D&D 5E Drow "Sunlight Sensitivity" workarounds?

[steeldragons]

So the first solution to everything is "Be a jerk about it"? This is supposed to be a fun game about using your imagination, remember?

1) [and I know this goes against, basically a generation at this point] saying NO to players is not a four letter word for the DM. It is not "being a jerk" to expect the player to live with and by the decisions THEY MADE! Just because, yes absolutely, we are supposed to be playing a game and having fun, there is NO reason that game should not be supporting basic life skills, like taking responsibility for one's choices and dealing with adversity.

2) I do remember. Does the player? They used their "imagination" to make this character that they chose this race to be. The sunlight sensitivity wasn't some "gotcha." It's right there, in the text, on the race description page. The player knew exactly what they were getting when they chose that race. They do not, now/later get to whine about...and, more infuriating, expect the DM to produce something in the game world to "fix" it for them. It's not broken. The drow has sunlight sunsitivity. You chose a drow that was going to be running around in a world beneath a sun. "Wah wah. I have disadvantage too much. I don't feel kewlz n' special." That deserves a shrug from a DM. That, again, is not "being a jerk." That's being the adjudicator and referee. If you want to "be unnecessarily nice", I suppose one could say, "Do you want to make up and play a different character?"

But "not being unnecessarily nice" does not equal "being a jerk."

Seriously tho. Steampunky smoked glass goggles. Leather and glass, custom made, relatively inexpensive, a neat character hook, and the first thing a character with light sensitivity would be likely to do.

-The Gneech

If you have steampunkery styled stuff in your games, I suppose that is so. Thankfully. D&D makes no such presumptions.

 

[The_Gneech]

Babylonian technology could make goggles. So unless your D&D world is still in the spears-and-the-discovery-of-fire stage, there's no reason not to allow it beyond fuddy-duddiness. And coming up with a feasible in-game workaround IS dealing with a limitation, just as much as learning sign language would be for a deaf character.

-The Gneech

 

[Mercurius]

I didn't realize that Elton John was a drow.

 

[Mirtek]

So the first solution to everything is "Be a jerk about it"?

How is expecting a player to take the downsides of his chosen race if he wants to have the upsides of a his chosen race being a jerk?

And coming up with a feasible in-game workaround IS dealing with a limitation,

Except when the workaround comes down to "just ignore the penalty at no strings attached".

If the player insisted I would allow a magical ritual that removes the sensitivity but also permanently halves the darkvision. If its striking off 50gp for sunglasses and that's it, that's akin to simply striking the limitation fron the PHB.

 

[The_Gneech]

Requiring the player to take the downsides of a chosen race is not being a jerk. Saying that the player shouldn't be allowed to come up with a solution and that really that race should not be an option in the first place and all characters of that type should be killed on principle, that's what I'm objecting to.

PLAYER: "It'll take too long to walk to Waterdeep. I'm going to buy a horse."

DM AS SOME POSTERS WOULD ADVOCATE: "Ohhhh no. You CHOSE to have a walking speed of 30'. Now deal with the consequences, you whining baby!"

-The Gneech

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Seriously tho. Steampunky smoked glass goggles. Leather and glass, custom made, relatively inexpensive, a neat character hook, and the first thing a character with light sensitivity would be likely to do.

Jinkies!
[video=youtube;1xd3CGRQXlo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xd3CGRQXlo&sns=em[/video]

 

[Mark CMG]

(. . .) a magical ritual that removes the sensitivity but also permanently halves the darkvision. If its striking off 50gp for sunglasses and that's it, that's akin to simply striking the limitation fron the PHB.

Yeah. Being able to throw small change to remove the Drow's major drawback makes the drawback pointless. I'd offer the ritual solution, in-game, but have it effectively reincarnate or polymorph the Drow into a regular Elf. Maybe have it suggested by a sly, Elf Druid who is looking to rid the world of Drow, one at a time through conversion

 

[Magistus71]

How about a feat that the player can take at later levels? Didn't Drizzt over come his sunlight sensitivity?

 

[casterblaster]

If I had a drow player this would be my solution. How long has the drow be out of his natural environment? If his background dictates that he has been out in the world for a while I would rule that he/she has grown accustomed to sunlight and has adapted but the drawback is his dark vision isn't as effective anymore or completely non existent. But if the player states his character is fresh to the above world and he and the rest of the players are fine with the handicap then go with it. It's a defining trait of the race. How did drizzt deal with this? Was it ever addressed in the books?

 

[Zhaleskra]

Drow were magitek savvy in 2E. Granted, the items had to be returned to the Underdark every week or they'd decay, but they even made replacement limbs that functioned like automail from Full Metal Alchemist, way before I ever saw that anime.