Played a session where we were fighting a bunch of Driders and rescued one of the eggs, hoping to raise it to become my sidekick, though I know that'll take 18yrs in the game for the to happen, so I was wondering if there was a way to speed that up somehow. DM still says I'd have to make a roll to see if it would be loyal or not, since it'd be a nature vs nurture type of deal, but still would like to try and would be great to have a Drider sidekick lol
Anyone have any ideas or tried something like this before?
No way to do this reasonably easy. The Fey Wild can screw with time, spells like Flesh to Stone can let you survive for decades unchanged.
But the way you get a drider to be loyal is that they spend YEARS with you. You do not love your mother because she once upon a time gave birth, you love her for feeding you, wiping your tears, keeping you healthy, warm and safe.
Not sure whether mammalian child psychology applies at here largely, but to get to the OP's interests from a different angle.
So maybe your world works differently, but Drider as usually written don't come from eggs and aren't really sexed in a way that would allow reproduction. They were potential Drow champions of Lloth rejected by her and transformed for being unworthy, who then basically become pariahs in Drow society. You can of course change Drider workings into a species with a society or a parasociety within drow society with their own ability to breed etc. You could also opt for a choldrith or chitine, which do lay eggs. Whatever you do, from there it's your DMs call as to whether loyalty to Lloth is some sort of "essence" to the creature or there is some sort of taking the egg away might allow it to "imprint" on a nurturing PC.
Of course to get there you have to contend with what you're framing as a physical maturation problem. I don't believe there necessarily is a problem, at least in the case of choldrith and chitine and arguably an egg hatched drider (which isn't a thing in the 5e drow lore I'm familiar with). The choldrith and chitine (and arguably the drider) are more arachnid than humanoid, so you could lean onto the arachnid nature (and when independent of Drow, the sort of hive insectile socieity choldrith and chitines live in) that the creature would reach maturity much faster than one would expect in a humanoid (and because you're playing a magic fantasy game). Maybe a intended or "by fire" trial takes place to test the creature's loyalties. Maybe your DM railroads a inevitable betrayal or maybe they give you a fighting chance. Choldrith and Chtitine are relatively undefined including maturation process so you actually have a lot of liberty there.
If I remember my nature documentaries, spiders, not sure about all arachnids, do not "love" their mothers, are more often than not abandoned and in fact at hatching find themselves in a death struggle with its fellow egg sack members. However, Volo's discussion of choldrith and chitines describe their society as more hive insect in nature so there would be less internecine conflict within an egg clutch since the young would be presumably nurtured. Any case, real natural spiders have to learn to fend for themselves quick and I imagine reach physical maturity pretty quickly. So could your lloth-spawn ... the question is to what if anything would it be loyal to. Again, choldrtih and chitines are more social than most IRL arachnids, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Lloth loyalty is essential, it could be enculturated so the choldrith chitine "egg foundling" could possibly be more disposed to be a "team player."
As a DM I think I'd breadcrumb the possibility both ways and leave the truth to be revealed in a key moment. So rather than spells and what not, I'm thinking maybe a sidequest to say some Deep Gnomes who've been known to rear choldrith or chitines for some fostering lessons.
Both would not be very productive, since Dryders are intelligent creatures and just aging them would not form a bond nor mature them intellectually. (I am not going to discuss Forgotten Realms lore, since it's irrelevant for your DM's homebrew world).
For that to happen, you would need to actually spend time with the creature. In order to do so, and still be able to play in a campaign, the best way is to move to the Feywild, wait 18 years there and come back and hope that time has slowed down in the material plane. RAW, the Feywild have a time warp, and there is a 10% chance that days become seconds and a 20% chance that days become hours.
If days become seconds, in the material plane, just short of 2 hours will have passed. If days become hours, just short of 5 days will pass on the material plane. Of course, this is a gamble as there is a 35% chance that time is the same, 20% chance that days become weeks, 10% chance that days become months and a 5% chance that days become years. So, good luck?
Another thing to keep in mind is: You're raising a child to be your battle pet. That's is just f*cked up in many, many, many levels and, if twisted human experiments have taught us anything, is that it never works fine. That is not RAW, but, as a DM I would be very harsh in your decision to do so.
You are characterizating his behavior as "Raising a child to be a battle pet". Basically you are looking at work and slavery as the same thing.
Do you know any members of the military? Approximately 25% of current troops have a father or mother that also served. Do you think that was an accident? No. Their parents raised them in a specific culture that values military service and it is not a surprise that they joined up as well. Their parents are in general proud of their children for following in their footsteps, and would love the opportunity to serve together in the same unit.
In the past, this was just as common. If you grew up in a viking village, if your father was still alive and in good health, chances were very high that you would go raiding in the same boat as he did. '
The question is not is he raising the drider to be a battle pet, but instead is he willing to accept his drider's decision about a) adventuring, and b) joining him in battle. If the drider is a slave and gets no choice, then he is scum. If the drider gets to decide for itself, then he is just raising the child with his own values and happy that he did a good job raising the drider.
You are characterizating his behavior as "Raising a child to be a battle pet". Basically you are looking at work and slavery as the same thing.
Do you know any members of the military? Approximately 25% of current troops have a father or mother that also served. Do you think that was an accident? No. Their parents raised them in a specific culture that values military service and it is not a surprise that they joined up as well. Their parents are in general proud of their children for following in their footsteps, and would love the opportunity to serve together in the same unit.
In the past, this was just as common. If you grew up in a viking village, if your father was still alive and in good health, chances were very high that you would go raiding in the same boat as he did. '
The question is not is he raising the drider to be a battle pet, but instead is he willing to accept his drider's decision about a) adventuring, and b) joining him in battle. If the drider is a slave and gets no choice, then he is scum. If the drider gets to decide for itself, then he is just raising the child with his own values and happy that he did a good job raising the drider.
I shouldn't engage in this kind of discussion due to the fact this is utterly pointless, but...humpf...
Just a fun fact, that is not just in the military, 20% of people that have doctors as parents tend to follow the same path, that is just being ingrained into the professional environment since a very young age, not a "cultural behavior constructed in a military household". And your example of a vikings going raiding... if you were raised by a fishermen back in the day, it is very unlikely that you would do anything BUT be a fishermen.
But you're probably right, I am not reading into the subtext that has been established on OP's post, where he clearly states that he wants to raise the Drider to decide for themselves what career they want to pursue and not for sole purpose of having a, and I quote, "drider sidekick". He is so concerned about parenthood that he wants to "speed up" the process of growing up - such beautiful fatherly sentiment.
That's why the tittle of this thread is what it is, my apologies, I take it back.
The real moral issue here is the "Murder Hobo" thing. D&D is about pretending to be super-violent people that go around killing things and profiting from it. Often taking the possessions of the defeated as loot. We imagine doing this for fun.
Some of us are better about coming up with excuses why we are doing this - background stories, self-defense, doing god's work, etc. etc. Some of us are not as good at it. But it raises huge philosophical issues about why we are doing this rather than playing a game where we give out charity etc. etc.
Personally I like to remember that we play this game because we do NOT go around and do this in real life. Play is not real combat. Thinking about doing something is not doing it.
We need to give each other a bit more space to play without attacking each other. Some of the people that once believed Jack Chic's propaganda was real are still alive, and their philosophical descendants are gaining power.
The real moral issue here is the "Murder Hobo" thing. D&D is about pretending to be super-violent people that go around killing things and profiting from it. Often taking the possessions of the defeated as loot. We imagine doing this for fun.
Some of us are better about coming up with excuses why we are doing this - background stories, self-defense, doing god's work, etc. etc. Some of us are not as good at it. But it raises huge philosophical issues about why we are doing this rather than playing a game where we give out charity etc. etc.
Personally I like to remember that we play this game because we do NOT go around and do this in real life. Play is not real combat. Thinking about doing something is not doing it.
We need to give each other a bit more space to play without attacking each other. Some of the people that once believed Jack Chic's propaganda was real are still alive, and their philosophical descendants are gaining power.
I think I kinda understand your line of thought now - although you really did a huge u turn from questioning the ethics of raising a kid to try and point out that people should be free to do whatever they want on a make believe game. Anyway...
From my POV, and that comes mostly as a DM, I tend to have strict lines on what I find acceptable on our make believe game. In my worlds I think certain behaviors, even if they are done on a place filled with unruly vigilantes, are completely out of question.
So, when I say that raising a child just to use it as weapon, I am not trying to attack the OP, I am just stating something that might be an oversight on his part. Because there is a DM on the other side that is going to have to roleplay this f*cked up dryder kid that is being raised to murder and, maybe, even come up with a weird quest to speed up this process, so... yeah... it would throw my suspension of disbelief right out the window to have someone try smth like this on my table.
But that is MY opinion, and that's why is stated as not RAW and just at the end of the solutions asked by the OP.
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Played a session where we were fighting a bunch of Driders and rescued one of the eggs, hoping to raise it to become my sidekick, though I know that'll take 18yrs in the game for the to happen, so I was wondering if there was a way to speed that up somehow. DM still says I'd have to make a roll to see if it would be loyal or not, since it'd be a nature vs nurture type of deal, but still would like to try and would be great to have a Drider sidekick lol
Anyone have any ideas or tried something like this before?
No way to do this reasonably easy. The Fey Wild can screw with time, spells like Flesh to Stone can let you survive for decades unchanged.
But the way you get a drider to be loyal is that they spend YEARS with you. You do not love your mother because she once upon a time gave birth, you love her for feeding you, wiping your tears, keeping you healthy, warm and safe.
If you skip that process, you get NOTHING.
Not sure whether mammalian child psychology applies at here largely, but to get to the OP's interests from a different angle.
So maybe your world works differently, but Drider as usually written don't come from eggs and aren't really sexed in a way that would allow reproduction. They were potential Drow champions of Lloth rejected by her and transformed for being unworthy, who then basically become pariahs in Drow society. You can of course change Drider workings into a species with a society or a parasociety within drow society with their own ability to breed etc. You could also opt for a choldrith or chitine, which do lay eggs. Whatever you do, from there it's your DMs call as to whether loyalty to Lloth is some sort of "essence" to the creature or there is some sort of taking the egg away might allow it to "imprint" on a nurturing PC.
Of course to get there you have to contend with what you're framing as a physical maturation problem. I don't believe there necessarily is a problem, at least in the case of choldrith and chitine and arguably an egg hatched drider (which isn't a thing in the 5e drow lore I'm familiar with). The choldrith and chitine (and arguably the drider) are more arachnid than humanoid, so you could lean onto the arachnid nature (and when independent of Drow, the sort of hive insectile socieity choldrith and chitines live in) that the creature would reach maturity much faster than one would expect in a humanoid (and because you're playing a magic fantasy game). Maybe a intended or "by fire" trial takes place to test the creature's loyalties. Maybe your DM railroads a inevitable betrayal or maybe they give you a fighting chance. Choldrith and Chtitine are relatively undefined including maturation process so you actually have a lot of liberty there.
If I remember my nature documentaries, spiders, not sure about all arachnids, do not "love" their mothers, are more often than not abandoned and in fact at hatching find themselves in a death struggle with its fellow egg sack members. However, Volo's discussion of choldrith and chitines describe their society as more hive insect in nature so there would be less internecine conflict within an egg clutch since the young would be presumably nurtured. Any case, real natural spiders have to learn to fend for themselves quick and I imagine reach physical maturity pretty quickly. So could your lloth-spawn ... the question is to what if anything would it be loyal to. Again, choldrtih and chitines are more social than most IRL arachnids, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Lloth loyalty is essential, it could be enculturated so the choldrith chitine "egg foundling" could possibly be more disposed to be a "team player."
As a DM I think I'd breadcrumb the possibility both ways and leave the truth to be revealed in a key moment. So rather than spells and what not, I'm thinking maybe a sidequest to say some Deep Gnomes who've been known to rear choldrith or chitines for some fostering lessons.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
RAW, IIRC, the effects that can age a creature are: Androsphinx's/Gynosphinx's lair actions and a Ghost's horrifying visage action.
Both would not be very productive, since Dryders are intelligent creatures and just aging them would not form a bond nor mature them intellectually. (I am not going to discuss Forgotten Realms lore, since it's irrelevant for your DM's homebrew world).
For that to happen, you would need to actually spend time with the creature. In order to do so, and still be able to play in a campaign, the best way is to move to the Feywild, wait 18 years there and come back and hope that time has slowed down in the material plane. RAW, the Feywild have a time warp, and there is a 10% chance that days become seconds and a 20% chance that days become hours.
If days become seconds, in the material plane, just short of 2 hours will have passed. If days become hours, just short of 5 days will pass on the material plane. Of course, this is a gamble as there is a 35% chance that time is the same, 20% chance that days become weeks, 10% chance that days become months and a 5% chance that days become years. So, good luck?
Another thing to keep in mind is: You're raising a child to be your battle pet. That's is just f*cked up in many, many, many levels and, if twisted human experiments have taught us anything, is that it never works fine. That is not RAW, but, as a DM I would be very harsh in your decision to do so.
You are characterizating his behavior as "Raising a child to be a battle pet". Basically you are looking at work and slavery as the same thing.
Do you know any members of the military? Approximately 25% of current troops have a father or mother that also served. Do you think that was an accident? No. Their parents raised them in a specific culture that values military service and it is not a surprise that they joined up as well. Their parents are in general proud of their children for following in their footsteps, and would love the opportunity to serve together in the same unit.
In the past, this was just as common. If you grew up in a viking village, if your father was still alive and in good health, chances were very high that you would go raiding in the same boat as he did. '
The question is not is he raising the drider to be a battle pet, but instead is he willing to accept his drider's decision about a) adventuring, and b) joining him in battle. If the drider is a slave and gets no choice, then he is scum. If the drider gets to decide for itself, then he is just raising the child with his own values and happy that he did a good job raising the drider.
I shouldn't engage in this kind of discussion due to the fact this is utterly pointless, but...humpf...
Just a fun fact, that is not just in the military, 20% of people that have doctors as parents tend to follow the same path, that is just being ingrained into the professional environment since a very young age, not a "cultural behavior constructed in a military household". And your example of a vikings going raiding... if you were raised by a fishermen back in the day, it is very unlikely that you would do anything BUT be a fishermen.
But you're probably right, I am not reading into the subtext that has been established on OP's post, where he clearly states that he wants to raise the Drider to decide for themselves what career they want to pursue and not for sole purpose of having a, and I quote, "drider sidekick". He is so concerned about parenthood that he wants to "speed up" the process of growing up - such beautiful fatherly sentiment.
That's why the tittle of this thread is what it is, my apologies, I take it back.
The real moral issue here is the "Murder Hobo" thing. D&D is about pretending to be super-violent people that go around killing things and profiting from it. Often taking the possessions of the defeated as loot. We imagine doing this for fun.
Some of us are better about coming up with excuses why we are doing this - background stories, self-defense, doing god's work, etc. etc. Some of us are not as good at it. But it raises huge philosophical issues about why we are doing this rather than playing a game where we give out charity etc. etc.
Personally I like to remember that we play this game because we do NOT go around and do this in real life. Play is not real combat. Thinking about doing something is not doing it.
We need to give each other a bit more space to play without attacking each other. Some of the people that once believed Jack Chic's propaganda was real are still alive, and their philosophical descendants are gaining power.
I think I kinda understand your line of thought now - although you really did a huge u turn from questioning the ethics of raising a kid to try and point out that people should be free to do whatever they want on a make believe game. Anyway...
From my POV, and that comes mostly as a DM, I tend to have strict lines on what I find acceptable on our make believe game. In my worlds I think certain behaviors, even if they are done on a place filled with unruly vigilantes, are completely out of question.
So, when I say that raising a child just to use it as weapon, I am not trying to attack the OP, I am just stating something that might be an oversight on his part. Because there is a DM on the other side that is going to have to roleplay this f*cked up dryder kid that is being raised to murder and, maybe, even come up with a weird quest to speed up this process, so... yeah... it would throw my suspension of disbelief right out the window to have someone try smth like this on my table.
But that is MY opinion, and that's why is stated as not RAW and just at the end of the solutions asked by the OP.