Let's Read the Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Elf
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The Lore
Athasian elves are tall and long-legged, and their culture is almost entirely nomadic. Elven communities roam the deserts of Athas accompanied by swift beasts of burden and war, but none of those are mounts. An elf will only accept being carried by a beast if they’re too sick or wounded to stand. Otherwise, they prefer to run. And they’re very good at it.
Unlike some of the other nomads we saw so far, such as brohgs, elves have frequent interactions with Athasian settled peoples and city states. Their overall reputation is not very good. They’re known as itinerant traders who bring a lot of cool stuff to sell in the Elven Markets many towns have, but they’re also known as swindlers, thieves, raiders, and occasionally murderers. The cool stuff they sell you was probably stolen from someone else, according to rumor.
This sort of reputation has a number of unplasant parallels with real-world prejudices, so I find it off-putting that the book spends a lot of effort trying to convince me it’s true. Even the PCs have “desert raider” and “market thief” as their new custom background options.
I’d prefer to portray elves as having a lot of solidarity for each other and not a lot of sympathy for the outsiders who hate them so much. They drive hard bargains at the Market and skip town en masse if it looks like someone’s going to accuse one of them of a crime. The accusation is likely to be false most of the time, as I interpret it. Some individuals might resemble the negative stereotype, but then again that’s also true of city-dwellers, whose negative stereotype is “servant to a slaving despot” or “slaver”.
Elves who are found guilty of crimes in their own communities are cast out, and will often end up joining groups of actual raiders and bandits.
The Numbers
Despite their taller build elves remain Medium Fey Humanoids with a ground speed of 7. The stat blocks here don’t have low-light vision, though I think that’s still a feature of PC elves. They do all have Wild Step and Elven Accuracy, which work like their PC versions too.
The level range here is roughly comparable to that of standard elves from other books, so you can mix-and-match a bit. All of the stat blocks here are Unaligned.
Elf Peddler
A typical denizen of the Elven Markets. This could both represent a more or less honest trader who knows how to defend themselves, or a cutthroat who looks for particularly vulnerable customers to ambush after a sale. It’s a Level 2 Skirmisher with the Leader tag and 34 HP.
A typical peddler’s goal in a fight will be to live to fight another day, so they always hang around places with convenient escape routes and obstacles that might deter pursuers, such as twisty alleys or clustered stalls.
The peddler is armed with a bone longsword, which does standard damage for its level. It can use the Double Dealing maneuver at will: this lets it make a sword attack, shift half their speed, and then make another sword attack against a different target if they end the shift flanking that target.
As a minor action they can also use Peddler’s Command, which lets an ally within 20 squares move half their speed as a free action. If that ally is another elf, the move is instead a shift. This is useful to set up the flank for that second Double Dealing attack.
Elf Sniper
Another typical denizen of the markets, Snipers work security from shadowy corners and rooftop perches. If trouble starts, they help cover their allies’ retreat with their thrown weapons.
Snipers are Level 3 Minion Lurkers armed with Bone Daggers and a brace of 10 Chatkchas, which are three-pronged sharpened boomerangs. Both of these attacks deal a bit of extra damage if the sniper is hidden from the target when they start the attack.
As an at-will Move action, the sniper can use Elven Misdirection to move 2 squares and make a free Stealth check to become hidden if they end the movement with cover or concealment. This check has an automatic result of 25, which means they “take 15” on the roll.
In combat, they’ll try to pop out from cover, make a ranged attack, and hide again. If someone tries to get close to them they will run. Like the peddler, their goal in a “market fight” situation is to delay and distract pursuers enough for their allies to flee, and then flee themselves.
Elf Dune Strider
This nomadic warrior is used to running through the wastes. This stat block can represent a raider, or someone who’s just protecting their wandering band. It’s a Level 4 Skirmisher with 52 HP.
The Dune Strider can Move Like the Wind, gaining +5 to all defenses against opportunity attacks provoked by movement. They’re armed with a Bone Longsword that does extra damage on a charge, and a Obsidian Shortsword that’s slightly better for static attacks. The Rushing Dervish maneuver lets them move their Speed + 2 and make one attack with each sword against a different target during the movement. This recharges when they’re bloodied.
Striders acting as raiders will keep mobile and try to spread out their attacks in an attempt to intimidate their targets into giving up their possessions. They will flee if the fight turns against them. Their traits and abilities make it easy for them to bounce around the battlefield like pinballs, making charge attacks.
Elf Raid Leader
The sort of veteran commander you might find leading a larger raid against a settlement, either as revenge for mistreatment or as a plain old resource grab. It’s level 6 Artillery with the Leader tag.
The leader has a obsidian shortsword for emergencies, whose strikes let it shift 1 square on a hit. It will mostly fight with its Bone Bow, which is both more accurate and more damaging. It can fire Harrying Shots that do the same damage as a basic ranged attack, but also make the target grant combat advantage to adjacent allies of the leader for a turn.
Its leaderly action is a command to Focus on the Pain (minor action, recharge 6+) which deals 5 damage to an ally within 20 squares and allows that ally to immediately roll a save with a +2 bonus.
Raid leaders obviously lead from the back, providing ranged support to their skirmisher and lurker allies. It might be good to add a brute or soldier war beast to help protect them.
Encounters and Final Impressions
I’ve already mentioned my opinion about the elven stereotypes here: I don’t like them, and would probably change them a bit were I to run a campaign in this setting. They would be less true than depicted in the book, and depending on the tone I was going for might or might not be less prevalent in the setting.
The stat blocks are good, and can make for an extremely mobile encounter group when used together. As mentioned above, any brutes and soldiers who are part of an all-elven group will likely be trained war beasts instead of more elves.