Rogue Shadows
2013-01-05, 11:21 AM
So, a brief history.
This is brief
So I got introduced to D&D via Baldur's Gate II. Not the game, the novelization by Phillip Athens: the tagline on the back "Bhaal is Dead!," just caught my eye and so I bought the book, and found myself liking it just enough to want to buy the game. Yes, Abdel was a very unlikeable protagonist, but the book was enough to get me hooked on the idea of playing the game. For complicated reasons I couldn't play Baldur's Gate II on my computer at the time, but I bought and found that Baludr's Gate, the first one, ran just fine, so I played that, before getting a better computer and playing II
The part I liked the most in the novelization was the bit in the dark elf city. They just seemed cool, and I, being 12ish years old and easily enraptured by such things and convinced of my own originality, decided that I was going to play a CG human-raised drow who wields two weapons in Baldur's Gate (well, the two-weapon fighting thing had to wait for BGII)! Yes, technically, "drow" was not an available option for a race in Baldur's Gate, but I could and did imagine otherwise, just rolling up an elf and making her black skinned and white haired.
So basically I managed to rip-off Drizzt without ever even having heard of him. Still, this drow elf - whom I named Iliira Ii'ilmerias - was my first character, and I think our first characters in D&D always hold a special place in our heart
Naturally, as I gradually got into PnP D&D, specifically 3rd Edition right as it was coming out, my first instinct was to recreate Iliira. Which I could do, basically, but that LA +2 on drow really sucks, and frankly so does LA +1 when you want to be able to run a character from 1st level. Also, in the vast majority of games, Iliira cannot in fact be the child of the dead God of Murder, as this has a tendency to throw off game balance and raise serious questions as to how and why Bhaal had a kid in Greyhawk. So, I set about re-writing her backstory into something more generic and easily applicable anywhere. The key thing of it all, though, was that she was human-raised: born on the surface of the world, in fact, raised by an innkeeper, and having never been further underground then the wine cellar. Giving her full drow traits didn't make sense: why would a human-raised drow, for example, gain proficiency with the hand crossbow automatically?
So, the result is the below. Thanks for reading this if you did.
Short version of the above: I have a special snowflake drow character who was raised by humans, and I want to give her racial stats that reflect that she was raised by humans. So, the below. Please note that this "race" is really only meant to be used by a single character who will be sticking pretty close to the "rogue" ideal, and certainly never become a spellcaster in any meaningful sense.
Human-raised drow
- +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Charisma: Iliira is agile but frail, like all elves. She retains the strong sense of self of her drow heritage. Note: I am not married to the +2 CHA
- Medium-sized
- Iliira's base speed is 30 feet
- Darkvision 60 feet. Iliira's darkvision has become stunted due to constant exposure to daylight. However, Iliira does not suffer from light blindness nor light sensitivity, unlike most drow.
- 1 extra skill point per level, x4 at 1st level: Iliira's intelligence is considered stunted by drow standards. However, living amongst humans all her life has taught her versatility.
- +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells: Iliira retains some drow resistance to magic. However, her spell resistance, like her intelligence, is atrophied considerably next to a drow raised in the Underdark. Similarly, having never learned how to make use of them, Iliira is incapable of casting the normal drow spell-like abilities.
- Immune to sleep spells and effects: Iliira retains the standard elf immunity to sleep. However, she never learned to meditate as elves do, and as a result she does herself need to sleep (for 8 hours) to be considered rested.
- Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Any
- Favored Class: Any.
This is brief
So I got introduced to D&D via Baldur's Gate II. Not the game, the novelization by Phillip Athens: the tagline on the back "Bhaal is Dead!," just caught my eye and so I bought the book, and found myself liking it just enough to want to buy the game. Yes, Abdel was a very unlikeable protagonist, but the book was enough to get me hooked on the idea of playing the game. For complicated reasons I couldn't play Baldur's Gate II on my computer at the time, but I bought and found that Baludr's Gate, the first one, ran just fine, so I played that, before getting a better computer and playing II
The part I liked the most in the novelization was the bit in the dark elf city. They just seemed cool, and I, being 12ish years old and easily enraptured by such things and convinced of my own originality, decided that I was going to play a CG human-raised drow who wields two weapons in Baldur's Gate (well, the two-weapon fighting thing had to wait for BGII)! Yes, technically, "drow" was not an available option for a race in Baldur's Gate, but I could and did imagine otherwise, just rolling up an elf and making her black skinned and white haired.
So basically I managed to rip-off Drizzt without ever even having heard of him. Still, this drow elf - whom I named Iliira Ii'ilmerias - was my first character, and I think our first characters in D&D always hold a special place in our heart
Naturally, as I gradually got into PnP D&D, specifically 3rd Edition right as it was coming out, my first instinct was to recreate Iliira. Which I could do, basically, but that LA +2 on drow really sucks, and frankly so does LA +1 when you want to be able to run a character from 1st level. Also, in the vast majority of games, Iliira cannot in fact be the child of the dead God of Murder, as this has a tendency to throw off game balance and raise serious questions as to how and why Bhaal had a kid in Greyhawk. So, I set about re-writing her backstory into something more generic and easily applicable anywhere. The key thing of it all, though, was that she was human-raised: born on the surface of the world, in fact, raised by an innkeeper, and having never been further underground then the wine cellar. Giving her full drow traits didn't make sense: why would a human-raised drow, for example, gain proficiency with the hand crossbow automatically?
So, the result is the below. Thanks for reading this if you did.
Short version of the above: I have a special snowflake drow character who was raised by humans, and I want to give her racial stats that reflect that she was raised by humans. So, the below. Please note that this "race" is really only meant to be used by a single character who will be sticking pretty close to the "rogue" ideal, and certainly never become a spellcaster in any meaningful sense.
Human-raised drow
- +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Charisma: Iliira is agile but frail, like all elves. She retains the strong sense of self of her drow heritage. Note: I am not married to the +2 CHA
- Medium-sized
- Iliira's base speed is 30 feet
- Darkvision 60 feet. Iliira's darkvision has become stunted due to constant exposure to daylight. However, Iliira does not suffer from light blindness nor light sensitivity, unlike most drow.
- 1 extra skill point per level, x4 at 1st level: Iliira's intelligence is considered stunted by drow standards. However, living amongst humans all her life has taught her versatility.
- +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells: Iliira retains some drow resistance to magic. However, her spell resistance, like her intelligence, is atrophied considerably next to a drow raised in the Underdark. Similarly, having never learned how to make use of them, Iliira is incapable of casting the normal drow spell-like abilities.
- Immune to sleep spells and effects: Iliira retains the standard elf immunity to sleep. However, she never learned to meditate as elves do, and as a result she does herself need to sleep (for 8 hours) to be considered rested.
- Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Any
- Favored Class: Any.