Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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Drow have both fascinated and horrified people since AD&D 1st Edition or thereabouts. Their early descriptions leaned very hard into “evil elf dominatrix” imagery, and their dark skin meant this portrait was often considered racist as well as sexist.

4e seems to attempt to get away from these early unfortunate implications by de-emphasizing the S&M bits, and making your average drow look different from a brown-skinned human. Depending on the specific illustration, drow skin varies from pitch-black to light purple.

Drow are present both in the Monster Manual and in the Vault, though there they’re part of a larger “Elf” entry.

The Lore

Elves, Eladrin and Drow all descend from the same sapient fey people, which was originally created by Corellon and went through something of a diaspora back at the dawn of creation. Eladrin native to the Feywild are the closest to those progenitors, still worshipping Corellon as their main deity. Elves diverged from them after centuries of living in the world, and tend to worship Sehanine, Melora or the primal spirits.

The Drow were recruited into the worship of Lolth and rose up against their kin. They were driven into the Underdark and built a thriving but nightmarish civilization there. The assumption seems to be that drow appearance diverged by the same natural processes that applied to elves, as a form of adaptation for their new environment. Other editions had the dark skin be a curse, which, again, had its Unfortunate Implications.

Drow build great cities in the Underdark, which house a cruel and hierarchical society fanatically devoted to Lolth. Lolth’s priestesses are at the top of the heap and their ranks are only open to women. Men tend to get a little less respect, but still all other positions of authority are open to drow of any gender. Intrigue and backstabbing are extremely common at all levels, both internally and externally. Drow foreign policy can be summed up as “raid those weaker than you for plunder and slaves, make alliances to whose of equal or greater power until you can backstab them”. The Monster Vault outright says that if the drow stopped fighting each other and united into a single empire, they’d be a major existential threat.

When fighting, drow favor light armor and swords (particularly fencing weapons), with hand crossbows being the preferred ranged weapon. These are frequently poisoned. Drow always prefer ambushes and guerilla tactics to anything resembling a fair fight. They also use a whole lot of spider-themed magic, both divine and arcane.

The Numbers

All drow are Medium Fey Humanoids, have Darkvision, and one of two minor-action encounter powers:

  • a Cloud of Darkness that lasts for a turn, blocks line of sight on a Close Burst 1 and blinds everyone who enters it, with the drow being immune to all of this.

  • Darkfire, a Ranged 10 attack that targets Reflex, and makes the target grant combat advantage for a turn, during which they also can’t benefit from concealment or invisibility.

You can use them to make other drow stat blocks. Drow usually move at Speed 6.

We start with the Drow Warrior from the Monster Manual. It’s a Level 11 Lurker with 83 HP, trained in Perception, Dungeoneering, Intimidation and Stealth. The warrior wears mail, and fights with a rapier in one hand and a hand crossbow in another. Both the blade and the bolts are coated in Drow Poison: a hit with either weapon triggers an additional attack against Fortitude, which in turn inflicts a -2 attack penalty (save ends). On the first failed save the target is also weakened, and on the second they fall unconscious until the end of the encounter! The warrior can also use use sneak attacks on its melee and ranged attacks, and it has the Darkfire power.

My impression is that this is meant to be a common drow soldier, which should help explain why everyone else considers them to be so scary.

The MV-only Drow Stalker is a less complicated minion version of the Warrior. A Level 12 Minion Lurker, it too has a sword and a hand crossbow, and can deal extra damage against targets that cannot see it. The crossbow also causes ongoing poison damage on a hit (save ends). It has Cloud of Darkness, which is how it gets its extra damage.

The Drow Arachnomancer is an arcane spellcaster present in both books. It’s Level 13 Artillery (Leader) with 94 HP and training in a host of skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering and Perception, plus Intimidate and Stealth in the MM version. Its leaderly bit comes from Lolth’s Judgement, a passive trait which grants +2 to attacks for a turn to all spider allies that can see the arachnomancer whenever it hits with an attack. We’ll see plenty of spider monsters when we hit the S entries, but for now I’ll just note driders also count as spiders.

The arachnomancer’s basic attack is a Spider Rod in the MM and a Scourge in the MV. The rod does piteous damage, while the scourge benefits from the math fix. Both attacks immobilize on a hit (save ends). Its main at-will ranged attack is the Venom Ray, which has a range of 10, targets Reflex, and does both immediate and ongoing poison damage (save ends).

It also has a few encounter spells. Spider Curse makes spectral spiders crawl all over a target. It’s a Ranged 20 attack that targets Will, does both immediate and ongoing necrotic damage, and weakens (save ends both). Venom Blast is a Close Blast 5 that targets Fortitude and does poison damage, half on a miss.

The MM version has a third encounter power, Lolth’s Grasp, which covers an Area Burst 4 within 10 in those spectral spiders. It targets Reflex and restrains on a hit (save ends). The spider zone remains until the end of the encounter, and anyone who starts their turn there takes 10 necrotic damage. Drow are immune to all of this. Finally, both versions of the arachnomancer can use Cloud of Darkness.

The MV-only Drow Venomblade is a Level 13 Skirmisher with 124 HP, trained in Perception, Acrobatics and Stealth. It uses a longsword in one hand and a shortsword in the other. Both count as basic attacks, and do ongoing 5 poison damage on a hit (save ends). The Blade Mastery ability allows this drow to make attacks with both weapons as a single action, and it also knows Cloud of Darkness. Pretty simple!

The MM-only Drow Blademaster is similar in concept but more powerful. A Level 13 Elite Skirmisher with 248 HP, its blades apparently aren’t poisoned, but it has several fancy techniques at its disposal. Excruciating Stab does a lot more damage than the basic longsword attack and stuns (save ends)! It recharges on 5-6. Whirlwind Attack allows the drow to make a longsword attack against everyone on a Close Burst 1, and a shortsword attack against anyone hit by the longsword. It recharges on a 4-6. Finally, it can make a free longsword attack against anyone who makes an opportunity attack against it.

Our last entry is the MM-only Drow Priest tells me they’re using “priest” as a gender-neutral word here. She is a Level 15 Controller (Leader) with 139 HP and Speed 7, trained in Bluff, Insight, Intimidate, Religion and Stealth. She projects Lolth’s Authority, granting +1 to attacks and +2 to damage for any drow or spider ally who can see her.

Her basic attack is a somewhat weak mace, but once bloodied she grows spider mandibles and can bite for considerably more damage. Her main ranged attack is the Pain Web, which has range 5, targets Reflex, does necrotic damage, and makes the target immobilized and weakened (save ends both). All of this at-will!

With the aid of a willing drow ally, the priestess can invoke Lolth’s Wrath. The ally explodes, showering everyone in a close burst 5 with gore and spectral spiders, which attack Reflex and do a heap of necrotic damage on a hit. This recharges on a 6, so it could happen more than once per fight. A good use for minions.

As a minor action she can use Spider Link, which transfers up to 22 points of damage from the priestess to a spider or drow within 5 squares of her. She can’t transfer more damage than the creature has HP remaining, making this a good use for elite spiders. The priestess also knows Darkfire.

Sample Encounters

We have two:

  • Level 13: 1 drow arachnomancer, 2 drow warriors, 1 mezzodaemon, 5 grimlock minions, and 2 blade spiders. Looks like a typical drow war party to me, sent away from their home with a specific goal in mind. They bring in some summoned/enslaved muscle along.

  • Level 15: 1 drow priestess, 1 drow blademaster, 1 umber hulk, and 3 drow warriors. Now this is something you might find deep within drow territory, a priestess and her personal bodyguard complete with a showy thrall.

Final Impressions

Did WotC succeed in shedding some of their Unfortunate Implications when it comes to drow? The descriptions here make me want to think they had some success, but for all I know 5e backtracked on all of this in the name of nostalgia.