Lolth's appearance

[The Shaman]

Sure, that's the point. Doesn't mean that's her true form though...

If that's the point, then who cares what her true form is?

 

[M.L. Martin]

Based on what I've seen of her MM3 writeup and other factors, I'd have to go with 'drow-headed spider' for the imagery of defeating her Drow Queen form and seeing it fall away like rags or burst open like a cocoon to reveal her hideous, bloated monstrous spider form . . . which retaining the head of her beautiful disguise.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

If that's the point, then who cares what her true form is?

Ah, so Llolth's hawt drowess form is like epic level "beer goggles." Except that the next day is a LOT more awkward.

 

[wingsandsword]

Taking that stance, beautiful-drow-woman-Lolth was an illusion or alternate form she liked to adopt; it was how she wanted to appear, even though it wasn't her real appearance.

This.

The form she chooses is one of the extremely beautiful female drow, probably with lots of spider-themed attire. If somebody is dumb enough to cast True Seeing around her or she's angry enough to show her true form, you're going to see the drow-headed spider abomination that will feast upon your soul.

So, I voted other on the idea that the form she chooses and will generally be encountered in (except in particularly serious combat when she sees herself in enough danger or is enraged enough to reveal her true form) is a female drow.

 

[Lord Zack]

If that's the point, then who cares what her true form is?

Well she's not always interested in tempting you. Sometimes she just wants to kill you. In that case there's no reason to conceal her more monstrous form.

 

[I'm A Banana]

A goddess of lies and treachery who reveals her true form shouldn't still be remotely attractive. The contrast between "beauty" and "beast" is not as effective if the beast is just going to take a few more beers.

But that's the lover of mythology in me. The marketer in me, who is aiming for D&D's teens-and-twenties dorky dudes demo, would want to put as many boobs all over every book as humanly possible.

"I don't wanna see five pages go by without at least one T&A shot! Breasts should be spilling out of this thing!"

I'm comfortable with WotC's current middle-of-the-road approach. Lolth still looks badass, and it's easy enough to change her to more horrific in the home games.

Edit: About the Drider Curse? I'm okay with it being both ways. Driders are cursed forms for failing the Goddess. The Goddess herself has this cursed form. It is the form she was cursed with when she betrayed Corellon and the rest. She doesn't like it. She doesn't want it. She does everything in her power to overcome it. Only those who erode her might enough so that she can't maintain her lies get to witness it. In order to express her contempt for those who fail her, she gives them what she loathes the most: this vile spider form. It wasn't a blessing when she was forced into it, it's not a blessing when she gives it to others. In this concept, the Drow themselves hate warping their bodies in any way (no tatoos, no polymorphs, kill those with birth defects), because their bodies are a sacred form. For Lolth to be robbed of that form -- or to rob another of that form -- is to steal from them their divine essence, the thing that makes life worth living, being a drow. Now they are some other hideous monstrosity, and this does not suit them at all.

 

[Alzrius]

The marketer in me, who is aiming for D&D's teens-and-twenties dorky dudes demo, would want to put as many boobs all over every book as humanly possible.

"I don't wanna see five pages go by without at least one T&A shot! Breasts should be spilling out of this thing!"

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to drool over subscribe to your newsletter.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I always assumed that as a god her form was malleable.

Certain bits are, anyway.

I prefer the hawt drow chick (the drawing from D3 above is the classic), but for the alternate form I prefer the drider.

 

[jaerdaph]

Other.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Other.

That would make this guy Lolth's consort: