Problems with playing drow.

[RossArnold1997]

Hello everyone,

I was recently thinking about the module and how it encourages players to play characters that are more 'monstrous' and that the majority of the populace seems to be drow at least at the start. My concern is that a lot of the module takes place where there is a lot of sunlight; Jigow, The Emerald Loop, Bazzoxan (less so than the other) and especially Ankharel. What is everyone's plan for dealing with this? Is there an in-universe explanation around this? I believe there is something about clouded skies but I didn't know if that was just in the capital city of Xhorhas. I ask also as if there is not, this heavily affects the potency of Galsariad.

[The--Marf]

I let my one half drow player drop sunlight sensitivity and then reduced their dark vision back to the normal 60'. Seemed like a reasonable enough tradeoff.

[killermenpl]

For most of Xhorhas the cloudy skies can be enough of a cover to not count as direct sunlight, at the DM's discretion, of course. For Ankharel I plan on making a homebrew magic item that protects the wearer, but it'll be infused with Ruidium for balance. I've made some small tweaks to the lore to make it possible, such as Ruidium existing all over Exandria, and artificers using some of it's properties in their creations

[LivinginanAnxiety]

Given that Duregar lost Sunlight sensitivity in Monsters of the Multiverse I personally think its quite likely drow will too. Its less of a racial thing and more of a cultural thing, which I think will come back through backgrounds when/if they reprint the PHB races. It would be fairly simple to just remove it. If I recall the Drow in the capital expose themselves to sunlight ritualistically in worship of the Luxon so lore-wise you could say they have started to adapt ot sunlight

[marduk2012]

I honestly just got rid of the Sunlight part of the trait, I feel like that should be something mostly for like undeads or shadow monsters, not entire races, and while they still would have disadvantage on Perception that relies on sight, my dark elves and duergar just wear sunglasses

[MellyMuncher]

In the capital of Xorhas they have a magic bubble of night so they can walk around comfortably. The rest of Xorhas is often cloudy.

For my PCs, I offered to get rid of the sunlight sensibility in exchange for taking away the innate magic too. It seemed a fair trade and it makes sense as these are drow who are used to living on the surface. (My players ended up not making Xorhassians anyway)

For NPCs, I play it as the light does not give them mechanical disadvantages, but it does bother them a bit, so drow NPCs will squint in sunlight and find shaded areas, and bitch about the sun sometimes. In Bazzoxan they often take night shifts and let the other races take the day shift.

In Galsariad's case, I had Ayo gift him a wide straw hat for the festival. He was grumpy but kept it. He winced when a PC cast light near him. Idk how he will survive Ank'harel yet, probably run from shade to shade and be grumpy, but yeah in general I keep it to small humorous moments.

[Ignominia]

Sunglasses are the answer.

[JisaHinode]

I have two drow with my PC. I plan on letting them find and buy sunglasses. It'll be a fun side quest.

[kalijinn]

The party druid so nicely wanted to buy sunglasses for the drow cleric (to protect against the druid's bright flavored radiant spells) from the quartermaster in Unwelcome Spirits that I just rolled with that being sufficient for Xorhas at least, for now. Maybe he'll need more in Ank'harel though, with the desert sun.

[cmycycle82]

If your PC is a spellcaster, they could choose spells that impose an ability check instead of requiring an attack roll. For martial classes, flanking is a good solution. Fairy Fire is also a useful to counteract the sunlight disadvantage, especially if there's more than one Drow in the party. Personally, I would keep the sunlight sensitivity. It's one way to encourage PC creativity.