Elves D&D 2024: Species/Race Optimisation Guide

Learn how to optimise these graceful beings with our guide to the updated Elves for D&D 2024.

What are Elves?

With ancestors originating from the Feywild, Elves are humanoids with a natural affinity for nature and magic. They’re based on the elegant, intelligent and long-lived Elves of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, rather than the short, mischievous Elves of folk lore and fairytales.

Elves in the D&D universe are typically very competent, developing a natural air of confidence and aloofness. This is only magnified by their age. With centuries of experience, Elves have the time to develop an expertise that many other species will struggle to attain.

You can recognise an Elf from their slender frame, pointed ears and chiselled features. In fact, Elves are often typified as some of the most beautiful people of the planes.

Elves have spread far and wide across the Forgotten Realms and beyond. They build beautiful cities, merging intricate craftsmanship with the beauties of nature. Many dream of visiting the stunning forest cities of Qualinost in Krynn or the river city of Silverymoon of Faerun.

But for every desirable Elven city on the surface, there’s a dark and foreboding city of the Drow in the Underdark. You should avoid the cities of these Lolth-worshipping Elves if you value your life and your sanity. While many Elven cities are not open to most other species, Drow cities are outright hostile, especially to those not of their kind.

With the introduction of D&D 2024, Elves have had a refresh. My guide below will take you through these changes and explain exactly how you can optimise these Elves for D&D.

Is an Elf the right species for me?

Choose an Elf if you like…

Innate magic at your fingertips
Being alert to danger
Being able to operate in the dark
Knowing you’re better than everyone else

An Elf might not be for you if…

You’re not interested in spellcasting
Prefer a species with less refinement and more gruffness
You want more combat focused traits

What’s changed for the 2024 Elf?

A decent amount actually, including the following:

You can now choose from a few different skill proficiencies
Each Elven lineage gets a spell at levels 1, 3 and level 5
Each lineage gets some changes too including:
- Drow: No longer get sunlight sensitivity
- High Elf: You have a wizard cantrip that you can change each long rest
- Wood Elf: Mask of the wild has been swapped for knowledge of the druidcraft cantrip. Mask of the wild was awkward to work and seems to have been replaced by the pass without trace spell which is much more useful for stealth anyway.

For a full breakdown, check out my article on all the species changes coming to D&D 2024.

Elf 2024 traits

Creature Type	Humanoid
Size	Medium
Speed	30ft (35ft for Wood Elves)
Traits	Darkvision, Elven lineages, Fey ancestry, keen senses, trance
Resistances	Charmed
Proficiencies	One of insight, perception and survival
Darkvision	Yes
Innate spellcasting	Various depending on your Elven lineage
Book found in	Player’s Handbook 2024

Darkvision: You have darkvision with a range of 60ft.

Elven lineage: Choose one of the Elven lineages below. You gain the traits associated with that lineage:

Lineage	Level 1	Level 3	Level 5
Drow	Darkvision becomes 120ft and you know the dancing lights cantrip.	Faerie fire	Darkness
High Elf	You know the prestidigitation cantrip and can swap this for any other wizard cantrip each long rest.	Detect magic	Misty step
Wood Elf	Have 35ft movement speed and know the druidcraft cantrip.	Longstrider	Pass without trace

Fey ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against the charmed condition.

Keen senses: You have proficiency in insights, perception or survival (choose one).

Trance: You don’t need to sleep and can rest using a trance-like state for 4hrs.

Where are the ability score increases?

You may have noticed that there are no ability score increases associated with your species any more. This is because these increases are now linked to your background. This gives you more flexibility to play the species you want and optimise more easily for a broader range of classes.

Check out our guide to backgrounds in D&D 2024 to find out more.

Tactics

Spell masters: All Elves get 3 spells in their repertoire making them very magically focused. Taking a spellcasting class will give you repeat castings of these spells. Most of these spells aren’t reliant on a spellcasting ability score other than a Drow’s faerie fire and possible options for the High Elf’s cantrip so Elves aren’t completely wasted on non-spellcasting classes, but it certainly remains preferable.

This means that Elves tend to favour spellcasting classes. Drow offer a more tactical option with faerie fire granting a low level foil against invisibility and darkness providing some battlefield control.

High Elves offer some safety and versatility with misty step being a brilliant way to get out of danger without expending your action to disengage. Being able to swap your cantrip is hugely useful. Particularly for something like a bard who can grab a better damage dealing cantrip for instance.

Wood Elves get a great party stealth spell in pass without trace.

Built for stealth: Wood Elves make great stealth characters. Pass without trace is excellent for skulking around, but the combination of darkvision and perception proficiency works really well for scouts and skulkers.

Hello darkness, my old friend: Drow work well with darkness. With enhanced darkvision and dancing lights, they can operate capably in the dark. Darkness is great for causing problems for your enemy attackers. There are a couple of ways to use darkness to your advantage in an aggressive way. Use it collaboratively with an ally with blindfighting for instance. Or you could cast it on an object, have your cleric pick that object up (you can’t cast it on an object being worn or carried anymore) and then have the cleric cast spirit guardians and wade among enemies causing damage while being hard to hit themself. You’ll have to rely on spells that aren’t spell attacks like sacred flame or word of radiance, but it’s still workable as a tactic.

Choosing a class for your Elf

Below I’ve scored how well each class works with an Elf:

Artificer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐

Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐

Monk ⭐⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐⭐

Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐⭐⭐⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for Elves

Ultimately, you’re taking an Elf for their spellcasting abilities. As such, they naturally favour spellcasting classes best, including:

Artificer – Artificers aren’t blessed with a huge range of spells so extras are always welcome. Misty step is handy for relatively less durable martial subclasses like battlesmiths and armorers. High Elf will also give you a wizard cantrip. Toll the dead will enhance your damage output there.
Bard – I’d be really tempted by a High Elf for a bard. Misty step is really useful for any bard for getting out of trouble (you can’t get it as standard), but especially Valor bards and dance bards who like to get stuck into the melee. Bards also aren’t blessed with great combat cantrip. You do get starry wisp now, but toll the dead is just better so I’d consider that.
Druid – Grab toll the dead from the High Elf for improved cantrip damage. Misty step is useful for frontline druids, particularly sea druids.
Sorcerer – A few more spells is useful, and some extra castings as meta magic can easily consume your spell slots quickly. Access to faerie fire or misty step is always useful. Throw in the likes of darkness for some extra battlefield control.
Warlock – Warlocks have precious few spells and slots so extra castings are hugely valuable.

Wizards and clerics are good options too but don’t quite make the good due to their plethora of spells options and options to cast many of these spells through their class.already.meaning they need Elven traits just a little less.

Rangers and paladins are usually focused on casting spells to enhance their damage output and you may not want to focus repeat castings on utility spells with such limited spells slots. Grabbing damage dealing cantrips could be tempting, but your weapon attacks should outstrip the damage from cantrips most of the time. They’re still a solid option though.

Worst classes for Elves

I’d avoid barbarians. They’re not built for spells and generally can’t cast in combat.

Monks have a strong wisdom, but their actions economy relies heavily on their actions and bonus action for attacks. This means none of these spells are worth using above what they can already do in combat.

Fighters and rogues are typically poor options too and likely won’t want to spend their actions on such spells in combat. The exception could be eldritch knights and arcane tricksters though.

About Elves

Appearance

Elves can be identified by their slender features, pointed ears and mostly hairless bodies. Unlike Tolkien’s Elves, D&D Elves are typically a little shorter than Humans but fit within the normal range for a human, standing between 5ft to just over 6ft tall.

Each Elven lineage has slightly differing features. high Elves tend to appear as your more typical Elves, with a regal bearing and pristine appearance. Wood Elves on the other hand, live out in the wild, wearing clothing fashioned from nature and appearing less refined.

Drow are quite different from both these lineages. With aeons having lived in the Underdark, their skin takes on different shades including greys and blues. These Lolth worshipping Elves harbour great hatred and anger upon their faces.

Personality

With a lifespan of about 750 years, Elves have a longer view on things than Humans and will choose to wait to see if a problem solves itself rather than rushing to action. This can create conflict with the shorter-lived races who do not have the time to spend years resolving their problems.

Different Elven lineages tend to typify different personalities. For example, High Elves tend to be more sophisticated and aloof, Drow tend to be more cruel and callous, and Wood Elves tend to be more reserved and cautious.

While many Elves do live among the other species, most Elves are fairly insular groups that build their own cities and rarely allow other species inside amicably.

Roleplaying an Elf

If you choose to play as an Elf, consider some of the approaches below when roleplaying them:

Channel your inner elegance: Elves are often graceful and stylish. Picture your character as the person who always seems to move effortlessly, making everything look easy. Whether it’s in combat or just strolling through town; embrace that elegance.

Curiosity is Your Middle Name: Elves are insatiably curious. Imagine your character as a knowledge sponge. High Elves will be the first to grab books, scrolls, and old dusty tomes. Wood Elves might seek to learn about animals and various flora or the visitors strolling through their forest. Show a thirst for knowledge in your roleplaying.

Nature Lover: With origins from the Feywild, Elves often have a deep connection to nature. Show this by respecting the environment, professing your love for nature, and maybe even befriending woodland critters.