Good Drow

[ladyofdragons]

ACK!

For the love of the multiverse! Good drow make about as much sense as Pit Fiends helping little old ladies cross the street man!

Let's look at the reason Drow are Drow to begin w/.

Exiled by the seely elves for convorting w/ Lloth.
Kept there because Lloth said, Sure now I'll make you in my own visage.(ie the reason from Driders)

Why they're all bloody evil. Man, the Society that they are born in. If human and good elf sacrifice to your demon mistress that is your total reason for being is the norm, then heck even a bit out of the norm (this romantic "outcast" that you monkies love soo much) would still be one twisted cat!

and really, humanity, love, goodness! what self respecting Drow mother wouldn't just whole hog kill the little spawn if they showed these attributes!!!

Say what you want about alignment and other classes.

See, the thing is that your argument here is based upon the generic fantasy campaign. There are many commercial campaigns out there now, and having Lloth as a goddes with the elves driven underground history is not a necessity (and isn't in the D20 or OGL license, actually. not sure if it's in the gentlemen's agreement and Lloth will be replaced by some generic term), and is no longer universal. I've played in several campaigns where there are no drow at all, where that particular bit of history never happened, or like my own campaign where the retreat was by choice rather than by force. Taking away that history, Drow are simply a subrace of elves, much like wood/wild/grey/gold/valley/avariel/snow/shadow elves. Subraces because they have distinct differences in their abilities and looks, but still have the main features left from their parent race.

But more importantly, the archetype of the outcast of an evil society gone good is a potent one. I think it speaks to a lot of players (especially younger ones) on a personal level regarding the distance they feel from their own society, parents, and surroundings. While the 'drizzt' archetype is a relatively new one, there are many more archetypes inherent in D&D, like the upstanding good paladin, etc. Archetypes become archetypes because they speak to something universal within us. It's silly to label a player as unoriginal because they want to explore an archetype. It's what they do with that archetype, the spin they put on it, that counts. Now if they play the same character over and over again, that's another matter entirely, and has nothing to do with good drow.

 

[Psion]

There should be NO good Drow, save that one ranger, PERIOD!

I think people should do what they want in their own campaign and not get their panties in a bunch about what goes on in other campaigns. You could have good mind flayers or good demons in your world for all I care... such creatures are astonishingly rare in my game. Drow, on the other hand, it's all a matter of upbringing. At least IMC.

 

[Psion]

For the love of the multiverse! Good drow make about as much sense as Pit Fiends helping little old ladies cross the street man!

Open up your MM to Elf, and look at the alignment entry for Drow: Usually Neutral Evil.

Now look at the entry for Devil, Pit Fiend: Always lawful evil.

Now look up the definitions of "usually" and "always" as it pertains to alignment. In short, per the rules, good drow make MUCH more sense that pit fiends helping little old ladies across the street... unless the pit fiend had something to gain from such an activity.

So once again, do what you want in your own game, but don't try to tell people who don't do it your way that they are wrong. Especially when YOUR approach is the one that is a variant.

 

[Redleg06]

According to the MM (p85), aren't 3E Drow "usually neutral evil"?

Ah but that is 3d Ed. I was going back to the original intent.

I quite rather like 3d Ed. over all though. Just for the record.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Ah but that is 3d Ed. I was going back to the original intent.

I quite rather like 3d Ed. over all though. Just for the record.

Original intent was dealt with earlier. Unearthed Arcana allowed for non-evil drow PCs.

 

[Redleg06]

Original intent was dealt with earlier. Unearthed Arcana allowed for non-evil drow PCs.

Drow did NOT debut in UA. I believe it was Fiend Folio some years earlier.

 

[ladyofdragons]

Drow did NOT debut in UA. I believe it was Fiend Folio some years earlier.

umm...well, the fiend folio also had such wonderfully thought out creatures as the flumph. Can you really cite it as the end-all be-all of original intent?

 

[Redleg06]

In my brother's campaign, we switched the drow racial abilities with the elven racial abilities, but kept the races the same.

That lets us play drow without being cheesy.

See that I can buy into as it allows you to play the esthetics of a Drow (and have a kewl miniature) without the powergamerisms.

Although if the Drow were good, it's still cheesy!

 

[Redleg06]

umm...well, the fiend folio also had such wonderfully thought out creatures as the flumph. Can you really cite it as the end-all be-all of original intent?

Like I said original intent!

Random SMG pitcure....

 

[Tsyr]

See that I can buy into as it allows you to play the esthetics of a Drow (and have a kewl miniature) without the powergamerisms.

Exactly, because anyone who wants to play a good drow must be a drizzt-wannabe munchkin who is playing the drow for the kewl powers.

...except Drizzt lost his powers when he came to the surface (And, by extension, so should all drow after a while, though there are no rules for this)...

...so they can't be both a drizzt-wannabe and someone trying to play a drow for the kewl powers, legitimatly. The best you could say is they are a wannabe-drizzt-wannabe.