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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Selvarin" data-source="post: 2009922" data-attributes="member: 6102">Plot & Poison is the latest in the OGL Interlink series of 20 race books, which is handled jointly by Green Ronin Publishing and Paradigm Concepts (GRP publishes theirs as "Races of Renown" while Paridigm's is called "Races of legend"). Plot & Poison was written by Matthew Sernett (an associate editor at Dragon magazine) . The first thing you'll notice (aside from the cover art) is that it's 160 pages, the heftiest in the series so far. The cover, by Todd Lockwood, is magnificent, depicting a female drow (a priestess?) flanked by two menacing male drow in a shadowy cavern littered with skulls and bodies tied upside-down to poles. If you've seen Lockwood's previous work then you know that what he's capable of. In this instance the art is stunning and mildly macabre, and yet not quite disturbing. It's WotC's loss and our gain that he's available to work for the various d20 companies. The interior artwork, I must say, is also well-done. Some pieces are a little rougher than others (and some minor nudity is displayed), but it doesn't detract from the subject matter. With that aside, let's discuss the contents...Chapter One: The Way of Darkness. Here, you'll find material on Underdark campaigns, drow subraces, how to make drow unique, dangers of the Underdark, and how to introduce drow into one's campaign. The life of a dark elf, drow history (according to them), their psyche. It's to the point and not overdone (you won't be reading about drow babies trying to kill each other in the womb, oy vey!). When it comes to drow subraces, there are details on the half-drow, aquatic drow, drey (a variant of drow that's closer to their 1E/2E incarnation), spiderlings (magically derived from deep halflings), and vupdrax (winged drow). Normally I tend to ignore the additional subraces found in most race-based guidebooks, but in this case it's a good idea to pay attention because there are some interesting tweaks here. While I'm not a fan of 'winged drow' per se, I can see where they'd be a good change of pace when setting up encounters. Also, the half-drow isn't treated merely as a dusky-skinned half-elf. Half-drow do receive special abilities (as detailed in the template for it in Chapter 3) and as such are worth trying--not that I'm a power gamer, it's just that I've felt there was more to them than just darkvision. Some may feel the template needs toning down, such as removing the Spell-Like Abilities feature and their ability score modifiers (which are on-par with that of full-blooded drow), otherwise it's a pretty good fit. In addition to this, I find the "Craft, Artistry, and Entertainment" section to be enlightening. It expounded on a number of subjects (from the drow view on scarification and prostitution to what they make their goods from) , and the section on Underdark encounters was also well worth a read.Chapter Two: Religion and Gods. As in many other D20 products, the prime deity of a given race is known to us not by their official (D&D/WotC) name but by something else. For the drow pantheon in P&P, there's the Spider Queen. Unlike Lolth, the Spider Queen is NE and a greater deity--my kinda gal, truly. Among other things, she's also listed as the drow goddess of magic, something which the WotC version (Lolth) should've had but which has somehow been overlooked. And (thankfully!) the rest of the drow deities aren't a passel of cookie-cutter CE types. I see some actual diversity here, such as the Black Widow (LE), Demzer (a NE demipower of pain) and Reshagol (a LE demigod of learning), etc...these demigods are known as the Claws of the Spider Queen, once-mortal drow and others who've been elevated to higher status. I love it, if anything it's as good as (or better than) the drow deific heirarchy found in the Forgotten Realms. There are also three renegade drow deities, such as Arrachnovoleth (A Ctthulu-like wormish deity), Nyarleth (demigodess of conquest, battle), and 'Skuttle' (a lesser deity favored by spiderlings who helps the drow deities hide secrets from each other--talk about political intrigue at the highest level). You may not wish to ditch your current drow pantheon, but some (or all) of this can easily be incorporated into one's game.Chapter Three: Creatures of the Underdark. A number of nasties are in here, such as monstrous slugs, but the stars are the templates. The half-drow, as mentioned before, is a template, as is the drider. Also, there's the broken soul template (used for those who displease the god Demzer), and the verminoid, among others. I don't use many new monsters(I prefer the classics), but this is something I plan to make full use of.Chapter Four: Prestige classes. Here, mention is first made on which drow subraces gravitate to which 'core' prestige classes (such as the blackguard). A GM's option paragraph is included for each, with suggestions on what, if any, tweaks could be made. But, of course, there are new prestige classes--about 16, if I counted right. Whoa. I know, prestige classes are a dime a dozen, but I like what I see here. Several are PrCs for the clerics of certain drow deities, which makes sense, while some are a bit too specialized (such as the Submissive). My picks from this chapter are the Dark Dancer (a part of whose benefits are affected by the divine patron one's chosen), the Darksight Slayer (an elite form of assassin), the Master Summoner (which can be found in the preview at the Green Ronin website), the Talion Apostle, and the Unseen Sniper. There's a mix between 5-level and 10-level prestige classes, no complaints there. I do question, however, how some PrCs can have all favorable saving throws, etc., but in general I don't fault the writer for this. PrCs are meant to be a little more powerful than the core classes. At the same time, I find that a number of PrCs published for D&D as a whole lack adequate balance between the Base Attack Bonus, Saves, and spellcasting levels (some in Masters of the Wild, for example, are especially egregious). On the balance, though, the PrCs here are well-written. Chapter Five: Skills and Feats. Goodness Gracious, how can I sum up this chapter? I can't.It's well-done, yes, but I'm more a stickler about feats than skills. The 'skills' bit is okay, but the portion dealing with poisonmaking as a craft sticks out. It's nice and simple, no page-upon-page of detail. It's just what I need for my campaign. Feat-wise, there are a number of interesting ones: feats which allow for the creation of verminous items, feats for crafting 'bonding' items (items which can be absorbed into the body and thus made invisible from all magical and normal detection), feats which improve existing drow innate abilities...Yes, I bet you're interested in that last one, eh? There are feats which allow one to expand the radius of darkness spells, one which makes the faerie fire spell a fiery one, and so on. There's a fair number of combat feats as well. Some of the aforementioned feats may not be worth your time to pick up, as always it depends on what direction you wish to push your character (or NPC, in the case of a DM). There are some creative ones here, definitely, and the ones relating to drow spell-like abilities pique my interest. I wonder, though, how will they fare against the ones which are due to appear in the Races of Faerun accessory a few months from now? Hmm. Considering some obvious spell-like feats weren't included, I have the feeling that the two will mesh together.Chapter Six: Equipment. There's some strange stuff in here, folks, such as verminous armor and the like (made of living vermin through a special process). Parts of this chapter and elsewhere dovetail rather nicely with material found in the Book of Vile Darkness (I bet someone playing a Vermin Lord would be pleased with armor made from bugs and whatnot). New poisons and weapons are listed here as well, and my favorite is the whipblade. What a weapon, although it would be better off as a magic weapon property instead. Slave types and prices are also listed in this chapter.Chapter Seven: Spells and Magic. Here we're introduced to the idea of servant sacrifices and blood sacrifies, among others as a means of empowering spells which require an XP cost, or a magic item XP cost. It makes perfect sense to me, certainly explains why drow have so many powerful magic items. This is also the sort of thing I envision evil spellcasters like Red Wizards (in the Forgotten Realms) using as a means of keeping their magic shops stocked. Much of this can be used in conjunction with some of the mechanics of sacrifice found in the Book of Vile Darkness, although I prefer this over BoVD in that respect. Also, there's the concept of power components, rare ingredients which can be used to modify certain types of spells. A good concept, and the tables describing the effects gained seem fair to me (the brain of an Ancient-Great Wyrm dragon can be used to Heighten Spell +4 levels). The market prices are a good guideline, although in the end a seller will naturally charge what he can get (which is how it should be). As for the spells found in this chapter, they're okay. Some serve to overcome drow weaknesses, while others are the general all-purpose types. My picks would be Scry Ward (9th level) and the various shadow-related spells.And here we come to the last chapter, Chapter Eight: Magic Items. Again, more details on verminous items, more armor and weapon special properties. A lot of new magic items, too, such as the Cavernstaff and Helm of Spider Eyes. No real 'filler' here. It doesn't excite me as much as previous chapters, but I don't find what's included to be disappointing.Whew. What a book. Well, if you enjoy drow (or enjoy hating them), this is the book for you. It's been a long wait for it to show up on store shelves, but at last it's here and the wait was worth it. No disappointments. As fond as I am of Hammer and Helm (the guidebook on dwarves), Plot & Poison blows it out of the water and that's saying a lot. Hopefully it'll prove as useful to your campaign as it will be in mine.</blockquote>

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