Of course, you can play D&D however you want, but if you're stuck for ideas try keeping these tips in mind.

The wonders of the fey have always been a crucial part of games with high medieval fantasy, and Dungeons & Dragons is no exception. What started out as a class in the very first edition, the Elves are one of the most famous and powerful races the game has to offer, and playing as one of them is pure joy. Here, you can see some tips on how to use this race, both mechanically and in social interactions.

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Keep in mind that lore-based tips will focus on more official lore of the D&D universe. That means these tips may not be as useful in a homebrew scenario.

Elves, among the main races, are the ones who live the longest out of everyone else, with a life expectancy that can reach 750 years. They also take 100 years or so to reach adulthood. This might not look like much, but it deeply affects how most of them see the world and other races, giving you interesting roleplaying scenarios.

First, patience is a strong virtue for most of them. After all, you have a lot of time to do things you want to do, so why rush? Even if it takes 300 years to do something, you're going to be fine and have plenty of time to enjoy your conquest.

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It also makes them slow to interact with non-Elves, since these other races will die a lot sooner. A Human friend for an Elf is like a dog for us. You'll bond, befriend and love them, but when they die of old age, you'll still be alive and young (assuming your character doesn't die on the adventure, because optimism is important). That can help you design your character's personality, and how easy (or hard) it will be for them to bond with those who just don't live as much. Dwarf friends will last longer, but it will still not be a lifelong friendship.

This one is also something you can choose not to take, but most Elves focus a lot more on the beauty of life rather than anything else. A quiet and simple life in the woods is enough for most of them.

As a player, you won't take this to its full extent, otherwise, you won't have a reason to become an adventurer, but it's okay to have your character just stop occasionally to enjoy scenery, art, music, or the breeze. One thing a lot of players take for granted when creating characters is that giving them hobbies, or simple likes and dislikes, makes them much more realistic and compelling, instead of mainly focusing on their goal and mechanical prowess.

Take your time to decide things your character simply enjoys and add them to your roleplaying. This advice would work for any race, not just Elves.

Assuming your campaign is using multiple books for character creation, there's a little book you may have heard of called Xanathar's Guide To Everything. It contains extra feats for specific races.

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This book adds quite a few feats for Elves (though specific subraces are required for some), but one feat any Elf can get is Elven Accuracy, which allows you to re-roll one die from an attack roll if the said attack was in advantage. Essentially, when you're at an advantage, you can roll three dice.

Said attack needs to use either Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma. This means that any spell that uses an attack roll, any ranged weapon, and any finesse weapon can take advantage (pun intended) of this feat. This makes you a powerful Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Bard, Druid, Cleric, Rogue, Ranger, Monk, Fighter, and even Paladin, as long as you use finesse weapons. The only class not listed there is Barbarian because Dexterity attacks won't let you fully embrace Rage to its fullest potential. Still, almost every class in the game is pretty versatile.

Talking on a more mechanical side, Elves are one of the best races when it comes to staying guard. If your group ever needs to take night shifts for a long rest in a dangerous area, one Elf can be a guard 50 percent of the time, and if the group has two, then they can take care of everything. That's even better if they have high Wisdom scores.

Unlike the other races, Elves can perform a long rest in only four hours rather than eight, hence their ability to protect the rest of the group, the ones that still need the eight hours. Not only that, but you also have Darkvision, so you won't be useless by staying up in pure darkness (and that's even better if you're a Drow).

If you want to take this position to an extreme, you can get feats such as Alert, to avoid being taken by surprise while awake, or Observant, which increases your passive Perception by five. Rogues will be even better, being able to get expertise on Perception and increase your bonus even more.

Elves are famous for having a plethora of subraces to choose from. Not only does that give you the power to choose one that already suits your vision for the character, but also allows you to play around and make a character that intentionally breaks stereotypes and be their own thing.

The most famous ones are the High Elves, with the classic delicate and pure vision of the Elves; The Wood Elves, who are more distant from civilization and in more contact with nature; and the Drows, the original "Edge Lords", but who can also be a curious force for good and give your character a beautiful contrast. There are other Elves in different books as well; you can see more thorough descriptions here.

Along with giving you unique traits to mess around with in your roleplay, each subrace will give you unique abilities, so you can also see which better suits the class you have in mind to optimize your character properly.

High Elves can be interesting Wizards and Artificers, Wood Elves interesting Rangers and Rogues, and Drows interesting Rogues and Warlocks. And they all get quite a few weapon proficiencies, so if you're a spellcaster for instance but still have a good Dexterity for your AC, you can still fight a bit with bows and swords in case you want to save spell slots (or in case you run out of them).

NEXT: Dungeons & Dragons: Tips On Playing As A Human

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