tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post7199312673690123061..comments2024-02-27T01:17:39.925-08:00Comments on The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms: Troll Questions: Demi-Human SoulsTalysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-27070248642408445072013-07-30T07:46:17.580-07:002013-07-30T07:46:17.580-07:00Nope. May have been a later attempt to nerf elves,...Nope. May have been a later attempt to nerf elves, but in OD&D, the Raise Dead spell reads: "This spell works with men, elves, and dwarves only." There's no mention of halflings, but also no mention of souls, and later editions allowed halflings to be raised while simultaneously banning elves, which is why I suspect the halfling exclusion was not, originally, deliberate.Talysmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-87936299418669727962013-07-29T19:37:06.439-07:002013-07-29T19:37:06.439-07:00Pretty sure this was a thing that got schlepped ov...Pretty sure this was a thing that got schlepped over from Middle-Earth with all the LotR setting baggage. Tolkien's elves don't die the same way humans do, so if they get killed, their ghosts just fly off across the sea and never come back. The groups I played with in the AD&D days were rife with that sort of weird cross-fictional canon.<br /><br />The other main theory I've heard recently is that it might be a half-assed attempt to nerf the "play an elf so you can cast haste and wish all you want without worrying about dying from old age" thing people were reportedly doing in 1e AD&D. I can't speak to that, as no one in any of my early groups ever thought of it.Big McStrongmusclehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07067031012393190130noreply@blogger.com