Are Drow Counter-intuitive?

[Bramif]

At 5th level Drow gain the ability to cast the spell Darkness without consuming a spell slot, for free once per day. They also have Superior Darkvision - the immediate thought is that their dark vision makes them able to see in said magical Darkness. It does not. In fact, unless you're a Warlock with Devil's sight, Darkness isn't a great spell full stop. I wanted to make a melee Drow who enters under Darkness and kicks the asses of everyone around. Without going Warlock, how can this be made a reality?

[Ventruenox]

Shadow Sorcerer can cast it at 3rd level, and if cast using Sorcery Points, you can see through the magical darkness created.

[Aett_Thorn]

Shadow Sorcerer can cast it at 3rd level, and if cast using Sorcery Points, you can see through the magical darkness created.

Care to explain?

[Suicune]

I’ve seen it best used as a defensive maneuver - blocking out line of sight against archers and spellcasters, putting it in an enemy’s face and retreating/repositioning, that sort of thing. I don’t think it was intended to be a buff to attacks.

In any case, I think dipping warlock is your only choice if you want to see through darkness - there’s other ways, but they take a lot of investment.

EDIT: Forgot about Shadow Sorc, that also works.

[Ventruenox]

Eyes of the Dark Feature at Shadow Sorc 1: 120' Darkvision. At third level you learn the Darkness Spell and it does not count against the other known spells. You may cast it using 2 Sorcery Points or expending a spell slot. If you use Sorcery Points, you can see through the spell's darkness.

[Aett_Thorn]

Eyes of the Dark Feature at Shadow Sorc 1: 120' Darkvision. At third level you learn the Darkness Spell and it does not count against the other known spells. You may cast it using 2 Sorcery Points or expending a spell slot. If you use Sorcery Points, you can see through the spell's darkness.

Thanks, was thinking that you were somehow thinking Careful Spell worked with it. Hadn’t seen the final version of the Shadow Sorc, so forgot about that.

[CharonsHelper]

If you take the Alert feat you don't gain a Disadvantage from not being able to see your foe's attacks, but unless they also have Alert they would have Disadvantage against you.

You would still need to pass the check to find them etc. So - it's not as good as Blindsight or anything, but it's still pretty dang good.

[lunaticfringe]

It's just Traditional. I wouldn't read too much into it. You can survive being lit on fire, smack with boulders, insane falls.

Drow should be pale AF. Probably blind too.

[Naanomi]

Drow should be pale AF. Probably blind too.
Drow look the way they do (and have the abilities they have) because of the actions of the Gods, not because of evolution

[90sMusic]

A friend of mine is a huge nerd that reads a lot of D&D books.

This information all comes secondhand and may not have been entirely accurate when he told me, but more or less it goes like this...

According to him and all the Drizzt books he has read, drow society has a bunch of different major families and it's forbidden to openly attack or kill each other or something like that, but as long as there are no witnesses or no conclusive proof or whatever, then it's essentially fair game and they do that kind of secret backstabbing often.

He mentioned in one book they used the darkness of several of them to completely cover an entire building in this darkness you can't see through in order to go inside and kill all the inhabitants with no one having witnessed the altercation so they got away with it and no real consequences.

So in that sort of culture, it kind of makes sense to have some kind of magical darkness that even you and your own people can't see through in order to hide things from them since you normally couldn't in regular old darkness. Also imagine the disgusting imbalance of drow being able to cast darkness and see through it purely as a racial ability.

[Burnteyes]

It's just Traditional. I wouldn't read too much into it. You can survive being lit on fire, smack with boulders, insane falls.

Drow should be pale AF. Probably blind too.

With blind sense and the Kobold's sun weakness.

[JackPhoenix]

It's just Traditional. I wouldn't read too much into it. You can survive being lit on fire, smack with boulders, insane falls.

Drow should be pale AF. Probably blind too.

Albino drow exists (there was one in some FR novel). All drow are likely albino under the curse turning them black: the white hair and red eyes support that theory, as would sunlight sensitivity (if it also wasn't the result of a curse).

[lunaticfringe]

Albino drow exists (there was one in some FR novel). All drow are likely albino under the curse turning them black: the white hair and red eyes support that theory, as would sunlight sensitivity (if it also wasn't the result of a curse).

It's not a curse, it's secretly shoe polish black face. Drow is some racist Moe Foes.

[mer.c]

Darkness is a very useful spell. A Drow doesn't need a special exception to get good use out of it. Along with more obvious things like covering a retreat or isolating an enemy, you can do cool things like casting it on your backline. They step out, fire, step back in, and can't be found by enemy backliners or reasonably attacked by their frontliners. Or you can mess with enemies' turns by covering and uncovering the source of darkness. For example, cast it on a coin ahead of combat. On your turn, close your palm and attack as normal. Free object interaction to toss it to a friend (one who's turn happens just before a bunch of enemies or one particularly tough one). On their turn, they do their action, then expose the coin and shroud everyone in darkness. (Some DM fiat here to say if you have to make skill checks to catch the coin and whether you can catch and immediately cover it.) Just keep tossing it around to the right person in initiative order to mess up your enemies' turns.

[Millstone85]

Weren't their ancestors "dark elves" long before the "drow" curse?

[mephnick]

. Along with more obvious things like covering a retreat or isolating an enemy, you can do cool things like casting it on your backline. They step out, fire, step back in, and can't be found by enemy backliners or reasonably attacked by their frontliners. .

It doesn't effect ranged attackers though, does it? The advantage/disadvantage cancel out and the enemy's back line is still shooting at your retreat normally. Everyone inside Darkness also attacks normally, unless someone has Devil's Sight, because every attacker is both blinded and unseen.

[SharkForce]

Albino drow exists (there was one in some FR novel). All drow are likely albino under the curse turning them black: the white hair and red eyes support that theory, as would sunlight sensitivity (if it also wasn't the result of a curse).

pretty sure that's the maztica novels, more specifically.

[Aett_Thorn]

It doesn't effect ranged attackers though, does it? The advantage/disadvantage cancel out and the enemy's back line is still shooting at your retreat normally. Everyone inside Darkness also attacks normally, unless someone has Devil's Sight, because every attacker is both blinded and unseen.

I think that he's saying something like your backline (archers and mages) have darkness on them. On their turn, they step out, and cast or make ranged attacks, then step back into the darkness. On the enemy's turn, they would attack these elves' back liners with disadvantage, since they're in the darkness. Then on the drows' turns, they step out again and fire, and step back into the darkness. Repeat as needed.

[mer.c]

I think that he's saying something like your backline (archers and mages) have darkness on them. On their turn, they step out, and cast or make ranged attacks, then step back into the darkness. On the enemy's turn, they would attack these elves' back liners with disadvantage, since they're in the darkness. Then on the drows' turns, they step out again and fire, and step back into the darkness. Repeat as needed.

Precisely. :)

[mephnick]

But they wouldn't attack back with disadvantage. The drow step back into darkness and now can't see the enemy archers, so the advantage is negated. It would stop line of sight spells though.

[CharonsHelper]

It doesn't effect ranged attackers though, does it? The advantage/disadvantage cancel out and the enemy's back line is still shooting at your retreat normally. Everyone inside Darkness also attacks normally, unless someone has Devil's Sight, because every attacker is both blinded and unseen.

Hence taking Alertness so you negate one drawback.

[Kane0]

You can use darkness in a similar manner to cloud spells. Even if the advantage/disadvantage doesn't help out all that much there is the fact that opportunity attacks and a lot of spells require a target you can see.

[lunaticfringe]

1. Everyone has disadvantage unless they are w/in 150ft, assuming Longbows.

2. Ready Action.

[Dalebert]

Depends on the DM how beneficial using the darkness for cover between turns is. You could arguably move around a little and they don't know where to aim their attack. Some DMs would argue you need to hide, which usually takes an action (unless rogue or goblin). This is a very contentious subject so ask your DM.

Agree about Alert. It's the closest thing this edition has to a blindfighting feat. You attack normally but your foes attack with disadvantage. It's a really nice feat all around.