The Drow of the Underworld

[KaiserKris]

Drow Elves:
The slightly smaller than average, fierce-looking pale elf scowls at you, twin daggers drawn in a menacing fashion. The elf hisses in a somewhat feral fashion before a spreading field of darkness forms around you and you are suddenly trapped in a struggle of life and death with an opponent you can’t see.

The elf on the other hand, seems to have no such problem.

Racial Attributes:
Languages: Drowish, Elven
Bonus Languages: Common, Dwarven, Gnomish, Goblin, Abyssal, Terran
Size: Medium
Movement: 30 feet
Typical Classes: Ranger, Rogue, Assassin, Cleric, Fighter, Illusionist, Sorcerer
Attribute Modifiers: +1 Dexterity, +1 Wisdom, -1 Constitution

Racial Traits:
Cursed: Drow immediately suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls when exposed to sunlight, and for every twenty minutes they spend in sunlight, they suffer 1d6 subdual damage. When a Drow becomes unconscious from this, they begin to suffer real damage. If they reach -10 hit points due to this, they will die. Spells that simulate sunlight inflict twice as much damage as normal.

Darksight: Drow see perfectly in total darkness, without the range limit of many other creatures that can see well in conditions of darkness. They are also immune to all supernatural darkness effects.

Determine Depth and Direction: Drow are capable of intuitively sensing their depth and direction underground, just as a dwarf can.

Drow Magic: Many Drow Elves gain the ability to cast certain spells intuitively, and approximately 15% of Drow are capable of casting darkness and silence once per day, at a caster level equal to HD. A small number of Drow females also gain the ability to cast command, dispel magic and fear once per day.

Enhanced Hearing: Drow possess extrordinarily sharp hearing and gain a +2 bonus to all Wisdom checks involving hearing. Unfortunately, they also suffer 50% extra damage from sonic-based attacks.

Magical Resistance: Drow are immune to magical sleep effects and have a +2 bonus to all saves against charm spells.

Poison Use: Drow are always considered capable of adding poison to their weapons without risking poisoning themselves, and have a +2 to all saves against poison.

Spell Resistance: Drow possess spell resistance equal to 3 + the HD of the Drow, up to 15 SR.

Stealthy: All Drow can add half their level to Hide, Track and Move Silently checks. If their class has these as a class ability, they add +2 to their checks.

Universally Hated: Drow suffer a -2 penalty to all Charisma checks involving diplomacy or negotiation, unless the individual is personally known and trusted by the other party.

Appearance and Physiology: Drow Elves are somewhat smaller in frame than regular elves, being slightly shorter than the average human, and if anything, even skinner than regular elves are. They are deathly pale, with chalk white skin, red eyes and stringy white hair. They possess extraordinarily sharp senses of sight and hearing, and are well adapted for an underground life, but cannot stand bright light at all. Their teeth and nails are quite sharp, but are not strong enough to be effective melee weapons.

Society and Culture: Drow society is based around tribal clans, headed by powerful Matriarchs who are simultaneously the secular leaders and High Priestesses of the tribe. A Drow tribe is typically broken up into several clans, which will have a few hundred members, which in practice is typically broken into a large number of bands, which will have anywhere between ten and twenty adults, and usually between five and ten children of varying ages.

While Drow society is usually described as matriarchic, the fact is that only the Matriarchs themselves and a tiny handful of their retainers see much benefit from this. Ordinary men and women are essentially treated equally, with all worth in the eyes of the Matriarchs coming from their service to the band or tribe they are in.

For the most part, the Drow are semi-nomadic in the Underworld, but there exist a few Drowish cities, which are usually built around particularly imposing temples to the terrible deities and demons that the Drow worship. In these Drow cities exist High Matriarchs that command absolute obedience to those drow that live in the city, and amongst visitors, but whose power usually ends quite abruptly at the limits of the city.

While the vast majority of Drowish bands and clans are led by Matriarchs, there do exist a handful of clans that are led by particularly powerful and charismatic males. Though many Drow may look down upon these would-be Patriarchs, few indeed would be willing to match blades or spells with a male powerful or intelligent enough to defy the typical way of drow society.

Social interactions amongst the Drow are largely determined by the strength and status of those interacting. Only rough equals are likely to enter into a relationship recognizeable as friendship or romance to outsiders, and typically eventually, one party will emerge clearly as the dominant party and the other as a lesser, subjugated party. While for the most part, the Drow detest outsiders, they do respect strength and will treat powerful members of other races with caution and respect.

History: The Drow Elves diverged from the ancient Elven people in the aftermath of the Scathing of Old Illyria, a ruinous civil war between Elven factions divided on their attitude towards magic. Soundly defeated by the ancestors of the modern High Elves, the ancestors of the drow discovered a gate into the mysterious Underworld, a dark realm that is both a part of the Earthly realm and apart from it, with its own unique ecosystem of bizarre and frightening creatures.

At first the Elves, used to the benevolent light of the sun and moon, found it difficult to adapt in the realm but eventually one of their leaders succeeded in making divine contact with a powerful demonic being- none other than Lilith, the Mother of Demons, who bestowed upon them a small portion of her dark power. Thus empowered, the drow became increasingly powerful, but also vicious and clannish, their unified society largely splintering into small roving bands, intent on bringing death and destruction upon all in their path.

It was not long before the Drow discovered gates back into the mundane realm, many of them near rich and ill-defended human realms, as well as peaceful places occupied by other races. Moving by cover of night, the Drow raiders were devastatingly effective, striking defenceless villages, slaughtering them and stealing any valuable items. Emboldened by success, the Drow raids became more and more substantial, with a massive, culminating attack on Magadan, the capital of the Second Illyrian Empire, in which virtually the entire civilian population was slaughtered and the city totally razed.

While the destruction of Magadan was the death knell of the Second Illyrian Empire, it also had a massively galvanizing effect on the constituent kingdoms and principalities of the collapsing Empire. Destroying Drow power became not only a necessity, but a holy crusade, and the Drow now faced the united wrath of virtually every human state in Illyria- thirty-five millions fired with the desire to root out and destroy the Drow not only as a political power, but as a race.

Though life had suddenly become more difficult for the Drow raiders, it would become far worse when the Crusade finally found a leader in the person of Karl Magnus, the ruler of the inland island of Aeona. Eventually, the armies of the Great Crusade found their way into the Underworld itself and obliterated the primary Drowish temple-city. However, Magnus was prevented from carrying out the total extermination of the Drow- told directly by the goodly gods that doing so would be an act of evil in and of itself. This mercy however was not total- the god of the sun, Sol Invictus, placed the drow under a curse, barring them from ever enjoying the sun again.

Though the Drow race was not destroyed in the Great Crusade, the damage done was great and it has taken the Drow civilization millennia to recover … but now that they have, they turn their eyes towards the surface. Just as the humans of Illyria were unified in their hatred of the drow, so too are the drow unified by their hatred of the Illyrians. At least, as united as such a capricious race can be.

[Mark Hall]

I think the 2d6 subdual is a bit much.

[KaiserKris]

I think the 2d6 subdual is a bit much.

Reduce it to 1d6, perhaps, or lengthen the time frame to an hour?

[Mark Hall]

I think the 2d6 subdual is a bit much.

Reduce it to 1d6, perhaps, or lengthen the time frame to an hour?

Truthfully, I'd just get rid of it completely. If you're going for base drow (which your description implies you might not be), the penalty to all actions (a 2 level penalty, essentially) is pretty hefty. You might also tack on a penalty of 2 to AC, but I don't see the usual drow taking damage in light... just hating it a lot.

[KaiserKris]

I think the 2d6 subdual is a bit much.

Reduce it to 1d6, perhaps, or lengthen the time frame to an hour?

Truthfully, I'd just get rid of it completely. If you're going for base drow (which your description implies you might not be), the penalty to all actions (a 2 level penalty, essentially) is pretty hefty. You might also tack on a penalty of 2 to AC, but I don't see the usual drow taking damage in light... just hating it a lot.

They're not really supposed to be 'classic' DnD Drow, and it's less of a physiological thing than the effect of a magical curse laid down upon their race by the sun god.

[Mark Hall]

In that case, it's fine, but it's a very powerful detriment... even at 1d6 per 20 minutes, you're looking at killing 3rd level characters in a couple of hours. It radically changes the way those characters can be played in any mixed group.

[western watcher]

An SR 15 even if it's the maximum seems kinda high, considering creatures such as a blue dragon doesn't gain spell resistance until it becomes "seasoned".