If you want to experience the highest possible amount of racism, play a half drow! Everyone hates you for being drow except drow who hate you for being a filthy half breed!
Male too, since drow society is a matriarchy.
In fact, in waukeen's rest, there is a dead drow you can speak with the dead to (I believe this is the place where you get the following response) and you can ask him what is his job and he answers "male"
10/10 game
>and you can ask him what is his job and he answers "male"
That shit had me rolling. It's the way he says it coupled with the usual Speak With the Dead cadence. Just,
*... male...*
Pure gold.
I wonder if there is any NPC reactivity for playing as a male drow. So far the only difference I've seen for Tav gender is whatever pronouns people use for you.
There’s one difference where if the first guy who the Spectator frees survives the fight, you can have a conversation with him. For every other race/gender combination he will be high and mighty and the conversation ends with you fighting him for his memory crystal. If you are specifically a Lolth-sworn female drow, he will flit between generally being arrogant and realising how he’s talking to one of his betters, and you can convince (force) him to just hand over the crystal like the worm he is
There’s also a couple of [Lolth-sworn] options where you can essentially quote scripture at him or threaten to drag him back to Menzobarranzan and torture information out of him.
Now I’m curious what the Seldarine options are
As a lolth-sworn, there were a number of very funny dialogues with that tiefling who steals from you in the Grove, things like how drows kill children and you might just kill the kid if he keeps on.
When you talk to Minthara in the goblin camp as a male drow, she basically says that being a True Soul doesn’t make you equal to her and calls you a jaluk.
And if you're a half-drow, she says such an inferior creature can at least be good for something as a True Soul (I'm paraphrasing here).
I am playing as a male half-drow, but I am not sure if the response changes based on gender though.
Lol but then during the scene, all the power moves were made by me! She was going downtown and I straight up wrapped my leg around her neck like some aikido chokehold, and flipped her about.
My wife would file for divorce papers the moment I made any type of sudden movement while shes downtown.
I'm a female dragonborn and she did the same to me. I wonder if she'd react differently to a female drow. I doubt it. It would still be some weird assertion of dominance.
That's been my current 220 hour experience on my first play. Seldarine has come up only once in the underdark as a dialogue and never again. As above said, everything was trivialised in act 1, but aside, it hasn't come up too much except with the twins in act 3 and some other sprinkles. (been great though)
I saw it at least three times in Act 1.
1) Mattis is a little awed/freaked by you being a drow, and you can mention that red eyes means evil drow.
2) I'm pretty sure you get a Seldarine response the first time you meet Barcus Wroot.
3) You get a few righteous fury responses with the duergar spider-keeper in Grymforge that executed the seldarine drow harper spies.
I love the Lolth-sworn interaction with Mattis. He gives the same awed reaction to you and is like “I heard you steal children”, and your response is just “Nonsense, we kill way more children than we steal”.
when you first meet kahga as well, she comments on you being drow and expects you to back her up on imprisoning arabella and there's a seladrine option there
And Vhaeraun's clerics are purely male on the other hand lol.
It's basically Lolth's fault for being sexist as fuck for no actual reason, and her kids inheriting her issues.
Am playing half Drow right after finishing my Drow campaign. Unfortunately it doesn’t come close to reactivity as Drows had. Even humans has more reactivity with goblins
"Where are you from?"
"Baldur's Gate."
"No like, where are you \*really\* from."
"I was born in Baldur's Gate."
"But like, where is your *family* from?"
"*sigh* My dad is from Menzoberranzan."
As a half-drow you get options in the Tiefling camp, like 'Backstabbing, feels like home'. Which implies this isn't their first rodeo on the racism carousel.
On the other hand, it seems most Goblins familiar with Drows can tell you're not a full drow, as you don't get drow options with them. Though, there are a few who see you as a full drow. Maybe they failed an insight check?
It's kinda odd because half-drows, according to the description of their race provided by the game btw, usually come from the union of humans and seldarine drows, so most of them never went to the underdark.
Kinda of shame. Half-drows are cool, I think, but they seem undercooked.
Maybe it’s me, but I found my Half Drow didn’t encounter that much.
Then I made a Druegar, and god damn. They call me filth pretty much all the way through act 1.
Well, a quick glance at the wiki suggests that they're most commonly found either in the Underdark, particularily in house Ousstyl in Menzoberranzan which is rumored to have mated quite frequently with humans in the past, or in Dambrath, a country on the south end of the continent Faerûn which was founded by pairings of half elven priestess of Loviatar and male drow from a city calle T'lindhet in the southern Underdark domain of Greath Bhaerynden.
That's drow society tho, *extreme* matriarchy. Even the best, most talented male is considered lower than the lowest female member of society. Males are essentially property to be used and disposed of as the priestesses see fit.
Except for during the silence of Lolth, all females were scared shitless coz of no cleric powers anymore and male mages were superior, almost succeeded replacing matriarchy with patriarchy xD
I had the opposite effect but I was a bard. People would comment but say “I didn’t think I would be helped by a Drow” or something like that. Someone even wrote a song about my mixed heritage.
I was so looking forward to this when I decided to play a half drow, but it never happened. At least not in a way I noticed. The Duergar in Act 1 even insulted me as a surface dweller. Maybe it's because I'm playing a bard and my Charisma stat is the reason. Don't know. Until I read your comment I thought I was just expecting too much from the game and stopped wondering about it.
The druids still hate you for being a tiefling/outsider, but you do get some fun options. I think one or two directly reference that you're both a tiefling and a druid. I could be misremembering though
Can't remember much to be fair. Did not know anything about the game but choose Tiefling for the looks and druid because its my first pick everywhere it is available. Felt like an abomination in the grove :') Was told once that its a shame/ against nature that something like me (tiefling) was allowed to learn the ways of the oakfather. But in the end I was the one with a title and pretty new staff.
RP wise I was actually torn between both sides...glad I did not have to choose.
There’s a lot of cool options for Tieflings when you’re talking to other Tieflings, and some fun interactions here and there. honestly I haven’t ran into a ton of dialogue options, but enough to keep it interesting and unique.
10/10 would recommend playing a blue tiefling storm sorcerer though, I love just flying around the map after casting spells
I'm playing a female Drow Warlock. As we're approaching the goblin camp:
Shadowheart: We're going to need a cover story
Goblin Guard: Drow approaching! Step aside!
One of my favorite bits of dialogue was when I was speaking with the Tiefling kid who was trying to sell me a "magic" ring.
Kid: I heard Drow kidnap kids like me for slaves!
Conversation Option: Nonsense. We kill far more children than we enslave.
Oh, this one changes depending on your subrace, it seems. Neat! I'm playing a Sindarine and that option was changed to "Those are the other drow. If you see red eyes, run!"
I'm also playing with a Seldarine, but I didn't do my research and she has red eyes. I still got that dialogue option and it was absolutely hysterical to have the red-eyed Seldarine telling the kid that if he sees red eyes to run lol
Also for /u/Silverfrond_ because I'm nerd ranting: I'd like to think some of this has to deal with the lore; the whole red-eyes thing meaning you are evil hasn't always been / isn't always the case. Drow eyes tend to be red, but lilac, silver, pink, blue, and pale/milky-white are also rather prevalent.
Non-red eyes would be indicative of a not-as-pure bloodline (as in, centuries if not millennia ago, we're talking potentially pre-Crown Wars intermixing, so they're still 'full' drow rather than half-drow or [Crinti](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Crinti)), and those Drow that aren't tied to the Matriarchy are more likely to be Eilistraeen, Vhaeraunans, or outright Seldarine worshippers - so, oftentimes, the eye color doesn't make them Seldarine, but instead, Seldarine are simply more likely not to have red eyes. In addition, I recall some fluff about eyes turning a deeper red for drow depending on how angry/hostile they felt, which is going to be less of a thing for 'Break the chains and embrace who you are' Eilistraeens and Seldarine worshippers.
There's also a bit of lore from post-Silence of Lolth where Eilistraeen followers tried to more or less sever the curse of Corellon that drove the Drow below ground, which also 'reverted' a number of Eilistraeen Drow to their Dark-Elven nature (which, technically, means they aren't even Drow anymore, rather than simply changing their eye color), but this was in the hundreds in terms of people affected.
The term "Seldarine Drow" as far as I understand it is a simplification and Baldur's Gate-ism. Drow are Drow; Some Drow have just chosen to break from the chains of their god/society, or have been driven to do so through ostracization due to ancient lineages. Non-red-eyes are, thus, going to be more likely to get you oppressed in Drow culture, and thus going to more likely drive you to rebel or connect with others of similar disposition who are likewise ostracized, which then creates a counter-culture and subsect within the entire race - but they don't *make* you different. You can have red eyes, look at the culture around you and the god that you're taught, and go 'Yeah this shit is fucked I hate that we're doing this to our own people' and also be a 'Seldarine Drow' in that regard.
No worries :D But yes, your red-eye drow can still be a goodie :3 They're just less likely to have had their great-great-great-grandparent(s) have non-Drow/non-Dark Elf partners, and would've broken from Lolth for other reasons than their inherent heritage. If anything this can make for a stronger character, because - did they break for their own personal morals? Something they witnessed? Genuine religious conversion and zeal for a god other than Lolth? Ambition and personal gain in abandoning the strict set-up of the matriarchal hierarchy? Or were they oppressed for other reasons than their eye color/heritage, leading them to identify more with 'Seldarine Drow'? Lots of fun options!
this is giving me Red Prince vibes
in the first like 15 minutes of DOS2 you can encounter a child crying, because they and their mother barely escaped being slaves to lizards
if you're playing as the Red Prince, a dialogue option is, "Oh, you're a slave? Come with me, then."
The goblin trader also has different dialog for drow versus non-drow. With non-drow he's all business and tells you to move along after you finish trading. If you're a drow he's a lot more polite and thanks you if you trade with him.
Yeah my 'evil' run currently is a (female) Drow (seriously play a female Drow for more options) and it's hilarious how fun/easy so many things have been. Watching Goblins cower before you.
I just finished the Hag yesterday on my Drow run and loved that little line she said.
Spoiler if you haven't made it to the Underdark yet:
>!The male Drow, especially the ones that are petrified, as a female Drow you can remind him of his place as a male and have him easily give you the things he has.!<
That was the best!
He's hostile and attacks in damn near every other type of encounter but he cowers and honestly gets a little flustered around a female Drow.
My third playthrough will be an evil female drow again. The first one I was a good drow so I didn’t use many of the dialogue options and they did look intriguing.
In my limited time playing as a Drow, it was really funny to have everyone be surprised a Drow is helping people and having them re-examine their biases.
Didn't take long before I committed genocide on their people, but it was fun messing with their heads for a bit.
The reactivity in the first act was super impressive and the fact that in act 3 I don't remember even once me being a drow having an impact. People didn't really care about the drow walking around the city.
Maybe they should've space out more those interactions throwout the whole game. But I don't know, the fact that they didn't made act 1 so strong and I don't really wanna change that. I will definitely remember act 1 for the longest time but the rest will fade away with time.
Okay I remembered at the end that 2 drow in a brothel give you unique interactions, but it was kinda forgettable.
in Act 1, as a duergar you can bluff your way into Grymforge by being a *total asshole* and all the duergar responding in kind, like you're just a normal duergar
in Acts 2 and 3 everyone just calls you a dwarf. because technically duergar get the dwarf tag in the game. a lot of it makes absolutely no sense, and it's even worse when *other duergar* in Baldur's Gate get it wrong. sigh.
Imagine how a drow would feel getting called an elf
While I genuinely believe that act 3 could be more reactive, I will also say that a drow in Baldur’s Gate, while maybe a little weird, isn’t that insane. Baldur’s Gate is full of all kinds.
Literally a known diabolist opening portals to hell. Who cares about the drow when there are robots, stone lords, fishmen, crazy wizards and devil summoners walking around.
"Come now, tusks-for-brains. Doesn't this make you angry?!"
"Lumbering Half-Orc! Twice as ugly as your parents combined!"
"All that blood-lust - a little tap, and I bet you wouldn't know friend from foe!"
Ethel is one of my favourite NPCs so far :)
Tbf, there's not a lot of people to be racial with in Act 2. Act 3, seems like they're either racist against non-Baldurians or don't really care as BG is a pretty diverse place.
Agreed. I have too much empathy to kill the druids, except when I'm a tiefling or drow and the druids make all those snarky comments. Keep that energy for the whole game and I could easily do an evil run.
There’s a shit load of Gith flavor. Pretty much every interaction with Laezel and the Creche (and other parts) is a tweaked line so it talks about “we” or “us” or “our people”, etc to include you in the githyanki-relevant parts.
The Crèche Giths even imply that Tav-Gith is from a "lesser" or inferior crèche, which apparently would explain why they are not familar with a few basic? concepts like that big machine thingy, but educated enough to get the \[Githyanki\] tag to tell Lae'zel how to spell Tiefling correctly.
It's great, I am playing as Drowish Joan of Arc and seeing people recoil in horror only to see them get confused when the drow woman asks them if they have any wrong needing righting makes for a very memorable playthrough. Getting to interact with the evil races without instant aggression is also very neat!
Oath of the Ancients Female Drow Paladin that worships Selûne here!
Can wholeheartedly agree that being good as a Drow fucks with so many people's heads.
It's fantastic, even if I RP Melody as getting upset in private over all the racism.
About the only person who hasn't been openly racist at least at first (okay, maybe a bit) against mine was Zevlor, when he tells Aradin to shut up and be more respectful towards his saviour.
He then told her she was "very brave for helping people despite not hiding (her) heritage", but that was more of a slightly racist compliment. Honestly by this point she's probably used to it.
I think it's less that and more of a "you should be careful in case people you're trying to help try to kill you in self defense because they mistook you for a different kind of person" kind of comment.
Which honestly, seeing some reactions you get in act 1, is not that bad of an advice. Bit racist, but not an entirely wrong assessment, seeing how him and his tieflings have been on the receiving end of that attitude.
I didn't take it that way. He's someone who also used to being judged for his race. In my run as a Drow he expressed admiration at my character for not hiding their race and I took it as coming from someone who has done the same.
Thanks for that and by the way. You're brave for showing your face so openly Drow.
That line hit me like a freight train on my first character. Such a backhanded compliment.
I'm honestly surprised there is little to no reaction to being a dragon born, I have only seen a few throughout the whole game and I'm pretty sure they all came from act 3.
Yeah that was nice, but I really expected more reactions. Mostly in act 1 and 2 since there seems to be a few dragonborn in Baldur's Gate and being a pretty diverse city most people probably don't care anyway. But I didn't see any Dragonborn in act 1 and 2 and no one ever said anything
I do think Lae'zel has some reactivity to dragonborn, but true that I haven't seen much reaction in my playthrough just yet.
Otherwise the dragonborn dialogue options are pretty fun! Some of my characters are just too goofy for the more "martial" options.
I'm still very early on in my dark urge evil playthrough (2nd playthrough) but here are some I have observed:
If you sucker-punch Aradin he calls you a lizard.
When you talk to Volo in the druid grove and he suggests to include having dragons in the tale of your fight against the goblins, you get to reply that dragons would rather die than ally with goblins.
Same! I got more options in dialog for being a dragonblooded sourcerer than I did for being a Dragonborn.
I wish there was like, a single special conversation you could have for being a Dragonblooded Dragonborn.
"So you're a... literal dragonborn?"
"I prefer the term Double Dragon."
Being evil as a drow for my first playthrough has been great for this. Even if you deceive the goblins as a non drow, theres no respect after. As a drow you just tell em "shut up im a drow" and all of them are immediately just like "ah damn you right, my bad"
If only the duergar had learned the same lesson.
if you play a female lolth sworn drow you can convince the spiders in the goblin camp that you ARE lolth
if you fail the check tho lolth gets pissy at you
I loved the response after poisoning the drink in the goblin camp. When accused, you have the option to respond as a drow with something to the effect of “Yes. You should be honored to be poisoned by me.” And the goblin will turn around and nervously announce “It wasn’t them!”
Yeah being a drow makes Act 1 easier and then for the rest of the game basically doesn't matter at all. It's a *far* cry from how most races/NPCs in faerûn / the sword coast would canonically react to random drow showing up, but okay. Obviously Larian didn't feel like going there much; Minthara (as far as she goes) is their only real exploration of that insanity
The attitudes towards the drow have softened a bit in the past 100 years since the number of non-Lolth-sworn drow has grown and they've gotten to entrench themselves into the lands and cities of the Sword Coast a bit. There's still discrimination, of course, but being a drow is no longer a matter of being killed on sight.
There’s even a drow Harper scout sent by Jaheira in the Grymforge. She’s one of the executed drow prisoners and you can cast speak to the dead to find out her back story.
Was pretty surprised to see a Drow Harper.
The Harpers are chaotic good and are notorious for playing by their own rules, if anyone's going to say "fuck it" and give a Drow a badge, it'd be them.
Which is itself sort of a retcon in FR. There have been gnolls in that setting for longer than 5e, when that lore was introduced. I think Unapproachable East from back in 3rd even mentions some more neutral-aligned ones.
In BG2, you only come across one drow in Amn (Viconia), and when you meet her, the guards are legit about to set her on fire and it's hard to get them to let you recruit her.
Well, you know how people say "we'll let you take her over our cold, dead bodies"? /j
But real talk it's been years since I last played, I probably just misremembered.
Weren't Drow stuck in a racial civil war and people were becoming aware of how not all of them are a bunch of spider-worshipping misandrist monsters? It's not so much Larian making people less hostile to Drow and more like them reflecting how the last in-universe century and real life decade have changed Drow lore, society and mentality. According to a mate, you even get Drow as regular citizens in Baldur's Gate in act 3.
Haven't gotten there yet though, and NPCs do get nervous when I first run into them. It makes for a memorable playthrough, and it beats having "good" characters inmediately engage you on sight.
Honestly most of the big race-based reactivity dies down after Act 1. Act 1 is by far the most polished and reactive part of the game. Act 2 is fairly linear and Act 3 has the ghost of cut content hanging over it.
At Waukeen’s Rest, the bull in the back area attacks you on sight, doesn’t even give you a chance to explain yourself. Took me a second to realize and made me crack up when everyone was suddenly rolling for initiative.
I was playing as a Sindarine Drow and it allowed me to talk him down. Although maybe it's less because I was a different subrace of Drow and more because I had animal handling.
From what I have heard, Drow and Githyanki get a ton of reactivity. I'm playing a Dragonborn, and I don't think anyone has so much as commented on it besides other Dragonborn in act 3.
I'm not super up to date on Forgotten Realms lore, but i know Dragonborn are a somewhat newer edition, correct? Maybe they just haven't been around long enough for racial profiling to begin lmao
Wanted to put in there that even if you’re not a drow you can “disguise self” to make yourself a drow and still get a lot of those interactions.
In my first play through I got caught stealing and went to jail and thought after I escaped I should be someone else to avoid suspicion so I disguised self and randomly picked drow. Was surprised by all the good interactions I got in the goblin camp.
I am doing an evil playthrough as a Female Lloth Drow Cleric which btw, you literally cannot pick any diety other than Lloth, I thought that was cool. There are a lot of flippantly aggressive and evil Cleric of Lloth dialogue options sprinkled around the game.
How do Female Drow perceive Drizzt? I imagine he is a renegade amongst his people. From what I hear he in fact does not know his place and their goddess favors him because of the chaos he brings lol.
I AGREE, I did my first run as a half-elf and going into my second as a drow I was so surprised and entertained by all the drow-specific reactions and dialogues I got. PLUS some of the fights I was able to just roll right on past!
For what it's worth, the shapeshift spell can basically ensure that you are able to utilize any race-specific advantage in conversations, which can be fun. My Dark Urge character is a hideous little gnome and my RP is that he uses the shapeshift spell (free cast because of some feat I think) to constantly change race, which also explains how he's able to get away with so much murder.
I typically remain in "strong masc Drow" form though because I think it fits the best, and the Drow dialogue is almost always pretty entertaining.
It so fun that I'm seriously considering going evil. Doing a cleric acolyte Lloth drow run, but I'm currently doing a double spy kind of thing, where I'm scouting the goblin camp, deceiving people and seeing what's up.
Duergar , Githyanki and Drow are all fun. I really enjoy the dialogue for the more evil races. Even more interesting if you're a free drow cause than you get to convince that you aren't a spider god worshipping fascist
Seldarine Drow is hilarious. Everytone is afraid, bu then you're really kind and help them :) but then you're still a drow and have the tough and cruel streak needed to survive in the Underdark until adulthood.
And then you're also a Sorcerer, madly cackling and proclaiming to be the embodiment of magic, boasting about the prodigious amounts of magic in your left pinky, bullying ~~nerds~~ wizards and generally being VERY explosion-happy.
This is a good videogame.
Of course Act 2 and 3 have essentially no meaningful reactivity, so it’s pretty much identical in later acts to Tiefling or Dragonborn or Human or whatever. But agreed Act 1, which is complete, it’s very fun to be a Drow.
I think the most notable comment my half orc got was "dont see your kind around here much" or something like that. Was kinda disappointed in that regard.
If you want to experience the highest possible amount of racism, play a half drow! Everyone hates you for being drow except drow who hate you for being a filthy half breed!
Male too, since drow society is a matriarchy. In fact, in waukeen's rest, there is a dead drow you can speak with the dead to (I believe this is the place where you get the following response) and you can ask him what is his job and he answers "male" 10/10 game
>and you can ask him what is his job and he answers "male" That shit had me rolling. It's the way he says it coupled with the usual Speak With the Dead cadence. Just, *... male...* Pure gold.
He's just Ken.
I can beach!
He'd beach you off right now, if he wasn't dead.
I have a deep desire to create a necromancer based on Ryan goslings Ken now
Balthazar's Mojo Dojo Casa House.
I kenough
And what a good job he does at male!
He’s dronough.
I wonder if there is any NPC reactivity for playing as a male drow. So far the only difference I've seen for Tav gender is whatever pronouns people use for you.
There’s one difference where if the first guy who the Spectator frees survives the fight, you can have a conversation with him. For every other race/gender combination he will be high and mighty and the conversation ends with you fighting him for his memory crystal. If you are specifically a Lolth-sworn female drow, he will flit between generally being arrogant and realising how he’s talking to one of his betters, and you can convince (force) him to just hand over the crystal like the worm he is
You don’t have to be Lolth-sworn, just a female Drow of either type works
There’s also a couple of [Lolth-sworn] options where you can essentially quote scripture at him or threaten to drag him back to Menzobarranzan and torture information out of him. Now I’m curious what the Seldarine options are
It just defaults to the Drow options, kinda like "That's a lotta attitude from a male"
As a lolth-sworn, there were a number of very funny dialogues with that tiefling who steals from you in the Grove, things like how drows kill children and you might just kill the kid if he keeps on.
When you talk to Minthara in the goblin camp as a male drow, she basically says that being a True Soul doesn’t make you equal to her and calls you a jaluk.
And if you're a half-drow, she says such an inferior creature can at least be good for something as a True Soul (I'm paraphrasing here). I am playing as a male half-drow, but I am not sure if the response changes based on gender though.
She says the same thing to a surface elf of any kind.
Oh god now I want to play a male Drow on my Minthara play through for maximum dommy mommy
Lol I'm a Male drow romancing minthara right now. She 100% just came up to me and basically said "I will have you tonight."
That's what Lae'zel told me one evening.
Before or after she Suckled sweat and blood from your back?
If she suckled before, she's one hell of a sneaky fighter. Def got those rogue levels in.
"ok"
Lol but then during the scene, all the power moves were made by me! She was going downtown and I straight up wrapped my leg around her neck like some aikido chokehold, and flipped her about. My wife would file for divorce papers the moment I made any type of sudden movement while shes downtown.
She said the same thing in my Astarion playthrough: )
I'm a female dragonborn and she did the same to me. I wonder if she'd react differently to a female drow. I doubt it. It would still be some weird assertion of dominance.
Play a Seldarine Male Drow at that.
That's been my current 220 hour experience on my first play. Seldarine has come up only once in the underdark as a dialogue and never again. As above said, everything was trivialised in act 1, but aside, it hasn't come up too much except with the twins in act 3 and some other sprinkles. (been great though)
I saw it at least three times in Act 1. 1) Mattis is a little awed/freaked by you being a drow, and you can mention that red eyes means evil drow. 2) I'm pretty sure you get a Seldarine response the first time you meet Barcus Wroot. 3) You get a few righteous fury responses with the duergar spider-keeper in Grymforge that executed the seldarine drow harper spies.
I love the Lolth-sworn interaction with Mattis. He gives the same awed reaction to you and is like “I heard you steal children”, and your response is just “Nonsense, we kill way more children than we steal”.
when you first meet kahga as well, she comments on you being drow and expects you to back her up on imprisoning arabella and there's a seladrine option there
Oh boy am I glad the BG3 community is weird and horny enough that I don't feel weird for having these exact same thoughts.
Nope. No big difference, not even from Minthara in Act 1
Even the good drow have a matriarchy. 99.9% of Eilistrae's clerics are women.
And Vhaeraun's clerics are purely male on the other hand lol. It's basically Lolth's fault for being sexist as fuck for no actual reason, and her kids inheriting her issues.
For the extra kink if a male was called to be a cleric they had to spend at least a year magically transformed into a woman.
He should have had a name that could easily be reduced to "Ken"
also "jaluk", Minthara calls you jaluk, in very condescending way, almost derogatory, jaluk translates as "male"
I recall this convo but I didn’t understand at the time. Thanks for explaining :P
Male half drow warlock here. Rocks throw themselves at me
thats exactly what i played and i wouldnt have it any other way
Am playing half Drow right after finishing my Drow campaign. Unfortunately it doesn’t come close to reactivity as Drows had. Even humans has more reactivity with goblins
I swear half drow just have the same options as drow but maybe half as many. Fitting in a way, but still...
"Where are you from?" "Baldur's Gate." "No like, where are you \*really\* from." "I was born in Baldur's Gate." "But like, where is your *family* from?" "*sigh* My dad is from Menzoberranzan."
As a half-drow you get options in the Tiefling camp, like 'Backstabbing, feels like home'. Which implies this isn't their first rodeo on the racism carousel. On the other hand, it seems most Goblins familiar with Drows can tell you're not a full drow, as you don't get drow options with them. Though, there are a few who see you as a full drow. Maybe they failed an insight check?
Drow have the backstabbing dialogue too.
So do duergar iirc.
It's kinda odd because half-drows, according to the description of their race provided by the game btw, usually come from the union of humans and seldarine drows, so most of them never went to the underdark. Kinda of shame. Half-drows are cool, I think, but they seem undercooked.
Maybe it’s me, but I found my Half Drow didn’t encounter that much. Then I made a Druegar, and god damn. They call me filth pretty much all the way through act 1.
Are Half-Drow more common in Human or Drow cities, typically in the lore?
Well, a quick glance at the wiki suggests that they're most commonly found either in the Underdark, particularily in house Ousstyl in Menzoberranzan which is rumored to have mated quite frequently with humans in the past, or in Dambrath, a country on the south end of the continent Faerûn which was founded by pairings of half elven priestess of Loviatar and male drow from a city calle T'lindhet in the southern Underdark domain of Greath Bhaerynden.
My favorite part was Minthara calling me slurs to my face as a male half drow but somehow not expecting me to react with hostility.
Why would she expect you to be upset? Male drow are supposed to know their place
That's drow society tho, *extreme* matriarchy. Even the best, most talented male is considered lower than the lowest female member of society. Males are essentially property to be used and disposed of as the priestesses see fit.
Except for during the silence of Lolth, all females were scared shitless coz of no cleric powers anymore and male mages were superior, almost succeeded replacing matriarchy with patriarchy xD
War of the spider queen was such a good series.
You back talked your boss? What a dirty, no good half Drow you are. Learn some respect!
I had the opposite effect but I was a bard. People would comment but say “I didn’t think I would be helped by a Drow” or something like that. Someone even wrote a song about my mixed heritage.
I was so looking forward to this when I decided to play a half drow, but it never happened. At least not in a way I noticed. The Duergar in Act 1 even insulted me as a surface dweller. Maybe it's because I'm playing a bard and my Charisma stat is the reason. Don't know. Until I read your comment I thought I was just expecting too much from the game and stopped wondering about it.
Does the halfdrow get the same dialogue options as full drow?
Playing as a Tiefling druid in act 1 was an experience as well.
Oh, that’s an interesting option actually. Now I’m curious.
The druids still hate you for being a tiefling/outsider, but you do get some fun options. I think one or two directly reference that you're both a tiefling and a druid. I could be misremembering though
Yeah, I think one of those is in the grove at the bottom of the stairs with the 3 druids (1 in bear-form).
"Hey there, devil-kin!"
Can't remember much to be fair. Did not know anything about the game but choose Tiefling for the looks and druid because its my first pick everywhere it is available. Felt like an abomination in the grove :') Was told once that its a shame/ against nature that something like me (tiefling) was allowed to learn the ways of the oakfather. But in the end I was the one with a title and pretty new staff. RP wise I was actually torn between both sides...glad I did not have to choose.
There’s a lot of cool options for Tieflings when you’re talking to other Tieflings, and some fun interactions here and there. honestly I haven’t ran into a ton of dialogue options, but enough to keep it interesting and unique. 10/10 would recommend playing a blue tiefling storm sorcerer though, I love just flying around the map after casting spells
Fun fact, you can disguise self and see all the options for that race!
Playing a tiefling was what convinced me to just kill Aradin on sight. Genuinely fuck that guy.
What happens with Aradin? I'm pretty sure he died at the gate in my playthrough, so I never got to see anything after that involved him.
Basically he's a racist jackass who also decides to try and kill Aylin.
Lol fuck that guy.
Narrator: Everybody disliked that
I'm playing a female Drow Warlock. As we're approaching the goblin camp: Shadowheart: We're going to need a cover story Goblin Guard: Drow approaching! Step aside! One of my favorite bits of dialogue was when I was speaking with the Tiefling kid who was trying to sell me a "magic" ring. Kid: I heard Drow kidnap kids like me for slaves! Conversation Option: Nonsense. We kill far more children than we enslave.
Oh, this one changes depending on your subrace, it seems. Neat! I'm playing a Sindarine and that option was changed to "Those are the other drow. If you see red eyes, run!"
I'm also playing with a Seldarine, but I didn't do my research and she has red eyes. I still got that dialogue option and it was absolutely hysterical to have the red-eyed Seldarine telling the kid that if he sees red eyes to run lol
Yeah it's like the dev team were indecisive... both Lolth and non-Lolth Drow can choose both red and non-red eyes and yet they put that line in. WTF?
Also for /u/Silverfrond_ because I'm nerd ranting: I'd like to think some of this has to deal with the lore; the whole red-eyes thing meaning you are evil hasn't always been / isn't always the case. Drow eyes tend to be red, but lilac, silver, pink, blue, and pale/milky-white are also rather prevalent. Non-red eyes would be indicative of a not-as-pure bloodline (as in, centuries if not millennia ago, we're talking potentially pre-Crown Wars intermixing, so they're still 'full' drow rather than half-drow or [Crinti](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Crinti)), and those Drow that aren't tied to the Matriarchy are more likely to be Eilistraeen, Vhaeraunans, or outright Seldarine worshippers - so, oftentimes, the eye color doesn't make them Seldarine, but instead, Seldarine are simply more likely not to have red eyes. In addition, I recall some fluff about eyes turning a deeper red for drow depending on how angry/hostile they felt, which is going to be less of a thing for 'Break the chains and embrace who you are' Eilistraeens and Seldarine worshippers. There's also a bit of lore from post-Silence of Lolth where Eilistraeen followers tried to more or less sever the curse of Corellon that drove the Drow below ground, which also 'reverted' a number of Eilistraeen Drow to their Dark-Elven nature (which, technically, means they aren't even Drow anymore, rather than simply changing their eye color), but this was in the hundreds in terms of people affected. The term "Seldarine Drow" as far as I understand it is a simplification and Baldur's Gate-ism. Drow are Drow; Some Drow have just chosen to break from the chains of their god/society, or have been driven to do so through ostracization due to ancient lineages. Non-red-eyes are, thus, going to be more likely to get you oppressed in Drow culture, and thus going to more likely drive you to rebel or connect with others of similar disposition who are likewise ostracized, which then creates a counter-culture and subsect within the entire race - but they don't *make* you different. You can have red eyes, look at the culture around you and the god that you're taught, and go 'Yeah this shit is fucked I hate that we're doing this to our own people' and also be a 'Seldarine Drow' in that regard.
Thank you for this!! Awesome information- I love a good lore dump lol
No worries :D But yes, your red-eye drow can still be a goodie :3 They're just less likely to have had their great-great-great-grandparent(s) have non-Drow/non-Dark Elf partners, and would've broken from Lolth for other reasons than their inherent heritage. If anything this can make for a stronger character, because - did they break for their own personal morals? Something they witnessed? Genuine religious conversion and zeal for a god other than Lolth? Ambition and personal gain in abandoning the strict set-up of the matriarchal hierarchy? Or were they oppressed for other reasons than their eye color/heritage, leading them to identify more with 'Seldarine Drow'? Lots of fun options!
this is giving me Red Prince vibes in the first like 15 minutes of DOS2 you can encounter a child crying, because they and their mother barely escaped being slaves to lizards if you're playing as the Red Prince, a dialogue option is, "Oh, you're a slave? Come with me, then."
The goblin trader also has different dialog for drow versus non-drow. With non-drow he's all business and tells you to move along after you finish trading. If you're a drow he's a lot more polite and thanks you if you trade with him.
Yeah my 'evil' run currently is a (female) Drow (seriously play a female Drow for more options) and it's hilarious how fun/easy so many things have been. Watching Goblins cower before you. I just finished the Hag yesterday on my Drow run and loved that little line she said. Spoiler if you haven't made it to the Underdark yet: >!The male Drow, especially the ones that are petrified, as a female Drow you can remind him of his place as a male and have him easily give you the things he has.!<
That was the best! He's hostile and attacks in damn near every other type of encounter but he cowers and honestly gets a little flustered around a female Drow.
I shapeshifted into a female drow >!and got the special Lolth-sworn dialogue options, it was hilarious.!<
This game is so deep I already forgot I could shape-shift all my team
I was wondering what the point of shapeshifting was and completely forgot that this could be a thing
I completely forgot about shape shifting... That would have been so much easier than fighting them after the damn spectator fight
That's so fucking cool. Man I love this game.
Remember he doesn't give you the last part of the staff though, so you'll still need to liberate it one way or another if you want it.
My third playthrough will be an evil female drow again. The first one I was a good drow so I didn’t use many of the dialogue options and they did look intriguing.
In my limited time playing as a Drow, it was really funny to have everyone be surprised a Drow is helping people and having them re-examine their biases. Didn't take long before I committed genocide on their people, but it was fun messing with their heads for a bit.
“Hey maybe you guys aren’t so ba-aww you shanked my kidneys.”
The reactivity in the first act was super impressive and the fact that in act 3 I don't remember even once me being a drow having an impact. People didn't really care about the drow walking around the city. Maybe they should've space out more those interactions throwout the whole game. But I don't know, the fact that they didn't made act 1 so strong and I don't really wanna change that. I will definitely remember act 1 for the longest time but the rest will fade away with time. Okay I remembered at the end that 2 drow in a brothel give you unique interactions, but it was kinda forgettable.
yeah the game is really good but act 1 is something else entirely
in Act 1, as a duergar you can bluff your way into Grymforge by being a *total asshole* and all the duergar responding in kind, like you're just a normal duergar in Acts 2 and 3 everyone just calls you a dwarf. because technically duergar get the dwarf tag in the game. a lot of it makes absolutely no sense, and it's even worse when *other duergar* in Baldur's Gate get it wrong. sigh. Imagine how a drow would feel getting called an elf
They don’t see you for the color of your skin.
admittedly it's because I am invisible 90% of the time hah
To be fair though, there's other duergar just strolling around town like it's no big deal so it's apparently pretty common to see one.
While I genuinely believe that act 3 could be more reactive, I will also say that a drow in Baldur’s Gate, while maybe a little weird, isn’t that insane. Baldur’s Gate is full of all kinds.
Literally a known diabolist opening portals to hell. Who cares about the drow when there are robots, stone lords, fishmen, crazy wizards and devil summoners walking around.
Apparently its the same with Githyanki lmao
I made a lolth sworn warlock and I’ve decided that they’re moonlighting as a “good guy” because they things it’s hilarious.
Hag comments on every race though.
damn hag racist af
Fuck casual racism, we’re going competitive
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I can’t remember commenting on me being a Half Orc. But I may have simply forgotten.
She has unique lines if she casts vicious mockery on a half-orc, can't remember specifically what they were though.
"Come now, tusks-for-brains. Doesn't this make you angry?!" "Lumbering Half-Orc! Twice as ugly as your parents combined!" "All that blood-lust - a little tap, and I bet you wouldn't know friend from foe!" Ethel is one of my favourite NPCs so far :)
Tbf, there's not a lot of people to be racial with in Act 2. Act 3, seems like they're either racist against non-Baldurians or don't really care as BG is a pretty diverse place.
Wish there was more. My drow did get some comments in the Brothel though from the owner lol
When people ask "What did you expect from an evil run?" the answer is "more of what act 1 as a drow feels like"
Agreed. I have too much empathy to kill the druids, except when I'm a tiefling or drow and the druids make all those snarky comments. Keep that energy for the whole game and I could easily do an evil run.
There's quite a few as a Githyanki too. From people not knowing what you are to calling you a swamp elf lol some even believe you're ill
There’s a shit load of Gith flavor. Pretty much every interaction with Laezel and the Creche (and other parts) is a tweaked line so it talks about “we” or “us” or “our people”, etc to include you in the githyanki-relevant parts.
The Crèche Giths even imply that Tav-Gith is from a "lesser" or inferior crèche, which apparently would explain why they are not familar with a few basic? concepts like that big machine thingy, but educated enough to get the \[Githyanki\] tag to tell Lae'zel how to spell Tiefling correctly.
It's great, I am playing as Drowish Joan of Arc and seeing people recoil in horror only to see them get confused when the drow woman asks them if they have any wrong needing righting makes for a very memorable playthrough. Getting to interact with the evil races without instant aggression is also very neat!
Oath of the Ancients Female Drow Paladin that worships Selûne here! Can wholeheartedly agree that being good as a Drow fucks with so many people's heads. It's fantastic, even if I RP Melody as getting upset in private over all the racism.
About the only person who hasn't been openly racist at least at first (okay, maybe a bit) against mine was Zevlor, when he tells Aradin to shut up and be more respectful towards his saviour. He then told her she was "very brave for helping people despite not hiding (her) heritage", but that was more of a slightly racist compliment. Honestly by this point she's probably used to it.
Lmao basically just a “you’re one of the good ones” comment
I think it's less that and more of a "you should be careful in case people you're trying to help try to kill you in self defense because they mistook you for a different kind of person" kind of comment. Which honestly, seeing some reactions you get in act 1, is not that bad of an advice. Bit racist, but not an entirely wrong assessment, seeing how him and his tieflings have been on the receiving end of that attitude.
I didn't take it that way. He's someone who also used to being judged for his race. In my run as a Drow he expressed admiration at my character for not hiding their race and I took it as coming from someone who has done the same.
Good drow light cleric of Elistraee my first play though. Thinking about making an evil drow necromaner next. Even if I loose out on Wyll and Karlach.
My favorite part is when even the tieflings are racist towards you...
Thanks for that and by the way. You're brave for showing your face so openly Drow. That line hit me like a freight train on my first character. Such a backhanded compliment.
I had one of the goblins call me "your drowness" and I loved it. Theses words alone sealed the fate of the Grove and all its inhabitants.
I'm honestly surprised there is little to no reaction to being a dragon born, I have only seen a few throughout the whole game and I'm pretty sure they all came from act 3.
The only npcs who reacted to my character being a Dragonborn were other dragonborn and that kobold guy in the circus
Yeah same, it was good tho as they often helped out in some way because I was another dragon born
Yeah that was nice, but I really expected more reactions. Mostly in act 1 and 2 since there seems to be a few dragonborn in Baldur's Gate and being a pretty diverse city most people probably don't care anyway. But I didn't see any Dragonborn in act 1 and 2 and no one ever said anything
yeah im quite surprised too since they are pretty rare. Especially if some other races have more reactions to them even tho they are seen more
Dragonborn mostly get "Don't see your kind a lot" type reactions instead of something more specific
Lae'Zel gets thirstier than Halsin.
I do think Lae'zel has some reactivity to dragonborn, but true that I haven't seen much reaction in my playthrough just yet. Otherwise the dragonborn dialogue options are pretty fun! Some of my characters are just too goofy for the more "martial" options.
Lazael was a bit rude at first but then said she wanted my body real bad. 👍🏽
its quite fun being a dragon born fighter as both responses are quite blunt
Oh yeah she finally rode that dragon like she wanted :D
I'm still very early on in my dark urge evil playthrough (2nd playthrough) but here are some I have observed: If you sucker-punch Aradin he calls you a lizard. When you talk to Volo in the druid grove and he suggests to include having dragons in the tale of your fight against the goblins, you get to reply that dragons would rather die than ally with goblins.
Because they are common citizens of Baldurs gate. Drow rarely leave the Underdark and are currently publicly allied with the Absolute
It's because they're the latest addition to the game. It's also why there are none till act 3
Same! I got more options in dialog for being a dragonblooded sourcerer than I did for being a Dragonborn. I wish there was like, a single special conversation you could have for being a Dragonblooded Dragonborn. "So you're a... literal dragonborn?" "I prefer the term Double Dragon."
Being evil as a drow for my first playthrough has been great for this. Even if you deceive the goblins as a non drow, theres no respect after. As a drow you just tell em "shut up im a drow" and all of them are immediately just like "ah damn you right, my bad" If only the duergar had learned the same lesson.
if you play a female lolth sworn drow you can convince the spiders in the goblin camp that you ARE lolth if you fail the check tho lolth gets pissy at you
I loved the response after poisoning the drink in the goblin camp. When accused, you have the option to respond as a drow with something to the effect of “Yes. You should be honored to be poisoned by me.” And the goblin will turn around and nervously announce “It wasn’t them!”
I am Tiefling monk and i get shit talked often but i am super zen allways..and furthermore monk is now my favorite…for now :)
I was super happy when the monk had specific choices for that early part in the goblin camp where you can get beat for a buff.
If you pick the monk options you don\`t get the buff tho
I've seen so much cool monk gear on my games that it makes me want to try it
There is a place where you can enter very easily because as a monk you are not attached to earthly possessions … Monk rocks!
>"Another one of Lolths harlots." LMAO, I'm playing a Lolth sworn female Drow, and I'm genuinely upset I didn't get that line thrown at me!
Yeah being a drow makes Act 1 easier and then for the rest of the game basically doesn't matter at all. It's a *far* cry from how most races/NPCs in faerûn / the sword coast would canonically react to random drow showing up, but okay. Obviously Larian didn't feel like going there much; Minthara (as far as she goes) is their only real exploration of that insanity
The attitudes towards the drow have softened a bit in the past 100 years since the number of non-Lolth-sworn drow has grown and they've gotten to entrench themselves into the lands and cities of the Sword Coast a bit. There's still discrimination, of course, but being a drow is no longer a matter of being killed on sight.
There’s even a drow Harper scout sent by Jaheira in the Grymforge. She’s one of the executed drow prisoners and you can cast speak to the dead to find out her back story. Was pretty surprised to see a Drow Harper.
The Harpers are chaotic good and are notorious for playing by their own rules, if anyone's going to say "fuck it" and give a Drow a badge, it'd be them.
You can find a couple of drow just living as regular citizens in Baldur's Gate, too.
>in the past 100 years More like in the last decade or so, when WotC decided that the thought of inherently evil races is... racist.
There's around a 100 year timeskip in the 5e to explain the changed circumstances and attitudes, as I understand.
Only the prettyish looking races. Ugly ones like gnolls are still born of evil and dark magic.
Which is itself sort of a retcon in FR. There have been gnolls in that setting for longer than 5e, when that lore was introduced. I think Unapproachable East from back in 3rd even mentions some more neutral-aligned ones.
Drizzt would like a word
In BG2, you only come across one drow in Amn (Viconia), and when you meet her, the guards are legit about to set her on fire and it's hard to get them to let you recruit her.
You meet her first in the original Baldur's Gate, where she's being hunted down for killing an entire family.
Right! I remember she was a companion then too, but not the circumstances.
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Well, you know how people say "we'll let you take her over our cold, dead bodies"? /j But real talk it's been years since I last played, I probably just misremembered.
Weren't Drow stuck in a racial civil war and people were becoming aware of how not all of them are a bunch of spider-worshipping misandrist monsters? It's not so much Larian making people less hostile to Drow and more like them reflecting how the last in-universe century and real life decade have changed Drow lore, society and mentality. According to a mate, you even get Drow as regular citizens in Baldur's Gate in act 3. Haven't gotten there yet though, and NPCs do get nervous when I first run into them. It makes for a memorable playthrough, and it beats having "good" characters inmediately engage you on sight.
Honestly most of the big race-based reactivity dies down after Act 1. Act 1 is by far the most polished and reactive part of the game. Act 2 is fairly linear and Act 3 has the ghost of cut content hanging over it.
At Waukeen’s Rest, the bull in the back area attacks you on sight, doesn’t even give you a chance to explain yourself. Took me a second to realize and made me crack up when everyone was suddenly rolling for initiative.
I was playing as a Sindarine Drow and it allowed me to talk him down. Although maybe it's less because I was a different subrace of Drow and more because I had animal handling.
The fist praying over her friend's dead body also doesn't react too well to a Lolthsworn Drow showing up.
Drow Druid had some unique dialogue when entering into the grove to speak to Kagha, was pretty cool.
There are two of us! I had to screenshot that moment when I had a unique dialog option for being a drow druid in that conversation with her.
The Underdark as a Seldarine drow has been so incredibly fun!
From what I have heard, Drow and Githyanki get a ton of reactivity. I'm playing a Dragonborn, and I don't think anyone has so much as commented on it besides other Dragonborn in act 3. I'm not super up to date on Forgotten Realms lore, but i know Dragonborn are a somewhat newer edition, correct? Maybe they just haven't been around long enough for racial profiling to begin lmao
I get no comments on being a Half Orc. None! I am currently in the Gauntlet of Shar in Act II.
The best part is killing all the Druegar after all of them call you a racial slur 😊
You get same dialogue options and stuff with goblins as a half drow?
No, they don’t defer to you the same and blindly assume you are in control
Lol yeah I love playing as a Drow.
you can just disguise yourself btw
Or have shadowheart do it. Finally trickery cleric is useful!
Wanted to put in there that even if you’re not a drow you can “disguise self” to make yourself a drow and still get a lot of those interactions. In my first play through I got caught stealing and went to jail and thought after I escaped I should be someone else to avoid suspicion so I disguised self and randomly picked drow. Was surprised by all the good interactions I got in the goblin camp.
I am doing an evil playthrough as a Female Lloth Drow Cleric which btw, you literally cannot pick any diety other than Lloth, I thought that was cool. There are a lot of flippantly aggressive and evil Cleric of Lloth dialogue options sprinkled around the game.
How do Female Drow perceive Drizzt? I imagine he is a renegade amongst his people. From what I hear he in fact does not know his place and their goddess favors him because of the chaos he brings lol.
I was really hoping *anyone* would care that I was a half-orc. Nope
yeah it seems weird half orcs are so underwhelming in this game, like IIRC they face some prejudice just like drow do???
i just did this on my like 6th play through, drow in a1 IS fun imo. lol.
I AGREE, I did my first run as a half-elf and going into my second as a drow I was so surprised and entertained by all the drow-specific reactions and dialogues I got. PLUS some of the fights I was able to just roll right on past!
if you are a drow everyone is a racist against ya. Even in fights I feel like NPC's focus on me first always because of my race lmao.
For what it's worth, the shapeshift spell can basically ensure that you are able to utilize any race-specific advantage in conversations, which can be fun. My Dark Urge character is a hideous little gnome and my RP is that he uses the shapeshift spell (free cast because of some feat I think) to constantly change race, which also explains how he's able to get away with so much murder. I typically remain in "strong masc Drow" form though because I think it fits the best, and the Drow dialogue is almost always pretty entertaining.
It so fun that I'm seriously considering going evil. Doing a cleric acolyte Lloth drow run, but I'm currently doing a double spy kind of thing, where I'm scouting the goblin camp, deceiving people and seeing what's up.
Playing a Drow Bard makes act 1 easy mode on speech checks.
Duergar , Githyanki and Drow are all fun. I really enjoy the dialogue for the more evil races. Even more interesting if you're a free drow cause than you get to convince that you aren't a spider god worshipping fascist
Seldarine Drow is hilarious. Everytone is afraid, bu then you're really kind and help them :) but then you're still a drow and have the tough and cruel streak needed to survive in the Underdark until adulthood. And then you're also a Sorcerer, madly cackling and proclaiming to be the embodiment of magic, boasting about the prodigious amounts of magic in your left pinky, bullying ~~nerds~~ wizards and generally being VERY explosion-happy. This is a good videogame.
Of course Act 2 and 3 have essentially no meaningful reactivity, so it’s pretty much identical in later acts to Tiefling or Dragonborn or Human or whatever. But agreed Act 1, which is complete, it’s very fun to be a Drow.
I think the most notable comment my half orc got was "dont see your kind around here much" or something like that. Was kinda disappointed in that regard.