OSR OSR Drow Revamp

[FormerlyHemlock]

Once upon a time the Drow were a feared and dangerous opponent in D&D. They were rare, graceful, and deadly and they could slaughter the PCs if they were not careful. Successive versions of D&D have toned them down to where mechanically they are a bad joke compared to their former glory.

Heh heh heh heh heh. Tell that to my players. They just met their first drow last night, and they never want to meet them ever again. Two 9th level PCs with a dozen super skeletons (1d6+7 damage each) were utterly routed, twice, by small handfuls of CR 1/4 drow with one elite and one priestess. Here's the thing: in the underdark, drow are almost guaranteed a surprise round, and they have advantage on all attacks/disadvantage to attackers due to better darkvision than anyone else (unless you manage to light them up somehow, which my players didn't do). Plus, they are smart and have ranged weaponry which knocks you out on a failed Con save. It all adds up to a nasty combination. The necromancer enjoyed 3600 XP from defeating two mustard jellies, solo, while crossing an underground lake (in fact he wanted to find more of them)... but the 400 XP worth of drow killed him and came within a hair of TPK (both PCs were down, but the skeletons did well enough defending the bodies that I ruled the drow withdrew to get reinforcements, and I let the PCs spend karma to wake up and grab the necromancer's body and take it to the xixchil machine for repair/revivificaction). Then when the necro was alive again, they decided not to flee. They snuck up on five drow and managed to kill them (250 XP) and then barricaded themselves in to wait for the rest. They got TPKed again but spent karma for another mulligan, intending to just retconn as "we ran away before the drow arrived" but then finding a tactic that would actually win (blowing the Horn of Valhalla). It was without doubt the hardest battle they have fought, not in terms of official "difficulty" rating but in actual threat level.

My players are now properly scared of the Underdark, and for all the right reasons.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Small settlements of drow scattered throughout the underdark but they convene every quarter at a large stonehenge type mega settlement for religious rites. The rest of the year the religious centre has a population size of a medium sized town?