOC, you can say you're sleeping when everyone else is, and not many people are going to be awake to question it. If you have watches during the night, take one.
A Ring of Sustenance makes this easier as you only have to sleep a couple hours anyway, but isn't necessary.
Save Bonuses
These only matter OOC if someone wants to examine your character sheet, because until they do that you can just say you have good saves. There are so many ways to get save bonuses that it's not that unusual.
IC, it should never come up.
Power Points to Prevent Damage
IC, you are lucky and some of them just nicked you.
OOC, this is getting trickier. You'll need an agreement with the DM on how to use these without revealing that you're using them to the other players. Maybe you can just do it without telling the DM you're doing it, and do the tracking yourself. That's how I would handle it in the game I'm DMing right now.
The Big One - Being an Abberation
This is actually the biggest problem. You're not a humanoid. Lots of spells that affect the humanoid type won't work on you at all. If someone casts a spell that never fails like Enlarge Person on you and it suddenly fails, questions will be asked.
You'll want to try to suggest those kinds of spells always be cast on other people "for the good of the party".
Have An Endgame
You're probably not going to be able to keep this up forever. IC, you'll fail bluff checks at some point, and the party will catch on. Maybe they'll actually check you for poison, or try to hit you with a buff that fails due to type, or so on. When it happens, you'll want to have a plan for how to explain to them why you kept it a secret.
OOC, the players may notice at some point that something is up. The less you have to have conversations with the DM in private (or exchanging notes and such), the longer you can go without drawing suspicion. So try to work things out between sessions and act as normally as you can during sessions.
But when it does happen, just point out that you wanted it to be a surprise they resolved In Character first.
I've had people do this type of thing in my game (as Changelings and such) and it always worked pretty well. Elan is a bit harder to fit in than a Changeling, but it should make for a fun time.
Best Answer
The thing to remember about sleep deprivation is that it doesn't take long before it really starts messing you up. It shortens your attention span, makes you extremely irritable, makes it difficult to switch focus, and draws out both physical and mental reaction times.
There is a huge body of research on the subject of sleep deprivation because the military has an intense interest in it. This 1994 study states: "The ability to do useful mental work declines by 25 percent for every successive 24 h that an individual is awake." One way to simulate this might be to simply reduce the odds of success by 25% for every 24 hours without rest for any task that involves mental acuity.
It also states: " In contrast, simple psychomotor performance and physical strength and enduendurance are unaffected. For example, a soldier can shoot as tight a cluster of rounds at a fixed target after 90 h without sleep as he or she can when well rested, but if he or she has to shoot at targets that pop up at random at random locations on a firing range, then his or her performance drops to below 10 percent of baseline (Haslam and Abraham, 1987)."
From personal experience I can say that it's not the physical act that is difficult, it's responding to the change in circumstance that becomes radically impaired after long periods of sleeplessness. So you might have only a gradual decline in the odds of success for tasks that are mostly or purely physical.
Another factor you may want to consider (depending on how severe the insomnia is and whether it is connected to some specific illness) is that even the most insomniac characters will probably eventually need to sleep. The sleep will come, whether the character wants it to or not. After being up for 72 hours straight, an officer fell asleep and didn't wake up when a company-sized live fire exercise started. His body told him to sleep, and he could do nothing about it. Giant savage aliens could have attacked and he would have slept while they munched on him.
Perhaps after a certain period of time (36 hours, perhaps), you could start requiring saves to avoid falling asleep at inopportune moments, with a sliding scale of difficulty as the hours march on.