Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lord Zeb 03-03-05, 01:15 PM	Hi all, A buddy of mine and I ran a side-game years ago when only he and I could meet (inbetween our normal, larger, group's meetings). We co-GM'd, and each ran a PC of an elf subrace. We started in 2e in a non-specified world where their home kingdom was directly lifted from an old Dungeon magazine adventure (Dark Thane Macbeth) - the adventure described the kingdom as having both grey and dark elves living peacably together in this great forest. The world was elf-dominant, no humans to speak of, but there were a few dwarves/gnomes/orcs etc. My PC was a grey elf fighter-mage (bladesinger), my buddies a dark elf druid-mage (no kit IIRC). (We didn't have Macbeth etc in the world - but liked the concept of non-evil (mostly) drow living alongside another subrace on the surface). Well, in the fight against the BBEG they both got zapped to an alternate prime material plane, and kept going from there - eventually finding their way to Sigil in order to get home. Now due to scheduling for our group, the two of us have been talking about reviving (and updating to 3.5) our PCs. With the arrival of Lost Empires in my hot little hands, I thought it'd be cool to set the un-specified great forest back in Ancient Faerun..... before the Crown Wars perhaps? I plan on digging through L.E. over the next few days (arrived yesterday). So, anyone know about the level of technology back then (are steel weapons and armor already around?) and generally what would the mood be? Which ancient elven nation would be the best fit for a grey/drow mix? Any adventure ideas from back then? I was thinking that maybe instead of coming back pre-Crown War, they pop in during (planar and time travel's a pain) one of them. Am I crazy? (You don't have to answer that if you don't want to...) Converted, the PCs will likely be (changed the grey elf a bit, trying out some of the new books' stuff, not as much a bladesinger now as rather a bardic gish --- fairly set, but not 100% yet). Grey Elf Bard 7 / Druid 1 / Shadowdancer 2 / Sublime Chord 2 / Fochlucan Lyrist 6 Drow Elf Wizard 3 / Druid 3 / Mystic Theurge 4 / Arcane Hierophant 8 Thanks very much in advance for any advice you can offer about adventuring in the Ancient times! Zeb
ericlboyd 03-03-05, 02:18 PM	You might look at setting your campaign in Mieyertar (sp?), home to green/moon/dark elves, which occupied the territory now known as the High Moor. (Note dark elf does not mean drow ... this is pre-Descent of Drow.) If you want to give your campaign a wrench, as it were, set it just before the Dark Disaster. If your PCs were "away at the time" perhaps they return home to find a smoking ruin of a civilization. From there, you could mount an exciting campaign as they work side-by-side to get revenge on the Vyshaan Empire of Aryvandaar. --Eric
Alac Luin 03-03-05, 02:20 PM	I have not seen LEoF yet, but sounds like a good book. If I were you, I'd also consider getting Cormanther: Empire of Elves (downloadable for free..here (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/2/fr_downloads/tsr1165.zip) from this page (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads)) Although there were no moon / dark elf societies, there is one of green elves and dark elves. (see Edit) Since it's before the decent, I'd think the dark elf would have moon elf stats, am I right on this? (as in no SR, spell like abilities...etc..) EDIT: I was writing this as EricBoyd, posted. If he says that place is green/moon/dark, then it was. ;)
Lord Zeb 03-03-05, 02:26 PM	Excellent - Returning home to a ruined civilization sounds like what I was thinking too... I will have to peruse the Cormanthyr download this weekend, thanks for the link! As we started playing with the PC as a full out drow, I guess we'd just chalk that up to a fluke, or that all dark elves were like that (for our campaign continuity). It'd stink for the PC to have all his drow stuff disappear all of a sudden, just because we decide to stick them into Ancient Faerun. Keep 'em coming! Thanks!!!! Zeb
Sylrae 03-03-05, 07:32 PM	You should take a look at some of the old 2e books for this one man. Arcane Age... Keep in mind that at level 40 or 42, dont remember, PCS and NPCs who are mortal can cast level 10 spells. Also, no spell has a dice cap on any rolls these apply until somewhere in the time of troubles. I'm running a 3e game where they are going to go to pre-fall myth drannor, not as far back as the descent but like maybe 250 dr or so. so anyways no higher technology-guns, repeating crossbows, maybe even normal crossbows much stronger magic, some magic doesnt exist, dont remember what look at cormanthyr empire of elves or fall of myth drannor for more info.
Demetrios 03-03-05, 09:11 PM	So, anyone know about the level of technology back then (are steel weapons and armor already around?) The main book in the Nethril box set has comprehensive lists of when spells and technology (such as armor and equipment) were invented. The spell invention dates are listed on pages 26 - 28, while the equipment invention dates are on 31 (all in Netheril dates). Now these are dates for Netheril's culture, so they don't necessarily mean anything for the elf campaign, as there is nothing that specifically says that they had parallel development. You can use the same dates, or you can just use the lists as a base as to what elves might have developed at a similar point in their historical development.
Lord Zeb 03-04-05, 01:45 AM	Awesome, found both Cormanthyr and Netheril on the old downloads....now I'll have some reading to do this weekend (alongside the excellent Lost Empires). Thanks!!
Manix 03-04-05, 10:18 AM	What would the drow have stat wise before they were cast into the darkness?
Lord Zeb 03-04-05, 01:11 PM	What would the drow have stat wise before they were cast into the darkness? My guess is either they were still a "super" subrace with the bonuses to dex, int and cha but lacked their spell resistance and spell like abilities (til the Underdark affected them after a few generations) or they were more like sun or moon elves and gained the rest after the fall. Would the 1st option pre-fall (no SR, no spell-like abilities) reduce their LA to +1? For us, I think we'll keep them the same stat-wise pre-fall, just instead of "usually NE" they'll be "usually CN" or something like that.... Having the PCs pop in after a lot of stuff happens will be very interesting - if I put it after the fall, how would the elves react to seeing a drow walking around as if nothing was wrong? Ooh, this could be good! :plotting: :evillaugh
Lord Zeb 03-05-05, 10:27 AM	I just got done reading the section about the Crown Wars in LEoF. Miyeritar does sound like a solid origin for the PCs - if it's after the Vyshaantar conquering the realm and before the Dark Destruction, a Sun and Dark elf growing as friends is certainly possible. That's about a 700 to 800 year window for them to coexist. Now that they are coming back, maybe it will be during the build up to the day of destruction, or immediately afterwards.... I'm leaning towards just a few years after Miyeritar is destroyed.
BrianD 03-08-05, 02:37 AM	What would the drow have stat wise before they were cast into the darkness? I'd go with the Lesser Drow from page 191 of the Player's Guide to Faerun, with Low-Light Vision instead of Darkvision and no Light Blindness. Also, I'd probably nix the female favored class of cleric, seeing as they weren't a gynotheocracy yet. Maybe switch hand crossbow for the regular pullbows as far as automatic proficiencies go.
Lord Zeb 03-12-05, 03:58 PM	I'm liking the lesser drow too - helps w/ the LA too. :) Good idea, thanks!