Newbie question here. Do all drow use poison? My PC's are about to go drow-killing in HoHR and I can't find any reference to poison use in the various stat blocks. Are these non-poison using drow or should I assume standard practices (and saves) from the Monster Manual?
Thanks for the help.
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Zyrxog's drow do not have poison as written...I adjusted that to present more of challange to my PCs in their initial ambush situation. Zyrxog would be wise to not allow poison in the hands of the drow in case one thrall chose to act independently out of the blue and perhaps that's the original reason for their lack of poison.
Hmmmm. Okay, I can dig that idea. 'Thralldom' is a tricky condition to be in. Slave? Willing participant? Somewhere in between.
Alright, no poison! Thanks Rexx.
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Hmmmm. Okay, I can dig that idea. 'Thralldom' is a tricky condition to be in. Slave? Willing participant? Somewhere in between.
Alright, no poison! Thanks Rexx.
Yeah, I had some logic issues with their thralldom as well. Lords of Madness didn't provide a straight answer either. I figured the stone brain was really the responsible party for keeping their control.
Good luck with Zyrxog & Co. It should be a memoriable gaming session(s)!
If I could go back and do it again, I'd make the thralls Lolth's Stings (Monster Manual IV), instead of fighters, just for panache. See if that interests you.
Zyrxog's drow do not have poison as written...I adjusted that to present more of challange to my PCs in their initial ambush situation. Zyrxog would be wise to not allow poison in the hands of the drow in case one thrall chose to act independently out of the blue and perhaps that's the original reason for their lack of poison.
One thing to keep in mind, the players don't need to know every detail. As DM, it is great to come up with the exact specifics of why the drow follow the illithid. In the end, the PCs are going to come in, kill the thralls, kill the mind flayer and roll on. Details the PCs are never, ever, going to find out aren't critical to the game. They do, however, help us DMs sleep better at night! ;)
I was a bit surprised to find no poison on the drow either (my players encountered their first two thralls and Ilserv [FR version of Zyrxog] last week). The party mopped the floor with the drow despite one of them being stunned by the mind flayer and three of them upstairs not knowing what was happening. The next group may just sport some drow poison!
As far as the mind flayer being concerned about the poison. Sensible argument. I thought it odd that it had such a lax relationship with something as powerful and nasty as the naga, which effectively lives in the foyer!
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One thing to keep in mind, the players don't need to know every detail. As DM, it is great to come up with the exact specifics of why the drow follow the illithid. In the end, the PCs are going to come in, kill the thralls, kill the mind flayer and roll on. Details the PCs are never, ever, going to find out aren't critical to the game. They do, however, help us DMs sleep better at night! ;)
Nothing annoys me more than situations PCs encounter that do not have a logical explanation for being there. If I cannot devise an explanation I'm satisfied with, then I just drop the encounter altogether or rewrite it to be logical. During my original campaign, I had players that did ask questions ("Why are so many humanoids of different species all living in the Caves of Chaos, DM?"..."Um, low rent?") so it's become habit to make things logical.
As far as the mind flayer being concerned about the poison. Sensible argument. I thought it odd that it had such a lax relationship with something as powerful and nasty as the naga, which effectively lives in the foyer!
Yes, another situation that begged some backstory to allow me to "sleep better at night". Simply, the naga was predating on the drow as they were out and about on missions for Zyrxog. The illithid wasn't too pleased with this and went to eliminate the naga. In the process of the fight, the naga begged for quarter and Zyrxog struck the bargain that placed the naga in his "foyer" as an additional guardian with the caveat of providing food for the naga. A simple arragement that Zyrxog modifies at his whim to make it clear that Zyrxog is the "alpha-monster", not the naga.
The naga didn't make sense to me at all. So I replaced it with a huge, fiendish, monstrous spider - sort of a "pet" for the drow priestess. It had about the same CR as the naga, but fit in better (IMO) and made for a great fight in that large cavern (with drow hiding behind rocks, shooting poison darts the whole time).
I also added a refuse pit, where they dumped their garbage, and in the pit was a large carrion crawler (sort of a living garbage disposal). They "milked" this thing for venom/poison - so their darts (from the hand crossbow) caused paralysis on a failed Fort save.