Drow as PC

[Li Shenron]

Are you playing or have you played a Drow as PC?

I am planning my future character, in case my current one get killed, and I had some good ideas for a Drow Rogue/Wizard, so I am going to ask our DM if he lets me play one.

In the MM the Drow CR is 1 (higher than playable races, which are 1/2), so I suppose that it might have ECL 1 or 2. But the CR definitely take into account the fact that the MM Drows are equipped with as many Poison Arrows as they want, which my PC is not going to have.

Still the Drow is very good, especially because of SR, but also Darkvision and few Spell-like abilities; on the other hand, Light Sensitivity will be a constant hamper throughout our campaign.

Apart the official ECL (I suppose it's in Savage Species?), how did you handle the Drow imbalance in your game? How many level do YOU think his race is equivalent to, by your experience?

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Savage Species and the DMG have them listed as +2.

From my own experience playing them and DMing them, I'd say that's about right. They lose out a little bit as spellcasters, but any kind of level adjustment or multiclassing is bad for spellcasters.

 

[Thresher]

Ive sort of got a feeling that theyre closer to being somewhere in between ECL1 and ECL2. One day I was thinking about either lowering the ECL to 1 and giving them a few less things or a minor boost and keep them at ECL2.
But, Ive got lots of other better things to do at the moment.

There is a forgotten realms Feat that will get rid of the sunlight thing but Im not sure I agree with it.
As for the poison arrows thing, once youre running around as a PC I think its more suited to just being able to coat your own arrows with poison and not cause yourself a mischeif with the toxin.

About my biggest gripe with the ECL system is that it dosnt really give a PC that much of an advantage and later on at higher levels it really kills you being 2 levels behind everyone else. Plus, being a drow theres plenty of people out there looking to do you in, played properly, NPC's and party members probably wont ever trust you as far as they can kick you.
Most of those ability's you can buy later on in the form of magic items and it would be nicer if they where somewhat 'unique' or supernatural rather than a magical effect or skill that can be easily duplicated in an item. I suspect that would be more work than anyone currently wants to take onboard.

 

[Fenes 2]

Kingdoms of Kalamar has a sort of Shadow Elves, iirc, who are ECL0. They could probably be used to play an ECL0-Drow.

 

[Li Shenron]

Thanks for comments. I would also like to know if you have played a Drow before, or seen one in your party. I think I will not play one if ECL is 2, and I still have doubts if our DM might agree to lower it to 1. Spell Resistance is very good, especially at higher levels (it's 11 + charater level!!), it starts giving approx 50% chance of avoiding spells effects, and it increases together with foe's caster level.

When compared to the standard Elf, IIRC it has the following differences:

+ 2 Intelligence
+ Spell Resistance
+ Spell-like Abilities (Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire, Darkness - each 1/day)
+ Darkvision 120ft
+ 2 Will saves (not sure if it stacks with +2 Will vs Enchantment)
+ Poison Arrows (NPC only)

- 2 Charisma
- no more bonus proficiencies in Bows and Swords
- no more Low-Light Vision
- Light Sensitivity (blinded 1st round, then -1 attacks, chec, saves)

It looks more powerful, but as a monster you will find them 99% of the time at night or underground and with poison arrows, which definitely increased the CR.

I think Light Sensitivity is a sensible drawback (like having a permanent Bane spell on yourself) because it applies in normal daylight, which is still about 50% of time in our campaign (actually, it's 90% of time, but I'm taking account of indoor scenes as NOT in daylight), but still I would definitely suffer it if I get SR in exchange.

Darkvision instead LLV is an improvement. In the case you are a Wizard, the Spell-Like abilities are a minor advantage, while losing the proficiencies is IMHO a very disadvantage: well, if you are NOT a Wizard, then can be very different.

I believe on the overall it's better than normal Elves, but really I would like to know if, by using ECL 2, people have found themselves worse than other PCs or not, like Korymir said.

 

[AEtherfyre]

You sure about that -2 to Charisma? I'm fairly sure it's +2, though I might be mistaken.

 

[hammymchamham]

You sure about that -2 to Charisma? I'm fairly sure it's +2, though I might be mistaken.

in FR the Drow have a +2 Charisma. But in the MM, male drow have a -2 CHA (or a +0 I can't remember exactly) and Female Drow have a +2 CHA.

I once play a Necromancer Drow who's best friend was a Half-Orc Barbarian. I was CN and was basically taking advantage of a dumb tough guy (My INT 20 his 8, My STR 10 his 20). But my charecter did geniuly like the Half-Orc. It was a situation where if you tried to take advantage of him, I'd stop it. And if someone threatened me, the Half-Orc would rage and either subdue you or make you run away.

As we metagamed talked about our charecters lives, my Drow was basically a sad story. He wanted to be good, but never really could. He was a shadow weave user. He basically wanted to use evil means to destroy/kill evil, and would eventually turn evil.

 

[Pirotess]

It is +2 CHA acording to the FRCS. I believe in the DMG it states that male drow are -2 CHA and females are +2 CHA. Don't have my books with me so I'm not 100% sure about that.

My current character is a drow ftr6/clr4/divine champion 5. She is a good aligned follower of Eilistraee (not sure if I spelled that right).

The 2 biggest benefits of the drow race are the 120' darkvision and the spell resistance. The downside is that you are going to be 2 levels behind the rest of the party due to the +2 level adjustment.

My first post

 

[hammymchamham]

My first post

Welcome to EN World

 

[Dr. Zoom]

Savage Species lists drow with +2 to Dex and Int, and -2 to Con and Cha. Level adjustment is +2.