>Or, the Drizzt-Shaped Hurdle.
TL;DR - Make a Good-aligned drow character for a typical D&D setting (or a drow that is fundamentally a "good guy", if you really don't like alignments) that you would either allow in your games or would yourself like to run.
A recent thread got me thinking about something: Drizzt Do'Urden and the reputation he has or, more specifically, the "Chaotic Good Drow" stereotype. It seems to me that /tg/ believes that any player who wants to play a drow is most likely going to try and roll up Drizzt or a close facsimile, and /tg/'s DMs live in perpetual fear of a horde of Drizzt clones invading their games.
Two things, though. First, I've never actually encountered anyone on /tg/ who claims to have *actually had* a player who did as much. While I don't doubt that they existed in the early to mid 90s in the wake of the Icewind Dale trilogy and the Dark Elf trilogy, I'm starting to question if they ever really proliferated in tabletop beyond the 90s, let alone all the way to today.
Second, it creates an interesting challenge: can you create a Good (not necessarily Chaotic) drow that *isn't* a Drizzt clone? One that you would be fine with allowing in your own games? /tg/ is a board full of creative people, so surely the various Anons are up to the task.
By the way, I'm not asking for a community-created character in the vein of sandwich, rather, I'm asking for each /tg/ Anon to come up with their own take on a "good" drow.
For the purposes of this challenge, you have to assume a "standard" D&D take on drow culture - Matriarchy ruled by priestesses of Lolth, living underground, hatred of the surface races, Evil, etc. You don't necessarily have to assume the Forgotten Realms, though.
>>46850413
>playing as a non-human
Fuck that noise.
>>46850640
I take it you can't think of any decent way to run a Good-aligned drow, either?
>>46850413
This isn't exactly what you said, but I played a Drow character once like pic related. Still evil, but mostly just wanted to be alone, so he left the underdark and made a hovel in the swamp and accidentally became a folk hero to the neighboring town
>>46850413
Get this, take a drow right, any drow. Make them any class.
Make them good aligned.
Honestly, I'd allow a Dizzt clone, full stop. The problem with him is twofold. He's overdone, to the point where I almost believe that R.A. Salvatore doesn't want to write him anymore. It feels genuinely strange that he had to reincarnate the entire party just for 5e's current day so that Drizzt could still have friends.
Secondly, and this is important: Drizzt is a badass. Regardless of how you slice it, his ascent from the Underdark was not a desperate attempt made by a lucky escapee who found a way to get to the surface. The dude was battling mindflayers and outfighting experienced veterans of Menzoberranzan before he even learned what the sun was.
The 'Drizzt clone' mentality has been around long enough that people don't have to worry about literally tripping over them anymore, which is nice. The problem stems from when their good drow is the same as Drizzt by virtue of being a supreme badass in a way that they didn't earn (say, by playing the game). If I got handed a character sheet for a Ravidal May'Yinyur, the Chaotic Good Drow Ranger, the only thing I'd stop reading for is if he won the love of the people in spite of his drow heritage by slaying a dragon as part of his backstory.
You hand me that same ranger who is loved by maybe a small village who he rangers for at night, in an effort to shed the curse of his heritage in the eyes of the people, I will happily let Ravidal onto my table. It's all about what a character has earned.
tl;dr, CG drow are fine.
>>46850854
I think OP is going more for character details and backstory then mechanics.
Or in other words, if it were that simple, why would it matter to so many people if I rolled up a CG Drow Ranger? You don't get the same response when rolling up a LG Dwarf Fighter despite it being at least as cliché.
>>46850413
>First, I've never actually encountered anyone on /tg/ who claims to have *actually had* a player who did as much.
Had one in 2009, and again last year.
>>46850413
There's a copypasta about a Drow bard who's basically a stereotypical eastern European immigrant. The idea of someone who winds up being good because they go from bottom of the heap in a nightmare society to this massively rich and strange society could work.
>>46850909
Because so many people are dipshits anon. It just how things go.
If people have a problem with things like that they are children.
>>46850798
So... he became Shrek?
>>46850413
this really isn't hard at all; the drow can just have been raised by non-drow
if you add the stipulation that it must have come from an actual drow society, then it gets harder
The deal with drizzt is that his dad was non-evil for some reason (it's never explained, he just plain wasn't evil and hated his life) AND was a superb fighter (the best in the city, which is saying a lot). Drizzt got papa's genes. To put it in real life terms, basically drow are genetically psychopathic, but there are a few strains of non-psychopath genes floating around.
Drizzt's dad was neutral; he was not a bad guy, but he never really did anything good either; you can't if you want to not die in drow society. This is why Drizzt had to leave.
The only other non-evil drow from the same society that I know of is Gromph's daughter (who is gromph's daughter, thus tons of privleges and power, including magic which let her leave [though I never read those books]). Drizzt had mega fighter genes and is super lucky. How can a regular drow (who is good-aligned) even survive?
>>46852072
>How can a regular drow (who is good-aligned) even survive?
They get taken advantage of a lot, but they're so gullible and willing to help that killing them off would waste a useful tool?
>this really isn't hard at all; the drow can just have been raised by non-drow
That's what my own character was; she was raised by humans. And of course the original post mentions Sandwich Stoutaxe, a drow raised by dwarves.
I made one. A rogue. He dual wielded, but that's hardly a Drizzt thing given that it's more of a standard drow fighter thing.
Basically, he was a member of a fairly low level house that was wiped out, survived as a mercenary for a few years with Bregan Dearthe, and then went AWOL when an upper underdark expedition was mostly wiped out when a job went bad.
>>46850413
I played a Drow knight/arcane archer once who alignment shifted from Lawful Evil to Lawful Neutral, and eventually Lawful Good and was indebted to a local lord.
>Raised in underdark by Drow
>raided the above world because he was a dick
>tried raiding a church with his merry band of dicks
>ended up killing everyone to steal their magic shit because that's their job
>end up as guy holding an artifact because the woman in charge didn't want to and old boy was the least liked out of all of them
>artifact of LG god of justice
>also god of redemption
>everyone goes to sleep
>my guy get terrifying visions
>a man standing inside two rotating rings tells me that if I don't return the artifact he is going to literally melt me, in a lot more words
>try to sneak off
>get caught and have to kill the other drow
>return the artifact and think about how I'm going to lie my way out of this one
>local lord shows up to the church
>think this is the end
>ring guy returns and dazes me
>while I'm dazed he talks to the lord, I cannot hear or see anything and I walk into a pew while trying to escape
The lord took him on, and he did what he commanded first out of fear of being melted, then eventually out of some vague sense of duty (At this point I shifted to LN). Then when the Lord was dying, my Drow found out that some of the lords knights had twice tried to kill the Drow. Both times the lord executed them for treason because they where attempting to murder a member of his household.
>Drow asks why
>he tells me that the god told him that I was redeemable
>it also said "But it is up to you if you choose to spare him. Justice would be equally served by his death."
>drow is moved
>actually sad when the Lord dies
>stays because it's the best way to honor the guy
>basically asks himself "What would Lordy Do?" whenever faced with moral problems
>becomes LG over time and develops an actual desire to do good things
Last scion of an extinct drow noble house brought up to the surface as a baby by her brother (I tried to run a quest on the concept once, wasn't very good at it) who expects her to just turn into a typical drow suitable for her inevitable return to her birthright as soon as he figures out how to fund all the needed mercenaries. Shockingly instead picked up all the social norms of the society she grew up in.
>>46850413
Goofy Eastern European immigrant drow that recently defected from the Underdark. Spends more time wondering at how much BETTER everything is here and is desperately trying to adapt to this world of sunshine, minimal torture and smaller than dog sized spiders.
>>46854041
>They get taken advantage of a lot, but they're so gullible and willing to help that killing them off would waste a useful tool?
If we're going by Menzoberranzan, they'd be ritualistically sacrificed for treason before they reached adulthood. Think of all the evil stuff they *must* do in the schools and for their own matrons, just to prove that they're evil.
I remember doing a lawful good female paladin drow. Had a long as hell backstory that was summed up as:
>was born deaf and, as custom of drow, was thrown to the drygur or whatever those half-spider things were
>a convoy of paladins with more feral roots (orcs, half trolls, former barbarian men and women) find her during their yearly hunt against the underdark's world
>following the age old question of 'do you kill an evil baby?' The paladins instead took it as a sign from Pelor that another race got to join the freakshow
>got taken back to the surface and trained
>didn't talk often because her voice was wrong sounding due to deafness, but refused to get the deafness cured, seeing it as what saved her life, and took it as a gift from Pelor
>actually helped a time or two in campaigns, since she couldn't hear people trying to mind control her mentally and loud noises didn't hurt or incapicate her
I actually had a blast playing her, in retrospect. Was the perfect mix of unique, slightly stupid and fun for me.
>>46850940
This one?
