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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 6280498" data-attributes="member: 58172">The current poll results are telling. Possibly design the 5e Drow as follows.The main abilities of a Drow are:Dexterity, Charisma.The essential features of the Drow are as follows, in decreasing order of importance.Elf, Evil, Matriarchy, Spiders, Darkvision.The following features might be useful for an optional setting or region, but are less essential to the Drow themselves:Slavery, Subterranean, Nocturnal.The following features are nonessential but might be useful for a certain individual:Instinctive Spells, Chaotic, Demons.STATSThe Dark Elf ‘Drow’ is a kind of Elf, alongside the sylvan Wood Elf, High Elf, and Wild Elf ‘Grugach’.Elf ability score adjustment: Dexterity score +1.Drow gain ambidexterity as race feature.Drow ability score adjustment: Charisma score +1.Drow are highly social and utilize sexiness, deception, and persuasion.Darkvision 50 feet as a race feature. See in total darkness as if dim black-and-white.(See the optional Dark-Touched feat to extend the distance of Darkvision.)Alignment: any, usually evil (75%).(1e Monster Manual lists Drow as ‘Evil’, 1e Fiend Folio as ‘Chaotic Evil’. 2e Monstrous Compendium 2 has ‘Chaotic Evil’, but 2e also has Drizzt who is Chaotic Good. 3e Monster Manual lists ‘usually Neutral Evil’. 4e Monster Manual lists ‘Evil’. 4e Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms offers Drow as a core player race with any alignment but typically ‘wicked’.)TYPICAL CULTUREBecause of Charisma:The Drow celebrate sacred ‘revelries’, when all of the Drow dynastic houses commingle. Then a Drow woman usually chooses multiple sexual partners, thus conceives. Later she gives birth to a child without regard to a biological father. Drow have no fathers. There are only mothers. All children are loyal to their own mother only. Alliances among mothers determine the collective decisions.To give birth to a Drow girl enjoys higher prestige than a boy because she will, in turn, grow up to have more daughters, thus increase the size and influence of her mothers house. Many generations of mothers and daughters unite to form a dynastic house. Members of a house tend to live close to each other in surrounding estates or in a neighborhood of a city. The matriarch is the ‘mother’ of the entire dynastic house. If there are two sisters, and one becomes the matriarch, then the matriarch adopts her sister as her ‘daughter’. It is rare for a woman to divorce her house to found a new house, but the Drow remember such painful moments in their history. A mother personifies all that exists.All house matriarchs in a city gather to form the ruling council. The council rules by majority, but powerful houses often force the votes of weak houses and ally with other powerful houses. The Drow ‘priestesses’ are typically the Warlock class with the Priest background. The matriarch, ‘matron mother’, of each dynastic house is a Warlock female elder. She is the head of a sacred line of ‘matrons’, who administer the decisions of the matriarch and perform the priestly duties of the house. The Warlock pact is a rite of initiation for those among her daughters and her daughters daughters that she chooses to install as matrons. Only a daughter that is a matron can inherit the matriarchy. The Warlock pact benefits from Charisma and Dexterity. The nature of the pact depends on each house, but typically it involves spider spirits that safeguard the fates of the members of the house. As leaders of the house, these women master their warlockry as well as their diplomatic arts of persuasion, deception, and intimidation. The fearsome aspects of a spider serve well to intimidate. Some houses have matrons of the Bard class or other class, instead of the Warlock class.The Drow ‘magic users’ are typically the Sorcerer class. The Sorcerer bloodline is ‘Drow’ and benefits from both Charisma and Dexterity. Rarely, a Drow might inherit an other bloodline from elsewhere. Typically as youths, talented individuals go to a boarding-school, an academy of sorcery. The graduates return home to serve their own mothers, but powerful individuals might serve the matriarch on behalf of the mother. These house sorcerers of the matriarch enjoy high social status, whether female or male. Sorcery is one of the few areas of Drow life where individuals are respected for their abilities regardless of gender.Because of Dexterity:Drow ‘warriors’ are typically the Rogue class, known for stealth and skirmishing. Each house has its own army, but allied houses often cooperate in joint military exercises. The males of allied houses tend to fraternize with each other, but they only remain loyal to their own mother. The ranks of males depend on the influence of their mother. Military officers are always females. Drow warriors are ‘weak fighters’ but deadly Rogues.In some Drow houses, the army of Rogues is specifically an army of Assassins. These houses rarely go to war, instead they kill those enemies who want to go to war. Enemies lose the wars before they even start, when waves of assassins overwhelm and systematically eliminate their leadership. Leaders hestitate personally before deciding to go to war against the Drow.Typical weapons include finesse swords and handbows, in each hand. Drow are famous for their metalsmithing techniques to fashion special mithral shirts of a black metal alloy.SETTING OPTIONSIn the Greyhawk Setting, the Planescape Setting, and the Forgotten Realms Setting, certain Drow communities are known for leading houses that worship ‘Lolth’, a spider demon, who ‘weaves’ social conspiracies and treacheries.However, it is necessary to describe Drow culture without Lolth. These three settings also feature Drow houses known for other sacred traditions that are unrelated to Lolth. Drow who belong to these other sacred traditions are any alignment, including Good. Typical alignment for Lolth worshipers is Chaotic Evil. They tentatively cooperate out of self-interest, while seeking to betray each other for great gain if with total impunity. They admire survival of the fittest. Mothers encourage their children to compete and prey on each other. They severely punish any show of compassion that proves to be genuine. Lolth worshipers live deep underground and seek to capture and enslave other races.In houses that worship the spider demon Lolth, the matrons of the house are typically the Cleric class, instead of the Warlock class. These Clerics tend toward fanaticism. Matrons with Warlock pacts with Lolth or other demons in her dominion are known, but less prestigious in the eyes of the Clerics.It seems helpful to treat Drow ‘cultists’ similar to Human ‘cultists’. The Drow are any alignment. But a regional setting might feature an evil ‘cult’, especially as one of the Warlock pacts.HERO OPTIONSCleric - Spider Domain: The Spider Cleric gains insight for social intrigue. Spider Domain: L1 Find Familiar (Spider), Sleep. L3 Spider Climb, Web. L5 Hold Person, Slow. L7 Freedom of Movement, Stoneskin (Chiton). L9 Hold Monster, Insect Plague (Spiders).Cleric, Drow - Stillness of the Web: A Drow ‘priestess’ can be a Spider-domain Cleric. One can swap the Elf race bonus to Dexterity for a bonus to Wisdom instead. Thus such a Drow female magically transforms into an effective Wisdom Charisma leader. ‘A spider waits motionlessly to perceive any prey that entangles and vibrates the web.’Feat, Drow - Dark-Touched: One is a product of magical life in a realm of darkness, deep in the earth. Level 1, one gains the Dancing Lights cantrip. One can cast the following spells, once per long rest: L3 Faerie Fire, L5 Darkness. Charisma is ones magic ability for these spells. Ones Drow Darkvision extends from 50 feet to 100 feet. But one suffers a disadvantage to perception checks when in bright light.</blockquote>

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