I don't own any of the campaign setting stuff for 4e or 5e, but let's crack open the 3.X Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.
Artemis Entreri is 18th level. STR 14 DEX 20 CON 15 INT 16 WIS 16 CHA 13.
Assume he's had the benefits of ASIs at 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th level as standard for 3.X, assume best case scenario all four went to DEX, that's starting scores of STR 14 DEX 16 CON 15 INT 16 WIS 16 CHA 13.
That's 49 point buy, just under 200% the recommended 25 points for PCs or just over 150% of the highest suggested value of 32. That means that even if standard characters claw and bite their way to 18th level, they're going to be strictly inferior to the characters in the tie-in fiction, even though they're supposed to be the stars.
Drizzt is STR 13 DEX 20 CON 15 INT 17 WIS 17 CHA 14. First account for Drow mods, that's STR 13 DEX 18 CON 15 INT 15 WIS 17 CHA 12. ASIs, we're going to say that +2 DEX and +2 WIS.
STR 13 DEX 16 CON 15 WIS 15 CHA 12
Surprisingly, that is only 35 points, a mere 3 points above the most "high powered" variant, though he's sitting on a +2 Level Adjustment for his race.
It's galling when fiction based on game routinely features characters you can't actually play in the game.