Editing Drow (section)

==(A)D&D==
===First Edition===
There never were Drow in the BXCMI line. This line did spin up some underworld elves incompatible with surface elves - the Shadow Elves, the Schattenalfen - but those were Aztec or post-Aztec. Shadow Elves farm spiders in, like, one city only. LEAVE THEM ALONE!!

Where Drow did exist, starting at Greyhawk, Gygax (at first) restricted them to the role of monsters, due to their in-game lore. Both [[Drizzt Do'Urden]] (in Icewind Vale, not Greyhawk ... and arguably not Forgotten Realms at first, either) and [[Viconia de'Vir]] were exceptions, with backstories to explain why they're on the surface instead of down in the Underdark.

That said, Gygax wasn't entirely ignorant to his audience. PC stats for drow elves appeared, alongside the other [[Underdark]] [[Demihuman]]s ([[duergar]] and [[svirfneblin]]) in the original [[Unearthed Arcana]] for AD&D 1e. They were still quite strong, but nerfed from their appearance in the Drow Trilogy for instance knocking out that spell-resistance. They were also less powerful than their 2e incarnations:
::No ability score penalties or modifiers.
::Sunlight Sensitivity: -2 penalty to Dexterity and "to hit" rolls and enemies gain a +2 bonus to saves vs. drow attacks when both the drow and their opponent are in bright light. If the dark elf is in shadow and the opponent is brightly lit, this changes to a -1 to hit penalty/+1 save bonus instead.
::Unlike drow NPCs, drow PCs do ''not'' have 50% magic resistance. They cannot regain this trait without a Wish spell.
::Drow do not gain the weapon bonuses of normal elves, but instead are ambidextrous.
::Drow have Infravision 12'.
::Drow females have movement rate 15', whilst males have movement rate 12'.
::Drow have the Stealth and Detect Secret Doors abilities of [[elves]], and the Stonecunning ability of [[dwarves]].
::Drow have access to the spell-like abilities of Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire and Darkness 5' Radius. They gain access to Detect Magic, Know Alignment and Levitate at 4th level, with female drow also gaining Clairvoyance, Detect Lie, Dispel Magic and Suggestion at that level. All spell-like abilities are usable 1/day.
::Available classes: [[Cleric]], Warrior ([[Fighter]], [[Ranger]], [[Cavalier]]), [[Rogue]] (Thief, [[Acrobat]], [[Assassin]]), [[Wizard|Magic-User]].
::Class levels for Drow Males: [[Cleric]] 7, [[Fighter]] 10, Magic-User 18, [[Thief]]/[[Acrobat]] Unlimited, [[Assassin]] 12, [[Ranger]] 14
::Class levels for Drow Females: [[Cleric]] Unlimited, [[Fighter]] 12, Magic-User 11, [[Thief]]/[[Acrobat]] Unlimited, [[Assassin]] 12, [[Ranger]] 14

Naturally, when 2e rolled along, [[The Complete Book of]] [[Elves]] [[splatbook]] also provided new rules for playable Drow and holy ''fuck'' were they powerful... IF you were playing in the Underdark.

+2 Dex, +1 Int, -1 Constitution, -2 Charisma for initial ability score modifiers, and with racial maximums of 18, 20, 17, 19, 18 and 16 for Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma respectively. They have a bunch of spell-like abilities, all usable once per day; Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire, and Darkness by default, with Levitate, Know Alignment and Detect Magic gained at level 4. Drow [[Cleric]]s get even more, in the form of Clairvoyance, Detect Lie, Suggestion and Dispel Magic. Also, they ''start'' with Magic Resistance 50% and increase it by +2% per level, to a max of 80%, and get a +2 bonus on all saves involving magic.

So, what's the drawback? Aside from the sensitivity to light (-2 penalty to Dexterity and Attack Rolls, enemies are +2 bonus to saves vs. drow spells), they also lose their powers if they spend more than two weeks outside of the Underdark, losing 10% Magic Resistance and one spell-like ability each day. If they go back to the Underdark, they get their powers back if they spend 1 day for each week they spent on the surface. Also, they get a -4 penalty to Reaction rolls against other elves, and increase their experience costs by +20%.

===3rd edition===
3E managed to make it almost a whole year before caving in and making the Drow a full and proper player character race in the 2001 ''Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting''. They had the usual elf boni and flaws, plus: +2 Int, +2 Cha; Darkvision 120' instead of elf-normal lowlight vision; Spell resistance of 11 + character level; +2 to will saves against spells; the ability to cast dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire as spell-like abilities 1/day; proficiencies with hand crossbow, rapier, and shortsword instead of elf-normal; sudden bright sunlight will blind a drow for 1 round; and the drow will be dazzled until they leave the bright light.  Male drow have [[wizard]] as their favored class, female drow have [[cleric]] (of [[Lolth]]) as favored class.

The larger array of spell-like abilities they had in AD&D, such as Levitation, are retconned in this edition as being exclusive to drow nobility only. That's not to say mechanics to let a PC have access to these powers were completely unavailable.

They had an article on their culture in [[Dragon Magazine]] #298 that really emphasized the darker side of drow culture. Want a sample? According to this lore, drow don't die out because, despite their tendency to murder and torture each other, they're as fertile as [[orc]]s, with females normally conceiving twins and triplets. They normally only birth a single baby, though, because the strongest usually kills and absorbs the others in the womb; these prenatal struggles actually produce orgasms more intense than anything a drow female might feel elsewhere. This sensation, ''chad-zak'', is explicitly called out as the main reason why drow women are willing to get pregnant at all, considering the selfish power-hungry bitches they generally are.

[[Eberron]] has a drow sub-race called the Umbragen, who possess strange, mystical powers connecting to the darkness. Mechanically, this is represented by replacing their spell saving throw bonus with a + 2 racial bonus to Hide & Move Silently checks, swapping their weapon proficiencies for longbow, shortbow, longsword & rapier, and making their [[Favored Class]] into [[warlock]], plus a racial-restricted set of variant abilities for [[soulknife]] and a bevy of racial feats. All of this appears in [[Dragon Magazine]] #330.

===4th edition===
The 4E Monster Manual had some explicit monsters-as-races in the back, and the Drow were one of them, although they got an identical repost in the 4e [[Forgotten Realms]] Player's Guide alongside the [[Genasi]] -- fittingly, since FR basically created the idea of Drow PCs.

For Drow, +2 Dex and +2 Cha or +2 Wis, Darkvision, +2 Intimidate, +2 Stealth, Fey Origin, Trance, and one racial encounter power (Llothtouched) that could be used as a minor action for one of two effects that last until the drow's next turn: a close-burst-1 darkness spell the drow can see through, or a faerie-fire spell that gives combat advantage against the target.

Drow had a couple of [[Dragon Magazine]] articles available to them. Issue #367 featured the article "Children of Darkness", a setting-neutral (in that it was equally applicable to both the [[Nentir Vale]] and the [[Forgotten Realms]]) guide to drow with new racial feats, a racial [[Paragon Path]] (the Curseborn) and a racial [[Epic Destiny]] (the Redeemed Drow). Ironically, it brought back the idea of drow having greater racial magic without touching upon the old mechanics; a paragon level racial feat called Highborn Drow gave the drow a third effect to their Lolthtouched racial power; Webs of Darkness creates blinding webbing of solidified shadow that ensnare all enemies in a close blast 3. This was then followed by issue #413, which abounded in new racial themes for drow; the Bregan D'Aerthe Mercenary, the Elderboy, the Melee-Magthere Champion, the Sorcere Adept, the House Priestess, the Widow of Arach-Tinilith, the Ooze Master, the Secret Apostate, and the Skulker of Vhaeraun.

===5th edition===
Drow are '''finally''' an outright core PC racial option in the Player's Handbook, as an elven subrace.  The usual elf advantages, along with +1 Cha, 120' darkvision, automatic knowing some spells: the 'dancing lights' cantrip at 1st, the 'faerie fire' 1/day at 3rd level, and 'darkness' 1/day at 5th level.  Automatic weapon proficiencies are hand-crossbows, rapiers and shortswords.  They are also the ''only'' core race to receive an explicit ''penalty'' in the core book: if the drow or the drow's target are in direct sunlight, the drow has disadvantage on attack rolls and perception rolls.  It's not as crippling as it sounds in practice, but it ''is'' annoying as hell. Better hope you fight indoors a lot, and/or play them in an adventure designed around spelunking or limited sun exposure, like ''Out of the Abyss'' or ''Curse of Strahd''.  

Xanathar's Guide gave them a boost with a new racial feat; Drow High Magic. Reflecting the "noble drow" spell-like abilities of AD&D, this feat grants a drow the ability to cast Detect Magic at will and both Levitate and Dispel Magic once per long rest without a spell slot.

{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}