Centuries of exile from the sunlit world have created an Elven civilization more intricate and technically advanced than any other. Unfourtunately, the struggles the Drow have endured with fellow under-earthers and other, more sinister forces (that surface dwellers cannot even imagine) have shaped a xenophobic and violent breed of Elf. Drow operate a strict and matriarchal dictatorship with a chain of command leading ultimately to the goddess Lolth. Rank, or 'station' as the Drow say, is the all important facet of one's public identity. Drow are loath to leave the Underdark or Drow homeland for fear of losing their place in this rigid hierarchy. Only a Drow sent outside by purpose or a renegade would go to Tristram. In any case they would travel in disguise.

Weapons: Any weapon may be used, especially one with a +to damage or an effect like knockback, flaming, or a drainer like Vampire or Blood.

Armour: Double the Strength requirement for any non-weapon equipment. Helmets and facemasks help hide a Drow's identity and so are favoured.

Items and uniques: Spider items are a symbol of Lolth and are a trademark of most Drow. A demon-slaying weapon would never be touched, let alone wielded. An un-I.D.ed demon-slayer may be carried safely. Other prefixes and suffixes to avoid are: (Arch)Angels, Blessed, Godly, Holy, Saintly, Heavens.

Uniques to avoid: Bloodslayer, Civerb's Cudgel, Holy Defender.

Stats: Natural grace and agility are still the traits of a Dark Elf. +1 to Dex and Magic per 5 stat points per level up. This is not added to a class' similar requirement.

Secrecy: While in the Town and commuting between games, a Dark Elf must wear a Cloak at all times to protect their identity. Drow arriving in Tristram for the first time walk past the town directly to the dungeon to get one.

Lightradius: Drow won't tolerate an overlarge LR, but they can use equipment that has a light bonus such as DreamFlange or Inferno, provided they at least equal it out with a Darkness/Night item. A Drow Warrior could wear a Royal Circlet with a ring of the Dark quite comfortably.

Spells: While they have no problems with dungeon lighting, the cryptic nature of the Dark Elf forces them to use only spells that do not draw a traceable line of fire. Chainlightning and Holy Bolt are never used. Bloodstar, Fireball, Firebolt, Flash, Inferno, Lightning, Immolation, Nova, and Ring of Fire are only used in the presence of enemies and traps that can cast them. The intent here is to sow confusion amongst enemies, and confuse onlookers as to the origin of the attack. Manashield and any other spell that causes an icon to appear above the character are never used. If such a spell is cast on the Drow by an outside scource, such as a shrine, it must be removed immediately. This is because it causes the Dark Elf to become very conspicuous. Apocalypse, Bone Spirit, Elemental, Firewall/Lightningwall, Flamewave, Charged Bolt, Golem, Guardian, Healings, Identify, Infravision, Phasing, Resurrect, Stone Curse, Telekinesis, Teleport, Town Portal, Berserk, Search, Warp, Escape, and any other indirect or guided spell may be used at any time. Indeed, Dark Elves thrive on magic, and will greedily hoard and read any book of magic, even spells they normally cannot use.

Aside from physical mayhem and spellcasting, Dark Elves also enjoy stealing, especially from the witless monsters in the dungeon. It would be adolescent and no fun at all to filch the belongings of adventurers from the town while they are below in the dungeon. However this does not rule out bargaining with and otherwise attempting to negotiate more than one's share from an adventuring party.

Optional quest: While helmets cover the face well enough, a Drow in Tristram needs a cloak or surcoat with livery or a heraldic device on it to give credibility to a human alias. This is easy to do at first; stripping the cloak off a nameless unfourtunate in the Cathedral will do. After Hell is entered, the townspeople begin to take notice of the 'hero' who might save them. They talk amongst themselves, and eventually someone remembers the original wearer of the Drow's disguise. The townspeople talk about how strange they've been acting lately...eventually someone mentions how they heard that so-and-so died. At this point, it's time to get a new identity.

To play this quest, check Wirt every time you start a new gaming session with your Drow character. Your fame in Tristram corresponds to your number of dots:
one=Strange, two=Osmosis, three=Champions. If your corresponding prefix or suffix is offered by Wirt then you hear a rumour from him that the townspeople are suspicious. Regardless of whether you buy the item Wirt offers or not, you must go to a Difficulty setting and dungeon level where your character could very well die (a place where you get maximum XP), and there you can take the name of a human of nearly comparable power to your own. You take the identity of the human by finding a cloak or cape in a chest or in the remains of a monster. Your character is assumed to have removed the heraldic crest of the former owner and discovered the name of the former owner at that point. You don't have to wear the new cloak but you can if you wish. Until you have a new identity you can't use the townsfolk for repairs, shopping and healing (LoL).

Assassination: Drow have perfected stealth to a fine art, and readily practice their art on unique NPC opponents. To perform an assassination a Drow must activate and then kill the target without harming its followers, if any. Stonecurse is never used on the quarry but may be used on any other monster. When the target is dead, any remaining monsters and henchmen may be killed when the Drow returns to the level after leaving. This is the preferred method of gaining uniques among most Drow.

High Sacrifice: Bloodlust, a unique Hellspawn, is a former Drow who was turned into an immortal demon as a reward for converting a large segment of the Temple of Lolth into heretics. A truly powerful Drow may chance destroying her for ever by journeying to Hell/Hell, leading Bloodlust to the altar in Lazarus' chamber, and sacrificing her there.

Of course, it's not so simple. First a Blood, Vampire, Bat, Leech, or unique sacrificial knife (dagger, shortsword, or scimitar) must be obtained and then consecrated with the blood of Witchmoon or of Lazarus (for female and male Drow respectively). Then, a receptacle for Bloodlust's essence must be prepared. Only a flawless Spider jewel or staff may be used. A suitable item has either a perfect prefix and/or Spider suffix. When these are gathered, the altar must be made ready and acceptable to Lolth by leading any two Hellspawn to the altar to die. All town portals to the level are closed to prevent escape of Bloodlust's soul.

When all this is done and the time is right, the Drow dons the perfect Spider item and lures Bloodlust next to the altar. The consecrated knife is used to kill her, but she may be weakened by any means prior. The most essential thing is that the words "Wu'suul ussta golhyrr" (that's genuine Drow for 'Inside my trap') be spoken to the soul at the time of death. The essence of the witch is contained in the Spider symbol now, and whenever this item is worn Bloodstars may be cast freely and at any moment by the wearer. Moreover, the Soul Trap as it is called is a badge of accomplishment for the wearer.

Dark Elves are fun as standard classes but also make excellent variant characters. A Drow Amazon, Goth or Paladin would probably never happen because a good-hearted Drow is rare. Nor would a BAR, MM or Viking because Drow love magic too much. Some surprising and often challenging combinations are possible. If you need to slightly bend the rules of one variant to make a seamless fit with another writer's, I ask you to change mine. After all, no-one was expecting an additive variant to be written.

Specific Drow classes: The Drow is intended for use in multiclass, but some players may prefer the structure of a variant intended specifically for Drow.

Drow Witch [DW] or [WITCH] for Rogues
The Witches are a radical splinter group from the more orthodox Temple of Lolth. In a strange persistance of Elven nature worship, they identfy Lolth not just with spiders but all other creatures. The Witches' minor heresy, bloody ritual, and appreciation of nature keep them far away from the urbanized Drow society. All Drow rules are used with the following changes:

Weapons: A Witch hates to enter melee combat, but will use her staff or well-worn sacrificial knife in self-defense. These knives are usually daggers, shortswords and scimitars that often carry the sacred Blood suffix. Staves of the Spider or unique staves are used to enhance magical ability, but a knife is always kept in reserve. An Elitist may use Shadowhawk.

Armour: Cloaks are used most often, but armour up to ringmail may be worn. A shield is never used. Animal and +Magic suffixes are preferred. Nightscape and Wisdom's Wrap are valued uniques.

Initiation Quest: The bats of the upper dungeon levels are the bane of witches. Any witch who dispatches Moonbender (Blink dlvl 4), Wrathraven (Blink dvl 5) and Foulwing (Gloom dlvl 5) in single combat or by assassination may claim the title of Initiate. Initiate of Nightmare and Initiate of Hell are awarded in NM and Hell difficulty.

A Drow Witch who completes the High Sacrifice replaces Bloodlust as the Queen of Witches.

Drow Warrior-Magician [DWM] for Sorcerors and Warriors
Males nearly always come second in the Underdark. Most accept their fate and become a small cog in the bigger clockwork of Drow society. A little known fact is that a few males have a greater talent for magic than any female Drow. To learn the ways of magic and fulfill this great potential these males must leave the Underdark. But there is no teacher for them on the surface, and not all of these brave men have the talent they think they do...

All Drow rules are used except as noted below.

Weapons and armour: Any weapon or armour exept those proscribed by Drow rules may be used. Because they spend a lot of time studying musty books instead of exercising, the Strength requirement for both weapons and armour are doubled.

Stats: At least +1 to Dex and +2 to Magic must be allocated for each 5 levelup points.

Spells: Warrior-Magicians may cast no spells from memory or scrolls to start.

Quests: All of the quests revolve around gaining the use of magical spells and equipment. The DWM must learn magic by themselves and with no instruction. To Read Magic: Only by comparing a prepared scroll and a book of the same spell in the Drow's own library may books and scrolls be read. The Drow first finds a library in the dungeon and collects all his books and scrolls there. When he finds a scroll and book of the same spell he casts the scroll and by so doing, learns to read magic books. This still does not allow him to cast a memorized spell. Players wishing a challenge may want to only allow books with specific type srolls to be read. So a Healing scroll would allow Heal books to be read, not Charged bolt. To read a Charged bolt book he'd need a Lightning element scroll.

The Secret Of Staves: To cast from a spell-charged staff the Drow must already have the spell at a minimum of level one (read the book).

True Spell Casting: To learn the secret of casting spells from memory, the spell book of an enemy magician must be captured. The Drow goes to Hell and slays Magistrates, Cabalists, Advocates, and most likely Counsellors, until one of them drops a spellbook. When this book is read in the Drow's library he gains the ability to cast from memory. However, now that he can cast spells of his own, it is expected that he do so. From now on he must always maintain the abilty to be both accurate (magic to-hit) and accomplished (high spell level) in his chosen field. All other goals are secondary. Only a triple immune or an opponent unaffected by Drow magic may be attacked physically before a spell is tried.

Wizardry: To use the specialized tools of a true wizard (Thinking Cap, Naj's Light Plate and Dreamflange) Lazarus must be bested in a duel using only the spells Fireball and Teleport, never striking with a weapon. After this the Drow Warrior-Magician gains the rank of Wizard, Dark Wizard, or Master Wizard for competing this quest in Normal, Nightmare, or Hell difficulty.

Notes:
As usual, all of this has been playtested, dotted, rewritten and tweaked over a long period. Don't let that keep you from trying it out yourself though. I have always felt that because I was testing and changing my variant, another player is usually the one that first really plays it.

The Drow you are reading about are an offshoot of my earlier Elf variant. There have been about 10 Drow players compared to one Elf player (me) so the Drow is now far more detailed than its originating variant. I got the idea from an Angband character I was playing while writing the Elf; I covered Grey, High, and Wood Elves but was reminded of Dark Elves only because of my Angband character, so I added a few lines of Drow to a lot of lines of Elf as an afterthought- the rest is history. I'm not sure what episode of my delirium brought on the indirect spell rules, but they are a big part of the fun. They're so easy to remember, and they kill Manashield.

Above all the Drow is an additive variant, in this case representing the race of your character. It's actually meant to be combined with other stuff. Before the Elf and Drow, all variants were specific and/or Human. Now you have a little bit of a choice : )

Thanks to KingOfPain for generously hosting the Elf and lots of info on the proto-Drow Troyhune(CAV). To Charis for getting me started with all this variant stuff. To the AD&D players I tormented with a Drow raiding party back in '82. Finally I'd like to thank Griselda for playing Grizzt for so long and ultimately bringing me back for a second edition of the Drow.

Morgane