driders revisited

here is a post i made on the wizards d&d forums back in 3e:

"driders are now favored by lolth, not unfavored (don't ask. she IS chaotic.). ;-)

at first, the drow have a hard time adjusting to this. they have always held disdain for the driders. now, lolth has deemed that driders are favored because to be more "spider" is to be better. the pre-existing driders have returned to their houses, to be treated--begrudgingly--with honor and respect, even above priestesses. the pre-existing driders continue to bear much resentment towards the drow. they repeatedly exploit their newfound power and authority to exact various incidences of revenge upon their family members and other drow. however, they know that an excess of this behavior will be disfavored by lolth. now, a new drider is created only as a reward by lolth to an exceptional priestess, who, upon becoming a drider, assumes the role of matron mother of her house. not all houses are blessed with a drider matron mother. it is a cause for political strife and manipulation among the houses. now, new driders are almost exclusively female. the rare creation of a new male drider is a source of confusion and consternation amoung the drow society ("what does lolth mean by this? a male favored?"). driders have spider reproductive organs and have spider offspring (note to self - create a large spider that has an intelligence score of 10 and, perhaps, special abilities). any remnant sexual urges that drider may still feel towards drow are satiated only through violence. this is an aspect of lolth's blessing that is cruel both to the drider (sexual frustration and adjusting to having sex with spiders) and to the drider's "sexual" victim (obviously)."

i am happy to see wotc implement this change from disfavored to favored.
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here is how driders have evolved from 3e to 4e:

3e driders disfavored
driders are created by the drow's dark goddess, lolth. when a dark elf or above average abililty reaches 6th level, the goddess may put him or her through a special test. those who fail the test become driders. because they have failed their goddess's test, driders are outcasts from their own communities. drow and driders hate one another passionately.
3.5 monster manual, page 89
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4e driders favored
driders are servants of lolth gifted with a semblance of their god’s grotesque form.
4e monster manual, page 93

in drow society, the strongest and bravest can take the test of lolth. those who succeed become driders, members of a privileged caste. those who fail usually die.
4e monster manual, page 93

driders are common among drow
4e monster manual, page 93
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4e shunned replace driders as lolth's disfavored (see chwidenchas below)
Lolth is a fickle mistress. Drow who serve her but fail in their efforts sometimes suffer terrible consequences. These unfortunates become creatures known in the Underdark as shunned.
demon queen's enclave, page 18

shunned are creatures spawned by the spider queen whenever she is angered by one of her servants. in all cases, they are grotesque fusions of spiders and drow, mockeries of the perfect union the drider embodies. most candidates for this transformation are those drow who seek to gain the goddess’s favor by testing their devotion in the hopes of being raised up to become a drider themselves. most who fail are killed outright, but a few are cursed to walk the Underdark as shunned.
demon queen's enclave, page 18

drow society doesn’t tolerate shunned in their presence and kill them on sight.
demon queen's enclave, page 18

most [shunned] hunt drow and drider alike, longing to vent their frustration and hate on the ones they blame for the state they have been reduced to.
demon queen's enclave, page 18

chwindenchas--one of the shunned--continue to be lolth's disfavored (from 3e to 4e)
chwidenchas are created when drow fail one of of the many tests set by their deity lolth.
3.5 fiend folio, page 34

chwindenchas particularly despise drow, who have cast them out of society, just as the drow have done with driders.
3.5 fiend folio, page 34
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driders as matron mothers
driders are [. . .] subservient to lolth’s priests
4e monster manual, page 93

perhaps, the test of lolth should be limited to lolth's priests. so, instead of being subservient to priests, they would be the priests. more precisely, they would be the elite among the priests. perhaps, either (i) all matron mothers are required to be driders or (ii) most matron mothers are driders and those few drow houses that do not have a drider for a matron mother face a bias (at best) or an actual power disadvantage of some sort (at worst).
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test of lolth involves a ritual
i envision the test of lolth being conducted by the drow clergy, with a ritual that the testee must submit to; a ritual that would allow the presiding head priest to transform the testee into either a drider or a shunned. this method, as opposed to a divine intervention, would be more consistent with the notion that drow society actually has cast out the testee, notwithstanding the fact that lolth's power and will ultimately is the source of the transformation.
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driders as elite monsters
imo, all driders should be elite monsters.
here are a couple of reasons why:
(1) from a metagaming perspective, incorporating their previous drow priestly powers into their new drider forms likely would involve adding a template, such as cleric or demagogue or some such, to the existing drider stat block, which converts a normal monster into an elite monster; and
(2) as is intended with elite monsters, driders could continue to appear in encounters with drow (who are mostly nonelite monsters), while increasing the drider's power, presence and impact on the encounter.
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driders cannot reproduce
lolth chooses every drider, always.