D&D 5E Do you think they will go back to driders being a curse instead of a blessing?

[steeldragons]

... if being a drider is a show of having been directly blessed by Lolth, that also should mean that driders have any right to be the most prominent "persons" of the drow society (beside Lolth priestessdom), and that doesn't seem the case to me.

Just a thought thrown in the discussion...

Just to further the thought...converselywise*, wouldn't that blessing mean that all of the highest/most powerful/best drow priestesses would be driders themselves?

* I know this isn't a word...was something the Mad Hatter said, I think.

 

[Johnny Champion]

I always thought the transformation to a drider would be considered repugnant. The drow are after all elves, viewing themselves as beautiful to behold, and to become a bloated spider, hideous to family and loved ones, would be quite a curse. I thought this original lore interesting and did not strain my imagination. It made the drow more 'human' in their sensibilities, though they worship a demon spider, the thought of becoming one is abhorent. Ultimately, there is nothing to say that both lores couldn't be true; that in one drow community, their worship of Lolth is so intense that many aspiring drow volunteer or even compete to become driders. Where in other communities, where no one volunteers, Lolth forces this on the least capable. In both cases, Lolth and her clerics require a certain level of driders, one way or another.

 

[jrowland]

I imagine with the perspective 5e is taking on lore, I'd be betting on it being "both."

I think that's likely a given only if Drider appears in the Monster Manual. Language that says "some view the transformation as a curse, some as a blessing. Some driders even breed true" is likely going to be there.

However, I also see a Forgotten Realms Product or Greyhawk Product being much more definitive in those cases.

 

[ambroseji]

I expect that the monster manual will describe both sorts of drider. As many people have said, there is room for both cursed and blessed drider in the same game, let alone different campaigns or settings. I think WotC is on an inclusive/modular path with monster lore.

 

[The Human Target]

I mean, even if it is a blessing that doesn't mean all drow are going to want it.

It has its drawbacks.

I kind if view it as being like any of the number of "gain power but at a huge cost" baddies from fiction.

Like say The Steel Inquisitors from Mistborn.

So maybe the high level drow priestess isn't going to want to transform into one, because she's already powerful and blessed.

And Lloth probably wouldn't want to transform her anyway, because she's already a useful tool.

But turning a lower level make warrior who gained her favor into one?

Males of all warrior types are probably the prime candidates.

 

[Alzrius]

I hope that they go back to driders being considered a curse.

I always saw the drider transformation as a punishment because it was reflective of the punishment Lolth went through herself. She wasn't always a spider-with-an-elven-head deity; she used to be a beautiful elven goddess before she lost her war against the Seldarine, and she was cursed by Corellon Larethian to be a demon and to have that shape.

Her transformation of "failed" drow into driders is her re-enacting the punishment she suffered, where she now gets to be the tormentor instead of the tormented. I always saw that as being very apropos of her nature.

 

[Ichneumon]

It's whispered that when Lolth gets really mad, she transforms an errant drow into a flumph. Compared to this, driderdom looks like a blessing. The flumphs have been asked about this rumour, but they don't like to talk about it.

 

[Shemeska]

I hope that they go back to driders being considered a curse.

I always saw the drider transformation as a punishment because it was reflective of the punishment Lolth went through herself. She wasn't always a spider-with-an-elven-head deity; she used to be a beautiful elven goddess before she lost her war against the Seldarine, and she was cursed by Corellon Larethian to be a demon and to have that shape.

Her transformation of "failed" drow into driders is her re-enacting the punishment she suffered, where she now gets to be the tormentor instead of the tormented. I always saw that as being very apropos of her nature.

Precisely.

 

[Incenjucar]

I like the idea of a backhanded blessing. "Lolth's Mercy" or the like. It needs more twists and details to explain why the driders don't just go and rampage on the drow ceaselessly, and to give a path for driders to "get over it" while still fitting lore. I think a lot of it is that the cursed aspects start getting out of child-friendly range rather quickly. One of the major penalties is either effective celibacy or EW.

--

It would actually be interesting if they also had driders with different abilities based on what part of the test they failed... with one of the tests including how they deal with someone they had grown affectionate for.

 

[Sunseeker]

I had always been under the impression that it was both, and I've always liked it that way.

There were driders who were monstrous, beast-like creatures with little sentience and lots of cruelty and hate. These were drow who failed one of Lloth's tests or displeased/angered her in some way.

Then there were driders who were simply their same drow self with their legs replaced by a spider body. These were drow who passed on of Lloth's tests or did some other deed that pleased her.

Lloth herself is often portrayed as a drider and I like the duality of the potential existence of a drider. She makes you in her own image: twisted, cruel and violent. Or she makes you in her own image: twisted, cruel, but "beautiful", etc.. That always struck me as a very "Lloth" way of doing things and befitting for drider creation.

I even recall 3.X having art of both kinds of driders.