Similar to how drow were when they were first envisioned for the game, ours worship various demon lords.
A demon pantheon, sounds awesome.
Wouldn't this cause friction and slow down the bolt?How do you keep the bolt from falling out when you point your crossbow down?perhaps like some modern crossbows (such as Mine) the noch on her bolts fits snuggly enough on the string that mere gravity will not be enough to loose it.
Somewhat. However, the amount of friction to hold a crossbow bolt is pretty negligible compared to the force of the crossbow.
From my money Brom is the King of the Drow, but I also like Justin Sweet's work (from the icewind dale games) for a dirtier look. I also love WAR's drow Tempest from the Shadows of Istivin arc cover.
Brom's Drizzt
Justin Sweet
I'm liking Steve Prescott's new look for the Drow, but of course I've also liked WAR's take as well. But mentioning other artistic references, I'm kinda going "old-school" in my thinking - back to when the drow where a little more mysterious and creepy.
Erol Otis use to draw them with this bizarre look - I think it was the combination of solid black and ornate armors. (You'll have to scroll down to Vault of the Drow and the Slaver's portrait)
Although it's hardly the most unique take for Larry Elmore, I also remember liking his Drow look in the The Offering. Probably way too human-looking, but I think it captures the right feel of sexy-creepy that Drow seem to have. Also, this was the first time I had seen somebody give a Drow a different skin tone than solid-black, which was kind of unique at the time. (Dragon had this as a poster sized image in one of their issues; I think I need to dig it out and see.)
Well i am not a mutant and i am far more kink than freak, so he can't be talking about me. Maybe Rich Pett and Nic Logue will be fully stated villians? I think they both count.
He could be talking about me (genetic freak of nature that I am) but as far as I know I have no involvment with Pathfinder other than being a fan so I'm just as curious as everyone else.
Since people remarked on the crossbow, I noticed something kind of funny and it seems to be pretty common with people drawing crossbows. Look at the drow's crossbow, then Gimble's in the bard section of the PHB and finally Jozan in the cleric section of the PHB (this is the worse example). How do you keep the bolt from falling out when you point your crossbow down? It just makes the drow seem less intimidating when she is standing there and the bolt in her bad-a$$ crossbow drops to the ground.
I would just like to point out that if you could not point a crossbow down with out the bolt sliding out then historically it would have been a pi$$ poor weapon for defending a castle with durring a siege.
"Why aren't you firing your weapon soldier!"
"I'd like to Sarge, but I havce to wait for that attacker to get to the top of the ladder."
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I'm guessing well hoping there is no spider queen how are drow structured?One of my players is so deathly afraid of spiders she can't even bear to watch a TV show with spiders in it or look at any of the spider minis (or even minis that look spider-like), so spiders are definitely out in my game except for very rare occasions.
While I love the way the drow are typically portrayed, I'm half hoping for completely selfish reasons that drow in Pathfinder are associated with something other than spiders, or I can pretty much forget any kind of drow adventures in my game.
Edit: meant to add that the Pathfinder cover for #13 does, in fact, look awesome :D
She would have loved Bigun... One of my favorite encounters ever...
That reminds me - Best name ever "Wet Papa Grazuul" Doesn't get any better than that.
I'm liking Steve Prescott's new look for the Drow, but of course I've also liked WAR's take as well. But mentioning other artistic references, I'm kinda going "old-school" in my thinking - back to when the drow where a little more mysterious and creepy.Erol Otis use to draw them with this bizarre look - I think it was the combination of solid black and ornate armors. (You'll have to scroll down to Vault of the Drow and the Slaver's portrait)
Although it's hardly the most unique take for Larry Elmore, I also remember liking his Drow look in the The Offering. Probably way too human-looking, but I think it captures the right feel of sexy-creepy that Drow seem to have. Also, this was the first time I had seen somebody give a Drow a different skin tone than solid-black, which was kind of unique at the time. (Dragon had this as a poster sized image in one of their issues; I think I need to dig it out and see.)
I actually like Erol Otis version quite a bit (but that was when I was young and first in love with the Game, being 40 now, Erol Otis was part of my generation). I don't think that style is contemporary enough for today's audience, but I still tip my hat to it. That's classic for me.
I see what you mean about Elmore's specific painting you link. That particular one is very well done, and I take your point.
Makes me wish you could kinda merge Elmore and WAR's styles and see what it would look like...
I actually like Erol Otis version quite a bit (but that was when I was young and first in love with the Game, being 40 now, Erol Otis was part of my generation). I don't think that style is contemporary enough for today's audience, but I still tip my hat to it. That's classic for me.Makes me wish you could kinda merge Elmore and WAR's styles and see what it would look like...
I totally agree that compared to today's fantasy art styles, Erol's way classic by comparison. In fact, I think that why Goodman Games had him do artwork for their Dungeon Crawl Classics line - to evoke that feeling. I just hearken back to it because his style (along with the old Fiend Folio entry) seems to bring that freaky/strange feel the Paizo looks like they want to reinvest in their take on the Drow.
I don't think the emphasis the past 15 (or is more like 20) years both in writing (by folks like Salavatore and Cunningham) and artwork (by WAR, Brom, et al) on the Drow was ever bad. I think it fleshed them out in ways that were unique and certainly interesting. But, I guess the familiarity it's created has made them seem like just dark elves and less mysterious in a campaign setting. That's why I'm very interested to see what qualities Paizo emphasizes to make them seem like the "mysterious" Drow again.
Getting back on track, if you could somehow merge Elmore and Reynolds styles together....OMG! That would be like awesome Artgasm! ;-)
Creative Director
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I totally agree that compared to today's fantasy art styles, Erol's way classic by comparison. In fact, I think that why Goodman Games had him do artwork for their Dungeon Crawl Classics line - to evoke that feeling. I just hearken back to it because his style (along with the old Fiend Folio entry) seems to bring that freaky/strange feel the Paizo looks like they want to reinvest in their take on the Drow.
That is, in fact, by design. I like Elmore's work... but his non-human races always end up looking human to me. Golarion's elves are tall and spindly and a little creepy looking, and the drow are as well. Erol Otus is my favorite artist from the early days, and the drow he did were formative in my mind as for how they look.
That said... we're not really trying to make our drow "mysterious." That genie's out of the bottle. We WILL have mysterious races in the Darklands, but they'll be new monsters mostly, not well-established critters. What we're trying to do with our drow is make them back into bad guys you hate, not bad guys you're more interested in seeing good guy versions of...
Good to know some insght on this, thanks.
Mysterious is the wrong word to use; but the intent to make them true bad-guys is totally on par with what I was thinking. My comment was a reference to them as something alien and evil to the PCs; not the cool, misunderstood anti-hero race it's sort of developed into over the years. Heck, even the implication that they all aren't spider-worshippers sounds interesting. So yeah, that sounds pretty cool to hear.
