Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Drow should have more drawbacks

I did my first playthrough as a seldarine drow and I gotta say - I was shocked at how many extra lines of dialogue you get compared to something like a high elf (my 2nd run), you feel a bit extra special compared to the other races, that's true. What I didn't like was the fact that as a drow, the entire goblin camp is just too easy, they basically brown-nose you to the max. But I totally agree that there should be a lot more hate towards drow in general, I do hope that once we reach the titular city, we'll encounter some hate, even if we play a 'good' drow and go out of our way to help everyone we met before that.

Also, speaking of extra lines - Zevlor says something along the lines of 'you are brave not to hide your heritage' as a drow specific line, so it makes me think that once we reach Baldur's Gate, we'll have to wear a cape or a cloak or something to disguise ourselves.

Talking about the city, I hope they add some hoods and full helmets so as a drow you can hide yourself. Would be neat.

I agree with the prevailing opinion here that drow and gith shouldn't be treated the same as halflings and humans by most people. I'm playing a gith on my current playthrough and most people don't even acknowledge it, like they see gith every day. I haven't tried drow yet but they should be looked at with mistrust by almost everyone they meet. Pretty much everyone in Faerun views drow that way and with good reason I might add.

+1. There is very little reason, story/interaction-wise, to pick a human or other standard race over a drow in the game rn. Drow just get so many more options. To bring in the very contentious Community Update #8, Character Creation, it does appear like Larian has a favored race(s) that they've put much more work into.

Although I wouldn't want every NPC to be hostile, my Lolth-Sworn Drow PC should definitely have to put in some work (e.g., disguise self, persuasion check) to have friendly conversations with a some NPCs

Sorry, this is reserved for druids now. Only against Tieflings.

LOL, yeah. That's kind of odd but the thing I found to be the most strange about the tiefling/druid arrangement was how the tieflings, supposedly just refugees, were the ones in charge of the gate to the grove (what kind of druid grove has a mechanical gate anyway for that matter?)

Regarding the druid interaction with drow, I disagree with what one person posted earlier about how drow should be unwelcome at the druid grove. Druids are traditionally neutral and see evil as necessary to maintain the balance. I wouldn't think druids would reject drow, or any evil, just for the sake of them being evil.

I'm old school and well, ya, old. I never liked when all these additional playable races came on the scene. Dragon born, etc. just not a fan. Core races and that's it, everything else is super rare or a bad guy to kill. Not all but most top dwelling Drow should be Half Drow anyway given their propensity for raping err raiding parties.. But I see the appeal. This is a single player game for individual enjoyment, so do what you want etc. That said, I certainly intend to play a Half Drow, but yeah there should be some distrust.

I like how they kind of forgot to involve the druids in what is supposedly a huge issue for them and now that issue is taking care of itself. It even gets worse when you and your party show up because the situation would never have resolved without your involvement. Guess those poor refugees will have to live in those comfortable huge caves nobody else is using forever.




Right now the druids are tolerant of all races except Tieflings, who they (or Kagha anyway) hate to the point of being okay with murdering them and their children. There is actually a line for when the player meets Kagha as a Duergar, where she calls you "someone from below" in a contemptuous manner. I wonder how that will pan out once we can play as a druid ourselves.



Don't look in the datamining thread then my good sir. You will be unpleasantly surprised.

As per 5e drow should have disadvantage for combat in direct sunlight.

That's the beauty of a single player game, you can do what you want based on what they create.

Back in olden times all demi-humans were limited in game terms, with everything from level caps to racism. Haven't bought a rule book since 2nd ed but this seems to have been totally removed from the modern game making them all the same as humans. Which in itself is wrong.

As for Drow being accepted without that many comments in the Forgotten Realms? The most famous Drow was hounded from civilization and ended up living in Icewind Dale, and even then not in any of the towns. Again the modern game doesn't take this into account. DDO can get away with it as they are on Ebberron.

er, forgotten what point I was going to make.

but I blame WOTC, as always.

btw, when are we getting 6 character slots?

I have been quoted incorrectly! Libel!! :P

I have been quoted incorrectly! Libel!! :P

opps bad quote foo.

as for that datamining thread I'm not upset about the content but rather people hell bent on spoiling portions of the game. But that offtopic, sorry giving thread back to OP

Drows need drawbacks

More like drowbacks.

I'll see myself out.

In fairness, you haven't been in contact with many normal people.. Tieflings have a lot of the same stigma that drow have so they're probably a lot less prejudiced against them than most would be, and druids.. well, they aren't really normal either.

I also strongly disagree with the idea that drow have the most advantages. I think if you're min-maxing there's basically no reason you should ever pick a drow over a half elf. Half elves also increase charisma (and if you aren't using charisma drow are kind of just worse than elves too), plus half elves let you put +1 in 2 stats of your choice which both gives more versatility and more stat points in total than drow (and they can get to 16 in 3 stats, especially CON). Half elves can also get the +movement speed from wood elves which is a pretty great bonus too.

You could look at things as being hilariously reversed. You play as a drow and go around and everyones tolerant of you, yet the lolth sworn lines you are able to use are cartoonishly villainous. Maybe they tried a 'bring your own evil' approach, but that sort of detracts from the experience i think.

Also it might be questionable. The old way of the world which hates the drow and the cliche good drows trying their best teaches the idea of 'dont judge a book by its cover'. As tired as the trope became i dont think any specific 'good drow' and how it was handled would be criticized. The concept of the trope could be criticized by the playerbase while retaining sympathy for specific good drows and their struggles.

But what does this teach us now? That the world is now accepting of drow, but as the racial dialogue choices show us that 'some races' can be evil just because their race unlocks the power to be evil in new ways through their bloodline? A hilarious reversal of the desired message.

As far as benefits however as stated already drow really arent optimal for anything. If they had the elf perception bonus they would be, but currently half wood elves are better. The better darkvision is a nice quality of life improvement though, really lights things up.

Fast clap.

If this is wrong I don’t want to be right.

I am drow-ning this out right now!

I for one think it's handled quite well at the moment:
- those two guarding La'Zel basically shit themselves upon encountering an "underelf"
- upon entering druid grove Zevlor specifically mentions they were taught to fear the drow, but that you've earned your place here and he's gonna update everyone on it, so that explains why they're mostly accepting. Still someone definitely mentions being
surprised about you not walking around in disguise
- Burning inn - well they have a certain emergency going on so it kinda makes sense to accept help wherever it might come from and you're not accompanied by goblins so...
- as for Goblins you're a drow and True Soul so I don't think that even warrants further debate - worth mentioning Drow disguise works here as well (either on PC or any of the companions)
- Zhentarim - as evidenced by Roah they're currently working with goblins and the drow sooo
- Halsin actually expresses some sort of disdain and you can even confront him on it


So to drow a line (couldn't resist) I expect some problems later on, maybe even an obligatory disguise for some places but so far in-game reactions to PC being drow make sense.