(Maybe this belongs in Homebrew? Not sure!)
One of the characters in my 5e campaign is a drow wild sorceror.
The party has been doing a lot of (daytime) wilderness adventuring.
The player and I are both getting a bit bored of him always rolling everything with disadvantage.
So: here are some workarounds I've come up with.
1) High-Quality Smoked Glass Goggles. Fragile and finicky, but ideal.
Cost: as magnifying glass.
These goggles completely eliminate the wearer's light sensitivity trait while worn. Their fragility lives in the plot, not the rules. They probably block darkvision, but the wearer can just take them off for night uses.
2) Low-quality Smoked Glass Goggles: The Village Bottleblower's Version.
Cost: as glass bottle.
These goggles eliminate the disadvantage on attacks -- but not perception -- against foes within 30'. Outside of that range, the sunlight sensitivity is replaced with interference from the warped glass.
Drow are, of course, a magical and poison-loving people. Isn't there a biochemical solution here?
Yes. Good thing we just got that DMG excerpt!
3) A drow suffering any penalty from sight rot loses their daylight sensitivity (limiting darkvision to 30').
4) A drow may inhale the smoke of an incense composed mostly of the drug Malice and lose daylight sensitivity (limiting darkvision to 30') for 1hr, Con save DC 10.
5) A fantasy opiate drug could constrict the pupils; grant some temprary hit points, inflict 1 level of fatigue, and vision-wise provide the same effect as the above (con save DC 10 negates). Names for this substance might be Villein, Poppy's Milk, or Dragonsbreath?
And finally, there could straight up be some magic solution, like:
6) Potion of Clearsight, a common philtre which negates vision-based penalties for 1 hr.
My question: what can the enterprising DM do to encourage players away from the stable, sure-bet that are the fantasy sunglasses represented by option (1)?
I could rule it's beyond the skill of the local craftsmen, but telescopes exist and the player isn't being unreasonable; they're traveling to a large city with alchemists and astronomers next, so I can't delay forever.
I could come up with some sort of drawback -- suggestions? It's not enough that they look goofy in smoked shades, since the character is drow; they've already accepted visual prejudice as a thing. And I can't balance them with a wisdom(perception) penalty, since sunmmlight sensitivity already gives them that!
I want this to cost ongoing resources, at least until the player can obtain the sort of magical resources it'd take a character of another race to get darkvision
Help!
One of the characters in my 5e campaign is a drow wild sorceror.
The party has been doing a lot of (daytime) wilderness adventuring.
The player and I are both getting a bit bored of him always rolling everything with disadvantage.
So: here are some workarounds I've come up with.
1) High-Quality Smoked Glass Goggles. Fragile and finicky, but ideal.
Cost: as magnifying glass.
These goggles completely eliminate the wearer's light sensitivity trait while worn. Their fragility lives in the plot, not the rules. They probably block darkvision, but the wearer can just take them off for night uses.
2) Low-quality Smoked Glass Goggles: The Village Bottleblower's Version.
Cost: as glass bottle.
These goggles eliminate the disadvantage on attacks -- but not perception -- against foes within 30'. Outside of that range, the sunlight sensitivity is replaced with interference from the warped glass.
Drow are, of course, a magical and poison-loving people. Isn't there a biochemical solution here?
Yes. Good thing we just got that DMG excerpt!
3) A drow suffering any penalty from sight rot loses their daylight sensitivity (limiting darkvision to 30').
4) A drow may inhale the smoke of an incense composed mostly of the drug Malice and lose daylight sensitivity (limiting darkvision to 30') for 1hr, Con save DC 10.
5) A fantasy opiate drug could constrict the pupils; grant some temprary hit points, inflict 1 level of fatigue, and vision-wise provide the same effect as the above (con save DC 10 negates). Names for this substance might be Villein, Poppy's Milk, or Dragonsbreath?
And finally, there could straight up be some magic solution, like:
6) Potion of Clearsight, a common philtre which negates vision-based penalties for 1 hr.
My question: what can the enterprising DM do to encourage players away from the stable, sure-bet that are the fantasy sunglasses represented by option (1)?
I could rule it's beyond the skill of the local craftsmen, but telescopes exist and the player isn't being unreasonable; they're traveling to a large city with alchemists and astronomers next, so I can't delay forever.
I could come up with some sort of drawback -- suggestions? It's not enough that they look goofy in smoked shades, since the character is drow; they've already accepted visual prejudice as a thing. And I can't balance them with a wisdom(perception) penalty, since sunmmlight sensitivity already gives them that!
I want this to cost ongoing resources, at least until the player can obtain the sort of magical resources it'd take a character of another race to get darkvision
Help!
This is supposed to be a fun game about using your imagination, remember?
