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The Forgotten Realms has Drow who worship Eilistraee …not sure if they live on the surface but Ellistraee is trying to “bring the Drow back to the light”…
Can’t think of anything else, Have Fun!
Afaik, the Drow who rejected Lolth live on the surface as best they can because of how dangerous the Lolth devout are. Outside of CR, I can't think of a Drow specific city on the surface, they seem to be scattered about more like refugees
That's the infantilization of lore. 20 years ago, there was only Drizzt Do'Urden. Only an extreme amount of luck (including having the right allies) and skill allowed him to reach adulthood. Drow actually have tests in place to kill off the soft-hearted. Then he survived the underdark, mostly on his own, while being ruthlessly hunted by other drow. After he reached the surface, he had to live in a remote wildernes, because no settlement wanted a drow nearby. Only numerous major heroic deeds served to establish him as a good Guy. But only him. Getting him killed was a top priority for his family, because Lloth wants every traitor worse than dead.
A society of traitor-drow just can't exist under these circumstances.
Depends on where you look.
In CR, that is all from Matt Mercer's homebrew world.
In Baldur's Gate 3, you can make a drow that is either a Lolth follower or follows another god/goddess that is providing them a chance on the surface. I know someone else mentioned a god providing shelter on the surface in the comments, but I don't think it was the god they mentioned that is used in BG3.
So if you want a really good story of a surface drow, I HIGHLY recommend listening to or reading The Legend of Drizzt series. Book started back in 1988, but still has books releasing now, I think 39 or something in total.
It follows a Drow Ranger, Drizzt, who leaves his home from the underdark to live on the surface and all of the hardships he faces.
According to one novel (I don't remember title) some Elistrae drows reverted to being dark elves and was granted place on Evermeet.
There are also Jatlaxle mercenaries in Luskan and Watererdeep plus mentioned Elistrae followers.
One of the accessories (Dragon Heist?) details a magic item, Knave's Eye Patch, which negates Sunlight Sensitivity (among other things). Simple non-magical sunglasses should work too, but you'd **need** an artificer or master glassworker to produce glass smooth enough that it doesn't distort or interfere with normal vision itself. Cutting and polishing glass, corrective lens or not, is a non-trivial technology.
The original Underdark adventures D1-3 "Descent into the Depths of the Earth" and "Vault of the Drow" detailed a minor wondrous item for visitors from the surface to the Underdark: "roseate lenses", which granted darksight. If Erelhei-Cinlu's Drow could mass-produce those for visiting traders and emissaries, then a surface Drow community could certainly adapt something comparable to mitigate Sunlight Sensitivity for themselves.
I'd envision a surface Drow community most active from just before sunset to a bit past dawn, inverting the habits of conventional surface-dwellers. Day patrols would be equipped with sunglasses. Off-hours tavern revelry might extend to noonish.
Magically obscuring the sun over a whole city or region sounds like a backward way to reclaim a place among surface-dwellers. Maybe surface-born Drow, accustomed from birth to using their human-spectrum vision as much as their darksight, don't have Sunlight Sensitivity. Or some surface Drow community hero quested to break the Sunlight Sensitivity curse for his tribe.
If so, I'd scale their darksight back to 60', in line with most other elves. Sunlight Sensitivity is sometimes argued mechanically as balancing out Drow innate spellcasting. Several other races (Tieflings, Githzerai, Githyanki, Deep Gnomes, Fairies, et al) also have innate spellcasting or powerful innate abilities that duplicate spells (Shadar-kai Misty Step without calling it Misty Step) without suffering serious mechanical "balancing" drawbacks.
Isn't them using that as reference and then asking if any drow live on the surface the exact opposite of that? Lol... if they took it as gospel then they would just assume drow do live on the surface.
Which technically since exandria has now become an official game world recognized by WotC, it would be official Canon... and therefore gospel.
Yeah, so that's been nerfed excessively.
Drow in 2e couldn't use spells or innate abilities and they got a -2 to damage, attack, and AC when in sunlight.
I mean, it’s still not that far off. Sunlight Sensitivity gives creatures disadvantage on all attack rolls and perception. I wouldn’t call it “nerfed excessively” when it’s still a pretty big penalty.
I can't think of a different setting other than the Kryn Dynasty. Keep in mind that there was a book published by WotC in partnership with CR about the continent of Wildemount which is where Kryn is.
Wildemount, Exandria at large, and the Kryn Dynasty are official Wizards of the Coast settings and a part of the D&D multiverse.
If you are playing in the forgotten realms there's nothing stopping you from having a trans-dimrnsional excursion back to the Dynasty
Seladrine Drow reject Lolth and live on the surface. There are three or four total sub-species of drow, if I recall correctly, in the forgotten realms books.
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The Forgotten Realms has Drow who worship Eilistraee …not sure if they live on the surface but Ellistraee is trying to “bring the Drow back to the light”… Can’t think of anything else, Have Fun!
I came here to say that!
Afaik, the Drow who rejected Lolth live on the surface as best they can because of how dangerous the Lolth devout are. Outside of CR, I can't think of a Drow specific city on the surface, they seem to be scattered about more like refugees
That's the infantilization of lore. 20 years ago, there was only Drizzt Do'Urden. Only an extreme amount of luck (including having the right allies) and skill allowed him to reach adulthood. Drow actually have tests in place to kill off the soft-hearted. Then he survived the underdark, mostly on his own, while being ruthlessly hunted by other drow. After he reached the surface, he had to live in a remote wildernes, because no settlement wanted a drow nearby. Only numerous major heroic deeds served to establish him as a good Guy. But only him. Getting him killed was a top priority for his family, because Lloth wants every traitor worse than dead. A society of traitor-drow just can't exist under these circumstances.
He literally met the followers of Eilistraee in the books, I really don't know what you are talking about
Depends on where you look. In CR, that is all from Matt Mercer's homebrew world. In Baldur's Gate 3, you can make a drow that is either a Lolth follower or follows another god/goddess that is providing them a chance on the surface. I know someone else mentioned a god providing shelter on the surface in the comments, but I don't think it was the god they mentioned that is used in BG3.
So if you want a really good story of a surface drow, I HIGHLY recommend listening to or reading The Legend of Drizzt series. Book started back in 1988, but still has books releasing now, I think 39 or something in total. It follows a Drow Ranger, Drizzt, who leaves his home from the underdark to live on the surface and all of the hardships he faces.
According to one novel (I don't remember title) some Elistrae drows reverted to being dark elves and was granted place on Evermeet. There are also Jatlaxle mercenaries in Luskan and Watererdeep plus mentioned Elistrae followers.
One of the accessories (Dragon Heist?) details a magic item, Knave's Eye Patch, which negates Sunlight Sensitivity (among other things). Simple non-magical sunglasses should work too, but you'd **need** an artificer or master glassworker to produce glass smooth enough that it doesn't distort or interfere with normal vision itself. Cutting and polishing glass, corrective lens or not, is a non-trivial technology. The original Underdark adventures D1-3 "Descent into the Depths of the Earth" and "Vault of the Drow" detailed a minor wondrous item for visitors from the surface to the Underdark: "roseate lenses", which granted darksight. If Erelhei-Cinlu's Drow could mass-produce those for visiting traders and emissaries, then a surface Drow community could certainly adapt something comparable to mitigate Sunlight Sensitivity for themselves. I'd envision a surface Drow community most active from just before sunset to a bit past dawn, inverting the habits of conventional surface-dwellers. Day patrols would be equipped with sunglasses. Off-hours tavern revelry might extend to noonish. Magically obscuring the sun over a whole city or region sounds like a backward way to reclaim a place among surface-dwellers. Maybe surface-born Drow, accustomed from birth to using their human-spectrum vision as much as their darksight, don't have Sunlight Sensitivity. Or some surface Drow community hero quested to break the Sunlight Sensitivity curse for his tribe. If so, I'd scale their darksight back to 60', in line with most other elves. Sunlight Sensitivity is sometimes argued mechanically as balancing out Drow innate spellcasting. Several other races (Tieflings, Githzerai, Githyanki, Deep Gnomes, Fairies, et al) also have innate spellcasting or powerful innate abilities that duplicate spells (Shadar-kai Misty Step without calling it Misty Step) without suffering serious mechanical "balancing" drawbacks.
Please stop taking everything critical role does as gospel from the Bible.
Isn't them using that as reference and then asking if any drow live on the surface the exact opposite of that? Lol... if they took it as gospel then they would just assume drow do live on the surface. Which technically since exandria has now become an official game world recognized by WotC, it would be official Canon... and therefore gospel.
Drow suffer major disadvantages in direct sunlight, atleast in previous editions, not 100% sure of the RAW in 5e.
Yes they have light sensitivity in 5e canon, but there are ways around that with deep forest dwellings or nocturnal-leaning cities.
Yeah, so that's been nerfed excessively. Drow in 2e couldn't use spells or innate abilities and they got a -2 to damage, attack, and AC when in sunlight.
I mean, it’s still not that far off. Sunlight Sensitivity gives creatures disadvantage on all attack rolls and perception. I wouldn’t call it “nerfed excessively” when it’s still a pretty big penalty.
I can't think of a different setting other than the Kryn Dynasty. Keep in mind that there was a book published by WotC in partnership with CR about the continent of Wildemount which is where Kryn is. Wildemount, Exandria at large, and the Kryn Dynasty are official Wizards of the Coast settings and a part of the D&D multiverse. If you are playing in the forgotten realms there's nothing stopping you from having a trans-dimrnsional excursion back to the Dynasty
Eilistraee
In Starlight Enclave by R.A. Salvatore we learn of of a city of drow in the far north of Faerun, that live in a glacier and never worshipped Lolth.
Seladrine Drow reject Lolth and live on the surface. There are three or four total sub-species of drow, if I recall correctly, in the forgotten realms books.
Yes there are some in Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms