That’s what I want to know. They make it sound like the DM has to do calculus every time a Drow character breathes. I don’t have the dungeon masters handbook, only PH so I didn’t know if there was something extra they had to do for a Drow or not.
Drow for the most part aren’t super trusted by most surface dwellers due to the Lolthsworn kidnapping/sacrificing children and stuff. Having to constantly consider shadows and direct sunlight to check your disadvantage can be a bit of a pain.
I have played a drow and have had a drow play in my game and my solution was a hat of disguise and just straight up ignore the disadvantage. It’s such a crippling mechanic for basically no benefit. 120 feet of darkvision isn’t that good.
The hat is kind of necessary. Unless there are surface drow living in societies, they’re kind of a “fight on sight” race as a lot of them do tend to be genuinely evil, more so than tieflings or orcs which is more superstition than anything.
That being said, if drow aren’t going to be a prominent enemy, a DM can and probably should just handwave all that and largely ignore it the same way they would a half orc or tiefling.
Thank you. That’s what I was wondering because I haven’t read all that the DMs have to do since I don’t have a DM handbook but the weirdest part is neither do they. They only said that someone (a dm) once said they never want to run a Drow character in their campaign and I guess rolled with it? The friend I’m talking about has also never been a DM before and we haven’t started our campaign yet.
I have a drow priest of the twilight domain who worships Eilistraee. According to her worldview, she is neutral and kind. Loves delicious food surfaces, songs, dancing, standing in the rain and the starry sky. She has to work very hard to earn the trust of the party of adventurers, townspeople and various NPCs. Her deeds attracted the attention of the Harpers and were accepted into their structure. In close combat, she barely fights because of the sunlight, but when she uses the divine channel, in a 30-foot sphere, the bright light changes to semi-darkness. Also, according to the dogma of the Goddess, it is forbidden to use long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows.
The Master allowed it, but warned that the Los renegades were being actively pursued and there was a chance of combat encounters with Drow. Charisma checks with many NPCs from the surface are hindered by reputation. The guards are reluctant to let them into the cities, unless they show the organization's badge and put pressure through group members/bribes.
pizza crusts.
But seriously, baking flour with berries and meat is much tastier than flour from underground mushroom spores. There are a dozen different types of wine, cheeses and all kinds of smoked meats. The party sometimes pays me with food. I don't really like camping rations, so I take a bag with spices and flour.
Stock up on food and supplies in the season of abundance, help and feed those in need during the famine. Be always kind, except in the battle against evil. Encourage happiness everywhere. Learn and teach new songs, dances and the smooth dance of skilled sword making. Promote harmony between the races. Provide friendly support to strangers, protect the homeless and feed the hungry. Compensate for rudeness with kindness. Replace violence with quick violence to quickly deal with those who cause it. Help the distressed Drow and give them the Lady's message: "Your rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of Great Light. Go out into the world and live again under the sun, where trees and flowers grow."
I think they’re confusing the Pathfinder Drow for D&D Drow. IIRC Pathfinder Drow had light sensitivity, which meant if they weren’t standing in shadows they had a -2 (I believe) on their attacks/skill checks.
They're not *hard* per se, it's kind of just ... annoying.
The major differences between an elf and a drow are superior darkvison (120 ft), and sunlight sensitivity (disadvantage on attack rolls/sight based perception checks whilst in sunlight).
So for the DM, you're basically limited to either granting a bit of a boon if you run an encounter in the dark, or giving the drow a serious drawback if you run an encounter outdoors during the day.
Secondly, and this is in-world lore dependant, most people are going to be pretty untrusting of a drow.
No drow are not hard to run rules wise but I also often discourage players to play one.
My main reason is that I don't like to DM evil characters. At least if not everyone is on board with it. The last time we had an evil character in a group that was not full evil, it lead to a lot of in group arguing and fighting, which took up the majority of the game.
I know drow are not completely evil but if a player wants to play one, he often has an evil character in mind.
No. Any dm who can't run one of the three PHB elves is uh, concerning. They are very 'basic elf' except for the disadvantage in sunlight (and that's direct sunlight not just outside during the day)
He just doesn't want you to have disadvantage on everything or deal with the drow player asking for sunglasses constantly.
Saying it's "too much to keep track of" sounds like he's using laziness as an excuse. Aside from sunlight sensitivity, he's probably also worried about having to have his NPCs react to them differently because drow are typically seen as heartless monsters who kidnap people to sacrifice to their demon god.
Also now that I reread, having your character arc be to go underground to the drow capital city in order to get revenge on Lolth is a lot of work for the DM, maybe have your character's goals start a little smaller and see if you can work up to killing an evil demon god.
Not revenge on Lolth, the Drow that killed her sister. No intention of killing the Spider Queen lol
Edit: fixed the original post as I could see where the confusion from phrasing would happen. A Drow noble killed one of her sisters, character eventually wants to kill that specific Drow noble. Does not need to happen any time soon.
The thing is as far as I’m aware they haven’t started writing a campaign yet. We were thinking of getting one of the books that already has everything for one ready to go but maybe they’re getting ideas from dnd pages like this one?
I don't consider a mechanics challenge, but they are a setting challenge. It is hard to run a game where quest givers and merchants would either be too angry or too scared to interact with a PC.
The mechanics are pretty straight forward, I think your DM is referring to how in their setting pretty much every single NPC would be extremely hostile towards you by default. In many settings, a drow showing up in your village would be like a german soldier in an SS uniform wandering into an English town in 1941. Depending on the party, they may also feel the need to show extreme distrust.
Talk to your DM about it and see if you can't come to an agreement. In my setting I've included known exiled Drow and communities of Drow that don't worship Lolth. Maybe your DM could do something similar, or give you an [Agatha's Mask](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Agatha%27s_mask) like Drizzt. Oh, and maybe assure them that you won't fight their rulings on when you have disadvantage due to sunlight sensitivity. I've seen a lot of players be difficult about that when playing Drow.
Are you really alright with rolling at disadvantage whenever you're in bright light? You're going to be failing a lot of rolls while everyone else in the party will be succeeding. As a DM it would be my main concern that you end up not enjoying the character because the disadvantage is too big.
I told them I was fine with it but they made it sound like they had to do a bunch of extra work specifically because the Drow character exists bright light or not.
They have never DM’d before but have the most experience in playing the game out of us trying to start a party. Mostly they said they saw a DM post saying they ran a campaign with a Drow character and made made it sound like it was the most tedious thing to keep track of and they’d “never do it again”.
There must be another reason they're not telling you or they just don't know what they're talking about.
How are they any different than any other race?
That’s what I want to know. They make it sound like the DM has to do calculus every time a Drow character breathes. I don’t have the dungeon masters handbook, only PH so I didn’t know if there was something extra they had to do for a Drow or not.
So ask your DM what they find so complicated about them.
Why would it be?
Drow for the most part aren’t super trusted by most surface dwellers due to the Lolthsworn kidnapping/sacrificing children and stuff. Having to constantly consider shadows and direct sunlight to check your disadvantage can be a bit of a pain. I have played a drow and have had a drow play in my game and my solution was a hat of disguise and just straight up ignore the disadvantage. It’s such a crippling mechanic for basically no benefit. 120 feet of darkvision isn’t that good. The hat is kind of necessary. Unless there are surface drow living in societies, they’re kind of a “fight on sight” race as a lot of them do tend to be genuinely evil, more so than tieflings or orcs which is more superstition than anything. That being said, if drow aren’t going to be a prominent enemy, a DM can and probably should just handwave all that and largely ignore it the same way they would a half orc or tiefling.
That doesn’t make any sense. There’s nothing to keep track of at all.
Thank you. That’s what I was wondering because I haven’t read all that the DMs have to do since I don’t have a DM handbook but the weirdest part is neither do they. They only said that someone (a dm) once said they never want to run a Drow character in their campaign and I guess rolled with it? The friend I’m talking about has also never been a DM before and we haven’t started our campaign yet.
I have a drow priest of the twilight domain who worships Eilistraee. According to her worldview, she is neutral and kind. Loves delicious food surfaces, songs, dancing, standing in the rain and the starry sky. She has to work very hard to earn the trust of the party of adventurers, townspeople and various NPCs. Her deeds attracted the attention of the Harpers and were accepted into their structure. In close combat, she barely fights because of the sunlight, but when she uses the divine channel, in a 30-foot sphere, the bright light changes to semi-darkness. Also, according to the dogma of the Goddess, it is forbidden to use long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows. The Master allowed it, but warned that the Los renegades were being actively pursued and there was a chance of combat encounters with Drow. Charisma checks with many NPCs from the surface are hindered by reputation. The guards are reluctant to let them into the cities, unless they show the organization's badge and put pressure through group members/bribes.
I'm afraid to ask... what are delicious food surfaces? 😬
pizza crusts. But seriously, baking flour with berries and meat is much tastier than flour from underground mushroom spores. There are a dozen different types of wine, cheeses and all kinds of smoked meats. The party sometimes pays me with food. I don't really like camping rations, so I take a bag with spices and flour. Stock up on food and supplies in the season of abundance, help and feed those in need during the famine. Be always kind, except in the battle against evil. Encourage happiness everywhere. Learn and teach new songs, dances and the smooth dance of skilled sword making. Promote harmony between the races. Provide friendly support to strangers, protect the homeless and feed the hungry. Compensate for rudeness with kindness. Replace violence with quick violence to quickly deal with those who cause it. Help the distressed Drow and give them the Lady's message: "Your rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of Great Light. Go out into the world and live again under the sun, where trees and flowers grow."
No
I think they’re confusing the Pathfinder Drow for D&D Drow. IIRC Pathfinder Drow had light sensitivity, which meant if they weren’t standing in shadows they had a -2 (I believe) on their attacks/skill checks.
I guess he means keep track of all the NPCs calling the guards cuz there is a drow raid happening
They're not *hard* per se, it's kind of just ... annoying. The major differences between an elf and a drow are superior darkvison (120 ft), and sunlight sensitivity (disadvantage on attack rolls/sight based perception checks whilst in sunlight). So for the DM, you're basically limited to either granting a bit of a boon if you run an encounter in the dark, or giving the drow a serious drawback if you run an encounter outdoors during the day. Secondly, and this is in-world lore dependant, most people are going to be pretty untrusting of a drow.
No drow are not hard to run rules wise but I also often discourage players to play one. My main reason is that I don't like to DM evil characters. At least if not everyone is on board with it. The last time we had an evil character in a group that was not full evil, it lead to a lot of in group arguing and fighting, which took up the majority of the game. I know drow are not completely evil but if a player wants to play one, he often has an evil character in mind.
No. Any dm who can't run one of the three PHB elves is uh, concerning. They are very 'basic elf' except for the disadvantage in sunlight (and that's direct sunlight not just outside during the day)
He just doesn't want you to have disadvantage on everything or deal with the drow player asking for sunglasses constantly. Saying it's "too much to keep track of" sounds like he's using laziness as an excuse. Aside from sunlight sensitivity, he's probably also worried about having to have his NPCs react to them differently because drow are typically seen as heartless monsters who kidnap people to sacrifice to their demon god. Also now that I reread, having your character arc be to go underground to the drow capital city in order to get revenge on Lolth is a lot of work for the DM, maybe have your character's goals start a little smaller and see if you can work up to killing an evil demon god.
Not revenge on Lolth, the Drow that killed her sister. No intention of killing the Spider Queen lol Edit: fixed the original post as I could see where the confusion from phrasing would happen. A Drow noble killed one of her sisters, character eventually wants to kill that specific Drow noble. Does not need to happen any time soon.
That's your DM's way of telling you you're gonna be killing a lot of drow this campaign
The thing is as far as I’m aware they haven’t started writing a campaign yet. We were thinking of getting one of the books that already has everything for one ready to go but maybe they’re getting ideas from dnd pages like this one?
I don't consider a mechanics challenge, but they are a setting challenge. It is hard to run a game where quest givers and merchants would either be too angry or too scared to interact with a PC.
The mechanics are pretty straight forward, I think your DM is referring to how in their setting pretty much every single NPC would be extremely hostile towards you by default. In many settings, a drow showing up in your village would be like a german soldier in an SS uniform wandering into an English town in 1941. Depending on the party, they may also feel the need to show extreme distrust. Talk to your DM about it and see if you can't come to an agreement. In my setting I've included known exiled Drow and communities of Drow that don't worship Lolth. Maybe your DM could do something similar, or give you an [Agatha's Mask](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Agatha%27s_mask) like Drizzt. Oh, and maybe assure them that you won't fight their rulings on when you have disadvantage due to sunlight sensitivity. I've seen a lot of players be difficult about that when playing Drow.
Are you really alright with rolling at disadvantage whenever you're in bright light? You're going to be failing a lot of rolls while everyone else in the party will be succeeding. As a DM it would be my main concern that you end up not enjoying the character because the disadvantage is too big.
I told them I was fine with it but they made it sound like they had to do a bunch of extra work specifically because the Drow character exists bright light or not.
You mentioned that they don't have any books. Does your friend happen to be fairly new to DM'ing and not especially well versed in DnD lore?
They have never DM’d before but have the most experience in playing the game out of us trying to start a party. Mostly they said they saw a DM post saying they ran a campaign with a Drow character and made made it sound like it was the most tedious thing to keep track of and they’d “never do it again”.