Drow builds

[Skrum]

Looking for some suggestions for a Drow build. Race is non-negotiable, but class can be anything. Specifically, I'd like builds that are at least somewhat specific to Drow (playing off their racial traits).

The one I've thought of so far is undead warlock 2, draconic sorcerer X w/ war caster. Take advantage of the rapier proficiency to mainly attack with booming blade, stack a fear rider with aspect of dread, use war caster to make op attacks with booming blade (double punishment for enemies trying to flee you or get past you), and once you get fear, force them to run away so you can hit them with booming blade. And get the devil's sight/darkness combo, because why not. You are a fear themed gish. Should absolutely carry the rapier concealed in a parasol (for when walking in the sun). Quicken spell can give you extra attacks, and transmute can shift your damage to trigger the draconic sorc thing you get at 6th (8th overall).

I think this build is pretty solid and nicely thematic, but can anyone think of another?

[strangebloke]

Once again I'm going to bring up Ludic's Demonweb spider monk. I forget if he used Drow or not, but it 100% works for this build if your DM allows you to swap ability scores around. Fighter 1/Monk X. Grab blindfighting as your fighting style, then grab EA for your first feat. So you turn on the darkness blob around yourself, run in on people (especially casters and archers) and then shred them with triple advantage while they attack you with disadvantage. You can get longsword proficiency from the fighter level, and you can use this in two hands with dedicated weapon to get 1d10+DEX on your main attacks.

...all for 2 ki or a racial ability! And Faerie Fire is just as good!

It's not the strongest thing you can do with drow but it is stylish.

[RogueJK]

A Critical-Smite-Fishing DEX-based Paladin with the Elven Accuracy feat, the Blind Fighting style, and a Rapier would be a good choice for a Drow that leans into their racial spells and their racial weapon proficiency.

You've got racial Darkness + Blind Fighting to generate Advantage, as well as racial Faerie Fire for another way to generate Advantage. Then you can grab a Paladin subclass that gets you further ways to generate Advantage, such as Oath of Vengeance with their Vow of Emnity CD.

(Oath of the Ancients would also work, with their access to the Restrained condition through the Ensnaring Strike spell and Nature's Wrath CD. But their spell list isn't as strong as Vengeance's, and their Advantage options allow saves whereas Vow of Emnity is automatic. However, Ancient's Aura of Warding at Level 7 is quite nice...)


Something like this with point buy:
Drow Vengeance Paladin
STR 8
DEX 15+2
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 15+1

Take Elven Accuracy (+1 DEX) at Level 4. Then take either +2 CHA or +2 DEX at Level 8, and the other at Level 12.

Use a Rapier and a Shield, and wear Light or Medium Armor. Use a Longbow as your ranged backup. (Or a Hand Crossbow if you want to stick to racial weapon proficiencies.)

Take the Blind Fighting style at Paladin 2. This is not only useful for shrouding yourself in your racial Darkness for Advantage, but can also potentially counteract your racial Sunlight Sensitivity... Ask your DM if the Drow's Sunlight Sensitivity is a magical curse, or a mundane function of the bright light affecting their darkness-accustomed eyes. If the latter, you can simply close your eyes and rely on Blind Fighting's blindsight when you're making Rapier attacks in direct sunlight, to remove the Disadvantage imposed by the bright light.

[TaiLiu]

I'm currently playing a drow wild magic sorcerer with the Drow High Magic feat. It's nice. The bonus spells are great on a spell-starved class, and you can activate a surge with your at-will detect magic (which is better than the ritual).

Good chaos energy, good "unlimited magic" sorcerer feel that the base class lacks. Plus it's a niche that only the drow can fill.

[Skrum]

Take the Blind Fighting style at Paladin 2. This is not only useful for shrouding yourself in your racial Darkness for Advantage, but can also potentially counteract your racial Sunlight Sensitivity... Ask your DM if the Drow's Sunlight Sensitivity is a magical curse, or a mundane function of the bright light affecting their darkness-accustomed eyes. If the latter, you can simply close your eyes and rely on Blind Fighting's blindsight when you're making Rapier attacks in direct sunlight, to remove the Disadvantage imposed by the bright light.

This DEFINITELY works as sunlight sensitivity specifies "based on sight," while blindsight specifies not using sight. Get blind fight, close your eyes, good to go. Interesting build too; creating advantages for critfishing is nice. Maybe work warlock in, for hexblade's curse?

[Skrum]

I'm currently playing a drow wild magic sorcerer with the Drow High Magic feat. It's nice. The bonus spells are great on a spell-starved class, and you can activate a surge with your at-will detect magic (which is better than the ritual).

Good chaos energy, good "unlimited magic" sorcerer feel that the base class lacks. Plus it's a niche that only the drow can fill.

This is amazing. Have you cast detect magic to intentionally trigger a surge?? I feel like that's all I'd want to do lol

[RogueJK]

Maybe work warlock in, for hexblade's curse?

If you're wanting to retain a high DEX, that's tough to pull off, unless you roll for stats and roll really well. Multiclassing out of Paladin requires 13+ STR and CHA. And you can't afford a 13 STR on a DEX-focused Paladin with Point Buy or the Standard Array.


But you could lower DEX and go CHA-focused. Something like this:
STR 15
DEX 10
CON 13+1
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 15+2

You'd have to start Paladin first, in order to pick up Heavy Armor proficiency to offset your low DEX. So start Paladin 1 or 2 -> Hexblade 1 -> Paladin X. Then use CHA for 1H melee weapon attacks with Elven Accuracy. ASI progression would probably be something like Elven Accuracy (+1 CHA) at 4, +2 CHA at 8, and Inspiring Leader at 12. Or perhaps Warcaster at 8 and +2 CHA at 12.

All the other interactions work just the same as described in the earlier DEXadin build.

[Skrum]

That's tough to pull off on a DEXadin like this, unless you roll for stats and roll really well.

Multiclassing out of Paladin requires 13+ STR and CHA. And you can't afford a 13 STR on a DEX-focused Paladin with Point Buy or the Standard Array. So no Warlock multiclass in most cases.


But you could lower DEX and go CHA-focused. Something like this:
STR 15
DEX 10
CON 13+1
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 15+2

Then use CHA for a 1H melee weapon attacks with Elven Accuracy. You'd have to start Paladin first, in order to pick up Heavy Armor proficiency to offset your low DEX. So Paladin 1 or 2 -> Hexblade 1 -> Paladin X.

Ahh yes makes sense. What if it's not dex? There's no reason a rapier HAS to use dexterity - thought it does make it less drow focused. Could be any elf at that point. And Shadar-Kai are flatly better (and broken, but that's another topic).

[Skrum]

You stated in the OP that "race is non-negotiable"...

Yeah I was asking originally because me and a friend got into a discussion about how crummy drow are (and they basically are - half drow get like 90% of what makes a drow good, without sunlight sensitivity). But it did make me want to find decent builds that literally only drow can do. In this case, moving away from the rapier removes any reason to use drow. And yeah, if you're not finesse'ing the rapier, you might as well use a longsword.

[Damon_Tor]

The added dark vision makes you a lethal night sniper: get Gloomstalker to dial it up even higher, then stand >120' away from your targets and enjoy making all your attacks with advantage with zero resource expenditure. Add Elvish Accuracy and Sharpshooter to complete the package. Nothing else about Drow is super unique or interesting mechanically. Once-per-day spells are once-per-day and I wouldn't be inclined to design a character around them.

[RogueJK]

Once-per-day spells are once-per-day and I wouldn't be inclined to design a character around them.

By themselves, no. But consider that they extend your ability to generate Advantage, which when combined with other ways to gain Advantage through your class (like the aforementioned Vengeance Paladin's Vow of Emnity), means that between your race and your subclass you now have multiple different options to gain Advantage throughout the adventuring day.

With a non-Drow Vengeance Paladin, they can only Vow of Emnity once per short rest. That can put a cramp on their critical smite fishing throughout the day. And a Drow on its own can only Faerie Fire/Darkness once per day apiece. So on their own, those alone aren't really enough to design a crit fishing build around.

But put them together, and now you have a viable, repeatable crit fisher thanks to these multiple ways to generate Advantage.


Similarly, Drow racial spells would also combo well with something like a Blind Fighting Samurai Fighter with GWM who utilizes periods of Advantage to offset GWM's -5 penalty. You have Samurai's Fighting Spirit for Advantage several rounds per day (and eventually one round per combat), plus now racial Darkness and racial Faerie Fire for additional periods of Advantage a couple times per day. On their own neither one is usable all that often, but when combined together, you now have multiple rounds of Advantage to offset the GWM penalty throughout an adventuring day. Something like:

Drow Samurai
STR 15+2
DEX 8
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 15+1

Choose the Blind Fighting style, wear Heavy Armor, and wield a Maul.

Take the Crusher feat (+1 STR) at 4, Great Weapon Master at 6, and +2 STR at 8. Then go with stuff like Inspiring Leader or +2 CON/CHA at 12 and 14.

Your decent CHA pairs well with Samurai's Persuasion proficiency, and enables you to eventually utilize the Inspiring Leader feat to good effect. And as a Fighter you have CON save proficiency in order to better maintain Concentration on Darkness/Faerie Fire, so your 1x/day racial spells will last longer. Plus, Crusher gains you yet another way to generate Advantage.


Or, a Blind Fighting Eldritch Knight Fighter with GWM could do much of the same. EKs get access to Darkness to combo with Blind Fighting, but are hampered by slow spell slot progression. Being a Drow gives them an additional period of Darkness each day, without using a spell slot. And it brings the Darkness+Blind Fighting combo online 2 levels earlier than a non-Drow EK.

Drow Eldritch Knight
STR 15+2
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 13+1

Choose the Blind Fighting style, wear Heavy Armor, and wield a Maul.

Take the Crusher feat (+1 STR) at 4, Great Weapon Master at 6, and +2 STR at 8. Then go with stuff like Inspiring Leader or +2 CON at 12 and 14.

You already have Darkness+Blind Fighting starting at Level 5. And starting at Level 7, you can cast Darkness additional times per day using EK spell slots. Since you don't have a high INT, focus on utility/defensive/buff spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, Protection from Good and Evil, Magic Missile, Find Familiar, Darkness, Warding Wind, Mirror Image, etc.

[Sorinth]

Any class that you would be considering casting Darkness anyway can benefit from being a Drow. So Shadow Monk and Warlock are good options. For underdark themed classes Gloomstalker and Land:Underdark are the most obvious ones.

There's lots of synergy with the Druid spell list and the Warlock repelling blast, so a Warlock 2 or 3/Druid X could give you something a bit unique though it's obviously slightly MAD. I think you can get away with it though since you are a back liner, will be dropping control spells and pushing enemies away from you. Half-Elf with Dark Elf Heritage might be a better fit if using standard array/point buy.

Note for your concept Fear + Darkness doesn't actually work well since Frightened only impacts if the source of the fear is within sight.

[Skrum]

Note for your concept Fear + Darkness doesn't actually work well since Frightened only impacts if the source of the fear is within sight.

Ah good to remember. I wasn't thinking of stacking them; darkness being generally party-unfriendly means I wouldn't want to use it all the time anyway. Having a fear strategy for when I can't use darkness - which grants a similar disadvantage on attacks, very important for a squishier front-liner - is the real benefit

[TaiLiu]

This is amazing. Have you cast detect magic to intentionally trigger a surge?? I feel like that's all I'd want to do lol
Kind of! I have cast it in situations when I wouldn't have had the spell slots to spare, which have either triggered a surge or a chance of one. One day I'll have my CON 10 drow sorcerer spam detect till a fireball takes her, but that day has yet to come. :smalltongue:

[Skrum]

Once again I'm going to bring up Ludic's Demonweb spider monk. I forget if he used Drow or not, but it 100% works for this build if your DM allows you to swap ability scores around. Fighter 1/Monk X. Grab blindfighting as your fighting style, then grab EA for your first feat. So you turn on the darkness blob around yourself, run in on people (especially casters and archers) and then shred them with triple advantage while they attack you with disadvantage. You can get longsword proficiency from the fighter level, and you can use this in two hands with dedicated weapon to get 1d10+DEX on your main attacks.

...all for 2 ki or a racial ability! And Faerie Fire is just as good!

It's not the strongest thing you can do with drow but it is stylish.

Link?? I think I'm going to use this. Me and another player are going to make twin Drow, both using this build. Get super economical with their darkness uses when one can cast it and the other can jump in and take advantage of it.

Probably going to swap EA for Elven Accuracy though, make a bit of a crit fishing build. We'll lose devil's sight but blind fight will do 95% of what we need it to anyway.

[stoutstien]

Link?? I think I'm going to use this. Me and another player are going to make twin Drow, both using this build. Get super economical with their darkness uses when one can cast it and the other can jump in and take advantage of it.

Probably going to swap EA for Elven Accuracy though, make a bit of a crit fishing build. We'll lose devil's sight but blind fight will do 95% of what we need it to anyway.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24890247&postcount=831


Here yea go

[Skrum]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24890247&postcount=831


Here yea go

He must be using a different point buy calculator than me - 17 16 16 isn't possible in a standard 27 point game.
Edit: unless half Drow get something I don't know about? Three 15's is possible, but I don't see where the extra point is coming from

But otherwise looks great! And yeah I thought EA was eldritch adept for devil's sight....? I'm silly

[Foolwise]

Half elves get +2 CHA along with two +1s of choice. Same applies to half drows as they are half elves.

[Skrum]

Half elves get +2 CHA along with two +1s of choice. Same applies to half drows as they are half elves.

Crikey they really did full drow dirty. Missing out on a stat point, sunlight sensitivity, and giving half drow their pick of abilities that full drow get. Ouch.

[Skrum]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24890247&postcount=831


Here yea go

So I'm using this build, but adding a net. Make it a monk weapon with dedicated weapon, and throw it as a bonus action using ki-powered strikes (on the turn I cast darkness using Ki). No teleporting b/c no vision, no moving out of darkness b/c they're restrained. Best case scenario they're wasting an attack on the net; more likely, they're spending a full action to get out. Great spider-themed martial art.

[strangebloke]

So I'm using this build, but adding a net. Make it a monk weapon with dedicated weapon, and throw it as a bonus action using ki-powered strikes (on the turn I cast darkness using Ki). No teleporting b/c no vision, no moving out of darkness b/c they're restrained. Best case scenario they're wasting an attack on the net; more likely, they're spending a full action to get out. Great spider-themed martial art.

I love it. It's especially fun because they have to attack the net at disadvantage so some enemies will have a chance of missing.

[Damon_Tor]

So I'm using this build, but adding a net. Make it a monk weapon with dedicated weapon, and throw it as a bonus action using ki-powered strikes (on the turn I cast darkness using Ki). No teleporting b/c no vision, no moving out of darkness b/c they're restrained. Best case scenario they're wasting an attack on the net; more likely, they're spending a full action to get out. Great spider-themed martial art.

Unfortunately Dedicated Weapon excludes weapons with a special property, which means no nets.

HOWEVER, you can absolutely still throw a net as a monk weapon: throw it at YOURSELF, then deflect it at someone else. This method gets the added bonus of giving you wonderful bonus range with the net.

[Skrum]

Unfortunately Dedicated Weapon excludes weapons with a special property, which means no nets.

HOWEVER, you can absolutely still throw a net as a monk weapon: throw it at YOURSELF, then deflect it at someone else. This method gets the added bonus of giving you wonderful bonus range with the net.

Wait I checked for that; is the net entry on dndbeyond not correct?

[LudicSavant]

Ah good to remember. I wasn't thinking of stacking them; darkness being generally party-unfriendly means I wouldn't want to use it all the time anyway.

My advice is to talk to your party about the kind of character you intend to play, so that they can make choices that synergize with you, rather than the other way around.

With current splats, it's easier than ever for any class to synergize really well with vision blocker strategies. Just a little bit of communication during character creation can make the difference between Darkness being "selfish" and Darkness being "the party's best friend."

It's not just stuff like Devil's Sight, Blind-Fighting, or Alert either. For example, someone else in the party using Warding Wind or Silence or Fog Cloud can make it so that enemies become deaf and blind, with no save. That's great party synergy.

[Skrum]

My advice is to talk to your party about the kind of character you intend to play, so that they can make choices that synergize with you, rather than the other way around.

With current splats, it's easier than ever for any class to synergize really well with vision blocker strategies. Just a little bit of communication during character creation can make the difference between Darkness being "selfish" and Darkness being "the party's best friend."

It's not just stuff like Devil's Sight, Blind-Fighting, or Alert either. For example, someone else in the party using Warding Wind or Silence or Fog Cloud can make it so that enemies become deaf and blind, with no save. That's great party synergy.

The game we play is a West Marches game where DM's take turns and everyone has multiple characters. Rarely do you know who exactly you're partying with until a day or two before the game.

So, your point is absolutely correct but not entirely applicable. That said - there's already at least two other darkness/blind fight characters in the group, so there will occasionally be company.

Also, this I'm using this character concept for twins. My friend and I are going to play twins (with twin builds), and this one works really well for synergy between them.

Unrelated to this but incredibly important for my build (since you're a rules guru): is a net a special weapon and therefor not compatible with dedicated weapon. Dndbeyond says it isn't.

[LudicSavant]

Unrelated to this but incredibly important for my build (since you're a rules guru): is a net a special weapon and therefor not compatible with dedicated weapon. Dndbeyond says it isn't.

Alas, nets have the Special property.

[Skrum]

Alas, nets have the Special property.

Just when you'd almost convinced me monks are worth a dang....

Yah know, I think part of my general dislike of monks is I feel like the developer's "fingerprints" are on the class in a much more obvious way. Like they had a specific idea for the way they wanted the class to feel and play, and narrowed rule interactions to enforce that vision. It's really frustrating.

Edit: and why the heck can't monks grapple?!?!

[strangebloke]

Just when you'd almost convinced me monks are worth a dang....

Yah know, I think part of my general dislike of monks is I feel like the developer's "fingerprints" are on the class in a much more obvious way. Like they had a specific idea for the way they wanted the class to feel and play, and narrowed rule interactions to enforce that vision. It's really frustrating.

Edit: and why the heck can't monks grapple?!?!

I mean, technically, they can grapple, you just have to play a tortle STRonk or an astral monk. But yes, they lack magic item and feat support in addition to suffering from what I call 'martialitis' which is to say that they don't get much features customization and don't get new options in every book (unlike say warlock invocations or spells)

But, I do feel the need to point out that the net is sort of redundant anyway. You already have advantage, may as well just attack them, then get a free OA when they try to run.

[LudicSavant]

But, I do feel the need to point out that the net is sort of redundant anyway. You already have advantage, may as well just attack them, then get a free OA when they try to run.

Also worth noting, you can append a Stunning Strike and a Battle Master maneuver to said OA.

[Skrum]

I mean, technically, they can grapple, you just have to play a tortle STRonk or an astral monk. But yes, they lack magic item and feat support in addition to suffering from what I call 'martialitis' which is to say that they don't get much features customization and don't get new options in every book (unlike say warlock invocations or spells)

But, I do feel the need to point out that the net is sort of redundant anyway. You already have advantage, may as well just attack them, then get a free OA when they try to run.

Generally yes, but I thought I'd found a clever workaround with Ki-Powered Attack. If I'm going to be spending a turn debuffing anyway, a good use of my bonus action is *more* debuffs, and it's extra nice that it's a debuff that'll marginally prevent them from just running out of the darkness.

[strangebloke]

Generally yes, but I thought I'd found a clever workaround with Ki-Powered Attack. If I'm going to be spending a turn debuffing anyway, a good use of my bonus action is *more* debuffs, and it's extra nice that it's a debuff that'll marginally prevent them from just running out of the darkness.

Right, but here's my point. You toss the net, that's great, its a debuff and its funny that they have disadvantage to get out of it.... but is it that good?

ehhhhh. There's a sense in which you'd rather they run, because you can just put them in darkness again next turn and them running gives you free OAs. The net strat effectively costs you two attacks with triple advantage, which sort of stinks.

[Skrum]

Right, but here's my point. You toss the net, that's great, its a debuff and its funny that they have disadvantage to get out of it.... but is it that good?

ehhhhh. There's a sense in which you'd rather they run, because you can just put them in darkness again next turn and them running gives you free OAs. The net strat effectively costs you two attacks with triple advantage, which sort of stinks.

Tis true. Mechanically it might be a wash. But I liked the theme of it xD. Using darkness and nets to trap enemies is evocative of spiders, and that's really cool for a drow monk.

[LudicSavant]

Tis true. Mechanically it might be a wash. But I liked the theme of it xD. Using darkness and nets to trap enemies is evocative of spiders, and that's really cool for a drow monk.

Yeah, it's a fun idea. The "dev fingerprints" you talk about are a regular frustration for martials in my experience.

[Skrum]

Yeah, it's a fun idea. The "dev fingerprints" you talk about are a regular frustration for martials in my experience.

I think fighter is the only one that avoided it, at least mostly. Which makes sense since that was clearly written as the most generic, catch-all class.

[Bosh]

I'm currently playing a drow wild magic sorcerer with the Drow High Magic feat. It's nice. The bonus spells are great on a spell-starved class, and you can activate a surge with your at-will detect magic (which is better than the ritual).

Good chaos energy, good "unlimited magic" sorcerer feel that the base class lacks. Plus it's a niche that only the drow can fill.

Levitate is an often under-rated spell since it can be used in a few completely different scenarios:

-Help PCs to get around environmental obstacles.

-Completely remove an enemy with no ranged attacks from the fight in many situations.

-Help a huge amount in chase scenes (stop NPCs from running away or chasing you by making them flail about helplessly in the air).

-Various Cunning Plans which involve moving inanimate objects about.

All of these work very nicely with twinned spell for sorcerers.

[RogueJK]

-Completely remove an enemy with no ranged attacks from the fight in many situations.

Counteracted by the fact that many/most melee enemies without ranged attacks tend to have high CON saves...