Character Skin Color Limitations

[Waldo52]

I recently tried making my first drow character. Before anything I read through the forgotten realms wiki because I wanted to make sure I picked a skin tone that was acceptable for a member of the race without being jet black.

Drow do often have black skin, but individuals with shades shades of blue and dark gray exist (just look at some of the default portraits for some beautiful alternative skin tones!). Pale albinos even exist. I went with a darker gray shade because it just looked right, but once I was in the game my skin was changed to black.

Assuming this wasn't a glitch or a change in lighting from the character creation screen to the actual game, I have to assume this was some sort of skin color code that was added to Arelith to enforce flavor. If that's the case I really understand that the devs have their hearts in the right place, and I'm against being able to play a metal skinned human or a bright purple dwarf, but in this case the color blocking felt a little over-zealous and restrictive.

Some of the underdark races start off completely uncustomizable due to game art limitations. To place strict aesthetic limitations on the other ones when those limitations go against Forgotten Realms lore feels a little iffy to me.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

Isn't there a skin colour changer in the character setup area?

[Waldo52]

LOL WUT

I had no idea.

[Sincra]

There are. Check the mirrors.

[Void]

LOL WUT

I had no idea.

The mirrors can change skin and tattoo. Go purple! (/joke)