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Drow "Sunlight Sensitivity" workarounds?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 6446995" data-attributes="member: 30022"><p>I'm in the camp of those who are suggesting that negating a major balancing feature of a race with a pair of cheap goggles is a significant DM choice. I wouldn't allow it at my table, because I suspect my other players would consider it unfair.</p><p></p><p>Here's what I'd personally do...</p><p></p><p>1) There is D&D precedent for a drow to adjust to surface life. We all know who that precedent is, bless his purple eyes and dual-scimitars. Hence, it doesn't make sense to just disallow it completely. The D&D lore says that a drow can overcome their sunlight sensitivity. However, the lore also says that it took Driz'zt a long time, and he lost some of his innate drow capabilities. If I recall correctly, he still had <em>faerie fire</em>, but he lost the usual <em>darkness</em>, <em>levitate</em>, etc, abilities of high level drow.</p><p></p><p>2) So, I'd use the downtime rules. 5e has already established you can learn a new language or tools proficiency with 250 accumulated days of downtime. I'd require the same for a drow character to overcome their sunlight aversion. As a balancing feature, however, I would also remove at least two of the drow's spell-like powers. As their connection to the Underdark fades, their <em>faerzvress</em> (Underdark radiation) infused powers also diminish. Just like Driz'zt.</p><p></p><p>3) There are several benefits of this approach. [a] It creates a long-term goal for the character. <strong> It uses an established and consistent 5e mechanism that everyone understands. [c] The character will start with the standard drow racial features and will, over time, slowly more towards the new state. [d] The DM controls the available amount of downtime, so can pace the transition according to their own schedule. [e] It's consistent with historical D&D lore. [f] It makes an attempt at game balance by removing some drow racial benefits, without just "turning the character into an elf".</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>For the record, I'm skeptical about the "goggles solution" for more reasons than just game balance. The goggles shown previously in this thread would certainly reduce light intake, but they're also going to mess with general sight in combat. They're going to badly hurt peripheral vision, they'll be easily broken (which would be nightmarish in melee), can come off in the heat of battle, etc. They might reduce the pain and discomfort of sunlight sensitivity, but I personally think they wouldn't do much for reducing disadvantage on attack rolls... except in calm, sniping situations from range. At best, I'd allow the goggles to remove disadvantage for ranged attack rolls only, when the wearer is not moving. If the wearer is moving, or in melee, the many disadvantages of wearing fragile medieval goggles should still provide disadvantage on attack rolls... or maybe even grant enemies advantage on <strong>their</strong> melee attacks rolls versus the wearer.</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lancelot, post: 6446995, member: 30022"] I'm in the camp of those who are suggesting that negating a major balancing feature of a race with a pair of cheap goggles is a significant DM choice. I wouldn't allow it at my table, because I suspect my other players would consider it unfair. Here's what I'd personally do... 1) There is D&D precedent for a drow to adjust to surface life. We all know who that precedent is, bless his purple eyes and dual-scimitars. Hence, it doesn't make sense to just disallow it completely. The D&D lore says that a drow can overcome their sunlight sensitivity. However, the lore also says that it took Driz'zt a long time, and he lost some of his innate drow capabilities. If I recall correctly, he still had [I]faerie fire[/I], but he lost the usual [I]darkness[/I], [I]levitate[/I], etc, abilities of high level drow. 2) So, I'd use the downtime rules. 5e has already established you can learn a new language or tools proficiency with 250 accumulated days of downtime. I'd require the same for a drow character to overcome their sunlight aversion. As a balancing feature, however, I would also remove at least two of the drow's spell-like powers. As their connection to the Underdark fades, their [I]faerzvress[/I] (Underdark radiation) infused powers also diminish. Just like Driz'zt. 3) There are several benefits of this approach. [a] It creates a long-term goal for the character. [b] It uses an established and consistent 5e mechanism that everyone understands. [c] The character will start with the standard drow racial features and will, over time, slowly more towards the new state. [d] The DM controls the available amount of downtime, so can pace the transition according to their own schedule. [e] It's consistent with historical D&D lore. [f] It makes an attempt at game balance by removing some drow racial benefits, without just "turning the character into an elf". For the record, I'm skeptical about the "goggles solution" for more reasons than just game balance. The goggles shown previously in this thread would certainly reduce light intake, but they're also going to mess with general sight in combat. They're going to badly hurt peripheral vision, they'll be easily broken (which would be nightmarish in melee), can come off in the heat of battle, etc. They might reduce the pain and discomfort of sunlight sensitivity, but I personally think they wouldn't do much for reducing disadvantage on attack rolls... except in calm, sniping situations from range. At best, I'd allow the goggles to remove disadvantage for ranged attack rolls only, when the wearer is not moving. If the wearer is moving, or in melee, the many disadvantages of wearing fragile medieval goggles should still provide disadvantage on attack rolls... or maybe even grant enemies advantage on [B]their[/B] melee attacks rolls versus the wearer.[/b] [/QUOTE]
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