What are Drow, anyway?

[John Crichton]

Think about it: Drow were not just anti-elves, they were a paradox within an oxymoron, wrapped inside a conundrum.

... dipped in secret sauce.

Drow are still feared in my playing group. We've all read the Salvatore books, enjoyed them and now we have moved on. They may be overplayed to some but in the hands of a capable DM they are still a dangerous foe and still a mystery. Sure if, as a PC, you have seen them a million times they will get old but that goes for anything - orcs, goblins, blah. I still think they are a viable and potent villain.

They may be a bit overexposed but don't let once very popular novel series and WOTCs "Year of the Drow" fool ya. Unless you scoff at them in game or your DM makes them silly they are still to be feared. I wouldn't want any of my PCs to have to deal with them. Would you?

Try throwing them at someone who has never fought them in game and who has just read a few Salvatore novels and watch 'em squerm...

:: edited spelling ::

 

[Dagger75]

I also believe a DM goes through 3 phases of "Drowness"

Phase 1 - Drow are super cool bad mofo's. Every player in his game is one and they fight them all time. Everybody is happy.

Phase 2- Done with the drows as PC's but they are THE villian of choice of now. They are secretly trying to take over the world now.

Phase 3- Holy Cow I am so sick of drow I refuse to even put them in my game. Everybody has seen them, played them and fought them at least 10 times by now.

The next "Drow"------------ Githyanki

 

[demiurge1138]

Don't forget that they originally didn't exist. The 1e Monster Manual dismisses rumors of dark elves as foolish hearesay.

Which is why the 1e Monster Manual was so cool.

Demiurge out.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

The next "Drow"------------ Githyanki

Shh! You'll blow it for my players - they haven't caught on to githyanki yet!

 

[David Argall]

Githyanki??

Sorry, there are just so many reasons why githyanki just won't cut it.

They are too involved with psionics, and too many of us were too scared by the original version of that to ever allow that to be core.

They have a distinctly limited number of levels. There pretty much are no low level guthyanki, and there are no epic level ones.

They are just not evil enough. Since they hate mind flayers, they are possible allies.

They are ugly. You really want to replace sexy drow with something like that?

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Re: Githyanki??

They are ugly. You really want to replace sexy drow with something like that?

You don't find githyanki sexy?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Re: Re: Githyanki??

You don't find githyanki sexy?

And that is the key. Everyone can give you an alignment story but when it comes down to it, if it is beautiful it is good, if it is ugly it is evil. When we take beautiful and make it decadent it effects us more. That is what the drow are.

 

[Sixchan]

Re: Re: Re: Githyanki??

And that is the key. Everyone can give you an alignment story but when it comes down to it, if it is beautiful it is good, if it is ugly it is evil. When we take beautiful and make it decadent it effects us more. That is what the drow are.

So why is CHA the "dump stat"?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

My players have a pathological fear of drow, perhaps due to a drow-inflicted near-TPK (which wouldn't have happened had they not (1) split the party, (2) allowed the drow to reinforce, and (3) ignored the drow wizard, but I digress). Their metagame thinking has spilled over, so that rumors of drow cause the new characters to follow plot hooks in the other direction.

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

My group has never used drow for anything before. Well, except once; my DM had a drow assassin firing a crossbow at us from a dark stand of trees. My fighter/cleric of Dionysus took a few bolts in the leg, walked over and beat the guy to death with his flail.
First and last drow we ever saw in any of our games. I wonder what its name was...

In my current campaign there are no "Drow" exactly, but there are dark elves. They were saved by their patron goddess during a time when humans were killing all demihumans. They were marked with jet black skin in her image.
One of the reasons they were saved was because they were particularly good and in just shy of three centuries of existence there is no memory of an evil dark elf existing.

No one in my group has ever played one, nor expressed a desire to.
Thankfully I've never had to deal with drow PCs nor have I read the novels; this and my limited exposure to FR (I only have 3e FR sourcebooks) have kept the drow from leaving a bad taste (and a black-stained tongue) in my mouth.