Evil Drow Statblocks to Return in Forgotten Realms Rulebooks Later This Year

drow matron.jpg


Drow-specific NPC statblocks will be included in the upcoming Forgotten Realms Adventurer's Guide set for release later this year. Over the past several weeks, much hullabaloo has been made over the Monster Manual, specifically that the D&D design team replaced specific drow and orc statblocks with generic NPC statblocks that can be used for any kind of humanoids. In a video released today, D&D lead designer Jeremy Crawford confirmed that more specific statblocks tied to specific humanoid sects or characters would return in future rulebooks, with evil drow given as an example.

"Also for anyone who's eager to see more species-tailored humanoid statblocks, people are going to see more of that in our setting books," Crawford said. "You're going to see that in our Forgotten Realms products, for example. The malevolent drow of Menzoberranzan are an important part of that setting and so they get their own statblocks. This is really true of all the creatures in the Monster Manual. This is your massive starting toy box of monsters that are usable anywhere in the multiverse. The bestiaries in our setting products, that's where we can provide you versions of things tailored to the cultures and histories of our different worlds."

 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer


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Sure. I still dont care. The 'multiverse' that Wizards has recently (MotM and beyond) tried to latch on to is the one in the public eye, the Marvel Multiverse.

These things are not the same.

Planes of Existence, the Great Wheel. There is still only one Scribe, making his way throughout the Planes.

Its not a Multiverse, in the line of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.

What term do you prefer?
 

I assumed D&D was a multiverse because every table using a setting or part of a setting exists in a similar, but self-contained universe.
Fair enough, but I really don't think that's their motivation for the push to use the term multiverse. What you say has been true for 50 years.
 






I don't think they're going to bother releasing a Greyhawk sourcebook, as I was under the impression that the DMG detailing it is more of a freebie "make it your own world". Where a more detailed and specific implementation of D&D with things that sort of resemble "a standard" that they would bother releasing sourcebooks on would be Forgotten Realms.

So despite the the assumption of the Drow starting in Greyhawk, it's more prevalent in the Forgotten Realms where they have a lot of novels as inspiration on the subject.

Drow in Eberron are different, they're jungle dwelling, scorpion affiliated, ex-slaves of Giants. The Lolth statblocks probably don't suite them as well.

They tried to make a stretch in Dragonlance by saying someone like Dalamar is Drow, even if he's just a High Elf that's been shunned from High Elf society.

Drow in Planescape can be any of the above or something completely new and different, but one of the 2e PS books equated a society of Drow in Ysgard with the Svartalfar of Norse mythology who were in conflict with the Dwarves of Nidavellir. 5e Planescape like a lot of 5e, now has a more handsoff approach when it comes of realworld mythology where it's more inspiration but not any strong specifics.
 


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