I am going to be playing in a Castlevania-based D&D 5e game. In this world there is strong racism against elves and a general fear of magic. I want to be an elf, but I think in this world I would be inclined to try and hide that fact from my party and anyone I met. Do you have any suggestions for how to go about this before I bring it up to my DM?
[RPG] How could an elf PC disguise themselves as a human
disguisednd-5eraces
Related Solutions
A rogue could perhaps play solo. But only if she devoted herself to stealth and avoided all out combat at all costs.
D&D is a very much a party based game. And it's best played with a table full of friends, each with their own character. But at the same time, occasionally circumstances require something less than that ideal. There are two options.
- Go with a single PC per player and find a playstyle that works for this party composition
- Let the limited number of players play a whole party full of PCs.
In your case, especially in a new system, I'd highly recommend the first. The character your sister want's to play is ideal for this style of gameplay as stealth is key.
Some things I would change/instigate:
- less tactical gameplay, stealth roles are going to a major part of play.
- Make sure situations are there where she can quietly and quickly take down the baddies (Don't put in guards with 20 HP, make sure she can take a guy out before he even sees her).
- Make sure there are places where if she makes good tactical choices she can route a small group of enemies
- Provide a lot of healing potions.
- Design encounters to success is not based on completing combat. Give her clear non-combat objectives.
- Rogues are pretty good at sniping, so if she is coming up on a fight in the open, giving her plenty of opportunities to pick people off before they see her is an excellent choice as well.
- Advantage should be gained and used wherever possible. If she is attacking without advantage she will get slaughtered and quickly. The key to making quick work of bad guys is isolation and dealing her sneak attack which needs advantage to function.
Caves of Chaos might not be the best adventure unless you add enough story so as to provide the require non-combat objectives. There is at least one adventure that necessitates the rescue of prisoners, this would be a good one. But things like cleaning out a Kobold nest should probably be written (and the flavor/story is pretty much up to you as the DM) in such a way that the objective isn't Kobold death, but Kobold cooperation or migration. She can't kill all the Kobolds, but she can certainly get to their leader and threaten him.
Aasimar are addressed in Blood of Angels. "Women that carry an aasimar child report easy pregnancies and deliveries..." There's an entire page of info on Childhood, another on Adolescence, etc. They don't come out and say it explicitly but there's no sign of any time disparity; they are described as maturing to age 5-6 like other human kids and having some issues during puberty with their peer group. BoA says, "An aasimar might spend a good portion of her childhood thinking of herself as human." This is odd as the Advanced Race Guide indicates that the adult age of an aasimar is 60, which would seem to indicate there's some kind of slowdown between birth and there... Same situation for oreads etc.
Bastards of Golarion has nothing to say about this for the other races, it's more of a crunch book really.
I think this falls into the general category of "poorly thought out things in the D&D cosmology," which are manifold. Just like the high intelligence of many aberrations, it's an interesting note trotted out every once in a while as a plot point and then conveniently forgotten 99% of the time.
So your playbook:
- Decide if you care - it's a magical world and these are magical crossbreeds, there doesn't have to be one answer and you can be as inconsistent as you want
- Decide if you just want to say "they mature at the same rate as anyone else" and ignore the adult age listed in the books
- Decide if you want to let players decide based on their own concept of their PC's background
Best Answer
The easiest thing to do, that is accessible to any character, and requires very little investment of resources, is to get proficiency in the disguise kit (probably from your background).
All you really need to do is hide your ears, and "disguises that change your physical appearance" sounds like it should certainly be able to do that. This is almost certainly the best option, but here are some others.
The 1st-level disguise self spell will allow you to disguise yourself as a human, and anyone can get it with the Magic Initiate feat. However, it only lasts 1 hour, so you'll probably need to be able to cast it multiple times per day.
If you can talk your DM into giving you one (good luck!) a Hat of Disguise lets you cast disguise self at will.
The 2nd-level alter self spell will also allow you to disguise yourself as a human, but will require you to be a third-level wizard or sorcerer. It also requires concentration, so there's a risk of your disguise dropping at an unfortunate moment.
As mentioned in another answer, a 2nd-level warlock has access to an invocation that allows them to cast disguise self at will, which would be great for you. A 15th-level warlock has access to an invocation which allows them to cast alter self at will, but that's not really an option unless your campaign starts at a high level and you were planning to be a warlock anyway.
A 14th-level druid of the Circle of the Moon can also cast alter self at will, and it's likewise infeasible except if you're starting at high level and planning on becoming a druid anyway.