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

[BigVanVader]

Just have the drow character kill the sun god. Problem solved, unless you go to another land or country where a different sun god is worshiped.

 

[Queer Venger]

And if the player comes with a halfing whose backstory includes being a body builder you let him add a racial Str bonues? Or a dwarf who is a sprinter gets his base speed increased to 30 feet?
We have the game designers racking their brains to come up with well balanced races that are equal to each other so that no one just steals the show and all players can enjoy the game equally without being inferior. A hefty penalty like sunligh sensitivity is there for a reason.
In how many situations would that ever come up to matter enough to be included?

And I get that, but my solution is to give disadvantage in some situations, not all. I agree that designers want to make things balanced, but not everything comes down to balance when interesting, creative ideas improve role play. Maybe Ive been fortunate that this has never been an issue at my table.

 

[77IM]

Or maybe your fighting inside the foyer of a mansion and then the enemies suddenly drop the curtains to ambush you in the dark.

Just saying that 99% of situations darkvision matters are situations the PC wouldn't be wearing the googles, so adding that as a "balacing factor" is moot

Yeah, because taking goggles on or off is too easy.

What if, when you put the goggles on, they negate darkvision immediately, but your eyes need an hour in sunlight to adjust before you lose the sunlight sensitivity. This makes going topside a risky proposition since your vision just sucks for the first hour.

You could also say the goggles strap on so it takes an action to put them on.

 

[TarionzCousin]

There was a post on ENWorld within the past year or two wherein a DM said that a warlock player in his game lost an eye. The only available replacement eye was from a fiend of some kind; so occasionally that character got glimpses of Hell or the Abyss or somewhere extra-freaky.

So that leads to my advice: rip out one of the PC's eyes and replace it with one that can see without penalty in sunlight.* He could have one eye closed at all times--alternating which eye, depending upon circumstances--to avoid penalties.




*This may not be the best advice, but I got here late.

 

[Joe Liker]

If he'd made a berserker barbarian who likes to frenzy every battle but doesn't want to deal with exhaustion, would you handwave that? The only "workaround" I think you should give as a DM would be to allow more of the party's adventures to happen indoors or at night. This is something the DM has full control over without house ruling anything.

When the player chose this race (and when the DM allowed him to), the consequences were very plainly spelled out. If one or both of you are not willing to live with those consequences, it's time to retire the character. I'm normally all about "say yes" as a DM, but not when there are very clear rules in place that directly oppose the thing the player is asking for.

The important issue here is, if there were an easy or mass-producible fix for Sunlight Sensitivity, you'd have tons more drow taking advantage of it, and they'd probably be committing a lot more above-ground invasions than they do. This is the real consequence of hand-waving the racial drawback.

Or, if you want drow to be able to roam freely in the daytime in your campaign, you can make them a non-subterranean subrace. But you also need to take away their innate spells and superior darkvision and basically make them into nothing more than a cosmetic option of one of the other subraces -- which, I suspect, is all the player really wanted in the first place.

 

[Sigbjorn_86]

Am I wrong sensitivity to sunlight less an eyesight thing, and more of a whole body sensitivity? I know at least in the Forgotten Realms, I remember the reading about sunlight literally hurting Drow skin.

 

[travathian]

Am I wrong sensitivity to sunlight less an eyesight thing, and more of a whole body sensitivity? I know at least in the Forgotten Realms, I remember the reading about sunlight literally hurting Drow skin.

I was thinking the same thing. I mean, I think the eyesight is a good part of it, but being expose to daylight (even through clouds or reflections) is just plain painful to the drow, and thus part of the reason they have disadvantaged checks.

Another thing for the goggle idea . . . if they exist in your campaign, why aren't there drow found all over the surface? It makes no sense. Any bonehead can make goggles, or a veil, or a helmet to help block out most of the sunlight, so it would be trivial for the drow race to mass manufacture such items.

 

[lkj]

snip . . .
So just to throw it out there, how about something like this-- Let's say there is a salve or an herbal concoction that can remove the light sensitivity for a few days. But as a consequence it suppresses inherent drow magic. This would mean either halving or removing darkvision and making the character unable to cast dancing lights, faerie fire or darkness. Or if that is too harsh, maybe it allows, with effort, to only cast one of those spells in a given day.

This way the player makes a choice to sacrifice his abilities. But because the elixer lasts several days, the effects will often go beyond a specific mission. It can't simply be turned on and off with the sunlight. It also adds some fun adventure hooks-- having to get the elixer or its ingredients (which will be relatively expensive and rare). I can also envision an adventure scenario where some villain adapts or spikes the elixer to cause other effects and slips it to the character (not to screw the character over so much as to drive a story perhaps or setup a hated villain).

Anyway, just curious what people think.

AD

Just to throw it back out there.

AD

 

[steeldragons]

Just to throw it back out there.

AD

I think this, moreso than "make some goggles", is a suitable alternative, if this is what you want to do. I, personally, would stipulate the ointment, in removing the sensitivity also negates the darkvision. Not, you get to have all of the upside of your race with no downside, which (aside from it making fluff/story sense) is obviously the purpose of having the limitation there in the first place. It is a balancing measure.

[and I swear to the gods, if one more person says "But Drizzt...", Thanksgiving or no, I will hunt you down and throttle you until you only see in darkvision. Drizzt is a character from some books. He is not a "drow". He is not "canon", except in the context of a FR world as portrayed in those books. He is not "how they are as a PC." He is one particular character from a book that some guy made up so they could have a "good drow"...because special snowflake.

The drow, originally, aren't even a Forgotten Realms creation, ffs! They're of Greyhawk origin. If you play in FR and want Drizzt-drow, that's nice. If you have drow who live above ground in your world, that's nice. Then they wouldn't be getting the extended darkvision or their "drow magic" anyway. So taking away the limitation doesn't matter then. And, as in all things D&D, do what thy wilt...for thine own table. But "because Drizzt..." is not a defense or reason for ANYthing with a drow character in your game...unless the person is actually playing Drizzt.]

At least this ointment solution gives a DM some "control" over the situation. How much ointment are they getting at once? How long does it last? Where/how does the PC get more? It has possibilities for story/plot and isn't just saying "you can do whatever you want without consequence."

Taking the only interesting/unique...and yes, limiting feature of the race out of the game is nothing more than player entitlement. All attempts to argue/explain that away are simple or deliberate deception. The player wants [and/or DM wants to give them] all of the bells and whistles without the limits. The [multiple] plusses without the [single] minus. It's really that simple.

They are "sick of disadvantage all the time"? Yes I imagine they would be. Did they know they were going to be adventuring with non-drow above ground for, presumably, a good chunk or at least "sections of" the campaign? I presume they did. Welcome to being a drow in the sunlit world. The OP has already said that the "next section" of the adventure will incorporate the drow (which, unless everyone's getting goggles for X-mas means they are going to be underground). Bully, so then your PC will shine a bit more than your non-drow companions.

'Til then, you're going to have disadvantage for those chunks of adventure that are happening above ground in the day time. If the other PC/players aren't agreeing to do stuff at night or on rainy days, then that's the issue to handle. Not "Mr./Ms. DM fix it for me." Take care of it in or out of character with those players/their characters! Not, well we'll just remove the limitation. Problem solved.

For some, it's fine and dandy. For others of us, that would just be...bad. I don't know how else to say it. It's clearly not "wrong" as there is no "wrong" in D&D. But it's...not the kind of game some of us would prefer to run or be in.

As an interesting [to me] aside, I bet the bulk of those saying "You're the DM, it's fine. The player wants it? What kind of monster are you? Of course you should fix it for him!" would be among the FIRST to cry foul at any other kind of DM fiat/handwaving decision that was NOT in the PCs' interests.

So, sure, give them a clay pot of ointment. Limit the number of days it works in a row. Limit the number of doses they have to work with. This is a [yet another] SPECIAL ABILITY you're giving them. Limit it as such. No darkvision for the time the ointment is functioning and do whatever you want in the daytime/sunlight.

No, you don't get to just be the same as a "normal elf". You're not the same...you're, by your own choice, not a "normal elf." You wanted to be drow..If you want to be the same, then this charcoal skin and white hair is obviously not necessary and we'll just remove all that drow magic stuff, since you apparently only want to be drow when its convenient.

Now get off my lawn. I have birds to baste. grumble grumble. dern kids n' their cockamamey, grumble grumble, in MY day, grumble...damned turkeys.

PS: HAPPY [U.S.A.] THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!!

 

[Quartz]

In Feist's Magician series, there's an episode where an evil elf (moredhel) shrugs off his evil nature. After spending time with the good elves, he discards his evil ways, comes up to the Elf Queen, and says, "I have returned." or similar. In game terms, this would be the PC becoming a normal surface elf over the course of several game sessions, losing all drow abilities and gaining normal elven ones.

More simply, a mischievous djinn or fey could overhear him bemoaning his fate and Wish him into a normal elf.