Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

The half-elf appeared as a player character

Player character

A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...

 race in the original Player's Handbook

Player's Handbook

The Player's Handbook is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons . It does not contain the complete set of rules, but only those for use by players of the game...

(1978). The half-elf also appeared in the original Monster Manual

Monster Manual

The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It includes monsters derived from mythology, and folklore, as well as creatures created for D&D specifically...

(1977). The half-elves of the Dragonlance

Dragonlance

Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...

 setting were detailed in Dragonlance Adventures

Dragonlance Adventures

Dragonlance Adventures is a 128-page hardcover book for the Dragonlance campaign setting for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Contents:...

(1987).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

The half-elf appeared as a character race in the second edition Player's Handbook (1989). The high elf also appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989), and Monstrous Manual (1993). Options for the half-elf character race were presented in Player's Option: Skills & Powers

Player's Option: Skills & Powers

Player's Option: Skills & Powers is a supplemental sourcebook to the core rules of the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. This 192-page book was published by TSR, Inc. in 1995. The book was designed by Douglas Niles and Dale Donovan...

(1995). The planar half-elf for the Planescape

Planescape

Planescape is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by Zeb Cook. The Planescape setting was published in 1994...

 setting was detailed in The Planewalker's Handbook

The Planewalker's Handbook

The Planewalker's Handbook is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1996....

(1996). The half-breed aquatic elf for the Forgotten Realms

Forgotten Realms

The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...

 setting appeared in Sea of Fallen Stars (1999).

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition (2000-2007)

The half-elf appeared as a character race in the third edition Player's Handbook (2000), and Monster Manual (2000), and in the 3.5 revised Player's Handbook

Player's Handbook

The Player's Handbook is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons . It does not contain the complete set of rules, but only those for use by players of the game...

and Monster Manual (2003). The half-human elf was presented in the 3.5 revised Dungeon Master's Guide

Dungeon Master's Guide

The Dungeon Master's Guide is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons...

(2003). Half-elves, including half-aquatic elf and half-drow, were detailed for the Forgotten Realms setting in Races of Faerûn

Races of Faerûn

Races of Faerûn is an optional supplemental sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons.-Contents:...

(2003). The aquatic half-elf, the arctic half-elf, the desert half-elf, the fire half-elf, the jungle half-elf, and the half-elf paragon were detailed in Unearthed Arcana

Unearthed Arcana

Unearthed Arcana is the title shared by two hardback books published for different editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game...

(2004). The madborn half-elf of the Eberron

Eberron

Eberron is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, set in a period after a vast destructive war on the continent of Khorvaire...

 setting appeared in Five Nations (2005). The aquatic half-elf appeared again in Stormwrack

Stormwrack

Stormwrack is a supplemental source-book for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Contents:The book has detailed information and descriptions on various types of both realistic and fantastical watery environments, including underwater, the open ocean, ships, coral...

(2005). The deepwyrm half-drow appeared in Dragon Magic

Dragon Magic

Dragon Magic is an optional supplemental source book for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game.-Contents:...

(2006).

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)

The half-elf appeared as a character race in the fourth edition Player's Handbook (2008).

Description

Half-elves, as their name implies, are the offspring of humans

Human (Dungeons & Dragons)

Humans are a race available for player characters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although short-lived by comparison, humans are the most populous of all Dungeons & Dragons races. They are renowned for their diversity and ambition, and although they lack specializations like...

 and elves

Elf (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, elves are a fictional humanoid race that is one of the primary races available for play as player characters. Elves are renowned for their grace and mastery of magic and weapons such as the sword and bow...

. Unlike Elrond

Elrond

Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...

 and his twin brother Elros in J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

's legendarium

Legendarium

Legendary may refer to:*A hagiography, or study of the lives of saints and other religious figures**The South English Legendary, a Middle English legendary*A legend-Entertainment:*Legendary, an album by Kaysha*Legendary...

, half-elves do not have to "choose" between the human and elven worlds but are a subrace unto themselves, blending the features of human and elf. Half-elves look like elves to humans and like humans to elves (hence their elven description as "half-human"). They do well with elves, humans, gnomes

Gnome (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, gnomes are one of the core races available for play as player characters. Some speculate that they are closely related to dwarves; however, gnomes are more tolerant of other races and of magic, and are skilled with illusions...

, dwarves

Dwarf (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, dwarves are a humanoid race, one of the primary races available for play as player characters...

, and halfling

Halfling

Halfling is another name for J. R. R. Tolkien's Hobbit which can be a fictional race sometimes found in fantasy novels and games. In many settings, they are similar to humans except about half the size. Dungeons & Dragons began using the name halfling as an alternative to hobbit for legal reasons...

s, a social ease reflected in racial bonuses to the Diplomacy and Gather Information skills. In the case of conflicts between elves and humans, however, each side suspects a half-elf mediator of favoring the other. The drow despise them, referring to them as 'Mongrel half breeds'.

The main character of the initial Dragonlance

Dragonlance

Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...

series, Tanis Half-Elven, is a half-elf, as befits his name. In the Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

Eberron

Eberron

Eberron is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, set in a period after a vast destructive war on the continent of Khorvaire...

 campaign setting, half-elves consider themselves a separate people from humans and elves both and "breed true"; they bear the dragonmarks of Storm and Detection.

Half-Elves have curiosity and ambitions like humans but they have sense for magic and love for nature like their elven parents. Their skin is paler than human skin and they are taller and bigger than elves. Half-Elves have long ears like elves. They live about 180 years.

While creating a character in 3rd edition, a player can choose any class for half-elf. Half Elves, like humans, do not get attribute bonuses and decreases, so they don't have a favored class. Naturally, as elves, they have low-light vision, immunity against sleep effects and partial affinities for skills related to perception (elves have full skill affinities for same skills).

Like elves, a half-elf can become an Arcane Archer.