Something like this for elves could be used to offset the advantages that come from being closer to the supernatural world. Their actions (particularly harming humans or using supernatural powers) are not a natural part of creation, sending out a "disturbance" that can be felt by other supernatural beings. However, the angels are restricted in what they can do by their divine nature, with a ranking that indicates how close to the divine they are (with possibly the strictest restriction, the inability to lie at all, imposed on the Most Holy seraphim) and mechanical penalties if they break the rules. So how to put this into a game? One of my favourite settings is In Nomine, where you can indeed play a literal angel, or a human. This is one reason the hobbits tend to be the good ones - a hobbit is more likely to be greedy for cakes or proud of his carpentry skills that to want to conquer the world or create the most powerful magical item in history. Being closer to the divine, while still having human-like flaws (pride, greed, envy, etc.) is not a good position to be in. Tbh it's also corrupting in Middle Earth, but in a less obvious way, as elven might tends to be drawn to great deeds which often go very wrong indeed (e.g. in fact, most Warhammer elves have BIG problems since proximity to the supernatural is inherently corrupting in WH). Moorcock's Melniboneans or Warhammer's Dark Elves. Of course, it's easy to subvert this (e.g. Relegating elves to NPCs is also a bit unsatisfying (especially as it's heading towards Mary Sue or GMPC territory). This has, of course, advantages and disadvantages, but the advantages tend to be more immediate (better at magic, immunity to disease, generally prettier) so they don't translate well into game systems due to imbalance. This is much more how Tolkien envisions them. One thing that's rare to see in D&D-esque worlds is the Tolkienesque elves who are genuinely closer to the divine (or the magical, if you prefer) - halfway between human and angel.
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