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Zipding
2009-09-19, 07:43 PM
This is the first official thread for DnD Remix. This one is on the drow race. I think it might be interesting to have 2 types of elves as a playable character equal to a level 1 PC in the main rules.
This is what I have for it:
+2 Cha, -2 Wis-Drow get along with many other races. Although they do not understand as much as others
Favoured Class: Cleric

These are the different catergories:
Weapon Proficiencies: Should Drow get extra weapon proficiencies?
Skill Bonuses: Are drow better at some skills than others?
Attack Bonuses: Should drow get bonuses depending on what weapon they have?
Save Bonuses: Should drow get a natural bonus to saving throws?
Spell-Like Abilities: Do drow get spell-like abilities?
Spell Resistance: Should drow get any sort of resistance to spells?

Shpadoinkle
2009-09-19, 08:27 PM
I came up with this a while ago, but I never fleshed it out beyond this.

First I'd drop the "they all live underground, worship some bat**** insane spider freak, and have jet-black skin and white hair* thing.

Next, I'd make them essentialy atheistic- they got burned too bad by Corellon to be able to put thier trust in any of the gods. While they can still technically be clerics and paladins, almost all of them would be clerics of an ideal, not a deity (note this IS allowed in the core rules). As far as the dark skin and white hair goes, I'd replace it with something else- maybe a birthmark resembling a scar on thier face.

There would be many, many wizards among them- they'd be driven by a desire for revenge or retribution against Corellon, and seek magical power as a means to exact it. ALTERNATELY, they might simply shun magic altogether, both divine and arcane, somehow creating then living in a large dead-magic zone. Either way, they'd have pretty much rejected the gods altogether. Corellon rejected them, and Loth lost her battle against him. There might be an evil deity or two who takes an interest in them, but the drow would be wary, distrustful, and reluctant to have anything to do with them, due to thier history with divine beings.

Extremely xenophobic and ruthless- thier history makes it clear that you cannot rely on anyone else, and others are not to be trusted. Slavery would probably be common, especially for outsides who happened to wander into ther territory, but outright murder of each other, while not unexpected, wouldn't be like an everyday occurance (as canon basically claims it somehow is) either.

If the magicless variant is used, they'd probably be larger and more savage looking than other elves, with long canines and more muscle mass. Magicless drow would probably also pour a lot of effort into scientific and technological research to make up for the disparity.

Zipding
2009-09-19, 08:30 PM
Interesting, completely different than what I was looking for, but still very helpful. Thanks.:smallbiggrin:

Ponce
2009-09-19, 08:48 PM
Do something about the whole Drow Spider Priestess thing. They're supposed to be SUPER SCARY but Drow make TERRIBLE clerics.

Zipding
2009-09-19, 10:19 PM
Like a bonus to Intimidate? That would make sense. Also, with what you said, maybe a change in favoured class. If there is anything else, that would be appreciated.

Jane_Smith
2009-09-20, 12:59 AM
These are the racial traits for the Sun and Night elves of my game world I am doing. Basically - night elves/drow are not evil. Sun elves got to arrogent and drew first blood, and caused a civil war that has left both races seeking the blood of the others till this day (Their effectively +1 la in normal dnd games - 0 in mine.)


Sun elves entire soceity is based on arcane magic, light, and archery. No proper sun elf gets their hands dirty, of course.


~~~~~~~~~~Sun Elves~~~~~~~~~~~


Sun Elf Racial Traits
- +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Constitution. Sun elves are nimble, both in body and mind, but their form is frail.
- Medium: Sun elves are Medium creatures, and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Normal Speed: Sun elves have a base speed of 30 feet.
- Low-Light Vision: Sun elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of poor illumination.
- Keen Senses: Sun elves receive a +2 bonus on Listen, Search and Spot checks. They can make a Search check to spot a secret or concealed object if they pass within 10 feet of it, regardless of whether or not they are actively looking.
- Sun Elven Immunities: Sun elves are immune to magical sleep effects and get a +2 racial saving throw bonus against mind affecting spells or effects.
- Sun Elven Magic: Sun elves may select a single cantrip and a single 1st level spell from the sorcerer or wizard spell list. They gain the ability to use the cantrip as a spell-like ability usable at will, and the 1st level spell as a spell-like ability usable once per day, using their character level as their effective caster level. They gain a +2 bonus to Spellcraft checks, and treat it as a class skill.
- Weapon Familiarity: Sun elves are proficient with longbows (including composite longbows), longswords, rapiers, shortbows (including composite shortbows), shortswords, and treat any wapon with the word "elven" in its name as a martial weapon.
- Languages: Sun elves begin play speaking Common and Elven. Elves with high Intelligence scores can choose any of the following: Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc and Sylvan.
- Favored Class: The favored class of sun elves is ranger or wizard. This choice must be made at 1st level and cannot be changed.



Night elves prefere words and subtetly, their nocternal and predatory instincts also making them skilled assassins in close combat and stalking others. Their soceity is obviously night/darkness themed, but again, not nessicarly evil. They just are more active at night, and prefere clothing to blend in such enviroments. They do not live under ground, either - though some make outposts/small hamlets near or inside caves...

~~~~~~~~~~Night Elves~~~~~~~~~~

Night Elf Racial Traits
- +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution. Night elves are nimble, both in body and tongue, but their form is frail.
- Medium: Night elves are Medium creatures, and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Normal Speed: Night elves have a base speed of 30 feet.
- Darkvision 60 ft.: Night elves can see clearly in darkness up to 60 feet.
- Keen Senses: Night elves receive a +2 bonus on Listen, Search and Spot checks. They can make a Search check to spot a secret or concealed object if they pass within 10 feet of it, regardless of whether or not they are actively looking.
- Night Elf Immunities: Night elves are immune to magical sleep effects and get a +2 racial saving throw bonus against all spells and spell-like abilities.
- Spell Resistance: Night elves have an innate resistance to magic that grants them spell resistance equal to their character level + 11.
- Weapon Familiarity: Night elves are proficient with daggers, hand crossbows, light crossbows, rapiers, shortswords, whips, and treat any wapon with the word "elven" in its name as a martial weapon.
- Languages: Night elves begin play speaking Common and Elven. Night elves with high Intelligence scores can choose any of the following: Abyssal, Draconic, Dwarven, Gnome, Goblin, and Orc.
- Favored Class: The favored class of night elves is rogue or sorcerer. This choice must be made at 1st level and cannot be changed.


With only two types of very different elves in exsistance, their is only two types of half-elves, each other more varying traits.

Half Sun Elf: Low-Light Vision, +2 saves vs. enchantments, a cantrip usable at will. (Gave them this to balance them a bit due to the night-descended half-elves having better senses and a more wide-spread save bonus)

Half Night Elf: Darkvision, +2 saves vs. all spells and spell-like abilities.

~~~~~~~~~~Half Elves~~~~~~~~~~

Choose one type of elf that is one of the parent races the half elf is related to: Sun Elf or Night Elf.

Half-elf Racial Traits
- +2 to one ability score: Half-elf characters get a bonus on one ability score of their choice at 1st level, to represent their varied nature. This choice cannot be changed.
- Medium: Half-elves are Medium creatures, and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Normal Speed: Half-elves have a base speed of 30 feet.
- Low-Light Vision/Darkvision: Half-elves of sun elven descent gain Low-Light vision and can see twice as far as humans in conditions of poor illumination, while those of night elven descent gain Darkvision out to a range of 60 feet instead.
- Keen Senses: Half-elves receive a +2 bonus on Listen, Spot and Search checks. They can make a Perception check to spot a secret or concealed door if they pass within 10 feet, regardless of whether or not they are actively looking.
- Sun/Night Elven Immunities: Half-elves are immune to magic sleep effects. If they are sun elven descent, they get a +2 racial saving throw bonus against mind affecting spells or effects. If they are of night elven descent, they instead gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against all spells and spell-like abilities.
- Sun Elven Magic: Half-elves born of sun-elven descent gain the ability to select a single cantrip from the wiz/sorc spell list. They gain the ability to cast this spell as a spell-like ability usable at will, with a caster level equaling their character level. The DC is charisma based.
- Adaptability: Half-elves receive Skill Focus, as a bonus feat, at 1st level.
- Elf Blood: Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.
- Weapon Training: Half-elves are proficient with any one martial weapon of their choice, in addition to those granted by class proficiencies. This weapon must by chosen at 1st level and cannot be changed.
- Languages: Half-elves begin play speaking Common and Elven. Half-elves with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic).
- Favored Class: Half-elves can choose any one class as their favored class at 1st level. Once made, this choice cannot be changed.


Hope these give you more ideas. :D

Zipding
2009-09-20, 09:02 AM
Hmmmm. Interesting. I'll definitley put in Darkvision and probably drop 2 of the weapon familiarity weapons because they are simple weapons, not exotic

Amiel
2009-09-20, 10:15 AM
A cleric relies on Wisdom to cast spells (to the extent that the minimum Wis needed to cast a cleric spell is 10 + the spell's level), gain bonus spells and is generally their most important ability score; however, you give them a -2 penalty and have the cleric set as their favored class, any particular reasons?

Also, comprehension and the like generally falls under the subset of Intelligence - as it determines how well the character learns and reasons - rather than Wisdom, which governs things like willpower, perception, common sense and intuition.

More information is also needed.

Zipding
2009-09-20, 10:40 AM
Well, this is what I have so far:
+2 Cha, -2 -
+2 Intimidate
Weapon Familiarity: Drow are proficient with the dagger, handcrossbow, light crossbow shortswords and whips. They also treat any weapons with the word "elven" as martial weapons rather than exotic
Darkvision 60ft.
Favoured Class: Cleric

Looking at it, yes there is a problem with the -2 Wis with favoured class as cleric. Stats that might make sense with penalties are Int, Con and Dex.
Also, it needs more than this

Mongoose87
2009-09-20, 10:46 AM
Well, they are elves - you could give them the traditional -2 to Con.

Amiel
2009-09-20, 10:53 AM
Here's something I prepared earlier. Hope it can give you some ideas! :)

Drow Racial Traits
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, –2 Constitution, +2 Charisma: Drow have, for centuries, ruthlessly bred for agility of body, adroitness of mind and magnetic presence. However, this determined selection has resulted in fragility of form.
Medium: Drow are Medium creatures, and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Drow have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Drow can see with no light source at all and in areas of pitch black darkness out to a distance of 120 feet. This vision is black and white only and cannot penetrate globes of deeper darkness or magical darkness.
Infravision: Alternatively, drow may switch to infravision, vision that allows the drow to see temperature gradients and degrees via temperature eddies. Through this sight, drow are able differentiate between surrounding geological formations and targeted victi...er, creatures. This vision works exactly the way an infrared camera does.
Keen Senses: Drow receive a +2 bonus on sight- and sound-based Perception checks. They can make a Perception check to spot a secret or concealed door if they pass within 10 feet, regardless of whether or not they are actively looking.
Elven Immunities: Drow are immune to magic sleep effects and get a +2 racial saving throw bonus against spells and spell-like abilities.
Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds drow for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.
Dark Magic: Elves receive a +2 racial bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance. In addition, drow receive a +2 racial bonus on Appraise skill checks made to identify the properties of magic items.
Spell Resistance: Drow gain spell resistance equal to 11 + class levels.
Spell-Like Abilities: Drow, even commoners, with a Charisma of 11 or higher can use the following spell-like abilities once per day: dancing lights, darkness, faerie fire. High-born drow, those from aristocratic or royal lineage, can use the above spell-like abilities thrice per day along with levitation 3/day. The caster level equals the drow's level; caster level with feats to boost spell-casting ability can never exceed the drow's total class level. The spell DC is equal to 10 + the spell's level + the drow's Charisma modifier.
Weapon Familiarity: Drow are proficient with daggers, scourges, longswords, rapiers, hand crossbows, short swords, and treat any wapon with the word "drow" in its name as a martial weapon.
Languages: Drow begin play speaking Undercommon and Drow. Drow with high Intelligence scores can choose any of the following: Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Elven, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin.
Favored Class: The favored class of drow is wizard (male) or cleric (female). This choice must be made at 1st level and cannot be changed.
Level Adjustment: +2. Drow are more powerful than normal races and thus advance more slowly as they progress in levels.

Zipding
2009-09-20, 11:14 AM
That's good, but what I'm trying to work with is having the drow with no LA. I'll keep the Infravision, that is interesting. I will drop some of the bonuses to ability scores, having a +4 total bonus on stats makes it a bit overpowered. With all of the races, I am having them all have total bonus of 0. There are some abilities that I will keep in there. Maybe not exact spell resistance, maybe just a bonus to saves against spells and spell-like abilities. Minor spell like abilities aren't so bad, gnomes do have them afterall.

Zipding
2009-09-20, 09:34 PM
You no longer need to post in this thread anymore. All of the information will be in the origional DnD Remix thread. All of the conversation will occure there.