Editing Drow (section)

==Half-Drow==
You may be curious; given that the [[drow]] are still [[elves]], even if they are evil slave-taking bastards, can they [[Half-Elf|interbreed with humans]] too? Well, ironically, D&D never really gave that angle much attention - even though Gygax probably would have agreed if you'd pointed it out that half-drow would make far more believable PC options than pure-blooded drow, being neither as overpowered as old-school drow were nor able to advance in the drow's twisted society and thus less likely to drink the kool-aid & be evil themselves. So, for the most part, half-drow have been ignored throughout D&D's history.

The very first mention of the idea was as "half-casts" (''sic'') in D3 for AD&D 1e; leaving unspoken if these be drow/human or - more likely just from the dating-pool - drow/elf, or even drow/bugbear. The half-drow are subsequently expanded in that edition's [[Unearthed Arcana]]. They're (human) [[half-elves]], but with the drow's sunlight vulnerability trait slapped on top (in short, whilst exposed to sunlight, you suffer -2 dexterity and a -2 penalty on your to-hit rolls, and your foes get a +2 bonus to their saving throws against your attacks - this decreases to a -1 to hit penalty and a +1 save bonus if you're in shadow but your victim is in direct sunlight). Not exactly the kind of thing to make people interested.

The half-drow seemed destined to be forgotten... and then came [[Ed Greenwood]], who, amongst his many ''other'' [[Magical Realm|"inspirations" from his belief in the Free Love movements of the 60s]] that he slipped into the [[Forgotten Realms]], found the drow to particularly tickle his fancy. So, after coming up with things like [[Eilistraee]], naturally, he needed a place to put in half-drow. Enter Dambrath, a region in the "[[Shining South]]" that he decided to make ruled over by the Cintri; a race of half-drow descended from the ancient drow conquest of Dambrath under the reign of a particularly foolish human king... well, alright, technically, the Cintri are a melting pot of half-drow and [[half-elf]] bloodlines, since they descend as much from the half-elf [[cleric]]s of [[Loviatar]] who helped the drow conquer the place - after all, Loviatar is basically the Realm's goddess of evil BDSM and femdom, so she's got that in common with [[Lolth]], to the point that Lolth even lets Loviatar's faith be the state religion of Dambrath - but they're still mixed human and drow bloodlines, so it counts. So yes, basically a [[Magical Realm]] of femdom fantasies where any male might be a slave to a drow on the surface and still roleplay. Later editions had the humans [[HFY|rise up and slaughter the domineering knife ear bitches]] because let's face it, even to a submissive hornyposter a realistic medieval stasis setting slavery would ''not'' be a pleasant one unless he is a beautiful hunk a.k.a Reality Ensues.

Ironically, despite the Cintri, no 2e version of the half-drow statblock ever debuted, not even in the Shining South [[splatbook]] that introduced Dambrath to the Realms' fanbase. But it did mean that half-drow made it into 3rd edition in a [[Forgotten Realms]] [[splatbook]] - [[Races of Faerun]], to be precise. Of course, like their 1e counterparts, they were not particularly well-differentiated mechanically from their half-elf roots; a 3e half-drow is, officially, a [[half-elf]] with Darkvision 60 feet and replacing Elf Blood with Drow Blood, so they're treated as Drow for race-targeting stuff instead of [[Elf]]. 

Eberron, likewise, states half-drow exist, typically results of trysts in Stormreach, but doesn't actually do anything with them or give them stats. The implication is that Half-Drow exist but are exceptionally rare and with the drow population that interacts peacefully with humans being the mere hundreds their rarity likely ''is'' exceptional. Still, Eberron works on the idea that player characters are ''supposed'' to be exceptional in general, and playing one isn't off limits.

A more mechanically invested version of the 3e half-drow didn't come to be until towards the end of the edition's lifespan, when the 3e version of the [[splatbook]] "Drow of the Underdark". It states "Half-drow have the standard racial traits of half-elves given in the Player’s Handbook, except that their favored class is the class in which they have the most levels. In addition, rather than elf blood, they have drow blood. Since drow is a subrace of elf, the net effect is that they have elf blood as well. The specification of drow blood means that for all special abilities and effects particular to a drow, a half-drow is considered a drow."

Additionally, both properly half-Drow characters AND half-elf characters with only a little bit of Drow heritage, like the Drow equivalent of a Tiefling or Aasimar, could take the following feat during character-creation:

::'''''DROW LEGACY'''''
::The drow blood in your veins runs true and grants you some abilities from that heritage.
::'''Prerequisite:''' Half-elf with drow ancestry.
::'''Benefit:''' You have a +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities. You have darkvision out to 60 feet. You receive Exotic Weapon Proficiency (hand crossbow), as well as, Undercommon and the drow dialect of Elven as automatic languages.
::If you have an Intelligence score of 13 or higher, you also gain the following spell-like abilities, each usable once per day: dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire. Your caster level equals your class level.
::'''Special:''' Taking this feat also causes you to have light sensitivity: You are dazzled (–1 circumstance penalty on attack rolls, saves, and checks) in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

In Pathfinder, half-drow are represented by alternate racial traits for stock half-elves. Half-Elves can trade their superior multiclassing ability for darkvision, which is strictly better if that character isn't multiclassing anyways, or low-light vision for darkvision and light blindness. They can trade their bonus feat and multiclassing bonuses for dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire as spell like abilities, which absolutely isn't worth it. Finally they can trade their bonus feat for proficiency in hand crossbow, rapier, and shortsword, which ''also'' isn't worth it since anyone who would bother with those weapons is already proficient with those weapons or is playing half-elf in the first place to get the bonus feat.

Perhaps the best the poor half-drow have ever had it has been in 5th edition, where a half-elf can trade their two free skill proficiencies for the drow's racial spell-like abilities; it's not much, but at least it's something to represent drow ancestry, and it's decently beefy compared to the AD&D and Races of Faerun depictions. Once again, it was a [[Forgotten Realms]] sourcebook that brought them out of the darkness - the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

Drow-elf crossbreeds are given the briefest of mentions in the original Vault of the Drow as part of an encounter with "rakes" (think outcast punks) in the (under)city [[Erelhei-Cinlu]]. They have never been statted in any form, but are probably close enough to half-drow to use that template. Still, there's possibilities here for a creative DM.