D&D 5E Elves subrace?

[Andor]

And a note: The Drow weakness specifically mentions sunlight. It doesn't say "light as bright as sunlight" or anything of the like. It seems to be specifically referring to light from the sun(or, as Dasuul points out, spells that actually create sunlight).

There's two ways to go from there.

One is to say that Drow sunlight sensitivity is literally that they are physically sensitive to light of a certain brightness (with daylight being the lower threshold), in which case any spell producing light that bright would effect them in an identical way, even if it doesn't have the mystical mojo to harm a vampire.

The other way is to say that, like a vampire, they are magically harmed by the sun. Not as severely to be sure, but it is a magic whammy decending from some event in your worlds history. That'll teach your great-great-great-great-great-grandmother to put a whoopie cushion on Ra's throne.

In the first case I would expect sunglasses and a floppy hat to be protection, in the second you would be some kind of abjuration effect to protect yourself.

I think they are probably neutral options from a balance standpoint, so I would go with whichever option reinforces the flavor/history of your campaign world.

 

[Dausuul]

There's two ways to go from there.

One is to say that Drow sunlight sensitivity is literally that they are physically sensitive to light of a certain brightness (with daylight being the lower threshold), in which case any spell producing light that bright would effect them in an identical way, even if it doesn't have the mystical mojo to harm a vampire.

The other way is to say that, like a vampire, they are magically harmed by the sun. Not as severely to be sure, but it is a magic whammy decending from some event in your worlds history. That'll teach your great-great-great-great-great-grandmother to put a whoopie cushion on Ra's throne.

In the first case I would expect sunglasses and a floppy hat to be protection, in the second you would be some kind of abjuration effect to protect yourself.

I think they are probably neutral options from a balance standpoint, so I would go with whichever option reinforces the flavor/history of your campaign world.

That's reasonable, and I agree. (Myself, I incline toward the second option, both because it's closer to the rules as written and because I prefer it conceptually: It's due to the mystical properties of sunlight, so you don't have to worry about daylight spells or other bright lights, but you also can't get around it just by donning a pair of shades.)

 

[steeldragons]

If you're going to get self-righteous, you might want to make sure you're right, first.

Obviously, I am wrong for 3e & 4e. I'll grant that. Having not played those editions I look well further back for my origins of where things in D&D are established.

But I'll take both BECM AND 1e, your "nearly" emphasis is good enough for me (and apparently good enough for whomever I ever played that edition with). Whether you want to argue those or not, 2e says quite explicitly that creatures effected by bright light were effected by it. From where I sit, anything pre-3e [over 14 years ago] would count as "well-established."

However anyone wants to fluff-color their particular drow is all well and good [OO! Maybe drow can twinkle in sunlight...only direct sunlight though, of course, we wouldn't want PCs to be inhibited.]. But there is no basis in D&D lore to believe that the drow sensitivity to LIGHT was a result of some kind of "mystical property of the sun." It was because they lived, for eons, underground and had adapted and built their civilization in very dark places. I don't have my manuals with me (they're in the process of international shipping) but I would be very shocked if ANY of the original Drow lore said anything about "sunlight" specifically, versus very bright light...or perhaps there was some greater penalty in sunlight vs. "light much brighter than a torch". I can't quite recall.

Rules lawyering on a single word distinction like "It says sunlight...not daylight" is really too nonsensical for me to take seriously.

Again, as I thought I made clear in my original ["self-righteous"] post, the person who posed the question has to decide. It is up to each person's individual table to decide what is/isn't will/won't be accepted or house-ruled with this. Obviously for some it would be fine n' dandy to ignore or hold to the letter. For me, no dice...but then I wouldn't allow a Drow PC in the first place, so I'm probably not the best person to comment.