bulletmeat
Adventurer
I love these pictures because they were my first exposure to the Drow, but now when i see this I just keep thinking of Dr. Phil.
D&D General Drow in early D&D
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
funny as it may seem now, back in the days of the Elfquest comic I was surprised to see Elfs with beards, that was enough to signal that these elfs were different (never mind them being 4ft tall and riding wolves through the snow!).
Aging Bard
Canaith
Since this is my era, I can add a bit. When Unearthed Arcana came out 1985, drow had become badass. They were no longer weak fighters as already noted. They were stronger than any other elf, except when sylvan (wood) elves and grugach (wild elves) have VERY high strength (18:90 or higher). They could be unlimited level druids, and same for clerics if female (male clerics were very weak). This reversed with magic-user: male drow were the best M-Us among all elves, though only slightly better than grey elves, and female M-Us were not quite as weak as male clerics. Like all elves, they were unlimited as thieves and had decent level limits for both rangers and assassins. Interestingly, drow got no assassin bonuses, which would have thematic for the era.
the Jester
Legend
I mean, they are in 5e. In earlier editions, they were a mechanically distinct subrace. 1e gave them a +1 to Int, which other elves didn't get, for example.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
Everybody wanted to play them, even without the overpowerness, because they were cool. They were anti-heroes. They, the PCs divorced from their culture, were the ultimate lone wolves.
The overpowerness was, significantly, a factor of them being adapted from an NPC race, introduced to challenge more traditional PCs and living in a particularly hostile, underdark environment. The svirfneblin and duergar also were a bit on the OP side - which would have been OK if everyone was playing an underdark character in an underdark environment. But it was really out of place in a typical surface campaign.
Elves that are jerks incarnate and pretty much think they are better at being elves than other elves.
Remember, the original elf in OD&D had a beard. And Elfquest (one of my favorite comics as a kid, but I digress) came out in 1978. so bearded elves have been a thing for a while, and if anything, non-bearded elves are the deviation
Aging Bard
Canaith
All of this, though I would have happily let my players all be Underdarkers had they asked. A mixed surface/Underdark party would indeed be a challenge, but consider that humans went underground all the time with various aids. By the time the G/D module series rolled out, a solution was introduce to aid this further (I won't spoil, just in case). So a mixed party would probably need to be more subterranean, but that would be a cool party to play or run!
My personal favorite is Keebler
eyeheartawk
#1 Enworld Jerk™
Tell that to every drow PC ever created by a 13 year old at the table/ RA Salvatore
BookTenTiger
He / Him
Dwarves are not heroes! They're stone-cutting isolationists deep in mountains!
Elves are not heroes! They're mystic tree-huggers!
Humans are not heroes! They're merchants, guards, and farmers!
Wolf72
Explorer
BAH "server error" and double post ... Drow as PC from 1e UA ... awesome. I'm sure I'm not alone here in thinking RA Salvatore stole "my" drow ranger idea, although I had two longswords.
Overpowered was simply a byword for the DM to smack you around harder ... and indeed he did. 4 Resurrection spells later my ok Con had taken a significant hit.
Overpowered was simply a byword for the DM to smack you around harder ... and indeed he did. 4 Resurrection spells later my ok Con had taken a significant hit.
In addition to High Elves, Grey Elves, Wood Elves, and the secret until the GDQ adventure path Drow, Greyhawk (the default setting for AD&D1e) had/has Grugach (Wild Elves) and Valley Elves … who were mysterious, and only in the isolated, nobody goes there Valley of the Mage (heraldic symbol: Fireball!).
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Yeah like totally dude, they’re like totally bad news and the Exalted One is like totally tripendicular
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Dragon 72 ....
Valley Elf,
He’s a Valley Elf, Valley Elf,
He’s a Valley Elf . . .
So cool, so fair,
With chartreuse hair, So young, secure --
“Fer sure, fer sure,
like, oh, man, I was really down today,
like, sooo down,
I almost flunked archery today,
I was blitzed totally, it was
wrong. Like, I wore my elven cloak
into the dungeon, y’know, and it got all
grody with, wow, Iike
spider webs and green slime all over it,
like yucko, like
when I saw it when we got out I thought, oh,
gag me with a wand,
it was grody to the max, just psionic, like,
and I had to clean it, oh,
gross me out, man.
Totally awesome. I hate to go in dungeons,
they are so rank, and some of the monsters just like freak me out, man, like wow.
I even saw a fer real monster, like real close up once, and it was really, like, totally
disgusting, barf city man, it was so gross
that I thought, like, Hey, keep away from me, man! Like no way I’m gonna ever even use my sword
on you, I just waxed it, y’know, like
gag me with a mace.”
Valley Elf,
He’s a Valley Elf, Valley Elf,
He’s a Valley Elf . . .
North of Geoff, South of Ket,
By the River Javan wet,
Living with the stubby gnomes,
The Valley Elves do make their homes,
“Sure, totally, y’know, I had a dog, man,
a cooshee, like he was special,
a Gucci cooshee poochie,
he had designer genes, like, really rare,
he was just awesome, but not too housebroken.
I had to clean up after him, and that was like grody, just gross to the rnax, but, wow,
like, no biggie, cuz he was my
dog, y’know, but he’s gone now, totally, see,
I met-the rnage the other day, and, wow, man,
the rnage has got like no,
totally no sense of humor. Like, I made a joke, y’know, I thought it was super,
like, I saw the mage and said like, hey,
we’re in the Valley of the Jolly,
like, Ho Ho Ho, Green Valley Mage,
just like the freakin’ commercials,
but he just looked at me, like wow,
he must have really been out of it, man,
like he was so out of it he threw
one of those, like, meteor swarms at me, it was just awesome, I mean it was just, oh wow man, it was astral, and it missed me and hit my dog,
my designer dog, like,
crispy critter city,
I was really bummed out, really bad like.”
He’s a Valley Elf, Valley Elf,
He’s a Valley Elf . . .
So cool, so fair,
With chartreuse hair, So young, secure --
“Fer sure, fer sure,
like, oh, man, I was really down today,
like, sooo down,
I almost flunked archery today,
I was blitzed totally, it was
wrong. Like, I wore my elven cloak
into the dungeon, y’know, and it got all
grody with, wow, Iike
spider webs and green slime all over it,
like yucko, like
when I saw it when we got out I thought, oh,
gag me with a wand,
it was grody to the max, just psionic, like,
and I had to clean it, oh,
gross me out, man.
Totally awesome. I hate to go in dungeons,
they are so rank, and some of the monsters just like freak me out, man, like wow.
I even saw a fer real monster, like real close up once, and it was really, like, totally
disgusting, barf city man, it was so gross
that I thought, like, Hey, keep away from me, man! Like no way I’m gonna ever even use my sword
on you, I just waxed it, y’know, like
gag me with a mace.”
Valley Elf,
He’s a Valley Elf, Valley Elf,
He’s a Valley Elf . . .
North of Geoff, South of Ket,
By the River Javan wet,
Living with the stubby gnomes,
The Valley Elves do make their homes,
“Sure, totally, y’know, I had a dog, man,
a cooshee, like he was special,
a Gucci cooshee poochie,
he had designer genes, like, really rare,
he was just awesome, but not too housebroken.
I had to clean up after him, and that was like grody, just gross to the rnax, but, wow,
like, no biggie, cuz he was my
dog, y’know, but he’s gone now, totally, see,
I met-the rnage the other day, and, wow, man,
the rnage has got like no,
totally no sense of humor. Like, I made a joke, y’know, I thought it was super,
like, I saw the mage and said like, hey,
we’re in the Valley of the Jolly,
like, Ho Ho Ho, Green Valley Mage,
just like the freakin’ commercials,
but he just looked at me, like wow,
he must have really been out of it, man,
like he was so out of it he threw
one of those, like, meteor swarms at me, it was just awesome, I mean it was just, oh wow man, it was astral, and it missed me and hit my dog,
my designer dog, like,
crispy critter city,
I was really bummed out, really bad like.”
And you wonder why I hate elves?
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