A new kind of Drow Matron Mother

[John Longarrow]

Having run campaigns for a long time, I've always been less than thrilled with how Drow leadership works. Those at the top are, for the most part, clerics. In 3.0/3.5, clerics lack most of the interpersonal skills that make effective leaders and the knowledge skills they should rely upon for running their houses.

Then, when working on a potential character build, I found solution.

Many Matron Mothers (and more than one reverend mother) are not really clerics!!!

If you go Beguiler-5 with the well Read feat (All knowledge skills are in class) you can qualify to take Mind Bender at 6th. I know by RAW there are some limits on Well Read, but it does seem a feat that should be available to members of a powerful Drow house, Knowledge is power after all, and Drow are fanatical about amassing power. In addition to gaining telepathy (very useful for a BOSS) this pClass also has a strong FORT save and will help you meet the requirements for Ur-priest.

At this point you have a very manipulative Drow with a fair selection of arcane spells. This also puts your soon to be mother in line to go Ur-Priest for 2 levels, then Mystic Theurge for 8.

By the time they hit 15th character level they cast 9th level divine spells!

No, they don't have as many HP or BAB as a straight cleric, but they have far more spells available and a lot more social skills. These are dominant leaders, not just mace swingers. They are persuasive, diplomatic, and hard to fool. They are also even better at communicating on the sly than most Drow simply because they do have telepathy.

As an Ur-Priest, I really don't see Lolth getting mad that they are stealing power away from other dieties, so I can even see them going far in Lolth's church.

Question is, can anyone come up with a more "Drow" way of hitting the two requirements for good social skills and high level divine power quickly? This one adds some useful, deceitful arcane with several ways to go after 15th, but I'm looking for other options for when I redo some villians.

[Alleran]

In 3.0/3.5, clerics lack most of the interpersonal skills that make effective leaders and the knowledge skills they should rely upon for running their houses.
I would point out here that you don't really need interpersonal skills when you have a goddess saying "this is how it's gonna work" to your face. They have the spells they need.

And mechanically, on the off chance that they need to make a skill check, Guidance of the Avatar is a 2nd level spell.

[John Longarrow]

Alleran,
While telling "It is the will of Lolth" to the commoners may work, they can't pull that off when dealing with other clerics. Its also hard to ask another Drow to "Hold on while I buff myself" to cast a spell. They tend to view it as "Bad Form"...

[atomicwaffle]

Clerics are only (some males too, remember Rai' Guy) untrained females that haven't yet been ordained as a High Priestess of Lloth. It's like a custom prestige class, and only a High Priestess can become a matron mother. They gain the iconic whip, ability to read minds at will, plus a number of other nasty surprises. They aren't just clerics

[John Longarrow]

atomicwaffle,

Do you have a reference for the High Priestess? I'd like to go look and see if I need to do some reworking.
In Drow of the Underdark they talk about the Priestesses of Lolth being advanced purely on ability and power, not class level. I figure the one throwing Miracle would be on top, and if you can get their quicker (with extra goodies) that should be all that matters.