Beautiful, dead, corrupt, and powerful they are lead by priestess's of the Spider Queen AKA Lolth or sometimes Lloth. Accounts vary from world to world but ancient tales speak of betrayal and deceit and battles fought with powerful magic. Sister vs brother, father vs sons this ancient conflict tore the elven race apart and the evil elves were defeated and fled underground. It is unclear how the exiled elves changed physically into the Drow. Legends mention curses or rapid transformation via foul magics, demonic rites or divine intervention. In any event the Drow have become magically powerful with powerful mages and priestess's of Lolth wielding vast power in the name of their vile goddess.
Drizzt Do' Urden Syndrome (DDS for short)
A certain author started a series of books on a renegade chaotic good Drow ranger who rejected the way of Lolth. Regardless of what one my think of R.A Salvatores books they became very popular. Basically the renegade Drizzt leads a life of exile on the surface where he has to deal with prejudice and hatred for being a Drow. Along with certain events from his past that come back to haunt him. The side effect was DDS- Drow had become "kool". We can blame the books, the author, or the character of Drizzt himself, but most of all we should blame ourselves. Entire gamebooks and boxed sets started to feature the Drow.
In the 3rd edition Forgotton Realms the Drow have begun returning to the surface en masse. In short the Drow became over exposed and turned into funny looking humans effectively. It is often with a groan new players are greeted with when they want to play a Drow. Such new players often have a Drow ranger or dual weapon fighter type they want to play. Some even come complete with Figurines of Wondrous power with a variety of great cats in them. Not many DMs seem to allow Drow PCs into the game for this reason or because Drow players are seen as power gamers. DDS has made the Drow a cliche.
Drow in Your Campaign.
Have you ever thought about using Drow your campaign? Do they even exist? Don't let DDS ruin your world just because some or all of your players have read the Dark Elf series of books. I have some tips on how to return the Drow back to their pedestal of dark, fallen glory. Surprise your players. The Drow are back with a vengeance....
In a stereotypical world the Drow live in the underdark led by noble houses where the female priestess's of Lolth rule with an Iron fist. Partly because of the Drizzt books and since most gamers are male, having dominant female characters with whips and are evil appeal to the little boy inside us. If this is how Drow work in your world thats fine and I will deal with this scenario later. However its not written in stone it has to be this way. In any event priestess's of Lolth should be dominant in Drow society unless you have replaced Lolth with another god or demon lord as a patron. Heres a few alternatives to the traditional portrayal of Drow society.
1. Drow Monarchy. In this scenario a Drow city is ruled by an absolute ruler. The ruler doesn't even have to be female but should be heavily influenced by Lolths clergy. Drow live a long time but perhaps the monarch is a Lich or Vampire. If played well a Lich or Vampire is often more or less impossable to kill. Give a Drow wizard a couple of thousand years to avoid death and see what ideas you can come up with.
2. Magocracy. Somehow Lolths clergy has lost control of Drow society and have been relegated to lesser positions. The most powerful Drow wizards and sorcerors rule the cities. Perhaps a council of mages rule or a singular despot the only qualification a Drow needs is sheer magical power. Even in a low magic world you can have this scenario. Perhaps the only 20th level wizard in the world is a Drow who eliminates all arcane rivals in the underdark- and beyond.
3. Non Lolth Drow. Unless you play in the Forgotton Realms theres not much in the way of gods for the Drow to follow. However if you have the Book of Vile Darkness you can have the Drow follow demon lords and use some of the spells , feats and prestige class's contained in that book. Or you can have the Drow follow Vecna or any other evil god/demon/devil lord in your world.
The Drow and the Lands of Light.
The Drow are residents of the underdark. I strongly recommend that you leave them there. This means no Drow surface settlements, trade caravans or renegade Drow leading thieves guilds etc. The only interaction Drow should have with the surface is raids. Such raids should always target elves and be rare and far away from PCs. Drow raiding parties have better things to do than tangle with groups of adventurers. If the Drow for some reason need/want surface world goods have them raid farms and towns or trade vis Orcs or some other race. If your world has an average or higher amount of magic in it have the Drow trade via teleport spells and bags of holding or via planar portals or gate spells. Why travel to the surface if you can trade with the Mercane, Githyanki, or Illithids?
Roleplaying Drow.
How do you roleplay a race of vile, corrupt, demon conjuring decadent xenophobes? You don't. Theres very little reason or advantage to the average Drows mind to negotiate with surface beings. A typical Drow reaction should be attack or slip away unnoticed. The underdark is a dangerous place. Any human or dwarf capable of survivng there is probably tough. The exception to this is elves. Drow should always attack elves on sight or summon reinforcements. Great prestige and power comes to any Drow capturing a elf alive for sacrifice or if a Drow kills one if its to inconvenient or risky for a live capture.
If the PCs do manage to interact with Drow in a non violent situation play them as pragmatic, amoral, survivors. Any Drow captive will say anything, betray anyone or do anything if he/she believes they can survive. Just remember being evil and usually chaotic or neutral they will constantly look for ways to take advantage of any situation. Generally speaking the PCs at best in any deal with Drow should at best break unless they have some way to enforce any agreement made. If the PCs are that powerful most Drow will simply flee at the 1st available opportunity.
Drow as PCs.
If you don't allow PCs to be Drow I would recommend you reconsider should any PC ask you to be one. If your DM won't let you be one wheedle and plead if you really want to be one. Drow have an ECL of +2 which hurts alot for most class's for the benefits the Drow race actually gives. A Drow can make an excellent rogue, assassin or archer but tend to suck at spellcasting and melee combat . The higher the level of the party the less the ECL hurts. Having a level 1 Drow PC in a 3rd level party is alot worse than having a level 18 Drow in a 20th level party. From a min/max point of view you can do alot worse with a Human/Dwarf/Elf character.
Drow Tactics.
Heres how you can make your PCs hate the Drow- with a passion. Drow are intelligent and agile. They also have a constitution penalty which makes them less than ideal for melee combat. They also have a reputation for powerful wizards. Generally with Drow you want to be a bit more intelligent than have 4 wizards throw volleys of fireballs at the PCs until they run out of hit points. My 1st rule of using Drow.
1. Drow should rarely if ever be surprised. Use scouts or spells such as alarm to give the Drow warning. They can then set up an ambush and use buff spells or potions before the fight begins.
2. Ambush, ambush, ambush. Drow should rarely fight fair. They have 120' darkvision which in the underdark outranges most light sources and darkvision. Have them launch volleys of hand crossbow bolts at PCs from outside their vision range. Have the Drow concentrate all fire on 1 PC at a time preferably a wizard. From the Drow point of view wizards have alot of nasty spells and are excellent targets for Drow poison. After the surprise round is over have the Drow retreat or retreat after the 1st round of normal combat. Odds are the PCs are still trying to get withen range of the Drow or are casting spells like haste or divine power. Let them waste their spells since the targets have left already.
3. Magic. Drow tend to have more wizards and priests than most races. Assuming they have spellcasters of sufficent level make liberal use of spells such as alarm, forbiddence, unhallow, arcane eye, prying eyes, glyph of warding and symbol. If the Drow have advance warning prepare before the battle with cats grace, bulls Strength etc and use haste spells, divine power, divine favor, righteous might. Also remember to use stoneskin on melee fighters and greater invisability on rogues if available.
4. Hit and Run. I mentioned having Drow retreat before. Have them retreat through areas with greater glyphs of warding (harms a good one to use on a glyph) and have a 2nd group of Drow engage the PCs to slow them down.The 2nd group then retreats while the 1st provides cover etc. DnD isn't very helpful for these types of battles so to make it effective the Drow need to know where to go and prepare it before. This tactic can be quite effective if the PCs can't see the Drow at long range and they have to stop to heal from traps, glyphs, and combat damage. I had my PCs involved in a 3 day running battle through the underdark using this tactic.
5. Use Enervate on spellcasters. PCs hate it. In addition to its normal effects enervate removes spells from a spellcasters memory.Often PCs will rest earlier than they normally would due to this spells effects.
6. Hit them while resting. Who says you have to let them rest? Drow know this. Occasionally have a long range fireball burst on them and have the wizard retreat straight away. Keep them awake and in armor or hit them unprepared. Prying Eyes is a good spell for the Drow to use to keep tabs on the PCs location.
Conclusion
All in all don't use Drow to often on the PCs. But when you do hit them hard and be mean. Your objective isn't to kill PCs (although some might die) but to make them fear the Drow- as it should be.
Mwha ha ha ha.
Zardnaar
A handful of rebels did survive the elvish civil wars. They fled to the darkest corners of the world and disappeared. These "Drow" are now liches . . .and worse.
To complicate matters further, there are Neo-Drow. These are normal elves and their descendents who, full of elven chauvinism, have decided to follow in the footsteps of the legendary rebels. There are several pockets of these Neo-Drow, all claiming to follow the true path of elven purity. A Neo-Drow encountering a true Drow will usually first feel very horrified, then very disillusioned...and then very dead.
Although they are totally backstabing and courpt, the chaotic of the chaotic, the evil of the evil, they make up in teamwork. Any group of drow that travel together for a tenday...there DC should just go up by five. Once drow know there and others tactics there is no stopping them, even if they all hate eachother. As gracefull as drizzt wields his two swords so do all drow wield there combinded skills together.
Just my little tidbit...
-Frosty
Drow like to use cannon fodder. Putting their slaves in front of the battle to get whacked by the enemy's fighters is a sure way to get more time to shoot hand crossbow bolts. Drow are normally using goblins, kobolds, orcs, hobgoblin, bugbear, Quaggots, even Minotaur.
Of course, most Drow don't feel anything about their slaves, so if a spellcaster finds that he could kill his enemy, and at the same time would kill many kobold slaves, he wouldn't hesitate to do the deed.
Slaves can also be used as bait. Stupid PCs are probably going to chase off a little band of kobold marauder straight to a tunnel where a wise DM can place a Drow ambush.
Every single time you said "there" it should have been "their"
There denotes location—“over there.”
Their means, that which belongs to them, “their skills,” etc.
Aside from this, excellent. Finally someone to put a stop to all that annoying angsty DDS and place the drow in their rightful place.
I was wondering though, did you actually get to the part of explaining how to deal with a world where the drow are controlled by Lloth female clergy? You said you would later in the post but as far as I could tell you didn’t.
Thanks.
I'm in total agreement that every party doesn't need a good drow elf that wields two weapons but I do like the fact that the Faerun drow have a small percentage that seek to be good. In my opinion it makes sense. Stereotypes are there for a reason but they're not law. I feel it also makes sense that the drow would be interested in taking back parts of the surface. There is a much greater possibility of improving their economy up here. Much of the Underdark is not exactly ripe with riches.
Thanks for the great read and ideas.
1st Wave: Illusions. It makes a lasting impression on a town when they think the Demons coming toward them are real. Throw in an actual dretch or two just to keep PCs on their toes.
2nd Wave: Send in the slaves. Sure the Orcs & Kobolds will die, thats what they are there for.
3rd. Wave: Giant Spiders are good to climb walls and leave nice silk ropes atop for the following waves to climb.
4th Wave: Chaos, Release some underdark creatures into the town from below. Perhaps you paid off a Beholder to disintegrate a tunnel from the sewers to just below town square. Captured Umber Hulks (heads previously covered in globes of darkness) are released to run rampant through the town.
5th. Wave: Underdark mercenaries or Drow warriors depending on the town size mop up the rest. Yes, raise any fallen foes as undead.
Originally posted by taltamir
Frostbite_Ravenheart
I was wondering though, did you actually get to the part of explaining how to deal with a world where the drow are controlled by Lloth female clergy? You said you would later in the post but as far as I could tell you didn’t.
Thanks.
Its got to do with the alignment of the planets, and the price of fish in Mexico. Actually now that you point it out all I can say is oops. I'll edit it at some point and add that bit in.
Dúalfar are known to be powerful warriors, magicians, and priests. They worship a serpent goddess, Ungolloth, who demands regular sacrifices of precious items and intelligent beings. While Ungolloth was originally called Loth, the word means flower in J.R.R. Tolkien's elvish. Ungolloth is not related to Lloth⁚ or Lolth⁚. Erda's Lothian Peninsula was named after Loth long before the events detailed below.
The Betrayal of Ungolloth
years before the dawn of man
we know from dwarven lore
the elven realm of Lothian
was torn apart by war
the elven house of Dú was wrought
of envy and deceit
Loth, their flower queen did plot
to steal the royal seat
beneath a pearl of brilliant light
the blades of Dú pierced skin
ne'er before this evil night
had fairie slain their kin
while on the lawn a battle raged
twixt faithful and the Dú
all members of the court were caged
and every one was slew
the renegades had won the field
the royal house did fall
and then the coming dawn revealed
the vilest act of all
a blossom of the moon begat
Loth as serpent-beast
on elven blood and flesh and fat
the flower queen did feast
in heaven Arth Vawr heard the cry
of the elven crown
the morning star fell from the sky
and struck the serpent down
all of those whose hearts were black
where given hair the same
and all who joined in the attack
the light of day brought pain
the name of Dú became accursed
as from the realm they fled
descended they into the earth
to suffer with the dead
Somebody decided to give me a speech about my prejudice to which I replied, " A group of people comes across some kobolds and humans fighting with a heroic surge they fall upon the kobolds that are winning and rescue the humans.... think I remember you doing something like that". They told me that was different and I agreed, as we didn’t welcome evil that time with open arms....
People say it was uncompromising as it was a player... but I figured at least one person should react as any NPC even remotely aware of the nature of a Drow. That campaign and I parted ways when I wanted to run a CE halfling that relied on racial reputation for being good but was ultimately a bad guy and was denied because the party would never want to group with such a person. I didn’t know everybody in the world had an unfailing alignment meter but me.
First off we have a pantheon for every thing there, from elves to humans, to slugs you name it, and to make matters worse, all of their gods are real. If you are going to create a world there is no need to fear giving it a "creator" and letting his creations vie for power in this world. These creations can be lesser gods and whatnot, but they must have a reason to be there. Even in the Greek and Egyptian pantheons there were gods for only the unexplainable, death, birth, love, the stars and moon. This is the key foundation to mythology such as this.
Second is the races, this is the major failing of D&D and it comes out in spades in FR. Why have a hundred versions of humans out there? Lets get into FR lets make it breath. I run FR with every 'race' as specie. There are no half-elves, half dwarves etc. you mate with a horse no more than a human can mate with an orc. This allows me to create 'races' in each 'species' so that the Elves for instance have an entirely separate culture that diversifies even more amongst its different races. Because of the unique physiology of the Elves their take on life is vastly different than a humans.
Third, the concept of 'evil'. What a load of malarkey. Evil should be in the actions of a character. Just because someone lacks remorse does not make them evil. In fact even the great evil of the Christian faith has motive and reason to why he performs the 'evil' acts he does. The idea behind any great epic adventure is the plot, the reason everything is happening. This needs to be evident in all things in FR.
Lastly (for now) is the interactions of the races. "With great power comes great responsibility" Think for a moment about Cormyr, a land of high population, high magic prowess, war wizards as regulars in the army and so on. Think of the military might that is in their hands. To think that for thousands of years they would sit on their butt and live happily ever after? No way! Especially with the various pantheons out there think of the various political and holy wars that would be blazing!
In the end FR needs to be looked at as a whole world and not as a isolated collection of 'neat' stuff. Quit treating the Drow like they have no reason to be ‘evil’ quit handing out character classes when some fool asks for a Drow Ranger.
Even if they are evil and intelligent that doesn’t mean they don't care what others, even lower races, think of them. This makes them susceptible to flattery, just like dragons. That, combined with never ending ambitions for power, wealth and station makes it possible to bargain and negotiate with drow, at least if you do not show yourself as "weak" (good).
Zaardnar's description of drow as decadent xenophobes is accurate, but they could make deals with almost any race and even keep them, as long as it was profitable to them. Keep in mind that drow actually does a lot of trading with other races they hate - especially duergar and mind flayers, but also humans. Most of them would never trade with Elves or Svirfneblins.
He’s a lean mean killing machine, smart, sneaky, blackskinned and has actually converted a High Priest of Lolth into his service (in Greyhawk, Eclavdra).
Unless you play in the Forgotton Realms theres not much in the way of gods for the Drow to follow.
I strongly disagree, you forgot about Greyhawk!
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/articles/lg20030521deitiessearch&tablesort=3
Greyhawk drow gods include Lolth and several others. If I am not mistaken Lolth original appeared in the Greyhawk campaign setting.
The books, in all of their UNQUESTIONABLE, STONE-ENGRAVED GLORY tell us that these folks are vile, horrible, vain, selfish beings are the stuff of nightmares... Maybe. I think a dark elf would turn gray with shock if he were faced down with a human who lost it. Just think of our psychology compared to theirs, that pent-up instinct of ours unleashed on a dark elf's neck with bare hands, for example. Think of how big his eyes would be knowing that every last drop of life was being choked out of him by something more chaotic and evil than his malformed mind can see, the subconscious evil of a human, a bestial rage that's been squelched and pressured by the conscience.
You've got more to fear from the silent evils of a human being, deep and repressed, waiting to be let loose compared to the ever-present and familiar evil of a Drow. Dwell on it and you'll see that when you've got a demented human who's out for blood, having so many facets and dimensions to his inner torment and rage, compared to the nature of the Drow to which it seems everyone's familiar with anymore, you know the dark elf's number is up.
Not only that, but think of how evil a fallen angel would be - To forsake its holiness for whatever blackened desires dwell within: How about a fallen paladin while we're on the subject of tainted light, to be guided so powerfully by the light and then to suddenly lose it all and find that, above all else, the sadness and fear of lost faith turned to hatred, bloodshed, perpetuating itself.
Something about tainted elves doesn't seem creepy at all, or terrifying, or troubling... In fact, I just see some pointy-eared ebon elf: Other elves are still vain, reveling in their beauty and nimbleness, they just save face and act good. Look in the book, it straight-up says they're arrogant and aloof.
I just feel that the whole evil thing about dark elves is overdone to a ridiculous degree, to a point where other races (especially humans) are overshadowed in their assorted malignant methods by this game-wide cliché that dark elves are up there with fiends as far as evil goes...
The books, in all of their UNQUESTIONABLE, STONE-ENGRAVED GLORY tell us that these folks are vile, horrible, vain, selfish beings are the stuff of nightmares... Maybe. I think a dark elf would turn gray with shock if he were faced down with a human who lost it. Just think of our psychology compared to theirs, that pent-up instinct of ours unleashed on a dark elf's neck with bare hands, for example. Think of how big his eyes would be knowing that every last drop of life was being choked out of him by something more chaotic and evil than his malformed mind can see, the subconscious evil of a human, a bestial rage that's been squelched and pressured by the conscience.
On the contrary, I believe that a properly portrayed Drow wouldn't blink at what humans have done to each other. She may be surprised that humans had the guts for it, but it wouldn't phase her unless she was the immediate recipient. In fact, I would recommend that a DM (if her players can take it) would do well to look to the Nazi party for examples of how Drow would treat surface elves if given the chance. The "familiar evil" of the Drow is watered down because it is familiar, not because it is Drow - that kind of thing is uncomfortable to think about, no matter how the perpetrators are abstracted from humanity. Not everyone is willing to deal with the Drow on terms that make sense because a society based on racial supremacy and resentment is too close for comfort.
Guess it's time to find a new bag.
(wonder how many of you can relate a race from D&D to a snack food.)
In general then, either have Drow related plot, or allow Drow characters, but not both.
As for making them distinctive, intelligent tactics are all well and good, but that doesn't set them apart. Drow are cool because of their culture and background, not because of their abilities or stats. In order to make Drow distinctive, you have to have a game where the players face and interact with that.
The original D3 adventure, Vault of the Drow, made use of this principle. The adventurers battle their way to the underground city, where they can more or less freely mingle with the city population. While you can run the adventure as a vast battlefield, the point is to get the players talking to the Drow, who don't hesitate to use them in the their personal political plans, because the adventurers simply aren't important enough to kill on sight.
So get them talking. Fighting Drow? Have the Drow send one of their slave trogldytes to offer the surrender of... all the trogs to the PCs as slaves in return for the Drow leaving. The Drow don't actually think they'll lose, but the trogs would certainly die in the battle, and why risk getting all hot and flustered in the fight? If the Drow can dominate their little messenger, you can have him emphasise all the advantages of having trogs slaves, including the fun the PCs can have torturing him and his comrades. That should reinforce both the Drow view of the trogs, and the Drow view of the PC's motives and aims.
Talking to Drow? None of them should speak common, or at least not admit to it. Make them talk through a goblin or trog translator, and reinforce the idea that to the Drow the PCs are just another uppity species of potential slaves. They haven't bothered to learn common because people who speak it don't have anything worthwhile to say.
The main point is to restrict information. The PCs should find out a little about the Drow at a time, enough to whet the appetite. but no more. The Drow need to be mysterious in their motivation, so make sure that whatever their aims are, they should be entirely incomprehensible to the PCs. Drow are now too familiar to be mysterious in person, but they can still be alien in purpose.
The Drow aren't particularly interesting as combat opponents, but as NPCs or enemies of long standing, they are ideal. You need to use them as people of alien culture, alien mindset, and alien purpose. Yes eventually they will fight, but only at the end, once they're pawns, servants and ideally the Drow's enemies have all been placed in the PC's path first.
Drow, just like other elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, and goblinoids are in fact only representative for aspects of the human species. Humans can be wain, arrogant, slim, or stocky, tough, short, or strong, violent and stupid. These "races" are a set of qualities taken from the human race, with some non-human abilities added and perhaps some fangs or pointy ears.
Drow are the embodiment of evil, treason, arrogance, vanity, genius, beauty, slaughter, pleasure, sadism even style. Sure, humans can be as ... as them, but humans can be everything. Among drow, this is the norm.
I don't think drow characters in a group is always a good idea, but right now I've got a underdark campaign with all drow. It's tough trying to think so differently from normal campaigning (although the hack'n'slash is pretty much the same), but when we achieve this, it's worth the trouble IMHO.
If you want a more alien style enemy/mastermind, try to Illithid. As long as no Dr. Zoidberg jokes are made during play, they can even be a bit scary
Messiah guy, you can make your own bag of cheetos and toss away the old one. Heck, you can even add or remove flavor at will! Make YOUR cheetos far better than the old scimitar wielding repentant ones! I recommend spiky, wicked and hot, but not too cheesy. Just make sure you vary the flavors. Don't overdo it!
Cardinal, although I loathe how the Drizzt character has ruined the Drow, and especially all the drow PCs that have been spawned, Drow doesn't have to be an alien race, mysterious and incomprehensible. There are plenty of other races/entities in D&D do do that mysterious thingy... as long as the player's aren't too familiar with the MM.
Sure. Make drow the touchstone, and have something else as the mysterious aliens. You might nick a really really strange culture from a science fiction book, have that as the norm on the surface, and have the humans on the surface as the aliens.
You can have drow as PCs, or you can have drow as mysterious, but its very hard to do both at once, because the drow PCs will ultimately, either know their own race or make it their business to do so.
The point is that what made the drow interesting was their culture and lifestyle. If you want to recapture the old drow magic, you need to get back to the culture and lifestyle again. As simple combat encounters, they aren't all that interesting, although the 2nd ed book drow of the Underdark made some strides in that direction. It's interacting with them and their culture on a personal level that really works well.
I agree that focus on their culture is important, I use both Drow of the Underdark and the Menzoberranzan boxed set a lot in that campaign.
The first time I used Drow against a party, it was a TPK as the Drow were too efficient in their tactics. The next group that attacked them had more knowledge of their tactics and wiped them out rather easily. If you use Drow in combat, don't make them easy like Orcs, make them tough and deadly. But try to avoid a TPK ;)