[RPG] Do the Elf Blood racial trait allow you to fulfil “being an elf” prerequisites

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In Pathfinder, half-elves have the following racial trait:

Elf Blood: Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.

Since now I always considered that it meant that a half-elf could for example be an Ancient Lorekeeper which is "available to elven oracles", or a Brightness Seeker which has "race: elf" as a prerequisite.

But it seems to me more and more odd that this is possible, on top of the other stuff that is specifically designed for half-elves.

What is the official ruling on the subject? Can a half-elf took an archetype, a prestige class, a feat or other stuff with "being an elf" as a prerequisite?

As a sidenote I deliberately didn't put "elf" as a tag since the same question could be asked for any race with the "X blood" racial trait (eg half-orcs).

Best Answer

Yes, hybrid races can take options designed for either of their parent races, as well as options designed specifically for their race. It’s one of the reasons half-elves are so potent (many say overpowered) in Pathfinder (half-orcs less so, since the orc and half-orc options aren’t nearly as good as elf or half-elf options).

From the FAQ, we have a rule that hybrid races may freely select from “rules elements” of both parent races:

Half-Elf or Half-Orc: Can a character of either of these races select human racial archetypes (such as from Advanced Race Guide?

Yes. Half-elves and half-orcs may select racial favored class options, archetypes, traits, and so on, as if they were a full member of both races (a half-elf can select elf and human rules elements, a half-orc can select human and orc rules elements).

Edit 9/26/13: This is a reversal of an earlier ruling. This resolves a discrepancy between this FAQ and two Advanced Player's Guide FAQs.

Note that a racial archetype, like ancient lorekeeper, is explicitly listed here. Frustratingly, feats are not explicitly mentioned, but those would certainly be a “rule element” and a fairly similar (as far as prerequisites are concerned) to traits, which are mentioned explicitly, so feats are presumably covered by “and so on.”

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