Why does everyone hate drow?

[Aus_Snow]

Because they are a great villian race and never should have been made available to players.

What makes you believe that?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

They are overexposed - Elf Only Inn had a hilarious comic about that issue.

I hate the way they are portrayed in novels - and this spills over into the game. I think maybe a third of FR novels have drow as main characters, with Drizzt-sagas being the longest single-running novel series.

In the novels, they are "uber" for no good reasons. Their strengths are emphasized (sometimes to the point of being ridiculous - you can't hit them, for instance, even if you are a skilled warrior) while their weaknesses are discounted (they're "not as fragile as they look", they can resist alcohol very well unless it's "Russian" stuff, etc).

They're better at everything a human can do, as they have their ambition but near-elven lifespans. They Bluff better (when a human can out-bluff a drow, they are very surprised that humans can actually have any kind of talent), cast spells better, fight better (only in Salvatore's work can a human face a drow in combat and have even a nearly chance of winning, and I'm not just talking about Artemis Entreri here) - dragons live in fear of them rather than beholders or other actually dangerous creatures, high-level human adventurers cringe in fear and are easily killed instead of fighting back when they encounter drow (third book in the Windwalker series), etc.

Their priestesses casts "mage" spells that let them read minds and turn male drow into gaseous mist - when they're not turning into Lolth! ( - second book in the Windwalker series.)

Drow cities are expected to contain "multiple artifacts" (this was more of a messageboard thing, actually).

They're so evil that an encounter with drow can't actually occur - the drow are actually preparing to kill their party mates - the encounter ends up with PCs finding a bunch of dead drow all over the place. Because the drow killed each other silently, the PCs don't know that the drow were stalking them just five minutes ago. (Okay, this is very sarcastic.) I really hate it when evil characters kill each other "just because". It only makes sense if you actually drink the power of the dead drow, instead of just making yourself weaker fodder for the opposition.

The mastermind of goblins, orcs, etc found in Faerun are drow. It feels like every time. (I found Twilight Falling to be a great escape from the overused drow cliche.)

Eilistraee made me really hate them, however. At least Drizzt became good-aligned before he met Montolio. He didn't need an alignment crutch - not much of one, anyway, and nothing so blatantly obvious. But maybe that's just because only R. A. Salvatore can write drow reasonably (and even he loses 12 ranks in Craft (writing) points anytime he mentions mindflayers or the sun). But every female drow I've seen who encounters a priestess of Eilistraee becomes a follower after some time passes - there's a virus or something. I have yet to see an exception to this rule. I made the mistake of reading that six-novel drow series - it actually started off well, with a goblin stabbing a drow no less and non-evil drow that bear no resemblence to Drizzt - but I had to skip half of book five because of the overuse (any use) of Eilistraee and refuse to read the last book because I'm afraid Danifae will become a worshipper of Eilistraee (she met Halistra after she became a follower of Eilistraee).

I heard a rumor that followers of Eilistraee get a streak in their hair, letting you know who they worship (so you shouldn't kill them). I hope this is untrue, because if it is, it's BS. My character would kill any drow who claimed to worship a good drow goddess, especially if they tried to "bluff" me with that hair-streak nonsense, on the grounds that "all" drow are "incurably evil" and have such great Bluff checks anyway. *rolleyes*

I don't run DnD anymore, but I still play it. If I were to go back to DMing and run an FR campaign, the very first thing I would do is publically kill Eilistraee, preferably at the hands of a kobold deity.

Ironically enough, drow in-game are wimps. It's funny watching a DM put more work into a drow encounter than in an encounter with any other creature type, as even normal DMs turn into RBDMs when drow are concerned. It's even more fun when the PCs just slaughter them anyway. Drizzt-clones are especially wimpy (light fighters in DnD suck, unfortunately, and dual-wielding scimitars is just pathetically weak).

There are plenty of other evil races that don't get enough exposure. I'm so glad Eberron came out - I don't think I'll ever see a drow in any of the novels, and if I do, they might not be evil (at least, not in the same way as FR drow), nor will they be uber.

I think I found something I hate in FR more than drow, however. Mystra!

Personally I've always found orcs more interesting, but that can be blamed on Blizzard.

Cheers!

For example, your drow do not have to worship a "Spider Queen" or have pet arachnids, they could be more feylike in the classical sense.

Then they would no longer be drow. They'd be evil elves. Not that I dislike evil elves (I really like Elaith Craunolber, despite the whole elf > human nonsense), except there are no evil elven deities.

 

[Particle_Man]

In addition to all the above reasons to hate drow, there is also the rather racist overtones of making the evil race of elves darkskinned (and this despite being an underground race, which should by rights be pasty-skinned compared to surface elves that can, you know, get sun tans and stuff).

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

I think you just need to try a fresh perspective. The only Drow character I ever played was a female drow Cleric/Fighter/Theif in 1E - Eliza Breetar "The Shameless One" - she was different in that, instead of being dark and mysterious, she was a sun-worshipping nymphomaniac - and no, it wasn't graphic, it was more just of a character trait, behind the scenes, and it manifested most directly when she'd try intimacy with strange and wonderous creatures, such as a Gorn or a Vampire. She was, in some sense, comic relief after so many serious campaigns. She was fun to play and she most definitely did NOT wield two scimitars, and anyone she looked at lustily (which was pretty much everyone / thing) would find that she'd leave NOTHING to either mystery or imagination. She was the anti-drow drow. An open, non-mysterious, sun-worshipping, humorous addition to any party. After playing her, I can never think of the drow as the cliche that they were, and I don't think anyone else who played with her in the game could see them that way, either. So if you want to get rid of the cliche drow, just have a character like Eliza in the mix, PC or NPC, and you'll quickly see the facade vanish... (though noone in my group read any of the Drizzt books. Come to think of it, this was probably before they were published).

Ya know that just had to suck. I mean tanning becomes much more difficult and ditto for the sun bleaching her hair um.. white(r). :\

I dunno. It just seemed like drow were to elves what elves were to gnomes / halflings / some other seldom played race. They just reeked of uberness and anyone who wasn't allowed to play an evil drow would instead play a good one trying to break away from the rest of his / her race. Plus drow got a book all to themselves unlike the rest of the races, which included subraces or got lumped together (Gnomes n Halflings).

 

[Dark Jezter]

They're better at everything a human can do, as they have their ambition but near-elven lifespans. They Bluff better (when a human can out-bluff a drow, they are very surprised that humans can actually have any kind of talent), cast spells better, fight better (only in Salvatore's work can a human face a drow in combat and have even a nearly chance of winning, and I'm not just talking about Artemis Entreri here) - dragons live in fear of them rather than beholders or other actually dangerous creatures, high-level human adventurers cringe in fear and are easily killed instead of fighting back when they encounter drow (third book in the Windwalker series), etc.

Their priestesses casts "mage" spells that let them read minds and turn male drow into gaseous mist - when they're not turning into Lolth! ( - second book in the Windwalker series.)

I've never read Elaine Cunningham's novels, but your comments pretty much agree with what I've heard from others: In Cunningham's novels, the drow (and elves in general) are the best at everything they do: Nobody is sneakier than the drow, nobody is better at magic than the drow, nobody is better at combat than the drow, and nobody is as good at plotting and scheming than the drow, etc.

At least in R.A. Salvatore's novels, it's possible for drow to get beaten by members of other races (and boy do they ever; the drow got their asses kicked by the dwarves when they tried to conquer Mithral Hall, not to mention that the human Artemis Entreri has singlehandedly killed himself a few dozen drow over the span of the novels ).

Ironically enough, drow in-game are wimps. It's funny watching a DM put more work into a drow encounter than in an encounter with any other creature type, as even normal DMs turn into RBDMs when drow are concerned. It's even more fun when the PCs just slaughter them anyway. Drizzt-clones are especially wimpy (light fighters in DnD suck, unfortunately, and dual-wielding scimitars is just pathetically weak).

Heh, so true! Early in my Forgotten Realms campaign, the PCs were ambushed a group of drow that with an Encounter Level of 2 above the party's average level. The PCs hardly even broke a sweat defeating the drow, and when the fight was over, more than one of the players made comments to the extent of "That's it? I don't know why everybody's so scared of the drow; they're freakin' pansies!"

 

[MonsterMash]

IMC I don't have any drow to hate! I do have dark elves, but they are much more based on the unseleelie court and are not black skinnned with white hair spider worshippers.

 

[Aloïsius]

I can't hate anything in the MM. There are just monsters I won't use because I find them boring or silly.

As for the dark elves, if you forget the 2e elven hype, they have a niche, just as orcs, giants or mindflayers.

 

[Prime_Evil]

I recently launched a campaign for a party of evil Drow PCs. Contrary to my initial expectations, the game has worked out extremely well and has become a favourite with the players in my group. I have deliberately played down the whole 'sexy evil badass' angle and have developed a slightly more plausible version of Drow culture that the one popularized by the various Forgotten Realms sourcebooks.

Curiously, This is the first time that I have ever run a game containing Drow PCs in my 20+ years of gaming. In the past I have avoided using the Drow much due to the 'Drizzt factor'.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I sometimes wonder if the terms "Drizzt clone" and "Drizzt wannabes" get thrown around more than they should. Personally, I've never seen a player try to play as a good-aligned drow ranger who dual-wields scimitars, and neither have any of the other gamers I know personally.

Also, over the years I've seen the term "Drizzt clone" applied to any and all of the following:

• Any surface-dwelling drow PC.
• Any nonevil drow PC.
• Any drow PC period.
• Any PC that has a panther/tiger/any feline animal companion.
• Any PC that dual-wields.
• Any PC that's a ranger.

I wonder if I should start referring to any halfling thief as a Bilbo clone.

 

[Klaus]

For the past two days I've been bettling myself over an Eberron character I imagined (and that I'm sure will never see play):

Aklatl is a young drow from Xen'drik. Before reaching full maturity by drow standards, Aklatl's tribe was attacked by slavers. Aklatl was taken prisoner and endured several years of forced work, serving mainly as a scout for unscrupulous explorers. The young drow's fortune took a turn for the better when the explorer's ship was sacked by a Lyrandar patrol ship. Taken back to Khorvaire, Aklatl saw a world wider than anything he's ever seen. He now works as an adventurer, trying to amass enough money and prowess to earn him a trip back to Xen'drik to find his tribe, wether they still live or not.

Aklatl (Drow Scout 1) wields a Xen'drik boomerang, a drow long knife and a drow scorpion chain and wears scorpion breastplate.

Gawd! I'm making up drow! What;s wrong with meeeeee?!?!