The Gaming Den

Drow

"Time to die for the Spider Queen."

The Drow are perhaps the most overused bunch of villains ever. Their entire ability set is one that is supposed to neutralize the advantages of player characters so that characters can have mirror matches against NPC parties without doubling their treasure. With magic items that turn off once they are brought out of Drow controlled regions, spell-resistance, and spell-like abilities designed to specifically negate common player-character tactical advantages, they can easily compete with Player Characters with massively more permanent magical equipment. And that means that they can be fought and killed several times without supercharging party treasure.

But if you want to play a Drow character, you don't want any of that crap. In fact, if you want a Drow character, probably the maxim you are looking for is "WWDD?" and the answer is probably "Fight with two scimitars." But more than that, there are a number of abilities that Drow characters in stories exhibit that people want. And then there are the game mechanical abilities in the rulebook that the characters in stories obviously don't have (like Touch of Fatigue, what's up with that?) So here it is, the LA +0 Drow that people actually want to play:

* Medium Size
* 30' movement.
* Humanoid Type (Elf subtype)
* Darkvision 120'
* +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution
* Daylight Sensitivity: While in brightly lit surroundings (such as a daylight spell), a Drow suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls and precision-based skill checks.
* Drow with a Charisma of at least 10 may cast deeper darkness (duration 4 hours), and faerie fire as spell-like abilities with a caster level equal to their character level once per day each.
* +2 bonus to saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities.
* +2 bonus to Spot, and Listen checks.
* Drow never sleep and are immune to sleep effects. Drow must still perform their 4 hour daily trance to stay coherent and rested.
* Drow live an exceedingly interesting life and every Drow has proficiency with the rapier and an exotic ranged weapon of their choice.
* Favored Classes: Cleric and Wizard
* Automatic Languages: Elvish
* Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Beholder, Common, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Dwarvish, Gnome, Kuo-Toa, Terran, Undercommon.

Orc

"Waaarrrggghhhh!"

Orcs get the short end of the stick. They can eat pretty much anything and they have to because their race has lost every major war since... well forever. Orcs are extremely specialized, and rarely see play as anything except a Barbarian. However, some players will want to diversify the concept into say... a Rogue, Assassin, or Fighter build. That works OK, but remember that an Orc always brings "hitting things really hard" to the party. The Orcs other limitations are pretty severe, so taking a class combination that doesn't accentuate the narrow scope of Orc advantages is probably a mistake in the long run.

* Medium Size
* 30' movement
* Humanoid Type (Orc subtype)
* Darkvision 60'
* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma, -2 Wisdom
* Daylight Sensitivity: While in brightly lit surroundings (such as a daylight spell), an Orc suffers the dazzled condition and is thus at a -1 penalty to attack rolls and precision-based skill checks.
* +2 bonus to saving throws vs. Poison and Disease.
* Immunity to ingested poisons.
* +2 to Jump and Survival checks.
* Favored Classes: Barbarian and Cleric
* Automatic Languages: Orc, Common
* Bonus Languages: Dwarvish, Elvish, Giant, Gnoll, Goblin, Sylvan, Undercommon.