Not Used: Underdark races...

Apparently we have drow. But drow are not supposed to be harmed by sunlight, sunlights merely hinders their eyesight and fatigues them, and nothing more. All servers I know of either do nothing or add these hindrances to drow. In addition I noticed that two other popular underdark races are being unused.

Duegar are a militaristic race of dwarf that lives in the underdark, they are usually of lawful, neutral or evil alignments. They have all the traits of other dwarves except for their psionic immunities. Duegar, like drow and svirfneblin do not like sunlight as it hinders their vision and fatigues them.

Svirfneblin are a chaotic good race of gnome adapted to the underdark. They have psionic immunites and abilities as well as natural spell resistances and immunities. They tend to have a great hatred of drow and mindflayers, who tend to keep them as slaves and view them as inferior races. Svirfneblin like drow and duegar have the same traits involving sunlight.

I find it odd though that even though duegar can be found of neutral alignments just as often and more so than evil alignments that many servers add a touch of prejudice and state idiotic things like 'all duegar must be evil because they live in the underdark' as well as 'drow live in the underdark, therefore they are evil'. Personally I'm more than alittle pissed that these servers claim to use a Faerunian or Greyhawk setting yet design the entire world around idiotic prejudices and stupidities that could only be found in the most heartless, calluos, stupid, bible reading redneck.

So... could drow be changed back to what is stated in player and monster manuals, as well as the duegar, and include duegar and svirfneblin as playable characters? (think of what a svirf slave would have to say about life on the surface world and his opinions on other races? what would they say about other elves? dwarves? so forth, a good roleplaying experience in my opinion)

Btw, of all mundane races, svirfneblin have the highest exp penalty due to their large amount of resistances and enhancements. Humorously, they also have the highest Charisma penalty I know of, -4, thats alot!

Drow, as a PC subrace, gain powerful feats and bonuses right away. The actual damage by sunlight reflects my interpretation of how to actually penalize them in daylight, rather than a rather minor penalty to attack rolls.

Of course, if you have enough money and luck to find a lesser ring of regeneration, that "skin reaction" is basically overcome.

As far as differences from the "official books"...Aenea is a different world than FR or Greyhawk. The drow (mostly) follow Sorgath instead of a spider goddess. They aren't matriarchal (they're equal-opportunity baddies). While there are exceptions (such as many PCs and that drow in Calithia), most are evil, since that's how they've all been raised for 100+ years of their lives. The -10 to Appraise reflects the general public's dislike/distrust of drow, but still show a willingness to interact with the dark-skinned elves. Half-drow are evidence that some humans really like drow...

With the deugar and deep gnomes...I just haven't had incentive to put them into many areas of Aenea (since the Underdark isn't a major part of the world at large). For PC subraces...maybe in the future.

Not all drow, evil or not, follow the Spider Goddess in FR or Greyhawk, as there are many many drow deities, almost all of which are evil.
Also not all drow are matriachal in FR, such as the surface drow that live in Chondath and the Chondal Wood.
Finally, a -10 appraise isn't as useful as other penalties that would be more logical, like the dimplomatic skills, appraise is knowing a items value when selling and buying, not actual speech and behavior.

I suppose much of what you say does make some degree of sense though... but drow characters that are new and have a primary class that gives 6 or less hit die aren't liable to survive in game well.

The - 10 appraise can be a real killer, especially at low levels when a character's gold is mostly spent on healing potions and new equipment. Even at higher levels, that -10 can equate to a difference of many thousands of GP when selling loot compared to a character without that penalty.

The HP issue isn't really that bad. 1 hp per round might be a real danger to a wizard or sorcerer, but it's easy enough to overcome. Shadowchildren and vampires have it a great deal worse in regards to sundamage (25% max HP per round for vampires, I think 5% max HP? for shadowchildren). I've had both a vampire wizard and drow sorceress who survived fairly well at the low levels.

Yes it's 5% of max HP for shadowchildren, per round... and the annoying inconvience of "combat with the sun" during the daylight hours... meaning you stop mid-run, you can't mount-up, some times "Your too busy to talk", and a whole host of other little oddities... all of which you can adapt to play with, they make sense when you figure the sun is literaly ripping your misty form apart and are well worth the bonuses the sub-race gets.....