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As of right now I can tell you that in our RPG, there really isn't any scornful looks or bad luck being shot Sadon's way. We have a more diverse group and everyone kind of considers her companions to be very strange. (even moreso than herself). But then again, we've only been to one city and a village. (Sadie's traveling companions are a doppleganger, a dwarf, a fire genisai, a half-elf, two tieflings (both of different types), and two humans...not counting her psicrystal and the five Krenshar that are with them. Three of which she's training). I'm sure that after her and her companions have traveled around a bit, she will start getting noticed more. So time will tell what people think of her.

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From the Monster Manual:

Krenshar

Medium-Size Magical Beast

Hit Dice: 2d10 (11 hp)

Initiative: +2 (Dex)

Speed: 40 ft.

AC: 15 (+2 Dex, +3 natural)

Attacks: Bite +2 melee, 2 claws +0 melee

Damage: Bite 1d6, claw 1d4

Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.

Special Attacks: Scare

Special Qualities: Scent

Saves: Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +1

Abilities: Str 11, Dex 14, Con 11, Int_6, Wis 12, Cha 13

Skills: Hide +4, Jump +4, Listen +4, Move Silently +6

Feats: Multiattack

Climate/Terrain: Temperate and warm forest and plains

Organization: Solitary, pair, or pride (6-10)

Challenge Rating: 1

Treasure: None

Alignment: Always neutral

Advancement: 3-4 HD (Medium-size); 5-8 HD (Large)




Combat

Krenshars use solitary scouts to drive prey into the waiting clutches of the pack. The scout appears from hiding, uses its scareability, then chases the fleeing target to join the attack.

Scare (Ex or Su): As a standard action, a krenshar can pull the skin back from its head, revealing the musculature and bony structures of its skull. This alone is usually sufficient to scare away foes (treat as a Bluff check with a +3 bonus). Combining this scare ability with a loud screech produces an unsettling effect that works like scare cast by a 3rd-level sorcerer (save DC 12). If the save is successful, that opponent cannot be affected gain by that krenshar’s scare ability for one day. The shriek does not affect other krenshars.

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From the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting:

Genasai are descended from elemental-related creatures, such as efreet, dao, djinn, jann, and marids, among others. Most of them have had no direct contact with their elemental forebears, but the signs of their heritage are apparant. Genasai take great pride in their distinctive features and abilities.

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Originally posted by Yasraena

After reading a thread on ALFA, I have a topic that I'd like to see discussed in light of the many Drow PC's that have been created since Drizzt was introduced to the gaming masses.

Just how are Drow (in general) to be treated outside of their homeland and/or on the surface realms? How have they been treated in your games as both PC's and NPC's?

When Yasraena was first created, I fully expected to get nothing but fear, hatred and violence as my initial reactions from people she met on the surface. I think I was more a hindrance than an asset to the party at first because of this. I can't count the number of times we were driven out of town, not even allowed to enter towns, or were just outright attacked because of having a Drow elf in the party.
A Drow elf is one to be feared and hated on sight, if only because of the things that the race as a whole has done in the past. This shouldn't be the case ALL of the time, because there are those individuals that judge not by looks, but by actions. But still, a feeling of mistrust, at least at first, should always be present when dealing with an unknown Drow. If the Drow in question has a reputation for good that has preceeded them, then maybe these instinctive feelings should be less, but not completely dismissed. Some of Drizzt's encounters are perfect exammples of this. Even HE gets the cold shoulder and threatened in places he's not known, and he's at least been heard of, even in some of the remotest places of Faerun.
I'd really like to hear the experiences of those who either have played Drow PC's or GM's that have run them, or Drow in general.

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Bran:
DROW IN A MERP GAME!?!?!?! Man, is THAT stretching it.
Actually, I'm curious as to your GM's reasoning behind that. Considering there weren't any Drow in the mythos, how'd they get there? Did he just take the Moriquendi and make them Drow?

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As I've seen in the replies so far, I think most everyone agrees that playing a Drow in general should not be easy, and actually down right hard at times. One of the reasons I posted this topic was because of some of what I read on the ALFA board. There were actually some there that were complaining about how tough it is for Drow on the surface, how there's not any safe places for them, how they're always being persecuted, etc, etc. That attitude just cracks me up. Did they expect it to be easy? I think these people have either no clue as to what Drow REALLY are, or just like to complain. I've seen so many games with Drow PC's in them that make it soooooo easy for them, it really saddens me. It's like they're taking away the sense of the unknown and mystery of the race, and making them into just another elven ofshoot.

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Originally posted by zemd

IMO, a drow should face the same problems as drizzt. It's the perfect example.

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In general, life for Drow Elves anywhere, even in Drow cities, is a difficult one. On the surface they usually find themselves hunted by various bands of torch bearing villagers. They tend to attract lots of people out to kill them, even if they manage to establish a reputation of trustworthiness and honor.

Playing an evil Drow on the surface is much easier than a good Drow on the surface. Evil Drow don't have to change their ways much ont eh surface, and those bands of Lvl. 1 torch bearing commoners aren't so much a problem.

Generally speaking, as PCs it can be a nightmare int he begining, since the random bands of mercenaries tend to pop up to try and kill them at the worst times. Every after the get higher level and establish a reputation of one kind or another, they are still plagued by mercenaries, villages, guards, ect., and it can be rather annoying. As NPCs, well it really depends, largely on the outlook of my party at the time. they can be tolerent, intolerent, fearful, hateful, really any kind of reaction that fits the current party's ethos.

For the most part, they aren't really tolerated rather universally, and even when they are excepted someplace, there are always people coming out the woodwork to try and kill them anyways.

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A Drow elf is one to be feared and hated on sight, if only because of the things that the race as a whole has done in the past. This shouldn't be the case ALL of the time, because there are those individuals that judge not by looks, but by actions. But still, a feeling of mistrust, at least at first, should always be present when dealing with an unknown Drow. If the Drow in question has a reputation for good that has preceeded them, then maybe these instinctive feelings should be less, but not completely dismissed. Some of Drizzt's encounters are perfect exammples of this. Even HE gets the cold shoulder and threatened in places he's not known, and he's at least been heard of, even in some of the remotest places of Faerun.

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Originally posted by branmakmuffin

Cult_Leader:

I think you meant to say "PCs", not "NPCs", so here we go.

I agree that a player needs a good reason to play a Drow other than their bonuses.

I'm veering off-topic now. Look in the Hall of Heroes census statistics. Fully half the characters are Elves or Half-elves. I'm sure many play Elves because they really want to RP an Elf (I know some on this site who fall into that category), but I know for certain that most people play Elves for the bonuses. In 1e days, if a class was restricted to human of Half-elf, those types of players chose Half-elf and the only reason they didn't choose Elf was because they couldn't.

As for Drow women "always being worse", nothing is always true.nis al true. However just look at the way that most drow females are. Sure they might be nice... some of them that is. But what degree of nice are they? Most of them might be nicer then a few others but to every other race they are still cruel. You can take the sister of drizzt, the one that was still alive as an example. Sure she wanted to be nice but all in all she eneded up just turning into her mother. Go figure. Lolth has a nice firm hold on drow females. Comes with all the power that she gives them ... and the fact that if they fail her they are punished. Look at the Legends and Lores book in oh what was it? 1st or second ed? And by the by.... I would rather play a human then an elf... I normally do. Most of the plays and people I play d7d with would rather play something like an human .. half orc. gnome... dwarf ... or even an orc... We do this because elves are over played, and the fact that they were made to be more like an upper class race.

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Originally posted by Bookwyrm

Oh. Well, every post he's made starts with a whole-post quote -- meaning that even if he's only responding to one part, he'll quote the whole thing. I just skipped to the end without reading what was between the quote lines.

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Originally posted by Bookwyrm

Since both Yasraena and Branmakmuffin want to know what a krenshar is, and the former also doesn't know about genasai, I'll take a moment to explain both.

The first I also didn't know about when Sadon mentioned it to me, but I quickly found it in a PDF Artalis was kind enough to give me.

From the Monster Manual:

Krenshar

Medium-Size Magical Beast

Combat

Krenshars use solitary scouts to drive prey into the waiting clutches of the pack. The scout appears from hiding, uses its scareability, then chases the fleeing target to join the attack.

Scare (Ex or Su): As a standard action, a krenshar can pull the skin back from its head, revealing the musculature and bony structures of its skull. This alone is usually sufficient to scare away foes (treat as a Bluff check with a +3 bonus). Combining this scare ability with a loud screech produces an unsettling effect that works like scare cast by a 3rd-level sorcerer (save DC 12). If the save is successful, that opponent cannot be affected gain by that krenshar’s scare ability for one day. The shriek does not affect other krenshars.


[quote]From the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting:

Genasai are descended from elemental-related creatures, such as efreet, dao, djinn, jann, and marids, among others. Most of them have had no direct contact with their elemental forebears, but the signs of their heritage are apparant. Genasai take great pride in their distinctive features and abilities.

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I would think it bad role-playing to not at least give a lone Drow the benefit of the doubt, even if that benefit is "Drop your weapons you white-haired bastard or we'll fill you so full of arrows your new name will be 'quiver'!"

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Hahahaha! Just don't call me quiver!

But it's so hard to keep from thinking that way, Bran, especially with Drow (or Thayans for that matter). Stereotypes are mainly the result of people exagerating and/or expanding the actions of the targeted group. With the example you gave (Thayans and Drow) their actions are not exagerated, at least for the most part. They are truly evil and heinous acts, ergo the general perception that the entire race/nationality is evil, because they normally don't do 'good' things. When they do happen to do a good act, it's either by happenstance or not by design, but either way, it's not the norm.

I think that with the growing knowledge of Eilistraee by the surface races, and the growing number of Drow that follow her (Yasraena being one of them), the tales of what Drow do might start to include some good and righteous things, and hopefully, the general perception of them will change accordingly.

But, as it was said previously in this topic - realistically, just how many good drow are there in the Realms? They are still very few and far between, although their number are growing every day. That number has to increase dramatically for the tales of evil to turn to tales of good, and until that happens, the perception will stay as it is.

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The group that I normally play in, in both my town and the next one over, we normally kill them all and then look around ... its not hard to find clues about things nore spare treasure if you actually take the time to look around after you kill

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Kinda gives new meaning to the phrase "shoot first and ask questions later", huh?

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