>I'd like to point out that I love drow, because of the
>roleplay. I also like elves, which is why I'm wondering why CF
>goes out of the way to make these two races suck ass!

I guarantee I'm the worst player here, but I think I've found something suprisingly workable with my drow shaman. She has a fun role, and she even kills people, believe it or not.

>*Metal vulnerabilities are brutal, only bash is worse then
>mithril.

Protections really help, and you often can make people drop the weapon. I've never found mithril vulnerability to be insurmountable.

>*Intelligence is probably the least important stat in the
>game. High Intelligence is a convenience, not a deathly
>attribute.

I'm fairly certain it can mean the difference between life and death. Then again, I'm not completely informed about mechanics.

>*Perm sneak can be gained from an item, and a great deal of
>classes get sneak anyway... Not knockin perm sneak, it rules,
>just saying it's not a huge pro.

It is a huge pro, and that's probably why they want 500 exp for it.

>*Can't get 22 wisdom (even though half-drow can), check
>shaman.

Elves can learn 3 skills completely each rank. Do half-breeds?

>*This race is made for a spellcasting class, yet, no
>spellcasting class benefits from high dex. So the high dex (in
>my opinion) is wasted.

Shaman frequently fight, so I am assuming the dexterity helps. My drow has chopped people up many of times - even with a polearm, 1 on 1. More importantly, parrying and shield blocking are improved with drow. Also, you can carry a lot more trinkets.

>*The exp penalty is terrible.

Terrible, but I've had no problems ranking her at all. For such a frail creature, many of the scions, orcs and fire giants still depended on her to take blows. I would even think drow are better at it than dwarves, since they have more mana to heal, and get hit much less.

You could look at the penalties, thinking the IMMs simply hate elf/drow. But maybe it's a respect for the race that most of us don't yet appreciate. I still think Storm Giants get too much love, but guiltily, my crappy drow has killed them.

>Compare drow shaman vs dwarf shaman. Can someone explain? If
>the imms want to keep the number of drow down, they have
>succeeded. Picking drow is like shooting yourself in the
>foot.

She's never faced dwarves but she's had more success against storm giant shaman than they against her. This shouldn't happen at all if drow shaman are as inferior as you are saying.

I'd still bet my yen on drow over dwarf shaman, if the players are equally skilled. You want to get the first strike if you can, and drow are better at it because of the sneaking.

I haven't had any problems in the least, and I'm fairly incompetent at CF. I don't think it takes any skill to kill people with a drow shaman, because I've done it. I also have logs if you are curious.