Why do you love/hate Drizzt?

[Darth Shoju]

Didn't he de-age several of the characters, as well?

(FTR, I reluctantly admit to being guilty of Drizzt-cloning. It's all behind me now, I promise.)

Yeah I think so. Frankly I was enjoying the Cleric Quintet until he erased the sacrifice that Cadderly made to create that cathedral of Deneir. Kind of guts the impact of the sacrifice. But all this makes me wonder how much Salvatore has to change the stories based on TSR/WoTC's input in the interest of keeping the books "marketable". Did they have a problem with the sacrifices made by Salvatore's characters (Wulfgar's life, Bruenor's eye, Regis's fingers, Cadderly's age)? I've always wondered if Bob Salvatore felt constrained by the need to advance the characters as per the super hero-ish rules for high-level D&D characters. I'm guessing the publishers pressured him to have the characters reflect the D&D rules to a certain degree, possibly moreso with the advent of 3rd ed (although certainly a case could be made against this point during the 2nd edition days...after all, Drizzt scribes his own runes on the ground to ward/confine Errtu in The Crystal Shard).

And also FTR, I did the Drizzt-clone shtick too, although I think I just tried to actually play Drizzt himself in games. *sigh* I was young.

 

[megamania]

At the time he was new, unique and thus fun. Now he is a cliche'. Waaaay too many players insist on playing a drow ranger with two swords. yaaaaawn.

He is still a good and solid character but he has become a victum of his own success.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I'm sick of the dark elf as well.

Years of people wanting to play manipulative evil drow priestesses, or the ever-common "rare good drow" made me sick of drow entirely.

They went from a cool race in the original Fiend Folio to a cliche of bad role-playing and powergaming.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Yeah I think so. Frankly I was enjoying the Cleric Quintet until he erased the sacrifice that Cadderly made to create that cathedral of Deneir. Kind of guts the impact of the sacrifice.

Well, Deneir's a goodly deity, isn't he? He wouldn't want his chosen crippled for life if he can't help it - he already showed that he was willing to sacrifice his youth for the faith.

I remember reading a similar story, about some Deity requiring one of his followers to sacrifice his own son on an altar. The guy had put the boy down and was ready to plunge the knife down when his God told him he passed the test, that sacrificing his son wouldn't be necessary - the God only wanted to know what the man would do for his faith. I remember that being regarded as a good story by some.

That's the point when I threw in the towel. They started to read like: "He did what now? He jumped up on the ogre's knee, hit him twice in the head with scimitars, jumped off the ogre, towards a cliff face, jumped off that towards another ogre, somersaulting off the ogre's shoulder onto his back, driving both scimitars into the ogre's neck but OH NOES!!! the ogre has more hit points left, so Drizzt rolls under the ogre, drives Icytwinkletoes in the ogre's nuts, somersaults between the ogre's legs, backflips off of Gwyhwyvwywhwyhwywvvvyhwvywvwywyvyyvwwwar's head onto the top of the last ogre (one hp left!) and then drives both swords in his ears? Did I read that right? WTF?"

Isn't everyone always complaining that D&D combat is so unimaginative? I can remember several people pining for "swing from the chandelier" type of action, not the dumb standing around hitting each other with pointy bits of metal.

But if someone comes along and writes about what high rolls in tumble, balance, jump and so on could look like, people complain.

Some people just like to be negative

For me, the low point was when Wulfgar came back, Bruenor's eye grew back and I think Regis's fingers grew back.

Well, this is D&D. It's supposed to be ridiculously easy to get patched up perfectly with some prayer spells. Some restoration, regeneration, cure x wounds, heal, and you're as good as new. Why shouldn't those well-paid celebrety D&D characters get the same treatment?

Rhaethiir's always up for a good sparring match, especially if it's against someone who can teach him something new!

Pharaun (yes, I know, not a name for a moon elf - it's what you get from choosing a name out of the FRCS when you can't think of one yourself, and choose a drow name because the elven names sound lame: You get the drow equivalent of "john" or "frank" or "kevin" Seriously, My character was named Pharaun. A character in a campaign I DMed was named Pharaun, and another would have had the same name had I not told the player to choose another name. And, of course, one of the WotSQ characters is named Pharaun, too. I guess you couldn't call a Pharaun on a street in Menzoberranzan without 7 male drow turning their heads) is always willing to teach his bladesingers new tricks!

 

[plodnik]

I prefer Elric...

 

[CrimsonWineGlass]

The character is interesting, though I find him no more interesting than many of the others in the series. Regis the thief is honestly a major fave, cadderly is also a favorite. But I don't love or hate the character, I do hate what has spawned, resulting in my house rule that you can play a ranger, you can play a drow, you can play lawful good, you can dual wield scimitars, but if your build contains more than 1 of the previous, consult me before continuing.

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

Loved the character in the first trilogy, and I didn't mind the Dark Elf stuff as well, but Drizzt was a much more enjoyable character before Salvatore decided to go and make him "deep". I prefer the version that ran around killing verbeeg while eating their food at the same time, not the whiny pussy of the later novels.

Besides, Bruenor was always far superior.

 

[Wombat]

Why do I hate him?

Two simple words: Bad Writing.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I don’t read d&d fiction. I only know of drizzt from what other people say about him.

That said, I think drow are pretty cool with the idea of female dominated society. Also the spider queen thing is pritty kinky. I like well done drow art, and I think it’s inspirational (although people makeuped as drow always look bad from what I have seen). I have never played a drow pc, but I have thought about it.

From my ignorant view, I just don’t understand the controversy. It’s like wanting to play a Rambo character in d20 modern. It’s not that bad as long as player brings creativity and uneqness along with the archtype, but to be truthful, I have never witnessed someone playing a drow clone. My dm has changed drow a lot in the campaign, and I’m pretty sure they are very different from how they are portrayed in books.

I never understood the controversy about why or whynot drow pcs should be punished and humiliated if they want to be played. I don’t know much about the d&d fiction, but it seems like most dms are too close to that subject matter to see drow with fresh and new eyes. Saying that every drow is evil, is like saying every elf is good, strictly looking at the monster manual. Without any d&d literature, it’s a pretty sound argument.

 

[molonel]

As far as the character goes, Drizz't out is exactly right: the whole concept fell victim to its own popularity. Playing a drow ranger is kind of like going into a guitar store and playing Stairway to Heaven.

That made me laugh.

I have the Crystal Shard books on my shelf, the homeland books. They are very fun books to read. I like the characters - Wulfgar and Bruenor Battlehammer - I like the stories, I like the writing. No, it's not Shakespeare, but since I don't write like Shakespeare either, I'm not going to throw any rocks on that subject.

Drizzt had a number of problems, in my opinion:

1. The escalating challenges and battles that he just never lost. He beats a dragon, he beats a demon. I fully expected him to punch out a deity in the next book, because hey, he's "impossibly fast." It could happen, right? I think Salvatore got the clue, but instead of - I don't know - having him lose once in a while, or learn, or change, we got "Drizzt against 1,000 orcs!" Whatever, man.

2. Salvatore started believing his own hype. Gawd! Those long, droning philosophical essays. I didn't "start" skipping them. I always skipped them. You're not that deep, man. Get over yourself.

3. The books just went on and on and on and on. I know Salvatore has got to pay the bills just like anyone else, and even he's said on his forums, I think, that there are a lot of people who want him to keep churning out Drizzt books every year or so. Cool. Salvatore gets to write for a living, and they get the books they want. But to me, the books are too formulaic and dull, anymore.

Fanboys don't bother me. If I had a young player who wanted to play a Drow ranger duel-wielding scimitars in one of my games, that's the least of my worries.