What do Elves do before 1st level?

[Rorrik]

They take things slowly. Very slowly. Very, very, very, very slowly. Why would they rush? It's not like they're going to get old any time soon.

Sure, they learn skills over those 100 years, they just don't hurry. Ever. They take their sweet time to master in a century what a human would master in a decade, because humans (to elves) are frantic bees buzzing about to and fro, never stopping for a moment and scrambling in anxiety every moment of their lives.

An elf takes time for everything. All the things we're "too busy" to do, an elf has time for that. Taking a couple of hours to groom oneself and get dressed is perfectly normal, and eating slowly to enjoy every bite of a meal is expected and commonplace. Why fill our days with activity when we can devote a single day to something and enjoy it/do it properly?

That leaves an elf with very little time during the day to practise a skill. But who cares? They have such a long lifespan that taking several years to master a skill is of no concern.

As for the time it takes an elf to get a mental bonus due to age categories, I rationalise it as a mixture of the same slowness I mentioned and the fact that an elf isn't in any hurry to throw themselves into situations that will give them the wisdom of old age. An old person isn't wise because they're old, they're wise because of all the things they've done and seen in those years. Take two people in their seventies. The old man who's never left his cabin in the woods, interacted with people, read books or done anything to stimulate his mind will never be as wise as the man who's travelled the world and crammed those decades with experiences. Combine that with an elf's tendency to take things slow and you'll realise why it takes them so long to be considered "wise elders."

Well said, but even in this case, those are not elven attributes that tend to get roleplayed once they become adventurers. As adventurers they suddenly become very human and one would expect them to gain wisdom at the same rate as the others.

EDIT: The previous post is also an intriguing explanation, why shouldn't their society be completely rearranged rather than simply a stretched for of our own.

[Analytica]

In my world...

- Elves are basically as mature at age 25 as a 15-year-old human.
- Between the ages of 25 and 100, an elf is expected to be raising a family. They are, themselves, supported by grandparents and great-grandparents. Elven parents basically don't have a job, or rather, their job is their kids, thus explaining their lack of other skills. Time spent not raising kids in these years is basically spent slacking off.
- However, 100 years is a long time, so elves in my world get a +2 racial bonus on all Knowledge checks.
- On reaching 100 and having raised a few kids, they're not considered full adults and can do whatever they want with their lives, including going out and dying in a dungeon somewhere if they really want.

Basically elves have a completely different societal structure from humans. With humans, it's "Childhood/Adolescence -> Adult, where you either have kids/get a job OR run off an adventure -> Middle age, where your kids are adults now but you still need a job of your own -> Old age, where you retire."

For elves, it's "Childhood/Adolescence -> Raise kids and slack off as a sort of extended adolesence -> Adult, where you get some other job(s) as the mood strikes you -> Middle/old age, where you look after elves who are between 25-100 years old who are looking after their kids."

Elves in my world can go off and adventure at earlier than age 100 if they like, but their racial bonus to Knowledge checks is reduced to +1 if they're between 51-100, and they lose it entirely if they're between 25-50. They also face a severe social stigma from other elves, as they're basically seen as children needlessly risking their lives and, more heinously, not raising younger elves.

I think this is a very elegant solution.

For myself, I tend to go in another direction (which does go into houserule territory): there are no 1st-level adult elves as such. If the bulk of the human population is 1st-5th level, the bulk of the elven population (which is also proportionally much smaller) is 5th-10th level. These are generally highly unfavourable multiclasses, maybe including NPC class levels, but still. This would mean you can't play an elf as a first level character unless you are, in fact, playing an elven child.

[Rogue Shadows]

EDIT: The previous post is also an intriguing explanation, why shouldn't their society be completely rearranged rather than simply a stretched for of our own.

This. This is key. A large part of our society is based on the idea that an entire generation dies every 40 years or so. Further, a lot of humans have a grandparent or two still alive by the time they hit 20, but great-grandparents are rare, and great-great grandparents are almost unheard of.

Elves, on the other hand, can reasonably expect to mee their great-great-great-great grandparents, and it takes centuries for an entire generation to die out. Their society should not resemble a human one, because despite appearances and ability to crossbreed, they are not human. They will not think like humans and they will not act like humans.

[Shadowknight12]

Well said, but even in this case, those are not elven attributes that tend to get roleplayed once they become adventurers. As adventurers they suddenly become very human and one would expect them to gain wisdom at the same rate as the others.

Why? Elves don't sleep, so they don't have the luxury of doing all the mental processing and rearranging of traumatic events in their sleep. In half the time humans spend sleeping, an elf spends meditating/thinking; and active, conscious thinking is far less efficient than what your subconscious does. Take that and an elf's natural tendency to take things slow and you have an elf taking months to process something a human gets through in a couple of days.

The way I see it, an elf spends week after week processing and overcoming the weight of that one time where he missed a step, plunged into a pit trap and BARELY caught himself on the ledge, narrowly avoiding a horrible death; while a human is over it in a couple of days.

A human can mentally process and learn from things a lot faster than an elf, who will probably end up leaving an adventure with a lot of things to sift through and examine in the following years. And if they go back to their elven life? Well, life just got a hell of a lot slower again, which means more and more dilation between the wisdom-giving events and the wisdom-acquiring itself.

[Rogue Shadows]

A human can mentally process and learn from things a lot faster than an elf, who will probably end up leaving an adventure with a lot of things to sift through and examine in the following years. And if they go back to their elven life? Well, life just got a hell of a lot slower again, which means more and more dilation between the wisdom-giving events and the wisdom-acquiring itself.

The problem is that this isn't translated into the rules as soon as elves hit 1st level. A 1st-level human wizard and a 1st-level elf wizard take essentially the same amount of experience and learning to get to 2nd level, and 3rd, and so on. Elves don't require extra time between adventures to level up as compared to humans, for example.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

It's really quite simple. Elves are perfectionists, and the 3e rules bear out the aging discrepancies.

Spoiler

Show

In 3e, anything you can do is a skill or ability check. "Notice something large in plain sight" is a DC 0 Spot check, for instance--a check that cannot be failed by anyone with at least 10 Wis and no distractions, even if they're untrained, but a skill check nonetheless. Most of the time, you can ignore those checks, because they're impossible to fail, so humans and halflings and dwarves and all the rest simply take 10 on them. However, elves cannot abide doing anything less than perfectly, so they take 20 on every single check, which takes 20 times as long as making the check normally.

Every. Single. Check. Walking? DC 0 Balance check. Talking? DC 0 Diplomacy check. Eating? DC 0 Dex check. Using the bathroom? Er, you get the idea. That's why everyone sees elves as being the most beautiful, most awesome, etc. beings out there. Eating a sandwich will take them an hour where it would take a human 3 minutes, but by Corellon it'll be the most-gracefully-eaten sandwich you ever did see!

Now, this only applies when actually taking actions, so while elves trance they're taking no actions and therefore acting at "normal" speed. As well, it's very impolite to interrupt others while they're being awesome, and elves are very fair and equal-minded people, so they spend half their time being awesome at things and half their time patiently watching other elves be awesome at things. So for 1/6 of any given day they're trancing, and for 3/6 of any given day they're not taking any actions, and for the remaining 2/6 of any given day they're taking normal actions but taking 20 times as long to do them. (15 years to reach adulthood * 2/6 of the time taking actions * 20 "take 20" penalty) + (15 years to reach adulthood * 4/6 of the time not taking actions * 1 normal time) = 110 years on the dot.

When an elf leaves home, of course, he realizes that the terribly uncouth and uncultured non-elves don't tolerate such a thing or appreciate his awesomeness, so he has to get by with taking 10 on everything, and essentially starts living life on a human scale. This explains why non-adventuring elves are the mythically beautiful and graceful and awesome elves of legends, while adventuring elves are much more down-to-earth and seem a lot more like humans with pointy ears. The only chance they have to really indulge themselves is while they're out on an adventure--elves trance for 4 hours while his companions sleep for 8, so an elf has 4 hours per day to be the elfiest elf he can possibly be while no non-elves are there to watch and judge him.

According to the DMG, we can assume that there is a 10% chance of having a wandering monster/random encounter per hour. This means that there is a (1 - .9^4) chance that a random encounter happens while an elf is being elfy during the 4 hours he has to himself, or a 30% chance rounding to one significant figure. So he has roughly a 70% chance to be elfy for 1/6 of the day without interruption (sometimes much less, sometimes much more, depending on when he's interrupted, but we can assume it balances out), meaning he acts elfy roughly 1/8.5 of the time. Thus, while humans take 20 years to get from adulthood to middle age, elves take (20 years to reach middle age * 1/8.5 of the time taking elfy actions * 20 "take 20" penalty) + (20 years to reach adulthood * 7.5/8.5 of the time taking human-y actions * 1 normal time) = ~65 years to do so, which puts them at middle age at ~175 years, exactly what it says on the chart.

Conclusion: Given 3e RAW, elves must age at the given rates. So there. Yes, I put way too much thought into this. I was very bored.

[Mr.Moron]

It doesn't make sense because the concept of an elf (and everything else that lives a bazillion years) is silly. Anything that lives in a way roughly analogous to how a human does, but for 500+ years just isn't going to hold up to any kind of scrutiny. Just handwave it and move on.

[Shadowknight12]

The problem is that this isn't translated into the rules as soon as elves hit 1st level. A 1st-level human wizard and a 1st-level elf wizard take essentially the same amount of experience and learning to get to 2nd level, and 3rd, and so on. Elves don't require extra time between adventures to level up as compared to humans, for example.

XP =/= old age wisdom. XP is a measure of the things you've had to learn to survive and grow powerful. A child who gets thrust into a jungle does not need to understand what he's doing in order to grow strong and ruthless. That doesn't necessarily translate into a greater insight on life and existence.

Only when you had time to mentally process all the things you've experienced (which, btw, have nothing to do with adventuring, as commoners become wise elders too, just not as worldly as adventurers), that you gain insight into the world and are able to dispense it as an elder.

[Palegreenpants]

Quoting the Forgotten Realms Wiki:

Elves mature at roughly the same rate as humans, though they are not usually considered past adolescence until they reach 110 years of age.

This is what I generally accept and teach to my players.
If anyone has read forgotten realms literature, you will know that most species of Elves spend their first century learning about their culture and their interests. For example, the drow of Faerun send their young to academies for many years before they are a true part of society. This may differ in some Elvish societies. I have always assumed, that since the Elves spend so much time honing their skills, that they go about things such as combat with a masterful understanding of the skill. Elves, IMO, do not learn more slowly than other races, they just take the time to achieve perfection in what they learn

[Kelb_Panthera]

It's really quite simple. Elves are perfectionists, and the 3e rules bear out the aging discrepancies.
(clipped)
Conclusion: Given 3e RAW, elves must age at the given rates. So there. Yes, I put way too much thought into this. I was very bored.

This may be the most awsome use of logic & mathematics I have seen all year.

[hobbitkniver]

I don't. Its stupid. Elves in my games have starting ages of 20 years, slightly longer then humans.

Yeah, I do that too. Generaly, I just ignore the whole "ages" thing because I find it adds very little in terms of fun.

[Rorrik]

If anyone has read forgotten realms literature, you will know that most species of Elves spend their first century learning about their culture and their interests. For example, the drow of Faerun send their young to academies for many years before they are a true part of society. This may differ in some Elvish societies. I have always assumed, that since the Elves spend so much time honing their skills, that they go about things such as combat with a masterful understanding of the skill. Elves, IMO, do not learn more slowly than other races, they just take the time to achieve perfection in what they learn

If we look at it this way, then an elf at level 1 should at least come with ranks in knowledge to account for his cultural studies, ranks in craft if that is what he pursued, if not then perhaps athletics, or a feat to account for a "masterful understanding" of combat skill.

The point is that if we assume they haven't wasted all that time, they should get some in game compensation for it in the form of a few additional skills and perhaps a feat. That is how achieving perfections is reflected in the mechanics, if they don't get the bonus, then they really are just slow learners.

[Solaris]

Hmm. I don't see any mention of the birth canal diameter in the vital stats in my book. Have you been playing FATAL?

Cute.

So, back to elves: Elves have a slender body shape. The birth canal is narrower than in humans. An elf child is born much smaller and even more helpless than a human infant. Their development takes longer.

You brought up guessing birth canal by body shape first. I simply pointed out that elves are actually still well within the range of human females, and only a little under the extremely small, thereby invalidating the logic that a different average weight results in a heavily reduced starting brain size, thus requiring a different explanation than 'body shape' for the elf's prolonged adolescence.

If we look at it this way, then an elf at level 1 should at least come with ranks in knowledge to account for his cultural studies, ranks in craft if that is what he pursued, if not then perhaps athletics, or a feat to account for a "masterful understanding" of combat skill.

The point is that if we assume they haven't wasted all that time, they should get some in game compensation for it in the form of a few additional skills and perhaps a feat. That is how achieving perfections is reflected in the mechanics, if they don't get the bonus, then they really are just slow learners.

Why not move the benchmark on what's 'common knowledge' for an elf? It's not the most elegant solution, but it doesn't require any alterations to the race.

[Rorrik]

Why not move the benchmark on what's 'common knowledge' for an elf? It's not the most elegant solution, but it doesn't require any alterations to the race.

Ah, this would certainly help with things, but not all. Presumably if they have mastered combat to perfection that should also be reflected in their skills. I'm very on board with the "lets change their cultural expectations and organization" plan.

[Solaris]

Ah, this would certainly help with things, but not all. Presumably if they have mastered combat to perfection that should also be reflected in their skills. I'm very on board with the "lets change their cultural expectations and organization" plan.

If you practice a single stroke a thousand times, you've mastered the stroke.
You still suck at fighting.
I'd say elves just look better while they're doing something, but they've just learned the form of it, not the function.

[Rorrik]

If you practice a single stroke a thousand times, you've mastered the stroke.
You still suck at fighting.
I'd say elves just look better while they're doing something, but they've just learned the form of it, not the function.

Oooh, I really like that! Okay, I accept your argument.

[KnightOfV]

Lots of good stuff here. A few things I assume on elf culture, and role playing. Elven lands are pretty much paradise. Standard Tolkienesque elf idea, but elves do not have to worry about crime, about the economy, about starving, about inequality- not the way humans or others do. Their mastery of magic (again, typical elf/ Tolkien fluff) means their home is magically sustained, and magically protected from all but the most dire threats. There is no demand for manual, dull labor or soldiers so everyone in the society can become philosophers/art critics/ nature lovers/ craftsmen and take their time about it. Why go to school 5 days a week? Or work 40 hours? There is no rush, no job competition. Elven lives are completely free of stress- but there is a price. They do get caught up in the idyllic romp that is their life and when something does happen to break it, and they are forced to change quickly, most elves just cannot adapt.

As far as crunch, I'd always assumed elf memories were a little strange. In their homeland, an elf has proper time to reflect, retrain, and retain several skillsets. So an elf that lives 100 years could be a Ranger 1/ expert 3/ Wizard 1. Outside of those protective walls however, such a mishmash of skills will not help- he must focus exclusively on one thing- something elves can do no better than any other race. So the adventuring elf will have to 'forget' his basket weaving and tracking so that he can focus on learning magic at 'human speed.' Elf adventures do not have a zillion craft skills and knowledge bonuses, because out in the human lands they only have time to focus on the things that are immediately important to survival. An elf wizard might have been a master painter and tree expert in his homeland, but here in the human lands he has to focus excessively on his magical talents to keep alive, and his former skills are nothing but a vague memory when he trances

Over time the stress catches up with elves in the world, and they start to long for the peace of their homeland. Living at a human's pace (in my mind) takes years off the elf's extended lifespan as they are forcing themselves to mentally engage well beyond their normal limits.

Anyways, just my 2 cp, obviously there is no right way to play an elf.

[Verte]

Basically, I'd think that elves would reach physical maturity when they're 25 years old, but wouldn't be considered "adults" by their culture until they've met certain benchmarks that are really time-consuming. For instance, an elf might need to make pilgrimages to a thousand shrines scattered all over the continent in order to be considered an adult. They might also have to prove true mastery in a trade or profession or something. Then, when they've proven their knowledge, they are recognized as "adults" and take on the role of teaching that knowledge to the others of their community (as well as doing whatever they did before).

What this means is that a 1st level elf would be 25 or 30. A 110 year old elf would probably be at least 5th level.

[Calanon]

It's really quite simple. Elves are perfectionists, and the 3e rules bear out the aging discrepancies.

Spoiler

Show

In 3e, anything you can do is a skill or ability check. "Notice something large in plain sight" is a DC 0 Spot check, for instance--a check that cannot be failed by anyone with at least 10 Wis and no distractions, even if they're untrained, but a skill check nonetheless. Most of the time, you can ignore those checks, because they're impossible to fail, so humans and halflings and dwarves and all the rest simply take 10 on them. However, elves cannot abide doing anything less than perfectly, so they take 20 on every single check, which takes 20 times as long as making the check normally.

Every. Single. Check. Walking? DC 0 Balance check. Talking? DC 0 Diplomacy check. Eating? DC 0 Dex check. Using the bathroom? Er, you get the idea. That's why everyone sees elves as being the most beautiful, most awesome, etc. beings out there. Eating a sandwich will take them an hour where it would take a human 3 minutes, but by Corellon it'll be the most-gracefully-eaten sandwich you ever did see!

Now, this only applies when actually taking actions, so while elves trance they're taking no actions and therefore acting at "normal" speed. As well, it's very impolite to interrupt others while they're being awesome, and elves are very fair and equal-minded people, so they spend half their time being awesome at things and half their time patiently watching other elves be awesome at things. So for 1/6 of any given day they're trancing, and for 3/6 of any given day they're not taking any actions, and for the remaining 2/6 of any given day they're taking normal actions but taking 20 times as long to do them. (15 years to reach adulthood * 2/6 of the time taking actions * 20 "take 20" penalty) + (15 years to reach adulthood * 4/6 of the time not taking actions * 1 normal time) = 110 years on the dot.

When an elf leaves home, of course, he realizes that the terribly uncouth and uncultured non-elves don't tolerate such a thing or appreciate his awesomeness, so he has to get by with taking 10 on everything, and essentially starts living life on a human scale. This explains why non-adventuring elves are the mythically beautiful and graceful and awesome elves of legends, while adventuring elves are much more down-to-earth and seem a lot more like humans with pointy ears. The only chance they have to really indulge themselves is while they're out on an adventure--elves trance for 4 hours while his companions sleep for 8, so an elf has 4 hours per day to be the elfiest elf he can possibly be while no non-elves are there to watch and judge him.

According to the DMG, we can assume that there is a 10% chance of having a wandering monster/random encounter per hour. This means that there is a (1 - .9^4) chance that a random encounter happens while an elf is being elfy during the 4 hours he has to himself, or a 30% chance rounding to one significant figure. So he has roughly a 70% chance to be elfy for 1/6 of the day without interruption (sometimes much less, sometimes much more, depending on when he's interrupted, but we can assume it balances out), meaning he acts elfy roughly 1/8.5 of the time. Thus, while humans take 20 years to get from adulthood to middle age, elves take (20 years to reach middle age * 1/8.5 of the time taking elfy actions * 20 "take 20" penalty) + (20 years to reach adulthood * 7.5/8.5 of the time taking human-y actions * 1 normal time) = ~65 years to do so, which puts them at middle age at ~175 years, exactly what it says on the chart.

Conclusion: Given 3e RAW, elves must age at the given rates. So there. Yes, I put way too much thought into this. I was very bored.

I love you PoDL

[Dr.Epic]

They sit in their parents basement until they get fired from the fat food restaurant and their girlfriend leaves them. Then they have to reexamine their life and start adventuring.

[Andion Isurand]

It is my assertion that all elves (and spirit folk) should reach adulthood at 75 years of age, splitting the difference between 50 and 100 as indicated in following passage written by J.R.R. Tolkien...

from Morgoth's Ring, pg. 209

The Eldar grew in bodily form slower than Men, but in mind more swiftly. They learned to speak before they were one year old; and in the same time they learned to walk and to dance, for their wills came soon to the mastery of their bodies. Nonetheless there was less difference between the two Kindreds, Elves and Men, in early youth; and a man who watched elf-children at play might well have believed that they were the children of Men, of some fair and happy people. For in their early days elf-children delighted still in the world about them, and the fire of their spirit had not consumed them, and the burden of memory was still light upon them.

This same watcher might indeed have wondered at the small limbs and stature of these children, judging their age by their skill in words and grace in motion. For at the end of the third year mortal children began to outstrip the Elves, hastening on to a full stature while the Elves lingered in the first spring of childhood. Children of Men might reach their full height while Eldar of the same age were still in body like to mortals of no more than seven years. Not until the fiftieth year did the Eldar attain the stature and shape in which their lives would afterwards endure, and for some a hundred years would pass before they were full-grown.

[The Glyphstone]

Vaarsuvius said it best - 30 years in diapers.

[fergo]

It's really quite simple. Elves are perfectionists, and the 3e rules bear out the aging discrepancies.

Spoiler

Show

In 3e, anything you can do is a skill or ability check. "Notice something large in plain sight" is a DC 0 Spot check, for instance--a check that cannot be failed by anyone with at least 10 Wis and no distractions, even if they're untrained, but a skill check nonetheless. Most of the time, you can ignore those checks, because they're impossible to fail, so humans and halflings and dwarves and all the rest simply take 10 on them. However, elves cannot abide doing anything less than perfectly, so they take 20 on every single check, which takes 20 times as long as making the check normally.

Every. Single. Check. Walking? DC 0 Balance check. Talking? DC 0 Diplomacy check. Eating? DC 0 Dex check. Using the bathroom? Er, you get the idea. That's why everyone sees elves as being the most beautiful, most awesome, etc. beings out there. Eating a sandwich will take them an hour where it would take a human 3 minutes, but by Corellon it'll be the most-gracefully-eaten sandwich you ever did see!

Now, this only applies when actually taking actions, so while elves trance they're taking no actions and therefore acting at "normal" speed. As well, it's very impolite to interrupt others while they're being awesome, and elves are very fair and equal-minded people, so they spend half their time being awesome at things and half their time patiently watching other elves be awesome at things. So for 1/6 of any given day they're trancing, and for 3/6 of any given day they're not taking any actions, and for the remaining 2/6 of any given day they're taking normal actions but taking 20 times as long to do them. (15 years to reach adulthood * 2/6 of the time taking actions * 20 "take 20" penalty) + (15 years to reach adulthood * 4/6 of the time not taking actions * 1 normal time) = 110 years on the dot.

When an elf leaves home, of course, he realizes that the terribly uncouth and uncultured non-elves don't tolerate such a thing or appreciate his awesomeness, so he has to get by with taking 10 on everything, and essentially starts living life on a human scale. This explains why non-adventuring elves are the mythically beautiful and graceful and awesome elves of legends, while adventuring elves are much more down-to-earth and seem a lot more like humans with pointy ears. The only chance they have to really indulge themselves is while they're out on an adventure--elves trance for 4 hours while his companions sleep for 8, so an elf has 4 hours per day to be the elfiest elf he can possibly be while no non-elves are there to watch and judge him.

According to the DMG, we can assume that there is a 10% chance of having a wandering monster/random encounter per hour. This means that there is a (1 - .9^4) chance that a random encounter happens while an elf is being elfy during the 4 hours he has to himself, or a 30% chance rounding to one significant figure. So he has roughly a 70% chance to be elfy for 1/6 of the day without interruption (sometimes much less, sometimes much more, depending on when he's interrupted, but we can assume it balances out), meaning he acts elfy roughly 1/8.5 of the time. Thus, while humans take 20 years to get from adulthood to middle age, elves take (20 years to reach middle age * 1/8.5 of the time taking elfy actions * 20 "take 20" penalty) + (20 years to reach adulthood * 7.5/8.5 of the time taking human-y actions * 1 normal time) = ~65 years to do so, which puts them at middle age at ~175 years, exactly what it says on the chart.

Conclusion: Given 3e RAW, elves must age at the given rates. So there. Yes, I put way too much thought into this. I was very bored.

As a non-D&D player, I'm almost ashamed to say this is the best thing I've ever read in my entire life.

[BlueEyes]

Elves do what RL teenagers do most of the time - party/play/make out/neglect studies, but for 100 years, because they have time and elf society allows it.

[Squark]

One thing Races of the Wild stressed was that Elves can afford to dabble for a long time; If you invest 5 years in seriously learning pottery, that's a serious commitment, but for an Elf, in the grand scheme of things that's like taking 2 years of sculpting as an elective in high school. One thing you could represent this with is instead of giving all elves proficiency with a couple weapons, you could have an array of options to represent their past interests (like skill points in a perform, craft, knowledge, or profession skill), as well as options to gain proficiency in a selection of elven weapons.

[Morph Bark]

Obviously in the first 100 years of their lives elves are plants that grow from fertile soil until they "hatch" and then take a speedy 10 years to fully mature and learn all life skills necessary.

[Averis Vol]

i remember a certain drow ranger who had fought his way out of the underdark by age 30. i'm pretty sure elves are just really lazy.

[eggs]

Pupate

[VeliciaL]

Several other people have stated this, but I've always figured it was more cultural. Which makes me feel a little sorry for Elven parents who have to deal with what are essentially teenagers for near on a century. :P

As an aside, 4th edition shortens their life spans to about 300 or so years, which would fit a more human maturation rate better. Honestly not sure how I feel about that though.

[Rorrik]

As an aside, 4th edition shortens their life spans to about 300 or so years, which would fit a more human maturation rate better. Honestly not sure how I feel about that though.

If I remember right, it was only 400 in first edition, the last time I checked a monster manual.