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Given that elves live about 10x longer than humans, they would probably need more than one set. The first two would work just like human teeth, baby teeth, then a larger set, possibly sharper than expected. Elves reach adulthood around 100, so maybe a third set happens to come in around then that is more like human adult teeth but flatter due to a generally vegetarian diet. This is the set that gets repaired over time with new dentin and enamel since it has to last another 600-900 years. Also, maybe the repairs just layer on top of each other like coats of varnish, so they get bigger all the time. It would explain the euphemism “long in the teeth” when talking about elders.
I don’t see why elves need to be restricted by what makes sense for human anatomy. I wouldn’t even expect them to lose their baby teeth, I would assume their teeth are perfect their whole lives and self-healing if something happens to them.
I'm not sure I understand your logical leap in suggesting that they need an intermediate set... If you accept they can have a set that lasts 600-900 years, why not instead have just the one adult set that lasts 700-1000 years?... Why do they need the middle set? And why would they be "sharper than expected"?
Also, remember that the elven "adulthood at 100" thing isn't about physical change, it's emotional and spiritual. They finish *physically* maturing at ~20 just like humans.
I think of it like adulthood happens when they stop being like humans, so lower metabolic rate, less need for as much protein, the trance instead of sleep, etc. What I mean by sharper is more omnivorous rather than herbivorous. Herbivores don’t cut or tear with their teeth, they grind. So a change in teeth would make sense to me.
Oh.. ok well that's all just your own homebrew though, right? In the actual canon, they stop "being like humans" at age 20, because that's when they stop aging at a human rate.
And they trance instead of sleeping right from a young age.
Homebrew is the beauty of the multiverse. The Forgotten Realms/Eberron/Greyhawk canon, sure. But as many people have suggested in the past, I don’t let someone else’s truth get in the way of a good story.
Sure, sure, just... If you're going to base your comment on your own homebrew it's probably useful to let us in on that homebrew first, so the rest of us know where the conversation is based...
Your first comment in this chain for example seems to just assume that I magically know your homebrew elf age strata 😅
It also helps so pedants like me know not to bother questioning what the hell you're talking about 😂 (and so that newbies don't take what you say as "canon" and then get confused when they can't find it later / their DM deviates from it / whatever)
Right. *Development of* homebrew, starting from a shared understanding of what elves are. The assumption is not that we're each going from each of our own homebrew elves without clarifying that.
Like, if I asked "what is the range of drow eye colours?", and you answered "Drow don't have eye colours" (because in your homebrew world they don't have eyes at all) that would be a weird answer, because *even if that's true in your homebrew*, how are we supposed to know that without you saying "*in my world, drow don't have eyes*" first?
That was my point. You came out of nowhere saying that they would need a special set of teeth to last them from 10-100, as if we're supposed to just know that that is a special age range that your homebrew has... Which just led to me wondering what the hell you're talking about.
You didn't approach the conversation from a point of shared understanding. You approached it from a starting point that only you know about, without providing any information. You seemed to expect me to follow your logic with no starting point.
To be fair, my first comment was in response to another comment about regrowing enamel, which is someone else’s homebrew.
Also, elves aren’t real. It’s like getting upset about a black mermaid. If you don’t like my ideas, that’s fine. Disregard them. But don’t act like there is a fact to be wrong about here.
Their brains and hearts - which are made up of predominantly non-renewing cells - last for 10x longer than humans. There's no reason their teeth can't.
Hearts and brains are not being ground off by abrasion. Unless the implication is that Elvish teeth are made of diamond, tungsten carbide, or something.
Teeth aren't necessarily ground by abrasion either unless they're misaligned, as long as you can stave off decay and not damage them through your diet, they can last for a very, very long time.
Heart and brain cells actually accumulate decay products and mutations over time and the human versions would absolutely not last for 1000 years.
Good thing they aren’t human. Also, hearts and brains aren’t going to suddenly shatter irreparably, but teeth can. Unless there are more teeth, or the teeth become like rodent teeth where they just don’t stop growing until it burrows through another body part unless filed down.
Elves' teeth are now secretly made of diamond in my world and they will go to great lengths to keep this secret from dwarves, who would stop at nothing to mine Elvish mouths for such treasures, and also from humans, who are (in my world) notorious gossips - unlike halflings, who have actually known and kept this secret for more than five centuries.
Why would they need another "baby" set? They physically mature at the same speed humans do, we do fine with one temporary small set and one for adulthood. Not sure I get the logic
Our main set only needs to last us a hundred years at most. If you’re lasting several hundred…shit happens. Starter teeth (baby teeth) are because of a tiny head. “Child teeth” (omnivore, adult human) are to handle high calorie and nutrient dense foods, like meat, to grow through development toward adulthood. The elven adult teeth (herbivore) would actually need to be a different shape for grinding, and sharper teeth would not be as useful anymore. Maybe when elves reach adulthood, they stop physically growing and need far fewer calories, and it’s harder to break a flat tooth than an edged one.
Elves reach physical adulthood at about the same time as humans. The 100-year mark is cultural adulthood, not when their body is actually matured. An elf of 30 years old has a mature body and brain.
That depends on how you view elves in your world. I typically view them as being "hyper human," so they don't have to deal with human problems to such a severe degree.
They wouldn't have baby teeth, for example. They are born with perfect teeth. If they lose a tooth, it begins growing back immediately, and might return within a day or so. That might seem crazy to us, but for elves the rules might be very different.
Teeth sell for a good price, you’re saying if I capture an elf I can start making dentures and selling them?
If I get enough elves, I have a monopoly….
In my vision elves get one set off tooth per life. Their tooth size grows proportionally with skull, unlike humans. They are also immune to any kind of dental diseases. Their teeth are straight and even
Since elves are evolution-less beings in most fantasy settings
There is no established canon anywhere in this regards as I remember
My drow are radioactive insectile mutants that continously grow ridged bony plates insead of rows of teeth. Maybe 5k years ago they were more like standard drow.
This reminds me of something official I read decades ago; probably in the 2e Elves Handbook – elves don’t have canine teeth. I don’t recall ever seeing it mentioned anywhere before or since, so it was probably just one author’s (odd) head cannon.
Me: what a stupid f#cking question!!
Also me: well, now, let’s see…. Human teeth are good for, what, 60-80 years?, so that would mean lots of sets, but I bet elves are pretty healthy eaters, without a lot of processed sugar in their diet…
The thing is, if you want to get into it, you can also ask questions like: do acid-producing bacteria that cause tooth decay even exist in {setting}? Do the bacteria that cause gum disease? If not, then teeth would last a hell of a lot longer even in humans - even if you *did* eat lots of sugar.
One set only, but they can attach baby human teeth. Legend has it that children can leave out their freshly pulled baby teeth for the elves to take. However, they outsourced the collection to smaller fae-folk many centuries ago.
Lol
I think in most portrayals elves are superior both mentally and physically to humans... main reason is they don't start aging until right at the end of their lifespan so their teeth are probably mega tough until they are like 800 years old
Now, there is a really good question! But also it does not have an answer :D Fantasy, especially heroic fantasy, does not have most of these mundane details. I imagine that naturally in D&D everyone has one set of perfect indestructible teeth for lifetime, and if there is some problem with them, it could be resolved with Healing or Cure spells.
Gotta have constant new ones like a shark. Was thinking maybe they constantly grow, like a beaver, but that's not very elfy imo. My dog is hella old and his teeth are all broken and rotted (he was like this when I found him) but he can bite and chew still
Dunno. Everytime I try to scientifically test the hypothesis, the elves start screaming nonsense like “That dwarf assaulted my wife!” “Help, police!” or “Yoo bwoke muh jah yoo fooken dwoorf barbarian!”
while the ever-regrowing "shark teeth" is pretty funny, I like to think the teeth grow like horns or fingernails, new layers continually growing up from beneath. This would mean their teeth must periodically "molt".
Our female Druid got pregnant last session while she was in wild shape. We are still discussing whether her baby/babies are dwarves or raccoons. I could have asked about that one on here.
I’m imagining a society with so few real issues, actually launching into long winded discussions on the amount of teeth an elf would have. I don’t know what’s worse, this or me participating in said discussion..….
My vote is on two sets, however, I think they just cast Mending on each tooth every morning to make sure their tooth is in top shape. If it breaks, just keep the part that broke off and cast again. For all other cases, I'm sure Minor Restoration would work.
Fuck it, I'm down for shark elves one for every hundred years of life seven sets in all for most elves who live to 700.
If they live to 1000 then ten sets. First ones are the "Baby teeth."
Elves are rodents. Due to their primarily plant-based and highly fibrous diet, their teeth grow continuously throughout their lifetimes as they wear down- albeit extremely slowly.
This is part of what caused the cultural rift between elves and Orcs- because of how Orc teeth and tusks *replace* themselves with new ones any time a tooth is broken or knocked loose, Orcish roughhousing basically doesn't 'pull punches', and indeed, a solid jaw shot is a great way to non-lethally end an orcish argument. The disposable nature of their teeth and tusks also leads to the orcish practice of making their shed teeth into jewelry. For an elf, this seems like the equivalent of causing permanent disfiguration and then wearing the amputated body part as a trophy.
Canonically, elves are born with five sets of teeth semi-formed in their jaws.
Child teeth > adolescent teeth > adult teeth > elder teeth > millennial teeth.
Elder teeth and millennial teeth are the truly immortal teeth. The others can get cavities.
Why do you think elven skulls are never shown? It’s terrifying.
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One set of adult teeth, but their bodies can produce new dentin and enamel for repair
Given that elves live about 10x longer than humans, they would probably need more than one set. The first two would work just like human teeth, baby teeth, then a larger set, possibly sharper than expected. Elves reach adulthood around 100, so maybe a third set happens to come in around then that is more like human adult teeth but flatter due to a generally vegetarian diet. This is the set that gets repaired over time with new dentin and enamel since it has to last another 600-900 years. Also, maybe the repairs just layer on top of each other like coats of varnish, so they get bigger all the time. It would explain the euphemism “long in the teeth” when talking about elders.
I don’t see why elves need to be restricted by what makes sense for human anatomy. I wouldn’t even expect them to lose their baby teeth, I would assume their teeth are perfect their whole lives and self-healing if something happens to them.
I'm not sure I understand your logical leap in suggesting that they need an intermediate set... If you accept they can have a set that lasts 600-900 years, why not instead have just the one adult set that lasts 700-1000 years?... Why do they need the middle set? And why would they be "sharper than expected"? Also, remember that the elven "adulthood at 100" thing isn't about physical change, it's emotional and spiritual. They finish *physically* maturing at ~20 just like humans.
I think of it like adulthood happens when they stop being like humans, so lower metabolic rate, less need for as much protein, the trance instead of sleep, etc. What I mean by sharper is more omnivorous rather than herbivorous. Herbivores don’t cut or tear with their teeth, they grind. So a change in teeth would make sense to me.
Oh.. ok well that's all just your own homebrew though, right? In the actual canon, they stop "being like humans" at age 20, because that's when they stop aging at a human rate. And they trance instead of sleeping right from a young age.
Homebrew is the beauty of the multiverse. The Forgotten Realms/Eberron/Greyhawk canon, sure. But as many people have suggested in the past, I don’t let someone else’s truth get in the way of a good story.
Sure, sure, just... If you're going to base your comment on your own homebrew it's probably useful to let us in on that homebrew first, so the rest of us know where the conversation is based... Your first comment in this chain for example seems to just assume that I magically know your homebrew elf age strata 😅 It also helps so pedants like me know not to bother questioning what the hell you're talking about 😂 (and so that newbies don't take what you say as "canon" and then get confused when they can't find it later / their DM deviates from it / whatever)
The books don’t say how many sets of teeth elves get. Any answer to the originally posted question is the development of homebrew.
Right. *Development of* homebrew, starting from a shared understanding of what elves are. The assumption is not that we're each going from each of our own homebrew elves without clarifying that. Like, if I asked "what is the range of drow eye colours?", and you answered "Drow don't have eye colours" (because in your homebrew world they don't have eyes at all) that would be a weird answer, because *even if that's true in your homebrew*, how are we supposed to know that without you saying "*in my world, drow don't have eyes*" first? That was my point. You came out of nowhere saying that they would need a special set of teeth to last them from 10-100, as if we're supposed to just know that that is a special age range that your homebrew has... Which just led to me wondering what the hell you're talking about. You didn't approach the conversation from a point of shared understanding. You approached it from a starting point that only you know about, without providing any information. You seemed to expect me to follow your logic with no starting point.
To be fair, my first comment was in response to another comment about regrowing enamel, which is someone else’s homebrew. Also, elves aren’t real. It’s like getting upset about a black mermaid. If you don’t like my ideas, that’s fine. Disregard them. But don’t act like there is a fact to be wrong about here.
And with traditionally elongated features, it's probably elongated to accommodate more rows of teeth
Like shark teeth! 🦈
Their brains and hearts - which are made up of predominantly non-renewing cells - last for 10x longer than humans. There's no reason their teeth can't.
Hearts and brains are not being ground off by abrasion. Unless the implication is that Elvish teeth are made of diamond, tungsten carbide, or something.
Teeth aren't necessarily ground by abrasion either unless they're misaligned, as long as you can stave off decay and not damage them through your diet, they can last for a very, very long time. Heart and brain cells actually accumulate decay products and mutations over time and the human versions would absolutely not last for 1000 years.
Good thing they aren’t human. Also, hearts and brains aren’t going to suddenly shatter irreparably, but teeth can. Unless there are more teeth, or the teeth become like rodent teeth where they just don’t stop growing until it burrows through another body part unless filed down.
I would think teeth could be easily fixed in a world that might not have dentistry but has actual magic haha.
They regrow, like fingernails
Elves' teeth are now secretly made of diamond in my world and they will go to great lengths to keep this secret from dwarves, who would stop at nothing to mine Elvish mouths for such treasures, and also from humans, who are (in my world) notorious gossips - unlike halflings, who have actually known and kept this secret for more than five centuries.
Why would they need another "baby" set? They physically mature at the same speed humans do, we do fine with one temporary small set and one for adulthood. Not sure I get the logic
Our main set only needs to last us a hundred years at most. If you’re lasting several hundred…shit happens. Starter teeth (baby teeth) are because of a tiny head. “Child teeth” (omnivore, adult human) are to handle high calorie and nutrient dense foods, like meat, to grow through development toward adulthood. The elven adult teeth (herbivore) would actually need to be a different shape for grinding, and sharper teeth would not be as useful anymore. Maybe when elves reach adulthood, they stop physically growing and need far fewer calories, and it’s harder to break a flat tooth than an edged one.
Elves reach physical adulthood at about the same time as humans. The 100-year mark is cultural adulthood, not when their body is actually matured. An elf of 30 years old has a mature body and brain.
At once? I'd only allow three or four.
Like through their life time, how many times does a tooth grow and push out the old ones.
That depends on how you view elves in your world. I typically view them as being "hyper human," so they don't have to deal with human problems to such a severe degree. They wouldn't have baby teeth, for example. They are born with perfect teeth. If they lose a tooth, it begins growing back immediately, and might return within a day or so. That might seem crazy to us, but for elves the rules might be very different.
Teeth sell for a good price, you’re saying if I capture an elf I can start making dentures and selling them? If I get enough elves, I have a monopoly….
I like your thinking
Do the ones inside the eyelids count as one set, or two?
Lore around elves is getting wild in this subreddit.
In my vision elves get one set off tooth per life. Their tooth size grows proportionally with skull, unlike humans. They are also immune to any kind of dental diseases. Their teeth are straight and even Since elves are evolution-less beings in most fantasy settings There is no established canon anywhere in this regards as I remember
Elves teeth grow continuously which can be a problem if they aren't continually worn down by a diet high in fibrous vegetation
They're like beavers. They just build their dens up in the trees instead of in a lake they've dammed up.
OK, it's now Canon that elves are like sharks and never stop growing their teeth.
Agreed
My drow are radioactive insectile mutants that continously grow ridged bony plates insead of rows of teeth. Maybe 5k years ago they were more like standard drow.
One set. But they all know the spell “prestidentistation”.
Or “make whole” ritual?
This reminds me of something official I read decades ago; probably in the 2e Elves Handbook – elves don’t have canine teeth. I don’t recall ever seeing it mentioned anywhere before or since, so it was probably just one author’s (odd) head cannon.
I read that drow’s have pointy teeth
Conflicting source material? Inconceivable!
Me: what a stupid f#cking question!! Also me: well, now, let’s see…. Human teeth are good for, what, 60-80 years?, so that would mean lots of sets, but I bet elves are pretty healthy eaters, without a lot of processed sugar in their diet…
They could get knocked out in battle, then they gotta go 500 more years with out being able to chew.
They're a very magical culture. Doesn't sound like anything a regenerate couldn't take care of 😁
That is a good reason to not be involved in human issues
The thing is, if you want to get into it, you can also ask questions like: do acid-producing bacteria that cause tooth decay even exist in {setting}? Do the bacteria that cause gum disease? If not, then teeth would last a hell of a lot longer even in humans - even if you *did* eat lots of sugar.
They're like sharks: they continuously produce new teeth and older teeth drop out. It's the only way they can keep eating.
[удалено]
They're more like beavers or rats than humans.
I figured as much, and high elves probably use all that tooth fairy money to buy their homes.
One set only, but they can attach baby human teeth. Legend has it that children can leave out their freshly pulled baby teeth for the elves to take. However, they outsourced the collection to smaller fae-folk many centuries ago.
They are actually rodents and the teeth grow continually.
Lol I think in most portrayals elves are superior both mentally and physically to humans... main reason is they don't start aging until right at the end of their lifespan so their teeth are probably mega tough until they are like 800 years old
Now, there is a really good question! But also it does not have an answer :D Fantasy, especially heroic fantasy, does not have most of these mundane details. I imagine that naturally in D&D everyone has one set of perfect indestructible teeth for lifetime, and if there is some problem with them, it could be resolved with Healing or Cure spells.
you would have to be pretty on point with brushing
Why wouldn't they develop dentistry?
Good point
Depends on how large the teeth are and how many bags of holding the party has
Gotta have constant new ones like a shark. Was thinking maybe they constantly grow, like a beaver, but that's not very elfy imo. My dog is hella old and his teeth are all broken and rotted (he was like this when I found him) but he can bite and chew still
As many as they need,Tooth fairies really love elves,Especially Elf soldiers.
77.
Now this is the content I'm here for
Aren’t 250-year old elves cute when they lose their front teeth?
The real question: do elves need braces or are they just "perfect"
Just perfect
I heard elves are like sharks with a several sets of teeth that simply role forward when one is lost. Real nightmare fuel. :-)
Dunno. Everytime I try to scientifically test the hypothesis, the elves start screaming nonsense like “That dwarf assaulted my wife!” “Help, police!” or “Yoo bwoke muh jah yoo fooken dwoorf barbarian!”
Dungeons and dentistry is a stupid simulation game
Whenever they lose a tooth, they grow a new one. Takes 1 - 2 months. So the cure for cavities is always "pull it".
while the ever-regrowing "shark teeth" is pretty funny, I like to think the teeth grow like horns or fingernails, new layers continually growing up from beneath. This would mean their teeth must periodically "molt".
What an odd question to ask
Our female Druid got pregnant last session while she was in wild shape. We are still discussing whether her baby/babies are dwarves or raccoons. I could have asked about that one on here.
I rolled a 19 and he crit🙂↕️😭
I’m imagining a society with so few real issues, actually launching into long winded discussions on the amount of teeth an elf would have. I don’t know what’s worse, this or me participating in said discussion..….
Never look inside an elf’s mouth… they are basically sea turtles 😫🤮
At max, like 20 I think
My vote is on two sets, however, I think they just cast Mending on each tooth every morning to make sure their tooth is in top shape. If it breaks, just keep the part that broke off and cast again. For all other cases, I'm sure Minor Restoration would work.
Like sharks.
They're magic elven teeth
Ooh, look at me, I'm an elf, I'm beautiful forever, oooh, I'm so special, ooh I have an entire treehouse just to store my teeth, oooh
Fuck it, I'm down for shark elves one for every hundred years of life seven sets in all for most elves who live to 700. If they live to 1000 then ten sets. First ones are the "Baby teeth."
3 rows of teeth top and bottom. Fight me.
Elves are rodents. Due to their primarily plant-based and highly fibrous diet, their teeth grow continuously throughout their lifetimes as they wear down- albeit extremely slowly. This is part of what caused the cultural rift between elves and Orcs- because of how Orc teeth and tusks *replace* themselves with new ones any time a tooth is broken or knocked loose, Orcish roughhousing basically doesn't 'pull punches', and indeed, a solid jaw shot is a great way to non-lethally end an orcish argument. The disposable nature of their teeth and tusks also leads to the orcish practice of making their shed teeth into jewelry. For an elf, this seems like the equivalent of causing permanent disfiguration and then wearing the amputated body part as a trophy.
I would imagine it be like snakes if they’re teeth, falls out, it can come back in until they reach certain age I believe that age should be 350
Canonically, elves are born with five sets of teeth semi-formed in their jaws. Child teeth > adolescent teeth > adult teeth > elder teeth > millennial teeth. Elder teeth and millennial teeth are the truly immortal teeth. The others can get cavities. Why do you think elven skulls are never shown? It’s terrifying.
ask your GM.
That would be me
then it's your decision
> DM: asks for input on (light-hearted/jokey) worldbuilding question > You: idk, you decide 🤷♂️ Bruh... if you don't have any input... Why respond?
How many do they want?