Drow Arachnomancer (MToF)
The next 6 entries in this book are Lolth-cultist-Drow, you know the wide strokes by now: An evil, spider-worshiping, matriarchal society with severely implicative undertones. They live underground with a bunch of slaves, and like to backstab each other. I was thinking about merging the Drow into a single entry, in order to save space, but their entry would still be like 7 pages long, so I vetoed that option in favor of doing multiple posts.
While there have been Drow that defied this culture from the very beginning of the race, it wasn’t until relatively recently that WotC finally emphasized the non-Lolthite Drow.
Book Updates | Sage Advice | Dungeons & Dragons . It stands to reason that you could divorce the fluff from these following entries to make generic high threat humanoids. I will note where that would be easy.
As for right now, I will point out a universal change to the spellcasting Drow: They do not require material components for any of their spells. They still need to speak or use a free hand to cast spells, but you cannot disarm them from their wands or unholy symbols to limit their spellcasting options. This kind of change makes them only slightly easier to run (I’m sure a lot of DMs don’t actually keep track of spell components until someone tries to restrict them), but I feel that it ultimately reduces the options of PCs against such powerful foes.
Drow Arachnomancer
This isn’t your friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by any stretch. The Arachnomancer is, as the name implies, a Spider-Mage, and does a bang-up job of delivering on that idea. While you could remove the Drow parts of this stat block with ease, the spider parts are baked into the core. Fortunately, there is no shortage of spider themed stories you can tell if you are willing to bend webbing and threads into allegory.
In combat, the Arachonamer is a CR 13 melee controller with the ability to crawl up walls and webs. They are also shapechangers, with the option to be either a humanoid or a Large Spider. While their choice of form does not change their stats (other than size) it does enable different actions for their multiattack.
The Spider form has a bite attack that deals middling damage due to the fact that it requires an attack roll (DEX based) and a saving throw (CON based), and their highest stat is INT! At least the poison is the famous Drow poison that leaves a target paralized at 0 hp, preventing the target from jumping back up to fighting strength with just a Healing Word. As an alternative attack, they can use a ranged Web attack. It’s the same kind of Web attack as a Giant Spider, with a slightly higher escape DC, meaning you are looking to target a caster, who will eat up their action in order to escape the web. Warrior types at this level will use one of their many attacks and continue their assault.
The Humanoid form has a Poison Touch that just deals damage whenever it hits, no saving throw.
Either form can supplement their multiattack by casting a spell. Insect Plague can lock down a key chokepoint, and Dispel Magic is always handy. The rest of their spell list is handled better by allies (if you have another Drow in the fight, let them use Faerie Fire) or for running away and/or getting the ambush. Etherealness is the best one for these purposes. But redundancies are always nice, especially when they have to run away after setting up said ambush. You might even want to lead in with Invisibility just to save the other spells as an ace in the hole.
In the changeover, the Arachnomancer lost most of their spells. From 24 down to 9. Though to be fair, they used the Warlock spellcasting mechanic (also removed), meaning they wouldn’t have been able to use a large chunk of them anyway. To further divorce this mage from any PC class, they switched from using CHA as their casting stat to their much higher INT score. On the melee side, they lost their “sneak attack” bonus damage but gained a third multiattack, and gained the powerful ability to use their multiattack to cast spells.