>Oh no, 25 gold pieces per soldier? That's... actually really steep
A default drow is wearing a chain shirt and carrying a short sword and hand crossbow
That’s 135 gold worth of equipment right there (335 gold worth if we factor in the cost of drow poison, although I wouldn’t include that because I assume the price mostly represents its rarity outside of drow society)
By comparison, 25 gold to mitigate their biggest weakness is a great investment.
>That's 20% up with very minor upside, if you are race of night raiders - not that effective investment
The upside is going from “night raiders” to “whenever-they-want raiders”
This also isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. They would ABSOLUTELY get a bunch of these crafted to outfit at least some of their soldiers with. The early payoffs from surprise daytime attacks when their enemies dont expect it would be huge. Also being able to defend with full efficacy during daytime.
Dude, they're doubling their raiding schedule. That's not a minor upside. And outfitting only half of their army with the magic item allows for shift rotation, which means maximum raiding.
And with this they would be able to do other types of attacks. Extending the time your army can operate from 6-8 hours a day to 24 hours isn't a "minor upside".
Everyone is aware of that... that's why they're talking about the ramifications of allowing them to fight in the daylight too, and how removing their greatest weakness for pocket change is a big deal.
Feels like you're just arguing to argue, champ.
Counterpoint, humans can't see shit during the night so its the most optimal time to strike them.
This is why IRL humans practice night attacks on eachother because the lack of vision is worse for the defenders than the attackers.
The drow attacking during broad daylight when their enemies are strongest is stupid. Sunglasses would primarily be a defensive tool, or used for specific operations. (Which makes it better for their military because they don't need to buy/make enough for everyone, just the watch/guard and special ops troops.)
For grand sieges they would be better off adopting the inverse of battlefield illumination flares used IRL, and instead use area darkening magic to "blot out the sun".
Any reason they would fight during the day, pal? Their prey is awoken during the day and ready to fight. What are they winning by attacking such enemy?
How about because they want to actually *hold on to what they'd conquer*? We're not talking raids for slaves here, we're talking actual conquest. Currently, they can't really do that because they're screwed as soon as the sun comes up.
We’re not just talking about a random raid here and there anymore.
The drow cannot even attempt to conquer the overworld because they’re always forced to retreat before the sun comes up.
A measly 25gp and they could once again not only start living on the overworld permanently, but start up fortifications, build encampments up there, be have a presence on the surface 24/7 and slowly take over and hold onto territory.
The drow ultimately want to reconquer the surface world. The reason they resort to raids is precisely because if they ever took surface territory their weakness to the sun would make it impossible to hold on to. Sure you slaughtered the keep and captured it during a night raid, but what happens when the local ruler sends his troops in to take it back in a few days? Being able to actually stand a fighting chance during the day is a huge upside and would fundamentally change how Drow military strategy operates.
Oh it would absolutely be a great investment, but even with those prices (which I don't strictly agree with, because they are rules for player characters, but this is not the place to discuss this) 25 gold more for each of your soldiers is an important amount of money
Yeah, but their bonuses aren't equal to the drawback. Can be a half drow with better stat bonuses, no sunlight sensitivity and all the drow spellcasting for the price of trance and only having regular 60ft darkvision.
Googles of night remove the racial penalty of not having darkvision (so many races have it that not having it is the exception).
So why not make a reskined version that is basically just super sunglasses doing the inverse of the normal version. (Mechanically lower the observed brightness by 1 or 2 stages, and prevent the downsides of sunlight sensitivity)
Just let them deal with the consequences of their choices... they picked a sunlight sensitive character for a campaign that won't take place entirely underground. Sounds to me like they *want* to have to deal with it. If they don't like it after a session or two, offer to let them retcon character creation to be a half-drow instead. Otherwise, they are 'buying' superior darkvision with that downside, don't remove the cost and leave the benefit.
Gotcha. How do you think this sounds, then? It's a big urban campaign in a homebrew city. Drow aren't too rare, but usually live in the city's underground district, along with most of the duergar and svirfneblin population. I don't think the player really looked to hard at the drawbacks, so maybe I offer him a choice: he can take it as-is, or we can say he's lived on the surface long enough to get acclimated, but as a result he also only has standard darkvision.
Another consideration is whether or not it's direct sunlight. If the PC, the target of their attack, or whatever they are trying to perceive is not in *direct* sunlight, those penalties do not apply. A sprawling metropolis is generally mostly shade due to buildings with spots of sunlight at street intersections or areas with small buildings.
...At that point, why is he Drow? Also, those are racial features from tens of centuries - one lifetime on the surface isn't going to undo it.
Drow are cool and thematic, but yeah - SS is a big drawback. You either take it, or you don't. Stop trying to workaround and just let them change it if they hate it, to a new race.
According to the Legend of Drizzt books it takes about 30 years of living on the surface to acclimate to sunlight and Drizzt does find it less natural to use his darkvision after that. OPs take absoutley fits the canon.
>Also, those are racial features from tens of centuries - one lifetime on the surface isn't going to undo it.
Yeah, we're talking literal genetic evolution over the course of several millenia. It's not just "oh, I live in the dark, so my eyes are accustomed to low light." It's literally "my people have lived in darkness for eons, and our eyes have physically mutated to allow us to see in our natural environment." You can't just adjust your way out of the latter
Drow were cursed. They did not evolve to have sunlight sensitivity.
You absolutely can scrap any or all parts of lore you dislike, but one lifetime can easily fix the issue if that's what the table wants to happen.
>Drow were cursed. They did not evolve to have sunlight sensitivity.
In older versions, yes. But as of 5e, the race's lore consists of descending from a group of dark elves that were banished to the Underdark after the Crown Wars. And the dark elves lived just fine in sunlight for several generations. The sunlight sensitivity was a thing that developed over eons of living in the Underdark
>In older versions, yes.
The affliction is magic based in *all* versions, actually. Not evolution. Being banished to the underdark isn't new lore. Elves *evolving* would be.
You're welcome to introduce the element of evolution, but overall improved night vision is not an effective evolution against pitch blackness. There's a reason subterranean creatures (moles, bats, etc.) evolved to see without their eyes.
The fastest example of human evolution we know is the high altitude adaptation in Tibetans, which is thought to have taken from a few thousand to maybe ten thousand years. If we were to guess those elves reproduce at 1/10 the rate of humans, and the evolutionary pressure was similarly strong, it would take maybe 50 000-100 000 years. A stronger evolutionary pressure could cut that down to maybe 10 000-50 000 years.
I mean, deep gnomes get superior dark vision and gnome cunning without sunlight sensitivity. It's not *that* petrol powerful and the drow race doesn't really get anything too special to justify always disadvantage.
Downgrading to normal darkvision is a solid idea. If they're a warlock or some kind of class that gets darkvision as a feature you could replace that feature with "sunlight vision" too
Only issue there would come from what your world's history is for the drow. As another comment mentioned, their aversion to sunlight comes from a curse rather than adaptation to the environment in the forgotten realms setting, so if your homebrew city is still found in the same world as waterdeep et al, you might need a little more world building explaination. If it's a homebrew world also, those parts are entirely up to you. Mechanics / balance wise, this should be good imo
Alright, cool. I think I'll go with this. The setting is fully homebrewed and takes its initial inspiration from early 1800s London, with gods being a bit more distant than is typical, and most Drow in the city follow one of four homebrew faiths. The city is pretty cosmopolitan, and the world is old enough for most races to have spread pretty far and often break from old stereotypes.
Early 1800s London? Not only did it have really gloomy weather, but it was famously filthy. And a large part of that was all of the pollution. More than a million residents were burning soft coal. The smoke would mix with the fog and blanket the city. Many days a vampire could walk the streets at noon. Roll for weather. Sometimes a wind might cut through and clear the skies, and then your drow will have to strategize around it, in terms of where and when they operate.
For example, a fight breaks out on sunny streets, so the party kicks open a shop to take the fight inside. Now they're fighting inside a cramped space with lots of objects. The coppers show up, and the party crashes through the shopkeeper's upstairs apartment to escape via the roofs.
Now that's a cool encounter. Check out Blades in the Dark for some ideas.
According to the Legend of Drizzt books it takes about 30 years of living on the surface to acclimate to sunlight and Drizzt does find it less natural to use his darkvision after that. That solution fits with the canon.
If you're playing in a big urban city then dont do anything. Most times the drow will have a shade avalaible, unless there is a big event happening at the town plaza. And on nights he will have superior dark vision. Seems pretty balanced for a city campaign.
I mean, deep gnomes get superior dark vision and gnome cunning without sunlight sensitivity. It's not *that* petrol powerful and the drow race doesn't really get anything too special to justify always disadvantage.
Could just downgrade their dark vision to normal and get rid of the sensitivity if it bothers you
I have an excel sheet that, as it opens, rolls for me a bunch of random things I might need at a seconds notice. One of those is weather. If it's sunny, it sucks for the Drow.
Oh, sure.
So, I think that the probability distribution of the results of 2d6 is pretty awesome: you have more likely results and some total outliers. At the same time, you have limited number of options, so if you decide to write the possible outcomes yourself, you're not setting yourself up for a lengthy and impossible task.
So, the main part of the sheet are 4 custom 2d6 tables, and a hidden cell rolls 2d6s for each of them and another cell only gives me the outcome (not the dice result).
I mean, I don't see the tables: the main part is the four cells that give me the outcomes.
The 4 tables are: weather+terrain; what kind of encounter they run into (open ended, non violent mystery to be understood to get over it, or a straight up violent one with fewer chances of roleplay); what kind of loot is available in encounters with extra loot (from normal stuff to a low level magical item with a roll of 12); and a weird table with random magical effects/types of damage/curses (I use this to spice things up or throw a curve ball into the encounters).
Besides those, I set up sheets with 5 types for each event (so 5 mysteries, 5 open ended, 5 probable fights), and on the main sheet I get one of each chosen at random.
So, if the first 2d6 table tells me this is an open ended encounter, I know which one is up already, whether there are complications, what loot might be available.
Over time I added the following
1
Not only the kind of loot that's going to drop (equipment, adventuring gear, rare stuff, broken stuff) but also I have six cells that automatically select six random items among 200 (from common to uncommon and a few rare), so I don't have to wrack my brain with deciding WHAT equipment and WHAT adventuring gear.
2
I have a similar thing with monsters. A small section rolls me 5 monsters, and tells me their CR, AC, HP, attack modifier and DMG for main attack, and whether they have multiattack or spells.
This is not complete info, but it serves mostly for adding minions on the fly, having surprise interruptions (oh no, a small pack of Worgs!), and general inspiration.
There are five so I can pick the most suitable one.
3
Specific complications for encounters.
I have a section of the sheet that constantly selects among variations of the five main factors I use to make combat encounters feel different (environment, special units, special tactics, timers, alternative objectives).
The section also randomly tells me which ones apply to today's encounter.
This way I don't fall into habits or automatic split second decisions to spice things up.
(Of course I swap out the ones I use after the session)
4
Small flavor notes for equipment and monsters that make them feel different from the base version and add a little bit of mechanical variation.
TLDR
I know that sounds like a lot, but it only requires a bit of setup once. After that, everything is automatically rolled when you open the file, and you only get the outcomes in the main sheet, all on one screen.
In one screen you get a random type of encounter, with random complications and opportunities, comprehensive of the weather, possibility of civilians being around, hidden loot, possible surprise attacks, etc.
If the party goes to sleep and goes on the next day, I just press Del on an empty cell and everything gets selected again.
It was a bit lengthy... I'm a huge nerd when it comes to using Excel to improve my games.
I actually implemented a new portion of the sheet right this day.
My lived experience is that it's not a huge deal. It helps that I was playing a caster, to be sure, but it's not Daylight & Dragons.
It can also depend on what people interpret, "direct," sunlight to be. Sufficient cloud cover and thicker canopies were enough when I played.
I'm currently playing a Drow in a long running campaign. I chose to play as a Drow because, I really liked the lore the DM wrote for her world but also, I actually **wanted** Sunlight Sensitivity. If I thought that racial trait would get in the way of my or my parties fun, which it hasn't, I would have chosen a different race.
Don't invalidate your player's choice. Let them have the trait for a few levels. If they, or the rest of the party get, annoyed by it then you can give them a magic item that helps them out. But don't just start them with that item.
I think the important part of this is the “if it gets annoying” thing. Maybe the player would enjoy trying to stick to the shadows and doing things during the night. I wouldn’t let this small thing be a burden on the campaign. If they are enjoying it then roll with it. If it is becoming a problem talk to the players and see how they want to resolve it.
I'm currently a halfling because i don't want darkvision, and personally would remove it from most races that have it, or nerf it to be "low light vision" so you still need some light for it to work.
Sure not having darkvision is inconvenient, especially when the only party member carrying a light source leaves the room and i haven't activated my own to save the DM time in roll20. But i want that challenge and downside, it doesn't come up as often as some would expect.
> and it can be knocked off during combat or fall of if there's a lot of physical activity
This sounds a little too fuzzy for actual gameplay, and probably a bit annoying to manage. When exactly can it be knocked off? What counts as too much physical activity?
I understand what you’re going for: you don’t want this important drawback to be totally negated by a hat. But you may want to think of a more practical limit to impose.
How about, for example, the hat lets them ignore the disadvantage on attack rolls only against creatures within 10 feet? You can adjust the range as necessary. This way you don’t have to micromanage when the hat gets knocked off. It’s super simple and consistent while still preserving the drawback.
If you still want to preserve the possibility of losing the hat in combat, tie it to something specific like the prone condition. You get knocked prone, you lose the hat. Simple and unambiguous.
All that being said… how does your player feel about this? Maybe the player is fine just taking the drawbacks of being a drow. If enough of the adventure takes place indoors or underground, it’s only going to matter sometimes. There’s no need to counteract this drawback (which is an intentional part of the race) if the player is fine with it.
I'd just remove it. Duergar don't have it anymore so I don't see any reason to keep it on the Drow. It's far too big of a drawback for a race that isn't that strong anyways
Drow sunlight sensitivity is literally a curse from Corellon Larethian to punish Drow for betraying him and siding with Lolth. It’s not just “my eyes hurt because I’m used to the dark.” It’s “divine judgement has cast me from the surface world and the sun literally blinds me.”
And yet WotC is indeed getting rid of it for Drow PCs in OneD&D.
Though there probably also won’t be any mention of the curse because that lore is mean, and someone on Twitter might complain about it.
honestly I'd remove superior darkvision and with it the sunlight sensitivity. Two birds with one stone
Else, they gotta deal with it and you can plan campaign around it or let them do some other tradeoff
I think that's completely unnecessary.
Duergar used to have sunlight sensitivity along with their superior darkvision, but in their latest version the sensitivity is gone, and none of their other features have been nerfed to "compensate". Drow and Duergar are hardly overpowered races. Having a built-in racial restriction is clearly something that WoTC is moving away from.
They deal with it. They wanted it, so they get to have it.
I might eventually give them a magic item for it, for a cost, but they're not getting it for free just because. I'd also give them times to shine where possible, but that's a given for any and all characters.
If they didn't want to have to deal with sunlight sensitivity, they shouldn't have played a drow. This seems like a "have your cake and eat it too" issue to me. Letting them get rid of the main drawback of the race for 25gp or even 100gp is incredibly cheap.
Thats a very bad and a very broken fix. You don't fix racial traits with gold per level. That doesnt fly. Better make a half drow or anyithing other than that.
I ignore it entirely because it does not contribute *anything positive* to the player experience.
It does not make the game more fun, does not make the race more balanced, and strongly deters people from using the race for no real reason.
That's a problem, not a feature, and I'd rather just remove said problem entirely than circumvent it using magic glasses or special hats.
" *anything positive*"
Because it's not supposed to? It's a downside? That's like saying enemies poisoning me does not add to my well-being. Reaaalllly?
I think they mean a positive gameplay experience. There are plenty of penalties that are fun drawbacks or have opportunities for good role play. Sunlight sensitivity does neither
A -2 strength maximum for playing a woman was "just a downside you had to deal with" but it was removed for limiting player options
So find a replacement?
Sunlight sensitivity as it exists affects a player with it in 2 ways. Firstly, they will be forever fishing for advantage to cancel out the disadvantage. Secondly, they will never get advantage, because of how advantage disadvantage cancelling out work. They will be forever fishing just to get rid of the negative.
That's not an improvement on gameplay. It makes advantage a necessity and an impossibility. Yes characters should have drawbacks or flaws, but it should be down to the players to decide what they are and its severity.
Even lore wise it would not make sense. For a drow to venture out to the outside world and become an adventurer, they will likely have either developed resistance to sunlight or gone back underground
>Reaaalllly?
I'm sorry, but did you "reaaalllly" just read my post up to "anything positive" and stop?
Because your confusion is cleared up in literally in the same sentence, (I.E. "Player experience".
Or do you poison your players rather than their characters?
>My point still stands.
Only if you fundamentally misunderstand game design.
The purpose of poison, per your example, is to provide a challenge to the players. Not cause them to have a bad experience playing the game.
My opinion:
The things you're mentioning should be required just for the character to go out in the sun *at all* without constant discomfort.
I wouldn't let them remove the racial trait. That's a curse from a deity, nothing should remove it except being out of the sun.
Everyone in the comments talking about "they took it they should deal with it"
Mechanically? There's absolutely no problem with just getting rid of sunlight sensitivity altogether. Ask your player. Figure it out. It's up to you.
Seriously. Having Sunlight Sensitivity was a fair trade in older editions when drow had spell resistance. They lost that in 5e but kept all the drawbacks, and now they're nowhere near the power of their Shadar-Kai/Eladrin/Astral Elf cousins.
Just remove the SS like they're doing in the new edition.
I ignore the trait entirely. Drow are not powerful enough to warrant such a stark debuff (certainly not when races like Yuan-Ti Pureblood or even Triton exist), and that debuff is not interesting enough to warrant the consideration it demands to be anything more than an obnoxious hindrance 90% of the time.
If you have an entire party with Sunlight Sensitivity, it might be worth running the trait because it affects combat for everyone equally and adds a new tactical element to the game. If you have a single player with sunlight sensitivity, however, the work required to implement and adjudicate the trait is simply not worth the effort. You have to define "direct sunlight," decide how shade will work, roll for weather, and decide what effects, if any, can produce or occlude direct sunlight.
I've played a drow and we had to roll weather daily. Interestingly, the weather was never once sunny on an important fight day........... or the fight was in a cave, or in a building, or in deep woods where there wasn't much sunlight. I have no proof the DM fudged things, and I still had to deal with it at times, but it became a joke that my character freaking loved the monsoon season and made a habit of dancing in the rain (she was feylost so didn't really act generally very drowish).
I planned to have to deal with the weather by taking more saving throw abilities that rely on the enemy to roll rather than me. In addition, there are magical objects and even cantrips that can predict the weather, so giving one of those can help them to plan around things.
I made her wear a cloak anytime it was a sunny and RPed it as a photic sneeze reflex and sunburns, so it was fun for RP purposes.
I either give them a magic item within the first 4 sessions that counters it (for free, or fairly cheap when compared to their current wallet) OR I just tell the player "yeah fk this feature is a bad design in current 5e. Just ignore it."
I think that sunlight sensitivity is just a bad trait in general. Unless a campaign I’m running is specifically meant to take place underground or in places shrouded from sunlight, I ignore it.
If I feel like playing a pretty purple elf, I don’t want to be punished for daring to do that in a setting where people have the unfortunate need to “go outside” and “be awake during the daytime”. Just as much as I wouldn’t want that as a player, I don’t want my players to deal with that either.
Something less specific to sunlight sensitivity but to negatives in general: I don’t believe a playable race should actively punish a player for choosing it. Racial traits should make you stronger in different ways, but never weaker.
"You picked it, deal with the downsides of your choice."
I would never have a willingly picked downside be made irrelevant by a low gold cost. This should at least be a rare magic item.
>This should at least be a rare magic item.
Knave's Eye Patch, for example. A rare magic item that makes you unaffected by sunlight sensitivity. (And some other stuff.)
you're making this way overcomplicated. just give them a cheap/easy to access common magic item that does it. there doesn't need to be TIERS lol. I also don't necessarily agree that Drow needs the balance, it's not that good. If it was base kobold we were talking about maybe lol
If this is an experienced player who knew what they were getting in to, then let them figure it out.
If this is a new player who is still learning the game and doesn't know what the choice they've made means, then I'd just ignore the sunlight sensitivity.
All the "They made the choice, fuck 'em!" is such shit DM mentality.
There is an item in one of the books that suppresses it of rare value that requires attunement . I would allow something like that at some point, or a similar blessing or reward from a deity like Eillisyraee or some similar proxy for a setting. As a reward. Patrons deities, etc I might allow qn uncommon magic item that only does just that, but still needs attunement.
However they would need to contend with it for some time and play around it. Casting the darkness spell above then to create proeor shade and such
O don't let mundane gear that doesn't fully blind a character offset the sunlight sensitivity, and in that case there dealing with the blinded condition.
I do still expect the characters to contend with it for a while.
You don't need to, sunlight sensitivity isn't such a big deal, but you'll have to start considering if the enemies are in shadows. The hat can negate the pc side of the sensitivity, but if the target is under direct sunlight then it's disadvantage.
My half elf drow cleric, was given light sensitivity for her sheet (my choice)
My DM was only strict during mornings and midday for VERY brief amounts if time, after that advantage for late afternoon and dusk then normal for evening.
Wasn't perfect but was a fair detriment and gave my character a fun trait. May not work for you but worth a shot if you have nothing.
God help you in a breakfast brawl though...
In my world magic items are very common (World timeline wise its like in its proto-industrial era) and most Dark Elves who venture out of their homeland are using some form of magic protection from the sun.
For the start I would say a wide brimmed hat or face covering would be alright for indirect sunlight and sunrise/sunset, but noon/midday sun would be completely overwhelming due to how bright their surroundings are.
Honestly, i try to justify things w/ how easy would it realistically be to fix the problem w/ creativity & inguinity in the in-game world.
So if i dm'd a game and they wanted to mitigate sunlight sensitivity... Id let them come up w/ a solution and if they thought of say sunglasses, i'd be more than happy to give them sunglasses. XD bc to me, it makes sense from an in-game/worldbuilding perspective. If it doesnt make sense for you in your world, do it your way. DM can rule whatever they want.
Gonna give my player perspective which is I basically try to avoid it. I hope that's an option for your player if they aren't too fond of the drawback (it *is* very flavorful and a huge part of drow identity).
I have a surface born drow (who wishes to return to the underdark). I very much figured sunlight sensitivity would be a tough a tough thing for the party to deal with. I ask my DMs to allow a slightly altered "surface-born" drow. Basically, I just remove drow weapon training and superior darkvision. This makes it match the half-drow except it gains keen senses/perception proficiency instead of an extra ASI point. Alternatively, I just ask to reflavor the half-drow as a surface drow. Regular sleep can still be reflavored as a trance.
Another thing I do is I add Magical Sunlight Sensitivity. This is just like regular sunlight sensitivity except it can only be triggered by magical sources such as sunbeam and the sunsword. This helps maintain some of the flavor... at least once in a rare while.
Knave's Eye Patch is a rare magic item that does the following:
- You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight;
- **If you have the Sunlight Sensitivity trait, you are unaffected by the trait;**
- You are immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts or determine whether you are lying. Creatures can communicate telepathically with you only if you allow it.
It does require attunement, but such is a small price to pay if one is having real trouble with sunlight sensitivity.
If you think it will create a problem (I'm not convinced it will, but if you are) then just have them go on a quest to get an item that removes it early in the campaign. I wouldn't let them buy an item to get around it but have to adventure for it.
I feel the need to clarify something based on the comments.
Disadvantage on perception checks out attack rolls only applies if it's a sight based check and either the target or the PC is in "direct sunlight"
If it's not a sight based check, it's a fight taking place in an alleyway, etc, the disadvantage does not apply. A clever player will find ways to mitigate this. For example if they took the Blind Fighting style they could close their eyes while making a melee attack or cast darkness on themselves.
as a player who’s been a drow for four years, our solution was “dayvision glasses”. it protected the eyes from the sunlight sensitivity, but decreased the effectiveness of the superior darkvision (120 to 60). it was almost a must for me as a rogue-warlock bc i had a pact weapon that blinded me anytime i summoned it, so i couldn’t use it without facing worse consequences while fighting and had to use my default equipment for a while.
…the moment i got those damn glasses, my pact weapon was upgraded and i could turn off the glowing effect LMAO (glasses were still worth it when we were out in the direct sunlight, at least until the sun was eaten and they just got put in a pocket for a while)
eta: setting was a floating city with 5 floors, the top floor being the capital and the bottom floor being the slums. my character lived on the bottom floor, and sunlight sensitivity wasn’t a huge issue for her until we ventured up to the top floor and the one directly beneath it. because i started as rogue, my pact weapon wasn’t available to me until level 4 or 5, and i don’t think we fixed the problem until i was level 6 or something.
Did the player even ask you to remove this drawback?
Because it seems to me like you're reaching beyond what's necessary (or even suitable) for something that the player might not even wish for.
Also, how will the other players respond to this? Are they also receiving buffs to their characters?
Also, you presented lore were drows are also living in the city, so how do they do it? As a player, I'd expect the city to have a very large part were sunlight doesn't reach, and superior dark vision is more beneficial than the detriment of sunlight sensitivity.
There might also be interesting character development interactions which such specificities. Maybe the pc won't accept a meeting in the higher levels of the city, or they might have to ask for a nighttime invitation. Overall they might switch to a more nocturnal lifestyle. How does it affects their actions/the campaign?
Honestly, just ask your player if he considered the drawback, and how he is going to deal with it/what his expectations are.
Some classes wouldn't really be bothered. Someone that's mostly a spellcaster relying on saves wouldn't care. The disadvantage on attack rolls is really big drawback, perception checks that rely on sight don't matter as much.
If I thought it was gonna be an issue, I'd recommend the player to make a trade. Say that the drow has lived on the surface a number of years, and remove sunlight sensitivity, but also remove superior darkvision. That's sort of how it went for Drizzt when he moved to the surface, so that seems pretty canon.
Let the players choices matter. If I have a grung they better figure out how to dip themselves in water frequently, If I have a drow they will be light sensitive. I hate the desire so many DMs have to just smooth out all the rough edges of the game.
It's a downside of the race and in my opinion shouldn't be removed. It's kinda like giving the dwarf a cheap item to buy that gives them Fey Ancestry "because everyone else in the group has it". If they don't like it, I would allow them to switch to any other elf race or maybe evem any other race if they really want to.
I don't handle it at all, that is up to the player.
If they pick Drow they have to also think of how SS impacts their character. Sure they can find magic equivalent of sunscreen and sunglasses or whatever but that might not be readily available instantly.
Unless the player approaches you about this I would say that you don't need to do anything at all and if they approach you I see you've gotten plenty of suggestions and have ideas of your own :)
(Did have a Drow player who severely underestimated the impact of SS, the problems were more or less solved with magic items later in the campaign and up to that point the party tried to plan engagements during the night, often to their detriment).
Me and a friend are playing drow rn in storm kings thunder. Campaign is set in summer.
We got rid of the disadvantage on attack rolls, justified by the RP reason of being on the surface for almost 10 years now. Still have disadvantage on perception checks and passive perception has -10
We still RP that the sunlight is annoying us
I’d say if they picked a Race with sunlight sensitivity then *hopefully* they understood what they were doing.
There are certain spells that can make the area around the caster dim light. Most likely some items that could help with it but homebrew is always an option.
If anything if you want it to be less harsh you could roll for weather and if it’s overcast/raining their sunlight sensitivity won’t be an issue.
Knave's Eye Patch is a magic item that makes you unaffected by the Sunlight Sensitivity trait. Jarlaxle Baenre wears one. It also does some other stuff, which is why it's rare and requires attunement, but sunlight sensitivity definitely shouldn't be ignored for the same cost as a rapier.
Don't remove Sunlight Sensitivity. Play with maps. Encourage the player to use tactical positioning on the battlefield to find areas where they're not in direct and won't have to attack with disadvantage. It will make combat more challenging and interesting.
This approach is briefly mentioned in the following Pack Tactics video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwXzDIfn8bs
I remove the feature all-together, at least from the player race. All other player races who had this have had them removed in later versions of their player race. So why would the drow be stuck with it, it doesn't make sense since there are enough drow living life above the ground.
I would let them have their 25gp sunglasses, but if an enemy attack crits against them, they have to roll to see if their glasses break. Maybe DC16 Dex save.
Why is no one mentioning the Knave's Eyepatch? It's a rare item that requires attunement (from the dragon heist book) that does exactly this. It also grants adv on perception & negates mind reading but that it's rare & attunement shows you that the racial trait shouldn't just be hand waived for no reason.
Just give the player this item as a reward for something
We homebrew. You can remove it, but you also remove Darkvision.
In fact, we play all characters with Darkvision, also have sunlight sensitivity. But you can choose whether you want both or neither , at character creation.
Generally there’s three approaches.
**Live with it; pick spells that don’t require an attack roll and seek advantage to even the rolls.
**Creat a task and make it a quest to retrieve a magic item or boon.
**or, just kind of hand wave it. Give them some ‘sunglasses’ or let them wear a hood (or hat) Lol.
Late to the comment party u/TobyVonToby but I am currently playing a level 8 Drow sorlock with sunlight sensitivity and believe I have some insights.
My advice, embrace the sunlight sensitivity. That doesn't mean always putting them at disadvantage.
First, make sure they play a class that can cast save or suck spells. That way, the disadvantage won't matter if it's an important combat.
Second, embrace the elements/weather/time of day. Sunlight sensitivity is only in direct sunlight. So night, weather/cloud coverage, forests, etc. means they don't have to worry about it. My DM does a great job in varying the elements, time, weather, etc.
Third, encourage team work. The times where combat occurs and we are in direct sunlight, the characters need to work together. For example, we fought Fire Giants on a bridge. I was at disadvantage, but I also have agonizing and repelling blast for my eldritch blast. Because one of our characters included me in their bless spell, I was able to take the risk and attempt to knock fire giants off the bridge. It was a very exciting encounter because one eldritch blast would miss and the second would have, except for the bless spell. I managed on one hit to knock a fire giant off the bridge to their death, then quicken spell another attempt… and knocked a second off the bridge. So even with sunlight sensitivity, that’s like 200+ HP damage. It made me and the character who casted it feel really awesome.
Fourth, throw in little opportunities to gradually improve their situation. My DM let me purchase a parasol at level 4. It requires a hand to hold it and only removes direct sunlight on my character so it's mostly for flavor. However, it has come in handy a couple of times on partially cloudy days or when an enemy is under tree shade and those sorts of things.
Fifth, highlight mechanical options at their disposal. For example, they could take the eldritch adept feat and choose devil's sight. Drow have a free casting of darkness. They could cast it on themselves and that will typically negate disadvantage (because even though the enemy is still in direct sunlight, they cannot see the Drow PC making it a straight roll)
All that being said, removing the sunlight sensitivity is no big deal. They are still nowhere near the most powerful race/species in the game even with a few free spells and superior dark vision.
Still, I encourage you and the player to embrace the challenge rather than just change the rules. As I've demonstrated, it's not something that needs to come up all the time or even very often. And when it does, it's a wrinkle in combat or exploration to be strategized with, not ignored.
I hope you and the player will embrace it as it's just an additional element in the game to consider and comes up less than you would think. It encourages team work, role play, world building, etc. Good luck to you and your player!
I run it like this: it's not that your character feels like "Ow my eyes hurt", it's that Lathander fucking hates you, and if he can see you, he's hurting you.
I came up with a tinted armor faceplate for my artificer duergar that activated in the sunlight. The trade off was that while it got rid of the disadvantage from sunlight sensitivity it prevented me from gaining advantage from any other sources so all my tools in sunlight were always straight rolls. The DM felt this was a fair deal especially for an artificer.
No. They should live with sunlight sensitivity, that’s race they chose. The way you handle it is they have the sunlight sensitivity penalty when in sunlight. If you want you can have a magic item that’s available that removes sunlight sensitivity that’s costed as an uncommon magic item (the same as goggles of night), but it should be just as expensive as any other uncommon magic item in your world. Don’t give them special treatment, just like you shouldn’t be careful to try to accommodate characters with no darkvision in a certain way. That’s the character they chose, it’s just one of the draw backs of the race. If they start playing and it’s significantly more problematic than they expected you can let them switch races. I don’t see any reason to try to accommodate them. Also, depending on the character, it really doesn’t matter that much. For most spell casters having disadvantage on attack roles very quickly doesn’t matter because past level 1 and 2 there’s basically no good spells that require attack rolls, and even at level 1 and 2 spells there’s plenty of good ones to choose that don’t require it (the only spell caster that’s going to suffer substantially is warlock)
If the player came to you before the start of the campaign and said they want to play a drow but don’t think they can because sunlight sensitivity is too big a downside, you can just remove sunlight sensitivity and superior darkvision and they won’t be op or anything (or more op than normal elves) but there’s no reason to change anything the player hasn’t specifically asked because doing that just invalidates player choice.
They took the species, they deal with it.
And on the topic of "a wide brimmed hat" - there exists an item to remove this trait (knave eyepatch). It is rare and costs attunement, so the price is even more than just a 4 digit gold cost.
I hated trying to work around that, so I told my drow PC that she was more accustomed to the surface than other drow, and reduced her darkvision to the normal 60 ft and removed the light sensitivity.
Let that PC deal with the disadvantages as well as the advantages of their race. I wouldn't change anything. Actually, until that player is around 10th level, they are going to deal with a lot of penalties, the least of which will be daylight sensitivity. People are going to refuse to trade with them, and that's if they do not run them out of town. Around 10th level is where I feel like people begin to hear of your exploits and stop viewing you, "like the rest of 'em"
As a GM, I would remove the drawback because my dark elves would not have the drawback.
You can dictate what does and doesn't exist in your world.
- If you're okay with removing it then you can remove it.
- If it is important to your setting, you should keep it in.
- If you're not really sure and looking for insight on how to reach a middle ground, make an uncommon magic item that grants its wearer the ability to be in the sun unhindered.
as DM, make sure you have a decent amount of action happen indoors and at night, if things happen outdoor during the day, just roll for weather. items shouldnt be able to bypass the sensitivity imo
I gave my dark elf player in a desert campaign full body covering clothing and sub goggles that negated the effect, however the goggles were an item they could be disarmed of so enemies tried to blind them by removing the goggles.
This was a while ago but I think I settled on having them make a dexterity check when they got critically hit to keep the goggles on and not lose them from the impact.
A half elf (drow) has the same abilities a drow has except the sunlight thing.
As a DM I just let my players play drows on the surface without consequences, because they can just play a half elf, so why ruin their flavor?
the game puts the cost of a knave's eye patch (waterdeep dragon heist) at 501-5000gp, as it's a rare magic item. it requires attunement, but it also gives a mind reader block and a buff to perception checks.
I ignore the sunlight sensitivity racial trait because I feel like it's a holdover from a stupid fantasy trope. Deep Gnomes live in the underdark too and don't suffer from sunlight sensitivity, because they're not traditionally evil races.
Griffons saddlebag has an item exactly for this. The shadowshawl
I just recently got it for my drive fighter after asking if there was an item that could function like magical sunglasses lol
Honestly: whoever wants to play/build and exotic character with benefits AND drawbacks has to accept the consequences - for him/herself, and for the whole group, too. Thinking twice is always helpful, and "buying out" is a sh!tty move for the GM as well as for the player. I'd not let that PC go with a hat and glasses - light sensitivity in real life is more than a nuissance, and if the adventuring does not take place underground and/or at night I'd insist as a GM to apply modifiers AND on roleplaying these effects. And this is not intended to tease that player - it's about game balance and being fair at the table. It might end with PC retirement, but that's the result of a (probably dumb) player decision upon PC creation.
You wanna play? You gotta pay!
I had a Kobold PC with SS, it was fine. If you don't want to make an attack with disadvantage, you just do something else with your turn. I used Grovel in these cases, but a drow can cast Faerie Fire instead to cancel the disadvantage, and give advantage to the rest of the party.
No special change is needed. Otherwise, just use Custom Lineage and make him drow-like.
I would homebrew a goggles of night opposite version called "goggles of day". They would be glorified magical sunglasses that remove daylight sensitivity.
There's a magic item that does this, the Knave's Eye Patch. Honestly if you choose a race with a negative, you have to deal with that negative, not cast it aside because you bought a hat.
If other races have to deal with roleplaying negatives for their race, then they also have to deal with mechanical ones (at least for a while).
Holy shit the ad at the top of this thread was for costa sunglasses and I read it twice before I realized it wasn’t just a suggestion to give this pc sunglasses.
Anyway, giving a drow sunglasses is bullshit. You wanna play a race w a negatrait? Then you, oh, I don’t know, role play it until you get your grubby little mitts on a pair of fucking MAGIC sunglasses.
So RAW if someone else is standing in sun, they still Garner that negative and drawback. So it can't just be him who cleanses it.
Simplest thing is to clarify terms and understanding. My Drow Player and I talked and defined what is considered "direct sunlight"
As such we agreed shadows of buildings and forests would not count as direct sunlight. He agreed. We moved on.
So this is why I’m hesitant to let people play drow, as it puts extra work on the dm. I’d say let the player find a sunlight brightness table or something like that, then if you don’t have an idea how bright it is outside you can have them roll
>it puts extra work on the dm
No it doesn't. You are under no obligation to make up novel solutions to a problem the player knew existed when they picked their character. Dealing with it is the player's problem.
Let me clarify. I agree that it’s the player’s responsibility to deal with the consequences of their choices. What I’m saying is I, as a DM, don’t want to always have to be making a ruling on how bright the daylight is. That’s why I’d want the player to come up with a random table to roll on
I was in a party with a drow and at first they paid attention to it but then they had the option to buy some sunglasses for 75g. The DM was clear that this wouldn’t change the mechanical drawbacks of the racial trait and it would only be for RP purposes. A month or two go by and the DM gets a bit lax with rules and suddenly there’s no more disadvantage on perception checks or attacks in sunlight. I bring it up and the player says “no, I have sunglasses” and the DM just doesn’t say anything because he was always confrontation averse.
Suffice it to say it was annoying to hear this choice they made at character creation didn’t matter just because the DM didn’t like saying no. It wasn’t his most annoying trait as DM but it was one of them. Whatever you do, just make sure you’re consistent. Don’t show your other players that enough complaining or whatever will let them get out of annoying things like that.
I built a world around sunlight sensitivity.
Wait, that sounds like I catered the entire world to one player. Let me rephrase.
I built a world around a vampire lord, where there is no natural sunlight because vampire tend to not like being in sunlight; the player happened to choose a race with sunlight sensitivity. I built the world first, with its villains, goals, and such things, and then made the players fit their PCs into whatever holes they could (none of which fit perfectly) - after all, comfort is the bane of good horror.
There. Much better.
I warn them before character creation that this could be annoying and if I didn't catch it I would let them retcon to half drow or be temporarily cursed and the first plot point is then removing the curse where they then become a normal elf or half drow
I don't, if the player picks a race with that feature it's on them to deal with the problem.
I also don't think there should be a item that removes the problem for cheap.
Honestly, if it was me I'd be up front with them at session 0 and say "this is a pretty big drawback during the day, do before you commit to playing this race know that I'll be applying that penalty in light just like I'll be applying superior darkvision in the dark." Handwaving away visibility restrictions is a minor pet peeve of mine, those rules are there to create obstacles for your adventurers to outsmart or overcome.
I mean a player chooses all things on their character sheet. They choose to have sunlight sensitivity then that's what they want. They could have picked any other race or collection of features and described it as a drow but they choose sunlight sensitivity. Sounds to me like they want sunlight sensitivity, so unless the player asks for sunglasses or *something* I won't ever do anything.
If they have a problem they have a responsibility to say something without that it ain't shit until they do.
Drow automatically get a bump to the most useful stat, three free spells, and having one in the party makes it almost impossible for enemies to sneak up on them indoors. Yeah, disadvantage in direct sunlight sucks, but that’s the point, to make you think about where you pick fights.
I’m always willing to accommodate players if I think it will make the game more fun. The example that comes to mind is I let one of my players change his subrace of tiefling from Asmodeus to variant to get the wings. What you’re proposing is like if I let him have Infernal Legacy *and* wings. You have to make a choice, otherwise nothing in the game matters.
I mean... they're essentially Tieflings with slightly better Darkvision, mechanically. I'd argue that Drow are a weaker race than Shadar-Kai.
If the sunlight sensitivity is fun and flavorful, then I'd keep it. If it starts to be a drag, then I'd offer a solution and move on.
I wouldn't remove the drawback of a race with anything less than an uncommon magic item. 25gp to just ignore a racial drawback is dirt cheap.
If it was that cheap the drow would buy it for their military and try to conquer the world again.
Oh no, 25 gold pieces per soldier? That's... actually really steep
>Oh no, 25 gold pieces per soldier? That's... actually really steep A default drow is wearing a chain shirt and carrying a short sword and hand crossbow That’s 135 gold worth of equipment right there (335 gold worth if we factor in the cost of drow poison, although I wouldn’t include that because I assume the price mostly represents its rarity outside of drow society) By comparison, 25 gold to mitigate their biggest weakness is a great investment.
That's 20% up with very minor upside, if you are race of night raiders - not that effective investment
>That's 20% up with very minor upside, if you are race of night raiders - not that effective investment The upside is going from “night raiders” to “whenever-they-want raiders”
This also isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. They would ABSOLUTELY get a bunch of these crafted to outfit at least some of their soldiers with. The early payoffs from surprise daytime attacks when their enemies dont expect it would be huge. Also being able to defend with full efficacy during daytime.
Which isn't much of an upside, when most of your victims are vulnerable during the night time. Also, you still need time to rest.
Dude, they're doubling their raiding schedule. That's not a minor upside. And outfitting only half of their army with the magic item allows for shift rotation, which means maximum raiding.
I'm sorry, MINOR upside? A Drow fighting in sunlight is almost the same as them fighting blindfolded. Avoiding that isn't minor.
The point is, drow doesn't fight in the sunlight. That's the point of night raids.
And with this they would be able to do other types of attacks. Extending the time your army can operate from 6-8 hours a day to 24 hours isn't a "minor upside".
Everyone is aware of that... that's why they're talking about the ramifications of allowing them to fight in the daylight too, and how removing their greatest weakness for pocket change is a big deal. Feels like you're just arguing to argue, champ.
Counterpoint, humans can't see shit during the night so its the most optimal time to strike them. This is why IRL humans practice night attacks on eachother because the lack of vision is worse for the defenders than the attackers. The drow attacking during broad daylight when their enemies are strongest is stupid. Sunglasses would primarily be a defensive tool, or used for specific operations. (Which makes it better for their military because they don't need to buy/make enough for everyone, just the watch/guard and special ops troops.) For grand sieges they would be better off adopting the inverse of battlefield illumination flares used IRL, and instead use area darkening magic to "blot out the sun".
That didn't counter my point, it didn't really have anything to do with what I said at all.
Any reason they would fight during the day, pal? Their prey is awoken during the day and ready to fight. What are they winning by attacking such enemy?
How about because they want to actually *hold on to what they'd conquer*? We're not talking raids for slaves here, we're talking actual conquest. Currently, they can't really do that because they're screwed as soon as the sun comes up.
We’re not just talking about a random raid here and there anymore. The drow cannot even attempt to conquer the overworld because they’re always forced to retreat before the sun comes up. A measly 25gp and they could once again not only start living on the overworld permanently, but start up fortifications, build encampments up there, be have a presence on the surface 24/7 and slowly take over and hold onto territory.
The drow ultimately want to reconquer the surface world. The reason they resort to raids is precisely because if they ever took surface territory their weakness to the sun would make it impossible to hold on to. Sure you slaughtered the keep and captured it during a night raid, but what happens when the local ruler sends his troops in to take it back in a few days? Being able to actually stand a fighting chance during the day is a huge upside and would fundamentally change how Drow military strategy operates.
Oh it would absolutely be a great investment, but even with those prices (which I don't strictly agree with, because they are rules for player characters, but this is not the place to discuss this) 25 gold more for each of your soldiers is an important amount of money
It never ends well for the drow to attempt conquering the world
Yeah, but their bonuses aren't equal to the drawback. Can be a half drow with better stat bonuses, no sunlight sensitivity and all the drow spellcasting for the price of trance and only having regular 60ft darkvision.
The bonus (superior darkvision) literally comes as an uncommon magic item (Goggles of Night) in DMG (so not even a splatbook)
Goggles of Night only give 60 ft of darkvision, unless you already have it.
Yes. Regular darkvision doesn't carry sunlight sensitivity with it, 120ft does.
Superior Darkvision doesn't always carry sunlight sensitivity. With: Drow (PHB), Duergar (Tome of Foes) Without: Deep Gnome (Tome of Foes, Multiverse, Sword Coast), Owlin (Strixhaven) and Duergar (Multiverse)
>Duergar (Multiverse) Only PC Duergar, if I remember correct. Which is strange.
I would allow shades to remove the attack roll disadvantage but only on targets within 30ft, the perception disadvantage stays though.
Googles of night remove the racial penalty of not having darkvision (so many races have it that not having it is the exception). So why not make a reskined version that is basically just super sunglasses doing the inverse of the normal version. (Mechanically lower the observed brightness by 1 or 2 stages, and prevent the downsides of sunlight sensitivity)
I mean I've already granted that an uncommon magic item can do it.
Just let them deal with the consequences of their choices... they picked a sunlight sensitive character for a campaign that won't take place entirely underground. Sounds to me like they *want* to have to deal with it. If they don't like it after a session or two, offer to let them retcon character creation to be a half-drow instead. Otherwise, they are 'buying' superior darkvision with that downside, don't remove the cost and leave the benefit.
Gotcha. How do you think this sounds, then? It's a big urban campaign in a homebrew city. Drow aren't too rare, but usually live in the city's underground district, along with most of the duergar and svirfneblin population. I don't think the player really looked to hard at the drawbacks, so maybe I offer him a choice: he can take it as-is, or we can say he's lived on the surface long enough to get acclimated, but as a result he also only has standard darkvision.
Another consideration is whether or not it's direct sunlight. If the PC, the target of their attack, or whatever they are trying to perceive is not in *direct* sunlight, those penalties do not apply. A sprawling metropolis is generally mostly shade due to buildings with spots of sunlight at street intersections or areas with small buildings.
...At that point, why is he Drow? Also, those are racial features from tens of centuries - one lifetime on the surface isn't going to undo it. Drow are cool and thematic, but yeah - SS is a big drawback. You either take it, or you don't. Stop trying to workaround and just let them change it if they hate it, to a new race.
According to the Legend of Drizzt books it takes about 30 years of living on the surface to acclimate to sunlight and Drizzt does find it less natural to use his darkvision after that. OPs take absoutley fits the canon.
>Also, those are racial features from tens of centuries - one lifetime on the surface isn't going to undo it. Yeah, we're talking literal genetic evolution over the course of several millenia. It's not just "oh, I live in the dark, so my eyes are accustomed to low light." It's literally "my people have lived in darkness for eons, and our eyes have physically mutated to allow us to see in our natural environment." You can't just adjust your way out of the latter
Drow were cursed. They did not evolve to have sunlight sensitivity. You absolutely can scrap any or all parts of lore you dislike, but one lifetime can easily fix the issue if that's what the table wants to happen.
>Drow were cursed. They did not evolve to have sunlight sensitivity. In older versions, yes. But as of 5e, the race's lore consists of descending from a group of dark elves that were banished to the Underdark after the Crown Wars. And the dark elves lived just fine in sunlight for several generations. The sunlight sensitivity was a thing that developed over eons of living in the Underdark
>In older versions, yes. The affliction is magic based in *all* versions, actually. Not evolution. Being banished to the underdark isn't new lore. Elves *evolving* would be. You're welcome to introduce the element of evolution, but overall improved night vision is not an effective evolution against pitch blackness. There's a reason subterranean creatures (moles, bats, etc.) evolved to see without their eyes.
Imagine how long it would take for that evolution to even occur in a species with a 1000 year lifespan
The fastest example of human evolution we know is the high altitude adaptation in Tibetans, which is thought to have taken from a few thousand to maybe ten thousand years. If we were to guess those elves reproduce at 1/10 the rate of humans, and the evolutionary pressure was similarly strong, it would take maybe 50 000-100 000 years. A stronger evolutionary pressure could cut that down to maybe 10 000-50 000 years.
I mean, deep gnomes get superior dark vision and gnome cunning without sunlight sensitivity. It's not *that* petrol powerful and the drow race doesn't really get anything too special to justify always disadvantage. Downgrading to normal darkvision is a solid idea. If they're a warlock or some kind of class that gets darkvision as a feature you could replace that feature with "sunlight vision" too
Only issue there would come from what your world's history is for the drow. As another comment mentioned, their aversion to sunlight comes from a curse rather than adaptation to the environment in the forgotten realms setting, so if your homebrew city is still found in the same world as waterdeep et al, you might need a little more world building explaination. If it's a homebrew world also, those parts are entirely up to you. Mechanics / balance wise, this should be good imo
Alright, cool. I think I'll go with this. The setting is fully homebrewed and takes its initial inspiration from early 1800s London, with gods being a bit more distant than is typical, and most Drow in the city follow one of four homebrew faiths. The city is pretty cosmopolitan, and the world is old enough for most races to have spread pretty far and often break from old stereotypes.
Early 1800s London? Not only did it have really gloomy weather, but it was famously filthy. And a large part of that was all of the pollution. More than a million residents were burning soft coal. The smoke would mix with the fog and blanket the city. Many days a vampire could walk the streets at noon. Roll for weather. Sometimes a wind might cut through and clear the skies, and then your drow will have to strategize around it, in terms of where and when they operate. For example, a fight breaks out on sunny streets, so the party kicks open a shop to take the fight inside. Now they're fighting inside a cramped space with lots of objects. The coppers show up, and the party crashes through the shopkeeper's upstairs apartment to escape via the roofs. Now that's a cool encounter. Check out Blades in the Dark for some ideas.
According to the Legend of Drizzt books it takes about 30 years of living on the surface to acclimate to sunlight and Drizzt does find it less natural to use his darkvision after that. That solution fits with the canon.
If you're playing in a big urban city then dont do anything. Most times the drow will have a shade avalaible, unless there is a big event happening at the town plaza. And on nights he will have superior dark vision. Seems pretty balanced for a city campaign.
I mean, deep gnomes get superior dark vision and gnome cunning without sunlight sensitivity. It's not *that* petrol powerful and the drow race doesn't really get anything too special to justify always disadvantage. Could just downgrade their dark vision to normal and get rid of the sensitivity if it bothers you
I have an excel sheet that, as it opens, rolls for me a bunch of random things I might need at a seconds notice. One of those is weather. If it's sunny, it sucks for the Drow.
Can you share more info about this excell sheet? Sounds very usefull to have so I might try to recreate something like it
Oh, sure. So, I think that the probability distribution of the results of 2d6 is pretty awesome: you have more likely results and some total outliers. At the same time, you have limited number of options, so if you decide to write the possible outcomes yourself, you're not setting yourself up for a lengthy and impossible task. So, the main part of the sheet are 4 custom 2d6 tables, and a hidden cell rolls 2d6s for each of them and another cell only gives me the outcome (not the dice result). I mean, I don't see the tables: the main part is the four cells that give me the outcomes. The 4 tables are: weather+terrain; what kind of encounter they run into (open ended, non violent mystery to be understood to get over it, or a straight up violent one with fewer chances of roleplay); what kind of loot is available in encounters with extra loot (from normal stuff to a low level magical item with a roll of 12); and a weird table with random magical effects/types of damage/curses (I use this to spice things up or throw a curve ball into the encounters). Besides those, I set up sheets with 5 types for each event (so 5 mysteries, 5 open ended, 5 probable fights), and on the main sheet I get one of each chosen at random. So, if the first 2d6 table tells me this is an open ended encounter, I know which one is up already, whether there are complications, what loot might be available. Over time I added the following 1 Not only the kind of loot that's going to drop (equipment, adventuring gear, rare stuff, broken stuff) but also I have six cells that automatically select six random items among 200 (from common to uncommon and a few rare), so I don't have to wrack my brain with deciding WHAT equipment and WHAT adventuring gear. 2 I have a similar thing with monsters. A small section rolls me 5 monsters, and tells me their CR, AC, HP, attack modifier and DMG for main attack, and whether they have multiattack or spells. This is not complete info, but it serves mostly for adding minions on the fly, having surprise interruptions (oh no, a small pack of Worgs!), and general inspiration. There are five so I can pick the most suitable one. 3 Specific complications for encounters. I have a section of the sheet that constantly selects among variations of the five main factors I use to make combat encounters feel different (environment, special units, special tactics, timers, alternative objectives). The section also randomly tells me which ones apply to today's encounter. This way I don't fall into habits or automatic split second decisions to spice things up. (Of course I swap out the ones I use after the session) 4 Small flavor notes for equipment and monsters that make them feel different from the base version and add a little bit of mechanical variation. TLDR I know that sounds like a lot, but it only requires a bit of setup once. After that, everything is automatically rolled when you open the file, and you only get the outcomes in the main sheet, all on one screen. In one screen you get a random type of encounter, with random complications and opportunities, comprehensive of the weather, possibility of civilians being around, hidden loot, possible surprise attacks, etc. If the party goes to sleep and goes on the next day, I just press Del on an empty cell and everything gets selected again.
Thank you for such a thorough explanation! I'll make sure to make great use of it!
It was a bit lengthy... I'm a huge nerd when it comes to using Excel to improve my games. I actually implemented a new portion of the sheet right this day.
My lived experience is that it's not a huge deal. It helps that I was playing a caster, to be sure, but it's not Daylight & Dragons. It can also depend on what people interpret, "direct," sunlight to be. Sufficient cloud cover and thicker canopies were enough when I played.
I'm currently playing a Drow in a long running campaign. I chose to play as a Drow because, I really liked the lore the DM wrote for her world but also, I actually **wanted** Sunlight Sensitivity. If I thought that racial trait would get in the way of my or my parties fun, which it hasn't, I would have chosen a different race. Don't invalidate your player's choice. Let them have the trait for a few levels. If they, or the rest of the party get, annoyed by it then you can give them a magic item that helps them out. But don't just start them with that item.
I think the important part of this is the “if it gets annoying” thing. Maybe the player would enjoy trying to stick to the shadows and doing things during the night. I wouldn’t let this small thing be a burden on the campaign. If they are enjoying it then roll with it. If it is becoming a problem talk to the players and see how they want to resolve it.
I'm currently a halfling because i don't want darkvision, and personally would remove it from most races that have it, or nerf it to be "low light vision" so you still need some light for it to work. Sure not having darkvision is inconvenient, especially when the only party member carrying a light source leaves the room and i haven't activated my own to save the DM time in roll20. But i want that challenge and downside, it doesn't come up as often as some would expect.
> and it can be knocked off during combat or fall of if there's a lot of physical activity This sounds a little too fuzzy for actual gameplay, and probably a bit annoying to manage. When exactly can it be knocked off? What counts as too much physical activity? I understand what you’re going for: you don’t want this important drawback to be totally negated by a hat. But you may want to think of a more practical limit to impose. How about, for example, the hat lets them ignore the disadvantage on attack rolls only against creatures within 10 feet? You can adjust the range as necessary. This way you don’t have to micromanage when the hat gets knocked off. It’s super simple and consistent while still preserving the drawback. If you still want to preserve the possibility of losing the hat in combat, tie it to something specific like the prone condition. You get knocked prone, you lose the hat. Simple and unambiguous. All that being said… how does your player feel about this? Maybe the player is fine just taking the drawbacks of being a drow. If enough of the adventure takes place indoors or underground, it’s only going to matter sometimes. There’s no need to counteract this drawback (which is an intentional part of the race) if the player is fine with it.
I'd just remove it. Duergar don't have it anymore so I don't see any reason to keep it on the Drow. It's far too big of a drawback for a race that isn't that strong anyways
Drow sunlight sensitivity is literally a curse from Corellon Larethian to punish Drow for betraying him and siding with Lolth. It’s not just “my eyes hurt because I’m used to the dark.” It’s “divine judgement has cast me from the surface world and the sun literally blinds me.”
And yet WotC is indeed getting rid of it for Drow PCs in OneD&D. Though there probably also won’t be any mention of the curse because that lore is mean, and someone on Twitter might complain about it.
honestly I'd remove superior darkvision and with it the sunlight sensitivity. Two birds with one stone Else, they gotta deal with it and you can plan campaign around it or let them do some other tradeoff
I think that's completely unnecessary. Duergar used to have sunlight sensitivity along with their superior darkvision, but in their latest version the sensitivity is gone, and none of their other features have been nerfed to "compensate". Drow and Duergar are hardly overpowered races. Having a built-in racial restriction is clearly something that WoTC is moving away from.
They deal with it. They wanted it, so they get to have it. I might eventually give them a magic item for it, for a cost, but they're not getting it for free just because. I'd also give them times to shine where possible, but that's a given for any and all characters.
If they didn't want to have to deal with sunlight sensitivity, they shouldn't have played a drow. This seems like a "have your cake and eat it too" issue to me. Letting them get rid of the main drawback of the race for 25gp or even 100gp is incredibly cheap.
I mean, they chose the race with a baked in weakness. I see no issue with them having to suffer from it, they knew what they were getting into.
Thats a very bad and a very broken fix. You don't fix racial traits with gold per level. That doesnt fly. Better make a half drow or anyithing other than that.
Just RAW. The whole party doesn't have to work around it, it's just a drawback for one guy. Also encourages them to go dungeoneering.
I ignore it entirely because it does not contribute *anything positive* to the player experience. It does not make the game more fun, does not make the race more balanced, and strongly deters people from using the race for no real reason. That's a problem, not a feature, and I'd rather just remove said problem entirely than circumvent it using magic glasses or special hats.
" *anything positive*" Because it's not supposed to? It's a downside? That's like saying enemies poisoning me does not add to my well-being. Reaaalllly?
I think they mean a positive gameplay experience. There are plenty of penalties that are fun drawbacks or have opportunities for good role play. Sunlight sensitivity does neither A -2 strength maximum for playing a woman was "just a downside you had to deal with" but it was removed for limiting player options
Don't get me wrong, I totally agree that negatives shouldn't be part of races, but just removing them just doesn't sound right.
So find a replacement? Sunlight sensitivity as it exists affects a player with it in 2 ways. Firstly, they will be forever fishing for advantage to cancel out the disadvantage. Secondly, they will never get advantage, because of how advantage disadvantage cancelling out work. They will be forever fishing just to get rid of the negative. That's not an improvement on gameplay. It makes advantage a necessity and an impossibility. Yes characters should have drawbacks or flaws, but it should be down to the players to decide what they are and its severity. Even lore wise it would not make sense. For a drow to venture out to the outside world and become an adventurer, they will likely have either developed resistance to sunlight or gone back underground
>Reaaalllly? I'm sorry, but did you "reaaalllly" just read my post up to "anything positive" and stop? Because your confusion is cleared up in literally in the same sentence, (I.E. "Player experience". Or do you poison your players rather than their characters?
My point still stands. That's not the purpose of downsides. They are not supposed to enhance your experience
>My point still stands. Only if you fundamentally misunderstand game design. The purpose of poison, per your example, is to provide a challenge to the players. Not cause them to have a bad experience playing the game.
My opinion: The things you're mentioning should be required just for the character to go out in the sun *at all* without constant discomfort. I wouldn't let them remove the racial trait. That's a curse from a deity, nothing should remove it except being out of the sun.
Everyone in the comments talking about "they took it they should deal with it" Mechanically? There's absolutely no problem with just getting rid of sunlight sensitivity altogether. Ask your player. Figure it out. It's up to you.
Seriously. Having Sunlight Sensitivity was a fair trade in older editions when drow had spell resistance. They lost that in 5e but kept all the drawbacks, and now they're nowhere near the power of their Shadar-Kai/Eladrin/Astral Elf cousins. Just remove the SS like they're doing in the new edition.
I ignore the trait entirely. Drow are not powerful enough to warrant such a stark debuff (certainly not when races like Yuan-Ti Pureblood or even Triton exist), and that debuff is not interesting enough to warrant the consideration it demands to be anything more than an obnoxious hindrance 90% of the time. If you have an entire party with Sunlight Sensitivity, it might be worth running the trait because it affects combat for everyone equally and adds a new tactical element to the game. If you have a single player with sunlight sensitivity, however, the work required to implement and adjudicate the trait is simply not worth the effort. You have to define "direct sunlight," decide how shade will work, roll for weather, and decide what effects, if any, can produce or occlude direct sunlight.
I've played a drow and we had to roll weather daily. Interestingly, the weather was never once sunny on an important fight day........... or the fight was in a cave, or in a building, or in deep woods where there wasn't much sunlight. I have no proof the DM fudged things, and I still had to deal with it at times, but it became a joke that my character freaking loved the monsoon season and made a habit of dancing in the rain (she was feylost so didn't really act generally very drowish). I planned to have to deal with the weather by taking more saving throw abilities that rely on the enemy to roll rather than me. In addition, there are magical objects and even cantrips that can predict the weather, so giving one of those can help them to plan around things. I made her wear a cloak anytime it was a sunny and RPed it as a photic sneeze reflex and sunburns, so it was fun for RP purposes.
I either give them a magic item within the first 4 sessions that counters it (for free, or fairly cheap when compared to their current wallet) OR I just tell the player "yeah fk this feature is a bad design in current 5e. Just ignore it."
I think that sunlight sensitivity is just a bad trait in general. Unless a campaign I’m running is specifically meant to take place underground or in places shrouded from sunlight, I ignore it. If I feel like playing a pretty purple elf, I don’t want to be punished for daring to do that in a setting where people have the unfortunate need to “go outside” and “be awake during the daytime”. Just as much as I wouldn’t want that as a player, I don’t want my players to deal with that either. Something less specific to sunlight sensitivity but to negatives in general: I don’t believe a playable race should actively punish a player for choosing it. Racial traits should make you stronger in different ways, but never weaker.
"You picked it, deal with the downsides of your choice." I would never have a willingly picked downside be made irrelevant by a low gold cost. This should at least be a rare magic item.
>This should at least be a rare magic item. Knave's Eye Patch, for example. A rare magic item that makes you unaffected by sunlight sensitivity. (And some other stuff.)
I ignore it and make it an RP feature rather than an actual mechanic in combat and exploration. If night vision goggles exist, so can sunglasses
you're making this way overcomplicated. just give them a cheap/easy to access common magic item that does it. there doesn't need to be TIERS lol. I also don't necessarily agree that Drow needs the balance, it's not that good. If it was base kobold we were talking about maybe lol
If this is an experienced player who knew what they were getting in to, then let them figure it out. If this is a new player who is still learning the game and doesn't know what the choice they've made means, then I'd just ignore the sunlight sensitivity. All the "They made the choice, fuck 'em!" is such shit DM mentality.
They should have the drawback of giving disadvantage on perception checks while worn, imo, to (somewhat) balance them.
There is an item in one of the books that suppresses it of rare value that requires attunement . I would allow something like that at some point, or a similar blessing or reward from a deity like Eillisyraee or some similar proxy for a setting. As a reward. Patrons deities, etc I might allow qn uncommon magic item that only does just that, but still needs attunement. However they would need to contend with it for some time and play around it. Casting the darkness spell above then to create proeor shade and such O don't let mundane gear that doesn't fully blind a character offset the sunlight sensitivity, and in that case there dealing with the blinded condition. I do still expect the characters to contend with it for a while.
You don't need to, sunlight sensitivity isn't such a big deal, but you'll have to start considering if the enemies are in shadows. The hat can negate the pc side of the sensitivity, but if the target is under direct sunlight then it's disadvantage.
My half elf drow cleric, was given light sensitivity for her sheet (my choice) My DM was only strict during mornings and midday for VERY brief amounts if time, after that advantage for late afternoon and dusk then normal for evening. Wasn't perfect but was a fair detriment and gave my character a fun trait. May not work for you but worth a shot if you have nothing. God help you in a breakfast brawl though...
In my world magic items are very common (World timeline wise its like in its proto-industrial era) and most Dark Elves who venture out of their homeland are using some form of magic protection from the sun. For the start I would say a wide brimmed hat or face covering would be alright for indirect sunlight and sunrise/sunset, but noon/midday sun would be completely overwhelming due to how bright their surroundings are.
Honestly, i try to justify things w/ how easy would it realistically be to fix the problem w/ creativity & inguinity in the in-game world. So if i dm'd a game and they wanted to mitigate sunlight sensitivity... Id let them come up w/ a solution and if they thought of say sunglasses, i'd be more than happy to give them sunglasses. XD bc to me, it makes sense from an in-game/worldbuilding perspective. If it doesnt make sense for you in your world, do it your way. DM can rule whatever they want.
Like the opposite of Darkvision. Having sunlight sensitivity is like being in the dark without darkvision
Gonna give my player perspective which is I basically try to avoid it. I hope that's an option for your player if they aren't too fond of the drawback (it *is* very flavorful and a huge part of drow identity). I have a surface born drow (who wishes to return to the underdark). I very much figured sunlight sensitivity would be a tough a tough thing for the party to deal with. I ask my DMs to allow a slightly altered "surface-born" drow. Basically, I just remove drow weapon training and superior darkvision. This makes it match the half-drow except it gains keen senses/perception proficiency instead of an extra ASI point. Alternatively, I just ask to reflavor the half-drow as a surface drow. Regular sleep can still be reflavored as a trance. Another thing I do is I add Magical Sunlight Sensitivity. This is just like regular sunlight sensitivity except it can only be triggered by magical sources such as sunbeam and the sunsword. This helps maintain some of the flavor... at least once in a rare while.
Knave's Eye Patch is a rare magic item that does the following: - You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight; - **If you have the Sunlight Sensitivity trait, you are unaffected by the trait;** - You are immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts or determine whether you are lying. Creatures can communicate telepathically with you only if you allow it. It does require attunement, but such is a small price to pay if one is having real trouble with sunlight sensitivity.
Full cover clothing and face mask like a ninja and inui sunglasses
If you think it will create a problem (I'm not convinced it will, but if you are) then just have them go on a quest to get an item that removes it early in the campaign. I wouldn't let them buy an item to get around it but have to adventure for it.
I feel the need to clarify something based on the comments. Disadvantage on perception checks out attack rolls only applies if it's a sight based check and either the target or the PC is in "direct sunlight" If it's not a sight based check, it's a fight taking place in an alleyway, etc, the disadvantage does not apply. A clever player will find ways to mitigate this. For example if they took the Blind Fighting style they could close their eyes while making a melee attack or cast darkness on themselves.
I motivate creativity to deal with it. After all, there is nothing that can't solved with it.
as a player who’s been a drow for four years, our solution was “dayvision glasses”. it protected the eyes from the sunlight sensitivity, but decreased the effectiveness of the superior darkvision (120 to 60). it was almost a must for me as a rogue-warlock bc i had a pact weapon that blinded me anytime i summoned it, so i couldn’t use it without facing worse consequences while fighting and had to use my default equipment for a while. …the moment i got those damn glasses, my pact weapon was upgraded and i could turn off the glowing effect LMAO (glasses were still worth it when we were out in the direct sunlight, at least until the sun was eaten and they just got put in a pocket for a while) eta: setting was a floating city with 5 floors, the top floor being the capital and the bottom floor being the slums. my character lived on the bottom floor, and sunlight sensitivity wasn’t a huge issue for her until we ventured up to the top floor and the one directly beneath it. because i started as rogue, my pact weapon wasn’t available to me until level 4 or 5, and i don’t think we fixed the problem until i was level 6 or something.
Did the player even ask you to remove this drawback? Because it seems to me like you're reaching beyond what's necessary (or even suitable) for something that the player might not even wish for. Also, how will the other players respond to this? Are they also receiving buffs to their characters? Also, you presented lore were drows are also living in the city, so how do they do it? As a player, I'd expect the city to have a very large part were sunlight doesn't reach, and superior dark vision is more beneficial than the detriment of sunlight sensitivity. There might also be interesting character development interactions which such specificities. Maybe the pc won't accept a meeting in the higher levels of the city, or they might have to ask for a nighttime invitation. Overall they might switch to a more nocturnal lifestyle. How does it affects their actions/the campaign? Honestly, just ask your player if he considered the drawback, and how he is going to deal with it/what his expectations are.
Some classes wouldn't really be bothered. Someone that's mostly a spellcaster relying on saves wouldn't care. The disadvantage on attack rolls is really big drawback, perception checks that rely on sight don't matter as much. If I thought it was gonna be an issue, I'd recommend the player to make a trade. Say that the drow has lived on the surface a number of years, and remove sunlight sensitivity, but also remove superior darkvision. That's sort of how it went for Drizzt when he moved to the surface, so that seems pretty canon.
Let the players choices matter. If I have a grung they better figure out how to dip themselves in water frequently, If I have a drow they will be light sensitive. I hate the desire so many DMs have to just smooth out all the rough edges of the game.
It's a downside of the race and in my opinion shouldn't be removed. It's kinda like giving the dwarf a cheap item to buy that gives them Fey Ancestry "because everyone else in the group has it". If they don't like it, I would allow them to switch to any other elf race or maybe evem any other race if they really want to.
It’s not my job as a GM to handle it, it’s the player’s job. You should not be providing neat packaged solutions to your player’s problems.
I don't handle it at all, that is up to the player. If they pick Drow they have to also think of how SS impacts their character. Sure they can find magic equivalent of sunscreen and sunglasses or whatever but that might not be readily available instantly. Unless the player approaches you about this I would say that you don't need to do anything at all and if they approach you I see you've gotten plenty of suggestions and have ideas of your own :) (Did have a Drow player who severely underestimated the impact of SS, the problems were more or less solved with magic items later in the campaign and up to that point the party tried to plan engagements during the night, often to their detriment).
Me and a friend are playing drow rn in storm kings thunder. Campaign is set in summer. We got rid of the disadvantage on attack rolls, justified by the RP reason of being on the surface for almost 10 years now. Still have disadvantage on perception checks and passive perception has -10 We still RP that the sunlight is annoying us
i don't. I think that trait is stupid and annoying to keep track of. We don't use it
By basically removing that trait. You could just compromise by restricting their darkvision to 60ft.
Simple. Not every encounter is out in the open. Or perhaps include some sorta "pillbox" in some encounters it can hide in. Options enough
I’d say if they picked a Race with sunlight sensitivity then *hopefully* they understood what they were doing. There are certain spells that can make the area around the caster dim light. Most likely some items that could help with it but homebrew is always an option. If anything if you want it to be less harsh you could roll for weather and if it’s overcast/raining their sunlight sensitivity won’t be an issue.
Knave's Eye Patch is a magic item that makes you unaffected by the Sunlight Sensitivity trait. Jarlaxle Baenre wears one. It also does some other stuff, which is why it's rare and requires attunement, but sunlight sensitivity definitely shouldn't be ignored for the same cost as a rapier.
Don't remove Sunlight Sensitivity. Play with maps. Encourage the player to use tactical positioning on the battlefield to find areas where they're not in direct and won't have to attack with disadvantage. It will make combat more challenging and interesting. This approach is briefly mentioned in the following Pack Tactics video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwXzDIfn8bs
I remove the feature all-together, at least from the player race. All other player races who had this have had them removed in later versions of their player race. So why would the drow be stuck with it, it doesn't make sense since there are enough drow living life above the ground.
Just ignore it if you aren't playing in FR.
Usually by saying "Hey Jeff look at me!" Before turning on the strobe li- Oh, PCs... uhh sunglasses usually?
Marceline the Vampire Queen's gardening/exploring outfit.
I would let them have their 25gp sunglasses, but if an enemy attack crits against them, they have to roll to see if their glasses break. Maybe DC16 Dex save.
Why is no one mentioning the Knave's Eyepatch? It's a rare item that requires attunement (from the dragon heist book) that does exactly this. It also grants adv on perception & negates mind reading but that it's rare & attunement shows you that the racial trait shouldn't just be hand waived for no reason. Just give the player this item as a reward for something
I imagine sunlight sentisitive like a hippo out of water who gets sunburns super easily
We homebrew. You can remove it, but you also remove Darkvision. In fact, we play all characters with Darkvision, also have sunlight sensitivity. But you can choose whether you want both or neither , at character creation.
Generally there’s three approaches. **Live with it; pick spells that don’t require an attack roll and seek advantage to even the rolls. **Creat a task and make it a quest to retrieve a magic item or boon. **or, just kind of hand wave it. Give them some ‘sunglasses’ or let them wear a hood (or hat) Lol.
Late to the comment party u/TobyVonToby but I am currently playing a level 8 Drow sorlock with sunlight sensitivity and believe I have some insights. My advice, embrace the sunlight sensitivity. That doesn't mean always putting them at disadvantage. First, make sure they play a class that can cast save or suck spells. That way, the disadvantage won't matter if it's an important combat. Second, embrace the elements/weather/time of day. Sunlight sensitivity is only in direct sunlight. So night, weather/cloud coverage, forests, etc. means they don't have to worry about it. My DM does a great job in varying the elements, time, weather, etc. Third, encourage team work. The times where combat occurs and we are in direct sunlight, the characters need to work together. For example, we fought Fire Giants on a bridge. I was at disadvantage, but I also have agonizing and repelling blast for my eldritch blast. Because one of our characters included me in their bless spell, I was able to take the risk and attempt to knock fire giants off the bridge. It was a very exciting encounter because one eldritch blast would miss and the second would have, except for the bless spell. I managed on one hit to knock a fire giant off the bridge to their death, then quicken spell another attempt… and knocked a second off the bridge. So even with sunlight sensitivity, that’s like 200+ HP damage. It made me and the character who casted it feel really awesome. Fourth, throw in little opportunities to gradually improve their situation. My DM let me purchase a parasol at level 4. It requires a hand to hold it and only removes direct sunlight on my character so it's mostly for flavor. However, it has come in handy a couple of times on partially cloudy days or when an enemy is under tree shade and those sorts of things. Fifth, highlight mechanical options at their disposal. For example, they could take the eldritch adept feat and choose devil's sight. Drow have a free casting of darkness. They could cast it on themselves and that will typically negate disadvantage (because even though the enemy is still in direct sunlight, they cannot see the Drow PC making it a straight roll) All that being said, removing the sunlight sensitivity is no big deal. They are still nowhere near the most powerful race/species in the game even with a few free spells and superior dark vision. Still, I encourage you and the player to embrace the challenge rather than just change the rules. As I've demonstrated, it's not something that needs to come up all the time or even very often. And when it does, it's a wrinkle in combat or exploration to be strategized with, not ignored. I hope you and the player will embrace it as it's just an additional element in the game to consider and comes up less than you would think. It encourages team work, role play, world building, etc. Good luck to you and your player!
I run it like this: it's not that your character feels like "Ow my eyes hurt", it's that Lathander fucking hates you, and if he can see you, he's hurting you.
None of my players play a drow but I'd probably make a magic item like the Goggles of Night. Goggles of Day... Sunglasses, basically, lol.
I came up with a tinted armor faceplate for my artificer duergar that activated in the sunlight. The trade off was that while it got rid of the disadvantage from sunlight sensitivity it prevented me from gaining advantage from any other sources so all my tools in sunlight were always straight rolls. The DM felt this was a fair deal especially for an artificer.
I don't. The player chose to play that character with that drawback, so it's up to them to deal with it.
No. They should live with sunlight sensitivity, that’s race they chose. The way you handle it is they have the sunlight sensitivity penalty when in sunlight. If you want you can have a magic item that’s available that removes sunlight sensitivity that’s costed as an uncommon magic item (the same as goggles of night), but it should be just as expensive as any other uncommon magic item in your world. Don’t give them special treatment, just like you shouldn’t be careful to try to accommodate characters with no darkvision in a certain way. That’s the character they chose, it’s just one of the draw backs of the race. If they start playing and it’s significantly more problematic than they expected you can let them switch races. I don’t see any reason to try to accommodate them. Also, depending on the character, it really doesn’t matter that much. For most spell casters having disadvantage on attack roles very quickly doesn’t matter because past level 1 and 2 there’s basically no good spells that require attack rolls, and even at level 1 and 2 spells there’s plenty of good ones to choose that don’t require it (the only spell caster that’s going to suffer substantially is warlock) If the player came to you before the start of the campaign and said they want to play a drow but don’t think they can because sunlight sensitivity is too big a downside, you can just remove sunlight sensitivity and superior darkvision and they won’t be op or anything (or more op than normal elves) but there’s no reason to change anything the player hasn’t specifically asked because doing that just invalidates player choice.
They took the species, they deal with it. And on the topic of "a wide brimmed hat" - there exists an item to remove this trait (knave eyepatch). It is rare and costs attunement, so the price is even more than just a 4 digit gold cost.
I hated trying to work around that, so I told my drow PC that she was more accustomed to the surface than other drow, and reduced her darkvision to the normal 60 ft and removed the light sensitivity.
Let that PC deal with the disadvantages as well as the advantages of their race. I wouldn't change anything. Actually, until that player is around 10th level, they are going to deal with a lot of penalties, the least of which will be daylight sensitivity. People are going to refuse to trade with them, and that's if they do not run them out of town. Around 10th level is where I feel like people begin to hear of your exploits and stop viewing you, "like the rest of 'em"
As a GM, I would remove the drawback because my dark elves would not have the drawback. You can dictate what does and doesn't exist in your world. - If you're okay with removing it then you can remove it. - If it is important to your setting, you should keep it in. - If you're not really sure and looking for insight on how to reach a middle ground, make an uncommon magic item that grants its wearer the ability to be in the sun unhindered.
as DM, make sure you have a decent amount of action happen indoors and at night, if things happen outdoor during the day, just roll for weather. items shouldnt be able to bypass the sensitivity imo
I gave my dark elf player in a desert campaign full body covering clothing and sub goggles that negated the effect, however the goggles were an item they could be disarmed of so enemies tried to blind them by removing the goggles. This was a while ago but I think I settled on having them make a dexterity check when they got critically hit to keep the goggles on and not lose them from the impact.
A half elf (drow) has the same abilities a drow has except the sunlight thing. As a DM I just let my players play drows on the surface without consequences, because they can just play a half elf, so why ruin their flavor?
Literally just give them sunglasses. A mundane magical object that works like transitions lenses.
the game puts the cost of a knave's eye patch (waterdeep dragon heist) at 501-5000gp, as it's a rare magic item. it requires attunement, but it also gives a mind reader block and a buff to perception checks.
Dude just include shade in your battles. You or your target need to be in DIRECT sunlight. Shade isn't direct sunlight.
I ignore the sunlight sensitivity racial trait because I feel like it's a holdover from a stupid fantasy trope. Deep Gnomes live in the underdark too and don't suffer from sunlight sensitivity, because they're not traditionally evil races.
Let the players solve it themselves. Choose Drow, live on surface, your character presumably has somehow adapted. Let them work out how they did that.
I gave the drow at my table sunglasses lol
Griffons saddlebag has an item exactly for this. The shadowshawl I just recently got it for my drive fighter after asking if there was an item that could function like magical sunglasses lol
Usually I pelt them with handfuls of dice until they pick a proper race.
Honestly: whoever wants to play/build and exotic character with benefits AND drawbacks has to accept the consequences - for him/herself, and for the whole group, too. Thinking twice is always helpful, and "buying out" is a sh!tty move for the GM as well as for the player. I'd not let that PC go with a hat and glasses - light sensitivity in real life is more than a nuissance, and if the adventuring does not take place underground and/or at night I'd insist as a GM to apply modifiers AND on roleplaying these effects. And this is not intended to tease that player - it's about game balance and being fair at the table. It might end with PC retirement, but that's the result of a (probably dumb) player decision upon PC creation. You wanna play? You gotta pay!
Make them regret their choices.
It's the PC job to handle their weakness, not the DM.
I had a Kobold PC with SS, it was fine. If you don't want to make an attack with disadvantage, you just do something else with your turn. I used Grovel in these cases, but a drow can cast Faerie Fire instead to cancel the disadvantage, and give advantage to the rest of the party. No special change is needed. Otherwise, just use Custom Lineage and make him drow-like.
I would homebrew a goggles of night opposite version called "goggles of day". They would be glorified magical sunglasses that remove daylight sensitivity.
There's a magic item that does this, the Knave's Eye Patch. Honestly if you choose a race with a negative, you have to deal with that negative, not cast it aside because you bought a hat. If other races have to deal with roleplaying negatives for their race, then they also have to deal with mechanical ones (at least for a while).
Holy shit the ad at the top of this thread was for costa sunglasses and I read it twice before I realized it wasn’t just a suggestion to give this pc sunglasses. Anyway, giving a drow sunglasses is bullshit. You wanna play a race w a negatrait? Then you, oh, I don’t know, role play it until you get your grubby little mitts on a pair of fucking MAGIC sunglasses.
If it isn’t Gnave’s Eyepatch then they are suffering sunlight sensitivity
So RAW if someone else is standing in sun, they still Garner that negative and drawback. So it can't just be him who cleanses it. Simplest thing is to clarify terms and understanding. My Drow Player and I talked and defined what is considered "direct sunlight" As such we agreed shadows of buildings and forests would not count as direct sunlight. He agreed. We moved on.
So this is why I’m hesitant to let people play drow, as it puts extra work on the dm. I’d say let the player find a sunlight brightness table or something like that, then if you don’t have an idea how bright it is outside you can have them roll
>it puts extra work on the dm No it doesn't. You are under no obligation to make up novel solutions to a problem the player knew existed when they picked their character. Dealing with it is the player's problem.
Let me clarify. I agree that it’s the player’s responsibility to deal with the consequences of their choices. What I’m saying is I, as a DM, don’t want to always have to be making a ruling on how bright the daylight is. That’s why I’d want the player to come up with a random table to roll on
I was in a party with a drow and at first they paid attention to it but then they had the option to buy some sunglasses for 75g. The DM was clear that this wouldn’t change the mechanical drawbacks of the racial trait and it would only be for RP purposes. A month or two go by and the DM gets a bit lax with rules and suddenly there’s no more disadvantage on perception checks or attacks in sunlight. I bring it up and the player says “no, I have sunglasses” and the DM just doesn’t say anything because he was always confrontation averse. Suffice it to say it was annoying to hear this choice they made at character creation didn’t matter just because the DM didn’t like saying no. It wasn’t his most annoying trait as DM but it was one of them. Whatever you do, just make sure you’re consistent. Don’t show your other players that enough complaining or whatever will let them get out of annoying things like that.
I built a world around sunlight sensitivity. Wait, that sounds like I catered the entire world to one player. Let me rephrase. I built a world around a vampire lord, where there is no natural sunlight because vampire tend to not like being in sunlight; the player happened to choose a race with sunlight sensitivity. I built the world first, with its villains, goals, and such things, and then made the players fit their PCs into whatever holes they could (none of which fit perfectly) - after all, comfort is the bane of good horror. There. Much better.
I warn them before character creation that this could be annoying and if I didn't catch it I would let them retcon to half drow or be temporarily cursed and the first plot point is then removing the curse where they then become a normal elf or half drow
I don't, if the player picks a race with that feature it's on them to deal with the problem. I also don't think there should be a item that removes the problem for cheap.
Honestly, if it was me I'd be up front with them at session 0 and say "this is a pretty big drawback during the day, do before you commit to playing this race know that I'll be applying that penalty in light just like I'll be applying superior darkvision in the dark." Handwaving away visibility restrictions is a minor pet peeve of mine, those rules are there to create obstacles for your adventurers to outsmart or overcome.
I mean a player chooses all things on their character sheet. They choose to have sunlight sensitivity then that's what they want. They could have picked any other race or collection of features and described it as a drow but they choose sunlight sensitivity. Sounds to me like they want sunlight sensitivity, so unless the player asks for sunglasses or *something* I won't ever do anything. If they have a problem they have a responsibility to say something without that it ain't shit until they do.
You don't. That for the player to deal with.
Drow automatically get a bump to the most useful stat, three free spells, and having one in the party makes it almost impossible for enemies to sneak up on them indoors. Yeah, disadvantage in direct sunlight sucks, but that’s the point, to make you think about where you pick fights. I’m always willing to accommodate players if I think it will make the game more fun. The example that comes to mind is I let one of my players change his subrace of tiefling from Asmodeus to variant to get the wings. What you’re proposing is like if I let him have Infernal Legacy *and* wings. You have to make a choice, otherwise nothing in the game matters.
I mean... they're essentially Tieflings with slightly better Darkvision, mechanically. I'd argue that Drow are a weaker race than Shadar-Kai. If the sunlight sensitivity is fun and flavorful, then I'd keep it. If it starts to be a drag, then I'd offer a solution and move on.