(Disclaimer: I’m borrowing heavily from the traditional drow set forward in 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons, as well as the Umbragen drow set forward in the Eberron campaign setting. I do not own any of the above, I just think it’s awesome.)

The drow are one of my favorite races, and not seeing them incarnated in one of the coolest RPGs I’ve ever seen was heart-breaking. So, I decided to transfer them over myself. Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and criticism. Believe me, I need it. (Remember, I are a noob)

The elves were cast out from nature… the drow left it voluntarily. Thousands of years before the Banishment, a hooded prophet came through the elven forests, foretelling of this terrible time to come. He claimed the only way out was to abandon the Song and pledge eternal allegiance to a mysterious, shadowy force he called the Umbra. Those who believed him followed him south, and carved out tunnels beneath the Saikin Wastes, where Nature’s cruel touch couldn’t reach them. The prophet rewarded his followers: their skin became black like his own, and they were exempted from Nature’s curse. On the night of the Apocalypse, the prophet threw back his hood, revealing himself as a creature of living shadow. He howled and vanished in a dark cloud, and none have seen him since.
Drow are physically similar to elves. They have the same slight, tall builds, the same almond-shaped eyes, and the same distinguishing pointed ears that characterize the elven race. However, the similarities end here. The drow have midnight black skin: a mark of their servitude to their mysterious prophet. They were also spared from the Banishment, and can live as long as their ancestors did—some have a lifespan of centuries.
Most drow look down on elves, but some recognize them as kin and reach out to try to help them, while others merely pity them. Perhaps due to their similar backgrounds, the drow have formed a tenuous friendship with the Desert Dwarves, and regularly trade for supplies and information. The drow respect Kobolds for their cunning, but view other Oruskans and even humans to be stupid, heavy-handed fools—but this makes them very easy to trick.
All drow worship a mysterious, dark presence they call the Umbra. They are very secretive about the Umbra’s motivations and power—perhaps they themselves do not know. They worship him as the Lord of Darkness, and while not inherently evil, the Cult of the Umbragen views stealth and dirty tricks as completely viable ways to achieve one’s goals: this has made drow society a shifting maze of allegiances and cutthroat politics, and has prevented alliances with most other races on Scondera; in addition making the drow a race of inherent paranoia. Despite this, the cult (and the society it forms) is surprisingly disciplined. Drow society divides into rigid castes, from laborers to the Umbragen, the high priest of the Umbra. It takes a lot of will to not only survive but thrive underground, but the drow have done just that, in part from their iron-hard discipline, and also from their flexible morals.

Racial Traits

Darkvision: ignore any Perception penalties from darkness.
Touch of the Umbra: Drow may cast any spell up to Tough difficulty from the Shadow Magic tradition, taking burn as normal.
Underdark Dwellers: Drow receive a +2 bonus to Survival and Stealth when underground.
Day Blindness: -1 to Perception rolls in bright light.
Hated Race: -2 to any interaction rolls with non-drow.
Paranoia: as per the flaw.

Drow-Only Talents
Elven Avenger
Benefit: +1 attack vs. plants and animals
Advanced: You may buy this talent twice for an additional +1 bonus.

One with the Umbra
Benefit: You may cast spells of the Hard difficulty from the Shadow Magic tradition as if they were Tough
Advanced: You may buy this talent twice to cast Very Hard spells as if they were Hard, and thrice to cast Nigh Impossible spells as if they were Very Hard.

Umbragen (Unique)
Prerequisites: One with the Umbra (3)
Benefit: You may cast spells from the Shadow Magic tradition as if they were one difficulty less, meaning that Average spells only require 1 success, Tough spells only require 2 successes, and so forth. Also, casting easy spells requires no successes at all.

Dark Wanderer (Unique)
Benefit: Your +2 bonuses to Survival and Stealth when underground increase to +4. Also, you receive a +2 bonus to Move and Initiative when underground.

In hindsight, I think I made them too strong... or am I just crazy?

Yeah... very strong, actually. Being naturally magically talented without needing to purchase the Talent is pretty nasty, even only being able to cast Tough difficulty. Coupled with the other Talents, they are quite a bit above the other races in terms of balance. Though if that's alright with the GM, then far be it for me to spoil the fun, there are plenty of bad things that could come about from the past of the Drow (I really liked the background).

I would simply replace what you've done with the whole Shadow magic spread through multiple Talents and allow them to learn it instead. I would remove "Touch of the Umbra", "One with the Umbra" and "Umbragen" personally, but leave the rest (maybe only a +1 bonus to each from Dark Wanderer though as it affects multiple skills and traits).

*Sigh* I thought so... now half the talents and one racial trait is gone Still, I'm glad you liked the background, I thought there were a lot of oppurtunities to integrate the drow in unique ways in Scondera, what with the elven Banishment and all, and I just kind of capitalized on those.

So, yeah: no more umbra stuff (for now!), and Dark Wanderer goes down to +1. I'll think about it and come up with some new stuff and a new racial trait to balance out Hated Race. Any suggestions, please post 'em. (remember, I are a noob)

Grr i cant figure out how to delete this post.

I agree, the background is great, I will gladly use this. However, I also agree that some of the talents are a little much. Personally I would do away with them entirely and maybe create a new tradition of magic called Umbra. Give it the abilities of shadow magic and maybe mix in a few things from beguiling (illusions), animism (hexes), or maybe even primalism(affecting underground life) to cover some of the "dirty tricks" aspect. Just depending on how you want to take the tradition.

Of course, you'd have to find a balance.

That's actually an excellent idea...

The curses and illusions would fit perfectly into drow life, but I'm not so sure about the primalism aspect-- I don't think it really fits with their way of life, and it would really only be effective underground. I might actually add some necromantic aspects into the mix as well, it just seems to fit.

It's still a great idea, though. So the drow have the Umbral magic tradition. So, here's a few samples, but please tell me what you think. Also, I'm sorry in advance for stealing so much from the other traditons, but I stole the race from D&D in the first place, so... yeah.

Umbral Tradition

Easy
Distract-- cause the target to perceive a small noise that isn't really there
Sense Dark Dwellers-- determine if there are Underdark inhabitants nearby
Shadowed Face-- hide your face in shadow, protecting your identity up to a point (can tell you are drow, can't tell who you are)

Average
Umbral Hex-- cause the target to suffer a penalty to it's next action
Umbral Illusion-- creates a simple illusion out of shadows that only the target can see
Shadow Smash-- the shadows around the target animate and attack it

K, here's the rest of the sample spells.

Tough
Shade Sword-- you create a solid, 4L sword out of shadows
Umbral Tools-- you create a simple tool (such as a shovel or a lockpick) out of shadow
Umbral Attack-- you invade the target's mind, causing it to become paralyzed for a short time

Hard
Umbral Anger-- you create a hex which can last for days
Summon Shadow-- you summon a creature of living shadow and command it for one turn
Dark Gift-- you drain health from a nearby enemy and heal yourself

Very Hard
Incognito-- you give yourself the appearance of an ordinary elf for a period of time, negating the hated race flaw
Umbral Trap-- you temporarily trap an enemy in a shadowy dimension
Traverse the Earth-- you instantly travel from one place to another in the Underdark

Nigh Impossible
One With the Umbra-- you create a large avatar made from shadows, which encases you for the combat encounter
Umbral Wrath-- the Umbra itself attacks the target, dealing damage and creating lasting bad luck
Army of Darkness-- you create several shadowy minions which you control for as many rounds as there are minions, controlling one minion every round after which it disappears



Well, what do you think?

Personally, I would stray from the necromantic spells, but that's just me. And maybe the creation spells. I'm afraid of giving too many tools because it could potentially make it much too easy to escape(or conquer) a wide variety of situations, and you could end up having all the other characters in your group hide behind the 'super hero.' I like the idea of Illusions and Hexes, and maybe some physical(or shadow) spells. It seems very fitting to what you wanted. It gives the Umbra advantages over certain aspects, but they are not going to solve all the world's problems on their own. You could also give them cultural features like forging strange weapons (glass for example) to spice them up a little.

I really don't know much of anything about the Drow, so I can't say wether or not the sample spells you have would work. Just offering my opinion, and what I would do.

One way to find out if it is too tough is build one, get some people together and run mock battles or pickup games.

IMHO I would go with something like this...

Drop the black skin (that way people will think its just an elf). Drow all have a red hour glass like a black widow instead of a belly button thanks to their Dark Pact.
The schools of magic available are shadow and necromancy.

Racial Traits

Darkvision: ignore any Perception penalties from darkness.
Underdark Dwellers: Drow receive a +2 bonus to Survival and Stealth when underground.
Dark Pact: Drow signed a pact with the deep horrors to destroy all surface dwellers and thus gain a +1 bonus to destroy anything living, this also give a +1 difficulty when attempting to heal through magic or medicine.
Day Blindness: -1 to Perception rolls in bright light.


I think the Driders would also fit well into Desolation.
[Edit] I could also see Beguiling fitting this version of the Drow, possibly swapping out Shadow.

I light what you did there, Morton. But you could also give them a slightly lighter complexion - they do spend the majority of thier time under ground, no UV.

I really like Dark Pact, gives another perspective and sighting of the Deep Horrors. Though, reaching back to the story line, maybe the deep horrors joined a pact as well, serving the previously mentioned entity. Maybe have the Drow riding lower forms of Deep Horrors - Driders.

On a side note, you could rename the Drow as Umbra - if you were concerned with Drizzt clones, that might help deter. There is a lot in a name.

Oooh, I really like that -- not the direction I was trying to go with them, but hey this stuff is here for everyone

I was inspired by the GURPS version of Dark Elves a bit where they are not a separate race and just a cult. You may also borrow the Dwarf ability to be immune to Deep Horror's poison and possibly change the spider theme I have to an insect theme.

HEY im back!

After spending several years in deep meditation, I have discovered it: the drow updated racial features and talents.

BEHOLD THEIR MAJESTY.

Racial Traits
Darkvision: ignore any perception penalties from darkness.
Underdark Dwellers: Drow receive a +1 bonus to Survival and Stealth when underground.
Deep Resistance: Drow are immune to the poison of the Deep Horrors and the fungi they carry.
Day Blindness: -1 to Perception rolls in bright light.
Paranoia: as per the flaw.
Hated Race: -1 to rolls where appearance to non-drow is a factor (can be negated with full clothing [gloves, hood, etc.] or Umbral spell)

Drow-Only Talents
Elven Avenger
Benefit: +1 attack vs. plants and animals
Advanced: You may buy this talent twice for an additional +1 bonus.

Magical Aptitude/Umbra (Only available during Character Creation)
Benefit: cast spells from the Umbral tradition (based on Charisma)

Dark Wanderer
Benefit: Your +1 bonuses to Survival and Stealth when underground increase to +2.
Advanced: You receive a +1 bonus to Move and Initiative when underground.


This certainly took me long enough, but I think it's a pretty good rebalance. Please tell me what you think