Drow Druid

[shadowoflameth]

Interesting question that has come up in our new campaign. If a drow druid wants to overcome sunlight sensitivity. Will being in a wild shape form with different senses do it? I understand the limitations of being in wild shape but is it a good option in sunlight for a dark elf?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

It seems like sunlight sensitivity is a physical part of being a drow (as opposed to being, say, a curse on the drow), so it shouldn't carry through when wildshaped. The only downside is "You can stay in a beast shape for a number of hours equal to half your druid level (rounded down)." For most combat that is fine, but if you have any goals for noncombat daytime activities, it would a limitation.

 

[Kurotowa]

I think this is the key passage:

"You retain the benefit of any features from your class,race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so. However, you can't use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense."

If you lose the benefits of special senses like darkvision it would seem to follow that you lose the penalties of special senses like Sunlight Sensitivity. That's the ruling that I'd go with.

 

[Yaarel]

Interesting question that has come up in our new campaign. If a drow druid wants to overcome sunlight sensitivity. Will being in a wild shape form with different senses do it? I understand the limitations of being in wild shape but is it a good option in sunlight for a dark elf?

Actually, that seems like a great interpretation. Taking animal shape escapes vulnerability to sunlight. It makes sense of Norse traditions too, where the Dvergar turned to stone in sunlight, yet shapeshifted into animals that seem to function in sunlight.

 

[Immoralkickass]

I think this is the key passage:

"You retain the benefit of any features from your class,race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so. However, you can't use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense."

If you lose the benefits of special senses like darkvision it would seem to follow that you lose the penalties of special senses like Sunlight Sensitivity. That's the ruling that I'd go with.

Not only that. Sunlight Sensitivity could hardly be considered a 'benefit'.

 

[CydKnight]

I feel that, for Drow, sunlight sensitivity is more a product of the environment they live and thrive than simply a racial feature (or curse) because they are a drow. In my opinion it would be perfectly acceptable for Drow, who were actually born and raised, or perhaps even lived on the surface for an extended period of time, to have no sensitivity to sunlight at all.

This idea has previously been suggested by Tommaso Sammarco in The Dark Maiden beckons: on the drow goddess Eilistraee and her Faith(pgs. 6-7), "....the drow eyes can gradually adapt to the sunlight, and this process takes about 10 years to fully complete."

With respect to Wild Shape forms it is my interpretation that the intended shape transformation was chosen based on the way that it adapts with an environment or specific natural surroundings fitting in with the Druidic theme of nature. So I think it's perfectly acceptable that a drow would shed sunlight sensitivity when in a wild shape form that does not otherwise have this trait.

 

[77IM]

I'm going to buck the trend and say that a wild-shaped drow definitely absolutely retains their Sunlight Sensitivity.

I, uh, don't have a reason for this. In fact it seems like a terrible ruling. I'm just disagreeing so that we can have a debate because it's the internet.

 

[shadowoflameth]

good job.

 

[billd91]

Wildshape is also a pretty decent disguise for areas where the drow reputation would be a barrier.