I have an issue with a PC's backstory in the campaign I am running and would like to hear your thoughts.
Full disclosure: I am an Underdark nerd and have read every book I can get my hands on that revolves around the Drow.
One of the guys created a variant human ranger/sorcerer. He is a horizon walker and his favored terrain is the Underdark. His character claims to hate the Drow, no reason given, and hunts them. I suggested that he play a race that made more sense but he wanted the +2 ability scores and the additional feat. He obviously wants to optimize his character at the expense of his backstory.
It is his second character in this campaign which a Lost in the Abyss inspired campaign. I think he is being a little lazy by picking this backstory but it is what it is. He wants me to fill in the gaps of his backstory to fit the campaign. That is hard because I do not believe a human would stand much of a chance in the UD, especially if he is hunting Drow.
I think a human spending a lot of time in the UD is a pretty big stretch. 1.He says he will cast darkvision on himself every eight hours. Any intelligent magic user would know that casting dispel magic on him would render him blind. 2. Drow & the Duergar would either kill him or enslave him on site. Plus they would have so many advantages, superior darkvision, knowledge of the terrain, numbers and just overall nastiness. 3. He would have to spend decades in the Underdark to be a competent explorer. He wants to be in his early 20's which does not work.
Overall the concept of his character really discounts how dangerous the Underdark is and especially how dangerous the Drow are.
Any thoughts on fleshing out his backstory and creating something unique?
PCs are supposed to be heroic, so just dismissing his choices by saying "drow and duergar would totally just kill a human" negates that the PCs are supposed to be *exceptional*.
Sure, dispel magic (a 3rd level spell) could take out his darkvision (a 2nd level spell). But it's not any more risk than an enemy casting blindness (2nd level) on a PC with innate darkvision.
The character could be an escaped drow slave, as already mentioned. He could also be the survivor of a rare drow raid on a surface village out for revenge.
And aside from that, if he really wants to be a drow hunter ranger, just suggest he go for Gloom Stalker instead of Horizon Walker. At 3rd level that gives him always-on darkvision, a weak version of assassinate, and disguise self to get him past the occasional duergar.
I don't see why it doesn't make sense for a human to hate the drow. The drow are a viscous demon-worshipping slave society and exceptions to that are very few and far between. Most people hate them.
A human could easily have UD as their favored terrain too, considering that rangers usually stick to the wilds on the fringes of civilization, so they probably wouldn't come across many drow except the ones they're hunting, so you probably don't have to worry about how a human would fit in in downtown Drow City. The human could always live on the surface and venture into the under dark by night when drow hunting parties leave the city. A ranger's favored terrain doesn't have to be where they live, it just needs to be an area they have particular expertise at traversing, so I really don't see that as a problem.
He could be a member of some cell of revolutionaries/guerilla fighters who have lived in the underdark for ages harassing the drow. He and his ancestors have lived there for generations, and know the area as well as any drow or duergar does at this point. Since he's absorbed all of that knowledge, maybe even seeing some other people his age dying for carelessness, he learned well how to survive in the underdark. The group does it because of whatever works for your campaign, could be they don't even know why anymore, could be in service to a god, could be honoring some ancient pact. That also gives you a nice little group of potential allies for the party, if they play their cards right.
And when a player wants you to fill in the gaps, I take that to mean, completely mess with him. Maybe he's 1/8th drow and he doesn't know, but he runs into a distant (drow) cousin who tells him that, and asks for his help in leaving the drow behind. Maybe his past actions have lead to a drow kill squad hunting him relentlessly. and they're clever and devious enough to strike just after he's already been in a fight, maybe while he's trying to take a short rest. And if the party beats that kill squad, well the house mother will just send a stronger one next time.
A caster wouldn't necessarily know to cast dispel on him, that's you metagaming. In a world with magic, there are any number of ways he could have gotten darkvision besides casting a spell on himself. I'd definitely say he should get caught in a dispel magic once in a while, just to make him understand the weakness he's built into the character, but not every time.
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I have an issue with a PC's backstory in the campaign I am running and would like to hear your thoughts.
Full disclosure: I am an Underdark nerd and have read every book I can get my hands on that revolves around the Drow.
One of the guys created a variant human ranger/sorcerer. He is a horizon walker and his favored terrain is the Underdark. His character claims to hate the Drow, no reason given, and hunts them. I suggested that he play a race that made more sense but he wanted the +2 ability scores and the additional feat. He obviously wants to optimize his character at the expense of his backstory.
It is his second character in this campaign which a Lost in the Abyss inspired campaign. I think he is being a little lazy by picking this backstory but it is what it is. He wants me to fill in the gaps of his backstory to fit the campaign. That is hard because I do not believe a human would stand much of a chance in the UD, especially if he is hunting Drow.
I think a human spending a lot of time in the UD is a pretty big stretch.
1.He says he will cast darkvision on himself every eight hours. Any intelligent magic user would know that casting dispel magic on him would render him blind.
2. Drow & the Duergar would either kill him or enslave him on site. Plus they would have so many advantages, superior darkvision, knowledge of the terrain, numbers and just overall nastiness.
3. He would have to spend decades in the Underdark to be a competent explorer. He wants to be in his early 20's which does not work.
Overall the concept of his character really discounts how dangerous the Underdark is and especially how dangerous the Drow are.
Any thoughts on fleshing out his backstory and creating something unique?
The obvious explanation is that he was born as a slave to the drow and escaped. thats simple and would cover a lot of the issues.
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PCs are supposed to be heroic, so just dismissing his choices by saying "drow and duergar would totally just kill a human" negates that the PCs are supposed to be *exceptional*.
Sure, dispel magic (a 3rd level spell) could take out his darkvision (a 2nd level spell). But it's not any more risk than an enemy casting blindness (2nd level) on a PC with innate darkvision.
The character could be an escaped drow slave, as already mentioned. He could also be the survivor of a rare drow raid on a surface village out for revenge.
And aside from that, if he really wants to be a drow hunter ranger, just suggest he go for Gloom Stalker instead of Horizon Walker. At 3rd level that gives him always-on darkvision, a weak version of assassinate, and disguise self to get him past the occasional duergar.
I don't see why it doesn't make sense for a human to hate the drow. The drow are a viscous demon-worshipping slave society and exceptions to that are very few and far between. Most people hate them.
A human could easily have UD as their favored terrain too, considering that rangers usually stick to the wilds on the fringes of civilization, so they probably wouldn't come across many drow except the ones they're hunting, so you probably don't have to worry about how a human would fit in in downtown Drow City. The human could always live on the surface and venture into the under dark by night when drow hunting parties leave the city. A ranger's favored terrain doesn't have to be where they live, it just needs to be an area they have particular expertise at traversing, so I really don't see that as a problem.
He could be a member of some cell of revolutionaries/guerilla fighters who have lived in the underdark for ages harassing the drow. He and his ancestors have lived there for generations, and know the area as well as any drow or duergar does at this point. Since he's absorbed all of that knowledge, maybe even seeing some other people his age dying for carelessness, he learned well how to survive in the underdark. The group does it because of whatever works for your campaign, could be they don't even know why anymore, could be in service to a god, could be honoring some ancient pact. That also gives you a nice little group of potential allies for the party, if they play their cards right.
And when a player wants you to fill in the gaps, I take that to mean, completely mess with him. Maybe he's 1/8th drow and he doesn't know, but he runs into a distant (drow) cousin who tells him that, and asks for his help in leaving the drow behind. Maybe his past actions have lead to a drow kill squad hunting him relentlessly. and they're clever and devious enough to strike just after he's already been in a fight, maybe while he's trying to take a short rest. And if the party beats that kill squad, well the house mother will just send a stronger one next time.
A caster wouldn't necessarily know to cast dispel on him, that's you metagaming. In a world with magic, there are any number of ways he could have gotten darkvision besides casting a spell on himself. I'd definitely say he should get caught in a dispel magic once in a while, just to make him understand the weakness he's built into the character, but not every time.