The original elves. Innately magical and highly attuned to their emotions, play as an Eladrin with our detailed guide
What are the Eladrin?
Eladrin are Elves native to the Feywild. They are more whimsical and mischievous than their elvish cousins. The Eladrin resonate with emotions that are reflected by an affinity with one of the 4 seasons. The seasons and their associated emotions are:
Autumn – Peace and goodwill, when the harvest is shared with all.
Winter – Contemplation and dolor, for when the vibrancy of the world slumbers,
Spring – Cheerfulness and celebration brought about by the merriment of winter’s passing.
Summer – Boldness and aggression, a time of unfettered energy and calls to action.
While all Elves originated in the Feywild, many travelled elsewhere. For High Elves and Wood Elves, they travelled to the mortal plane, Astral Elves into wildspace, Shadar-Kai into the Shadowfell and the Drow into the Underdark. When these various Elves departed the Feywild, they took upon themselves aspects of those places and cultures they joined, losing some aspects of their fey nature. For the Eldarin though, they have remained in the Feywild and as such, enjoy a greater whimsy, a deeper connection with nature and a closer affinity with magic.
It should be noted that in previous editions of D&D, the Eladrin were not so much Fey Elves, but more ancient Elves that had persisted. This is no longer the case in D&D 5e and the Eladrin are not necessarily anymore ancient than other Elves (though by Human standards, most Elves seem ancient anyway with their 750 year lifespan).
Other elven subraces
Is an Eladrin the right character for me?
Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for an Eladrin you might consider the following:
Choose an Eladrin if you like…
- Appearing in the middle of combat out of nowhere
- Being an Elf
- Being very in tune with your emotions
An Eladrin might not be for you if…
- You want to stay out of close combat
- Want to hide your emotions
- Don’t like Elves
If you think an Eladrin isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative Elven race, you could consider a Shadar-Kai or an Astral Elf.
Racial features
| Ability Scores | +2 to one ability score and +1 to another or +1 to 3 different ability scores |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Medium |
| Lifespan | About 750 years |
| Speed | 30ft |
| Languages | Common and one other |
| Traits | Darkvision, Fey Ancestry, Fey Step, Keen Senses, Trance |
| Resistances | Charmed, Sleep |
| Proficiencies | Perception |
| Darkvision | Yes |
| Innate Spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | Monsters of the Multiverse, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes |
Tactics
Step in and out of combat: Fey step is basically misty step with extra perks. Those extra perks though, rely on usually being close to your enemies. This means you’ll often want to be teleporting into or out of combat to maximise its effectiveness. This means taking a close combat-focused class to really get the most out of fey step and jumping into the thick of combat, preferably, with a lot of enemies surrounding where you appear.
Compensate for proficiency gaps: You can get 2 tool or weapon proficiencies and change them every time you take a long rest. This can be handy for filling in proficiency gaps. The most useful of these is likely to be thieves tools if you lack a rogue in the party, but you can find yourself being useful for all sorts of less common functions when these needs arise like becoming proficient with forgery tools when you need to forge a letter for instance. Weapon proficiency could be useful for someone like a cleric, allowing you to wield any weapon you need/want to.
Party scout: Proficiency in perception makes you great for scouting ahead of the party. This makes wisdom-based classes particularly effective for an Eladrin, like a cleric or druid as not only will your perception be great, but you can use your high wisdom to maximise the effectiveness of fey step. Just be aware that while monks are also wisdom-based, I wouldn’t recommend them for an Eladrin (read on for more details).
Which classes are good for an Eladrin?
The eladrin are a variety of Elf (arguably the original version of Elves). As such, they have some abilities in common with most Elves like Darkvision, Trance and Fey Ancestry. The real defining feature of the Eladrin though is their Fey Step which allows them to teleport across the battlefield as a bonus action for extra manoeuvrability.
On top this, their Fey Step gets an extra feature depending on the season they’re embodying at the time (you can change it every long rest). The best of these are great for crowd control, causing charm or fear effects on nearby enemies or a small amount of damage to a small group of enemies. This makes Eladrin better for martial classes that’ll likely be in the thick of battle.
For the non-martials, Eladrin can also gain proficiency in a weapon of their choice following a long rest which can be useful if you want to use a weapon not associated with your class.
Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with an Eladrin based on how well the ability score increases and racial traits work with each class:
Artificer⭐⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bard ⭐⭐⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐⭐⭐
Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐
Warlock ⭐⭐⭐
Wizard ⭐⭐⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best Eladrin classes
Barbarian
Great option for Eladrin. Barbarians benefit a lot from being able to teleport into the thick of combat. Your spellcasting ability likely isn’t the best though so taking on your summer form is a good option for your Fey Step as it will deal straightforward damage rather than relying on your spell save DC for a saving throw like with Autumn or Winter. Only thing to consider is that some barbarians use their bonus action each turn for raging, though most subclasses don’t so choose wisely.
With typically poor wisdom, advantage on saves against charm is also helpful and proficiency in perception is useful for a barbarian.
Cleric
As a bit of a partial-martial, and with a high wisdom, Eladrin clerics can be great at getting into combat then teleporting out when the going gets too tough and leaving an enemy with the frightened conditions behind. Alternatively, use your high wisdom to jump into combat and charm a couple of enemies (or damage them) Clerics also don’t have proficiency in martial weapons so you can use one of these if you like too.
Druid
Similar to clerics really, get into combat and teleport out when things get too rough. Use your high wisdom to make sure enemies are charmed or frightened too. Fey Step isn’t a spell either so should be fine to use while in wildshape (but always check with your DM on these types of things).
Fighter
Fighters gain similar benefits from an eladrin’s racial features as a barbarian. They shift round the battlefield easily with their fey step, adding in damage and condition effects plus they get advantage against charm. Where they benefit a little more is because fighters don’t tend to use their bonus action for class feature every turn so can make better use out of fey step.
Paladin
As a melee-focused class, paladins also benefit from fey step getting them into battle quickly and with so many abilities to focus on. Paladins tend to have great charisma which you can use as your spellcasting ability making them more adept than most martials with the autumn and winter abilities.
Worst Eladrin classes
Eladrin are quite a versatile race with many good options and ways to use their abilities. I’d probably say that classes that already heavily use their bonus action will get much less out of fey step. This means it’s probably a poorer choice for monks. They also don’t benefit from a free weapon proficiency either.
Artificers and bards sit in a similar place as they have many uses for their bonus actions, but fey step remains more useful as an option to get out of combat quick (monks already have an option to disengage). In reality, you can still get a decent amount out of an Eladrin bard or artificer so the only really poor class is a monk for the Eladrin.
About the Eladrin
Appearance
In many respects, the Eladrin appear like other Elves, they are slim, with pointed ears and a beautiful countenance. However, the Eladrin are more clearly Fey related, having slimmer bodies, eyes that sparkle and an appearance connected to their emotions, which is displayed by having the appearance of a season:
Spring – Eladrin that are feeling great joy and playfulness will appear like Spring. They have green skin and hair, flowers bloom from their body and they exhibit an energetic exhuberance.
Summer – Associated with passionate and confrontational emotions, when Eladrin embody Summer, their hair and skin turns golden and their bodies radiate heat. Summer is often radiated when Eladrin are angry, vengeful, motivated or threatened.
Autumn – When embodying Autumn, Eldarin are peaceful and calm, having orange or red skin and hair. In this state, Eladrin are level-headed, cooperative and thoughtful.
Winter – Eladrin embody Winter when they feel sad or melancholy. They develop blue and white features, appearing almost frosty. Eladrin radiating Winter tend to feel glum, sorrowful or regretful.
Eladrin can alter their appearance to match a different season if they choose, though some choose to remain in the form of a single season for their entire lives.
Personality
Like many beings of the Feywild, Eladrin are carefree beings exuding a more relaxed personality than the disciplined High Elves, the savage Drow or the technological Astral Elves. The Eladrin are intelligent beings, but care less for the organisation and civilisation that other Elves institute, feeling a greater connection to the natural world around them. For this reason, they are more akin to Wood Elves than any others but with a greater amount of whimsy and and a naturally magical presence.
Names
Eladrin are Elves and as such, their names are derived from the same language. Like Elves, they use surnames and these are equally as beautiful and descriptive as you’d expect from Elven beings.
Male Eladrin names: Bentus, Galiess, Irahorn, Javan, Brannis, Xandan, Lieaf, Quarie, Wiefin
Female Eladrin names: Automn, Birel, Ulqis, Beneth, Vaxis, Quezane, Gruvara, Lia, Shava, Thia
Eladrin surnames: Galanodel (Moonwhisper), Meliamne (Oakenheel), Siannodel (Moonbrook), Amastacia (Starflower)
Roleplaying an Eladrin
When playing as an Eladrin, you’ll want to avoid some of the typical Elven stereotypes. Eladrin generally aren’t austere like High Elves, and while intelligent, are not necessarily predisposed towards scholarly pursuits. Most Eladrin are joyful, displaying unbridled emotions.
This emotional display is most apparent with their changing appearance. You’ll likely do little to hide your emotions and may even choose to change your appearance to match certain overriding emotions (though you may also want to consider how this affects your tactics as your season affects some of your abilities). Instead, you’ll likely dance with joy when happy and sulk or rant when annoyed or angry, displaying all manner of much stronger emotions when an emotional response arises.
