D&D 5E WotC's Stats for Zaknafein Do'Udern

[Dausuul]

Is there a link or something to the article? I'm trying to navigate Dragon+ and it's making my eyes bleed.

Anyway, as far as the stats go... I feel like when you stat up NPCs, you should decide to either build them like a PC or build them like a monster, and stick to it. If you're building Zak like a PC, then a maxed-out Strength is reasonable; he's a longsword wielder, it's his prime attack stat. But how does he have Dex 22? That isn't even possible for a PC, barring magic items. And it makes no sense for a Strength-based warrior to go so high.

If you're building Zak like a monster, on the other hand, there's no reason for that 20 Strength. He should have stats appropriate to his concept, which is super-agile (22 Dex is fine) but not super-strong. Just give him extra attacks, or bonus damage dice, or whatever, to make up for having Strength 16 or so.

And in no world does it make the slightest bit of sense for him to have Int 19. That's just silly.

 

[TheSword]

Well Zaknafein was a foe more often than not

Spoiler: Homeland/Sojourn spoilers

who fought and tried to kill Drizzt on at least a couple of occasions.

so I’m not sure what the issue with an ancient 18th level drow having good stats is?

 

[Mordhau]

This reminds me of when we used to play 2e and we lamented that our pcs ability scores always seemed so low - especially when compared to the NPC heroes.

Then we played a module (I think it was City of Skulls) and saw the Pregen characters and it was a bit of an eye-opener. It turned out we were supposed to cheat.

The 4e drop low method was the most common method used during 2e. It was what we used.

Pregen characters from what I remember had high percentile Strength and lot of other ability scores over 15.

They were along the lines of Zaknafein here.

 

[Maxperson]

The 4e drop low method was the most common method used during 2e. It was what we used.

Pregen characters from what I remember had high percentile Strength and lot of other ability scores over 15.

They were along the lines of Zaknafein here.

During 1e as well. 4d6-L was Method I in the 1e DMG. Almost every group I played 1e with used it.