Introduction
Drow are a variety of elves typically associated with Lolth, the evil goddess of spiders. Their traits grant additional weapon proficiencies and innate spellcasting, offering additional tactical options to many classes.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Drow Traits
- Lolth-Sworn Drow vs. Seldarine Drow
- Classes
- Barbarian
- Bard
- Cleric
- Druid
- Fighter
- Monk
- Paladin
- Ranger
- Rogue
- Sorcerer
- Warlock
- Wizard
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses a color coding scheme to rate individual character options.
- Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
- Green: Good options. Useful often.
- Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
RPGBOT is fan content published under Larian’s Fan Content Policy. This is not official content, and RPGBOT has no official relationship with Larian.
Drow Traits
- Base Racial Speed: You can move 9 m / 30 ft per turn.: Standard.
- Drow Weapon Training: The ability to dualwield hand crossbows and attack with your off-hand crossbow as a BonusAction means that you will have something useful to do with your BonusAction in nearly every circ*mstance. Proficiency in rapiers and shortswordsis nice, but almost every class that has any business using them is alreadyproficient in them or in an equivalent weapon, with the possible exceptionof the Cleric.
- Superior Darkvision: Mildly useful insome parts of the game, but encounters in darkness almost universally takeplace within the range of normal Darkvision. The reduced range on spells andranged attacks compared to the tabletop rules makes this much less of anadvantage (unless you use a mod to increase the ranges of things to more accurately reflect tabletop rules).
- Fey Ancestry: Charm effects aren’tcommon, but they can take you out of a fight entirely, so Advantage on saves isnice.
- Keen Sense: Arguably the most importantskill in the game.
- Drow Magic: Dancing Lights is rarelyuseful, but Faerie Fire is a great support option, and Darkness can giveyour party a huge tactical advantage if you’re okay with running in and outof the Darkness effect to attack (or if you have Devil’s Sight).
Note that Drow Magic uses Charisma as your spellcasting ability. Thisonly matters for Faerie Fire, but if you plan to use Faerie Fire it’s bestto choose a class that relies on Charisma so that your save DC will bedecent.
In addition, you must select a subrace which grants additional traits.
Lolth-Sworn Drow vs. Seldarine Drow
Lolth-sworm Drow worship Lolth, the spider queen. They have red eyes by default and have some unique evil dialog options. Seldarine Drow have rejected Lolth, and, while you’ll still be treated as a drow by NPCs, you won’t see the unique dialog options available to Lolth-sworm Drow.
Neither variety of Drow has any unique mechanical traits.
Classes
Barbarian
The Barbarian doesn’t benefit from Drow Weapon Training or Drow Magic. Any other variety of elf would be a better choice.
Bard
Bards already get proficiency in hand crossbows and rapiers, so the onlyreally interesting trait here is Drow Magic. Bards use Charisma for theirspellcasting, which makes Drow Magic a great addition.
Cleric
Proficiency in rapiers and in hand crossbows can be surprisingly useful forclerics. Using a weapon is generally a poor choice beyond low levels, but arapier is outright better than all of the Cleric’s regular melee weaponoptions unless your domain grants proficiency in martial weapons. Clerics dohave several Bonus Action spells, but you won’t cast those every round, sousing your Bonus Action to fire a hand crossbow can squeeze some extra damageout of your action economy.
Drow Magic’s dependence on Charisma means that Faerie Fire won’t be reliablefor the Cleric.
Druid
Druids have very little reason to use weapons without using Shillelagh, so proficiency in short swords and rapiers isn’t much help. Using your Bonus Action to fire a hand crossbow can squeeze some extra damage out of your action economy, especially since so few of the Druid’s spells are cast as Bonus Actions.
Drow Magic’s dependence on Charisma means that Faerie Fire won’t be reliablefor the Cleric.
Fighter
Fighters already get the same proficiencies granted by Drow WeaponTraining.
Drow Magic’s dependence on Charisma means that Faerie Fire won’t be reliable even for Eldritch Knights. Even so, you may find Darkness beneficial.
Monk
Proficiency in hand crossbows can provide a much-needed ranged attack optionfor the Monk. The ability to cast Darkness for free once per day can behelpful for Way of Shadow Monks.
Paladin
The Paladin has very limited spellcasting, and additional Charisma-basedspellcasting can be helpful.
Ranger
Rangers already get the same proficiencies granted by Drow Weapon Training,and Drow Magic’s dependence on Charisma means that Faerie Fire won’t bereliable for the Ranger. Even so, you may find Darkness beneficial.
Rogue
Rogues already get the same proficiencies granted by Drow Weapon Training, and Drow Magic’s dependence on Charisma means that Faerie Fire won’t be reliable even for Arcane Tricksters. Even so, you may find Darkness beneficial.
Sorcerer
Proficiency in hand crossbows allows you to use your Bonus Actionconsistently without resorting to Quickened Spell.
Drow Magic’s dependence on Charisma means that it fits nicely alongside theSorcerer’s existing spellcasting.
Warlock
Proficiency in hand crossbows allows you to use your Bonus Actionconsistently on turns where you’re not casting or re-applying Hex.
Drow Magic’s dependence on Charisma means that it fits nicely alongside theWarlocks’s existing spellcasting.
Wizard
Proficiency in hand crossbows allows you to use your Bonus Actionconsistently. Wizards have fewer bonus action spells than most otherspellcasting classes, so you may find this to be a helpful way to finish offenemies at low hp.
Drow Magic’s dependence on Charisma means that Faerie Fire won’t be reliablefor the Ranger.
