Drizzt The Drow

[Cthulhudrew]

-I liked it better when Drow were mysterious, evil, nightmarish creatures. I think the plethora of material done on them following the books has reduced the aura of mystery about them that made them so terrifying. In my opinion, the large number of 'good' drow characters that I've seen played only further diminishes their menacing image. What made Drizzt so special and memorable is that he was the exception to the rule tht Drow are evil, period. If you put a large number of non-evil drow out there, he becomes nothing special.

Personally, I like it better that there are good and evil drow, rather than all of them being evil, and having this good elf/evil drow dichotomy. That sort of black and white morality is always too unrealistic to me.

That being said, it still seems as if there is too much "either-or" going on; that there are either good drow or evil drow, and not much nuance outside of that. No "shades of grey" as it were.

 

[Kuld]

Personally, I like it better that there are good and evil drow, rather than all of them being evil, and having this good elf/evil drow dichotomy. That sort of black and white morality is always too unrealistic to me.

That being said, it still seems as if there is too much "either-or" going on; that there are either good drow or evil drow, and not much nuance outside of that. No "shades of grey" as it were.

Well, that is one of the beauties of fantasy: There is good and evil in extremes. This race is evil, this one is good. It is easier to do battle with a throng of orcs when you know that they are all evil. This is purely fantasy, I know, but it works.

 

[Satori]

When it comes to Drow, I either remove them from the planet (Good Bye, So Sad) or I create gobs of Drow cultures that use different names and alignments.

In one campaign, the "Drow" were Fey'ri-like demon elves where Driders were reverred and everyone had the "half-demon" template...obviously unplayable.

Other forms of "Illithyri" were underground elves that were allied with dwarves, a jungle variety that had a voodoo culture (what I call "Original Dark Elves"), and an Oriental Variant that delved heavily in the Shadow lands.

Once many players found their much loved "Redeemed Evil" Drow archetypes no longer appropriate, they realized how much fun other races can be.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

That what I really like about him, resisting evil!

No, he's not resisting evil. He's never been evil, not even in Homeland (and yes, I've read it). Drow aren't born evil, after all, they just tend to get raised that way.

It also dosen't help much that, at least in the Forgotten Realms, good-aligned drow are starting to pop up all over the place. When R.A. Salvatore created Drizzt, it was very clear that Drizzt was a unique speciman: one of the only good members of a race known for its cruelty and evil. But now there's a freakin' deity for good drow.

Tell me about it. She's probably the third thing I hate the most about FR, right after Mystra and Corellon.

I noted a reference to "black and white morality" when it comes to drow. There have been a few drow who fell in between. I would say Valas Hune, Ryld Argith and even Liriel. I kind of liked that book series, actually, and I really liked Valas despite his dual-wielding, right up until they introduced Eilistraee. Once again, a female drow who encountered a priestess of Eilistraee failed her Will save and eventually became a priestess of Eilistraee. You can practically farm priestesses of Eilistraee now.

Alas, that same book had other drow constantly back-stabbing each other. Monotonously.

 

[Bartmanhomer]

What is the big fuss about hating Drizzt anyway?

 

[skinnydwarf]

No, he's just a black elf.

"You racist, they're elves, you cares if they're black?!" -famous last words.

 

[skinnydwarf]

Gonna have to agree with you here. The Dark Elf Trilogy was great, years ago, but the spawn of Drow PC's and such that it created made it very annoying. I think it's great the RAS is still read widely but I usually pass on his work.

<SNIP>

-Shay

I used to hate Drizzt, just on principle, because of all the stupid Drow PC's I had seen over the years. Then I read the (early) Drizzt books and I said "Wow! This is great stuff!" I especially liked the Dark Elf Trilogy. I thought it had a lot of great stories, interesting characters, and just handled D&D motifs very well. If you are like I was and hate Drizzt because of Drizzt inspired characters, you should really read the books before making your final decision.

 

[genshou]

I've never read any of the books and didn't know anything about Drizzt until I read about him on these forums. I also later saw him as a bonus level PC on the PS2 D&D games (which were pretty cool, actually) - the games, not playing drizzt.

I think perhaps at this point, those who don't like Drizzt are the ones who need to get over it. I mean, really, if you don't like Drizzt or PC drow, just don't play one and ignore threads about those who do.

And keep in mind, any timeline about when you should 'get over' Drizzt are based on your personal experience, not anyone elses. What if some kid picks up his first Drizzt novel today and reads it? Is he supposed to be cynical about it and hate him within five minutes of reading about him for the first time?

Sure, for a while, dual wielding good drow PCs were a cliche, but now I think complaining about dual wielding good drow PCs is the real cliche.

*cheers Altalazar on*

It's like I always say:

If you don't like Drizzt, don't read the books and don't use him in your FR games. Shake your head and roll your eyes whenever someone wants to play a good drow. But please oh please, don't come onto EN World and then silence those who just really like R.A. Salvatore and his characters. We're entitled to.

Also, maybe there is a hidden group of neutral drow somewhere closer to the surface, and maybe that's where they are all popping up from?

 

[Storyteller01]

If I remember correctly, Drizzt's birth was used as a spell component. That and the fact that his dad (his REAL dad) never fit in probably had a lot to do with it.


Guess that makes him a mutant. So... when does he appear in an X-men crossover? They've been on the Enterprise already.

 

[Tarangil]

Originally Posted by Dark Jezter
It also dosen't help much that, at least in the Forgotten Realms, good-aligned drow are starting to pop up all over the place. When R.A. Salvatore created Drizzt, it was very clear that Drizzt was a unique speciman: one of the only good members of a race known for its cruelty and evil. But now there's a freakin' deity for good drow.

There's been a good aligned drow diety for over 13 years. Elaine Cunningham tied up the histry of the dark elven pantheon with the elven pantheon very well in Evermeet. and makes it make more sense rather than *poof* here's a new god. Eliestraee isn't a very significant god anyways, her worshippers should be just as rare as finding any other Drizzt's out there.

I sometimes have to take a break from RA's books. I started reading and D&D with them but afterawhile many of it is just the same thing over again, even his different books have characters which seem to be of the same type.

I like how the drow were written about in the War of the Spider Queen Series, (but I'm not including book 5 on that), they were nasty petty, conniving, backstabbing, and all the good qualities drow should have.