Duergar: I'm shocked - a flavour change I really like!

[Raven Crowking]

Found it!

Anything closer to this: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=137567

or this in particular: http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2359076&postcount=7

is a step in the right direction.

RC

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

Edit: Wiki saves all.

I think there might have been a slightly different version in Races of the Wild, but it's been a while.

Also, Corellon is a player. "And then his three hot elven consort babes totally battled his former hot dark elven consort babe, before transforming into one super hot super elven consort babe."

 

[pawsplay]

We decided to do something a little more ambitious than making them “the drow of the dwarves,” so we took the half-fiend durzagon and made our 4e duergar more like that.

Anything related to the durzagon is the opposite of the way I would have gone.

Anyway, duergar were already not the drow of the dwarves. Dour, gray, psionic, rulers of their own realm. They had a cool thing going. Turning them into warpstone-sucking Chaos Dwarves does not work for me.

 

[TerraDave]

No.

The history of the Drow as I recall is that they were just elves, and they backed the wrong dude (Lolth), betrayed the elves. Then Corellan turned them all black, to reflect the darkness of their heart, and made them hate the sun. So they fled underground.

Edit: Wiki saves all.

Ah, it is hard to keep up.

Anyways, according to the same page, Loth is the "Demon Queen of Spiders". And demon is used over two dozen times.

AND, the Greyhawk origin is there...no Correllan. AND Loth didn't even exist in the Realms until latter. (she had an equivelent, but with a different name).

But apparently, yet another random origin was written. Decades after Loth appeared in print. Sorry.

As for the the drow origin, again from Wikipedia: "After the great war amongst the elves, the drow were forced underground in what is now known as the Underdark, a vast system of caverns and tunnels spanning much of the continent." There they worshiped a demon goddess. This is the standard story.

 

[Voss]

Even the abilities sound cool. Being able to turn invisible makes sense for a "stalkers who lurk beneath" sort of race, who wage war against other subterranean races and terrorize the surrounding countryside.

But they can do that now. It doesn't sound like they are changing the mechanics at all, maybe adding a few 'Speshul Powaz', but just adding some new throw-away fluff to explain why they're short tieflings instead of dwarves that aren't as kewl as drow.

 

[Rechan]

Also, Corellon is a player. "And then his three hot elven consort babes totally battled his former hot dark elven consort babe, before transforming into one super hot super elven consort babe."

Noticed that too, eh?

 

[Rechan]

Anything closer to this: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=137567

or this in particular: http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2359076&postcount=7

is a step in the right direction.

RC

I like the cut of your jab, good sir!

 

[Rechan]

Anyway, duergar were already not the drow of the dwarves. Dour, gray, psionic, rulers of their own realm. They had a cool thing going.

I think I agree with you.

I'm tempted to just leave them as they are, and perhaps toss in the Elemental Earth Evil fluff in there, giving them stone-moving powers.

Alternatively, it could be that these duergar in H2 are the devil-tainted ones, not all of them. I might rule that way, if/when I DM.

 

[paulsometimes]

Put me in the camp that likes the sounds of this. Still not enough to get me excieted about 4e, but a step in that direction.

 

[Pbartender]

Eh... I've never been all that fond of the excessive numbers of sub-races, especially those that seem to be delineated solely by alignment.

Why do I need Drow or Duegar or Svirfneblin, when I can just use Elves or Dwarves or Gnomes with an Evil alignment, the appropriate levels is Rogue/Sorcer/Warlock and perhaps a Demonic template?

But... I guess if they're going to have a Tiefling race based off humans, they might as well have one based off Dwarves.

I doesn't really bother me, but it just always seemed like a waste of space.