While I've been modeling the Driders, Dirtywick has been working on getting them inside the game as a Playable race. Here is a screenshot of a fully functional "drider" ingame. This is placeholder obviously, but you should get the idea

Thanks to Dirtywick for all of it

Seriously? Now that would be interesting for my PW. But balancing the race would be most important. And the traits in the placeholder are extreme to say the least.

This leads me to ask.... yuan-ti??? Halfblood and Purebreed? I hope there is a new poll for the next model.

If dirtywick is doing the work for a playable race, maybe we could collaborate on a race pack with some non-standard races like kobold, goblin, hobgobs, orcs etc...

I consulted some rules lawyers on both wizards and candlekeep. There's not a lot to go on, but that's it according to the writeup from the SRD and the monster manual (which isn't much). The LA is +4, though.

But yeah, adding a custom race isn't that hard, especially if they're not too feat heavy. I could put a guide in the scripting forum if anyone is interested.

Will be there spellcasting driders? Hand spelling casting animations? What is going on for sound set for driders? Might just want to borrow the soundset for drider's in NWN. Maybe play with pitch of elf/drow sound sets for a deep voice? Maybe some sounds from spiders in both games?
Good luck with your wonderful creations!

Great idea dirtywick. I see great potentia in driders as playable race - especially on a PW. Driders are insane, chaotic warriors with saage brutallity - perfect for those who like playing without too much talking and thinking. Just run there, kill anything that moves.

I would balance spiders at +3 lvls compared to standard races. Drow are +2 levels in dnd rules and driders are even better with their special traits.

Driders can be spelcasters but they are sorcerers, using their innate talents instead of preparing spells like wizards do.

Greetings Wayne

What would you put for the race description?

I put LA +4 because that's what is says in the MM, and I believe that also considers their 6 HD which they don't get as a playable race. However, most of their spells/day don't exist in NWN. They get Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, and I put in charm person instead of suggestion. I may add in light for faerie fire and identify for detect magic and color spray for dancing lights, but I don't know about those. So maybe a LA change is in order?

Also keep in mind that you can't raise a stat above 20 at character creation, so all those bonuses will make it easy to have high stats everywhere, but not one too high (and I haven't looked into whether this is hard coded or not, and if not how much work it would take to change it, or if I even want to).

But anyway this is a WIP, so any suggestions on anything I'll read an consider.

Hmm, that's quite a problem. The problem is, that those driders in the soruce books are templates meant for NPCs or 2nd edition gaming. But they've invented new rules in 3rd edition who give you the power to add class levels to those races. So a driders fighter/rogue comes possible.

But i don't think such things would be good. Driders are so special that they should have their own class - the drider class.

I think your approach to the racial spells is logical and fits perfectly to NWN2. Maybe you could add spell-like abilities depending on charisma or other attributes.

I personally would make driders very powerful and tough but slow in advancement andrestricted to just one path of advancement. Web or Spiderskin would also fit perfectly as innate abiliies.

Wayne: I can see if there is anything in Savage Species that specifically covers the Drider; I'm already using the basic rules found there for the Stonechild that will be available for NWN2 via both my class pack and the PRG.

Savage Species shows them getting +2 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Cha. Instead of a LA of +4 though they have 10 levels of the Drider class they can take that grants a lot of stat and abilities (since your actually remaking your character from a drow to the drider race).

However, WotC has a page up with a Drider Template that could be applied in the creation of a player race: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20011118a

As far as player race stats I'd suggest (mixing the template and MM1):
LA +4
Favored Class: Sorcerer
Str +4, Dex +2, Con +8, Wis +2, Cha +2
The normal set of Drow racial feats
A new Racial feat granting the following persistent benefits:
+4 Bonus to Hide and Move Silently
6 Natural AC

What about the spell like abilities? You wouldn't include those?