Shattered Kingdoms

A delf-only city does nothing. Great, now all the [REDACTED] delves can hang out together and whine about how much they blow.

Delf-only equipment wouldn't really make sense RP-wise, wouldn't really address the problems of the race, and would be too hard to make sure every delf class was fairly addressed. Successful delves are already incredibly reliant on (enchanted) equipment as is.

I'm not really sure what the actual fix should be, but at the very least, delves should have the same CON and DEX as elves - this disparity is never really explained anywhere as to why it exists. That's only a two-point boon, but it's a start.

Keep in mind that in most rpg settings, deep-elves and elves do not mine mithril and adamantite. They get it from dorfs. Elves buy it, drow have their slaves mine it for them.
What elves/delves do is forge the metal into their awesome crafts making weapons and armor superior to that of dwarves and with less material, but of course that's nothing any dwarf would admit. After all, elf/delf armor looks [REDACTED] and any man without a beard should go wash dishes.

It would be nice to see some kind of bonus, if not in stats then another innate or apprentice level spell. I remember in the forgotten realms books the deep-elves used poisoned bolts in their crossbows.

It would be nice to be able to poison your weapons and it would somewhat negate the stat disadvantage when fighting other races.
Lets not forget that sprites are tougher than the deep-elves.

I think it says somewhere that living in caves and stuff has made them weaker physically, but it's compensated for by their int. Except that, eh, the int doesn't compensate for nearly enough...

Not sure what is worse, the fact I know you or the fact I know what you said there....

..That doesn't translate into "my love", does it? Because that's...well...unexpected. Wait a minute. Actually, no it's not. I really should have seen that coming.

I'm surprised nobody's made a joke about their skin color yet.

In my opinion, deep-elves have a great amount of roleplay potential. However, yes, the racial drawbacks keep most people from playing as one. Indeed the differences between elves and deep-elves are rather interesting, but I think that their environment could explain the lack of stat caps that the deep-elves get if you really want to get technical (i.e. living underground and such). Granted, that does not really excuse the "short end of the stick" they seem to be getting right now, though. Due to the fact that they are granted sneaking and faerie fire (one spell I find almost completely useless) does not make up for the lack of stats they are given. If you stack on top of that the weaknesses to positive or negative energy attacks, light attacks, iron weapons and so forth, it really starts to add up. I can't even venture into Sith'a'niel as a deep-elf, unless I polymorph into something acceptable, to go shopping for things I might want. That means I'd have to be able to use scrolls or the polymorph spell itself. There is just not enough incentive to play one right now. If you have someone with a holy word, energy drain, bolt of glory or vampiric touch spell at their finger tips, you might as well kiss your elven [REDACTED] goodbye.

That is just part of it for me, though. The main things about the two races that bug me the most at the moment are that elves and deep-elves are the two races that have the most peculiar stat caps. A deep-elves's intelligence maxes out at 24 and an elf's charisma at the same. Why, if I may be so bold as to ask, do these races have their main stats peak at 24 and not 25? Would it honestly be that overpowered or tip the balance so much? A giant barbarian can achieve maximum strength without much difficulty, a dwarven mercenary can achieve maximum constitution. Yet, a deep-elven sorceror cannot achieve maximum intelligence (let alone any other race) without the assistance of a unique cabal technique? Not to mention an elven bard cannot achieve maximum charisma at any point at all? Why is this? All other stats have a race that are bred for one specific stat. Sprites for dexterity, gnomes for wisdom. It just doen't make any sense to me to leave intelligence and charisma out of this.

I will admit there might be some reasons beyond my understanding for this, but it still bugs the hell out of me nonetheless. I will also admit I have come back from a fair sized break in Shattered Kingdoms and I constantly find things that have been changed. Some of the things I have listed might be different now, so I apologize ahead of time if I sound ignorant. If am correct though, that's what is wrong with elves and deep-elves and why you almost never see any in the game. At least in my opinion.

Faerie fire is hardly usless.

No offense, but how the heck do you figure that? Amongst all the spells in a caster's arsenal, I think faerie fire is pretty damn low on the totem pole. Perhaps if I had absolutely no other use for my mana at the point of casting, I might use it for the heck of it. However, unless you are utilizing it's affect of negating the use of hide and whatnot, I really don't see a use for it. Now, faerie fog on the other hand is actually quite a useful spell. That is probably a topic for another descussion, though.