Since the drow worship a spider goddess, how would they react to:
- a party accompanied by a giant spider (actually a druid in wildshape)
- a party member wild shaping into a spider mid-combat
- a party member having a pet (not giant) spider
Would the reaction be different from a drow priestess of Lolth, versus the regular rank and file drow warrior? Obviously not every drow will react in the same way — I am asking about what one would typically expect.
The setting is Forgotten Realms.
Any specific references from the sourcebooks of any edition, or the Salvatore novels would be appreciated. I am looking for help in roleplaying drow in the face of a party containing a moon druid who thinks changing into a spider in front of drow will be fun — I want to be sure to make it fun, but also stay reasonably true to the source material available (without having read all the Salvatore novels myself).
[I added the 5e tag since that's what we're playing, but I suspect that the answer would be the same for any edition of D&D. Also since this question arises from my preparation for running the new Out of the Abyss adventure, the context is most likely to be a party of drow familiar with the PCs]
Best Answer
Drow are forbidden to harm a spider - unless they can get away with it.
Drow of Faerûn are hesistant to harm a spider, since that creature is sacred to their deity Lolth, and to kill a spider is punishable by death.
According to the AD&D 2e product Menzoberranzan (The City, p.14), which details the drow city of that name:
This applies even in accident, such as in the novel Daughter of the Drow (p.4), where a soldier in Menzoberranzan is executed on the spot after a priestess spots him accidentally stepping on a spider:
However, this law is not necessarily absolute, according to Menzoberranzan (The City, p.15):
The D&D 4th edition Menzoberranzan, p.20, also questions how absolute the drow prohibition on harming spiders really is:
It's also questionable whether the taboo on killing spiders is an edict handed down by Lolth herself, or merely an interpretation of her dogma as given by her priestesses.
Faiths and Pantheons p.41 describes it as a religious dogma:
That same page describes that Faerûn's Lolth is the same entity as the Lolth other other worlds, such as Greyhawk. This is important because in Flesh For Lolth: The Secret Life of Dark Elves, in Dragon #298, p.30, it's described that drow in general have absolutely no problem harming spiders:
This suggests that the prohibition on killing spiders is not something required by Lolth, but merely a rule decided upon by her priestesses, meaning that it may vary between individual settlements and even time periods, depending which noble houses are in charge at the time.
In short: For a drow, killing a spider is punishable by death if the priestesses of your settlement decide it's illegal on the grounds of disrespecting spiders (as has historically been the case in Menzoberranzan), and they catch you doing it openly, and you're not sufficiently high-status to get away with it.
They won't suddenly bow down to worship the spider, or assume it's a messenger of Lolth or anything. Also, it's not illegal to kill a party of invaders, even if they do appear to own a spider.
Seeing someone transformed into a spider or spider-like creature has special connotations in drow society: Lolth transforms drow who fail her into spider-like abominations. However, most drow are also familiar with the existence of polymorph magic, and unlikely to mistake a human turning into a a spider for a drow turning into a drider.
They may, however, attack this "fake" spider more readily: it's not a real spider after all, and using magic to disguise yourself as someone of higher status is illegal in Menzoberranzan, giving the drow a possible pretext to attack the party if they needed one. However, this also carries risk, since if a priestess shows up to break up the fight, and sees low-status drow attacking what appears to be a real spider, their lives may well be forfeit.