Homebrew Drider Species Details
"They called us Llolth-cursed, failures, abominations. There is some truth to that as many of my kind have unraveled into feral beasts. To those of us who hold onto our sanity we fight for our right to exist. Perhaps this new form was not a curse for failing. Perhaps the only failure was death and that this is a gift for adapting to something more than just hapless drow.
Drider are largely created and not born. Though some evidence has surfaced to suggest it is possible among them. The transformation from drow to drider is a painful ordeal and irreversable. The Rite if Racnor'noth is an ancient ritual dating as far back as just after the Exodus of the Drow during the Epoch of Light. Those who attempt it seek to appease the goddess Llolth and prove their fealty. Some returned unscathed and are heralded with an elevation of status in drow society. Most of those who fail perish. Some emerge alive but transformed into Drider, monstrosities that appear half spider and half the drow they were though with more angular features. To many in Drow culture they ar eabominations fit only to be destroyed or used as tools of brute force and treated more as guard dogs than members of society. There are some who beleive them to be blessed asopposed to curse and fight to give them more rights.
Twisted in Body and Mind
Transformation gives maintains much of the drow's features from the waist up such as hair, eyes, skin. The waist down warped into a monstrous spider. This process warps the mind too, forcing the drider to combat overly aggressive mood swings and more savage instincts. Those who succumb become more feral than not and grow to larger sizes as th eembrace more of the monster and less of the drow-who-was. Others fight and maintain a balance of sorts. They maintain medium size and have slightly less bulk and strength but have the advantage of their minds being intact.
Guard Dogs or Outcasts
Many drider in drow society are put down immediately, while some are released into the underground wilderness to act as a deterrent for invaders. Others yet are forced into servitude as guards of temples and other important places. A few in areas that have given driders who have maintained their sanity more rights allow them to live in their own district within the settlement. Those not so lucky sometimes find ways of escape or even passage on the Refugee Road possibly as far as the surface. A drider's fate can take many turns and end up many places.
Exploration and Adventure
Many drider who are allowed to navigate drow society or manage to flee it completely begin to seek a new life leaving their old one behind. This leads some to the life of an adventurer. Depending on where they go though they could be met with fear and even treated as a monster so that is always on their mind. Some respond with force intending would be enemies to be too afraid to act, others with diplomacy to show they are more useful than monstrous.
Drider Names
Drider often keep their chosen adult name but abandon and family names of the past. Many take up titles worthy of their new path such as Rae'lok the Scaleripper, a drider who became a soldier and adventurer on the surface of Perluxia, making a name for himself defeating yuan-ti in the War of Scales.
Drider Traits
Your drider character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of a mixture of residual drow heritage and the transformation into a drider.Ability Score Increase
Your Dexterity and Constitution scores both increase by 1.
Size
Drider range from under 6 to over 7 feet tall and have slender builds even with their spider-like lower torso. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet. You have a climb speed of 30ft
Languages
You can speak, read, and write in Undercommon, Elven.
Age
Although elves descended of the First Genesis such as the gray and dark varieties claim adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 500 years old, the Drider life expectancy is usually shorter. This is complicated by the fact most Drider die violent deaths before reaching old age.
Superior Darkvision
Born of the Underdark you are keenly adapted to seeing within darkness. Even beyond what most creatures of the night who inhabit the surface world.
Fey Ancestry
You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
Diminished Drow Magic
You inherited some of the abilities you had as a drow but not all were maintained through the transformation. From first level you have the ability to cast the cantrip dancing lights. At third level you get to choose between remembering how to use the spell faerie fire or darkness once per long rest.
Spider Climb
Due to your transformation you are just as at home climbing as you are walking. You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Sunlight Sensitivity
You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Web Walker
You ignore movement restrictions caused by webbing.
Gifts of the Underdark
Your predatory instincts have granted you proficiency in Perception and Stealth
Strength of the Arachnid
Having more legs grants you greater carrying capacity than those with two.
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