So does every other environment on the earth. The only ones without big nasty wildlife are the ones where the environment itself is trying to kill you. Add in things like shapeshifters, mindscrew monsters and the myriad horrors of the Underdark and there are, literally, no safe places.zeruslord wrote:Forest anything as a universal trait is really dumb, because forests try to kill you.talisman wrote:I did read the entire thing. I was merely pointing out that "forest elf" works just as well as "plains elf." "Some elves do live in forests" and "Elves should really live in the desert and the plains" is considerably different from "Elves can live in the forest just fine."
Why do they use bows instead of bolas, boomerangs, spears, atl-atls or yo-yos? Because they do. Rapiers are basically scimitars that can be finessed; with their racial Dex bonus, it makes perfect sense that elves would invent them and use them.This is a decent rationalization for it, but it still doesn't explain how the tradition got started. The idea here was that we backed out of the D&D/Tolkien cultures and tried to figure out what they would definitely arrive at. Their arbitrary dueling weapon could just as easily be bare fists, knives, or greataxes.Talisman wrote:My take on this is that elves learn to use the rapier to fight each other. Bows are crappy to duel with, and elves typically eschew heavy armor. Rapiers are dueling weapons that elven nobles poke at each other with; when they have to fight dwarves, humans or monsters, they use longswords (their other racial proficiency).
Lets assume they started with knives. As civilization progresses, knives give way to big knives and then to swords (spears exist as well, but since swords and spears coexisted in the real world, this works). Elves, being high-Dex and average-Strength, would naturally favor weapons that could be finessed - weapons that played to their strengths. Elven smiths crafted thinner and lighter blades until the rapier was born.
This makes as much sense as spear-wielding dwarves.
zeruslord wrote:Using flying, fire-breathing lizards as an excuse for nonsensical humanoid cultures is for sissies!talisman wrote:Given that it's a fantasy world with flying, fire-breathing lizards in the first place, I'm not too worried about whether forest elves are logical or not. Forest-dwelling elves and axe-wielding dwarves may not have ever actually worked in the Real World, but they're fantasy archetypes and they're kinda cool.