Children of the Forest:

Guide to Drow and Elven Enhancements

By Darkgolem

Drow and elves excel at careers involving finesse, quickness and skill.  With a gift for using ranged weapons, excellent spot and search ability, and reduced penalties with using armor while casting arcane spells, they are very good rogues, rangers and wizard-warriors.  Like all class and race combinations, picking enhancements that fit your character, carefully choosing how to accentuate your strengths and cover your weaknesses, can make your elven character just that much more powerful.

The Basics

A quick summary for those unfamiliar with the way enhancements work for DDO is in order.  First, you get 4 action points every level.  They are earned gradually as you work your way to your next level. You use these action points to purchase enhancements.  You much qualify for an enhancement to purchase it.  Enhancements require a certain amount of action points to already have been spent, less powerful similar enhancements and sometimes for you to have a feat, before you can purchase them.  Because of the requirements for various enhancements, you should plan on how you wish to spend your action points when you begin character creation.

Choosing Your Role

The roles that elves excel at are almost never those that involve taking damage without concern.  Certainly an elf can stand up in a face to face fight, but not as well as some of the other races available.  Because the complexities of the less “face to face” roles that elves often excel at are greater than those of the more stolid, “tank like” roles found, it is very important to choose carefully what enhancements fit the role you choose for your character.

The Bowman

Traditional, powerful and fun, the bowman is the classic elven character, able to cut down opponents before they ever get within reach.

• Dexterity – With ranged combat being the primary means of damage dealing, needless to say, this is a key enhancement to take.
• Elf Ranged Attack – Anything to increase the chance of hitting your opponents that one can do is of primary important to a bowman.
• Elf Ranged Damage – Ranged weapons sometimes don't do quite as much as melee weapons, this mitigates this issue.
• Keen Eyes – spot is a very important skill for a bowman.  If opponents can get close to a bowman on a regular basis, then the bowman's efficiency will degrade quickly, because of the cost of healing when opponents damage the bowman.

The Drow Assassin

Deadly warriors from the jungles of Xendrik, the drow assassin can quickly cut down an opponent in seconds with their agility and prowess.

• Drow Melee Attack – focusing on the use of rapiers or shortswords, a drow assassin can greatly increase the effectiveness of their melee ability using this enhancement.
• Drow Melee Damage – Just like the melee attack bonus, this is key for an effective melee ability for a drow assassin.
• Drow Spell Resistance – Since most of the melee or semi-melee classes are not especially resistant to the spells that spell resistance effects (such as hold person), this is an excellent enhancement to have, though not a guarantee of immunity to this type of magic.
• Dexterity – using a rapier and weapon finesse, this enhancement is an excellent way for a drow assassin to increase their melee efficiency.
• Enchantment Resistance – Similar to Drow Spell Resistance, this can make a drow assassin almost immune to spells that require will saves when both enhancements are combined.

The Warrior Mage

The combination of arcane and melee ability is well know within the Dungeons and Dragons game for elves.  The enhancements which are available to elves can make this style of character effective.

• Arcane Fluidity – This is key for a elven warrior mage to avoid spell failure.
• Elven Arcanum – the use of levels of warrior stunt the spell pool of the warrior mage.  Elven Arcanum assists in overcoming this liability.
• Dexterity – since a warrior mage must go toe to toe, this enhancement helps in keeping the mage alive in combat.
• Elven Melee Attack – to supplement the loss of a base attack bonus from taking levels of wizard or sorcerer, this enhancement is quite useful.
• Elven Melee Damage – while of the enhancements mentioned this is probably least critical, if points are available, take these too.

The Enhancements:

Name	Cost	Progression	Requirements	Benefit
Drow Melee Attack I	2	10	Level 4 Drow Elf	You gain an additional +1 bonus to attack rolls when using a shortsword or a rapier.
Drow Melee Attack II	4	32	Drow Melee Attack I, Level 10 Drow Elf	You gain an additional +2 to attack rolls when using a shortsword or a rapier.
Drow Melee Damage I	2		Level 1 Drow Elf	You gain an additional +1 bonus to damage when using a shortsword or rapier.
Drow Melee Damage II	4	20	Level 7 Drow Elf, Drow Melee Damage I	You gain an additional +2  bonus to damage when using a shortsword or rapier.
Drow Ranged Attack I	2	10	Level 4 Drow Elf	You gain an additional +1 bonus to attack rolls when using a shuriken.
Drow Ranged Attack II	4	32	Drow Ranged  Attack I, Level 10 Drow Elf	You gain an additional +2 to attack rolls when using a shuriken.
Drow Ranged Damage I	2		Level 1 Drow Elf	You gain an additional +1 bonus to damage when using a shuriken.
Drow Ranged Damage II	4	20	Level 7 Drow Elf, Drow Ranger Damage I	You gain an additional +2  bonus to damage when using a shuriken.
Improved Spell Resistance I	1	3	Level 2 Drow Elf, Drow Spell Resistance	Increases your spell resistance to nondamaging spells and effects, granting you SR 14.
Improved Spell Resistance II	2	18	Level 6 Drow Elf, Drow Spell Resistance, Improved Spell Resistance I	Increases your spell resistance to nondamaging spells and effects, granting you SR 16.
Improved Spell Resistance III	3	33	Level 10 Drow Elf, Drow Spell Resistance, Improved Spell Resistance II	Increases your spell resistance to nondamaging spells and effects, granting you SR 18.
Arcane Fluidity I	2	6	Level 2 Elf	Your arcane spell failure chance while wearing light armor is reduced by 5%.
Arcane Fluidity II	4	16	Level 6 Elf, Arcane Fluidity 1	Your arcane spell failure chance while wearing light or medium armor is reduced by 5%.
Arcane Fluidity III	6	30	Level 10 Elf, Arcane Fluidity 2	Your arcane spell failure chance while wearing light or medium armor is reduced by 10%.
Elven Arcanum I	1	0	Level 1 Elf	Grants elven wizards a 15 point increase to spell points.
Elven Arcanum II	2	14	Level 5 elf, Elven Arcanum 1	Grants elven wizards a 30 point increase to spell points.
Elven Arcanum III	3	29	Level 9 elf, Elven Arcanum 2	Grants elven wizards a 45 point increase to spell points.
Dexterity I	2	6	Level 3 Elf	Grants a +1 increase to Dexterity score.
Dexterity II	4	24	Level 8 Elf, Dexterity I	Grants a +2 increase to Dexterity score.
Phiarlan Stealth 1	1		Level 1 Elf, Least Dragonmark of Shadow	Grants a +1 bonus to the Hide skill.
Phiarlan Stealth 2	2	10	Level 4 Elf, Lesser Dragonmark of Shadow, Phiarlan Stealth 1	Grants a +2 bonus to the Hide skill.
Phiarlan Stealth 3	3	25	Level 8 Elf, Greater Dragonmark of Shadow, Phiarlan Stealth 2	Grants a +3 bonus to the Hide skill.
Phiarlan Steatlh 4	4	40	Level 12 Elf, Phiarlan Stealth 3	Grants a +4 bonus to the Hide skill
Enchantment Resistance I	1		Level 1 Elf	Grants a +1 bonus on saving throws against enchantments
Enchantment Resistance II	2	14	Level 5 Elf, Enchantment Resistance 1	Grants a +2 bonus on saving throws against enchantments
Enchantment Resistance III	3	29	Level 9 Elf, Enchantment Resistance 2	Grants a +3 bonus on saving throws against enchantment
Keen Hearing I	1		Level 1 Elf	Grants a +1 bonus to the Listen skill.
Keen Hearing II	2	10	Level 4 Elf, Keen Hearing I	Grants a +2 bonus to the Listen skill.
Keen Hearing III	3	25	Level 8 Elf, Keen Hearing 2	Grants a +3 bonus to the Listen skill.
Keen Hearing IV	4	40	Level 12 Elf, Keen Hearing 3	Grants a +4 bonus to the Listen skill.
Elf Melee Attack I	2	10	Level 4 Elf	You gain an additional +1 bonus to attack while using a longsword or rapier.
Elf Melee Attack II	4	32	Level 10 Elf, Elf Melee Attack 1	You gain an additional +1 bonus to damage while using a longsword or rapier.
Elf Melee Damage I	2		Level 1 Elf	You gain an additional +2 bonus to damage while using a longsword or rapier.
Elf Melee Damage II	4	20	Level 7 Elf, Elf Damage 1	You gain an additional +2 bonus to damage while using a longsword or rapier.
Elf Ranged Attack I	2	10	Level 4 Elf	You gain an additional +1 bonus to attack while using a shortbow or longbow.
Elf Ranged Attack II	4	32	Level 10 Elf, Elf Ranged Attack 1	You gain an additional +2 bonus to attack while using a shortbow or longbow.
Elf Ranged Damage I	2		Level 1	You gain an additional +1 bonus to damage while using a shortbow or longbow.
Elf Ranged Damage II	4	20	Level 7 Elf, Elf Ranged Damage 1	You gain an additional +2 bonus to damage while using a shortbow or rapier.
Perception I	1		Level 1 Elf	Grants a +1 bonus to the Search skill.
Perception II	2	10	Level 4 Elf, Perception I	Grants a +2 bonus to the Search skill.
Perception III	3	25	Level 8 Elf, Perception 2	Grants a +3 bonus to the Search skill.
Perception IV	4	40	Level 12 Elf, Perception 3	Grants a +4 bonus to the Search skill.
Keen eyes I	1	1	Level 1 Elf	Grants a +1 bonus to the Spot skill.
Keen eyes II	2	10	Level 4 Elf, Keen Eyes I	Grants a +2 bonus to the Spot skill.
Keen eyes III	3	25	Level 10 Elf, Keen Eyes 2	Grants a +3 bonus to the Spot skill.
Keen eyes IV	4	40	Level 12 Elf, Keen Eyes 3	Grants a +4 bonus to the Spot skill.

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