OUT OF THE ABYSS Preorders Live

Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble both now allow you to pre-order Out of the Abyss for $49.96. Both have the already-confirmed release date of September 15th, 2015. Out of the Abyss is the seventh studio album released by the band Manilla Road. Oh, it's also the upcoming hardcover adventure, part of the Rage of Demons storyline, produced for WotC by Green Ronin. "The demon lords have been summoned from the Abyss and players must descend into the Underdark with the iconic hero Drizzt Do’Urden to stop the chaos before it threatens the surface." (thanks to Charles Akins for the scoop).

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble

 

[MonsterEnvy]

He is an evil Drow that managed to escape his heritage and become a hero despite all the odds stacked against him. He's also a nearly supernaturally good fighter that stands up for the weak and innocent while fighting demons, dragons, and opposing the will of gods. He's also intelligent, introspective and brooding. He's got interesting friends and goes on interesting adventures.

Like most characters in stories, whether you like him or not is kind of a personal choice. I like him. Although, I find he is very often written as a Mary Sue character so I have to roll my eyes whenever Drizzt is written to literally be the best at EVERYTHING on the planet. Too many times during the novels you find that R.A. Salvatore writes that Drow are the best at everything. The best fighters in the world are Drow, the best Wizards in the world are Drow. Drow are the stealthiest of all the races. Drow children are better at sneaking than the best Thieves in the world. But among the Drow, Drizzt is considered the best of the Drow. He was their best fighter, he was the best at sneaking. He doesn't cast spells but(if I remember correctly) he seemed to have the aptitude for it and might have been the best Wizard ever if he had chosen that path.

I think a large amount of the backlash towards him is precisely for that reason. He is written often as a power fantasy. You get to look through his eyes during the novels and you get to experience what it's like to be the best of the best. But after a while, it can seem a little contrived.

NOTE Spoilers for Drizzt books in this post.

Drizzt is good but not that good. Drow are also good but not that good at stuff. Most are just very arrogant and have a hugely inflated view of themselves. Take this story from the books.
A powerful Drow Cleric and her team of Drow at one point attempted to start a war in the north with Orc's and Frost Giants. At first things were going well for them, until it was revealed the Orc Leader was smarter and stronger then they thought and they realized they had no power over him. When it became clear that the Orc leader Obould was growing tired of them and that he was planing on ending the War to solidify his gains, they decided to kill him and put a warmongering puppet in his place. However they felt it too risky to do it themselves. (Given that Obould fought Drizzt and beat him this was smart of them.) They found out Dirzzt was coming in for a rematch (Drizzt also had a cool new magic weapon to help tip the odds in his favor.) and planned on rigging the fight so that Drizzt would win. By tricking another Orc they managed to curse Oboulds armor which would activate when they wanted it to. Despite things going to plan with the armor curse. Obould stripped and fought Drizzt naked and it was still an equal battle. So they went the direct route and blasted the two off a cliff and bolted. (Both survived.) Despite thinking the war was going to continue now they ran into Obould when going through their escape route who bit the Cleric's throat off.

For a shorter example of why Drow are not the best. The currently known most powerful Drow in the world is the Wizard Gromph (Aka the guy responsible for the Demon Outbreak in this adventure.) For one of their plots. They managed to gain the aid of Arauthator (Aka Old White Death) a dragon who has a been around for a while. (He is also a villain in Rise of Tiamat) Some of the villains wanted to Order Arauthator around have them do things for them. Some of their leaders pointed out that was stupid. Arauthator was not their pet and the only Drow in the city who could even have a chance against Arauthator was Gromph and even then they would not be too sure of who to place bets on. (They also pointed out that while Gromph recruited Arauthator he would never dare risk fighting him for their sake.)

Drizzt also fought Arauthator twice in the latest book. The first time he nearly died and survived out of pure luck. (His wife had cast a cold resist spell on him when he went into the snow.) the second time was from the back of a copper dragon of which he was a bystander and was pretty much useless.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Drizzt is good but not that good. Drow are also good but not that good at stuff. Most are just very arrogant and have a hugely inflated view of themselves.

Oh, I agree. But RA Salvatore doesn't think that way when he writes the narrative portions of his books. For instance, there was a line in one of the books that said something to the effect of "Regis was extremely quiet, he was very practiced in the ways of stealth, almost as quiet as Drizzt himself." and another line to the effect of "The man was quiet. Obviously trained to keep his footfalls soft. But Drizzt was a Drow and to him the man seemed but an amateur in the ways of stealth compared to his kind". There's been sentences like "The man was good at fighting, but he was up against a Drow who are masters of their art and he knew he could not win." and "He had seen master warriors fight before, but he had never seen anything like the skill demonstrated by these Drow." Or "The Drow was well trained in the ways of combat and could normally dispatch anyone with merely a flick of his wrist, but this was Drizz't Do'Urden, the legendary swordsman. He did not think he could win."

The books really like to beat you over the head with the fact that every person who sees a Drow fight(no matter which Drow it is) is incredibly impressed and humbled but their skill. Drow are always humbled and impressed with Drizz't's skills. This is also true of every statement the book makes that does not come from a particular character's point of view. When the "narrator" says something happens, it is always stated in what appears to be a purely "objective" manor that Drow as just better than other people and everyone knows that.

Though, I admit there are definitely cases within the novels that Drow lose to non-Drow. However, the book is almost always implementing the Worf Effect. The books make sure to point out that whoever beat a Drow was an EXTREMELY good fighter who was capable enough to take down EVEN a Drow.

But yes, despite your rather spoilery post revealing things I didn't want to have spoiled about the next couple of books I wanted to read, Drizz't does sometimes lose to extremely powerful creatures, such as dragons. But as you point out above, it says that no one in the entire city could beat this super powerful dragon and Drizzt fought the dragon and lived. Thus, pointing out that Drizz't is STILL the most powerful Drow alive.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

But yes, despite your rather spoilery post revealing things I didn't want to have spoiled about the next couple of books I wanted to read, Drizz't does sometimes lose to extremely powerful creatures, such as dragons. But as you point out above, it says that no one in the entire city could beat this super powerful dragon and Drizzt fought the dragon and lived. Thus, pointing out that Drizz't is STILL the most powerful Drow alive.

The Dragon is only an Adult according to the rules of the book he shows up in. A powerful Adult. Also Drizzt only survived to do luck in the first case. He could not do anything to the Dragon who just blasted him off a cliff with Frost Breath. (Which would have killed him had one of his companions not cast a resist cold spell. Something he forgot about until he realized he would only in intense pain and not dead.) The 2nd time a pair of Copper Dragons drove off the Dragon and Drizzt still could not do anything to it. Afafrenfere the Monk was much more impressive more or less beating the dragons son.

And it was stated that Gromph could beat the Dragon, but it would be close and Gromph would never risk that fight for something he had little stake in. Drizzt just did not stand a chance against the Dragon. And Gromph while powerful is still not on the level of guys like Szass Tam or Elminster.

Salvatore has downplayed the Drow's skills as of late. An entire brigade of Drow including Wizards and Elite warrors were slaughtered and strung up by a camp of Orcs recently. And these were just normal fodder orcs.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Salvatore has downplayed the Drow's skills as of late. An entire brigade of Drow including Wizards and Elite warrors were slaughtered and strung up by a camp of Orcs recently. And these were just normal fodder orcs.

As I said, my point isn't that Drow are ACTUALLY overpowered in the books. They more or less die in the same manor everyone else does. But that the prose of the books likes to talk them up like crazy. 100 Drow could die like chumps to kobolds in one scene only to have the author going on and on about how it was undisputed that Drow were the finest warriors in the Realms 2 pages later.

Plus, the reason they've been downplaying Drow in recent books seems to be because they want to up-play Orcs to show how dangerous and vicious they are. So that way, when Drizz't ends up defeating them at the end, you say "Wow...these are the same Orcs that easily took out a bunch of DROW earlier! And we all know how dangerous DROW are!"

As a side note, my comments about how spoilery your post was was not an invitation to tell me MORE spoilers from the book. Please don't spoil the books any more.

 

[Mercurius]

Since when did it become so hard to tweak adventures to suit one's needs? Regardless of how much the written product involves Drizzt, every individual DM can customize his involvement to their own taste.

I see no issue here, except perhaps another variation of "Why isn't WotC writing every product to suit my own specific needs?"

 

[Uller]

Obviously you don't game enough!
...

Obviously.

It's the kids. Having kids both provides people to do fun stuff with and simultaneously makes you too busy to do stuff. The 16 and 13 year old are part of my regular game group (and the 4 year old is BEGGING to play "Dee-ann-dee"). But we all also play ice hockey (not the 4 year old...she is NOT playing damnit...something cheap is in her future...soccer or field hockey or going for walks). With each kid on the ice 4 or 5 times per week from Sept-March, playing more than once or twice per month is tough. From May-August we play more regularly (April is tryout time so even crazier than the rest of the season).

Last summer we played Ghosts of Dragon Spear. This summer we'll play PotA (last night they took the hook and are prepping their expedition to Red Larch for our next game).

I looked back at my e-mail...we started LMoP on Nov 30th and have played 8 times since. So about 1.5 times per month...(usually about 5 hours per session).

So yeah...I need more time for gaming...maybe I can quit working...(and that would solve the hockey problem since then we would no longer be able to afford it).

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Obviously.

It's the kids. Having kids both provides people to do fun stuff with and simultaneously makes you too busy to do stuff. The 16 and 13 year old are part of my regular game group (and the 4 year old is BEGGING to play "Dee-ann-dee"). But we all also play ice hockey (not the 4 year old...she is NOT playing damnit...something cheap is in her future...soccer or field hockey or going for walks). With each kid on the ice 4 or 5 times per week from Sept-March, playing more than once or twice per month is tough. From May-August we play more regularly (April is tryout time so even crazier than the rest of the season).

Last summer we played Ghosts of Dragon Spear. This summer we'll play PotA (last night they took the hook and are prepping their expedition to Red Larch for our next game).

I looked back at my e-mail...we started LMoP on Nov 30th and have played 8 times since. So about 1.5 times per month...(usually about 5 hours per session).

So yeah...I need more time for gaming...maybe I can quit working...(and that would solve the hockey problem since then we would no longer be able to afford it).

Yeah it just seems like you don't have the most free time. Still you can play at least.

 

[DayTripper]

BTW: £31.72 is the UK price on Amazon.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Drizzt is working the streets of Calimport as rough trade in my FR campaign.

 

[EthanSental]

I think the price will drop as well. All the other books had a price point of $31-34 on Amazon before the books went public.