Session 4/6/2008; The Coming of the Drow

[Eldmor]

Everyone  changes to Drow for this session! Here's the new and improved +0LA Eberron Drow.

Drow
    * +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
    * Darkvision 120'
    * +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities.
    * Light Blindness: Blinded when introduced to bright light. Dazzled while in bright light.
    * +2 racial bonus on Fortitude saves against poisons
    * +2 racial bonus on skill checks involving survival/tracking/etc.
    * Automatic Languages: Common, Elven, Undercommon. Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Aquan, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Gnome, Goblin.

If you have racial feats, replace them with others you meet prerequisites for without meta-gaming you having the Drow race. (So don't take Drow Skirmisher or others like it!)

[bossadelic]

light blindness doesn't make any sense. if anything, it should be light sensitivity. they dont live completely underground, and are also not vampires. also im wondering why people still want to give drow any type of spell defense. fort vs poison makes sense and so does survival bonus but what happened to listen and spot? arent they tribal hunters that live in the jungle? wouldnt they be pretty good at those things? also the argument for charisma penalty would make it so that they dont have a constitution penalty like wild elves' +2 dex -2 cha, which is what it seems like they should be more like. also they should probably keep the immunity to sleep and free search vs. concealed doors (dungeon delvers). my proposal would go something like +2 dex, -2 cha; +2 fort vs poison (instead of +2 will vs enchantment), immunity to sleep, darkvision 60 feet (dont live completely underground all the time) no light penalties, free search check next to concealed doors, +2 survival spot and listen. everything drow vs. elf is accounted for except darkvision vs low-light vision, which could be accounted for by possibly making a light sensitivity such as being dazzled after being exposed to sudden bright light or something like that.

eberron really went to sleep on the drow stats. they dont live in the dang underdark!

[bossadelic]

by the way they speak common, drow, and drow sign automatically, and move undercommon and elven to bonus languages

[Eldmor]

Punctuation and capitalization make reading things a lot easier.
Light Blindness is because they live in ruins and a super-dense rainforest. You don't see light when the trees are hundreds of feet tall with leaves larger than your entire body. If they really feel like going outside, they can always use blinders like orcs do. [1sp, wooden goggles with slits that fit around head, no light penalties but lose special vision and -1 spot. RoE]
Getting rid of Immune Sleep is just because elf "meditation" makes no sense. It's just there.
The drow are great hunters, but their environment is not kind to perception. Dark, loud, and moist. "Secret door sense" also falls under this.

[bossadelic]

xen'drik is not entirely jungle either. just the top peninsula mostly. but the light blindness comes from subterranean races, which the drow are NOT. the secret door actually makes MORE sense because they live in ruins with a lot of dungeon experience. they would be more apt to noticing secrets like that.

they are basically wild elves with a few more differences. seriously.

[Eldmor]

To quote what was being yelled down the hallways of the lab that day:
"PATRICK!?"
Logz on and fixxorz, prx.

[slopshid]

What am I fixxoring?

[Eldmor]

What am I fixxoring?

Is the drow I posted final draft?

[slopshid]

Is the drow I posted final draft?

Yep, that seems to encompass drow as per my interpretation of Secrets of Xen'drik, with one exception - addition of elf secret-door-sense, because of the time spent exploring the many cyclopsian ruins in the jungles of Xen'drik.

Drow
    * +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
    * Darkvision 120'
    * +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities.
    * Light Blindness: Blinded when introduced to bright light. Dazzled while in bright light.
    * +2 racial bonus on Fortitude saves against poisons
    * +2 racial bonus on skill checks involving survival/tracking/etc.  A drow who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if he were actively looking for it.
    * Automatic Languages: Common, Elven, Undercommon. Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Aquan, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Gnome, Goblin.

[bossadelic]

but IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE as noted above

why the hell do they have 120 foot darkvision?

why saves vs all spells?

why minus to constitution AND charisma?

why light blindness?

they. are. wild. elves. with a slightly different culture. what is so hard about that concept

[slopshid]

by the way they speak common, drow, and drow sign automatically, and move undercommon and elven to bonus languages

Reference?

why the hell do they have 120 foot darkvision?
...
why light blindness?

As previously discussed, they live (per Secrets of Xen'drik) in dark jungles.  Jungles have several layers of canopy for sunlight to filter through, which makes it dusk basically all the time at the bottom.  If you spend your entire life in perpetual twilight, you don't adjust well to real, unfiltered daylight.  Hence the light blindness and darkvision.

why minus to constitution AND charisma?

Per the ECS, they ritually scar themselves with poison, and they're insular & unfriendly.  Long-term exposure to poison will have an effect on con - while they are less likely to be affected by poison (hence the +2 to saves) they also are less healthy and less hardy than other races that don't inject scorpion poison into their limbs.  Unfriendly, untrusting and hard to get along with - hmmm, sounds like a charisma penalty to me.  Remember that charisma doesn't just represent physical appearance, it also represents, for lack of a better phrase, the force of your personality.

why saves vs all spells?

Can't remember at the moment, but I'll drag out a reference at some point.

[Eldmor]

why saves vs all spells?

Can't remember at the moment, but I'll drag out a reference at some point.

Xen'drik is pocked with nuclear-level magic and living in it for a while builds a resistance? I only have RoE but it says there are some high-grade things there like Siberyis shards wherever you look. Plus a lot of magic leech type monsters like arcane oozes, that one "magic item lich", etc.

[bossadelic]

the drow dont live completely in jungle. first of all, there are most likely clearings for the *giant* ruins. second of all, as stated in secrets of xen'drik, jungle covers the upper peninsula, but there are great deserts and temperate plains farther south, and it doesnt state that drow only live in the jungles close to stormreach. furthermore 120' darkvision is subterranean darkvision. lightblindness as far as i know applies mainly to underdark drow. duergar and such have light sensitivity. because the entire race doesnt live at the bottom of a jungle 24/7, it doesnt make sense to give them subterranean darkvision. 60' darkvision or low-light vision makes more sense. by the way a jungle is not absent of light, thus low light vision. such. as. elves.

i wasnt actually against the charisma penalty, but the constitution penalty. basically apply the reason why wild elves dont get a con penalty to this case, and you'll see why it makes sense. the scorpion venom thing shouldn't be applied to an entire race, because as you mentioned its ritualistic not racial.

your argument for having saves vs. spells would then probably apply to most humans on khorvaire, as well as everyone on sarlona having saves vs. powers, etc etc.

i refuse to accept a poorly explained stat block based on a nerfed forgotten realms drow mixed with leafing through the few hundred (seriously, thats all) words written about them in the eberron books.

[Eldmor]

In other news; what time is the session?

[bossadelic]

if anyone has it, can they bring complete arcane to the session? thanks