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

[MarkB]

People always talk about goggles or sunglasses, but where are the Drow Battle Parasols?

Aside from being both fashionable and practical, a parasol can be angled to cast shade upon both you and an adjacent opponent. And with clever mechanical or magical enhancement, they can have all manner of defensive or utility capabilities built in.

 

[jasper]

You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
In Will Shatner voice. "Such. Extreme. Crippling. Effects. Must. Have. All. Benefits. Of. Race. Without. Any. Penalties. Or. DM. Is. Badwrongfun."
Just deception a barbarian to be one of your minions when you out on the open plains. Or just bring your DM a kitten and maybe he give you a special familiar.
Can you tell evil Jasper really hate it when people try to work around minor problems. But I do like WarEagle Orange 2 idea.

 

[Oofta]

If we allow drow to easily bypass sunlight sensitivity that counterbalances their other innate bonuses, what's next? Vampires that sparkle in the sunlight? Being a werewolf is just a cool power up? In my campaign, drow are not allowed and I'm not even sure they're real.

But if someone really wanted to play a drow without sunlight sensitivity then they'd be from a group that left the underdark long ago. They no longer suffer from sunlight sensitivity but have also lost their ties to the underdark. Choose the stats of a high elf or wood elf. After all you want to play a drow because they're different, right? Not because you want all the benefits without the penalties?

 

[Horwath]

If we allow drow to easily bypass sunlight sensitivity that counterbalances their other innate bonuses, what's next? Vampires that sparkle in the sunlight? Being a werewolf is just a cool power up? In my campaign, drow are not allowed and I'm not even sure they're real.

But if someone really wanted to play a drow without sunlight sensitivity then they'd be from a group that left the underdark long ago. They no longer suffer from sunlight sensitivity but have also lost their ties to the underdark. Choose the stats of a high elf or wood elf. After all you want to play a drow because they're different, right? Not because you want all the benefits without the penalties?

I belive that "half-feat" is enough of a tax if you want to play drow on surface without penalty.

Think that leveling from 1-4 is adaptation period.

There was Daylight adaptation feat in 3.0/3.5 also.

 

[Campbell]

Play a Shadar Kai and reskin it. I actually did this for the drow in the game I ran because I find Sunlight Sensitivity to lead to not very interesting narratives and to be a general pain to deal with for a fairly common antagonist.

 

[jayoungr]

I'm playing a modified/refluffed drow in a campaign right now. In exchange for skipping the sunlight sensitivity, I agreed to give up all the spells except for dancing lights.

 

[Weiley31]

In Rise of The Drow by AAW Games, there is an uncommon wonderous item called an Umbrasilk Cloak.

It costs an Attunement Slot and you can see up to 30 feet when the hood is up. However, it completely negates Sunlight Sensitivity

 

[Mr. Grifter]

The same arguments I see against Kobolds and Drow from wearing sunglasses are the same ones I'd probably see preventing Kenku from being able to write on a notepad, scroll, or spellbook. Yes, certain races have disadvantages, but straight-up banning races for having any sort of disadvantage isn't going to help matters much.

What's next? Ban almost all non-Aarakocra, due to how strong flight is in 5e? Ban all non-Tortles, because you decided to run a Sword Coast game, and their aptitude at sea leaves almost every other race at a comparable disadvantage? Ban all non-human races, since Variant Humans gives you a bonus feat at level 1? Do you see where I'm getting at?

Instead of outright banning/killing kobolds, drows, etc. for finding ways to overcome racial disadvantages, and/or telling them that "sunglasses don't exist" in a world where both stained glass and functional eyewear are a thing, find other ways to challenge the party, and/or make them earn the "anti-sun glasses" in some manner.

The player could need to forge the glasses themselves. Maybe they need to spend an infusion on them, if they're an Artificer. The glasses could be a bit on the expensive side, to a low-level party. If the player gets hit, there's a chance the glasses could get damaged and/or break, so the character will need several backups, or fall prey to their racial disadvantage once more. Instead of saying "you can't," instead say "you can't, unless you..." and give them a way to work towards what they want.

 

[Charlaquin]

If we allow drow to easily bypass sunlight sensitivity that counterbalances their other innate bonuses, what's next? Vampires that sparkle in the sunlight? Being a werewolf is just a cool power up?

In principle I agree with this, but in practice, what super powerful innate bonus is sunlight sensitivity canceling out for drow? Their innate spellcasting is on par with Tieflings’ Infernal Heritage. Their weapon proficiencies are useless to any class that wants to be using them. And the rest of their abilities are shared with the core elf race. The only thing I can see sunlight sensitivity really balancing out is superior Darkvision. And fair enough, that seems like a perfectly reasonable tradeoff. But by the same token, if a player wants to play a drow with regular old 60 ft. Darkvision and no sunlight sensitivity, that seems fine to me.

 

[Zardnaar]

In principle I agree with this, but in practice, what super powerful innate bonus is sunlight sensitivity canceling out for drow? Their innate spellcasting is on par with Tieflings’ Infernal Heritage. Their weapon proficiencies are useless to any class that wants to be using them. And the rest of their abilities are shared with the core elf race. The only thing I can see sunlight sensitivity really balancing out is superior Darkvision. And fair enough, that seems like a perfectly reasonable tradeoff. But by the same token, if a player wants to play a drow with regular old 60 ft. Darkvision and no sunlight sensitivity, that seems fine to me.

Superior darkvision is it I suppose.

I've seen it used very well by Drow.