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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 259539" data-attributes="member: 2020">Ok, let me be more specific about why the drow would have utterly destroyed Mithril Hall - in our campaign.  First and most importantly, in our campaign the drow would have worked as a team.  Secondly, and just as important, none of the drow would have retreated, or lost morale - not even when the sun rose.  Thirdly, the drow would have fought as fanatics fight, without asking for quarter and with all the passion of zealots.  Why?  Because this pleases the Spider Queen.  This, earns the drow a place in Drow Heaven, at Lolth's Side.  This, earns the Favor of Lolth for each drow in question.  This, earns the Favor of Lolth for each Noble House in question.  No drow will risk losing the Favor of Lolth by being a coward, or failing in battle.  After all, a drow can be resurrected by her House after the battle, but losing the Favor of Lolth - well, that is a fate far worse than any mere death!  And if a drow is not resurrected, and she died gloriously, she will stand with Lolth in Heaven, and maybe even return as a Yochlol or other favored creature, to forever harass and damage and kill the hated elves.  No Noble House will risk the wrath of Lolth by retreating, when other Houses are still standing and fighting.  No strike force (such as Baenre's) will risk the Displeasure of Lolth by retreating when things start to go roughly.  And if Lolth is not a deterrent to cowardice or (intelligent) retreat, then one's superiors ... is ...  No drow wants to suffer the grisly fate her superiors will mete out for incompetence or what is deemed incompetence.  Death is a far better (and less painful) alternative.  Thus, what we have here is an army of religious fanatics, and those in the army that are not religious fanatics are driven by a very real fear of death and far worse than death at the hands of their own people.  This goes ten fold for the horde of monsters - fodder - brought by the drow to be flung into the dwarven traps to bring them down.  - - -  Drow have the inherent capacity to be wizards.  Dwarves, do not.  In 2nd edition, this was the case, and it was during the time of 2nd edition that Siege of Darkness was written.  And it would be reasonable to assume that many males and some females in Menzoberranzan (which, admittedly, has a real attitude problem on this one) would be wizards.  So, Menzoberranzan can - and would - field a formidable army of mages.  Many of these mages would be high level, just as many drow are high level, and all have levels of some type.  Remember that, in 2nd edition, the average dwarf had NO levels at all ... he or she was a 0 level commoner, with 2 - 7 hit points as a laborer.  So, the drow have an army of mages.  The dwarves have Alustriel - but Alustriel is only helping outside, not inside, and Alustriel has not brought along her Sisters, nor any other major magical help.  The Harpells are inside.  But the Harpells are only 4 mages:  4 mages against Menzoberranzan's Army of Mages.  As I have noted above, the typical dwarf has no levels in 2nd edition.  The concept that everyone has levels is a 3rd edition concept, and in 2nd edition it was unheard of.  And so it is here.  But the entire fighting force of drow has levels, either as fighters, mages, clerics, or rogues.  That means, in simple D&D mechanical terminology, that the drow warriors were superior, one for one, than the dwarves they faced.  Those dwarves WITH levels were, of course, better able to stand against drow and were more their equals.  The idea of using liquor as a Sleep Poison Antidote is neat.  However, in our campaign it would not work.  Dwarven brew, however potent, would not be more potent than the infamous drow sleeping poison, developed and perfected over millenia of drow research.  And if the drow sleeping poison does work, then it most certainly would be used.  It would be used, and it would penetrate the armor of the dwarves, and it would fell them.  Then the sleeping dwarves would be killed, then and there.  Drow are FAMOUS for their arms and armor.  Indeed, EVERY drow weapon is a magical weapon, and all of their armor is magical.  Not to mention it is masterwork armor, and those are masterwork weapons, and then some.  The drow have time aplenty and to spare to make these items, and like elves work dilligently and longly (if not patiently) to make them.  Drow armor is nearly weighless, does not hinder spellcasting, and is nearly as fine as elven chain is.  Drenched in the strange radiations of the Underdark, drow armor and weapons are ever further enhanced and enpowered, and ever more powerful and lethal.  The dwarves make good arms and armor, perhaps the best of all the surface races (the elves might dispute this.)  However, they cannot match the drow, who have labored uninterrupted to make powerful, magical arms and armor over thousands of years.  There is nobody in Faerun that can match the drow.  For that matter, there is no surface race on any of the major campaign worlds that can match the drow in arms and armor.  Just so long as they are not touch by sunlight, drow arms and armor are supreme.  Put them in sunlight, and it's all over for the drow, armor, arms and all.  However, Mithril Hall is not bathed in sunlight;  it is deep under the ground.  So, the drow have mages, and the dwarves don't.  The drow have magical arms and armor, and the dwarves don't.  The drow have an army of cannon folder, and the dwarves don't.  The drow all have character levels, and the dwarves don't (although, admittedly, Clan Battlehammer has a disproportionately high number of classed individuals within it's ranks.)  The drow have the better rogues.  Clan Battlehammer has scouts, yes, but Menzoberranzan has Bregan D'Arthe, Jarlaxle and Company.  Not to mention the fact that every drow is trained to be a rogue, whether they are one or not (classed as one.)  Every drow is taught to skulk, to hide, to stalk, to backstab.  It is a fundamental way of life for the drow, that they must learn these skills - or die as a consequence of not learning them.  The brave and honorable dwarves of Clan Battlehammer and their allies, do not have this mindset, do not have much use for thieves and their ways (they have boxes to hold the hands of captured thieves ...), and they simply do not have an army of warriors trained to fight dirty, to fight a street fight, to do whatever it takes to win (the Battleragers being a notable exception to this rule.)  So, aside from the Gutbuster Brigade, the drow have an army of rogues and the dwarves do not.  EVERY drow girl who is anyone in Menzoberranzan, is a cleric.  And not 1st level, either - they quickly go up in levels.  Is every dwarf in Clan Battlehammer a cleric?  I think not.  I think they have a normal proportion of people to clerics, and clerics are rare in their society - as clerics are rare in all surface societies, relative to the number of people.  But Menzoberranzan is swarming with clerics, all of them fanatics, all of them ready to fight and die for the glory of Lolth, and the glory of Number One.  So, the drow have a huge number of clerics, and the dwarves have a limited number of clerics.  - - -  Let's go over all of this again:  The drow have wizards and illusionists, and the dwarves have none.  The drow have a lot of clerics, and the dwarves have only a few.  The drow have an army of rogues, and the dwarves only have their scouts (and the Gutbuster Brigade.)  The drow all have levels in some class, while at least half of Clan Battlehammer have no levels in any class.  The drow have an enormous army of Cannon Fodder.  The dwarves have five hundred allies from the Silver Marches and Settlestone.  The drow have arsenals of magical arms and armor.  The dwarves have only a few magical weapons and some armor.  The drow are at least the match of the dwarves as fighters (having lived in a City of Constant Strife.)  The drow can see better than the dwarves below ground.  The drow can move silently, and can hide in shadows.  The dwarves cannot.  The drow all have innate magical abilities.  The dwarves have none.  The drow can summon terrible extraplanar allies, such as Yochlol.  The dwarves have only the help of Blindenstone's gnomes to match this.  The drow have steeds that can climb straight up rock faces.  The dwarves do not.  I think the outcome is pretty clear here.  Dwarves are great, but they are not the match of the drow.  A lesson the dwarves learned long ago, and which the drow keep teaching them in a most painful fashion.  There is a reason the drow would conquer the Surface World, if they could but unite to do so.  Again, all of this is just my opinion.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Edena_of_Neith  P:S  I thought Siege of Darkness was a great book, even if I disagreed with the outcome.</blockquote>

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