I am making ranger character for Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. I plan on becoming a gloom stalker. I dont know if I should be drow or wood elf. I am using the customizing your origin rules from TCoE
A couple of thoughts: Drow: Sunlight sensitivity is an issue you will need to manage, but in a dungeon its not a big deal. 150 ft dark vision is going to be great. The spells are charisma based, so even though faerie fire is a great spell you will probably be bad at it. Darkness is not bad, even though you can't see through it, its a good way to cover a side in battle. Nice flavorful choice. If you have the ability scores to justify it, Drow High Magic feat is great.
Wood Elf - I am not sure if Mask of the Wild really comes into play in a dungeon. So you really only get increased movement (which is great).
If you are playing a melee ranger I would go with Wood Elf, if I was playing a ranged ranger I would play drow.
I love my Drow Gloom Stalker. A dip in Twilight Cleric gives you 300 foot darkvision, so if you are a ranged Ranger in the underdark you can rain death down and never get touched. Might not be as useful in a heist case tho.
The loading property of crossbows is annoying to manage and requires a feat. With the few number of feats on a Ranger I prefer longbow. I would probably go Elven Accuracy at 4th and then grab sharpshooter at 8th. That gives you problems with point blank range, but that can be manageable.
Also, should my GS use a heavy crossbow or something like a bow or 2 hand crossbows and crossbow expert with ranged build?
So if you are taking crossbow expert you weild one hand crossbow not two. You get a bonus shot but have to have a hand free to load it. So assuming 5th level you get two shots for your action and a bonus action/shot for weilding a light weapon, which the hand crossbow is a light weapon. As a Gloom stalker you would also get your dread ambush attack in round one as part of your action. Hand crossbow= 4 attacks in round one!
Ok late to this discussion but … Drow would potentially work in madmage but would have serious problems in dragonheist as it takes place primarily above ground in Waterdeep . Without some serious disguise ability simply being a Drow should create massive extra problems walking around.
Ok late to this discussion but … Drow would potentially work in madmage but would have serious problems in dragonheist as it takes place primarily above ground in Waterdeep . Without some serious disguise ability simply being a Drow should create massive extra problems walking around.
Even back in 2nd Edition, Waterdeep was a relatively tolerant place. A drow walking openly through the streets was more likely to attract odd looks rather than torches and pitchforks. Especially if they were part of a group that was mostly non-drow.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I prefer drow, just for the flavor. The spells are fun, Sunlight Sensitivity is annoying but interesting. Wood Elf is just boring in comparison. I dunno, to each their own.
Depend on how your DM handles Sunlight Sensitivity Drow could be good Gloomstalker Ranger with Drow Magic and Surperior Darkvision helping you scout ahead and spot enemies before they can spot you. I'd opt for Crossbow Expert feat.
Ok late to this discussion but … Drow would potentially work in madmage but would have serious problems in dragonheist as it takes place primarily above ground in Waterdeep . Without some serious disguise ability simply being a Drow should create massive extra problems walking around.
Even back in 2nd Edition, Waterdeep was a relatively tolerant place. A drow walking openly through the streets was more likely to attract odd looks rather than torches and pitchforks. Especially if they were part of a group that was mostly non-drow.
Yes Waterdeep is fairly cosmopolitan but the dragonheist already has a high level Drow as an NPC and he is in disguise throughout. Yes a Drow can make for a great gloomstalker and in Mad Mage it works well. My point was that cosmopolitan or not a Drow in a major city in the forgotten realms is problematic. Disguise magic is really needed to operate without significant problems even if you don’t have folks with pitchforks chasing after you regularly.
Eh, that depends on how you want to handle things in your game. As I've seen pointed out on this forum before, not every table wants to go through with having an entire race condemned as being irredeemably evil in-universe. And charisma checks are obviously a thing.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Generally what folks do in their homebrew is fine with me. However, this is the forgotten realms which, like it or not, has a ton of lore with a fairly reasonable bias against the Drow. Now personally. Don’t like the fact that Drow are depicted as pitch black. That just feeds into real world bias and prejudice. What I would love is for WOTC to retcon the Drow making them pure albino white with pink eyes ( typical for cave dwelling creatures in real world) then, given their lore history good Drow and reconciled (good to neutral) Drow would be dark skinned but not black as the lore has the dark elves before the descent. Boy would that upset a bunch of folks if good Drow were black and evil Drow were white!😳
lol wants to stick too lore but wants to change skin color....
Drow are awesome and the social stigma is GREAT for role play. A world with prejudice is what makes for the role play opportunities.
Yes in waterdeep being a drow MAY be a problem depending on your DMs vision of the world (talk to him). For mad mage being a drow is incredibly good. My Drow Gloomstalker/Scout ends up doing tons of negotiation based on race and all the languages she knows even though her charisma is horrible. (knowing both goblin and draconic has been super helpful) You'll have 150' darkvision which is more than enough. Take drow high magic and get at-will detect magic, a hugely powerful ability especially for a scout. My MM drow has observant and high magic, she sees everything :-)
Even if being a drow has disadvantages thats why you have a party. Different characters do different things to include who is the face when. I've had a drow party member in waterdeep and yes it causes issues but thats part of the fun. The sunlight part is rarely an issue as we are inside, at night etc 90% of the time. Not a lot of daylight street fighting going on in waterdeep.
If you want all of the Drow goodness with none of the sunlight sensitive drawbacks, may I recommend a Drow Half-Elf?
But yeah. I'll echo everyone's sentiment that a Drow Gloom Stalker just feels right. Played one for a minute in an Ancient Greek campaign and she was a ton of fun.
Would love to actually roll one up for a full campaign too.
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I am making ranger character for Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. I plan on becoming a gloom stalker. I dont know if I should be drow or wood elf. I am using the customizing your origin rules from TCoE
A couple of thoughts:
Drow: Sunlight sensitivity is an issue you will need to manage, but in a dungeon its not a big deal. 150 ft dark vision is going to be great. The spells are charisma based, so even though faerie fire is a great spell you will probably be bad at it. Darkness is not bad, even though you can't see through it, its a good way to cover a side in battle. Nice flavorful choice. If you have the ability scores to justify it, Drow High Magic feat is great.
Wood Elf - I am not sure if Mask of the Wild really comes into play in a dungeon. So you really only get increased movement (which is great).
If you are playing a melee ranger I would go with Wood Elf, if I was playing a ranged ranger I would play drow.
I love my Drow Gloom Stalker. A dip in Twilight Cleric gives you 300 foot darkvision, so if you are a ranged Ranger in the underdark you can rain death down and never get touched. Might not be as useful in a heist case tho.
Thanks for the advice!
Also, should my GS use a heavy crossbow or something like a bow or 2 hand crossbows and crossbow expert with ranged build?
The loading property of crossbows is annoying to manage and requires a feat. With the few number of feats on a Ranger I prefer longbow. I would probably go Elven Accuracy at 4th and then grab sharpshooter at 8th. That gives you problems with point blank range, but that can be manageable.
Half Elf or Yaun-Ti.
2014 5E mostly
3.5 maybe.
So if you are taking crossbow expert you weild one hand crossbow not two. You get a bonus shot but have to have a hand free to load it. So assuming 5th level you get two shots for your action and a bonus action/shot for weilding a light weapon, which the hand crossbow is a light weapon. As a Gloom stalker you would also get your dread ambush attack in round one as part of your action. Hand crossbow= 4 attacks in round one!
Ok late to this discussion but … Drow would potentially work in madmage but would have serious problems in dragonheist as it takes place primarily above ground in Waterdeep . Without some serious disguise ability simply being a Drow should create massive extra problems walking around.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Even back in 2nd Edition, Waterdeep was a relatively tolerant place. A drow walking openly through the streets was more likely to attract odd looks rather than torches and pitchforks. Especially if they were part of a group that was mostly non-drow.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I prefer drow, just for the flavor. The spells are fun, Sunlight Sensitivity is annoying but interesting. Wood Elf is just boring in comparison. I dunno, to each their own.
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Depend on how your DM handles Sunlight Sensitivity Drow could be good Gloomstalker Ranger with Drow Magic and Surperior Darkvision helping you scout ahead and spot enemies before they can spot you. I'd opt for Crossbow Expert feat.
Yes Waterdeep is fairly cosmopolitan but the dragonheist already has a high level Drow as an NPC and he is in disguise throughout. Yes a Drow can make for a great gloomstalker and in Mad Mage it works well. My point was that cosmopolitan or not a Drow in a major city in the forgotten realms is problematic. Disguise magic is really needed to operate without significant problems even if you don’t have folks with pitchforks chasing after you regularly.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Eh, that depends on how you want to handle things in your game. As I've seen pointed out on this forum before, not every table wants to go through with having an entire race condemned as being irredeemably evil in-universe. And charisma checks are obviously a thing.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Generally what folks do in their homebrew is fine with me. However, this is the forgotten realms which, like it or not, has a ton of lore with a fairly reasonable bias against the Drow. Now personally. Don’t like the fact that Drow are depicted as pitch black. That just feeds into real world bias and prejudice. What I would love is for WOTC to retcon the Drow making them pure albino white with pink eyes ( typical for cave dwelling creatures in real world) then, given their lore history good Drow and reconciled (good to neutral) Drow would be dark skinned but not black as the lore has the dark elves before the descent. Boy would that upset a bunch of folks if good Drow were black and evil Drow were white!😳
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
lol wants to stick too lore but wants to change skin color....
Drow are awesome and the social stigma is GREAT for role play. A world with prejudice is what makes for the role play opportunities.
Yes in waterdeep being a drow MAY be a problem depending on your DMs vision of the world (talk to him). For mad mage being a drow is incredibly good. My Drow Gloomstalker/Scout ends up doing tons of negotiation based on race and all the languages she knows even though her charisma is horrible. (knowing both goblin and draconic has been super helpful) You'll have 150' darkvision which is more than enough. Take drow high magic and get at-will detect magic, a hugely powerful ability especially for a scout. My MM drow has observant and high magic, she sees everything :-)
Even if being a drow has disadvantages thats why you have a party. Different characters do different things to include who is the face when. I've had a drow party member in waterdeep and yes it causes issues but thats part of the fun. The sunlight part is rarely an issue as we are inside, at night etc 90% of the time. Not a lot of daylight street fighting going on in waterdeep.
If you want all of the Drow goodness with none of the sunlight sensitive drawbacks, may I recommend a Drow Half-Elf?
But yeah. I'll echo everyone's sentiment that a Drow Gloom Stalker just feels right. Played one for a minute in an Ancient Greek campaign and she was a ton of fun.
Would love to actually roll one up for a full campaign too.