Why does everyone hate drow?

[ThoughtBubble]

My hatred of Drow comes from a 2E game. The Drow had much better equipment than we had. And so after a pitched battle, barely surviving, we get our hard-earned loot. And what happens? POOF! Sunlight destroys it.

I WANT MY LOOT!

Add in a little spell resistance, and it became one of those creature types that seem custom made to be a headache while offering players no reward for success.

Those are the monsters I like the least.

 

[Dark Jezter]

My hatred of Drow comes from a 2E game. The Drow had much better equipment than we had. And so after a pitched battle, barely surviving, we get our hard-earned loot. And what happens? POOF! Sunlight destroys it.

I WANT MY LOOT!

Add in a little spell resistance, and it became one of those creature types that seem custom made to be a headache while offering players no reward for success.

Those are the monsters I like the least.

You aren't the only person who thought this. Sean K. Reynolds wrote a rant a while back about why drow items that desintigrate in the sunlight are a bad idea.

Thankfully, drow items no longer do that in 3e (well, there are optional rules for items that are destroyed sunlight in the Underdark FR suppliment, but those items are the exception rather than the rule).

 

[Drowbane]

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).

And Eberron had the audacity to throw them in the Jungle...

 

[Borlon]

I like the spider theme of drow. IMO the problem is not that the drow are too much like spiders, but that they are not enough like spiders.

First of all, they are too sociable. It requires a suspension of disbelief that drow could work together without killing each other. Solution: make drow loners, coming together only to mate (and that infrequently, not more often than every couple of years. Or decades, even.)

They are also too active. I think they should be like spiders in the center of their web. Quiescent and torpid most of the time, but ready to spring into action when prey comes near.

My implementation would be based on demonic influence and lots of drugs. The drow have special powers because they sold their souls long ago to demons. They spend most of their time in drug-induced reverie, but can fight as if on speed. Drugs and demons make them pretty psychotic and spaced out.

The mushrooms that the drow eat are hallucinogenic, and low on nutrients. To conserve energy the drow don't do much. But when they do move, they are deadly. Their magical powers enable them to gradually dream their surroundings into existence. They don't have to worry about how to get equipment or wealth or actually set up a functioning economy; stuff just gradually congeals around them after years of dreaming.

You could have cities of drow, but they would be like ghost-towns, holding maybe 1% the population of an equivalent human city. And any particular drow would be doing nothing 99% of the time.

Some drow might be exceptions to these general guidelines. They are like the kind of spiders that actively hunt their prey instead of waiting in their webs. These might have all sorts of crazy motivations, including building up armies and crushing all surface races, and might cooperate with similarly obsessed drow. "Drug crazed and demon possessed" would still be the predominant themes, though.

 

[Psion]

You aren't the only person who thought this. Sean K. Reynolds wrote a rant a while back about why drow items that desintigrate in the sunlight are a bad idea.

One that was widely disputed.

I mean are we mad that we can't take and use a beholder's eyestalk or a dragon's breath?

Heaven forbid we put a kink in the axiom of killing things and taking their stuff.

 

[tetsujin28]

The disintegrating drow stuff is different because they're items. It was the ultimate in cheeseweasel.

 

[Dark Jezter]

One that was widely disputed.

And also widely praised.

I mean are we mad that we can't take and use a beholder's eyestalk or a dragon's breath?

Heaven forbid we put a kink in the axiom of killing things and taking their stuff.

Apples and oranges. I don't I've ever heard any serious complaints about being unable to take a beholder's eyestalk or a dragon's breath and use it as a weapon because doing such a thing would be just plain silly.

Drow items that dissolve in sunlight, however, was quite obviously a device to let NPC drow have cool weapons and armor that the players wouldn't be able to use (or at least only use until they get back to the surface). I'm happy that disintigrating drow stuff has been done away with because it was a concept I never liked in the first place.

 

[ssampier]

Speaking of "pale" underground races, I think it would be neat if a group of dark elves had a myth similar to Aztec's "white god" (can't think of the name). It'd create some interesting situations when the surface dwellers show up.

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

Meh. Bilbo doesn't quite have the cheese factor of a TWF good-aligned drow. He did take out the spiders and fooled the elves though (and was captured by ogres). There was that pesky magic ring, though, I wonder what he did with it.

 

[ssampier]

And also widely praised.



Apples and oranges. I don't I've ever heard any serious complaints about being unable to take a beholder's eyestalk or a dragon's breath and use it as a weapon because doing such a thing would be just plain silly.

Drow items that dissolve in sunlight, however, was quite obviously a device to let NPC drow have cool weapons and armor that the players wouldn't be able to use (or at least only use until they get back to the surface). I'm happy that disintigrating drow stuff has been done away with because it was a concept I never liked in the first place.

I think it was a done only to explain why these powerful, magic-wielding creatures couldn't simply take over the surface realm. They have the means and the man-power. How does the current rules explain how the dark elves simply don't take over the surface realm?

 

[Psion]

Apples and oranges.

Not at all. They are both creature capabilities you can't take with you.

I don't I've ever heard any serious complaints about being unable to take a beholder's eyestalk or a dragon's breath and use it as a weapon because doing such a thing would be just plain silly.

So there is no reason not being able to take another creature's capabilities with you should upset you either. Other than it looks like something you could use.

Drow items that dissolve in sunlight, however, was quite obviously a device to let NPC drow have cool weapons and armor

But they weren't "cool". They were basic "plus" items. Essentially, they were bonuses in combat, tantamount to giving them an AC or to hit boost. It's like crying that you can't have a creature's higher strength or natural armor bonus.

All the "cool" items were "real", and didn't disolve.