Drow and level adjustment

[WarlockLord]

Do drow deserve their level adjustment? Should they even have one?

 

[Greylock]

I don't think so. But then, how about Aasimar, Whisper Gnomes etc etc? Outside of stat boosts, the SAs don't come into play much.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Um, the drow have a relatively major level of Spell Resistance. That alone is worth a +1.

 

[reanjr]

Even if it's only to keep Salvatore fans from always playing a Drow Ranger who uses scimitars.

 

[Odhanan]

Some LAs should be regressive as characters advance in level, IMO. The highest the average party level, the smallest the impact of a particular racial template on a character, the smaller its relative LA.

I agree +1 is about alright for low-mid levels as far as drow are concerned.

 

[CrimsonWineGlass]

I don't think that drow should have an LA. I personally tend to take of the spell resistance to offer a no LA variant to my players because when you get down to it, thats what gives the LA.

I don't have any trouble with Drizz't rip offs myself. The way I see it, if you decide to play a character that is almost identical to a legendary hero, enemies are going to go straight for you before taking care of the others. If you are going to copy a famous hero, you get his fans and his enemies. In case you were curious what stops my players from playing Drizz't rip offs is the enemies.

 

[Perun]

I voted +2. The stat bonuses (+2 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Cha) heavily outweigh stat penalties (-2 Con). They get the standard set of elven racial traits, some minor spell-like abilities, 120 ft. darkvision, and spell resistance (which is their biggest bonus, really). And all this is offset with light blindness. So, I stick with +2, but I also think LA buy-off rules (from Unearthed Arcana) should be used. Those extra abilities are signifficant at lower levels, but get less so as the character advances (note that even when the character gets rid of LAs, he's still lagging behind in XP; a LA +1 character can just barely hit level 20 at the same time as his companions).

Also, LA can be situational. For example, a drow wizard fully deserves his +2 LA (he gets his racial abilities, and his +2 Int is a dream-come-true for wizards), while it might be a bit too much for a drow melee fighter or barbarian (racial abilities are nice, but the Con penalty and loss of two points of BAB and two levels of hp seems to outweigh that; drow archers are a different story, though, especially underground (where they can make the best use of their superior darkvision)).

That being said, I think LAs of +3 or higher should be used exclusively with creatures that posess both racial HD and significant racial abilities. For example, LA +3 is (IMO) definitely too high for a svirfneblin.

Regards.

 

[Dalamar]

I voted +2, but that's mostly because there isn't a +1.5 option in DnD. Dropping the Spell Resistance makes them perfect +1 LA character options, and I would allow exchanging Light Blindness to the SLAs.

 

[Aaron L]

Actually, I think the primary prerequisite for playing a drow should be getting "fanboi" tattoed across your forehead.

 

[Land Outcast]

Actually, I think the primary prerequisite for playing a drow should be getting "fanboi" tattoed across your forehead.

ooooook... what happened? did a guy playing a drow paragon cut your left arm when you were small?