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My intent here is to convert the derro savant as depicted in Night Below into a consistent 3rd edition NPC class, while retaining as much of their abilities as I can. At this time I don't intend to publish this elsewhere. WotC will certainly come up with a new (and probably better) model which will render the Gygax/Sargent[/Zimri?] model obsolete. This "original" model will then become too regional for dissemination (until they release "NB 3e").
Of course, if this attempt does inspire some ideas for the formal upgrade, I won't complain...
Gygax introduced the derro in the appendix of Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, 1981, and in edited form in Monster Manual II. He based them on the "dero" of popular 1960's Hollow-World musings. Following this, Gygax gave them an overclass called the Savant, a sort of underground mad scientist with spell-casting ability. His twist on it was that the spells came from a limited range, but spanning from first to sixth level, and always cast as if the caster was a 12th level mage. As with the drow, Gygax did not bother with game balance or logical consistency. Derro were designed as fearsome and exotic opponents for PC's - nothing more. Soon after he left, the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide came out, and gave some inferences on derro society. One of these was that the savants would lead a "Uniting War" every so often.
In the early 1990's, the post-Gygax TSR tapped Carl Sargent to write a Monster Mythology, intending to provide the nuance and complexity a more-experienced gaming public had been demanding. But Sargent had too strong an imagination to work according to canon. His derro did not gain their powers through arcane research, but through the essence of their divine patron Diirinka. He also adopted the DSG's Uniting War, which perhaps explains this choice; a Uniting War implies a Holy War, which means a connection to the gods.
Roger E. Moore recognised this tension in 1997. In Dragon #241, "Legacies of the Suel Imperium", he drew a distinction between mage-savants - that is, wizards - and Sargent's "true savants" who still gain their powers from their patron. This article at the outset called the true savants the "derro NPC equivalent of priests" and banned derro PC's from the priest class, but a few pages later allowed for derro heretics who worship Suel deities, and even for PC true savants with another patron.
The latest, third edition of the Monster Manual has ruled for Sargent, by creating the "Sorcerer" class and assigning the derro savant to it ("at least 5th level"). They allow for Diirinka priests too. Lost in the shuffle are Gygax's savants, who gain their power through arcana like wizards. But the savants listed in Night Below are Sargent savants, and therefore a type of sorceror.
A being of arcane birth summons magic from within, and may in the course of time become a Sorceror. Since humans are not inherently magical, their Sorcerors must have acquired their gifts through a supernatural source. Many claim - or deny - that they are descendents of celestials and/or fiends, and some even count a dragon among their ancestors. Others have been chosen before their birth by a divine patron. But not all divinities are alike, and some grant their gifts differently from others. And some Sorcerors have found ways around their limitations. The best-known of the exceptions are those born to the portion of Diirinka.
Diirinka was once a slave, one of the Suel Imperium's thurgamazai. He and his brother Diinkarazan became wise in the ways of darkness and freed their people from the crumbling empire. The sect they founded became the Savants, the ruling class. Some of these may still be found beneath the caverns Tsojcanth inhabited.
But even at the peak of mortal abilities, the brothers were not satisfied. They mounted a raid on the Abyss seeking the powers of the gods. They succeeded, but at a great cost. Diinkarazan never escaped the Abyss. It's hard to say who was better off, because Diirinka's conscience never escaped it either. Fortunately for Diirinka, he hardly needs a conscience to achieve his aims.
In the meantime, his more loyal savants had used their position to mount periodic Uniting Wars throughout the Underdark. In this way they first came into contact with the drow under the Hellfurnaces; and later, the mind flayers. They achieved much notoriety in the Underdark, but were still largely unknown to overworld society. The first (Flan) humans to see them knew them only as "twisted dwarves", dwur-rohoi.
And then Diirinka returned, and granted the savants of the Uniting Wars a portion of his newly divine essence. Some derro also took to worshipping him, but without his encouragement and therefore with more limited success. The newer savants turned the Uniting War into a holy war, and rode its waves throughout the Underoerth. The mind flayers seem to have recognised this as a threat, perhaps leading a brief alliance to stem the tide, because they were the ones who reported derro existence in worlds outside Oerth (source: MM 2e). The derro lost many thousands in this folly, but succeeded in spreading far beyond their original homes, even to other worlds like Faerûn.
One of these derro outposts is the Haranshire Underdark, whichever world it's in. Its savants are of the Sargent sort, and therefore take their powers from Diirinka.
A Diirinka Savant has learnt to direct his sorcerous nature according to the ancient, arcane lore of the derro, much of which dates to the lost Suel Imperium. At a given level of mastery, the savant has fewer restrictions on the level of spell he can cast.
When the savants discover a child with sorcerous abilities, they take it away from its family for indoctrination. The process takes years and many do not survive the experience. Those that do, gain a new level in the Savant prestige class (a partial exception to the usual restrictions of prestige classes - DMG p.27). The new Savant can then choose to develop the rest of his abilities as a sorceror, or continue to explore the additional paths open to the savant; most alternate between both.
The path of the savant is geared to battle and navigation in a constricted, windless environment. There is no escape from a cloudkill here, no way around a wall of force. A spell like fireball could kill the caster, through suffocation; but for that reason affect normal fires became a favourite offensive spell. Minor creation and shadow evocation imply a particular focus on the Plane of Shadow.
The additional spells known to be available to the Savant are as follows:
Some say that before the Uniting Wars, savants - even students - automatically cast these spells as 12th-level mages (sources: S4 & MM2 only), but there is no evidence of that now. Assume they cast these spells according to their level as sorcerors.
At 1st level (in my shorthand "v1"), the Savant can cast up to the 3rd level of savant spells, can read magic and comprehend languages.
At 2nd level, the Savant can cast up to the 4th level of savant spells. If he hasn't already, at this point the Savant must advance to the 4th level of Sorcery ("S4"), in the course of which allocating at least one Knowledge skill to "arcana", before s/he can earn his next level as a Savant.
The rest of the progression is straightforward: a v3 Savant can learn up to the 5th level of Savant spells, and a v4 Savant can learn any Savant spell.
Once a Savant has the ability to cast a spell of such high level, s/he must then earn a level of Sorcery to learn it. (S/he also needs that level to gain Hit Dice, THAC0, &c, as per the DMG.)
The derro in Night Below's Book II have progressed to the fourth level as Savants and to the seventh as Sorcerors. Some say Diirinka skimped when he gave out his essence, and that the seventh level is the limit for derro sorcerors. If so, the path of the savant represents the only way a derro can cast any 4th, 5th, or 6th-level spells. Doubtless this is why their sorcerors retained the knowledge and title of their savant predecessors.
For example, the young v2 student-savant Zariinki starts out as a sorceror, and gets her two "1st level" spells. As v2 she can choose anything up to the fourth level on the above chart: she chooses minor creation and invisibility. Zariinki's younger rival Kiira envies her and decides to start at the same time. Since Kiira is only v1 she has to settle for lightning bolt instead of ice storm.
At this point Zariinki cannot progress further as a Savant until after she has gained S4. She can still take spells from the above list if she chooses. At 3rd level she gets one more "1st level" spell, and goes for ESP. At 4th a normal Sorceror would get a 2nd level spell. Zariinki decides to be "normal" and to pass up the list this time. She takes the true 2nd level spell blur. But now she is S4, and decides to progress to v4. When she gets to S5, she plans to take anti-magic shell and cloudkill.
Ambitious Kiira meanwhile has run all the way up to S6 while staying v1: lightning bolt, blink, invisibility, dispel magic, mirror image, wall of fog, and magic missile. Note her three 3rd-level spells, two too many for a normal sorceror: when she reached S3 or S5, she took blink instead of a proper 1st-level spell.
Here follow the 3rd ed. statistics of the savants in NB book II:
Renegades:
38 3) S5v2
39 4) S6v3, S6v4, S5v4, S5v3, S2v1, S2v2
5) S5v3, S7v3 (minus a spell)
Servitors:
42 6) S6v4
7) S6v4 (plus a spell), S6v3
43 9) #1 S5v1
#2 S5v1
#3 S6v3
#4 S5v3 (but polymorph self is off-list and 4th-level)
#5 S6v2
chief S7v3 (minus a spell)
In the City of the Glass Pool:
50 6) S6v1
7) S6v2, S7v4 (minus a spell)
As you can see I wasn't able to shoehorn every detail into this prestige class. For the Servitors, you can take away derro 7a's repulsion and pass it to the chief - rendering 7a a S6v3 and the chief S7v4. I'd also replace derro 9#4's polymorph self with something else rather than change the list for his sake.
These new levels also don't match HD very well; but then, matching HD to level is hardly an exact science.
14 July - 1 August 2001: Research and development. 26 August, looked at why they chose the spells they chose, esp. wrt. Shadow.