Drow of the Underdark?

[Pants]

The very first drow in D&D didn't worship Lolth. They might be a tiny group, but they're historically very significant. The Vault of the Drow was originally presented as a battleground between the Church of Lolth and the Cult of the Elder Elemental God.

While it might have been an editorial mandate to ignore that on this book, it was a bad call, IMO.

The Elder Elemental Eye is mentioned, albeit very briefly.

 

[Arnwyn]

It's mediocre. The first chapter is fantastic IMO, giving very good details on drow society and culture that is reasonably consistent with everything that has come before (including why drow dress the way they do). The only disappointment is the lack of detail (pretty much not even mentioning in any noticeable degree) on all the other drow deities. (Though this only slightly disappointed me, as I own all the FR drow-related material - and the FR drow are the superior versions. Yeah, that's right, I went there.)

The feats were okay to poor, with only a couple worth giving to drow antagonists, and the rest being woefully weak and worth only ignoring, IMO. The prestige classes were all underpowered (again, totally IMO) and I'll likely never look at them again. The feats worth taking were cool, though. The spells and magic items are also decent.

The maps were universally terrible - except, luckily, for the map of Erelhei-Cinlu itself (whew!). The rest are just the FL series maps, which are simply blotches of color and some random lines. Ugly, boring, and useless. Christopher West's Maps of Mystery from Dungeon (hell, anything from Dungeon) are vastly superior in every single way imagineable. Wow, DotU had terrible maps.

Final note: Use of the idiotic internet-speak "buff" word was used in this published hardcover. Hey, whichever author vomited that out: improve your vocabulary, sparky.

[Sessler]A 3 ... out of 5.[/Sessler]

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Final note: Use of the idiotic internet-speak "buff" word was used in this published hardcover. Hey, whichever author vomited that out: improve your vocabulary, sparky.

At least the head-explode-worthy "gish" referring to generic caster-warriors hasn't made it into a book. Gish as gythyankis, that's fine. Gish as anything else, *head-explode*

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

It's based on Fred Weining's Dragon #298 article, somewhat expanded but with the drow deities other than Lolth excised (which is weird, since the rebellion sponsored by Kiaransalee-worshippers is a major part of its recent history).

I was disappointed the book didn't credit Fred Weining for his article. I only assumed that because they didn't credit him that they tossed his article under the bus and started new. *shrug*

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

At least the head-explode-worthy "gish" referring to generic caster-warriors hasn't made it into a book. Gish as gythyankis, that's fine. Gish as anything else, *head-explode*

"Buff" is a term without a commonly accepted synonym for an entire category of spell and is the kind of thing that both players and characters would come be expected to come up with a term to describe.

"Gish" is just some guys trying to kewl up D&D.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I was disappointed the book didn't credit Fred Weining for his article.

I concur. Even if they have the right to do so, it's tacky.

 

[dagger]

If you game in FR and own the other Drow books, just avoid this one.

Otherwise, it might be worth picking up if you don't know much about dark elves.

 

[rowport]

Swimming against the Stream

I am going to go against the general tone of this thread and say that Drow of the Underdark was *excellent*. Honestly, when I first bought it I was worried that an all-drow book could not carry enough variety of material, but was pleased to be wrong. The authors did a great job of going beyond pure drow information, and into lots of supporting material that would be very useful in drow encounters (or quite possibly, an Underdark-focused campaign). Most notably, the book includes all the many slave races of the drow, along with representative stats for the most-commonly encountered, and their battle tactics and role in drow society. (The only significant races missing here were Illithids and Grimlock, which I expect is because both were already detailed in other WOTC books.) There are also *lots* of stats for key drow in the fully-detailed drow city also included.

I will agree that many of the feats are underpowered, or at least uneven in their situational usefulness, but even then most are flavorful and just "cool" for drow characters. I especially liked that throughout the book sidebars show how Eberron or Forgotten Realm drow might be slightly different.

I am not sure that I would recommend the book to a player, since its utility for PCs is fairly limited. But, as a GM book, I think it is great. As a caveat, there is no doubt in my mind that it is intended to include enough detail to be a prep time-saver in a similar way to the new Expedition series encounter format; if you do not like the way that includes character stats the book might be too 'crunchy' for you. It was perfect for me, however.

 

[kreynolds]

I found Chapter 1 truly fascinating. The rest of book was fine. Not fabulous, but worth buying on special at Amazon. I too was disappointed at the lack of information regarding other Drow gods, and particularly, other drow societies. Guess the book I'm _really_ looking forward to then is something along the lines of Drow of Faerun.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Its a stinker. Worst WotC 3.5 product ever.

Get out of here! It's not that bad. And even if it were bad, there's still Champions of Ruin. Even a villain from a Mel Brooks movie would call that one ridiculous

Also give me Spider Queen worshiping Drow any day. all others Drow are just pathetic heathen outcasts!

Come and get some, Spiderkisser

Seriously speaking, IMHO Drow that don't worship Lolth are part of such a tiny minority that doesn't deserve a page of fluff

I have to agree, since the book was generic D&D. It would have been different in a Forgotten Realms book, where the rest of their pantheon is more than a footnote. And the mere fact that drow are the only sub-race that has its own pantheon (not just a deity or two).



The only thing I didn't quite agree on in DotU, as far as I remember, was the part where they told of drow using spiders as a main food source. Didn't fit well into the "a spider's life is worth more than a drow male's" part we heard earlier. But drow don't play by human logic, anyway, so it's not such a big deal.