Empedocles
2012-04-21, 11:56 PM
Ah, the drow. A classic cesspool of sexiness, spiders, and Driz'zt ripoffs. How we love thee! Unfortunately, IMO it calls for a rewrite, for the issues with the drow are manyfold. For one, it has +2 LA. That's the biggest thing. Second, everyone who plays one, for some strange reason, likes to have two scimitars and take levels as a ranger. I wonder why...
Actually, this drow rewrite might not do much for the 2nd problem, but hopefully I can make them a little more sinister and cool. I'll put in some designer's notes, since I feel a little awkward with this into... Also, I am making this LA 0. Promise.
The Drow
http://i.imgur.com/cLKxR.png
The drow. Dark elves. A beautiful but sadistic race. Elegant in their vindictiveness and feared for their heartlessness. The drow are among the most widely hated races in the multiverse, perceived as a new incarnation of demon by the ignorant masses. They live in a brutal society, filled with backstabbing, poison and murder.
Personality: Drow can appear to be charming, but it's no secret that they are incredibly violent. A drow will just as soon murder his comrade then slaughter a wandering soldier, and will do either with no qualms. Many view them as incapable of true love - although this isn't strictly true - simply because of how cold they can be. A drow cares about very little, and if acting normally is mostly just indifferent.
Designer's Notes: Honestly, the fluff for drow is largely unchanged. This is largely a mechanical redesign.
Appearance: Drow are shorter and more muscular then normal elves, which still makes them a little bit taller then humans and slightly more lithe then them as well. They are well known for their dark skin, which ranges from purple to almost black, and their pure, pupil less eyes.
Designer's Notes: Drow just wouldn't be drow if I changed their appearance...
Relations: No one really likes the drow. Most of the normal, surface dwelling races will attack them on sight. Svirfneblin and duergar occasionally create tentative alliances with the drow, but these are fragile at best and result in massacres at worst. Relationships with the elves are especially bad, and the two races are sworn enemies.
Alignment: Almost all drow are evil. Neutral drow are excessively rare, and good drow all but unheard of.
Drow Lands: Drow dwell in massive underground cities in a realm known as the underdark. Some clans have recently decided that this is too isolated however, and tried to move to the surface. The hostility of the surface races has made these attempts largely unsuccessful.
Drow Racial Traits
+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution.
Medium. As medium creatures drow have no special bonuses or penalties based on size.
Base land speed is 30 feet.
Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds drow for 1 round. In subsequent rounds, the drow are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.
Poison Use: A drow can use poison without any chance of poisoning himself.
Vile Empathy: This ability functions identically to the wild empathy ability of the druid, but it effects vermin instead of animals.
Battle Magician: Drow arcane spellcasters are famous for their arcane warriors, and therefore have a 10% reduction of the arcane spell failure chance for any light armor they wear. This is reduced to 5% for medium armor, and does not apply to heavy armor. Drow can also use bucklers without it causing an arcane spell failure chance.
Weapon Proficiencies: Drow are automatically proficient with rapiers and hand crossbows.
+2 racial bonus on all Hide, Tumble, and Move Silently checks.
Darkvision 60 feet.
Automatic Languages: Common, Undercommon. Bonus Languages: Any.
Favored Class: Duskblade.
Designer's Notes: The favored class warrants some explaining. I envisioned this as a sort of mobile gish race, focused largely on melee but with spellcasting capabilities. That's the normal concept, anyways. Obviously, beguilers, assassins, rogues, scouts, fighters, and full casters are all viable build choices (conceptually, anyways). I'm going to add duskblade substitution levels to make it less of a fighter/wizard and more of a rogue/wizard.
Not sure about how this came out. Feedback is appreciated.
Actually, this drow rewrite might not do much for the 2nd problem, but hopefully I can make them a little more sinister and cool. I'll put in some designer's notes, since I feel a little awkward with this into... Also, I am making this LA 0. Promise.
The Drow
http://i.imgur.com/cLKxR.png
The drow. Dark elves. A beautiful but sadistic race. Elegant in their vindictiveness and feared for their heartlessness. The drow are among the most widely hated races in the multiverse, perceived as a new incarnation of demon by the ignorant masses. They live in a brutal society, filled with backstabbing, poison and murder.
Personality: Drow can appear to be charming, but it's no secret that they are incredibly violent. A drow will just as soon murder his comrade then slaughter a wandering soldier, and will do either with no qualms. Many view them as incapable of true love - although this isn't strictly true - simply because of how cold they can be. A drow cares about very little, and if acting normally is mostly just indifferent.
Designer's Notes: Honestly, the fluff for drow is largely unchanged. This is largely a mechanical redesign.
Appearance: Drow are shorter and more muscular then normal elves, which still makes them a little bit taller then humans and slightly more lithe then them as well. They are well known for their dark skin, which ranges from purple to almost black, and their pure, pupil less eyes.
Designer's Notes: Drow just wouldn't be drow if I changed their appearance...
Relations: No one really likes the drow. Most of the normal, surface dwelling races will attack them on sight. Svirfneblin and duergar occasionally create tentative alliances with the drow, but these are fragile at best and result in massacres at worst. Relationships with the elves are especially bad, and the two races are sworn enemies.
Alignment: Almost all drow are evil. Neutral drow are excessively rare, and good drow all but unheard of.
Drow Lands: Drow dwell in massive underground cities in a realm known as the underdark. Some clans have recently decided that this is too isolated however, and tried to move to the surface. The hostility of the surface races has made these attempts largely unsuccessful.
Drow Racial Traits
+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution.
Medium. As medium creatures drow have no special bonuses or penalties based on size.
Base land speed is 30 feet.
Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds drow for 1 round. In subsequent rounds, the drow are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.
Poison Use: A drow can use poison without any chance of poisoning himself.
Vile Empathy: This ability functions identically to the wild empathy ability of the druid, but it effects vermin instead of animals.
Battle Magician: Drow arcane spellcasters are famous for their arcane warriors, and therefore have a 10% reduction of the arcane spell failure chance for any light armor they wear. This is reduced to 5% for medium armor, and does not apply to heavy armor. Drow can also use bucklers without it causing an arcane spell failure chance.
Weapon Proficiencies: Drow are automatically proficient with rapiers and hand crossbows.
+2 racial bonus on all Hide, Tumble, and Move Silently checks.
Darkvision 60 feet.
Automatic Languages: Common, Undercommon. Bonus Languages: Any.
Favored Class: Duskblade.
Designer's Notes: The favored class warrants some explaining. I envisioned this as a sort of mobile gish race, focused largely on melee but with spellcasting capabilities. That's the normal concept, anyways. Obviously, beguilers, assassins, rogues, scouts, fighters, and full casters are all viable build choices (conceptually, anyways). I'm going to add duskblade substitution levels to make it less of a fighter/wizard and more of a rogue/wizard.
Not sure about how this came out. Feedback is appreciated.