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<blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 77260" data-attributes="member: 545">One possible reason is that you get the best of both worlds if you used a spiked shield.&nbsp; Bucklers look like a good hedge, too.Dudes, I think 2e is clouding your memory of 1e.&nbsp; Strictly speaking there was no &quot;Two Weapon Fighting Style&quot; in the sense you all mean for 1e, beacuse there were no proficiency slots or skill slots associated with TWF.&nbsp; You picked up two weapons and hacked away.The reason it was the preferred Drow style is because (1) Gygax was making a viscously minmaxed opponent to spring on his vict^H^H^H^H players, and (2) the penalties for TWF were Dex based.The penalty for TWF was -2 on the primary hand and -4 on the secondary hand where penalties are reduced by Dex bonus.&nbsp; Can you think of a race where every single member seemed to have a 15+ Dex, and therefore making this a practical racial tendency?&nbsp; Drow!Heck! IIRC there was a table in D3 for generating random Drow you meet on the road or in the city and to generate the Dex stat you roll d6+8.&nbsp; Guess what?&nbsp; The high level Drow always had a 17 or 18, so their TWF penalities were neglibible for both hands.&nbsp; (Recall that&nbsp; 18 Dex gave a +3 bonus in 1e.)2e formalized the TWF rules by adding in proficiency/skill slots into the bargain.&nbsp; So 2e Drow have this as a racial characteristic.In summary, 1e Drow could use TWF because they were designed to have godlike Dex stats.&nbsp; If Drizzt was intended to be written up as a high powered D&amp;D character, giving him a high Dex and TWF was an obvious choice (among many options).&nbsp; Doubly true for Drow.IMHO:(1) Drizzt was not based on anything from 2e rules.&nbsp; He clearly follows a tradition already existing in 1e.&nbsp; He is not consistent with 2e rules in detail (as pointed out by others).&nbsp; And the timing suggests that 2e rules did not affect Drizzt either.(2) Whether Drizzt caused 2e Rangers to change is unproven.&nbsp; But there is still plenty of circumstantial evidence.&nbsp; The adding of &quot;virtual feats&quot; to the 2e Ranger was actually rather sloppy design.&nbsp; As Caliban points out, there are other obvious ways of encouraging light armor usage.I am not going to change my mind based on some vague recollection from a TSR employee.&nbsp; Especially given the timing.&nbsp; I am having trouble imagining it would take much effort to revise the 1e PHB into the 2e version.&nbsp; Hardly any effort at that.&nbsp; The particular claim needs to be substantiated by Salvatore himself with something like &quot;I made Drizzt that way because TSR suggested it would be more compatible with their new product.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ridley's Cohort, post: 77260, member: 545"] One possible reason is that you get the best of both worlds if you used a spiked shield. Bucklers look like a good hedge, too. Dudes, I think 2e is clouding your memory of 1e. Strictly speaking there was no "Two Weapon Fighting Style" in the sense you all mean for 1e, beacuse there were no proficiency slots or skill slots associated with TWF. You picked up two weapons and hacked away. The reason it was the preferred Drow style is because (1) Gygax was making a viscously minmaxed opponent to spring on his vict^H^H^H^H players, and (2) the penalties for TWF were Dex based. The penalty for TWF was -2 on the primary hand and -4 on the secondary hand [i]where penalties are reduced by Dex bonus[/i]. Can you think of a race where every single member seemed to have a 15+ Dex, and therefore making this a practical [i]racial tendency[/i]? Drow! Heck! IIRC there was a table in D3 for generating random Drow you meet on the road or in the city and to generate the Dex stat you roll d6+8. Guess what? The high level Drow always had a 17 or 18, so their TWF penalities were neglibible for both hands. (Recall that 18 Dex gave a +3 bonus in 1e.) 2e formalized the TWF rules by adding in proficiency/skill slots into the bargain. So 2e Drow have this as a racial characteristic. In summary, 1e Drow could use TWF because they were designed to have godlike Dex stats. If Drizzt was intended to be written up as a high powered D&D character, giving him a high Dex and TWF was an obvious choice (among many options). Doubly true for Drow. IMHO: (1) Drizzt was not based on anything from 2e rules. He clearly follows a tradition already existing in 1e. He is not consistent with 2e rules in detail (as pointed out by others). And the timing suggests that 2e rules did not affect Drizzt either. (2) Whether Drizzt caused 2e Rangers to change is unproven. But there is still plenty of circumstantial evidence. The adding of "virtual feats" to the 2e Ranger was actually rather sloppy design. As Caliban points out, there are other obvious ways of encouraging light armor usage. I am not going to change my mind based on some vague recollection from a TSR employee. Especially given the timing. I am having trouble imagining it would take much effort to revise the 1e PHB into the 2e version. Hardly any effort at that. The particular claim needs to be substantiated by Salvatore himself with something like "I made Drizzt that way because TSR suggested it would be more compatible with their new product." [/QUOTE]

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