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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Samuel Leming" data-source="post: 2589003" data-attributes="member: 16462">If memory serves, drow hate started in mid 1985 following the publication of the Unearthed Arcana for first edition AD&D.   Using those rules, drow characters could fight with two weapons without penalty.  Male dark elves were also able to reach 10th level if multi-classed or 12 level if single class as fighters or rangers with a Str score of 15 or above(Female drow could reach 12th or 14th level).  Dwarves could only reach 9th/11th, and then only if they had 18/100 Str.  Only half-orcs and humans reached higher fighter levels.  Yep, I saw a steady stream of drow fighters and rangers after that, usually wielding two long swords(I only saw twin scimitars in games where the DM used weapon speed factors since the long sword was better against large opponents).  It didn’t take long for many DMs to just flat out outlaw drow.The Crystal Shard(as far as I know this was Drizzt’s first appearance) wasn’t published until early 1988.  The source of this character’s inspiration was obvious, so he was more a symptom of the problem than the problem itself.  That was until 2E and the horde of copy cat fan-boys became an even worse problem.  If I remember correctly, Drizzt would have been mauled in his first encounter in that story if  Bruenor hadn’t rescued him.  Things change when a character becomes popular.  Has anyone else heard the term "Wolverine Syndrome"?So, yeah, overused in settings and seeing the same character played over and over again.The next time I run a campaign, if I include drow at all, I’ll go further back to the drow’s roots and vary which demon prince or lord any given group of drow worship.  Picture the drow paying homage to Orcus(undead), Yeenoghu(hyenas) or even Juiblex(slimes) rather than Lolth(spiders).  DMs did this quite often in the early eighties, so I’m not being original here.Spoiler:[spoiler]Drow rhymes with cow.  Like in "drowsy".<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />[/spoiler]Sam</blockquote>

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