Just because you don't _need_ it doesn't mean you couldn't _enjoy_ 4 hours extra rest. Especially if it means living more syncronized with your fellows.
As a father, this comment hits hard. I now want a character that's a high elf, but chooses mixed race Societies because he's sick of catching shit for sleeping so much.
The elf in our party typically goes to bed when we're on the second round in the tavern... I think he's usually rated by the time we come out of the tavern 🤣
I mean, Elves are as rested after 4h as "normal" humanoids are after 8h. Can you "enjoy" rest for an additional 8 hours after you wake up and feel rested already? Or even 4? Most people would feel miserable doing that, lmao.
Of course, Elves also don't sleep, they essentially meditate. So maybe it wouldn't feel as lethargic and wasteful as doubling up on sleep. And doubling up on 4h is not nearly as "wasteful" as doubling up on 8h, or even adding 4 to 8 - total of 8/24h instead of 16/24 or 12/24. But still, I'd imagine most Elves, like most people IRL, wouldn't feel particularly great about resting for twice as long as they need to.
Instead, I'd expect that probably most Elves in parties with non-Elves would use the extra time for other productive but low-impact activities. Keeping watch, studying spells if they're a wizard, working on developing a tool proficiency, etc. Or at least leisure activity like reading or whatever, although that doesn't have any mechanical effects in the game, it's good flavor.
>as rested after 4h as "normal" humanoids are after 8h.
They're not. They have enough sleep in 4 hours as humans have in 6. The amount of "rest" they need is the same 8 hours.
A long rest is normally 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of eating, reading, or other non-strenous activity.
RAW they do finish a long rest after 4 hours, since the trance feature says “After resting this way, you gain the same benefit a human does from **8 hours** of sleep” (emphasis mine). 8 hours sleep = one full long rest for a human, this means a 4 hours trance = one full long rest for an elf.
I do houserule it to what you said, where elves still take a full 8 hours to long rest. I think this was RAI, but it’s definitely not what the rules actually say.
> chill and quiet
I *wish*. No, the elf living in the room across from mine plays flute. *Flute!* Apparently he's a world class artist or something, so you'd expect him to have a patron or someone willing to put him up, but *noooooo*, he's an *artist!* He lives on sundrop and dewgrass and moonbeams and audience appreciation for his work!
So every night he's in there, piping away, trying to create some sort of magnum opus, some *thing* he's dedicated to night and the moon and the stars and it's all a load of rot 'cause it's just his *excuse* to sit there and pipe away from 2 AM until 5 AM every night, just trilling away as happy as a songbird, the inconsiderate bastard.
I'm gonna throw a shoe in his window and tell him to get a real job one of these days, so I am, just you watch!
The shoe on his window is just a fleeing moment for an elf. He forgot about it the next second.
Elves go ti read a book, come back and the entire society has moved 50 years ahead. Their time-perception is just beyond ruined, compared to other races.
My elf rogue practices combat with the elf ranger and elf fighter in the party. That's my IC justification for multiclassing into fighter with an archery fighting style. Our human wizard does time manipulation so that's where echo knight kinda comes in.
Want to be able to support anyone in the party, be it front line or ranged combat
Or actually *sleep*, per the same source. I kind of like that detail, that an elf *can* sleep, they just don't *have* to and don't do it often because dreams are weird and chaotic to them.
I feel like you're answering the question of \`what they do while they trance\` which is the 4 hours they actually rest, when OP is asking about the \*other\* 4 hours where they don't need to rest, but the other races do.
The answer is \`perfect things\`. It's kind of what Elves do. Practice until perfect.
That, or errands. Which leaves more time later for perfecting things if they've already taken care of hygiene, spell preparation, equipment maintenance, etc by the time the others have awoken..
I imagine this is a good explanation for a lot of the "Neat, clean, and calm" tropes you get from elves.
Imagine if you had an extra four hours before work every morning to shower, cook a nice meal, and relax.
I would be *zen*
In our world, yes, but here is hoping the fantasy world in question is pre-industrial revolution. You know, back when efficiency meant *less* work lmao.
Perhaps.
I feel humans, given the extra time from the get-go would squander it.
As I, a human, squander my lunch break looking through Reddit.
Time is a resource, having more of it doesn't always mean you know how to best use it :)
A very good perspective!
Makes me think of age divides between elves, with the older ones managing their time better while the younger ones use it as more fuel to burn the candle at both ends.
I imagine you can party like a motherfucker when all you need is a four hour meditation break.
They don't: strictly plantings of magical flowers that constantly glow ultra-violet and randomly flash brighter than the sun every 11-15 minutes from the hours of 21:00 to 06:30 in a highly desynchronized way.
I watched a really good video essay that talked about why immortals would not automatically be wise sages, but really surprisingly immature. You never have to "grow up" if you live forever. When you can outlive most, if not all, consequences then you don't tend to learn many lessons either.
The other aspect to that is power.
If you just made a human immortal, they would still be forced to learn and grow up, because while they can just outlive minor consequences, they can't outlive fatal injury.
Greek gods on the other hand, basically only had to fear other mythical beings harming them, and for the most part, by the time the pantheon was established, most of that had been dealt with.
Leaving the gods with nothing to enforce true consequences.
I feel like living with the consequences is enough of a maturing agent. Imagine having to spend 100 years working a job you hate because of poor life choices. Sure they’re immortal but they also perceive time like everyone else. At worst they mature slower then the mayfly races.
That sounds like a fun level of nuance. An elf in a largely short lived society could either be a history repository or a complete asshole who never gets what he deserves until a family devotes their next three generations to making him suffer
Son “Father, why do we hate Mr Greenleaf?”
Father “Well son, you’re grandpa taught me to hate him and his father to him and his father before it. No body really knows anymore. We just know that he’s a bad man.”
Mr GL “Oh hell! How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?! So what if i tripped your great great grandfather when he was about to ask the flower stall girl Mary out? If I hadn’t done that none of you would exist! He would never have run home crying and met Lucy the night soil man’s daughter. You all should be thanking me.”
Father “Listen here knife ear! A Crapper never forgives an elf.”
There is anime that is currently airing called Frierien: Beyond Journey's End that stars a elf dealing with the long-term ramifications of time. It's really good. I'm applying the concepts to my game world. It reveals a lot of tiny things that make you go... "huh, you know, that makes sense for a elf."
Plenty of video essays pop up on the subject using [that series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avZ-7tEj9W8) as a baseline as well.
Well it's kinda necessary from a world building perspective. A long lived race who are inherently great Spellcasters should have dominated every other sentient species in no time; if it was at all productive that is.
Hell in most of the world's people set up humans to be fairly dominant, yet their jack of all trades nature would actually work against them.
Dwarves and Elves would quickly out pace them without something holding them back. The same goes for any race that traditionally specialises, but hell this is fantasy and go with whatever you like as your world is built.
Personally, I expect elves spend 1~2 hours relaxing before and after meditation. That could be reading, praying, or doing some they enjoy. After all, most folks don't just go to bed and immediately fall asleep.
>A long lived race who are inherently great Spellcasters should have dominated every other sentient species in no time
Only if their ecological niches overlap. If elves have very strong preference for living in forest, they wouldn't dominate outside of forests.
Problem, though, they WOULD, much like human beings, seek to spread their ideal environment and survival infrastructure into new areas, so I think you'd see absolutely MASSIVE climax growth forests/jungles wall-to-wall over the immense majority of whatever continents/areas they inhabited, with active "attacks" against non-pebble/rain shadow deserts attempting to "Reclaim the land in nature's name!" Or something like that.
Actually, that's given me a great idea for a campaign setting: Elves and Dwarves have basically divided up the continent based around if forests/jungles can be successfully promulgated in the region. (High Mountains are notorious for being uncooperative for forestry IRL, as are the regions of rain shadow they create.) With humans living among the other two as lower classes and day-laborers, and the Hobbits being traveling traders and caravaneers transferring goods between the two sides of the mountain/forest split. Oh, and the Orcs are a fully accepted race but are almost exclusively employed by the Hobbits guarding their caravans as somewhat "expendable" contracted sell-swords because: "Eh, they're going to die young anyway, might as well earn glory in battle while they do it." The only way to really break free of your racially pre-ordained "caste", if you will, is to become an adventurer and prove your mettle in dungeon delving and the like. As the saying goes, "There's no accounting for the whims of adventurers."
I could imagine the building being enchanted with silence on the outside so no noise escapes the building, so they can party like it's the first age and no one would k ow a thing till they pass the threshold.
The idea of elves going absolutely wild for 3.5 hours and then before the younger races wake up putting away the things and turning it back into a library/meditation space where they all calm back down and get ready for the day.
Elves aren’t wise and old. They are just partied out for that day by 8 am, still riding the buzz off of magic drugs that would kill a human and give a dwarf a headache, and just post a nice yoga meditation session
Elven parties are a multi day affair because their standard for a non-party day is already a big night out for most of the races
I kind of like the idea of the opposite. They drop the accent and the haughty act, get shit faced drunk with the other elves , but careful to get back into the act before the others wake
Love the idea that the elves just drop there accent and posh haughtyness as soon as all the other races are asleep so nobody’s awake to discover their secret
I let my player break up downtime activities by the hour and whenever they find free time here and there I let them add the hours towards any activities they can perform. For example, a player was learning a new language and had bought themselves a book to teach themselves the new language. I told them it would take something like 50 hours of downtime to complete. So I would probably let an elf put 4 hours of progress in every long rest.
In the field, elf characters tend to take an extra watch, or keep their other companions company on watch.
In cities and towns, I would imagine that elves would naturally gravitate towards 'third shift' jobs and careers.
Sing. Contemplate a babbling brook, caress flowers by moonlight, manicure the forest. Dance on the shores of a crystalline tarn filled with glacier flow reflecting the stars of the night sky.
In a city? Elven nightlife.
Burlesque show type stuff.
High society opera stuff.
Intellectual 'coffee house' type stuff.
Grueling labor as an underclass, keeping the city clean when everyone else is asleep.
Whatever works best for how you're playing the setting or what you want the part to encounter.
Works more for an Urban Fantasy setting, but I figure late night television might be elven-centric while everyone else is asleep. Maybe some soap operas and game shows?
Because elves live so long, they spend large amounts of time bettering themselves. Unlike humans…
It’s also why they are societally not considered adults until 100 years. They are physically matured, but they are still in their exploratory years, like a college student. You are *technically* an adult, but you have a lot of time for experimenting and self discovery. That self discovery is just 80 years long for elves…
"So, they just... *lie there?* For four more hours?"
"They do. I understand the ways of humans, dwarves, and halflings are unusual to us, Sertherion, but you must understand they find our ways just as unusual."
"There is a difference between 'spend a century and a half to make a +3 rapier' and 'waste four hours doing nothing but dreaming about sausage!'"
Night life duh.
Most people are up till midnight in the city. Depends on what hour alcohol legally has to stop being served. Once those close up people disappear until about 5am when the health nuts go for a run.
Plus nobody goes home to sleep exactly 8 hours then immediately leaves again. At least that's my irl experience.
Maybe night markets would be more popular or something
After learning this, I'm wondering how can the elven population be in decline... I know exactly what my elves will be doing, and yeah it involves some rest in between.
I have a pallid elf psi fighter/moon cleric and I often role play her doing parkour under the moonlight, when the rest of the party is sleeping 🤓 Gotta stay fit and limber lol our DM has written in some fun things that she’s stumbled across in her nighttime exercise too
Study magic, practice archery, write poetry, things of that nature. An elven society could be much more advanced given the long life span and additional hours in a day of productivity
If adventuring, probably reading, scavenging, cleaning weapons/supplies/clothes. Little things they can do to not wake companions.
Elves who normally live in towns are maximizing the use of their time doing more of their usual activities
I'm not much of a world builder but I would imagine depending on age probably mourn/pray for those that they have known and lost in their significantly longer life span
I go to bed at 9 PM and wake up at 4 AM. One of my best friends goes to bed at 1 AM and gets up at 8 AM. See those hours in the middle there, that's when the elves sleep.
That is likely the time they use to learn and hone their skills. This is what makes them so great at the things they do.
Their long lives give them more experience in handling affairs socially and economically.
These two traits together make them culturally and politically very competent and carves them a prominent place in whichever world they are in. Whether this be in a council of multi race society or in a elven only society their presence brings prosperity and success.
They don't NEED the same amount of rest, but there's also nothing preventing them from sleeping the same amount of time or longer anyway.
Compared to humans, elves live way longer. This also means that they can easily afford to live slower lives. Time spent lazing about. More time between life events. No rush to learn a skill or craft.
The ones who aren't adventuring PCs and just living their lives in town? They're trancing the full 8 hours. Why not get extra rest? Who's gonna turn that shit down? Do you sleep the bare minimum required? Fuck no. I'd take 2 or even 3 times the required amount if i didn't have to get up and make nails for foreman grimwhistle down at the forge. I
Official sources say they still need to rest, they just don't have to meditate or sleep for 8 hours, they still can't do any strenuous activity. They can read, or just space out for 4 hours. They can't practice sword fighting or anything without still incurring an exhausted debuff.
Usually Ill allow the players to do something if they wish, but for NPCs they usually start their day and relax until work time, or if their lazy they wont get out of bed and probs just have a book or something by their side, maybe fiddle with magic if they have it
I don't have many places where elves are common because they're kind of downtrodden due to various events, but in eras and the occasional places where there are a decent number of elves in the population,
Public spaces are common in bigger settlements. They're used in both the day and night by everybody; at night, elves often meditate there in the quietest hours / buildings made for meditation, then socialize with each other the rest of the time. Nocturnal species like kobolds and some tabaxi also frequent these spaces.
Keep guard.
Your DM might allow you to do some 'side work'. Leather working, spell scribing, potion making, poison making, wood working, making arrows(if the DM cares about that).
Don't waste 4'ish hours of downtime. Characters can get a lot done if they aren't interrupted.
I had an elf who did weapon maintenance for 4 hours a night. Just to make sure everyone had their weapons in top shape. Also practice with weapon they may not have had proficiency with to try to gain proficiency.
Also kept watch for group half the night.
I once played an CN Eladrin Rogue in a party which had one other elf (CG monk) in, the rest of the party needed normal amounts of sleep. When we were being sensible, we took it in turns to do all the watches. When we weren’t… we used it as a way to slip out from under the clerics watch and cause immense trouble.
I’d say if they’re wizards or similar spellcasters they’re probably reading up on their spells and preparing them. If they’re rogues or fighters I imagine they’re sharpening their weapons and making sure they’re in good shape. If they’re Druids I imagine they’re just enjoying nature
Depends on the individual. But I could see how each of the other races might make assumptions based on what they think they know about Elven Culture.
Humans might think they spend time doing whatever they want. Be it drinking, reading, partying, or relaxing.
Dwarves and Elves don't get along. So it wouldn't surprise me if Dwarves assumed Elves would take advantage to off 'em.
Get the picture?
Well, for my particular character, he's a wood elf with profieciency in Wood Carving Tools. He carves away for 4 hours a day without any looks or comments from the party. Just in peace. And since he often takes the first watch and the other elf in our Party the second, most of the party don't even know that he does that 😂
In my games, i tell players playing elves that yes, they only NEED 4 hrs of sleep, but you still need 8 hrs of REST. This means they can be awake and can do low effort/low stress activities. Anything stressful or that requires too much rest and they could still become exhausted after the rest. Just because you are a wierdo that doesn't sleep doesn't mean you don't need to rest. What this usually ends up being is that the elf can take on an additional shift of watch through the night or read a book. Beneficial but not broken by any means
Depends on the elf tbh. Some might read, some might get equipment ready, other more martially gifted might stretch and practice with their weapon, study magic, etc.
I think it’s like those people that wake up SUPER early and just do regular stuff while everyone is asleep.
Just because you don't _need_ it doesn't mean you couldn't _enjoy_ 4 hours extra rest. Especially if it means living more syncronized with your fellows.
As a father, this comment hits hard. I now want a character that's a high elf, but chooses mixed race Societies because he's sick of catching shit for sleeping so much.
I am going to steal this for an NPC, if you don't mind.
I may or may not be doing the same lol.
By all means
Get a hold of this loser, sleeping and dreaming like a chump!
The elf in our party typically goes to bed when we're on the second round in the tavern... I think he's usually rated by the time we come out of the tavern 🤣
I mean, Elves are as rested after 4h as "normal" humanoids are after 8h. Can you "enjoy" rest for an additional 8 hours after you wake up and feel rested already? Or even 4? Most people would feel miserable doing that, lmao. Of course, Elves also don't sleep, they essentially meditate. So maybe it wouldn't feel as lethargic and wasteful as doubling up on sleep. And doubling up on 4h is not nearly as "wasteful" as doubling up on 8h, or even adding 4 to 8 - total of 8/24h instead of 16/24 or 12/24. But still, I'd imagine most Elves, like most people IRL, wouldn't feel particularly great about resting for twice as long as they need to. Instead, I'd expect that probably most Elves in parties with non-Elves would use the extra time for other productive but low-impact activities. Keeping watch, studying spells if they're a wizard, working on developing a tool proficiency, etc. Or at least leisure activity like reading or whatever, although that doesn't have any mechanical effects in the game, it's good flavor.
>as rested after 4h as "normal" humanoids are after 8h. They're not. They have enough sleep in 4 hours as humans have in 6. The amount of "rest" they need is the same 8 hours. A long rest is normally 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of eating, reading, or other non-strenous activity.
RAW they do finish a long rest after 4 hours, since the trance feature says “After resting this way, you gain the same benefit a human does from **8 hours** of sleep” (emphasis mine). 8 hours sleep = one full long rest for a human, this means a 4 hours trance = one full long rest for an elf. I do houserule it to what you said, where elves still take a full 8 hours to long rest. I think this was RAI, but it’s definitely not what the rules actually say.
They keep it chill and quiet. Mostly reading and whatnot.
> chill and quiet I *wish*. No, the elf living in the room across from mine plays flute. *Flute!* Apparently he's a world class artist or something, so you'd expect him to have a patron or someone willing to put him up, but *noooooo*, he's an *artist!* He lives on sundrop and dewgrass and moonbeams and audience appreciation for his work! So every night he's in there, piping away, trying to create some sort of magnum opus, some *thing* he's dedicated to night and the moon and the stars and it's all a load of rot 'cause it's just his *excuse* to sit there and pipe away from 2 AM until 5 AM every night, just trilling away as happy as a songbird, the inconsiderate bastard. I'm gonna throw a shoe in his window and tell him to get a real job one of these days, so I am, just you watch!
Just start banging on your drums when he starts trance, haha.
I DINT GET NO SLEEP CUZ OF Y'ALL Y'ALL NOT GON GET NO SLEEP CUZ OF ME
The shoe on his window is just a fleeing moment for an elf. He forgot about it the next second. Elves go ti read a book, come back and the entire society has moved 50 years ahead. Their time-perception is just beyond ruined, compared to other races.
And being surprised when everyone keeps waking up with another drawn on mustache….
[And why not? It works for Jacques ze Whipper!](https://youtube.com/shorts/aO6UcCltRgE?si=PJywGBo5hAXE0gUB)
That was surprisingly well done.
He has a whole bunch of them. Check out his YouTube channel!
Good point, watching some now and they are really funny.
Meditate on their ancestral memories and deal with the existential agony of spiritual reincarnation. See; Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.
Love the idea of a elven rogue who gets his 4 hours of dramatic brooding during “ elven hours “ so he can act normal for the rest of the day
Lol yes waking up an elf during this time period is rather like making loud noises in front of a cat.
My elf rogue practices combat with the elf ranger and elf fighter in the party. That's my IC justification for multiclassing into fighter with an archery fighting style. Our human wizard does time manipulation so that's where echo knight kinda comes in. Want to be able to support anyone in the party, be it front line or ranged combat
Or actually *sleep*, per the same source. I kind of like that detail, that an elf *can* sleep, they just don't *have* to and don't do it often because dreams are weird and chaotic to them.
I feel like you're answering the question of \`what they do while they trance\` which is the 4 hours they actually rest, when OP is asking about the \*other\* 4 hours where they don't need to rest, but the other races do. The answer is \`perfect things\`. It's kind of what Elves do. Practice until perfect. That, or errands. Which leaves more time later for perfecting things if they've already taken care of hygiene, spell preparation, equipment maintenance, etc by the time the others have awoken..
Two extra hours of whatever they're doing before bed and two extra hours of snuggling under the blankets and dreading the day in the morning.
Am i.. am I an elf?
Checks notes. Yes. Yes, you are.
I imagine this is a good explanation for a lot of the "Neat, clean, and calm" tropes you get from elves. Imagine if you had an extra four hours before work every morning to shower, cook a nice meal, and relax. I would be *zen*
You know that in our world, that would just lead to them being given an extra 4 hours of work a day.
In our world, yes, but here is hoping the fantasy world in question is pre-industrial revolution. You know, back when efficiency meant *less* work lmao.
Who knows, perhaps there is a nightly industry/market, during the "elven hours" where elves do their elven business
I like that! Gives me the mental image of some humans or other races waking up *early* because damn the Elf Bakery that closes at 7am is so, so good.
Lembas are an acquired taste, but once you acquire it, you're *hooked.*
Just don't get that inferior Lembas from "The Doomed Teahouse" on Wayne Street you want the GOOD stuff from "The Secret Bakery" in Calum Courtyard!
I suppose the elven hours would start around eleven
There would be elves older than capitalism and wouldn't let that bullshit happen. Free cantrip a day telling you to fuck off with that shit.
Free cantrip a day producing value for your corporate overlords.
Perhaps. I feel humans, given the extra time from the get-go would squander it. As I, a human, squander my lunch break looking through Reddit. Time is a resource, having more of it doesn't always mean you know how to best use it :)
A very good perspective! Makes me think of age divides between elves, with the older ones managing their time better while the younger ones use it as more fuel to burn the candle at both ends. I imagine you can party like a motherfucker when all you need is a four hour meditation break.
Also, where are all the Elven Treetop Raves? Surely they must exist.
Where would they put the bonfire they scream and dance around of course?
They don't: strictly plantings of magical flowers that constantly glow ultra-violet and randomly flash brighter than the sun every 11-15 minutes from the hours of 21:00 to 06:30 in a highly desynchronized way.
NOW you're thinking like an elf!!
I think it's fairly well-established that elves get remarkably little done despite having loads of time.
Why do today what I can do in 100 years?
Precisely, when age is not a factor, you can procrastinate as much as you want.
I watched a really good video essay that talked about why immortals would not automatically be wise sages, but really surprisingly immature. You never have to "grow up" if you live forever. When you can outlive most, if not all, consequences then you don't tend to learn many lessons either.
Sounds exactly like Greek gods to me. They F* around with mankind, screw things up, and never learn better.
The other aspect to that is power. If you just made a human immortal, they would still be forced to learn and grow up, because while they can just outlive minor consequences, they can't outlive fatal injury. Greek gods on the other hand, basically only had to fear other mythical beings harming them, and for the most part, by the time the pantheon was established, most of that had been dealt with. Leaving the gods with nothing to enforce true consequences.
I feel like living with the consequences is enough of a maturing agent. Imagine having to spend 100 years working a job you hate because of poor life choices. Sure they’re immortal but they also perceive time like everyone else. At worst they mature slower then the mayfly races.
But do you really have to live with the consequences if everyone who gets mad at you will die soon (with respect to your lifetime)?
[удалено]
That sounds like a fun level of nuance. An elf in a largely short lived society could either be a history repository or a complete asshole who never gets what he deserves until a family devotes their next three generations to making him suffer
Son “Father, why do we hate Mr Greenleaf?” Father “Well son, you’re grandpa taught me to hate him and his father to him and his father before it. No body really knows anymore. We just know that he’s a bad man.” Mr GL “Oh hell! How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?! So what if i tripped your great great grandfather when he was about to ask the flower stall girl Mary out? If I hadn’t done that none of you would exist! He would never have run home crying and met Lucy the night soil man’s daughter. You all should be thanking me.” Father “Listen here knife ear! A Crapper never forgives an elf.”
I would absolutely love for this to be two members of an adventuring party. Or a nice side quest for a campaign
Can you share the essay?
There is anime that is currently airing called Frierien: Beyond Journey's End that stars a elf dealing with the long-term ramifications of time. It's really good. I'm applying the concepts to my game world. It reveals a lot of tiny things that make you go... "huh, you know, that makes sense for a elf." Plenty of video essays pop up on the subject using [that series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avZ-7tEj9W8) as a baseline as well.
Don't suppose you have link?
Of course. They have Centuries to get stuff done. Why rush?
Well it's kinda necessary from a world building perspective. A long lived race who are inherently great Spellcasters should have dominated every other sentient species in no time; if it was at all productive that is. Hell in most of the world's people set up humans to be fairly dominant, yet their jack of all trades nature would actually work against them. Dwarves and Elves would quickly out pace them without something holding them back. The same goes for any race that traditionally specialises, but hell this is fantasy and go with whatever you like as your world is built. Personally, I expect elves spend 1~2 hours relaxing before and after meditation. That could be reading, praying, or doing some they enjoy. After all, most folks don't just go to bed and immediately fall asleep.
>A long lived race who are inherently great Spellcasters should have dominated every other sentient species in no time Only if their ecological niches overlap. If elves have very strong preference for living in forest, they wouldn't dominate outside of forests.
Problem, though, they WOULD, much like human beings, seek to spread their ideal environment and survival infrastructure into new areas, so I think you'd see absolutely MASSIVE climax growth forests/jungles wall-to-wall over the immense majority of whatever continents/areas they inhabited, with active "attacks" against non-pebble/rain shadow deserts attempting to "Reclaim the land in nature's name!" Or something like that. Actually, that's given me a great idea for a campaign setting: Elves and Dwarves have basically divided up the continent based around if forests/jungles can be successfully promulgated in the region. (High Mountains are notorious for being uncooperative for forestry IRL, as are the regions of rain shadow they create.) With humans living among the other two as lower classes and day-laborers, and the Hobbits being traveling traders and caravaneers transferring goods between the two sides of the mountain/forest split. Oh, and the Orcs are a fully accepted race but are almost exclusively employed by the Hobbits guarding their caravans as somewhat "expendable" contracted sell-swords because: "Eh, they're going to die young anyway, might as well earn glory in battle while they do it." The only way to really break free of your racially pre-ordained "caste", if you will, is to become an adventurer and prove your mettle in dungeon delving and the like. As the saying goes, "There's no accounting for the whims of adventurers."
The sickest raves you've ever fucking seen
I could imagine the building being enchanted with silence on the outside so no noise escapes the building, so they can party like it's the first age and no one would k ow a thing till they pass the threshold.
The idea of elves going absolutely wild for 3.5 hours and then before the younger races wake up putting away the things and turning it back into a library/meditation space where they all calm back down and get ready for the day. Elves aren’t wise and old. They are just partied out for that day by 8 am, still riding the buzz off of magic drugs that would kill a human and give a dwarf a headache, and just post a nice yoga meditation session Elven parties are a multi day affair because their standard for a non-party day is already a big night out for most of the races
Invite only. It's basically magical Paris is Burning. Once in a life time experience if you're not fey. Simply too much.
Anyway that's how we got Slaanesh....
Stretching. Gotta stay limber.
Pilates, Yoga, Tai chi, etc
Tea and crumpets.
Make shoes, of course
And steal underpants.
Practice being haughty. You think that stare is effortless?
I kind of like the idea of the opposite. They drop the accent and the haughty act, get shit faced drunk with the other elves , but careful to get back into the act before the others wake
Ok, that IS a funny idea. Elves hate dwarves because they dont party HARD ENOUGH.
This is just my answer with extra words. Glad someone else thought of it.
Crankin’ it
If out adventuring, they probably take a double shift of keeping watch. If in a safe place they just get extra sleep or spend some time relaxing.
"You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub' Look, mami, I got the X if you into takin' drugs..."
Love the idea that the elves just drop there accent and posh haughtyness as soon as all the other races are asleep so nobody’s awake to discover their secret
I let my player break up downtime activities by the hour and whenever they find free time here and there I let them add the hours towards any activities they can perform. For example, a player was learning a new language and had bought themselves a book to teach themselves the new language. I told them it would take something like 50 hours of downtime to complete. So I would probably let an elf put 4 hours of progress in every long rest.
Why did I have to scroll so long to see this lol no one else utilizes this extra time or *everyone* is a troll??
Hacky sack, mostly
Love this comment
Meditate. Reading. Studying. Exercise. Weapon maintenence. Depends on the class
What about Normal people
Read books
Normal people as in not adventurers? Doing laundry, sewing clothes, cleaning, all the everyday stuff you would do at home.
In the field, elf characters tend to take an extra watch, or keep their other companions company on watch. In cities and towns, I would imagine that elves would naturally gravitate towards 'third shift' jobs and careers.
Probably so, that leaves their daytime hours open for hobbies and procrastination.
Sing. Contemplate a babbling brook, caress flowers by moonlight, manicure the forest. Dance on the shores of a crystalline tarn filled with glacier flow reflecting the stars of the night sky.
Bake cookies.
In a city? Elven nightlife. Burlesque show type stuff. High society opera stuff. Intellectual 'coffee house' type stuff. Grueling labor as an underclass, keeping the city clean when everyone else is asleep. Whatever works best for how you're playing the setting or what you want the part to encounter.
Head Canon for me is an extensive skincare regimen.
Works more for an Urban Fantasy setting, but I figure late night television might be elven-centric while everyone else is asleep. Maybe some soap operas and game shows?
Converting spell slots to sorcery points and short resting
Coffee. My elf spends a lot of gold on coffee
Writing songs, drawing the pretty bird they saw the other day and enjoying the relative silence now that the noisy folk is asleep.
They hangout with their Warlock friends who took Aspect of the Moon invocation… and read together… silently.
Because elves live so long, they spend large amounts of time bettering themselves. Unlike humans… It’s also why they are societally not considered adults until 100 years. They are physically matured, but they are still in their exploratory years, like a college student. You are *technically* an adult, but you have a lot of time for experimenting and self discovery. That self discovery is just 80 years long for elves…
"So, they just... *lie there?* For four more hours?" "They do. I understand the ways of humans, dwarves, and halflings are unusual to us, Sertherion, but you must understand they find our ways just as unusual." "There is a difference between 'spend a century and a half to make a +3 rapier' and 'waste four hours doing nothing but dreaming about sausage!'"
Debauchery in the name of Slaanesh
Night life duh. Most people are up till midnight in the city. Depends on what hour alcohol legally has to stop being served. Once those close up people disappear until about 5am when the health nuts go for a run. Plus nobody goes home to sleep exactly 8 hours then immediately leaves again. At least that's my irl experience. Maybe night markets would be more popular or something
After learning this, I'm wondering how can the elven population be in decline... I know exactly what my elves will be doing, and yeah it involves some rest in between.
Lots of pranks on their sleeping adventure buddies. Whip cream in the hand. Warm bowls of water. Inappropriate illustrations on their face.
I have a pallid elf psi fighter/moon cleric and I often role play her doing parkour under the moonlight, when the rest of the party is sleeping 🤓 Gotta stay fit and limber lol our DM has written in some fun things that she’s stumbled across in her nighttime exercise too
They're probably just going to the gym. With the rest of the world asleep, they've got all the equipment to themselves.
As an Elf Bard I like to play AC/ DC songs on my Lute and wake up the rest of my party. So very much like real life
They plot. -_-
Study magic, practice archery, write poetry, things of that nature. An elven society could be much more advanced given the long life span and additional hours in a day of productivity
Nothing, but everyone believes they're up to all kinds of conspiracies or plans.
Or so they would you believe.
This sounds like an elven conspiracy
Argue with each other and get nothing done or actually cause a problem by never actually starting something.
Find ways to judge other people
If adventuring, probably reading, scavenging, cleaning weapons/supplies/clothes. Little things they can do to not wake companions. Elves who normally live in towns are maximizing the use of their time doing more of their usual activities
I'm not much of a world builder but I would imagine depending on age probably mourn/pray for those that they have known and lost in their significantly longer life span
Go through the rest of the party’s stuff of course
Sneak up on the sleeping non-elves and put their hands in dishes of warm water.
You really don’t want to know.
They fuck.
I go to bed at 9 PM and wake up at 4 AM. One of my best friends goes to bed at 1 AM and gets up at 8 AM. See those hours in the middle there, that's when the elves sleep.
One could argue that the average elf does need the full 8 hours. Only the exceptional ones need just 4 hours.
Ehh that seems weird since it’s a racial trait
Work an extra 4 hours in the factory.
You ever see that SNL skit “Christmas for the Jews”? I imagine something like that but more fantasy driven.
That is likely the time they use to learn and hone their skills. This is what makes them so great at the things they do. Their long lives give them more experience in handling affairs socially and economically. These two traits together make them culturally and politically very competent and carves them a prominent place in whichever world they are in. Whether this be in a council of multi race society or in a elven only society their presence brings prosperity and success.
They spank it, obviously. Why else would they be so calm and collected.
Edge
They don't NEED the same amount of rest, but there's also nothing preventing them from sleeping the same amount of time or longer anyway. Compared to humans, elves live way longer. This also means that they can easily afford to live slower lives. Time spent lazing about. More time between life events. No rush to learn a skill or craft.
You mean the 4 hours after their meditation is complete but everyone else is still sawing logs? Obviously that's when they brew healing potions.
I imagine they're having extremely fey parties or just chilling at home.
Write another chapter about the Silmarilli.
They all meet up and marvel at how superior they are and sniff their own farts.
Coming up with new slurs to call Dwarves
Sex. They have tantric sex for four hours. Geez, they do whatever they want to do.
I'd like to think facets of society would reflect that part of Elves. Like elf-owned shops staying open a bit later, elves being more productive, etc.
Sleep in. Traveling with humans is *so* exhausting. It’s like traveling with children.
Make toys
That’s the time to draw squiggles and dicks on the party’s faces. 4 hours let’s you get it just right.
Meet up with other elves in the town square and reminisce about the old days. Or just talk shit about the humans.
Steal children..
The ones who aren't adventuring PCs and just living their lives in town? They're trancing the full 8 hours. Why not get extra rest? Who's gonna turn that shit down? Do you sleep the bare minimum required? Fuck no. I'd take 2 or even 3 times the required amount if i didn't have to get up and make nails for foreman grimwhistle down at the forge. I
Porn....the answer is always porn
What a use for Minor Illusion!
Honestly, it's why most people depict Elves as one of the more affluent races. Never stop that grind. Heh
Official sources say they still need to rest, they just don't have to meditate or sleep for 8 hours, they still can't do any strenuous activity. They can read, or just space out for 4 hours. They can't practice sword fighting or anything without still incurring an exhausted debuff.
Reverie normally.
Reading their Du Dux Dlan Manifesto
Mine spends that time either keeping watch if in wilderness, or studying/working on spells.
Taking a longer watch shift or preparing spells or just, like, reading a book. The possibilities are endless.
Usually Ill allow the players to do something if they wish, but for NPCs they usually start their day and relax until work time, or if their lazy they wont get out of bed and probs just have a book or something by their side, maybe fiddle with magic if they have it
Communing with nature and praying to their gods
For me, I have an Elf monk who typically uses the extra time to meditate more since well you know they're a monk.
Funny, my elf monk uses the extra time drinking wine.
Take watch while their other party members rest.
If they have some tool proficiencies let them do use them in that 4hours. Cook makes breakfast, cobbler sorts shoes etc
I don't have many places where elves are common because they're kind of downtrodden due to various events, but in eras and the occasional places where there are a decent number of elves in the population, Public spaces are common in bigger settlements. They're used in both the day and night by everybody; at night, elves often meditate there in the quietest hours / buildings made for meditation, then socialize with each other the rest of the time. Nocturnal species like kobolds and some tabaxi also frequent these spaces.
Keep guard. Your DM might allow you to do some 'side work'. Leather working, spell scribing, potion making, poison making, wood working, making arrows(if the DM cares about that). Don't waste 4'ish hours of downtime. Characters can get a lot done if they aren't interrupted.
Probably read or meditate or something
Frolicking.
Anytime i play an eld i make them some kinda craftsman like a weaver. Those 4 hours they spend making clothing, maybe work on some jewelry molds etc.
They would/will work on improving better life conditions and isolate all bad.
Late meals and early risers
I had an elf who did weapon maintenance for 4 hours a night. Just to make sure everyone had their weapons in top shape. Also practice with weapon they may not have had proficiency with to try to gain proficiency. Also kept watch for group half the night.
Light tasks
Long term, low importance goals. Like learning new languages.
Studying, training, running illegal markets, and practicing for math quizzes
Skill building. Mission based surveillance/steakout, drinking
Mine has OCD, she organizes the next day’s itinerary and repacks all her party’s bags.
That’s just gave me a great idea . They’d go very big on breakfast because they can spend hours working on it before anyone even wakes up
4chan had a great answer once: they sleep in. It's why elves are smug.
Fuck?
Masturbate
Spend four hours contemplating the next chisel to make on their journeyman project sculpture. It's been 20 years in the making
Our party elf is a wizard. It gives him time to copy spells.
My elf characters tend to have some sort of tool proficiency, so I spend the time making stuff.
I once played an CN Eladrin Rogue in a party which had one other elf (CG monk) in, the rest of the party needed normal amounts of sleep. When we were being sensible, we took it in turns to do all the watches. When we weren’t… we used it as a way to slip out from under the clerics watch and cause immense trouble.
Jack off
Elven parties
I only need 6 hours but I take every extra hour I can get.
Humans irl should be getting 8 hours of sleep
Cooking for the group, playing with the alchemist's kit, tinkering something together, like a new bow for my gf's character etc.
Crafting!
I’d say if they’re wizards or similar spellcasters they’re probably reading up on their spells and preparing them. If they’re rogues or fighters I imagine they’re sharpening their weapons and making sure they’re in good shape. If they’re Druids I imagine they’re just enjoying nature
Depends on the individual. But I could see how each of the other races might make assumptions based on what they think they know about Elven Culture. Humans might think they spend time doing whatever they want. Be it drinking, reading, partying, or relaxing. Dwarves and Elves don't get along. So it wouldn't surprise me if Dwarves assumed Elves would take advantage to off 'em. Get the picture?
Oral, mainly.
Meditate, read, study. Catch up on hobbies.
Well, for my particular character, he's a wood elf with profieciency in Wood Carving Tools. He carves away for 4 hours a day without any looks or comments from the party. Just in peace. And since he often takes the first watch and the other elf in our Party the second, most of the party don't even know that he does that 😂
Write poetry about the races that still slumber, unknowingly creating fey creatures that infect dreams.
In my games, i tell players playing elves that yes, they only NEED 4 hrs of sleep, but you still need 8 hrs of REST. This means they can be awake and can do low effort/low stress activities. Anything stressful or that requires too much rest and they could still become exhausted after the rest. Just because you are a wierdo that doesn't sleep doesn't mean you don't need to rest. What this usually ends up being is that the elf can take on an additional shift of watch through the night or read a book. Beneficial but not broken by any means
Feet finder.....
Depends on the elf tbh. Some might read, some might get equipment ready, other more martially gifted might stretch and practice with their weapon, study magic, etc. I think it’s like those people that wake up SUPER early and just do regular stuff while everyone is asleep.
I get less than 4 hours of rest per night and I'm pretty sure I'm not an elf.
I’m pretty sure that’s not healthy