Drow Creation:Templates

One of the most important aspects of any role playing game is a balanced character role system. Often times this is referred to as a characters "class" or "profession." At first appearance class based systems can be artificial and restraining to free wheeling players who wish to have complete control over the type of characters they want to play. There have been a number of games that gave players differing degrees of latitude as to which type of skills they developed. Often the result of this was the development of one or two "super" character templates. In traditional pen and paper games that operate on a class based system each class has a distinct advantage and disadvantage. This forces cooperation and group adventuring where the party must struggle to overcome the not only the challenges of the game environment itself, but the limitations of each of the characters within the party. The subtle class restrictions actually serve to enhance the enjoyment of the game and attract more players who envision their character in one of these roles.

The four classes are covered below. Every attempt was made to construct class templates using the UO skill model that would replicate the single and multi-classes that the Drow were. Below each specific class description a number of items are covered including gender restrictions (if any), primary class skills which represent one or two skills that a character must advance in order to be considered a member of that class. The Secondary skills provided different subsets of skills that would round out and compliment that particular class. To be granted a class title a character must advance to a certain level in both the primary skill(s) and choose and develop some of the secondary skill options. All players are free to choose additional skills as they see fit to complete their characters development. Naturally some skills and combinations of skills will make more sense than others. It should be noted that some classes are actually single and others are multi class (a combination of two classes). If a character is attempting to develop in a multi-class role then they must meet the qualification levels for both classes as listed. In some cases a multi class character may have its own specific skill hurdles that together don't mirror the two single classes. In some instances model templates were provided as ideas for character class skill development.

Class: Warrior
Frequency: Common
Gender Restrictions: None
Primary Skills: Tactics
Secondary Skills: Choose any combination
Option 1: Melee Weapon, Parrying. Archery (common)
Option 2: Melee Weapon, Parrying (uncommon)
Option 3: Melee Weapon, Archery (rare)
Additional Skills: Healing, Anatomy, Poisoning*, Resist*, Hiding*, Tracking, Detect Hidden, and any other as desired by player.
This was the most common Drow class encountered and represented the vast majority of all encountered outside of the Vault. One of the trademarks of a Drow warrior was the ability to attack with both melee and missile weapons. However its clear that the missile weapons where generally used first and then most warriors would close for hand to hand combat using a buckler and their shortsword or long dagger. The templates that were suggested above represent typical skill combinations the Drow had. Most Drow would have some degree of all three combat skills while at times other Drow might use the equivalent of option two or three. In this situation those Drow who develop other skills including posioning or tracking would still fall into this category though they would represent more specialist fighters.
A typical (non specialist fighter) template might look like this and the skill portion is based on the concept of taking and dividing the total number of skill points into two groups. The first group would have 100 skill points devoted to the three skills in it. The secondary group would represent five secondary skills with 80 skill points as a base assigned to each skill. Then depending on what type of fighter you would like to develop pick and choose your skills as needed. Strength: 95 - 100 Dexterity: 95 - 100 Intelligence: 25 - 35
Template One: Multi Purpose Fighter (Baseline template)
Tactics (100) Resist (80)
Swords/Fencing (100) Hiding (80)
Archery (100) Healing (80)*
Parrying (80) Anatomy (80)*
* If healing and anatomy are at least 81 its possible to raise dead with bandages.
Now depending on what kind of fighter you want to have move around the skills. For example if you prefer to have one that is more melee focused shift Parry to the 100 skill point slot and move Archery to one of the 80 skill point slots. When looking at the five secondary skill slots points can be traded from one skill to another. For example if 80 hiding is more than sufficient it could be reduced by 15 to add 15 skill points to another skill. The secondary skills should range from 60-100 skill points per with say 2 skills being less than 70.

Class: Warrior-Mage
Frequency: Uncommon
Gender Restrictions: Male
Primary Skills: Tactics, Magery
Secondary Skills: Choose any combination
Option 1: Melee Weapon, Parrying (common)
Option 2: Melee Weapon, Archery (uncommon)
Additional Skills: Anatomy, Healing, Eval Int, Meditation, Poisoning*, Resist*, Hiding*, Tracking, any other as desired by player.
The typical Drow Warrior/Mage represented a balance between the two classes. While not as frequently encountered as Drow fighters this class of Drow was generally found in larger groups and was generally in a number equal to 10% of the total number of Drow encountered. They had a small number of magic user spells and carried a buckler and melee weapons to fight with. From a stat/skill standpoint the following template is probably the closest representation in UO to the Gygax Drow fighter/magic-user. Strength: 90-95 Dexterity: 85-90 Intelligence: 40-50
A good base template would include a balance. Keeping with the Drow basic skills, the following templates would work well:
Template One: The Warren Poisoner
Tactics (100) Healing (80)
Fencing/swords(100) Hiding (80)
Anatomy (100) Magery (80)
Poisoning (80) Resist (80)
This shows a player who can poison weapons without fail, deliver lethal doses of posion by spell, cast powerful magic spells, and ressurect with a bandage, while still retaining the Drow abilities of concealment and resist magicks.
A fighter/magic-user would not typically be found in the immediate front lines but rather closer to the center or rear of a combat group giving them the ability to make use of their spells before entering melee combat. Each Warrior/Mage is highly unique and rare.

Class: Cleric
Frequency: Uncommon
Gender Restrictions: Female
Primary Skills: Choose any combination
Option 1: Anatomy, Healing, Magery (limited) (common)
Option 2: Magery (extensive) (uncommon)
Secondary Skills: Mace Fighting, Parrying
Additional Skills: As desired
Clerics are the leaders of female Drow units and rarely encountered alone without a group of female fighters. They provide magical support and protection to the Drow around them with their clerical spells. While the UO spell system isn't geared toward a division of magic spells i.e. magic user spells and clerical spells a cleric should typically cast spells that aid/heal/cure the Drow around them. The degree of spell casting ability that a Drow cleric has depends on whether or not they have a high level of healing ability with bandages. For those Drow clerics who choose option one the expected level of spell casting ability would be limited and should be sufficient to cast fourth circle spells on a regular basis (this would be approximately 60 magery). This is offset by their ability to raise dead with bandages (high healing and anatomy). For those characters who choose option two while a high level of healing and anatomy is not required they should have enough magery and mana to cast the resurrection spell. They also carry maces and bucklers for close combat fighting,and have a degree of spell casting ability. From a stat/skill standpoint the following template is probably the closest representation in UO to the Codex:True Drow Cleric. As you will note the stat distribution is almost identical to what a fighter/magic-user's template looks like.
Strength 95 Tactics Magery (limited)
Dexterity 85-80 Mace Fighting Healing
Intelligence 40-45 Parrying Anatomy
Strength 95-90 Tactics Magery (extensive)
Dexterity 85-80 Mace Fighting Healing (optional)
Intelligence 40-50 Parrying Anatomy (optional)
This also assumes that the character would have a high degree of natural skills including hiding and resist. As with the other spell casting classes a Cleric would not typically be found in the immediate front lines but rather closer to the center or rear of a combat group giving them the ability to make use of their spells before entering melee combat.

Class: Warrior-Cleric
Frequency: Rare
Gender Restrictions Female
Primary Skills: Choose any combination
Option 1: Tactics, Anatomy, Healing (common)
Option 2: Tactics, Magery (extensive)
Secondary Skills: Choose any combination
Option 1: Melee Weapon, Parrying (common)
Option 2: Melee Weapon, Parrying, Archery (uncommon)
Additional Skills: As desired
One of the rarest of Drow that maybe encountered the Warrior/Cleric was a multi class character who had attributes from both classes. This was the most difficult class to translate into UO. While the Drow Clerics and Warrior/Clerics had spell abilities (see discussion under cleric above) its not always possible in UO to have that many skills. To try and adhere as close as possible to what was represented in the source material a Warrior/Cleric would be only required to have extensive magery ability OR enough Healing and Anatomy skill to resurrect. In some cases a Warrior/Cleric would make use of a missile weapon but this was rare. The preferred choice of melee weapons were maces and buckler. If a Warrior/Cleric character does have spell casting ability then its likely that they will not have any type of missile weapon skills. Regardless a Warrior/Cleric would not typically immediately be in the front lines. Instead they could be found behind the front fighters directing combat and assisting with spells or missile weapons, closing for melee as needed.