Drow

I think Drow is a pretty cool guy, eh evil and doesn't afraid of anything

Drow are black-skinned and white-haired subterranean elves who are allergic to sunlight. The strange thing is they live underground, but have black skin, you think they would be pale to the point of being transparent like Cave Fish due to their curse by Corellon when Lolth turned them away from the other elven gods. They produce adamantine equipment (which falls apart in sunlight, yet is bad-ass underground), take slaves, are ruled by a matriarchy that likes S&M, have magic resistance and hate normal elves. In short, they'd be fucking cool, were it not for the fact that 90% of all player character Drow will be Chaotic Good and be Rebelling Against The Evils Of Their Race, thanks to the raging hard-on underages have on Drizzt. As a result, even though dark elf pr0n is 1; common, 2; totally acceptable given their interests, and 3; totally relevant when somebody asks for dark elf pictures (see 2) people still get whiny on /tg/ at anything moderately crude. Sure, we're trying to hold back the tide of cancer, but where dark elves are concerned, it's totally good.

Eberron's Drow are somewhat different, in that they have gender equality (more or less), hang out in jungles with the Yuan-Ti, and worship Vulkoor, a dickish scorpion god who looks like a cool guy to hang out with compared to Lolth. Their mamas also actually love them rather than whip them everyday then sacrifice them later. They're still a bunch of racist dicks, though. Still, Eberron Drows are the more tolerable Drows, have a nice childhood, and at least they can be reasoned with easier. This means you can play as a Drow there without issues you'll have in any another setting.

Character templates

AD&D and 2nd Edition

During this era, Drow were recommended as being restricted to the role of monsters, due to their in-game lore; both Drizzt Do'Urden and Viconia De'Vir stand out as "playable" drow, with backstories to explain why they're on the surface instead of down in the Underdark. That said, The Complete Book of Elves splatbook did give rules for playable Drow and holy fuck were they powerful... IF you were playing in the Underdark.

+2 Dex, +1 Int, -1 Constitution, -2 Charisma for initial ability score modifiers, and with racial maximums of 18, 20, 17, 19, 18 and 16 for Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence and Charisma respectively. They have a bunch of spell-like abilities, all usable once per day; Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire, and Darkness by default, with Levitate, Know Alignment and Detect Magic gained at level 4. Drow Clerics get even more, in the form of Clairvoyance, Detect Lie, Suggestion and Dispel Magic. Also, they start with Magic Resistance 50% and increase it by +2% per level, to a max of 80%, and get a +2 bonus on all saves involving magic.

So, what's the drawback? Aside from the sensitivity to light (-2 penalty to Dexterity and Attack Rolls, enemies are +2 bonus to saves vs. drow spells), they also lose their powers if they spend more than two weeks outside of the Underdark, losing 10% Magic Resistance and one spell-like ability each day. If they go back to the Underdark, they get their powers back if they spend 1 day for each week they spent on the surface. Also, they get a -4 penalty to Reaction rolls against other elves, and increase their experience costs by +20%.

3rd edition

3E had rules in the core set for monsters as races. For Elf (Drow) the effective Character level (ECL) was +2, so a 1st level Drow elf is equivalent to a 3rd level regular elf character. The usual elf bonuses and flaws, plus: +2 Int, +2 Cha, Darkvision 120' instead of elf-normal lowlight vision, Spell resistance of 11+level, +2 to will saves for spells, can cast these spell-like abilities 1/day: dancing lights, darkness, faerie fire, weapon proficiencies are hand-crossbow rapier and shortsword instead of elf-normal, sudden bright sunlight will blind a drow for 1 round, and the drow will be dazed until they leave the bright light. Boy drow have wizard as favoured class, girl drow have cleric (of Lolth) as favoured class.

They had an article on their culture in Dragon Magazine #298 that really emphasized the darker side of drow culture. Want a sample? According to this lore, drow don't die out because, despite their tendency to murder and torture each other, they're as fertile as orcs, with females normally conceiving twins and triplets. They normally only birth a single baby, though, because the strongest usually kills and absorbs the others in the womb; these prenatal struggles actually produce orgasms more intense than anything a drow female might feel elswhere. This sensation, chad-zak, is explicitly called out as the main reason why drow women are willing to get pregnant at all, considering the selfish power-hungry bitches they generally are.

4th edition

The 4E Monster Manual had some explicit monsters-as-races in the back, and the Drow were one of them, although they got an identical repost in the 4e Forgotten Realms Player's Guide alongside the Genasi -- fittingly, since FR basically created the idea of Drow PCs.

For Drow, +2 Dex, +2 Cha, Darkvision, +2 Intimidate, +2 Stealth, Fey Origin, Trance, and one racial encounter power (Llothtouched) that could be used as a minor action for one of two effects that last until the drow's next turn: a close-burst-1 darkness spell the drow can see through, or a faerie-fire spell that gives combat advantage against the target.

5th edition

Drow are finally mentioned in the Player's Handbook as an equal option for elf subtypes. The usual elf advantages, along with +1 Cha, 120' darkvision, automatic knowing some spells: the 'dancing lights' cantrip at 1st, the 'faerie fire' 1/day at 3rd level, and 'darkness' 1/day at 5th level. Automatic weapon proficiencies are hand-crossbows, rapiers and shortswords. They are also the only race to receive an explicit penalty in the core book: if the drow or the drow's target are in direct sunlight, the drow has disadvantage on attack rolls and perception rolls. Better hope you fight indoors a lot.

Pathfinder

Pathfinder ditches the Lolth aspect and instead makes Drow aligned to assorted Demon Princes instead. They got playable templates for the first time in their Bestiary entry, and updated versions thereof in the Advanced Races Guide. Pathfinder goes back to really, really freaking old Drow lore by stating that there's two kinds of Drow; normal Drow, and Noble Drow, who're even tougher and nastier, with a lot more magical powers. These were handled as seperate races in the Bestiary, but ARG instead changed it to a Drow race with a bunch of racial feats to simulate Noble Drow abilities, which is arguably more balanced.

Drow

• Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con
• Size: Medium
• Speed: 30 feet
• Darkvision 120 feet
• Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to Magic Sleep Effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves vs. Enchantments.
• Keen Senses: +2 Racial Bonus on Perception checks.
• Spell Resistance: 6 + class level
• Spell-Like Abilities: Dancing Lights, Darkness and Faerie Fire, each 1/day.
• Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds a drow for 1 minute and leaves them dazzled on all subsequent rounds until they get out of the light.
• Poison Use: Drow don't risk poisoning themselves when they apply poison to weapons, etc.
• Weapon Familiarity: Free proficiency in Hand Crossbow, Rapier and Shortsword.

Noble Drow

• Ability Score Modifiers: +4 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, -2 Con
• Size: Medium
• Speed: 30 feet
• Darkvision 120 feet
• Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to Magic Sleep Effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves vs. Enchantments.
• Keen Senses: +2 Racial Bonus on Perception checks.
• Spell Resistance: 11 + character level
• Spell-Like Abilities:
  • Constant: Detect Magic
  • At-Will: Dancing Lights, Deeper Darkness, Faerie Fire, Feather Fall, Levitate
  • 1/Day: Divine Favor, Dispel Magic, Suggestion
• Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds a drow for 1 minute and leaves them dazzled on all subsequent rounds until they get out of the light.
• Poison Use: Drow don't risk poisoning themselves when they apply poison to weapons, etc.
• Weapon Familiarity: Free proficiency in Hand Crossbow, Rapier and Shortsword.

See also

• Unified Setting/Drow - Arctic merchant vikings who ride giant lobsters. But still with black skin and white hair.

• Drizzt Do'Urden - A... polarizing character, but still the most famous and iconic drow hero in D&D.

• Viconia De'Vir - A cleric of Shar in the Baldur's Gate games, and a good example of a "PC-friendly" drow who isn't a chaotic good Drizzt clone. Also Bioware's first "sexy, mildly-evil-but-mostly-misunderstood lady love interest" character, setting the template for all those that followed.

• Sandwich Stoutaxe: 1d4chan's take on the heroic Drow, she was abandoned by her family and raised by a Dwarf. So named because said dwarf found her in a basket that he thought was full of sandwichs.

Gallery

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  not racist; or at least not THAT kind of racist

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  in the skin darkness of the future, there is only Mary Sues

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  did I mention the Mary Sues yet?

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  drow men have a place in their matriarchy

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  Welcome to the jungle, where you can play a Drow however you want