Driders are opposite now: Discuss

[Appleseeth]

Am I the first one to notice this? I was flipping though the MM when the Drider Lore entry caught my eye. Apparently driders and the best of the best in drow society, as opposed to the shunned and unfit, as in, I don't know, every other version of this game.

Why do you think they made this change? I do realize that almost every drider version has been stronger than their drow counterparts. And that I'm just talking about flavour. It still seems strange that now, in the new Points of Light setting that all of a sudden driders are the best and command the drow.

Discuss!

 

[Simm]

Lolth take those she favours and remakes them in her image? If you think about it, ot was kind of wierd the other way.

"Oh look, a spider worshiping preistess has failed in the service of the spider godess. Now she will be turned into a spider/elf hybrid and we should all shun her."

Well nothing else about drow society made much sense so I suppose it worked the old way too.

 

[frankthedm]

IMHO being turned into a freaky spider mutate can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. Either way works, but the 4E way makes adding them to drow encounters easier.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Am I the first one to notice this? I was flipping though the MM when the Drider Lore entry caught my eye. Apparently driders and the best of the best in drow society, as opposed to the shunned and unfit, as in, I don't know, every other version of this game.

Why do you think they made this change? I do realize that almost every drider version has been stronger than their drow counterparts. And that I'm just talking about flavour. It still seems strange that now, in the new Points of Light setting that all of a sudden driders are the best and command the drow.

Discuss!

There was already a thread on this.

IMO this is a good change. Why would Lolth give driders power but also banish them? Thematically, I think they should always have been allies of the drow rather than enemies. (Note that, in the drow entry, the drow priestess has an ability that enhances spides and can also share damage with them.)

So, maybe this is different from every other version, but I think the other versions were bad. You didn't see driders often at all in printed adventures, as they were hard to introduce into a campaign as anything other than random encounters. (In fact, we did see one drider in one Drizzt book, and it was working for a priestess.)

Did it say driders were their leaders now, though? That's a bit weird.

 

[Mirtek]

. Why would Lolth give driders power but also banish them?

Just like her answer to her high priestress asking why she had to go through all of this, even with divine intervention from Lolth herself, if it all was for nothing: Just because

Lolth is also a deity of chaos, nothing she does has to make sense for our mortal minds.

Also Lolth's own form is a curse from Corellon, so making drider look like her is a curse and not a blessing. Otherwise Lolth always pretends that she's happy with her form, because she dislikes having to admit that Corellon's curse is stronger than her powers to undo it. Driders being the notable exception and basically Lolth admitting that anything else she tells about her form is just a lie. Why making such a confession with creating driders while still denying it in all other cases: Just because

 

[Branduil]

Just like her answer to her high priestress asking why she had to go through all of this, even with divine intervention from Lolth herself, if it all was for nothing: Just because

Lolth is also a deity of chaos, nothing she does has to make sense for our mortal minds.

Also Lolth's own form is a curse from Corellon, so making drider look like her is a curse and not a blessing. Otherwise Lolth always pretends that she's happy with her form, because she dislikes having to admit that Corellon's curse is stronger than her powers to undo it. Driders being the notable exception and basically Lolth admitting that anything else she tells about her form is just a lie. Why making such a confession with creating driders while still denying it in all other cases: Just because

A wizard did it.

 

[doctorhook]

I agree. It sorta made sense the other way, but it makes even more sense now, and as was already mentioned, it lets us include more variety in Drow encounters.

 

[Felon]

Am I the first one to notice this? I was flipping though the MM when the Drider Lore entry caught my eye. Apparently driders and the best of the best in drow society, as opposed to the shunned and unfit, as in, I don't know, every other version of this game.

Why do you think they made this change? I do realize that almost every drider version has been stronger than their drow counterparts. And that I'm just talking about flavour. It still seems strange that now, in the new Points of Light setting that all of a sudden driders are the best and command the drow.

Discuss!

Not much to talk about IMO. Previous editions of D&D typically had the party ganging up on any powerful monster. You only got big brawls with powerless mooks. In 4e, the party is basically constantly facing their evil counterparts. The 4e redesign choice was either to make driders solo monsters, or to incorporate them into some sort of group structure. I suspect it appealed to the designers to gie drow some monstrous components, just yu-anti have their big snake mutants and kua-toa have their big fish mutants.

 

[DracoSuave]

Not much to talk about IMO. Previous editions of D&D typically had the party ganging up on any powerful monster. You only got big brawls with powerless mooks. In 4e, the party is basically constantly facing their evil counterparts. The 4e redesign choice was either to make driders solo monsters, or to incorporate them into some sort of group structure. I suspect it appealed to the designers to gie drow some monstrous components, just yu-anti have their big snake mutants and kua-toa have their big fish mutants.

Then WHERE are our badgers for our Gnomes?

GNOMES NEED VOLE MINIONS

 

[Nifft]

Ah, 4e conforms to yet another of my house rules!

Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Cheers, -- N