What to do with a drow

[kreynolds]

Because 99% of the people are doing it just so they can be like Drizzt. There's practically no other reason to play a dual-Scimitar-wielding Drow Ranger (dSwDR). As you pointed out, it's not even that great from a powergaming perspective. If, someday, someone comes up with a viable roleplaying reason to want to play a Drizzt clone, or any other clone, I'd love to hear it.

Until then, no dSwDR in my campaigns.

Throwing in a couple levels of barbarian is nice, letting you rage and get extra damage and hit points and all. If your Dex is high enough and you have decent armor, your AC won't be that bad either. Also, consider a Drizzt with a few levels of the Tempest PrC. Not so bad. And how about Drizzt with weapons of speed, a ring of haste, a ring of displacement, a +5 mirthril chain shirt, boots of striding and springing, amulet of natural armor +5....I could go on and on. And for the record, I think Drizzt's stats in the FRCS totally suck.

 

[RogueJK]

Throwing in a couple levels of barbarian is nice, letting you rage and get extra damage and hit points and all. If your Dex is high enough and you have decent armor, your AC won't be that bad either. Also, consider a Drizzt with a few levels of the Tempest PrC. Not so bad. And how about Drizzt with weapons of speed, a ring of haste, a ring of displacement, a +5 mirthril chain shirt, boots of striding and springing, amulet of natural armor +5....I could go on and on. And for the record, I think Drizzt's stats in the FRCS totally suck.

Must. Supress. Urge. To. Kill.

/me goes to his happy place, in a vain attempt to calm his murderous rage.

 

[kreynolds]

Must. Supress. Urge. To. Kill.

/me goes to his happy place, in a vain attempt to calm his murderous rage.

LOL Dude? Do I know you? You sound awfully familiar.

 

[Voadam]

Is your DM applying the FRCS drow ECL xp rules? If so then your first 3,000 xp are eaten up by the drow ECL. This will leave you with level 1 character level and needing 2,000 more xp to get to 2nd character level.

Since you said you were thinking of the wizard option and would come in at 3rd I don't think your DM is using those rules.

Playing a rogue I think you will be less hurt by the lower level aspect than if you were a wizard. wizards' levels determine spells per day and damage from most spells while rogues still have tons of skills. However, if you want to play a wizard and you would be the only one in the party go for it. Focusing on enchantments helps negate the level power discrepancy and charms are very useful. You can turn enemies into allies, get information out of captured opponents, etc.

 

[Gaiden]

Ok, to answer a few questions. First I will not get 4000XP, but 6000XP - sorry for the typo. Second, this will be on top of any ECL adjustments.

Drow do not get the weapon prof's that normal elves get.

We only have drow as an ECL+1, not +2

Any yes - my DM is psycho. Every battle we fight is life or death - typically about 5 or 6 CR above our average party level. I have lost something like 5 characters since the game began. Its beginning to get tiresome. So no I don't really get attached to any characters any longer. Killing characters seems to be part of my DM's design so I don't expect them to live.

 

[Skullfyre]

Throwing in a couple levels of barbarian is nice, letting you rage and get extra damage and hit points and all. If your Dex is high enough and you have decent armor, your AC won't be that bad either. Also, consider a Drizzt with a few levels of the Tempest PrC. Not so bad. And how about Drizzt with weapons of speed, a ring of haste, a ring of displacement, a +5 mirthril chain shirt, boots of striding and springing, amulet of natural armor +5....I could go on and on. And for the record, I think Drizzt's stats in the FRCS totally suck.

Did he also not have bracers of of blinding strike?

 

[RogueJK]

Drow do not get the weapon prof's that normal elves get.

That's a shame. It's in the rules, so you might want to try and convince your DM to allow it. If he agrees, you can go with your original plan of Wizard, and still be effective as a ranged attacker. With a high Dex and a Long Bow, you have something to fall back on when your spells run out.

Since you will only be a 4th level caster, you'll want to choose spells that have durations longer than round/level and/or non-level dependant effects. Enchantment is a good choice to focus on. Combine a high Int, Spell Focus, and Greater Spell Focus, and your DCs will stay effective, even at your reduced caster level.

Are you planning on becoming an Enchantment specialist? The extra spell will certainly help you.

 

[Voadam]

From the srd on monsters E

"Drow Traits (Ex): These are in addition to the basic elf traits, except where noted here. Drow do not get the usual elven weapon proficiencies."

I would not bother arguing against it. Use their darkness and enjoy the SR and will bonuses. Too bad they no longer have levitate, dispel magic and two weapon ambidexterity like they did in 1e.

At 4th level you can get off a decent numer of charm persons which is a great spell, just load up on charisma as well as intelligence.

 

[Arkham]

I have nothing against Drizzt. In fact, I enjoyed most of Salvatore's novels. I just don't like seeing characters that are nothing but clones of something that they recently read or saw in a movie. (This includes Elf Archers with long, blonde hair and a house-ruled feat which allows them to use arrows as a melee weapon. )

<hijack>
From the SRD:
Arrows: An arrow used as a melee weapon is Tiny and deals 1d4 points of piercing damage (X2 crit). Since it is not designed for
this use, all characters are treated as not proficient with it and thus suffer a -4 penalty on their attack rolls.
</hijack>

I've got a woodelf archer-type that could kill
a classless orc with an arrow as a melee weapon.

 

[RogueJK]

From the srd on monsters E

"Drow Traits (Ex): These are in addition to the basic elf traits, except where noted here. Drow do not get the usual elven weapon proficiencies."

I didn't check the SRD. I was going by the entry in the FRCS. It mentions nothing about Drow not getting the elven weapon proficiencies.

Ah... I just checked the FRCS errata. They changed it so that Drow are automatically proficient with either the rapier or short sword, and the hand and light crossbow.