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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 6280172">Curses often provide some boon in exchange for a high price.  And the fact that curses are more plot devices to make a moral point, the "price" is usually one that builds up over time or the bearer of the curse finds out is a lot harder to deal with than they thought.Vampirism for example: eternal youth, heightened senses, increased strength, speed, resilience BUT you can never go out in the sun again, silver can kill you, garlic is poisonous, you can't enter a home uninvited, you can't cross running water more than 3 feet deep, and of course, the eternal hunger for blood (in some cases as limited as unbaptized virgins).  At first you seem to get a great deal of benefits, but then you start realizing how hard it really is to protect yourself from the sun, how rare it is to find an unbaptised virgin, avoid silver and garlic, and there's always the hunger.For a drider lets see:You gain great strength, you gain new abilities (bite, spiderclimb, perhaps a stinger or webbing depending on the material), large size (and it's associated bennies and drawbacks), and assuming you don't lose your mind, a revered place in Drow society, however....Large size has it's drawbacks (not so stealthy anymore), no lower half means no mortal pleasures, and you are essentially now in the "public eye" of drow society which just makes you a bigger target for all those murderous little ursurpers.  You require custom armor (which may not matter depending on your wealth) and disguising yourself becomes incredibly difficult (but not impossible).  I'm not sure if driders get any sort of extended life, but elves are pretty long lived as it is.The biggest point and of course the moral of many stories about curses-that-seem-like-blessings, is that in the short run, it's a big gain, but in the long run the curse is indeed a burden.I disagree, I think the handicaps have always been there, they just more socio-political than mechanical, which are harder to express in games that aren't running a by-the-book Drow society.  Of course if you're running the sort of game that allows player Driders, Vampires and Werewolves, I doubt you're much concerned with the penalties.  Such games can be quite fun, but they have a very, very niche place in D&D gaming.The Drow of the Underdark book has the spell "Dridershape" <a href="http://dndtools.eu/spells/drow-of-the-underdark--93/dridershape--1127/" target="_blank">http://dndtools.eu/spells/drow-of-the-underdark--93/dridershape--1127/</a></blockquote>

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