Drow Enhancement Love

[Angelus_dead]

This is an old suggestion, but better late than never, especially currently that a lot of new players are arriving and being disappointed after unlocking Drow. The Drow race has little in terms of attractive enhancements. All they have going for them in that regard is melee damage and will saves. Most other races got improved enhancements in the last module or two.

Below are fixes to some outstanding problems. The Drow weapon enhancements are out of line with the dwarf ones, and their SR enhancements fail to capture the feel of the D&D class or be a meaningful part of DDO character building. The first few changes are more important than the later ones, which are a bit jokey.

Changes
Drow Melee Attack and Ranged Attack enhancements are merged into Drow Weapon Attack, for no additional AP cost.
Drow Melee Damage and Ranged Damage enhancements are merged into Drow Weapon Damage, for no additional AP cost.

Drow SR 1, level 2, 1 AP
You have SR 14, or level + 5, whichever is better.
Drow SR 2, level 6, 2 AP
You have SR 16, or level + 7, whichever is better.
Drow SR 3, level 10, 3 AP
You have SR level + 9.
Drow SR 4, level 14, 4 AP
You have SR level + 11.

White Scorpion Strike, level 4, req Drow Monk, 1 AP
Your unarmed attacks are ghost touch.
White Scorpion Strike 2, level 9, req White Scorpion Strike, 2 AP
Your unarmed attacks are lesser undeadbane.
That feature for Drow monks was lifted directly from the D&D rulebooks

Drow Hardy Rage 1, level 3, req Rage, 1 AP
While raging you have +1 constitution.
Drow Hardy Rage 2, level 6, req Rage, 2 AP
While raging you have +2 constitution.
Yes, in Eberron the Drow culture is defined as Barbarian-dominated. What a surprise, huh?? That small change makes that class/race combo a little more viable. Yes, I know people don't like it.

[valorik]

I like it, good ideas.

[hydra_ex]

But there's no synergy between Drow and Barbarian. Adding in an enhancement for drow barbarian shamans might prove for an interesting class split. Perhaps, while in rage, your spells deal x% more damage, albeit they cast slower and you must make a concentration check in order to cast it, or they simply have a failure chance.

Drow sniper enhc might be fun too, although gimped (maybe one day range combat will prove useful in the average PUG)

[Borror0]

Whatever they do, Drow SR needs a serious boost.

[QuantumFX]

/signed

More options + Less Cookie cutter = Good.

[Lithic]

Human enhancements need an overhaul before they bother with drow :/

[Borror0]

Human enhancements need an overhaul before they bother with drow :/

Human > Drow, any day.

[Ephemeral]

Human enhancements need an overhaul before they bother with drow :/

Agreed. Apart from the improved recovery line, humans have pretty much no worthwhile enhancements, and need fixing before any other race in the game.

[Aesop]

This is an old suggestion, but better late than never, especially currently that a lot of new players are arriving and being disappointed after unlocking Drow. The Drow race has little in terms of attractive enhancements. All they have going for them in that regard is melee damage and will saves. Most other races got improved enhancements in the last module or two.

Below are fixes to some outstanding problems. The Drow weapon enhancements are out of line with the dwarf ones, and their SR enhancements fail to capture the feel of the D&D class or be a meaningful part of DDO character building. The first few changes are more important than the later ones, which are a bit jokey.

Changes
Drow Melee Attack and Ranged Attack enhancements are merged into Drow Weapon Attack, for no additional AP cost.
Drow Melee Damage and Ranged Damage enhancements are merged into Drow Weapon Damage, for no additional AP cost.

Drow SR 1, level 2, 1 AP
You have SR 14, or level + 5, whichever is better.
Drow SR 2, level 6, 2 AP
You have SR 16, or level + 7, whichever is better.
Drow SR 3, level 10, 3 AP
You have SR level + 9.
Drow SR 4, level 14, 4 AP
You have SR level + 11.

White Scorpion Strike, level 4, req Drow Monk, 1 AP
Your unarmed attacks are ghost touch.
White Scorpion Strike 2, level 9, req White Scorpion Strike, 2 AP
Your unarmed attacks are lesser undeadbane.
That feature for Drow monks was lifted directly from the D&D rulebooks

Drow Hardy Rage 1, level 3, req Rage, 1 AP
While raging you have +1 constitution.
Drow Hardy Rage 2, level 6, req Rage, 2 AP
While raging you have +2 constitution.
Yes, in Eberron the Drow culture is defined as Barbarian-dominated. What a surprise, huh?? That small change makes that class/race combo a little more viable. Yes, I know people don't like it.

I likes it...

hey instead of a Con boost while raging... how about something a little different just give a "more cool" aspect like +1d6/+2d6 on a critical while raging


just because its different

[Angelus_dead]

But there's no synergy between Drow and Barbarian.

Yes, I know. It would be easy to add some, such as allowing them an enhancement for +3% / +6% TWF competence speed bonus while raging. But that would get into making a bigger change to game balance than simply repairing a few existing enhancements that were pointlessly weak.

[hydra_ex]

Yes, I know. It would be easy to add some, such as allowing them an enhancement for +3% / +6% TWF competence speed bonus while raging. But that would get into making a bigger change to game balance than simply repairing a few existing enhancements that were pointlessly weak.

True, true.

[Angelus_dead]

Agreed. Apart from the improved recovery line, humans have pretty much no worthwhile enhancements, and need fixing before any other race in the game.

Improving human enhancements:

1. Human Versatility can be substituted for any Damage, Skill, Attack, Save, or AC Boost to qualify for other enhancements.

2. Human Extended Boost I, II: All your action boosts (including from classes) last +5 or +10 seconds longer.

3. Human Stat Boost I, II, III: 5x charges, for 20 seconds your Human Adapatability ability scores gain a +2, +4, +6 bonus. (Whichever two abilities you already picked)

4. Human Flexibility I, II, III: req level 5, 10, 15. 5x charges, 440 sec duration, 500 sec cooldown. You gain a +1, +2, or +3 bonus to damage, skills, attack, saves, or AC.

5. All action boosts (from every class and race) have casting time reduced to zero.

PS. Yes, that +3 khopesh damage for 440 sec would have serious balance implications!

[Max2000]

Agreed on boosting Drow SR.

[Eldebryn]

/signed

I don't really think the current SR bonuses make any difference later in-game, they should give you at least 25% chance to resist spells to be worth it.

[Velqor]

I really like the Monk and barbarian things. The SR isnt a big deal right now as I find it fine. I think more race+ certain class feats should be implemented especially for drow considering their large part in this game.

[Angelus_dead]

The SR isnt a big deal right now as I find it fine.

If it seems fine you must be low level. SR 20 at levels 14-20 isn't much, seeing as Clerics can buff you with SR 26-32. Mobs in high level quest will have caster levels of 18+, meaning that they'd need to roll -5 on a d20 in order to be blocked by your SR.

[rimble]

Don't think I care any about wrapping up the Shuriken Attack/Damage into the other Enhancements...it's cute, I guess.

Drow SR needs some fixing, I'm all for that.

The Monk things need to be in a PrE, that Drow get access to via race. Like Arcane Archer for Ranger or Elves.

The Barbarian thing would then be breaching a somewhat new ground, a Race Enhancement tied to a specific Class, which aside from the couple spell point Enhancements (Dwarf Clerics, Elf Wizards) hasn't been presented before...at least none are coming to mind. Anyways, I'd just tread a little carefully there.

[Velqor]

Angeleus idea with the Drow monk enhancements I like alot especially if they were lifted right from the source material. Implement now !!!!!

[Mhykke]

I like it, but I think they should dump drow SR enhancements, and give them their SR like they did for monks.

[LookingForABentoBox]

Here's the original feat from Races of Eberron, page 112, if anyone's interested:

WHITE SCORPION STRIKE [RACIAL]
Your fists and feet sting like the dread white scorpion
and are particularly effective against undead.
Prerequisites: Drow, ability to use ki strike (magic).
Benefit: Your unarmed strike has the ghost touch
ability (allowing you to ignore the 50% miss chance
when attacking incorporeal creatures), and deals an
extra 1d6 points of damage to undead.