Elves

[Yamada]

Okay, a subject I'd really like cleared up.
  Can elves sleep if they choose to? Do elves need to meditate as often as a human sleeps and do they need to meditate for as long?

[ZeroVega]

I always played it as...

1. Under exreme exhaustion an elf could sleep, however, the sleep was unintentional and stemmed from loss of control during meditation.
2. I don't think they'd need to meditate as often, or for as long. That's sorta one of the big things about them from my perspective.

I think this is L's territory though. Seems like this is something that only he can define in his world.

ZV-

[Tanman]

From my understanding, they don't. They just meditate. And they just meditate the same amount of time. This is the reason why in NWN you don't see the ZZZ when your elf sleeps.

Also look at this page in LORE:

http://nwn.layonara.com/Elf

May help. There is a sleeplessness feat

[Reventage]

Elves can dream. This means that they can sleep in the sense most people understand sleeping. They do not need sleep though and can stay in top shape by simply spending a hour or two in meditation now and then, not necessarily daily.

For elves sleeping and thus dreaming would have more of a religious or philosophical meaning, dreams being used to reflect the real world.

That's my take on it anyway.

Also the removal of the ZzZ from elves on resting is actually a Layo tweak rather than a default NWN thing.

[orth]

Reventage - 11/13/2006  7:25 PM
Also the removal of the ZzZ from elves on resting is actually a Layo tweak rather than a default NWN thing.

Crowning Achievement.

[Reventage]

There can never be enough praises sung to the man who obliterated the Snoring Elves.

[Yamada]

Heh... is there any chance Ed or L can clear this up so I can end my little debate with Akata.
  Thanks.  

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

My two cents as PnP DM... (Which, I should note, holds no water on Layo.)

Elves don't sleep the way other humanoids do, and in fact cannot. They can enter a deep Trance, however, that is much like sleep, but... They're still just Trancing. They only need to Trance for four hours out of every day, but... While a human can go a week or more without sleep, and only pass out, an elf who goes without Trance for more than three days invariably dies.

[Eorendil]

And that same human that went a week+ without sleep will, almost invariably, go insane.  

[Medieve]

Also, via pnp, the "dreams" that elves have are mental excercises that are at this point (and really hundreds of years up to this point) automatically executed by an elf.

[Lord of the Forest]

I for myself dislike the 'elves dont need any sleep' thingie even if I play one of those. I know elves are no humans with pointy ears, but if you see it the biological they will need to sleep. Your brain needs some rest for the progress of learning.
I prefer seeing it this way: Elves are able to stay awake for like weeks if they don't get exhausted. I.e. if the elf has hard fights or so he will need some sleep sooner or later. So if the elf doesn't do any hard work during 7 days and did not get any sleep he will have catch up the sleep he missed afterwards. So if he stays awake for 5 days he will have to catch up the sleep from 5 night.
*shrugs slightly* Just my two cents.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Well, elves are inherently magical creatures... Their brains don't work like ours do. When in Trance, however, their brains rest in similar manners ours do, yet much more deeply, and they wake feeling more mentally refreshed. Physical refreshment is a matter of actual physical rest... The need for Trance is the same whether an elf has spent all day lounging about or all day in battle.

Of course, I should note that this may not be the official stance of the team, but merely my own personal houserules for the mythos in my campaigns.

[Lord of the Forest]

Yeah I know they are magical .. being magical every elf could be able to manipulate the magic surrounding him cause they are part of the magic as well. In other words all elves could cast spells even if fighter class?
Well dunno much about d&d elves so *shrugs slightly* just my 2 cents

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Not so much that they're able to manipulate magic around them... But that it makes up an integral part of their being, or at least their minds.

A very small bit of magic, rather than the stronger magic required to cast spells. *Shrugs.*

[EdTheKet]

Yamada - 11/14/2006  11:16 AM    Heh... is there any chance Ed or L can clear this up so I can end my little debate with Akata.
  Thanks.    
 
 

 The answer is the combination of ZeroVega's and Reventage's posts.

[Yamada]

ah, okay *smiles* many thanks for clearing that up.

[akata]

okay i thought that layo elf was just like normal D&d elfs (Quote from players handbook) "Elves do not sleep, as members of the other common races do. Instead, an elf meditates in a deep trance for 4 hours a day. an elf resting in this fashion gains the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. While meditating, an elf dreams, though these dreams are actually mental exercises that have become refelxive though years of pratice." so it was more the why wouldn't elfs need rest everyday? i dont really see that fitting with a - to con

[darkstorme]

Lord of the Forest - 11/14/2006  11:03 AM
I know elves are no humans with pointy ears, but if you see it the biological they will need to sleep. Your brain needs some rest for the progress of learning.  I prefer seeing it this way: Elves are able to stay awake for like weeks if they don't get exhausted.

I meant to post this earlier, but it either didn't go through or (as per my usual) I forgot to push the little "submit" button.  Regardless, the point I wished to make was that while humans need a period of unconsciousness, a close friend of ours in the mamallian intelligentsia (namely, cetaceans - dolphins and whales), do NOT need that same period.  Dolphins and whales, being "conscious breathers" cannot, in fact, sleep, or they'd die.  So they sleep with one side of their brain at a time.  I imagine this might cause a bit of a mental dichotomy in a character, which could easily explain the period of trance an elf has to endure.

That aside, we could also just wave our hands and say "magic", which we're allowed to do as well.  I just thought I'd point out that it's not, strictly speaking, a biological imperative.