Half-Drow Elf

[Ondo]

I want a half-drow half-surface elf race for Forgotten Realms. I want it to have a +1 Level Adjustment. Has anyone else done this? It seems like a fairly obvious idea.

Here's my first draft, as a Drow except as follows:

Spell-like abilities are used as a sorcerer of half the character's class level, minimum 1.
Darkvision 120 feet replaced by darkvision 60 feet and low-light vision.
No light blindness, but dazzled for 1 round by abrupt exposure to bright light (whenever a drow would be blinded).
Spell Resistance 1 + character level.
Weapon Proficiencies and Favored Class as whichever type of elf the character was raised with.

Does this seem balanced as a +1 level adjustment?

 

[clark411]

Spell Resistance 1 + character level is pretty useless in my opinion... if you're facing an NPC spell caster equal level to the party, that'll mean its one level higher than you.. there's no way it could fail the SR Check.

It seems to be a strong +1 ECL race.. due mostly to the stat bonuses it gets from the "as per drow" and the spell likes and darkvision. On par with an Aasimar, maybe a little better if the SR matters much.

 

[Technik4]

The drow's +2 ECL is from 2 things:

1) Spell-like abilities and good Stat Adjustments

2) Good Spell Resistance

Its somewhat mitigated by their Light Sensitivity, although they can take a feat which negates that penalty. If I were going to make a +1 ECL half-drow (because half-drow already exist, they are as half-elf but darker skin, and darkvision instead of low-light) I would nix all Spell Resistance and Spell-like abilities, the Light Sensitivity, and just keep the stat adjustments with the half-elf being the base template for the rest of abilities.

Technik

 

[Ondo]

The spell resistance is intended to be pretty useless, as it will only work against characters with a caster level lower than your level. Just looking for a little bit of drow flavor without much of the drow power. I'm not sure it's worthwhile. If it'd be balanced to have it stronger I'd do that, but right now I don't think it would be and I'm not sure I want to drop other things in order to increase it.

This isn't a half-elf, it is a full elf that is half drow.

 

[Technik4]

Then I would say "as regular elf" with drow stat adjustments and maybe on of the spell-like abilities. No spell resistance means less dice rolling (and apparantly 1+level doesnt add up to much, even against lower spellcasters (ex- lvl10 half-drow vs wiz5/ftr5 d20+5 has to beat an 11, needs 6 or better)) which is always good. And darkvision instead of low-light, no light sensitivity.

Technik

 

[Ondo]

Second draft, as first with these changes:

Drop the +2 Int and +2 Cha.
Drop the +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities.
Increase the spell resistance to 5 + character level.

My basic thinking is that I want this to feel like a drow, but weaker. I think the spell-likes and the spell resistance are the defining abilities of a drow, so I want the half-drow to have weaker versions of them.

This would be the half-drow half-moon elf (which I think I'll call a "dark silver elf", unless anyone can think of a better name). I'll probably allow half-drow mixed with a different surface elf subrace to use that subrace's stat modifiers instead of the +2 Dex -2 Con of the silver elf.

So, does this seem balanced? Would it be more balanced if I raised or lowered the spell resistance?

 

[Technik4]

9th level Dark Silver Elf = SR 14
10th level Spellcaster Enemy rolls 10+d20, needs a 4 or better (assuming the wizard hasn't invested in Spell Penetration or Greater Spell Penetration, or has increased caster levels, etc). So 15% base chance of spell failing, but probably more like 5%.

9th level Dark Silver Elf
5th level Spellcaster/5th level Warrior Enemy rolls 5+d20, needs a 9 or better to penetrate (again, assuming no Spell Penetration or bonus caster levels). So base 40% chance spell fails, but may be more like 30%.

I understand you are trying to give a little of the drow's abilities, but I'm not sure this level of SR is going to amount to much. Especially in battles where the enemies' levels are higher than the PCs, this SR is fairly useless.

If the only stat adjustments they get are as the base elf, and they don't really get any drow abilities besides the spell-likes, darkvision, and the good SR, I would say they are balanced on the high side of ECL +1. Keep in mind that when mixing with some of the elven sub-races, you may be allowing a pretty tough half-drow for ECL +1, but frankly the way ECL works it should be OK, especially towards the higher levels (when being 1 level behind makes less of a difference for the ECL character, but their abilities are easily duplicated through magic).

Also, its easier for people to critique things if you would stat them out entirely, at least once (as this causes people not to break out their books to discuss things with you, or if going by memory to make sure its 100% accurate).

Technik

 

[dunii_rgr]

When one elf makes love with the other elf, the offspring isn't a hybrid of the two parents. Moon and gold elf offspring is either moon or gold elf. Same with moon or dark elf offspring. It's either going to be moon or dark elf.

 

[Bean 2.0]

i have a friend with stats for a high-dark hybrid called the nivia or something like that i'll see if i can get the stats

 

[Tewligan]

When one elf makes love with the other elf, the offspring isn't a hybrid of the two parents. Moon and gold elf offspring is either moon or gold elf. Same with moon or dark elf offspring. It's either going to be moon or dark elf.

Tee hee. For some reason, the phrase "making love" strikes me as amusingly delicate when applied to fictional creatures. "Aaaw, baby, what we do ain't knockin' boots of elvenkind...it's makin' looove...