Community

  Dragon 390
Winning Race: Drow
Academies of the Underdark
By Arnie Frank and Rachel Ciriccione

In today's Winning Races article, we look at Drow society, and their unique academies involved in the upbringing of House Drow.  We also look briefly at escaped drow opportunities, and get a handful of magic items tied to the academies.

To be born a drow, one of the feared and hated dark elves,  is to be born into bondage. From the high to the low, all who dwell  under the uncertain coruscation of the crystalline spires will in time  cringe under the lash of their master, be it wielded by a lowly  taskmaster or by the hand of Lolth. In the tenebrous light of the  Underdark only one law exists: Crush as many as you can beneath your  feet before you are crushed.

Talk about this Dragon article here.

Huh. Pretty short article. The fluff... isn't bad, but also isn't really anything new.

The items... awesome conceptually. Mechanically? I've got some problems.

Clutch of Lolth: This one's cool. I love the idea of an orb that is simply filled with thousands of spiders, ready and waiting to spew forth and cover your enemies.

The Fearcatcher: Easily acquirable +10 bonus to Intimidate that stacks with everything else? I don't think so. Make it +1 per charge and an item bonus. The Encounter power is really strong, especially since the item level is only 2 higher than basic magic weapons. Enemy only burst minor action encounter attack that dazes? Yeah, this item either needs to be higher level (maybe 15/20/25/30?) or at least lose the dazing part of the power. Maybe vulnerable psychic and grants CA? Or can't take OAs? I love the concept of an evil dreamcatcher, and hate the fact that this is so terribly designed.

Skinsplitter: Again, cool concept. The weapon power, however, needs a duration. Is it for the encounter? For 1 round? The next enemy hit? One of the latter two, presumably, given it is an encounter power. If that's the case... it is strong, especially with the right build/party, but seems fine for the level of the item.

Whistling Weapon: Yeah, broken. The ability, for an entire encounter, to dish out constant stuns, as long as enemies are dazed first? Not cool. It isn't too bad on its own, if you assume they have to go the entire step from deafened -> slowed -> dazed -> stunned. But PCs have lots of powers that daze. You get this on a guy who takes several attacks, or close burst attacks, have the right powers (or, say, some of those fearcatchers...) - and half the enemies will spend the combat not able to act. And, of course, it is a minor action with a trigger, so clearly needs to be fixed there. Either get rid of the stun, or make these actual effect tracks where failed saves lead to the next level.

These items are great conceptually, but the power level for some is definitely out of balance. Hopefully this will be fixed in the compilation.

I felt like the article was missing about three pages of backgrounds, feats, etc.

I also felt like the drow were being described as Comic Book Evil. Could an academy/society really function if everyone was encouraged to murder or sabotage their competition?

Aug 23, 2010 -- 2:44PM, Boondocker wrote:

I felt like the article was missing about three pages of backgrounds, feats, etc.

I also felt like the drow were being described as Comic Book Evil. Could an academy/society really function if everyone was encouraged to murder or sabotage their competition?

This was especially bad in prior editions, where the death rate among drow seemed to be greatly in excess of their birth rate.  At least orcs breed at a ridiculously high rate to replace the hordes killed off by adventurers.