Underdark Overview, aka Return of Drow Weaponry

Psion · Oct 18, 2003

Hmmm... return of Drow weapons has me leaning towards it. The sound of everything else lacking appeal has me leaning away.

I may have to look it over at the FLGS again...

Kae'Yoss · Oct 18, 2003

Wraithdrit said:
On Drowcraft. It is stated in the flavor text that most drow cities have abandoned the use of drowcraft. No real explaination why. To me this sounds like the conveniant explanation why it went away in 3rd and came back in this book.

Bah. Just as Elaine Cunningham (in Windwalker) gave us an explaination why drow magic now works in the Night Above. After all, they did away with that garbage in 3e for exactly the reasons described above (Enemies can use more treasure than they should, but you don't get any. So you fight an enemy with power above its CR, but get treasure far below the margin). I think the "Veterans" cried so loud about their favourite player torture that Wizards gave in (Note that "Veterans" are those who resent any change in 3e that did away with their favourite element of AD&D: restrictions. Veterans hate Dwarven Wizards and Halfling Paladins, they hate Evil Rangers Clerics-with-sharp-implements(tm))

Wraithdrit · Oct 18, 2003

I think it was included to give the old schoolers that remember it, and the people that read about it in the novels something to cling to. They state that most drow citys don't use it anymore, so its not like its a hugely popular thing. Lots of drow will be fought in the upperdark caverns that don't have nodes and radiation magic so the chances that people will find these things is very slim. How many times do your PCs raid the underdark cities of the drow after all?

As with anything, use it if you like, if you don't... don't. I just thought it was nifty in a return of the old school kinda way.

Mystery Man · Oct 18, 2003

Picked it up yesterday too, so far its pretty dang cool. Much better than I thought it'd be.
Campaigning in the East right now, the Imaskari are right where I need them to be,

and I've already got plans to plop some of the monsters IMC.

The artwork is some of the best done for any Realms book I've seen yet.

Still won't be using Kuo-toa, mostly because I can't say Blipdoolpoolp.

Simulacrum · Oct 18, 2003

d20Dwarf said:
Check out Dragon 312, I have 3 non-spellcasting assassin classes, including one that is fighter-oriented.

Interresting, would you mind to post information on them? Probably with full level progression? Please.
I have no chance of getting my hands on Dragon Magazine where I live, so it would be a great help. Thank you!

And to return on topic, any other spells in UNDERDARK that is worth mentioning?

Kae'Yoss · Oct 18, 2003

Wraithdrit said:
How many times do your PCs raid the underdark cities of the drow after all?

On a regular basis. It's a CotSQ campaign, but the Party is evil and half of them are Vhaeraunan drow.

I'm going to get Underdark, as well as a number of other D&D/d20 Products, next week, as we have a Toy Trade Fair here, and you can usually make a bargain there.

Laertes · Oct 18, 2003

What regional feats are aviable for the deep imaskar region?...

Have the deep imaskari any signature spells or magic items?...

Thanks

(Psi)SeveredHead · Oct 18, 2003

I'm interested in the Faerzress-infused template? Anyone want to tell me something about it?

Endur · Oct 18, 2003

My favorite part of the book is the exploring the underdark section and the geography section. It has a good geography map and nice descriptions of the various cities and places in the Underdark. It has a good description of the different layers of the Underark, Upper underdark, Middle underdark, lower underdark and the types of flora and fauna present. A lot of this is rehashed from prior editions, but it is still a very good description.

The new feats, PRCs, spells, monsters, equipment, and magic items are typical, nothing special.

Earth Nodes is a type of magic I havn't seen in the FR before. You can get multiple feats to allow you to cast more powerful spells near an earth node(increasing your caster level by the power of the earth node).

They also have stats for NPCs from Menzoberanzan, Mantol Derith, Gracklstugh, etc. There are some spoilers for War of the Spider Queen if you havn't read book 3 yet, or if you are playing the City of the Spider Queen module and are still in the first couple of sections of that adventure.