What are Distinctive Features for in the game? I have no clue… Are they a way to help players to play in character? Distinctive Features have absolutely no mechanical effect and are therefore not much important. If I recall it correctly Distinctive Features were important in TOR and had an effect in the game. But I found no value in them.
Page 27,
Inspiration in Middle-earth:
In The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying, the Loremaster may grant inspiration to the players for the usual reasons — for example to reward them for playing their characters in a compelling way. In particular, this may happen when they play them according to the distinctive features provided by their chosen background. (emphasis added)
ELVISH SPIRIT p. 86
♦ If you meditate for at least 4 hours, you can reduce your exhaustion level by 1 and regain all lost hit points. You cannot use this virtue if you’ve had a long rest within the last 24 hours, or if you have 0 hit points. Once you use this virtue, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.
Ok… When can you meaningfully use this virtue? The elven characters will meditate with their fellow adventurers when they take a long rest. And most of the time every 16 to 18 hours the company will take a long rest. Therefore I don’t see any sense in this virtue except in some special cases when the company don’t have the chance to take a long rest.
And as I understand it the elf with this virtue can travel and use this virtue.
Or does that explicitly means that it is mostly useful on journeys where you normally can’t use long rests?
To better understand the benefit of Elvish Spirit, you need to fully understand the rule of Resting on page 22:
"Player-heroes can benefit from long rests exclusively in sheltered and safe refuges (i.e. not ‘on the road’). The safe havens of the Company (see page 18) certainly count as sheltered refuges, as well as any city or settlement where the Company is welcomed on friendly terms. At the Loremaster’s discretion, a deserted but well-sheltered place in the wilds could also be suitable for a long rest."
By default, Player-heroes cannot take long rests just anywhere. But an Elf with Elvish Spirit can, even though they can do so only once between every "true" long rest.
BARUK KHAZÂD! p. 83
♦ You can use a bonus action on your turn to force each hostile creature that can hear and see you within 30 feet of you to make a Charisma (Intimidation) check (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your choice of your Strength or Charisma modifier).
An Intimidation test? It has to be a Charisma Saving Throw, right? You use Intimidation to bully someone and not to resist the effect of fear.
So this is indeed how it is supposed to work, and it was a very specific design choice to create an asymmetry between Player-heroes and monsters.
Player-heroes resist Dread with Charisma saving throws, because Dread is not just "fear", it's also the anguish that comes with it (that is why Dread may or may not make you frightened, but it always gives you Shadow points). Therefore scary places, terrible events, or particularly terrifying monsters all call for a Charisma saving throw.
The vast majority of adversaries don't "resist Dread", as most of them have long since fallen to the power of the Shadow: they simply resist being intimidated by the Player-heroes (or other beings). In fact, there are only three effects available to Player-heroes that can make monsters frightened: one is
Baruk Khazad!, another is
Speech-craft, and the last one is exploiting the
Fear of Fire of certain adversaries. All of these effects call for a Charisma (Intimidation) check, sometimes contested (as for
Speech-craft), because it represents the Player-heroes imposing their strength of personality over the monster's, rather than causing them despair.
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.