when it comes to a Drow PC, I think it is possible because of the reputation element. If you are playing a reformed Drow, escaping from the tyranny of the underdark etc, and you set out doing good deeds etc like you do in BG1, this is reflected in your reputation which then means you are well known, much like Drizzt (but on a smaller more local scale). You won't be feared because people will recognise you from your good deeds etc.
I tell you secret, thousands " good " Drows live on surface. Followers of Eilistraee !
The thousands of drow on the surface do not appear until 4th edition, before then there are very few numbering in the single digits to maybe a hundred.
@IchigoRXC Yes. and there are quite a few Drow who live near enough to the surface to visit. Susprina Arkhenheld, Elminster's apprentice, being one of them. And as mentioned in the original write-up on Eilistraee, enough Drow worshippers of her existed to have a sort of ongoing joke with halflings. When halflings meet worshippers of Eilistraee, they exchange weapons. The Drow will give a sword or dagger, and in return, the halflings give a small sack of Caltrops- the only thing the original halfling rescued from danger by a worshipper of Eilistraee had to give her at the time. It was a fairly well-known joke between the Priestesses and the halflings, which argues that the number of her priestesses must be fairly significant. And then there are all the Drow in the temple in Skullport, and that wasn't her only temple. I think that there was stated somewhere that when Eilistraee died and her spirit merged with that of her father, Corellon Larethian, that she had managed to convert 20% of the Drow race to her worship, which absolutely enraged Lolth beyond all reason, meaning Eilistraee had "won" in some fashion.
@IchigoRXC unseless you're Drizzt and ppl know you, ppl gona attack you in sights (or at least should) i will say agin, the roleplay made for Viconia in BG is unreal and it's not faithful to the truth of a surface drow walking over the land. Half of the quests in BG1 should be impossible to get because of this.
But as this thread appears to not end, ....sigh... if ppl truly want the so problematic drow, an illusion ritual performed by gorion when you're a child to disguise you as a human or elf would do the trick, with some new content to support this. Ppl need to understand that walk on surface as a drow is the same that walk in the middle of the united states during 2° world war with a nazi uniform.
@IchigoRXC unseless you're Drizzt and ppl know you, ppl gona attack you in sights (or at least should) i will say agin, the roleplay made for Viconia in BG is unreal and it's not faithful to the truth of a surface drow walking over the land. Half of the quests in BG1 should be impossible to get because of this.
But as this thread appears to not end, ....sigh... if ppl truly want the so problematic drow, an illusion ritual performed by gorion when you're a child to disguise you as a human or elf would do the trick, with some new content to support this. Ppl need to understand that walk on surface as a drow is the same that walk in the middle of the united states during 2° world war with a nazi uniform.
Drizzt and followers of Eilistraee was improve Drows reputation on surface so now is it not so bad. And even if, candlekeep is place of knowledge, not racial prejudices. But i agree with reduced start reputation for Drows.
The atual D&D PnP style allowed for anyone to be any humanoid kind of race. Faerun is known to even have Githyankis to be PCs as said Drow, Duergar and Svirfneblin even as well as the Sahaugins etc but there is no real way to fit them into the actual storyline as its not based on anyone of those races.
The only Drows ever to leave Underdark were Drizzt Do'Urden and Vionia De'Vir. But they left on intentions the Drow have gone too far with their way out of whack morals and beliefs that theyre just killing themselves and only produce to further their own evil intentions just to fuel their own fire. The only Duergar you associate with is from the Illithium quest or if you use the Duergar in Irenicus Dungeon to make it more locical and realistic. Those races mentioned dont fit into PC standards for that reason as theyre not races who are intented to go on adventures to change anything as they dont care for the worlds issues or logics to change anything to benefit anyone. They keep to their own personal matters. Sub Races are just more for story and cities you can explore and visit and get Lore and philosophical story from to learn more about the world of Faerun and all its different races.
@Xezmeraude And Liriel Baenre, and Jarlaxle, and the priestesses who capture Halisstra Melarn in the "War of the Spider Queen" series... nope, there are more than just two.
They arent in Baldur's Gate Forgotten Realms storyline in the game. They arent inluded. The only two are Viconia De'Vir and Drizzt Do'Urden. Any others are not legal as they never will be in a Baldur's Gate game. Your post doesnt reflect to the game in general. No offense to you. Were talking about in Baldur's Gate not in other novels or other games. This is to the game only itself. So again. There are ONLY TWO!
@Xezmeraude dude you made an inaccurate evaluation. There's more than 2 Drows, the fact they're not inside baldur's gate doesn't corrects your error of judgment. @LadyRhian is right when mention the other surface drows.
Baldur's gate in FR lore happens if i'm not wrong AFTER most of all adventures that occur in Forgotten Realms. What mean we can face in the future with A LOT of easter eggs, comming from NWN, NWN2 (the drow merchant for example), Icewind Dale, planescape: Torment and other games.
By other side, as you i'm too on the position that should not be main char drows, not because it's difficult to exist surface drows, that would be a too weak excuse to prevent a race, as neverwinter nights accomplish, but cos the storyline of gorion's ward don't let openings for some races. Sometimes a race would have a conflict with the background of gorion's ward, other times a conflict with the storyline of BG and BG2.
Let me also explain why the game isnt like the novels. In no way shape or form is anything mentioned about Gorion ever being a Monk before he came to Candlekeep and nor does anyone not even elminster even mention which Elminster personally knows Gorions Monk days is it even evidence he ever was one! That is what is being talked about. Abdel Adrians life in the game doesnt have to follow what insidents happened in the novels before or after everything happened. It is a totally new universe as stated when the game was made. So to bring in anything related to the novels just doesnt fit into the lore of the game as most of the Novels universes arent even mentioned in all the History books you find. It makes for a completely new story which you can follow and doesnt have to be cannon to the novels way of protraying it. That be plagurizing. I hope this ends the confusion you two were having about the discussion.
@Xezmeraude Let me put this in a way that you will understand- the game is based off the pen and paper game as well as the novels, and you didn't even say in your original post that you were speaking *only* of the game when you made your "The only Drow ever to leave the Underdark" line. In fact, in the paragraph before, you were speaking of the Pen and Paper game. In fact, the game doesn't even state that those were the only two Drow "ever to leave the Underdark". It makes no such claim at all. You could have said, "The only two Drow we see on the surface world in the game are Viconia and Drizzt." And that would have been more accurate than what you actually said.
In point of fact, you are taking what you see in the game and making statements about the world that the game itself just doesn't make.
And I wasn't speaking about "Just the novels", either.
This forum is base ONLY on the game. This forum and site does NOT talk about the novels. You want to talk about the novels. GO TO THE FORGOTTEN REALMS FROUM SITE and talk there!!! This is the game. Not the books. So take the book talk to the books forum sites and leave everyone here to DISUSSING THE GAME NOT THE BOOKS!!!! Can you figure that out by now?
Dude, calm down. The game is set in the world of the Forgotten Realms and uses Forgotten Realms lore. They reference it constantly.
@Xezmeraude Flame? Where did I flame? Please, point that out. If you found what I said... provoking, perhaps you missed that I merely started the same way you started your post to me and Kamulzin. Perhaps you are the one who cannot handle message boards on the internet. Trust me, if you think what I posted was "flaming", your statement about not being able to handle message boards on the internet applies to you, not me. Flagged for flaming and harrassment? Let's see what comes of that.
And you appear not to have read my post. I was not speaking entirely of the novels, but of the Realms, which lies outside the Baldur's Gate games. The game does not even say that Drizzt and Viconia are the only Drow ever to leave the Underdark- you appear to have misunderstood that just because they are the only ones to appear in this particular game. The game does not outright say they are the only ones. You are extrapolating from what you see in the game and coming to an erroneous conclusion that the game doesn't even make. Screaming "CASE IS CLOSED!!!" doesn't make it so. I'm sorry you have such a problem with being shown to be wrong. Maybe you should follow your own advice about Internet Messageboards, since you are getting so bent out of shape about this.
Remember being chased by city guards around BG after Angelo accuses PC for killing Scar? That is how would whole game look when playing an actual Drow.
I love, love, love this idea, but I'm afraid it won't work, not for BG1 or 2 anyway. It has nothing to do with the stats (and I don't know enough about 2nd edition to make any kind of call on this). It has to do with the immersion. A drow will be treated differently than other races, and if they're not, it'll seem weird. Because of licensing limitations, they can't make those kind of changes to the existing game. But BGIII, now there are some possibilities.
@Xezmeraude So, you can't show where I flamed you. Yes, we are discussing the game, in the context of the novels and the Pen and Paper game. Why else would we be discussing Aasimar as characters in another thread? They do not appear in the computer game, but they do appear in the Pen and Paper game. Same with discussing what new kits might appear in the game- Kits which appeared first in the Pen and Paper game. You are getting all bent out of shape (as is apparent from the starred out obscenities and the all-caps internet shouting), and you apparently want me to shut up and go away. Sorry, I will keep discussing this like an adult, and you will just have to learn to discuss it like an adult as well.
And hate to point it out to you- the only one being embarrassed here- is you. As I said before, if you can't discuss things like a normal, sane, rational adult, maybe you should rethink being on an internet message board. And you know, maybe actually read people's replies...
@Xezmeraude I was not even talking just the books, but the Pen and Paper game, which the books are tied into. Characters from the books have appeared in the Pen and Paper game (Artemis Entreri in the "Shining South" sourcebook, Drizzt, Bruenor, Cattie-Brie, Regis, Jarlaxle, Liriel Baenre and so on in various sourcebooks for the game such as "The Villains Lorebook", "The Heroes Lorebook" and "The Hall of Heroes", all of which are sourcebooks for the second edition game. The Baldur's Gate computer game also added two books to the Pen and Paper game, Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate and Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate 2, which shows that all of these are part of the same world. The Pen and Paper game, the Fiction Novels, and the Computer Games, are all part of the same world. When you say "Canon", canon includes the Pen and Paper game, the Fiction Novels, *and* the Computer Game.
Please, show us where, in the game, it says that Drizzt and Viconia are the only two Drow ever to leave the Underdark. You are extrapolating from what you see in the game, nothing more.
I hope your incidents of name-calling made you feel better, because they did nothing to convince me of any of the points you are trying to make.
Lol Moomintroll is our comic relief to finally point out this has gone too far thanks to LadyRhian for not understanding differenes between many sources of the same lore. Thanks for that Moomintroll. You give the forums a spark of life when needed lol
@moomintroll, Yeah, that little hissy fit of Xezmeraude's didn't add much of anything to anything. I hope it just gets deleted for his namecalling and flaming. Now, where were we?
@geselle I would have agreed with you a year ago but since listening to the RA Salvatore's audiobooks, I have a lust for Drizzt that cannot be quenched! all hail the spider queen!
As others have said though, it would just be so problematical, maybe if you were a thief who hid round the corner while your party (that doesn't contain Keldorn) asks for quests? How convoluted would that be!
@geselle People want their characters to be cool, and they perceive the Drow as cool. (Shrug) To me, they are just another race, no better and no worse. I think it appeals to the people who want or need to be special somehow. There aren't that many Drow on the surface, they see that Drizzt is cool, and they want to be the same thing. It happens all the time in Pen and Paper games. They want their character to be "special", like the 10,000 other people with the same idea. So they make a Drizzt with the serial numbers filed off. "Oh yeah, he's a Drow Ranger with two scimitars and he kicks ass! But his name is... (insert name here)."
Comments
Followers of Eilistraee !
Eilistraee was killed in 1379 DR
But as this thread appears to not end, ....sigh... if ppl truly want the so problematic drow, an illusion ritual performed by gorion when you're a child to disguise you as a human or elf would do the trick, with some new content to support this. Ppl need to understand that walk on surface as a drow is the same that walk in the middle of the united states during 2° world war with a nazi uniform.
The only Drows ever to leave Underdark were Drizzt Do'Urden and Vionia De'Vir. But they left on intentions the Drow have gone too far with their way out of whack morals and beliefs that theyre just killing themselves and only produce to further their own evil intentions just to fuel their own fire. The only Duergar you associate with is from the Illithium quest or if you use the Duergar in Irenicus Dungeon to make it more locical and realistic. Those races mentioned dont fit into PC standards for that reason as theyre not races who are intented to go on adventures to change anything as they dont care for the worlds issues or logics to change anything to benefit anyone. They keep to their own personal matters. Sub Races are just more for story and cities you can explore and visit and get Lore and philosophical story from to learn more about the world of Faerun and all its different races.
They arent in Baldur's Gate Forgotten Realms storyline in the game. They arent inluded. The only two are Viconia De'Vir and Drizzt Do'Urden. Any others are not legal as they never will be in a Baldur's Gate game. Your post doesnt reflect to the game in general. No offense to you. Were talking about in Baldur's Gate not in other novels or other games. This is to the game only itself. So again. There are ONLY TWO!
Baldur's gate in FR lore happens if i'm not wrong AFTER most of all adventures that occur in Forgotten Realms. What mean we can face in the future with A LOT of easter eggs, comming from NWN, NWN2 (the drow merchant for example), Icewind Dale, planescape: Torment and other games.
By other side, as you i'm too on the position that should not be main char drows, not because it's difficult to exist surface drows, that would be a too weak excuse to prevent a race, as neverwinter nights accomplish, but cos the storyline of gorion's ward don't let openings for some races. Sometimes a race would have a conflict with the background of gorion's ward, other times a conflict with the storyline of BG and BG2.
Let me also explain why the game isnt like the novels. In no way shape or form is anything mentioned about Gorion ever being a Monk before he came to Candlekeep and nor does anyone not even elminster even mention which Elminster personally knows Gorions Monk days is it even evidence he ever was one! That is what is being talked about. Abdel Adrians life in the game doesnt have to follow what insidents happened in the novels before or after everything happened. It is a totally new universe as stated when the game was made. So to bring in anything related to the novels just doesnt fit into the lore of the game as most of the Novels universes arent even mentioned in all the History books you find. It makes for a completely new story which you can follow and doesnt have to be cannon to the novels way of protraying it. That be plagurizing. I hope this ends the confusion you two were having about the discussion.
In point of fact, you are taking what you see in the game and making statements about the world that the game itself just doesn't make.
And I wasn't speaking about "Just the novels", either.
And you appear not to have read my post. I was not speaking entirely of the novels, but of the Realms, which lies outside the Baldur's Gate games. The game does not even say that Drizzt and Viconia are the only Drow ever to leave the Underdark- you appear to have misunderstood that just because they are the only ones to appear in this particular game. The game does not outright say they are the only ones. You are extrapolating from what you see in the game and coming to an erroneous conclusion that the game doesn't even make. Screaming "CASE IS CLOSED!!!" doesn't make it so. I'm sorry you have such a problem with being shown to be wrong. Maybe you should follow your own advice about Internet Messageboards, since you are getting so bent out of shape about this.
I'm sorry if this has already been covered.
And hate to point it out to you- the only one being embarrassed here- is you. As I said before, if you can't discuss things like a normal, sane, rational adult, maybe you should rethink being on an internet message board. And you know, maybe actually read people's replies...
Please, show us where, in the game, it says that Drizzt and Viconia are the only two Drow ever to leave the Underdark. You are extrapolating from what you see in the game, nothing more.
I hope your incidents of name-calling made you feel better, because they did nothing to convince me of any of the points you are trying to make.
As others have said though, it would just be so problematical, maybe if you were a thief who hid round the corner while your party (that doesn't contain Keldorn) asks for quests? How convoluted would that be!