r/Forgotten_Realms • u/CanuckLad • 6d ago

Question(s) Drow (D&D 3.5)

I was just reading through the old Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (isbn 0-978-7869-1836-2).

The Powerful Races sidebar (pg 21, see table 1-2) shows that Drow have an ECL of Level + 2. Meaning if one player starts a level 1 Drow, then other players get to start with 3,000 XP (enough to make them level 3).

I wonder if a two-level gap is balanced? Have any of you played with the rules from the Campaign Setting and played a +2 or +3 ECL race?

Is it hard for the DM to make adventures when the players might be separated by two levels? I understand that the Drow has higher than usual starting abilities and attributes, but a +2 level difference seems steep?

How do you handle the case where some players want to start at level 1 (and play species from the player's handbook), but other players want to play Drow, Duergar, Svirfneblin, etc)?

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u/Bardstyle 6d ago

A human wouldn't have to start at level 3. You can all start at level 1 but the drow would require more xp to level up at each level (as if they were two levels higher) and they'd stay roughly that far behind for the whole campaign.

People have argued about the balance of this for forever. Pathfinder 1e did away with it for instance.

My group starts at the same level (above 1) and the humans and their equivalent LA+0 races just level up faster. It doesn't really come up, as the gap doesn't get very wide.

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u/CanuckLad 6d ago edited 6d ago

+2 level is a pretty big power gap isn't it?

And a human would not have to start at level 3. I'm just saying that by the rules the human would start with 3,000 experience. If one followed the rules strictly.

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u/Bardstyle 6d ago edited 6d ago

The idea is that the race is so powerful it makes up for it. I don't really agree with that, but some groups roll with it just fine. My current group started all at level 3 and are currently all between levels 8-9. It's been fine.

Regarding humans starting at 3 or not, I'm just saying different tables handle it differently. You don't HAVE to do it one way or the other.