How to Roleplay and Voice Drow Elves in D&D | RPG Creature Clinic | Role Initiative - Episode 10
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- #dungeonsanddragons #dnd #rpg
Perfect those Dungeon Master skills! Learn how to roleplay and do voices for the world's greatest tabletop RPG, Dungeons and Dragons! On this episode of Role Initiative, we talk lore and teach you how to roleplay and voice the nefarious Drow Elf! Grab your d20 and join us for Part Four of our Lost Mines of Phandelver series!
Voice section: 9:02
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Do you prefer the Lolthite standard Drow or the Drizztian cinnamon roll?
Waaaaay late to the party, but I find both extremes to be kind of uninteresting if I'm trying to make a character who'll last more than two scenes. Usually I go for something in between for major NPCs or if I want to make a drow PC.
@@thevoidcritter Agreed! What kind of interesting drow have you made?
@@RoleInitiative I'm actually currently playing a Drow who follows Vhaeraun.... makes for very fun role play.
@@NeglectBDO that's awesome! He's a deep track in drow lore!
I don't even know what the dizztian cinnamon rolls are(Ifyoucoveredtheminthevidit'scuzIhaven'tfinishedthevid)
My voice for drow is always Australian
I mean, they live down unda’
Booooo!! (lol)
@@frenne_dilley and Australia’s crazy spiders and Drow getting kicked out for worshiping the spider queen.
Lol, I gave my drow a russia like accent 😅with broken English since he doesn't know common that well
@@RoleInitiative I think you mean (LOLth)
Crikey!
That shout out to Eilistraee 🖤😉
I don't know why, but I give my Drow a French accent.
I've seen people do French for elves before. And no one is more equipped to spit some fire than the French.
I prefer my Drow with eastern European accents. I'm an 80s kid, sue me.
All bad guys are Russian. I get it :P
@@RoleInitiative hell no... half are English
Oooo I like that! I don't think I could pull that off.
The drow come from a cutthroat land down under, literally Australian
@@frenne_dilley Southern Americas or the American South? those are both very tough places but wildly different
One of my players is a rogue drow. Daughter of a renegade, born and raised on the surface, so no sunlight sensitivity, but also no innate spells. She's abrasive and rude most of the time, and is an urban bounty hunter trying to hunt down the fools who killed her mother. Doesn't know that she's going to be thrust into a secret war between her mother's organization and a cabal of vampires, lycanthropes, and other creatures for dominion over the Sword Coast.
This was super interesting! The Lolth Drow feel really similar to the Orcs, almost, where they control the raising of younglings and breeding (Orcs through violence, Drow through selective breeding), and are primarily ruled by a fear and the need for subjugation to their gods.
That is absolutely true. Fear of a god's wrath is so much easier to substantiate when that god willing appears and rips you limb from limb in front of your family!
Me, playing a drow born of a high priestess who ran away and is a bard/cleric of Eilistraee at 7:56 - Yay o3o
I'm playing a half-drow paladin of Eilistraee :)
Im playing kalmar edgehammer,drow paladin of eilistraee
Hey I thought I was the only one.
Awesome to see someone loving to play a Drow priestess cleric of Eilistraee.
Despite the Drow lore constantly being misunderstood and chipped away at with redundant retcons, it's nice to see that some people still appreciate and understand why they are the way they are and how to tell a story with that. Nice video.
Coming back to this video after several months and in that time frame, I've been DMing a campaign that's very drow-heavy and has two drow PCs in the party. Getting into the messy house politics and shenanigans has been fun times, especially when I can say stuff like: "[Non-drow PCs], this is horrifying and you can feel yourself screaming internally. [Drow PCs], this is normal."
The societal functioning of the drow very much reminds me of North Korea, in particular North Koreans from Pyongyang. Thought control, indoctrination from birth to the grave, and not being able to trust anyone, (not even your own family in some defector testimonies,) are concurrent themes in both societies.
Another striking similarity is the state religion. In the case of the drow, Lloth, and for North Korea, the Kim dynasty.
I started as a NoKo Watcher back when I was in my early teens/tweens, and discovered the drow when I was about 15/16. Considering this I can now see how I find the drow so fascinating; when you describe fear as the primary motivation of the drow you reminded me of North Korea.
A good way to gain insight into the North Korean psyche (particularly their elite) is by reading "Without You There is No Us," by Suki Kim. I highly recommend it.
just my two cents. 😉
Drow are a really interesting race! The extreme power imbalance and the combined "hivemind" style thinking, while also not being able to really trust anyone is something else from the surface-societies and I like it.
How do you do it with the drow in CoS? I'm thinking they're a little more relaxed due to living such a long time without women, but at the same time they know they're being watched and still have their paranoia with them. Maybe a slight sense of disgust in their voice as they have to live under this "lesser" race?
The dusk elves definitely have a chip on their shoulder. But they're also very mournful. I haven't gotten that far into CoS yet so I haven't spent a ton of time coming up with my portrayal of them. But that gives me an idea!
@@RoleInitiative my players stopped by the camp to deliver the girl but never talked to the elves, so I'm super glad this video came out before that! They were in a hurry because the wizard was so stoked to meet the mad mage
Great video. My drow use a slavic/Eastern European accent, which sometimes gets a little too close to a bad Dracula movie. For me, I never allow a player who plays a drow to find a way out of their sunlight sensitivity. That would be like Superman without kryptonite. The roleplaying joy of a drow is how they balance their power with such a rough genetic weakness.
This video is really interesting! I'm currently making a Drow cleric. However, she was abandoned as an infant and raised by followers of Milil. So she's a cleric of the light domain.
That's a cool concept! Love to see how it plays out!
I'm making a drow bard....
Because I must annoy my teammates as much as possible.
I’m playing Kaia, a Cleric of Eilistraee (Life Domain) but she’s hiding her racial identity by covering up her skin and not being open with her party members. I’m so nervous playing a Drow but it’s so interesting! I loved Drow as soon as I read a comic about them.
Thank for this! I came here to flesh out some character thoughts for my DM. I have a half-Drow bard whose mother was a Szarkai spy. Her mom followed Eilistraee's call to the surface and fell in love with a human but was eventually hunted down and killed. She refused to tell her daughter about Drow life and slowly went insane before she was killed. So her daughter, the bard, is someone who can pass for half-elf (having inherited her mom's light skin and hair), knows almost nothing about the Drow but hates them anyway (along with the Drow half of herself), and knows she'll be hunted forever. She has plenty of charisma, but she's a very tortured character.
Awesome concept! Hope it's going well.
I'm low key excited for a half drow raised in the Underdark im gonna be playing in Pathfinder. Since the drow believe everyone superior, the only reason he wasn't killed or enslaved on the spot was simply that his mother saw potential in him, and, like Lolth, trains him the absolute hardest. As a test, she sends him to the overworld, with the sole objective for him to "gain strength". He couldn't be happier to leave, and my not even come back...
Playing a female Drow Paladin of Eilistraee makes interacting with other Drow interesting. After helping a town that was only occupied by Driders and scared children in a basement, we traveled to a nearby entrance to the Underdark knowing the adults were taken as slaves. Figuring the only way was to blend in, I pretended that my fellow adventurers were my slaves and somehow got an audience with one of the head honchos after saying I was interested in some male Drow slaves. That was right before this epidemic hit so I'm so anxious to get back to that table.
Damn that's a crazy cliffhanger!
@@RoleInitiative Oh yeah. She's already paranoid about all of the Lolthites she'll be interacting with and already stressed herself just pretending to be one of them. Eilistraee is my favorite Goddess and that RPing a follower makes me willingly walk into the jaws of the Spider Queen to save innocents makes it all the more interesting.
So basically the voice is every Imperial officer in Star Wars
A bad impression is a great voice!
Dude amazing! 20 year role playing veteran here and You sir have a voice for radio. I'd never say a face for radio waka waka. Anyways I'm going to post a link to this video so that my followers can see it and check you out! Keep it up dude.
-Tom
Hell yeah! And I wouldn't disagree with you if you said it. I'm shocked people can sit through these videos at all having to stare at me. Maybe they alt tab it.
@@RoleInitiative I'll keep my eyes open to what you've got cooking. :) It's a ways away but i plan to animate my weekly d20 stream and edit it into episodes. :-o Side note, one of my long running NPC's has a cooking show spin off on my channel :p
@@Gumbercules lol I'll check it out!
I actually play a Follower of lolth male drow, who was blessed/cursed with spider-like abilities, and a Gnawing hunger( he is a half drider), and in exchange for more sacrifices to lolth, he gains new abilities... As a Ranger/druid hybrid I am the scariest Thing in the dark, my character can be commonly seen tending to his spiders, they crawl into and across his skin, his body is kinda a spider nest, and the dm even says anyone who attacks me must make a DC 15 Dex save or take 1d8 poison damage and be paralyzed
I gave those RA Salvatore drow books a go last year, but they were pretty full on. So many proper nouns! I think the only thing I really loved was Lolth. She's a really interesting character.
She is super cool. I've read literally all the Drizzt books and I agree with you. Salvatore tells great stories, they just aren't the most well-crafted literature.
Try the War of the Spider Queen series wooooo
Been working on a character, she's a Drow Paladin Cinnamon Roll who was definitely NOT always good. She's a Paladin of Conquest so she wields Fear like a sword. She formerly was a favored of lolth but was Punished for speaking against her by making her mouth this disgusting row of fangs in place where a normal mouth would be, so she Wears this mask over her nose and mouth at all times. Afterwards she fled to the surface and turned for that moon goddess (idk how to spell her name). I plan to have her a new follower who's really struggling to adapt.
Don't worry, I don't know how to spell it either. Sounds like an awesome character!
I really wish they would make a movie series for the Drizzt series!
Same!
I'm starting a D&D campaign on Friday and I'm trying to get into character for my Moon Elf. She's a very Inquisitve Bounty Hunter. I'm aiming for a serious, sarcastic sort of tone to her. Similar to Yennefer's personality from The Witcher series. But I'm still new and just want to get even more immersed with any tips!
first time viewer here and ho-ly crap bro, that INTRO!!!!! Instant sub my guy, u got a hell of a voice!
Hell yeah! Sorry your first video post sub was that one of me singing hahaha. I promise real content soon.
I tend to imagine Drow voices as being breathy...more like a loud whisper due to their society of intrigue and subtly. Also I imagine rogue Drow, say like the followers of Ellistraee still "talk down" to others but instead of contempt, it's like a parent to a child.
The Drow really are underestimated as an evil race for roleplay opportunities. To be honest, I'd rather deal with the Drow than say the Orcs or Bugbears, or many of the other evil races because, despite their superiority complex and paranoia, the Drow are the most rational of the evil races and thus would be willing to work with the good guys to an extent if it means furthering their own goals (And so long as doing so doesn't piss Lolth off). At least one of the houses in Menzoberranzan, for example, has worked with and even bred with humans in an attempt to gain an edge: human power and physicality bred into the Drow gene pool meaning they retain their normal grace and agility, but now they have the raw strength potential of humans in the bloodline.
I am working on a replacement for the drow in my campaign world..thanks for refreshing my memory about the drow, in all honesty they wouldn't last long in my campaign world..they'll mouth off to the wrong group of assholes lol. Anyway a particular race of demons wiped them out, kind of like the drow but I will use your tips on how talk like them.
Currently playing an AD&D 2e Drow fighter. Yes blast from the past. Forgotten Realms setting around 700 DR. Dual weilder (Vorpal Katana's). Specialised Surface raider... Mithral armour & Adamantine swords. Double weapon specialisation. Character & campaign is seriously home brewed.
As a man who speaks like Fred Dibnah but plays a Drow, I found this incredibly helpful.
What a brilliant and comprehensive video. Thank you for this!!!
Also could you please do Wood Elf.
Currently playing a Cleric of Eilistraee and having a blast (Although I've always pronounced it EYE-lis-TRY-ee).
How are you liking it? I’ve just started playing a Cleric of Eilistraee, does your character extol her virtues everywhere they go, or do they only talk about it among tiger party members and important NPC’s?
@@jessieevans2389
On a plane where Eilistraee doesn't exist (Planeswalker Campaign) She started a Cult and became the New Drow Goddess "Isilme" after killing Lolth (who admittedly was all but powerless on that plane).
So yeah pretty good ;)
@@jessieevans2389
Also she got into a HUGE fight with the party when they wanted to sell a load of exotic meat we'd got and she wanted to give it to the poor.
@@GodlikePoet Woah! Lolth got her ass kicked! Very cool.
My character tends to hide the fact that she’s one of Eilistraee’s Clerics unless she’s in a small village, because people don’t seem to like it for some reason!
But she’s also trying to keep her Drow heritage under wraps too. She combats sunlight sensitivity with a Plague Doctor Mask.
It’s one of my most complicated characters. 😂
Great video! So glad I just happened to stumble upon your channel. You just earned a new subscriber!
So glad you enjoyed it! Stick around, there's more in the pipe!
I voice act my drow characters which I have two in Adventure League...one is a member of House Xorlarrin and is extremely powerful Necromancer. The other had his house taken over by House Faen Tlabbar during the chaos of The Rage of Demons and he now resides in the city of Waterdeep as a Assassin for hire🕸🕷💯
That sounds amazing! Have they taken any good jobs yet?
Role Initiative well Tath’myr Xorlarrin who is a cousin to Matron Mother Zeerith and a 20th level Necromancer is currently a top rank of Lion Crown member of Lords Alliance and is quite evil with scheming and manipulation but works with other adventures on his nefarious goals. He’s Lawful Evil and worshiper of Lolth.
Kron is a loan wolf who goes on mission and adventure to hone his shills or is hired for bounty hunting or is hired by individuals that want competition or problems remove personally for the right price in shadowy dealing as a gloom stalker assassin...he’s more chaotic neutral and worships Lolth But gives lip service to Vhaeraun🕸🕷💯
Sounds like my kind of drow!
I think Drows, if given proper worldbuilding, should have a unforgiving language with an insane derivation system and informal speech.
I wanna make a Drow who is from a high family house, but is a disappointment who was born as a male rather than a female. So his younger sisters get the say in the family. He is training to be a warrior at least since his matron mother wants him to rise in the ranks so they can become a powerful family. He freaks out easily in the underdark, is not a huge fan of fighting, has an inferiority complex and is constantly looking over his shoulder since his sisters have already tried to kill him. While trying to pray to Loth for strength, he finds a small silver flame and touches it, he discovers Elistraee and finds out that he can escape to the surface and never have to worry again. He follows his new Goddess' guidance to the surface, only to discover that he is in just as much danger above ground than below ground. But this life is better than the previous, he becomes a Cleric (artificer subclass cause I love science bois) and tries to spread the peace and word of Elistraee
I love this character already and I haven't even made them 🤣
Currently playing 2 Drow:
Mushie who was abandoned in the Underdark by his mother mathron mother and was then raised by Myconids
And Zilvvyll, a runaway noble son of a mother matron who's a cleric of Eilistraee.
Both are brothers and are complete sweethearts, hopefully two shining examples of how good the dark elves can be someday!
"then raised by Myconids" sounds like a good opportunity to be a Spore Druid!
@@RoleInitiative
He's a Spore Druid as well as Warlock. Eilistraee thinks he's cute so she's his patron. The pact is he has to be good and spread goodness and joy
I have a half doppelgänger half drow gunslinger who is a changeling but identifies as drow
Amazing voice, wish I had one like yours.😄
Thank you so much, this was very helpful. I'm having a hard time finding justification for my Drow Bard (college of lore) helping my BG, such as bardic inspiration or healing word. what are some incentives for him? subscribed!
Mutual enemies are a powerful tool for bonding!
He could be helping them so that he can call the favors in down the line when he needs them. "Remember when I told you about the thing? You *owe* me."
Loved it thanks
Awesome video! Can you do one on roleplaying and voicing Eladrin Elves?
I'll add it to the list!
I just can't see how it's possible to rp a drow. Like I just can't imagine a drow in the overworld, working with a party of adventures. Especially male drow
I mean unless of course u just copy paste drizzts story
1000th like :D nice work
🎉
I'm looking for some help with my Drow character.
I'm a male drow who is a grave cleric follower of the Raven Queen. For my backstory, I have a basic outline of a Drow who was shunned, particularly as a male, for having such an affinity for magic and learning. A dancer of the Dark Maiden Eilistraee saw potential in me and helped me to escape the underdark, and she turned me towards the Raven Queen because of the potential she saw. I am very new to DnD and I was wondering if anyone could help me with some specifics that could help my backstory and, in turn, my roleplaying. My alignment is neutral good (suggested by my DM). Any help would be appreciated!
Could you do a video on how to voice a Minotaur I’m creating a Celestial Warlock who made a pact with Kirin
That sounds awesome! I'll add it to the list!
I was thinking of making a male drow who fleed from the service and comes into contact with Eillistraae, but is still kind of a jerk, but not nearly as cruel as the typical drow. I am thinking maybe making him neaky character who wears a hood and gloves all the time or a magic based character who alters his appearance to not get attacked on sight. I'm not sure which one to do lol but due to my fondness of tarantulas drow are so intriguing to me, almost as much as dwarves and orcs.
An interesting idea came to mind when I started creating my Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. At first I thought about making him human and having a typical motivation for vengeance and after being beaten within an inch of his life, the power inside of him finally awakens and morphs him, having scales on his skin and even having claws. But after thinking about it and thanks to your video, I thought about making a Silver Dragon Drow, born in a royal family that would've been lost had the third generation not used a dragon as material for a spell. Growing up, he starts to grow silver scales and claws, even his right eye is a dragon-like blue. But I wanted to do something different, so the dragon cursed the family who used it as a sacrifice for when their generation obtains her power, they will never hear the voices of their goddess, which in turn meant that my character was his own person. Still arrogant and disgusted to other races, sure, but that's all he has in relation to the Drow and Lolth.
Edit: That was what I thought at first, but then I decided to go a bit more of a tragic take. One in which the humans, elves, etc., that were tired of the Drow had decided to raid a part of the Underdark in which the nearest Drow city was, in which my character would be taken and sold as a slave to endure torture for about 50 years straight, causing him to mainly have trust issues but a now fear of the dark and a persona of who he wants to be. 3 years later after his escape he would train under a gunsmith after being given a chance before having to leave in fear of being sent to prison and possibly executed. He now wears a mask and a hood to hide his identity and pretends to be a high elf in order to move about the world while building up his reputation, only to reveal himself once he feels he has done enough good in the world to redeem who he is and not what he is.
when i dm my drow refuse to talk to them unless the drow him/herself is a slave, they just let slaves speak with them. When i play drow i play usually a neutral evil vhaeraun drow, since most of the time we play not in the underdark. so i can play him like a drow but still be on the surface and don't be lolthlike.
One thing that has always bothered me in D&D is the Alignment System. I honestly cant stand that they label an entire Race/Species as Evil or any other Alignment.
Its not a thing in the real world, you can't look at Humans and go oh yeah they are all (Insert Alignment) We are self aware & have freedom of thought. We are cable of great acts of cruelty & compassion. We are not pigeon holed into any single Alignment IRL & I personally don't like to do it to the Races/Species of Creatures that my players are going to meet & interact with.
*Typical D&D Scenario - You see a camp of Orcs in the clearing ahead of you, what do you want to do.
*Players - Well Orcs are Evil so Ambush the camp, kill them & loot the bodies & the camp for valuable/useful items.
How is that fun or engaging RP?
It is literally the most generic response possible to the scenario.
If the Orcs can be anything like we are IRL, then attacking and killing the camp doesn't automatically become the first option on the table, those Orcs could just be a travelling caravan of traders willing to offer the party food and shelter for the night and a trade of their wares.
I agree with you. But with the drow canon, it's much more nuanced than that. Their leadership rules by fear, fear that's driven from their very evil goddess. Not every drow is evil, but they fear the repercussions of disagreeing with the very zealous and very violent theocracy. Therein you find a breeding ground for great RP.
@@RoleInitiative Thank you very much for the reply, I agree with you as Drow & their Lore are one of my personal favourite things in D&D. My current campaign that I am running is a full party of 6 Drow trying to fit in & survive up on the surface world. I have just personally never been a fan of how creature alignments work in the D&D systems. Some of my best NPC Characters that my Players love have been things like Goblins & Kobolds that were not evil.
Edit, I have only just found your channel & I will definitely be binge watching all of your videos, I will also be recommending them to my players to watch for inspiration when they create their characters.
@@tootyfrooty7604 hell yeah. Hit me up on Twitter if you ever want to argue about D&D stuff. Keeps me from having to do real work :P
This was a great video. Your voicing is amazing, and kudos for touching on the fear which underlies all drow psyches.
But you really should have given time to Vhaeraun, the actual god of the reconquest of the surface. His faith is many times more relevant and widespread in drow society than Eilistraee's, which doesn't really exist in the Underdark. Vhaeraun however, still allows for being "drow-ish". The majority of drow on the surface revere Vhaeraun, and he's all about a conquest driven society. Think League of Shadows, from Batman. He also allows for being a Lawful Evil drow, but not breaking up the party.
To be honest, Eilistraee isn't really playing a drow, IMHO. It's trying to have the edge factor without paying the price. That said, when i played a Priestess of Eilistraee it was super fun.
I've played a Priest of Vhaeraun, and a Wizard, and also a Priestess of Eilistraee and of Lolth. All were really fun characters.
I agree with your third paragraph so much!
@@RoleInitiative yeah, that's generally been my experience with the 1000's of Drizzt clones and followers of Eilistraee.
Generally, i prefer GM's who forbid such good drow Drizzt clones. I know that GM's should facilitate and guide rather than forbid material, but it's always more rewarding when players put thought and originality into characters.
ah why did i choose drow for my first ever in-person dnd... i have zero experience
Nah man drows are Australian.
Why are the Drow so evil?
They just do it for the Lolth.
Could you do a video on voicing Vhaerau
I'm not sure how to do a whole video for a god. I'd imagine a combination of sinister and booming?
@@RoleInitiative apologies and thanks for the reply. Sorry if my request was odd. I just have a player who wants to use that particular god and didnt know if there was a sort of standard for how to bring his personality and voice to life but Ill wing it. Thanks again for the quick reply!
All of my drow have Russian accents.
how would a half drow work?
Well see, when a mommy human and a daddy drow love each other very much...
@@RoleInitiative lol, I meant stat wise
there are secret factions devoted to the downfall of the spider godess... just sayin, no need to take a stereotypical approach to your renegade or even a decidedly good approach. I read most of the darkelf trilogy and something about drizzt just didnt feel right... its like reading the tale of a white male trying to conceptualize what it would be like to be stuck in a minorities skin armed with only the rumors of the culture so naturally, he wants to join something he should be unfamiliar with... or maybe I just have some unspoken ideas