Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. Best character in the best fantasy series of my generation.

To me, this is TRUE optimization. Optimization is ALL about constraints. The more constraints, the more meaningful the optimization.

He gives off school guidance counselor vibes.

Kaladin does elongate the Sylspear when engaging in fighting in the air so a polearm / halberd would be totally acceptable and in alignment with his character concept.

"He doesn't use a shield when he fights" gave me flashbacks to the bridge runs

Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.

Soon Elven Accuracy will be renamed to just "Extreme Accuracy" Ya Heard it here first folks

Love the build. The core classes (warlock, fighter, sorcerer) all track with me, and agree warlock being the core feels right. The two tweaks I’d apply to it is the subclasses. pick divine soul as the sorcerer flavor (since Honor is divine, that tracks), and you get Cure Wounds to properly heal yourself (can just roleplay that you only use it on yourself). For warlock, I think taking Genie and air as the subchoice. That is exactly giving your pact with a wind spirit, and you get various wind spells and flight at level 6. You can still take pact of the blade and do that, just miss out on the hex blade bonuses, but for the flavor! I like the thought of going monk early instead. Also if you want to get your shard plate, take three levels of amorer artificer. And you can even make the first level of that class give you your stormlighr glow as the magical tinkering. Only other thing that came to mind was the UA Spear Master feat, which I know cause it’s UA not normally in your builds, but for this one, have to make the shout out of your Gm allows it, grab it for flavor.

- Music: let's rock!!! - D&D Optimized: *chill vibe* Love it!

Warlocks don’t get their subclass spells automatically, they just expand the spell list for them to choose from. Doesn’t seem like this build is too spell selection dependent though.

I'm with u, I'm not interested in telling another character's story, I wanna tell my own. That said I got no beef sampling vibes and themes to make my own. The exercise is fun tho. This was dope

I know I’m most of a year late to this, but I think the shield spell is excellent for Kaladin flavored as Syl turning into a shield until his turn when she turns back into his spear

Cool to see the recreation of other fictional characters in DnD! I personally spend time adapting characters from the Fate (Type-Moon) franchise so it's awesome to see your take on this type of character creation.

I think Mithril Plate is definitely a great equivalent for Shardplate; if you wanted to most closely represent Kaladin's journey you'd probably have to start with a couple of Fighter levels, and possibly the Healer feat, but Warlock does work as a first choice since it's heavily implied that Syl was with him long before he said his first Oath. Oath of Devotion Paladin would be appropriate for Dalinar, I think.

No way, i've just finished the oathbringer, and now i see this pop up in my feed. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Nice)

I totally respect you not wanting to do more "dnd cosplays" however I think a bard/artificer Kvothe would be so damn cool

I enjoy these. It’s fun because they can act as a starting template to play a similar char and I don’t imagine ever constraining myself fully to recreating a specific char. They just help showcase how versatile the system is and how to get results in it. Thanks!

As a big brando sando fan, this pleases me greatly

This is so unexpected but so perfect at the same time.

Currently playing with this build in a pbp campaign and having a ton of fun with it! Thanks for doing this!

I could totally see a eldritch knight fighter and graviturgy wizard multiclass, combining the elements of gravity manipulation (+fly spell) and the eldritch knight for recalling the weapon and adding in a bunch of attacks! Nice build Mr. Homelander :-)

Storm sorcerer for the 10' fly, 3 levels celestial warlock for 2 spells per short rest, spell selection, pact of the chain, the rest Psi Warrior for all the fighting and all sorts of other mechanics. Start as a non-variant human. Also condolences for being a Martin fan.

The Nahel bond! YAAAS entire campaign just changed gears folks

Finally caught up on stormlight archive, watched the video and agree the whole way through.

My god. I have just stumbled onto this channel and now I don't know how I lived without it! Instant subscribe from me. Keep up the awesome work!!!

I think the fact that your channel has grown in early stages as fast as it has is pretty impressive. Hopefully you continue to experience this and better growth!

I’m coming back after reading the way of kings for the first time on this recommendation, and I must thank you sir! Wonderful book and wonderful build to boot!!!

I found this channel through your bladesinger guide, and then I saw a thing on Kaladin and I've absolutely subscribed. LOVE Stormlight, and LOVE D&D so this seems like the channel for me!

Was so excited for this, took almost 10 minutes to even start the build

I LOVE BRANDON SANDERSON

I actually started reading the books because of this video! So far I've read about half of the first book, and it's pretty much the best vook I've ever read.

Oh my gosh I saw the title of the video and clicked so fast!! I love the Stormlight Archives! Szeth is my favorite character.

This looks like a fun build! I am pluggin away on the old episodes, while watching the new ones with relish. On a side note, my D4 merch came today so I will be reppin your channel at my D&D club at the school tomorrow. So excited! Some of my students are going to be so jealous! =)

This is slowly becoming my favourite channel

The shade from the dead is clearly Kaladin's demons of depression manifesting themselves into reality.... obviously! Also, small note, but Shallan cannot actually go or bring others into Shadesmar physically. She can peer into it and astrally project into it (which caused some confusion when she thought she entered it but didn't in both WoK and WoR), but she does not have the surge of Transportation. On that note, it might be good to talk to your DM about adding Reverse Gravity to the warlock spell list. It's certainly not more powerful than Force Cage, and it's more thematic. Great build!

“And then you get your butt action, which is our favorite action.” Best out of context quote 😂 great video! Cool build

Kaladin can actually lash people at a distance by throwing stormlight at them. He and Szeth have done so many times so featherfall at a distance works.

(NOTE: many comments here are big book SPOILERS through book 4, Rhythm of War) First of all I LOVE this build - awesome job making a character within D&D limitations but that stays true to the character! I have a few comments I collected throughout the video: --Raised spectre - I see this more like what Nale did to staple Szeth's soul on the body... maybe Kaladin saw this, and learned how to do it? --Contact other plane: the check puts you in the spiritual realm, but a failed check puts you in Odium's vision which tortures you/go insane :) --Investiture of the Wind: You also said windrunners don’t control the wind-Kaladin does though, when he sculpted wind around the fleeing human refugees, and in book 4, where controlling windspren is what creates the shardplate. You DON’T have to touch the person! --Etherealness-you could also have a certain type of party member that ‘helps’ you with this ability: a willshaper/elsecaller for transportation; a lightweaver for ‘seeing’ the plane (i.e. what happens in soulcasting); or Dalinar-type character in creating a perpendicularity FYI - Kaladin DOES get shard plate, and not just a progenitor. We see for the first time at the end of book 4 that windrunner shardplate is versatile, and can be put on others (this happens when he sculps it around Aiden, while still wearing it himself). Additional ideas: ----you could play with the concept of magic tattoos, allowing the slave brand to imbue a needed boost at some point --War domain cleric is a cool possibility, true to the concept and less to mechanics of windrunners: proficiency with heavy armor, radiant damage like a shard blade, shield of faith is like using plate to protect others, spiritual weapon is like throwing syl, crusader's mantle is like recruiting windrunners/boltering squires, spirit guardians are windspren. --I am super curious about if a swarmkeeper ranger could fit with a windrunner, since this is the character I’m making. How would it fit in this build? And would it be more underpowered because of it? Taking 3 levels to get the gathered swarm could be like kaladin sculpting wind spren to guide his strikes, lash enemies away, or to lash himself back. --Lastly, to get more visibility on this for possible feedback, you can share it with the 17th shard discord, or Brandon’s subreddit - may help if you give a sparknotes version though

I'd LOVE to see a Mistborn build. It just seems like it would be a difficult one to translate to 5e rules.

"Sorcerers only get two cantrips." Actually, they're the only full caster to start with *four* cantrips. Meant to emulate the while "Master of Magic" aspect and what not. Also, if you were to include Unearthed Arcana in your builds, the Spear Mastery feat kinda feels perfect as an addition to optimize everything even further if you have the room for it. Very interesting build either way! :)

Going to save this for another time. Loved the way Sanderson finished The Wheel of Time, and thoroughly enjoyed The Reckoners Saga. I've been looking for a series to dive into.

Watched this video a long time ago and now that for some reason it showed up on my recommended, I tried to make my own version of Kaladin. I chose to start as a psi-warrior fighter mainly because of story reasons, and because I loved the idea of Protective Field working as... you know, *those* moments on the bridge runs, making the parshmen's arrows miss (also second wind is some self-regeneration, so flavor). After Fighter 4 I would go into Hexblade up to level 4, to get the Pact of the Blade and some Eldritch Invocations (mainly Fiendish Vigour). I'ld later go to Storm Sorcery to get that fly speed, wich is on point, and then I'll go back to Fighter up to lvl20. It ended up being a lot more of a martial-centered class, wich I actually think is really similar to what Kaladin is as a Windrunner; he has magic, of course, but he usually relies a lot more on his fighting skill and uses both his surges more as a tool for his martial techniques than on their own (I mean, there's a couple of lashes Kaladin almost doesn't use at all until book 4). So yeah; I really liked this. Thanks for the inspiration!

Yayyy I was right on my guess. I think I would do whatever it takes to have find familiar for Syl because I love her so much.

Well damn! This was good timing, literally been trying to make a Kaladin from your lockadin bard! looking forward to seeing what you've done differently :D

Ah! I hope you read this far. If you do Colby, I have a build request. in recent campaigns in my group party members have been killed/dropped by things like massive crits, failed saves at the worst time, and range characters getting stuck in melee. Also, downed healers have led to TPKs. For my next character, I want a survivor, party saver kind of build. A Tank/buff/savior. I'd also like to be able to be offensive as well, but that is secondary. So far I've been messing around with a lucky, oath of devotion paladin / divine soul sorcerer build. But, I'd love to see your take on the idea! BTW, this is my FIRST youtube comment. Love your channel and podcast, thanks in advance.

Here from the Avatar video 😊 huge fan of Sanderson. The shield spell can also be justified because Syl will change shape from a spear to a shield to block incoming attacks, like she does in the Szeth showdown.

I got to your videos while trying to build a character from a Manga, similiarly as you are doing in this video and I can relate to all the points you made in the beginning. I'd like to hear your opion on Escanor from 7 Deadly Sins one day. I was thinking a Hexblade because I totally see him as charisma based. Keep up the good work!

To respond to your final thoughts about making builds of existing fictional characters... I agree with your overall sentiment, pretty much entirely. But that last bit, where you said its great for making your own character that is just similar to that one. and thats why i think you should keep this stuff up

Great video! I have no idea what this book series is or the world it's in, but like you said at the end, the concept of creating a character that 'could' be in a certain world seems a great route for inspiration. The first world that springs to mind now since you ended on monks would be Avatar the last airbender or Korra's world. But creating a white-walker style necromancer could be sweet to for example!

I agree with the notes you give in the final thoughts, that I prefer original characters that are made for the setting and system. Even so, I have to applaud how well you recreated Kaladin, especially with the strict limits you set on matching the concept and the huge lack of gravity-affecting spells in 5e. And even though I prefer characters made for the system, I'm not above taking inspiration from fiction. I've stolen about a dozen names from Mistborn, one of my current characters has several details in common with Kaladin (not deep ones, but very obvious and recognizable ones, and it wasn't on purpose), and this video inspired me to start making a character based on the Truthwatchers (partly because spells approximating their Surges are much more plentiful in 5e than Windrunner Surges, but also because it's my Radiant order and the power combo is cool, especially if you bring it to a table where no one expects an illusionist healer without hearing the words Trickery Cleric). P.S. Mage Armor doesn't say whether it's visible or not, just that there's a magical force. I think most people play it as invisible because they wanna wear cool clothes (I at least do so most times), but it could also work as Shardplate. It's not 1-to-1 but it preserves mobility and forms in seconds. The Armor of Shadows invocation would also allow it to be dismissed regularly without wasting spell slots. Or you could always have it on and just explain the AC with reflexes when not in combat. P.P.S. I love that such comfy energy can coexist with the kind of to-the-max optimization that happens on this channel. Optimizing is so often stereotyped as just cold calculations, and it can be that, but evidently it doesn't have to be.

Hey Colby really had fun with the episode! Sorry to hear at the end you felt constrained by the build idea. It's fun to know what fictional characters from books you like though, would be cool to see something similar every once in a while. Cheers buddy!

I'd like to see a Dalinar build one day.

Mage Armor for his armor option since he just wears clothes. How about Aasimar for race since it already gets light, can heal himself, and at 3rd can fly for 1 minute. I am cowering in my computer chair Colby. So Half Plate maybe? (Which does not involve a Strength requirement.) Possibly of a magical nature? What about Fighter for 1st level and maybe 2nd then going Storm Sorcerer the Whole Way? Or a 1 level Dip into Hexblade for the Charisma combat option?

This is perfect, I -just- begun looking at a build for a Kaladin character the other day. As for comments, good channels quickly reach a point where reading all the comments cuts into time required to create content, don't sweat it :P

I made a character loosely based on Kaladin that's an Air Genasi eldritch knight fighter, having levitation as a racial feat helped until I could get spells. That was a really fun character to play

I got chillies down my spin just from reading the title. I so pumped for this build.

This is great! The Stormlight Archive is my favorite series in YEARS. I've inadvertently created a Windrunner /Stormblessed build in one of my current campaigns. I rolled well for stats, so I wasn't going to take Hexblade and stay Conquest Paladin the whole way - but the story arc led so well into "adding a new oath" and aligning with a Patron of Storms. (Since she was already Conquest, we re-skinned the UA - The Undead into The Tempest, making it is Storm Form and adding stormlike spells in an extended list). As I said, since she rolled well for stats, I didn't go Hexblade, BUT I am going Pact of the Chain to have a powerful 'Spren' and ally sent by her patron. She had always played as a protector/tank/battlefield controller, using Fear and strength to lock down enemies. She also earned the "Sheild of Missle Attraction" to protect those in her aura, including her mount. My original concept would have her flying on a pegasus, but now it'll be with the Fly spell from the warlock list. Currently Level 9 Conquest Paladin and Level 2 Warlock Extended Spells for The Tempest Warlock subclass: Level 1: Fog Cloud and Zephyr Strike Level 2: Levitate Level 3: Thunder Step, Lightning Bolt etc

Great video Colby! I've been loving the channel since I found it; It has become my new favorite :) I really that you are recreating fictional characters, Kaladin is one of my favorites. Keep it up

YES!! Finally someone who will go into awesome detail about optimizing builds!!

just now watching this as i’m still on book 3 and love the build! definitely would be interested in seeing more builds based around a theme that are still effective

Saw that you made this and was immediately interested but I had not caught up yet. Jump to this morning, finished rhythm of war, and loved your build for him

I am currently doing doing Kaladin based/themed build as an Aarakocra (who looks human) way of mercy monk. Aarakocra gives the flight. Monk gives ki ("stormlight") as well as martial fighting that fits a windrunner (running on walls, unarmoured, speedy, etc). I just think how monks fight feels so windrunner especially if they get access to flight somehow. Way of mercy gives small self heals (stormlight healing) or on others which is his surgeon past/combat medic (saving the bridgemen on bridge runs). Main thing missing is Syl as a summoned weapon I think. Have been thinking of taking 3 points of swarmkeeper ranger and theming that as windspren + syl and when using it for the extra attack damage it is syl turning into a spear etc. Other thought was 1 level of tempest cleric. With the storm god worshipped filling the role of Syl, and using shield of faith to replicate shard plate.

Could add the Healer feat since he's a surgeon ☺️

Discovered your channel about a week ago and subbed. Have seen most of your videos now and love the content. Keep up the good work man.

The only thing that would make theese better are written guides aswell. like a level by level advancement. Other than that i truly enjoy your content, !keep up the amazing work!

It's funny that I came across this build; I actually used a similar inspiration for a Paladin / Sorcerer. Devotion Oath with the shining blade when you activate it and divine soul for the RP and ability to heal yourself with investiture, and the sorcerer then has all the spell-like abilities like flight, gravity shenanigans, etc... of course. Now a cool idea I'd try next for Kaladin is what you mentioned at the end there - straight up Bladesinger - on numerous occasions, the ways they duel and fight in Stormlight is described as a beautiful dance of forms and nuanced katas, which I think thematically fits the way a Bladesinger fights perfectly - you can reflavor Shadow Blade spell to be the SylBlade summoned, familiar is obvious, graviturgy spells and just the huge selection of wizard spells in general will go the rest of the way towards simulating his spell-likes.

I had a half orc barbarian who found Winged Boots. He was a true wind runner. A true warrior for good....he died and I still miss him!

Question. Have you considered making a mini homebrew class build/ spotlight series featuring a high rated hombrew that you feel is fairly balanced? Kinda like a reprive of seeing the same clases over and over with a short build at the end. It can also be a podcast thing so less production time is required for it. And can be a small brain storming exercise. Id recommend the newest version of the stormlight and Soulbinder (V3) homebrew in the unearthed arcana subreddit.

heya dude, just popping in to say I love your channel, only discovered it this week. really cool vids!

I love this thank you my favorite character of all time

Hey Homelander, I recently had a thought after seeing thr Fathomless Warlock that it would be cool to see a build based around martial combat underwater. Would love to see your take on it if possible.

20:53 Sorcerers actually get 4 cantrips at first level

Just listening to what the character has to be able to do, I think you'd enjoy 5e Spheres of Power/Might.

Love the video (as usual) - I’m a huge fan of the Stormlight Archives and Kaladin actually made me more interested in spears. One nit - if you multi-class into Fighter rather than starting as Fighter, you do not get proficiency in heavy armor, so no plate (you just get medium armor proficiency).

Few mechanical issues. 1) Warlock are not ritual casters so they need to use a spell slot for contact other plane. 2) Multiclassed fighters don't get heavy armor prof. Still a great build and glad yo see him in your build ranks.

Read the books, love them. Kaladin, is a bamf, and what you've built is so awesomely close. Great job man.

I'm new to the channel and I've been waiting for someone to build Kaladin since I've known about him!

I would love dnd builds based on all of the different Raduance orders. Heck I'd love a way to do this in BG3

Started the video, paused right when you said these books were as good as Patrick Rothfuss (my first character was a bard loosely base on Kvothe!). Picked up the first 2 of the series yesterday and will be back to watch once I know who this kaladin guy is! Thanks for the recommendation

Got this on the watch later till i make my way through the sanderson stuff. Love his writing! Excited for the mistborn character

Really like these theme type builds, if you are getting crazy how would you make a dnd mandolorian?! Battle master? Crossbow expert? Nets? Keep making stuff and Ill keep watching

I cosplayed Kaladin to FanX/SLC Comic Con earlier this year and met Brandon Sanderson! He signed my spear. It was magical.

Just ordered the first book from the library, will have to come back after I finished all 4 books haha

I am excited to read the latest in the series. Been too busy to start it yet.

Lightning Lure can look however you like according to Tasha's: Just as every performer lends their art a personal flair and every warrior asserts their fighting styles through the lens of their own training, so too can a spellcaster use magic to express their individuality. Regardless of what type of spellcaster you’re playing, you can customize the cosmetic effects of your character’s spells. Perhaps you wish the effects of your caster’s spells to appear in their favorite color, to suggest the training they received from a celestial mentor, or to exhibit their connection to a season of the year. The possibilities for how you might cosmetically customize your character’s spells are endless. However, such alterations can’t change the effects of a spell. They also can’t make one spell seem like another-you can’t, for example, make a magic missile look like a fireball.

I really like this build. Keep up with the great videos!!

I want to see a magi: adventures of Sinbad build, I wonder how you couod incorporate the baal transformation, my gut instinct is swords bard but who knows

First thing first. I love this episode, and it's clear that whoever Kaladin is he's a badass and Colby loves the source. That said, I believe that shield was mentioned as not counting for spells known along with the other hexblade expanded spell list. But please correct me if I'm wrong, but that list just adds the spells to your warlock spells list to be learned as per usual. Not so much like a cleric expanded spell list but more like the divine soul sorcerer gaining cleric spells to their sorcerer spell list.

Hey dude, I've really been enjoying your character builds and concepts so keep up the good work! Just a clarification, I am fairly certain your expanded spell list for Warlocks lets you "choose" those spells, and that they still count towards total spells known. Doesn't change much for this build, but if you like getting crunchy with the numbers like I do, it might factor in somewhere.

Re: ritual casting. Warlocks don't get ritual casting as a class feature (same as sorcerers, rangers, paladins and third-casters don't), so they cannot cast warlock spells as rituals without getting the Book of Secrets invication from the Pact of the Tome. Haven't read the books, but this style of combat seems a lot of fun to play.

Thank you very much for the development of the build and showing your build into the common realm of 5e I would think it would be quite interesting to have a few fantasy builds in a common world like Dungeons & Dragons 5e to do a One-Shot here and there of these Heroes working together in a common cause to solve some inter-planar dilemma or even one perhaps more mundane.. there are so many of them as possibilities going back to Fritz Leiber two more modern authors. Also of interest is having that common character span throughout his or her or.. life span. In fact shooting some aged here one of the Dragon magazines took for example Conan the Barbarian and showed his development through his life showing his youth being moderately strong but less intelligent less wise than developing into this stronger individual during his Prime and then later on when he was a king becoming more wise but its strength fading

I was thinking about how to make Kaladin in D&D myself a couple weeks ago. I was thinking monk/hexblade could work. Kaladin is not like a strength based spear fighter he always seemed more dex-y. Maybe with a late game tempest cleric dip for heavy armor prof to match gaining shardplate late in development of his character. Though that armor would make martial arts useless. Another thing i was considering was purple dragon knight for the leadership aspect and heavy armor with hexblade for the magical capabilities (fly, hold person to replicate sticking someone to the ground). As i'm writing this graviturgist wizard could be interesting for gravity manipulation, and eldritch knight for weapon summoning or psy warrior for more manipulation of other people. Both fighter subclasses would keep it from getting too MAD. Though that doesn't have the syl aspect to it, it could be an interesting build. If you do wizard and fighter, charisma would be lower so hexblade doesn't really help you. instead maybe do celestial or fey pact. Both fit for syl, she is quite fey like but also a fragment of a god so celestial works. celestial also lets you get the healing aspect of stormlight. In the end think psy warrior 7/ celestial warlock 3/graviturgist 10 would be interesting. warlock spells could be limited to support abilities or things that don't require saves so you can avoid needing a high charisma. Of course I also like the build offered in this video, this is just some other thoughts I had on an alternative. As for reasoning for hexblades curse, i could also see justifying it on the times he lashes his spear for extra power or does precise strikes in weak points in armor. Edit: some further thoughts. 3 levels of artificer Armorer instead of warlock could get you armor that acts more like shardplate. Or those 3 levels could go to graviturgist to get reverse gravity.

I hope Kaladin will finally find a girlfriend in tome 5 :D Also, he is physically very strong, and agile, and has awesome stamina. I think instead of Point Buy, You should just put apropriate scores for each ability. I remember around 9 years ago, when I got my first "Stormlight Archive" book, and almost no one of my friends (most of them being nerds, such as myself) knew who is Brandon Sanderson. That was very undermining, not being able to have anyone to discuss about this series... He finally got really popular here in Poland around 3 years ago, and suddenly everyone knows ;) And 6th level spell... Tenser's Transformation? Sometimes while fighting Kal was like entranced, that would fit.

I did a Kaladin Build one time: Fighter (battlemaster) 4/Monk (Kensai)/Warlock 6 (Djinni Genie) Mostly because he was a BA fighter before Syl ever showed up. Kensai/Monk let’s you use Dex for your Syl spear and Genie patron 6 gives you a limited fly speed Feats: Polearm master (obvi), defensive duelist, magic initiate booming blade, true strike; find familiar (for Syl) Invocations: armor of shadows, improved pct weapon, eldritch smite

My only problem with custom lineage counting for a race would be, if you wanted to be more than 1 race. I.E. if someone wanted to be a half Elf half halfling, because that just sounds way to strong

No way! I'm hyped

Awesome stuff! Love Kaladin. You need to read Steven Erickson though. We need a Anomander Rake build. Just level 20 will be fine.

58:58 I think all pikes just got offended I think if you were to follow Kaladin's progression through the books, rather than what works as a D&D character starting out in a way that the levels feel rewarding, he'd probably start off as a Fighter or Paladn anyway. When you first meet him in book 1 he's already a high ranked veteran who's been cast into slavery with a shattered world view. Depending on how willing you are to use magic items to emulate his powers, you could possibly stick with more martial levels with some boots of flying and a few other trinkets.

I enjoyed the build and would love to see more of these iconic fantasy characters crossed over into d&d although I wouldn't do optimized damage but rather the most true to the character... I agree with others I dont feel like this video makes me want to retell Kaladans story but rather make my own windrunner in d&d...

Half-Elf Race is best race. IMO they are on par with or better than custom lineage. C'mon, with the sword coast adventurer's guide's rules for swapping out half elf skills for racial features from elves like drow magic, high elf weapon proficiency, and wood elf speed, plus the tasha's change that means that the ability scores are not locked means that they get +2 to any score, and +1 two another two different scores. Really, a race that adds a total of +4 to ability scores, and has the shear flexibility of adding movement, magic, or weapons is clearly better than custom lineage in a lot of cases. Just wait until level four for elven accuracy.