D&D 4E 4e Drow predictions?

[Ridley's Cohort]

The spiders have always been more than a bit overdone...

I am not sure whether this was precisely Gary's vision, but the original Drow as depicted in G3/D1-3/Q1 were never all about the spiders. The point of the Drow is that they worshipped various demonlords. Demonlords are inherently highly variable and unpredictable.

The Lolth Drow were just one well done and detailed example of what Drow could be.

So one Drow city might be spidery. Another might be all about serpents. Another all about octupuses. Another gerbil badassness.

Deities & Demigods made Lolth the canonical Drow god. That sucked the fun out of Drow IMNSHO. Pity.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

The spiders have always been more than a bit overdone...

I am not sure whether this was precisely Gary's vision, but the original Drow as depicted in G3/D1-3/Q1 were never all about the spiders. The point of the Drow is that they worshipped various demonlords. Demonlords are inherently highly variable and unpredictable.

The Lolth Drow were just one well done and detailed example of what Drow could be.

So one Drow city might be spidery. Another might be all about serpents. Another all about octupuses. Another gerbil badassness.

Deities & Demigods made Lolth the canonical Drow god. That sucked the fun out of Drow IMNSHO. Pity.

I disagree... The spiders had and sill had something... an imagery of a patient schiemer, a trap. Someone cold-headed and manipulatibe and predatorial.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I disagree... The spiders had and sill had something... an imagery of a patient schiemer, a trap. Someone cold-headed and manipulatibe and predatorial.

Yes, spiders are a superb example of what could be done. Alien. Predatory.

But that is not sufficient reason to enshrine it a the True Way of Drow as Deities & Demigods implicitly did IMO.

There are other themes that work well.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Yes, spiders are a superb example of what could be done. Alien. Predatory.

But that is not sufficient reason to enshrine it a the True Way of Drow as Deities & Demigods implicitly did IMO.

There are other themes that work well.

I disagree - that - and perhaps the scorpions for a more exotic and outdoor versiom - are the best "totem" for an urbane, refined and truely decadant and corrupted culture like dark elves. You can't really find much better.

Demons-worshipers are ok, but even more overdone if you as me- this is a plot thing who harken back to the Bible.

 

[Traycor]

This actually brings up an interesting question. They have stated that the 4e MM will have over 300 creatures. Undoubtedly they are counting each instance of a certain race/creature into that 300 number. So if we are getting 3 kinds of drow, 2 types of ogres, 4 types of troglodytes, etc... those are all counting out of our 300. That means we could potentially have only 100-150 individual creatures in the MM (perhaps even less when you consider how many different stats a single dragon could have).

Scary thought. If that's the case then we will need MM2 in short order because players will get tired of fighting the same types of creatures over and over in a very short time.

 

[Novem5er]

This actually brings up an interesting question. They have stated that the 4e MM will have over 300 creatures. Undoubtedly they are counting each instance of a certain race/creature into that 300 number. So if we are getting 3 kinds of drow, 2 types of ogres, 4 types of troglodytes, etc... those are all counting out of our 300. That means we could potentially have only 100-150 individual creatures in the MM (perhaps even less when you consider how many different stats a single dragon could have).

Scary thought. If that's the case then we will need MM2 in short order because players will get tired of fighting the same types of creatures over and over in a very short time.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that. i really hope this isn't the case. How many monsters does the 3e MM have in it? The designers keep saying how each monster takes up less space because it has a smaller stat block, which can only mean there will be multiple monsters per page.

Which means we might end up with more than 300 individual entries... Wow, this will either be great, or really bad

 

[Wolfspider]

The Lolth Drow were just one well done and detailed example of what Drow could be.

So one Drow city might be spidery. Another might be all about serpents.

I think you might be on to something here....

 

[Goobermunch]

The vicious drow Warhamster.

Probably, it has some sort of demon or devil in it's ancestry.

This has some real potential, y'know. I think it's high time WotC did something truly new and visionary with their old game, introduced some original IP, and took things in a brand new direction we haven't seen before. Demondrow Warhamsters will lure so many people in who are tired of the old spider schtick, who feel that it has so much past connected with Lolth that they can't really get into it, and who generally think spiders are icky but hamsters are awesome.

It's been done. Spelljammer.

Although in fairness, in Spelljammer, the hamster link was with the gnomes . . . .

WAIT!! THAT'S IT!!!

Drow are the new gnomes!

--G

 

[WarlockLord]

Hey, my drow PCs worship Cthulhu.

What?

 

[Mighty Veil]

I could see them doing something lame like saying drow were simply a grouping of elves who worshipped Lolth when she was a "good" goddess. They refused to leave her when she got punished so were turned into drow. They probably won't even be CE, as we knew it. Putting a happy stamp on the dark elves.

I sure miss drow when they were just a bunch of elves who did a bad thing. Were pushed to the underdark. Lolth a *demon* offered them her "protection" and they became all twisted and evil, an unsaveable bunch.

You know it's funny in a way. 3e and 4e designers seem to agree their magic item system had a big hole in it. DM's were afraid to give monsters magic items, which those monsters needed to last more than a round, out of fears PCs would now have those magic items. Old school drow had that covered.