D&D 5E Out of the Abyss - No Drizzt afterall?

chibi graz'zt said:

Wow, what's with all the hate? He is the most iconic character in D&D history. This is pretty much a fact.

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Yeah. In the same way that Jar Jar Binks is the most iconic character from the prequel trilogy.

Henry said:

Do people REALLY have those or is it like the stories where the infected spider bite starts spilling baby spiders? The only Drizzt clone I ever ran into was in 1987, actually BEFORE The Crystal Shard was published, and I don't think I've ever seen a dual wielding scimitar-equipped dark elf in my D&D games in 25 years. Not to say it's NEVER happened, but I just haven't seen it as a common occurrence. I've seen far more Housewives on the Bravo Channel than I have seen drow wielding scimitars.

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Yes. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the two most popular repeat character requests in my D&D were 1) Drizzt clone and 2) lesbian drow dominatrix-lite (always by guys and always in a creepy way). This is across multiple groups with no overlap, other than me being the GM. While I'm generally open to a lot of things in an RPG, I haven't allowed drow or gender-bending in about 20 years because I just didn't want to deal with the way it played out every single time. Even into the 2000s and starting up a 3E game, I still had people want to play Drizzt.

YMMV, but I've had my lifetime quota of Drizzt.

Sacrosanct said:

Dang. Well there goes my plan of secretly joining the demons and betraying Drizzt, turning him over to the demon lords or a long and painful death with a side dish of reaching emotional closure myself

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Oh, you can still TOTALLY do that

I used Drizz't (and I always called him Drizzit and it's stuck with me) once and he was the victim of a black dragon in a cage and the PCs rescued him. They MIGHT have even gotten one of his swords out of the deal. I can't remember now, it was 2e.

Edit - I do not hate Drizz't, not at all. I quit reading the Salvatore books after maybe the 6th one, they got too repetitious. Too many detailed choreographed fights of his fighting ability. But it didn't make me hate the character, and I never had a player try to emulate him. I totally understand over-saturation though, and it hit that mark a LONG time ago.

Makes me wonder though, for the 13-16 year old crowd...they're probably far from being sick of Drizz't unless they've gobbled up, what, 28 or 29 novels so far? GOD that IS a lot of dual wielding drow. Like I said, I only read maybe six or 7 of those.

Mercule said:

Yeah. In the same way that Jar Jar Binks is the most iconic character from the prequel trilogy.

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Sad thing is, even George was able to come to his senses and make him a non-issue by the third movie.

WOTC, not so much.

The closest I ever saw to a Drizzt Clone was a half-elf ranger with two shortswords and a pet wolf. The angst and gluttony for punishment was telltale though.

To be fair, I saw more Raistlin and Dalamar clones then Drizzt, hopefully WotC will do a Heroes of the Lance AP so they (and Tasselhoff) can be ground into paste under the foot of a mighty red wyrm.

JeffB said:

Sad thing is, even George was able to come to his senses and make him a non-issue by the third movie.

WOTC, not so much.

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I don't think George has come to his senses ever since he made Howard the Duck. I would think the only reason Jar Jar was relegated to background is due to fan backlash. If people had LOVED him, hell, he'd been a full Jedi lightsaber wielding freakshow by the end

chibi graz'zt said:

Wow, what's with all the hate? He is the most iconic character in D&D history. This is pretty much a fact.

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I guess. Depends on who you ask. For example, I think Elminster, Strahd, or Raistlin are probably more iconic, but that's gonna be because of when I started playing and what types of campaigns I play. I guess he probably is recently, because the big push with him all over the place. Which sort of answers your first part. He's all over the place. And he's a Mary Sue to boot. When Crystal Shard came out, he wasn't any more special than Bruenor or Wulfgar, but suddenly all the EMO goths of the late 80s fell in love with him and thus everything became about Drizzt. He was the most important personality, always broody and angsty, all the women wanted him (even the enemies) and all the men wanted to be like him, and no matter what happened, he always survived. Unkillable. Textbook Mary Sue. How much of that is Salvatore making him one based on his own opinions, or because the fans demanded it I don't know.

aramis erak said:

And he's been the most hated-by-gm's archetype for power-gamers to emulate since 1992. Actually, probably earlier - once people saw the combat uses of Dance and/or acrobatics in AD&D 2e, coupled with style specialization - two weapons..

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Yep, earlier. When specialization rules and drow playable race showed up in AD&D Unearthed Arcana. I've seen quite a few Drizzt clones myself.

aramis erak said:

I've seen three since 1992. One took just the concept, and developed organically away from it. The other, he got pissy when he found that I didn't share his view of the world with him at the center as the special snowflake. The other is a rogue in my current AL game, but at least he's being subtle about it.

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Then it is not so much the concept of a Dritzzt template but a certain type of player we all run across from time to time - the "special snowflake" who always wants to shine and gets pissy if he or she doesn't? Then runs out of your campaign when the game is not a masturbatory power fantasy with your other PCs as minions, leaving you as DM with lose ends? We could say the same about someone wanting to play Legolas, Thrall, Elminster, Gandalf, or anything else as their inspiration. Separate the concept from the bad behavior.

I still think strict player control is to blame. Or, certain kinds of potentially disruptive players who could have played any other kind of class/race/style combo.

Now, if we are talking Dragonlance kender, I can completely understand. Not because of hatred of the little folk, but the whole "borrowing" err.. stealing from PCs kind of gameplay it encourages I find disruptive. And, it is the only thing I refuse in my game.

As far as the whole"Drow came from an evil society... blah, blah. Impossible. Not in my world." I don't buy . I still think some of you other grey neckbeards just don't like PCs being cool.

And by the way. DMs who do not let the players play something they like within reason really need to go the way of typewriters and VHS tapes.

I personally avoid the "control DM" fantasy stereotype that only plays levels 1-5 and only allows a narrow selection of preapproved characters in his sessions.

chibi graz'zt said:

And by the way. DMs who do not let the players play something they like within reason really need to go the way of typewriters and VHS tapes.

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That there is the kicker though, isn't it? You may think it's perfectly reasonable to play a minotaur, but in my world, they aren't allowable PC races. What's reasonable is highly subjective