OSR OSR Drow Revamp

[Zardnaar]

Once upon a time the Drow were a feared and dangerous opponent in D&D. They were rare, graceful, and deadly and they could slaughter the PCs if they were not careful. Successive versions of D&D have toned them down to where mechanically they are a bad joke compared to their former glory. The Drizzt books have not helped along with the push to make them a PC race and events like 3.0’s Drow come to the surface.

Generally I do not allow Drow PCs as I want them rare and mysterious. Half the time my players are not even sure if Drow exist in my campaigns. You will never encounter one on the surface with the very very rare exception of an isolated elven settlement on a moonless night where the Drow raid perhaps once a decade or even century. For the greater glory of Lolth. What made Drow deadly in the good old days was a combination of their equipment, poison, spell like abilities and real magic resistance.

AD&D has been dead now for 15 years but back then magic resistance was expressed as a % roll. Drow were 50% resistant to magic +2% per level. A level 10 Drow fighter had MR of 70%. If a spell caster failed that roll (71%+) their spell would ail to effect the Drow whatsoever and the Drow cloaks gave a +6 save bonus vs a fire based attacks. The early Drizzt books do a reasonable job at describing the way the Drow worked at the time. MR scaled in 1E but was a static number in 2E. At higher levels it meant having a fighter type around was useful due to things like Mind Flayers with 90% MR.

For arguments sake to toughen up Drow to their former glory in the 5E rules I would add superior MR to the game and I would consider adding this for Dragons as well. I would have a tactic number and a d20 roll is used. Roll equal to or higher than the MR number your spell woks, roll lower and the creature is immune to the spell effects. For Drow this means a number of 11. If you wanted to scale it the number would rise by 1 at CR 3,5,7,9 etc. A CR9 Drow would have an MR number of 15 and in effect be 70% immune to magic.

Drow equipment can more or less use the optional sidebar in the MM. Drow poison could use a higher DC perhaps in the good old days it was in effect DC20 but saves work a bit different now. A 2-4 point buff in poison DCs would work. Drow could also have +1 equipment for CR 1-5, 6-11 +2 and CR 12+ gets +3 equipment and each Drow has Drow cloak and boots as well which function as cloaks and boots of elven kind but use the table on page 126 of the MM. I will use the Gladiator(page 346) tweaked as a basis of an elite Drow warrior. I will swap the dex and strength scores around for example.

Basic Gladiator stats.
Medium Humanoid (any race) any alignment
Armor Class 16 (studded leather, shield,)
Hit Points 112 (15d8+45)
Speed 30 ft.
Saving Throws Str +7, Dex +5, Con +6
Str 18 (+4), Dex 15 (+2), Con 16 (+3), Int 10 (+0), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 15 (+2)
Skills Athletics+10, Intimidation +5
Senses passive Perception 11
Languages Any one language (usually common
Challenge 5 (1800 XP)
Brave. The Gladiator has advantage on saving throws against being frightened
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra dice of damage when the gladiator hits with it (included in the attack)
Actions.
Multiattack. The gladiator makes 3 melee attacks or two ranged attacks.
Spear. Melee or ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5’, range 20/60ft, one target. Hit 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage, or 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage if used with 2 hands to make a melee attack.
Shield Bash. Melee weapon attack, +7 to hit, reach 5’, one creature. Hit 9 (2d4+_4) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a medium or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Drow Weaponmaster (gladiator reskin)
Medium Humanoid (any race) any alignment
Armor Class 19 (chain shirt, buckler,)
Hit Points 112 (15d8+45)
Speed 30 ft.
Saving Throws Dex +7, Con +6, Wis +4
Str 15 (+4), Dex 18 (+2), Con 16 (+3), Int 10 (+0), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 15 (+2)
Skills Intimidation +5, Stealth +7,
Senses passive Perception 11
Languages Any one language (usually common
Challenge Rating 6 (2300 XP)
Superior Magic Resistance: 13
Skilled. A melee weapon deals one extra dice of damage when the drow hits with it (included in the attack)
Equpment (all Drow), Boots of Elvenkinfd, Cloak of Elven Kind, +1 short sword, +1 chain shirt, +1 buckler, 4 dose drow poison.
Actions.
Multiattack. The gladiator makes 3 melee attacks or two ranged attacks.

Shortsword. Melee or ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit,. Hit 11 (2d6+5) piercing damage + paralysis (DC13 con save)
Hand Crossbow +8 to hit, 1d6+4+paralysis (DC 13)

And it can use the Innate Spellcasting, Sunlight Sensitivity and Fey ancestry traits on page 128 of the 5E MM. I bumped its CR up to 6 as well. And that is basically it hopefully a somewhat faithful adaption of the Drow from the 1E Fiend Folio using 5E stats. I also have a personally house rule that should a Drow pick up 2 scimitars at the same time a DC100 con save must be made or the Drow is erased from reality.

 

[delericho]

I would suggest it's simpler than that: never have the PCs meet a 'standard' drow.

To be honest, the notion of a Chaotic Evil society of creatures living in the Underdark and maintaining large cities is pretty absurd - where does the food come from? Cities on the surface need to be supported with large amounts of farmland (which they don't have underground), and the alternative suggests that they use massive amounts of magic to feed their massive population and all their slaves. But that sort of altruism is rather out of character for a CE race.

So, my suggestion would be to make drow much rarer, have them be met in much smaller groups, but to make them individually much more powerful (due to survival of the fittest), and make them desperate because they're always right on the raggedy edge of starvation.

I'd also probably drop the whole Spider-Queen thing, largely because that's now a 'known' face. And because familiarity breeds contempt, as soon as they are 'known' they're not really scary.

All IMO, of course.

 

[Zardnaar]

I would suggest it's simpler than that: never have the PCs meet a 'standard' drow.

To be honest, the notion of a Chaotic Evil society of creatures living in the Underdark and maintaining large cities is pretty absurd - where does the food come from? Cities on the surface need to be supported with large amounts of farmland (which they don't have underground), and the alternative suggests that they use massive amounts of magic to feed their massive population and all their slaves. But that sort of altruism is rather out of character for a CE race.

So, my suggestion would be to make drow much rarer, have them be met in much smaller groups, but to make them individually much more powerful (due to survival of the fittest), and make them desperate because they're always right on the raggedy edge of starvation.

I'd also probably drop the whole Spider-Queen thing, largely because that's now a 'known' face. And because familiarity breeds contempt, as soon as they are 'known' they're not really scary.

All IMO, of course.

Drow cities do tend to be quite small by surface standards. Erelhei Cinlu was less than 10 000 IIRC and they grow various molds and fungi in surrounding caverns and the slaves farm it. The life as such is supported by radiation that imbues Drow items at least in AD&D.

 

[Charles Rampant]

I would suggest it's simpler than that: never have the PCs meet a 'standard' drow.

Do you instead suggest that the players only ever meet really hardcore and high level Drow? This is a tempting solution - there is already plenty of CR 1ish monsters in the MM, from Orcs and Goblins to Bugbears, the slaughterers of PCs - but does require a lot more work. Do they only ever meet the Wizards and Driders? Would you simply create a 5th level Champion Drow and use that as the base model for your bad guys?

 

[Minigiant]

Personally, the Drow Elite warrior (MM 128) with +1 weapons and armor feels more original drow than a re-skinned gladiator. Poisoned weapons. KO bolts, minor magic, and magic armor.

As for drow fluff... never made sense to me then. Still doesn't. I only get them if surfaced completely or made into cells of a resource thieving organization

 

[delericho]

Drow cities do tend to be quite small by surface standards.

In fairness, D&D's surface cities are also unrealistically huge.

Erelhei Cinlu was less than 10 000 IIRC and they grow various molds and fungi in surrounding caverns and the slaves farm it.

I see three issues with this:

Firstly, adding all those slaves only increases the problems with food shortage - they need fed, too. Of course, if they'd used golems, undead, or similar then they could get around that problem.

Secondly, you need a lot of space to grow enough food for 10k people, where space is at a premium in the underdark. (Incidentally, it also creates a massive strategic weakness for their society - anyone who wanted to wipe out the drow would be mad to attack their cities - far better to wipe out their food supplies instead.)

Thirdly, having the food farmed by slaves suggests that either there is an entire caste of overseers for those slave-farmers, whose entire job is to raise food for the people; or it suggests that the drow spellcasters engage in a massive outlay in magical power to keep those slaves charmed or otherwise controlled. Either way, that suggests a fair number of drow whose entire job is to provide food for the citizens of the city. But that sort of altruism doesn't seem to work with a CE race.

Of course, neither the first nor third of these is insurmountable. Not sure how they could get around the lack of space, though.

 

[delericho]

Do you instead suggest that the players only ever meet really hardcore and high level Drow?

Pretty much, yes.

Do they only ever meet the Wizards and Driders? Would you simply create a 5th level Champion Drow and use that as the base model for your bad guys?

I'd be inclined to keep drow encounters extremely rare anyway, as the more they are encountered the more they're likely to be 'cheapened' by is (see: the Borg). I would also be inclined to make sure all of those first few encounters are "overwhelming" encounters, whatever the PC level is. So, if they're 6th level PCs, I'd send them up against an 8th level encounter (or higher!); if they're 10th level I'd send them up against a 12th level encounter, and so on.

I would also be inclined not to have (or very rarely have) any sort of a 'mook' Drow - either they'd encounter a lone 'named' character or they might encounter a warband led by such a character. But that named character could be a Wizard, or a Drider, or a high-level warrior. That doesn't really matter.

Of course, once the PCs start to really tackle the drow menace, things can start to even up a bit - they should start out as overwhelming challenges, but eventually things can get to be a bit more balanced.

 

[Zardnaar]

In fairness, D&D's surface cities are also unrealistically huge.



I see three issues with this:

Firstly, adding all those slaves only increases the problems with food shortage - they need fed, too. Of course, if they'd used golems, undead, or similar then they could get around that problem.

Secondly, you need a lot of space to grow enough food for 10k people, where space is at a premium in the underdark. (Incidentally, it also creates a massive strategic weakness for their society - anyone who wanted to wipe out the drow would be mad to attack their cities - far better to wipe out their food supplies instead.)

Thirdly, having the food farmed by slaves suggests that either there is an entire caste of overseers for those slave-farmers, whose entire job is to raise food for the people; or it suggests that the drow spellcasters engage in a massive outlay in magical power to keep those slaves charmed or otherwise controlled. Either way, that suggests a fair number of drow whose entire job is to provide food for the citizens of the city. But that sort of altruism doesn't seem to work with a CE race.

Of course, neither the first nor third of these is insurmountable. Not sure how they could get around the lack of space, though.

Not really. Waterdeep is smaller than what Venice reached, imperial Rome had a million people I don't think any FR city is that large, Constantinople hit 300k+, Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria were all quite large as well. We tend to thing of things in western European terms the large cities were in the Mediterranean not London and Paris which were large cities for the time but only in western Europe. Rome "shrunk" to around 50k in the post imperial era which still made it a large city.

 

[Sunseeker]

I would suggest it's simpler than that: never have the PCs meet a 'standard' drow.

I agree. Drow surface raiders are likely going to be fairly well trained folks. Short of actually being in the Underdark for extended periods of time, and even then the only 'standard' drow you'll see are slaves and poor people, the party really has no reason to run into mundane drow. Even in a setting where drow exist, I wouldn't let a player make one until the party was at least 5th level.

 

[delericho]

Not really. Waterdeep is smaller than what Venice reached, imperial Rome had a million people I don't think any FR city is that large, Constantinople hit 300k+, Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria were all quite large as well.

The problem isn't the exceptional metropolis. As you say, the really big cities were still quite huge. The problem is the next tier down, where there are just too many very large cities. Once you got below London, Paris, Rome, etc, they fell off quite dramatically.

Whereas, as you said:

Drow cities do tend to be quite small by surface standards.