Variant Dark Elves [PEACH]

[Lord Iames Osari]

The dark elves of Tyrath are the descendants of those elves who fled underground to escape the Great Curse and fell under the thrall of the illithids. Over generations of being experimented on by their masters, the dark elves developed psionic powers.

Dark elves lose the following abilities from the Monster Manual:

All spell-like abilities. Dark elves gain or change the following abilities:

Weapon Proficiency: Dark elves automatically gain the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat for the rapier and shortsword. This ability replaces the weapon proficencies listed in the Monster Manual.
Weapon Familiarity: Dark elves wield the duom/penumbran spear as a martial weapon.
Psi-like Abilities: 1/day–control light, eradicate invisibility. The manifester level for these effects is equal to the dark elf’s number of Hit Dice.

[Matthew]

I too find Dark Elves or Drow to be a bit sucky in 3.0 and I'm aware that I'm not alone! I don't think this does them enough justice, but it depends what you are aiming for. Do you want them to be overwhelmingly powerful in their native Under Dark, as in 2.0, or do you want them to just be more like the other Elf subraces? I suspect the latter. Wikipedia does a reasonably entertaining job of presenting the problems inherent in this 'race' and whas it has become.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Elves
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drow

Personally, I fall into the category of wanting to make them more like the Dark Elves of War Hammer (indeed, the 'Dark Elves' of my own longlived homebrewed campaign are exactly that). Still, I do enjoy a bit of Forgotten Realms goodness from time to time. My Paladin once found himself in Menzoberranzan back in 2.0... a long story with a fortunate ending.

An Associated Thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=gaming;action=display;num=1153794164

[BelkarsDagger]

This would go in the new Homebrew Creations forum.

[Lord Iames Osari]

I'm trying to create a balanced variant in line with the primary version of dark elves.

@ OZ: Yes, I know. I posted this before the reorganization, and the mods haven't gotten to it yet.

[Lord Iames Osari]

And behold, here it is. Bumping post-reorg.

[BelkarsDagger]

Oh, sorry about that...

Anyway, this has taken away much of the Clicheness of the drow. I ahve no clue what a duom is, but as far as I can see it's pretty good.

[Lord Iames Osari]

A duom is a spear-like weapon from either the A&EG or Complete Warrior. It's basically a long spear with a pair of blades that curve back toward the wielder, allowing them to strike adjacent enemies.

Like this:
A
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/|\
/ | \
( | )
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[The Vorpal Tribble]

What would these guy's LA be?

[Lord Iames Osari]

Same as the old ones. That's what I'm aiming for, at any rate.