To @Leurotta's point I do think the Seldarine / Lolth is division in the lore but, so far, the Duegar pantheon doesn't include a good god like Drow pantheon does. So this is case where Larian got the lore (mostly) correct. There are Elistraee worshiping drow living in the high forest and silver marches. But for some reason the game doesn't treat Seldarine drow as surface dwellers, instead they are assumed to have come from the underdark.
I think the Duergar equivalent would be if Larian split Duergar into ''Laduguer-Sworn Duergar' and 'Morndinsamman Duergar'. Nevermind that there isn't a good deity in the Duergar Pantheon, because 'Seldarine Drow' doesn't restrict clerics to Eilistraee in game.
Ideally stuff like the [underdark] tag would be a toggle where appropriate. I guess it's sorta a freebie atm because otherwise you probably wouldn't get a tag, kinda like how gale doesn't get the [Baldurian] tag, but also doesn't get a [Waterdhavian] tag in exchange. Now I'm thinking about it, it is pretty weird that when you roll a non-drow cleric of Lolth, you still get the [Baldurian] tag (or presumably access to the [planar] tag if you choose the profoundly odd choice of a githyanki cleric of lolth) There's actually a book you can find in the underdark Wizard's tower that seems to justify the non-drow clerics of Lolth as indoctrinated slaves. You'd think they'd have the [Underdark] tag if anything, but the Baldurian one seems out of place either way.
Well said. People can't see your soul. Perhaps they can see a holy symbol you are wearing -- in which case it would be nice to have holy / unholy symbols in the game and to have NPCs react to them.
Clerics could definitely use some more love. For such a roleplay-heavy class in tabletop terms (big part of the appeal, IMO) they don't get a lot of god-specific responses and reactions, even when talking to other clerics/druids, etc. Dialogue options for displaying your holy symbol & appropriate npc reactions would be pretty great. I'd love to get some dialogue's going about my character's religion in much the same way you can get characters like Shadowheart or Abdirak proselytizing at you, because those were great-but that seems like a long shot.
There are drow that have abandoned Lolth and chosen to follow Eilistraee instead, definitely... but that's a personal, moral, social and/or religious choice... is should not, under any circumstance ever imply that it is something irreversibly determined by your race - which is what the game currently does.
I agree 100%. But WotC has had a profoundly bad track record in this regard both historically and within recent memory. The 3rd edition thing where Eilistraee died to 'redeem' her drow followers by lightening their skin color springs to mind. Speaking of which...
Now the art in Mordenkainen and Tasha's is great. It's perfect. Stick to that and
I read a thread on another board earlier today analyzing an art shift in how Drow were portrayed in Tashas. Specifically, they are *significantly* lighter-skinned than even prior 5e material. Across the board-In some cases basically Asterion-levels of pale, and he's a vampire-spawn moon elf! It seems like part of WoTC's strategy towards combating allegations of bigotry over the evil elves being black-skinned....is to remove the black skin of said elves. Yikes.
I don't know what it is with this obsession with changing drow's physical appearance, because it inevitably ends up making things incredibly uncomfortable because nobody seemingly thought about it for more than 5 minutes. Drow redemption being signified by changes in physical appearance is something I hope doesn't make the final cut. Like if we reach Baldur's Gate and run into some Eilistraeens and they're all violet-eyed I'll be cross.
