Help With Drow Curse on Unborn Character

[TheYell]

So my DM says I can be half-elf with a drow background if I come up with a GOOD reason to impress him with.

I'm going to run with "experimental test unit".

My character was chosen for his high intelligence and charisma, while unborn, to be one of the Damned of Lloth. He was cursed in the womb with certain traits, and his mother was allowed to escape back to the surface world. She fled the mainland for an archipelago of islands where she died of a fever while my character was still a child.

I have some ideas what being a Damned of Lloth means, but I've realized I'm really retconning my origin to match what I pictured my final character to be like.

Instead, gimme some ideas. I can't get any special abilities or powers from this, just some inbred traits you think consistent with a born traitor and infiltrator for the drow.

[Unoriginal]

So my DM says I can be half-elf with a drow background if I come up with a GOOD reason to impress him with.

I'm going to run with "experimental test unit".

My character was chosen for his high intelligence and charisma, while unborn, to be one of the Damned of Lloth. He was cursed in the womb with certain traits, and his mother was allowed to escape back to the surface world. She fled the mainland for an archipelago of islands where she died of a fever while my character was still a child.

I have some ideas what being a Damned of Lloth means, but I've realized I'm really retconning my origin to match what I pictured my final character to be like.

Instead, gimme some ideas. I can't get any special abilities or powers from this, just some inbred traits you think consistent with a born traitor and infiltrator for the drow.

You're magically compelled to obey female drow, no matter how abhorrent what they ask is.

[TheYell]

You're magically compelled to obey female drow, no matter how abhorrent what they ask is.

Oof. Well, that puts it totally on the DM what happens.

[Unoriginal]

Oof. Well, that puts it totally on the DM what happens.

Being a slave of Lolth isn't something desirable, ya know?

[PhantomSoul]

You're magically compelled to obey female drow, no matter how abhorrent what they ask is.

If this type of compulsion is preferred, one way to soften this while keeping the flavour is to treat it like Geas: you're capable of going against the compulsion, but doing so causes you (physical/mental) harm. That makes it so you aren't basically an NPC when female Drow are around, but you've also got that strong desire.

[A Fat Dragon]

Perhaps he has some spider-y traits/appearance. Not sure what that means, but if I’m correct, Driders are Drow who failed Lolth’s challenges or something.

Give him an extra Flaw, and make his appearance slightly different, or have him have a tattoo or something that marks him as a cursed of Lolth.

[jayst]

Being half drow on the surface should be curse enough, as they would likely be hated by all initially. But maybe, if he/she was not killed on sight, he/she was probably thrown out of the underdark entrance as a newborn and left to die in the foreign dirt and blinding brightness of the surface. Meanwhile, the surviving parent was most certainly sacrificed to Lolth for "interacting" with a surface-dweller, ceremoniously slowly and with many witnesses without a doubt. Maybe, however, the newborn was given a slight chance at survival after being found nearly lifeless by dryads (or any other race that sounds fun) and brought up in a non-drow, non-evil environment...maybe even acquiring some other benefits from the host race.

Regardless, once the drow learn that the babe was still living, a never-ending pursuit would obviously ensue in order to finalize its death, forcing the character to be forever on the run and fearing drow both above and below the surface...curse enough for any.

[ThatDrowPlayer]

So my DM says I can be half-elf with a drow background if I come up with a GOOD reason to impress him with.

I'm going to run with "experimental test unit".

My character was chosen for his high intelligence and charisma, while unborn, to be one of the Damned of Lloth. He was cursed in the womb with certain traits, and his mother was allowed to escape back to the surface world. She fled the mainland for an archipelago of islands where she died of a fever while my character was still a child.

I have some ideas what being a Damned of Lloth means, but I've realized I'm really retconning my origin to match what I pictured my final character to be like.

Instead, gimme some ideas. I can't get any special abilities or powers from this, just some inbred traits you think consistent with a born traitor and infiltrator for the drow.

Hey, what's this talk about a drow curse?

[TheYell]

Being a slave of Lolth isn't something desirable, ya know?

I guess I was getting comfy with it...


If this type of compulsion is preferred, one way to soften this while keeping the flavour is to treat it like Geas: you're capable of going against the compulsion, but doing so causes you (physical/mental) harm. That makes it so you aren't basically an NPC when female Drow are around, but you've also got that strong desire.

Charmed towards drow, with a Geas of servitude to drow females, might be strong enough.


Give him an extra Flaw, and make his appearance slightly different, or have him have a tattoo or something that marks him as a cursed of Lolth.


Being half drow on the surface should be curse enough, as they would likely be hated by all initially.

I think he'll have dark blue skin, adding to his isolation and detachment. He resents being presumed to be evil and untrustworthy, despite being evil and untrustworthy.

He is an orphan, he got a job as an Astronomer through a cousin (Cloistered Scholar background), he started doing forbidden horoscopes and contacted a Great Old One in the sky and is now a Warlock.


Regardless, once the drow learn that the babe was still living, a never-ending pursuit would obviously ensue in order to finalize its death, forcing the character to be forever on the run and fearing drow both above and below the surface...curse enough for any.

That's a possibility I'd mention to the DM, but that's more of his doing than my character's. He may not want drow at all, but if they are, they're probably a hostile development more than a resource I can exploit.

Thanks for these ideas, they go beyond my own ideas of alignment and penchant for omens.

[TheYell]

Hey, what's this talk about a drow curse?

Well he's only half-drow, so, make use of him, right?

[TheYell]

To update you guys:

I went with drow features and the cursed condition of Charmed with drow and Geas of obedience to female drow, with the caveat that there's a 50% chance the drow will be outraged by my very existence and will exterminate me anyhow.

Our DM is sending the party after some drow for the first quest. :smallmad:

I got into the town where the drow had raided and had to do some fancy footwork not to get lynched. We'll have to see what the drow do to me.

[Asmotherion]

So my DM says I can be half-elf with a drow background if I come up with a GOOD reason to impress him with.

I'm going to run with "experimental test unit".

My character was chosen for his high intelligence and charisma, while unborn, to be one of the Damned of Lloth. He was cursed in the womb with certain traits, and his mother was allowed to escape back to the surface world. She fled the mainland for an archipelago of islands where she died of a fever while my character was still a child.

I have some ideas what being a Damned of Lloth means, but I've realized I'm really retconning my origin to match what I pictured my final character to be like.

Instead, gimme some ideas. I can't get any special abilities or powers from this, just some inbred traits you think consistent with a born traitor and infiltrator for the drow.

May I suggest Vhaeraun as the one who cursed you with, let's say shadow magic, and you manifesting his trait of your eyes changing based on your mood? You can make the actual curse manifest as one or more of the Shadow Sorcerer's traits (bonus if your class is going to be Shadow Sorcerer or Hexblade, as it fits perfectly thematically).