Secrets of the Drowgar is a 28-page PDF supplement available on the DMs Guild that introduces a new playable race to the game: the Drowgar.
What is a Drowgar? It is what you get when a Drow and a Duergar love each other very much.
The trouble with introducing any new race into the Dungeons & Dragons game is that not only do you have to make it mechanically interesting, but you need to show it is interesting for story purposes. It also helps if fits into the world without too much trouble. Personally, I think new races that do not previously exist are a tremendously hard thing to sell. They need something special about them. And, while the idea of duergar and drow having children together is not something that appeals to me, I can see that some will desire it.
I do find it odd that the book presumes enough drowgar exist to form separate settlements and have their own culture. But it is the Underdark. Who knows what is down there?
So, let us look at what the product offers:
- Mechanical description of the new race. This consists of some abilities from the drow and some abilities from the duergar. The only thing new is a “speak with spiders” ability.
- Drowgar-specific backgrounds (Exemplar, Loner, Survivor).
- Discussion of the Religion of the Drowgar, including two new deities, Simulrok (god of death and harmony) and Unilessa (god of life and harmony), both of whom manifest as birds
- Four pages of describing the process of Feather Reading, a method of augury.
- Two pages of new character options – the Harmony Divine Domain, and the Circle of the Feather for Druids.
- Two pages of adventure ideas
- Five NPC stat blocks
Despite a distinct lack of flying birds in the Underdark, the Drowgar gods are birds. It seems that group of Drowgar reached the surface and met these two new gods in their bird forms. And so, from that you get Feather Reading and the Circle of the Feather.
So, what do I think of this product? Well, it is not for me. The Drowgar have a number of problems – partly because they are not mechanically distinct enough, and also because there is not all that much to their culture.
To have a race that is described as mostly still living underground worshipping avian deities is a decided mismatch. There is a lack of cohesiveness about the product. I think Secrets of the Drowgar would be improved by picking a strong theme and then going from there, rather than diluting it with “or the Drowgar could do this!” sections. A culture of Drowgar that have escaped the Underdark and now serve their two new avian gods would be a strong hook for the product. Everything then flows from there.
But the Drowgar do not have a unified culture described in the book, and the division into Solitary, Integrated, and Settled weakens the race significantly. Not that their culture is described in much detail.
Mechanically, I found the product mostly undistinguished. The Drowgar do not have anything unique about them – they have one ability, “speak with spiders”, that neither drow nor duergar have, but it is something you could imagine a drow having. If it were something that related to their new gods, then it would have been a lot stronger. The new Domain and Circle are fine; I think the Circle of Feathers is the most interesting mechanical part of the book and would be something I could include in my game.
The adventure hooks are a highlight of the product. Feather Reading is not; I found it too complicated for its own good, although a DM might find it useful for inspiration.
Secrets of the Drowgar has good sections in it, but I would approach with care.
Thank you for the feedback and review on our first book. We appreciate it. We are definitely going to use your thoughts to help shape future titles.
We wanted to share some insights regarding your comments for your readers:
* The birds referenced in the deity origins do appear near an exit to the subterranean area, which isn’t specified as the Underdark (although it could be). They represent freedom from being underground, an ideal for the drowgar to aspire to. Finding feathers would be an uncommon occurrence for a race living underground, making them even more interesting and valuable in general. And, remember, this race does deliberately venture above ground to train their eyes and trade so they might encounter birds there as well.
* We didn’t integrate abilities related to the gods in the racial traits because the gods were discovered after they were born so it wouldn’t have made sense as racial abilities. Rather, we infused the deities into the subclasses that the race developed.
* We could have included more culture, but we felt like we did that with the wealth of material that accompanied the race description. Most of the DM’s Guild race supplements are two pages long without much culture at all so we thought we were exceeding the normal expectations. In any case, we do feel that when the text is read as a whole it does provide a view of a secretive culture that is trying to do better than their ancestral races, trying to make their own way, and is inspired by the bird gods that first led them out of the darkness.
* Within the deity and subclass entries, we included stories and actual quotes that the DM can read aloud if they need a quick example of what someone following the domain or worshipping the deity might say. We felt this also helped illustrate the culture, maybe more so than other titles out there.
* We could have selected a single way to establish the drowgar (solitary, integrated, or settled), but we wanted DMs to have the flexibility to add them to their campaign how they saw fit. If we had picked just one, then DMs would have had to use that or come up with an alternative via homebrew.
* The backgrounds are useable by any race (as are the deities and subclasses), so while we can understand that the race may not be for everyone (or every campaign), we do feel that the other material provides value independently. We thought about releasing each piece as its own title, but we just generally aren’t a fan of 2 page books. We’d rather give more for the money.
* We also spent a great deal of time making sure the formatting and art were above average in comparison to typical DM’s Guild products. Nothing against those products, we just want to provide the best quality we can.
At any rate, we’ve learned some things from your review that we’ll work on in our subsequent books. Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback and showcase our work. We appreciate it!