Because they are a great villian race and never should have been made available to players.
Why does everyone hate drow?
- Thread starter punkorange
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Dark Jezter
First Post
I think that the reason people are tired of the drow is due to simple overexposure. When Drow first started showing up in D&D products, they were cool, mysterious, and scary. The fans demanded to know more about the drow, and TSR complied and released a lot of drow-related suppliments and novels. WotC continued this trend and even had a "Year of the Drow" promotion where drow-related articles would regularly appear on the website. Nowadays, the drow have become overused and cliche. When the PCs in my campaign enter the underdark, I usually have them encounter races like duergar, kuo-toa, or mind flayers instead.
Drow are still a lot cooler than surface elves, though.
Drow are still a lot cooler than surface elves, though.
different idea
I took a different approach to drow, I created my own campiagn world back in high school, it's slowly been evolving and changing over the last few years. Specifically in the last 2 years, drow in my world are a lot different than anywhere i'veready. They don't worship Loth, the females do not rule the society the males do, and they at one point of the worlds history were actually able to conquer it with the help of the Dark Powers that they do serve. They also have a brand of magic unique to them. I'm actually hoping to publish what i've been creating with Wizards of the Coast. But my point is that i took a different approach and created a different setting. The drow influence in the world history i've written up has littereally shaped the current history of my world. As a result of their influence some races have gained racial abilities based on the influence of the drow empire, though currently in the history that was a couple thousand years long past. Drow can be a great race, yeah they do get overplayed a bit and everyone goes drizzt happy (who is a great character in my opinion). But as with any race it jsut depends on how you use them. I try to avoid hte typical cliche's and always do soemthing new and different. It breaks the monatany that you can run into.
I took a different approach to drow, I created my own campiagn world back in high school, it's slowly been evolving and changing over the last few years. Specifically in the last 2 years, drow in my world are a lot different than anywhere i'veready. They don't worship Loth, the females do not rule the society the males do, and they at one point of the worlds history were actually able to conquer it with the help of the Dark Powers that they do serve. They also have a brand of magic unique to them. I'm actually hoping to publish what i've been creating with Wizards of the Coast. But my point is that i took a different approach and created a different setting. The drow influence in the world history i've written up has littereally shaped the current history of my world. As a result of their influence some races have gained racial abilities based on the influence of the drow empire, though currently in the history that was a couple thousand years long past. Drow can be a great race, yeah they do get overplayed a bit and everyone goes drizzt happy (who is a great character in my opinion). But as with any race it jsut depends on how you use them. I try to avoid hte typical cliche's and always do soemthing new and different. It breaks the monatany that you can run into.
Gothmog
First Post
I haven't used drow in my games in probably 10 years, for three main reasons:
#1 Extreme overexposure. Back in 1e and 2e, you couldn't swing a dead cat by the tail before you hit some drow scampering around. Now it seems like every adventure in Dungeon, and every published adventure allude to or contain drow, and there are at least 10 sourcebooks by 3rd party publishers out for them! They used to at least be SOMEWHAT interesting before the dozens of sourcebooks and novels defined every aspect of their lives and culture. And the more I read, the more bored I became. Then the Drizzt books came out, and everybody started trying to emulate him with lame characters. Drizzt wasn't even compelling or interesting as a character- just a twinked out loner character with an even more annoying angst problem than any Vampire:The Masquerade book could ever hope to emulate.
#2 Sexy evil badass syndrome. This is just plain stupid, and extremely juvenile. Drow could have been presented as something much more terrifying and interesting like the legendary dockalfar or unseelie. Instead, we get horny dominatrixes in barely concealing spider motif outfits. Yes, I know the main market for D&D are teen and early 20s males with often poor social skills and who are sexually frustrated, but that is just sad and contributes even more to the socially inept loser stereotype gamers have. I know this will probably tick some people off, but the worst is that there are a lot of rather sad, pathetic gamers I have met who see themselves as the mysterious, morally gray badass loner who everyone fears and admires (aka Batman psychosis) when in reality they are the antithesis of those things- and those people ALWAYS play drow. I mean escapism is fine and can be fun, but there comes a point where it starts to get creepy when that is the ONLY thing someone can identify themselves with. I refuse to play with such people because they NEVER work together, always try to upstage other players, and have the most obnoxious and odious personal habits I've ever seen.
#3 Drow are elves, therefore they are lame. Enough said.
Now Duergar, Kuo-toa, Illithids, and Aboleth? Those are cool. I've replaced the drow in my games with a Morloch-like race (the vorshiar) that have a strong caste system that breeds their own race and certain beasts for various specialized tasks, and are strongly cannibalistic. They have a truly alien mindset, and the lower castes have almost no sense of identity, so they are willing to sacrifice thousands of lives for seemingly minor goals. They have creeped out and caused more loathing in my players than some prettyboy pervert elf with a spider fetish ever could.
#1 Extreme overexposure. Back in 1e and 2e, you couldn't swing a dead cat by the tail before you hit some drow scampering around. Now it seems like every adventure in Dungeon, and every published adventure allude to or contain drow, and there are at least 10 sourcebooks by 3rd party publishers out for them! They used to at least be SOMEWHAT interesting before the dozens of sourcebooks and novels defined every aspect of their lives and culture. And the more I read, the more bored I became. Then the Drizzt books came out, and everybody started trying to emulate him with lame characters. Drizzt wasn't even compelling or interesting as a character- just a twinked out loner character with an even more annoying angst problem than any Vampire:The Masquerade book could ever hope to emulate.
#2 Sexy evil badass syndrome. This is just plain stupid, and extremely juvenile. Drow could have been presented as something much more terrifying and interesting like the legendary dockalfar or unseelie. Instead, we get horny dominatrixes in barely concealing spider motif outfits. Yes, I know the main market for D&D are teen and early 20s males with often poor social skills and who are sexually frustrated, but that is just sad and contributes even more to the socially inept loser stereotype gamers have. I know this will probably tick some people off, but the worst is that there are a lot of rather sad, pathetic gamers I have met who see themselves as the mysterious, morally gray badass loner who everyone fears and admires (aka Batman psychosis) when in reality they are the antithesis of those things- and those people ALWAYS play drow. I mean escapism is fine and can be fun, but there comes a point where it starts to get creepy when that is the ONLY thing someone can identify themselves with. I refuse to play with such people because they NEVER work together, always try to upstage other players, and have the most obnoxious and odious personal habits I've ever seen.
#3 Drow are elves, therefore they are lame. Enough said.
Now Duergar, Kuo-toa, Illithids, and Aboleth? Those are cool. I've replaced the drow in my games with a Morloch-like race (the vorshiar) that have a strong caste system that breeds their own race and certain beasts for various specialized tasks, and are strongly cannibalistic. They have a truly alien mindset, and the lower castes have almost no sense of identity, so they are willing to sacrifice thousands of lives for seemingly minor goals. They have creeped out and caused more loathing in my players than some prettyboy pervert elf with a spider fetish ever could.
Last edited:
Dark Jezter
First Post
Gothmog said:
Now I think that's a bit of a stretch. Sure, I do get annoyed by Drizzt's angsting and moralizing, but to compare him to a V:TM character is unfair both to the character and R.A. Salvartore.
Can't argue with that.
Don't go spreading rumors....Psion said:
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
dontpunkme said:
This hit the nail square on the head. When the drow first appeared in the course of the epic GDQ series of modules, they were an unknown quantity. They were sinister and arcane, and hinted of ancient mysteries and long-forgotten feuds.
They were much cooler in smaller doses.
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