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How do you play a Drow character in Dungeons & Dragons when they have a different temperament to other races and physical differences such as light sensitivity?
I pretty much don't like Drow as a PC race except in an evil party. 99.99 % of them are evil. Drizzt is almost the only exception. It would be really difficult to play them in a non-evil party as a normal drow. Most play them as a good hearted drow that flees their evil society. It is truly difficult to make them not be a Drizzt clone. Again, most that play them do so because they admire Drizzt who is a very popular character. There just isn't much room to come up with a truly original character to me. I'm not saying it can't be done. Merely that it is rarely done.
I have a drow elf who is one of my favorite characters. HE is no Drizzit to be sure as he embraces his dark elf side at times. He is neutral and a fighter. He is over six feet in height and can grow a beard if he wishes *smile*.
I would play a drow any time, but I would make him a Drizzt clone. That character is one of a kind that stands above all others . But there is one character that can almost matches him and nobody is taking notice of him, the human rogue Artemis Enteri, who always wants to prove he is better than Drizzt.
My absolute favorite race to play. Always evil and always Underdark based. I have a thief/Assassin/Shadow Dancer who is a cannibalistic torture master. I have been in love with the drow since I first read Forgotten Realms.
You can definitely make a drow character work.
There's always ways to work around their sunlight sensitivity, but that's probably best handled through background story.
We have a drow in our party (Not evil) who has been on the surface world for near a 100 years (Through enslavement by a fire giant) and has adapted to its harsh light.
It's workable and I love the character itself.
And it's definitely no Driz'zt.
The dark elf that I made my characters after was named Dalamar from the DragonLance books. He was the apprentice to the primary "Black Robes" magician named Raistlin.
He wasn't weak and he definitely wasn't good. But he could see when helping the good characters in the book would result in a benefit to himself. So while he was definitely "Dark", he didn't let his evil nature stop him from doing "Good" things just because they were good.
If I recall, Dalamar didn't appear until the fourth book in the series. The first three books were what established Raistlin as a powerful enough wizard to merit having an apprentice.