Fey Ancestry. The drider has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put the drider to sleep.
Innate Spellcasting. The drider’s innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13). The drider can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: dancing lights
1/day each: darkness, faerie fire
Spider Climb. The drider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the drider has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Web Walker. The drider ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.
Multiattack. The drider makes three attacks, either with its longsword or its longbow. It can replace one of those attacks with a bite attack.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 2 (1d4) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage.
Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) slashing damage, or 8 (1d10 + 3) slashing damage if used with two hands.
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) poison damage.
If anyone In these comments is a GM, and any of your players is a drow, you could make them pass the test. then they could become a drider!
Driderling
Wether result of an interrupted drider transformation ritual, the spawn of driders coupling with drow, or first sign of a drow losing Lolth's favor, Driderlings exist as being between, not quite Dark Elves and not quite Drider. Not yet burdened with the desire to feed on the flesh of those they encounter, but slowly gaining more archanid features with each passing year these Dark elves are much more feral and surprisingly, vicious than most of their kin.
Heretics of Lolth
One thing is certain about Driderlings and that is they lack the favor of the patron goddess of Dark Elves, Lolth. They walk the earth exiles of their people, or cursed members of surface dark elf communities barely staving off the maddening nature of their condition. Some seek to reverse their dark transformation through the worship of Elistraee, others wish to find a way to attain the true form of a Drider for its raw power. Either way, Driderlings make their way through the world distrusted by most of their kin and outsider alike, struggling to find a place on the surface or in the underdark. Some will find themselves living among drider communities in the depths of the Underdark because of this. Driderlings that choose to live in Drow society are treated like second class citizens, often used as a slave race of servants, bodyguards, and front line fighters.
Archanid-Like Form
Driderlings are almost indistinguishable from their drow counterparts, with features consistent of the race such as white or silver hair, skin of purple, black, and gray, along with ruby red eyes. Many Driderlings are cursed with a physical form dotted with the features belonging to spiders and other archanids. Almost all Driderlings possess a grizzly pair of thick, black retractable spider mandibles which they deal deadly bites with it. It is not uncommon for Driderlings to possess clawed hands, short purple or black fur covering all or parts of their skin, vestigal spider legs growing out of their backs, or multiple spider-like eyes. Their feral like nature and appearance leaves them quite unsettling to many that they meet making them share kinship with other disenfranchised races such as half-orcs, half-gnolls, and tieflings.
Driderling Names
Driderlings often keep the names given to them as Drow, though some may change their name to fit their exile from Drow culture and society. Driderlings that find themselves in Drider colonies tend to adopt names consisting of manidble clicks and screeches, while Drider living among civilized surfaces races such as Elistraee drow tend to retain elvish or common names. Driderlings are typically stripped of their house names, if they ever had any to begin with.
Driderling Traits
From the remote edges of civilization, these cursed spider like creatures climb and trick their way to notoriety.
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Strength or Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age
Driderlings maintain the age they had pre-transformation and have a life span comparable to most dark elves, about 750 years.
Alignment
Driderlings have a tendency towards chaos from their drow roots and are not strongly inclined toward good. Driderlings born of Drow from the Underdark and living among drider or dark elf kind are typically evil.
Size
Driderlings are somewhat taller than Dark Elves, and they range from 6 ft to 6 1/2 ft tall. Your size is Medium.
Spider Climb
You have a base climbing speed of 30 ft and can climb up difficult surfaces, such as upside down on the ceiling, with relative ease.
Superior Darkvision
Thanks to your dark elf heritage, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 ft of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Sunlight Sensitivity
Driderlings have disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target or your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive are in direct sunlight.
Innate Spellcasting
You know the Poison Spray cantrip. You can cast animal friendship an unlimited number of times per day with this trait, but you can only target spiders with it. Starting at 3rd you can also cast Web with this trait. You cannot use this trait again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Bite
You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 piercing damage on a hit.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Undercommon.
Self Lolthing
Where did you find these stats? Its been a while since I looked up drow lore and most of it that I recall is back in 1e and 2e. ( I missed most of 3 and 4) I'm just looking for more source material to read up on. If this is a home-brew content awesome work.
DRIDER MAN, DRIDER MAN DOES WHATEVER A DRIDER CAN. LOOK OUT. HE IS THE DRIDER MAN!!!!!!!
Would you up the CR for that spellcaster variant?
Yeah, it's like your teammates saying you have to use aimbot because you just slow them down.
Ok, That is amazing.
That’s actually a pretty cool way of looking at it.
Not unless it has a Spellcaster Level is greater than 7th.
The statblock in the monster manual is carefully balanced not to change the CR noticeably.
Yes me too I think it should be an honor
The become a spider part of the thing is ok, but the process to turn someone into a Drider is painful and the victim always becomes mad, Lolth turns them into spider-like creatures so when they look at a drider they will remember not only the monster, but Lolth herself.
They rewrote the Drider quite a bit, from 3.5
But they did so with many things in the MM.
The drider, previously, was one punishment for those spellcasters (usually Female Clerics) who failed the Trial at level 5.
So the drider was a 3.5 version of what you see here, but also a level 5 spellcaster
usually Cleric, though I believe...IIRC , it could also be Wizard or .
Regardless, here, now, in 5e, the Drider is 'just a monster' with a little magic.
Give it the tier 3 spells of a level 5 cleric, and its a different monster entirely.
mwa hahaha
The punishment, wasn't only what it has become.
But what it has lost, and what its new use will be.
Driders were exiled to live outside the Drow Cities and the Drow temples. And as monsters, other weaker failures would be fed to the Driders.
Also, Drow feared and reviled the Driders so much, that it became a thing to hunt them, or avoid them.
You certainly would not want to be associated with them and become one.
The ultiimate loss , was the intangible potential of their future as a Successful Priestess.
Passing all the Trials, advancing beyond 5th level in Lolth's service, ... that's where all the gravy was.
The Drider may be this powerful monster, and in 3.5 might even retain those powers she had developed before being transformed and disfigured into a hideous tool for the Goddess....
but will never reach Tier 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and ultimately tier 9 spells in Service to Goddess Queen Spider lady.
fast forward to 5e?
She was a respected, promising level 5 Cleric Priestess, with potential to advance far above that station, and gain power greatly beyond modest 3rd tier spells.
She has all of that stripped away, along with her future, to become this monster, living in exile or slavery, hunted feared, or used.
SWGY out
I know its in a secondery monster manual in 3.5 called monsters of faerun, but it has a creature called a chitine, but they are basically a failed attempt to make slaves by the drow, and they are spider people, but this isnt the weird part. their preistesses are basically driders with powers called choldrith, and are revered as being closly connected to lolth and an honour to become one.
Like yes, i know its a different culture, but I think its like
drow---> chitine bad.
chitine ---> choldrith good.
drow--- drider bad.
and it makes no sense.
I can’t believe I missed this gem earlier.
You made such a good point, it inspired me to look into the matter further.
For the 5e version of the Chitine and Choldrith, Volo’s Guide describes Choldrith as “signs of Lolth’s displeasure” with the local Drow, which seems to fit in with the Drider lore.
However, this seems to be a retroactive addition, as it also says they were “previously mistaken” for a positive omen.
Phase Drider with Drow Poison.
Did anyone make a homebrew playable race for Driders? I need one of those!
do they have a homebrew thing set up? I need it for the campaign im playing in.....
So, it has webwalker, but can't cast web or create web itself. Nice
That's what I thought too. In my Homebrew Campaign, I made my own Spider Centaurs that would better express the Spider Queens will.