There HAS to be a way to build a drow mage...there has to be.

[Thanee]

What's wrong with the +0 LA Drow variant (Lesser Drow from PGtF)?
And what exactly do you want to own?

Bye
Thanee

 

[WarlockLord]

They don't seem different enough for outcasts from normal elven society. They also don't capture the abilities of the original drow (albiet weakened)

BTW I don't have PGtF, I'm going by what my friend tells me. Howver, I may go with the drow racial class 0...then again maybe not.


I don't like the +2 LA version, as


-Spell-like abilities garbage

-Darkvision 120 is...nice, but not worth +2

-Garbage HP (-2 con with +2 LA HURTS!)

-Spell Resistance not as uber as touted.

-Can be utterly crippled by sorceror with the cantrip Flare

Yeah. Plus the loss of two caster levels cripples any damge dealing spells, and doesn't seem appropriate for a race of spellcasters.

However...is this overpowered?

New no LA drow:

Medium Humanoid (Elf)

Abilities: +2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int.

Immunity to sleep

Elven skill bonuses (but not secret-door sense)

+2 on saves vs. spells

Spell-like abilities: Blur 1/day. This is designed to replace the darkness with something that's not silly (shadowy illumination?) and doesn't blind the drow.

Darkvision 60 feet

Light Sensitivity.

Weapon Profiencies: Drow are profiecient with the rapier, short sword, and hand crossbow.

LA +0

 

[WarlockLord]

P.S. We will have a lot of hack our way through the cannon fodder encounters. Fun!

 

[geosapient]

They don't seem different enough for outcasts from normal elven society. They also don't capture the abilities of the original drow (albiet weakened)

BTW I don't have PGtF, I'm going by what my friend tells me. Howver, I may go with the drow racial class 0...then again maybe not.


I don't like the +2 LA version, as


-Spell-like abilities garbage

-Darkvision 120 is...nice, but not worth +2

-Garbage HP (-2 con with +2 LA HURTS!)

-Spell Resistance not as uber as touted.

-Can be utterly crippled by sorceror with the cantrip Flare

Yeah. Plus the loss of two caster levels cripples any damge dealing spells, and doesn't seem appropriate for a race of spellcasters.

However...is this overpowered?

New no LA drow:

Medium Humanoid (Elf)

Abilities: +2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int.

Immunity to sleep

Elven skill bonuses (but not secret-door sense)

+2 on saves vs. spells

Spell-like abilities: Blur 1/day. This is designed to replace the darkness with something that's not silly (shadowy illumination?) and doesn't blind the drow.

Darkvision 60 feet

Light Sensitivity.

Weapon Profiencies: Drow are profiecient with the rapier, short sword, and hand crossbow.

LA +0

That looks to be a good bit better than the elf from the MM1. It has +2 to dex and int and a -2 to con and strength. It also doesn't have blur as a special ability.

How often would light sensitivity come into play in the campaign? That still looks to be a +1 LA to me.

 

[Krel]

Yes, it's still too overpowered. May I suggest removing the +2 on saves? Or a -2 on Strength or Charisma? And also, the light sensitivity is going to hurt you. I would get rid of that.

 

[IcyCool]

The unbalanced ability scores alone are worth +1 LA.

 

[smootrk]

Use the UA rules to 'buy off' the LA. You will just be a few thousand xp behind the rest of the group, and if your DM uses proper XP disbursments this will even be minimized over time (lower level characters get more xp than higher level ones, for the same encounter).

 

[WarlockLord]

All right...sigh...upgrade light senstivity to light blindness. WIth the drow racial class linked to above, the ability scores are balanced by this. Drop the +2 on saves...I lose the "drow are amazingly resistant to spells" thing. -2 to strength.


How is it now?

 

[WarlockLord]

P.S. Is blur really better than a bonus feat?

 

[IcyCool]

P.S. Is blur really better than a bonus feat?

For the one encounter it's usable in, yeah, probably.

Compare with the gray elf from the MM1:

Your Drow:

New no LA drow:

Medium Humanoid (Elf)

Abilities: +2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int.

Immunity to sleep

Elven skill bonuses (but not secret-door sense)

+2 on saves vs. spells

Spell-like abilities: Blur 1/day. This is designed to replace the darkness with something that's not silly (shadowy illumination?) and doesn't blind the drow.

Darkvision 60 feet

Light Sensitivity.

Weapon Profiencies: Drow are profiecient with the rapier, short sword, and hand crossbow.

LA +0

The MM1 gray elf:

Medium Humanoid (Elf)

Abilities: -2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int.

Immunity to sleep

Elven skill bonuses (but not secret-door sense)

+2 on saves vs. enchantment spells

Spell-like abilities: none

Low-light vision

LA +0

Your drow has a net +2 bonus to attributes, better saves, better vision, and a spell-like ability. It suffers from Light-sensitivity (which can be gotten rid of with the Daylight adaptaion feat).