What is a Drider???

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@Shrikanth: I think female Driders cast clerical, male arcane spells or just fight.

 

I suppose the driders are superior to Drown in the matter of pure power. But there are so many other things, things that acount for more than mere power.

First off, the advancement of their previous classes. How could that be achieved?
Clerics need a deity. Surely Lloth wont help these lower creatures against the drow.
Mages need arcane knowledge. I dont suppose drider society has any sort of stability needed for education. Much too chaotic for it.
So, they can advance in Abberation class, which doesnt give them that much more power as opposed to the drow.

There's always the hordes of other creatures that are under the drow. It's intentions purely cannon-fodder, it'd surely help them against them.

Overall, i think the idea of Driders being able to turn on the drow is quite impossible. I dont doubt someone can explain it better and i hope it will be.

 

1. There are far fewer Driders than Drow. Also, they mostly live outside the cities of the Drow, in the Underdark. A small drider patrol would be no match for an illithid ambush, a group of beholders, or a medium-sized kuo-toa war party. Do the math.

2. Driders are the outcasts and dregs of Drow society. Their only place in "civilised" Drow society is to act as hunters, but the Drow *do* fear their power. Consider Phaere's reaction to her mother's threat; "do you wish to face the drider again so soon?" Phaere is not the type to back down.

3. Driders associate with each other mainly for survival. They don't have a strong communal bond or a society as such. AFAIK, the Viciscamera in IWD2 is just about the biggest crock I've ever heard of, and one of the reasons why I dislike the game (another is the weaker-than-weak Illithids).

4. Driders with clerical powers would draw them from Lloth. Lloth, being fickle, would not allow her failed servants to harm her Drow worshippers. In the event of an uprising, the drider clerics would likely find that Lloth's strength had left them - just as it did Viconia when she renounced the Spider Queen.

5. I'm not sure about this, but I would think that only those Drow who follow Lloth (ie: nearly all) can be turned into Driders. This would explain why Drizzt, Solaufein, Malavon and Viconia have escaped this fate. She has to send priests and demons after them instead.

Slight Spoiler (for the literarily-minded):

@ Veldrin: In the books, Drizzt's brother Dinin gets turned into a Drider after House Do'Urden is crushed by House Ba'enre in "Exile". Not sure which one that happens in - I think it's the first book of the "second" Dark Elf Trilogy.

 

@NonSequitor
Exile is the second book of the first triology.

I'd think you dont need to worship Lloth to be transformed into a drider. After all, it's a transformation cast by another. It might entitle saving throw because the target is unwilling.

 

I know, but at the end of that one he (Dinin Do'Urden) becomes a mercenary. Dinin doesn't become a drider until much later - and IIRC, Drizzt doesn't meet up with him and his surviving sister until the second trilogy.

You're right, there's probably some sort of ritual magic for those who don't worship Lloth. However, it would require interception and capture of the heretical Drow first, followed by the drider curse being inflicted by the Matron or a high priestess of Lloth.

 

Actually, I was reading up on Driders in D&D's monster manual and it says that Driders are outcasts from Drow society, and they both hate each other ‘passionately’.

If the two meet, especially if it was a Drow patrol party vs. a group of Driders, there would be one heck of a fight. The Drow would probably win since becoming a Drider isn’t exactly a “blessing” from Lolth, so even the advantage of having 8 legs wouldn’t be enough...but hey, if you have enough of anything you can usually win.

 

You'd have to catch them first to turn 'em into driders.


How about olympics between drow and driders? I'd imagine driders would win at least all games that involve running.