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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CM" data-source="post: 6279487" data-attributes="member: 18340">Here's a relevant passage from the 3e "Drow of the Underdark"In recent years, however, this attitude has begun to shift, particularly within the current generation of up-and-coming drow. Breaking free of the shackles of tradition, and seeking advantages their forebears would never consider, these drow have taken stock of drider abilities. Their transformation might have been a punishment from lolth, but it also grants them substantial physical and mystical power. Is it possible that while Lolth was castigating an individual, she was also granting a favor to the community as a whole? That a drow who proved too weak on his own could be a workable tool for other drow strong enough to seize and wield it? These drow have made overtures to the exiled driders, offering them an opportunity to belong once again. Obviously, they cannot regain their prior status and can never be considered the equal of true drow, but they can fill the roles of favored servants and agents, with powers and privileges greater than other non-drow in the community. The driders, of course, are greatly suspicious of this sudden shift in attitude, but a few have taken the drow up on the offer--and found it, in many cases, preferable to eking out a lone and savage existence in the wilds of the Underdark. Should this pattern continue, members of the younger generation of drow might find themselves at the head of sizable bands of driders, eagerly champing at the bit for a chance at revenge against the entrenched drow power structure that drove them out.I think one not-insignificant motivator for turning driders into a blessing rather than a curse was that, as a cursed freak, their novelty seems kind of wasted--you wouldn't see driders mixing with drow. Driders in a drow warband on the other hand makes things more interesting from a visual and tactical perspective, and 4e was big on visuals.The reason I like the quote above is it's a compromise. Driderism is still a curse, but it gives a reason to see those cool drider miniatures out on the table since they're no longer necessarily societal outcasts. The individual's failure is still a benefit to the community.</blockquote>

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