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

[Jfdlsjfd]

Third, Zaknafein's player clearly rolled those stats rolling 3d6, in order. Believe him, his brother was with him when he rolled, he saw the whole thing, no cheating involved!

Not to nitpick, because I agree with you mostly, well, so actually, JUST to nitpick. about the odds of it happening :

STR 20, DEX 22, CON 16, INT 19, WIS 12, CHA 14

If we suppose, as a CR 16 threat, he is able to get epic boon. At CR 16 he should be bordering on epic. And he certainly got access to some legendary magical items, while the various tomes are just "very rare". Let's suppose that he got two +2 stat increase from these source, and he got the 7 regular ASIs over his career as a fighter, he could have started with STR 16, DEX 18, CON 14, INT 17, WIS 10, CHA 12. Having these stats with 4d6 drop lowest is lucky, but not impossible. If I calculated this right, the ods are 1 in 50,000. Exceptionnal, yes. Impossible, well, I guess Menzoberranzan being a drow metropolis it should be statistically possible. And if PCs are exceptionnal, they could be facing exceptional threats as well. Hercules wasn't tasked to clean a regular stable.

Unfortunately, one of the area Zaknafein fails to be exceptional is "writing an interesting background".

 

[Olrox17]

I guess ironically that matches the Gary Su nature of Drizzit. Like Father, like son.

That is pretty ironic.

 

[Xenonnonex]

All all right. He has Wis 12 Cha 14.

 

[Weiley31]

That is pretty ironic.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised at all if WoTC did that on purpose considering they probably heard all the jokes/memes bout it. Can't wait to see how jacked Drizzit is in Rime of The Frostmaiden.

 

[Xenonnonex]

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised at all if WoTC did that on purpose considering they probably heard all the jokes/memes bout it. Can't wait to see how jacked Drizzit is in Rime of The Frostmaiden.

DRIZZT DO'URDEN
STR 16 DEX 24 CON 15 INT 16 WIS 16 CHA 14
Jacked. Drizzt is better than you.

 

[Morrus]

As a point of comparison, here's Achilles from Mythological Figures:

CR12
STR 17 DEX 17 CON 15 INT 11 WIS 9 CHA 9

No maxed out stats. Of course, that uses a 27 point buy and he has four feats, so you could optionally swap the feats out for ASIs instead and add four +2 increases.

 

[SkidAce]

I feel like -- and this isn't just a D&D thing, it's a general RPG culture thing -- we're so accustomed to assuming "level-appropriate opponents" that we have evaluatory tunnel vision. When looking at an NPC or monster or whatever and deciding if they're sufficiently badass, we subconsciously normalize out the level or something. "This level 16 fighter only has 16 Strength -- what a pushover!" When what we should be thinking is "This 16-Strength fighter has reached 16th level -- he's a goddamn board-certified killing machine!"

I wish I could have liked this twice. For truth.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think his stats are ok. I see Zak as a warrior version of the Favored Consort from Mordy's tome of foes (which he was, right?) Both drow shadowblade and drow inquisitor (which are in the same CR ballpark) have stats over 20. Both warlord and champion NPC statblocks are high-level fighters with 20s in their STR score and a bunch of high scores in the others. Furthermore, if you look at his buddy Jarlaxle, he has the mostly the same stat spread.

For now, he's like a ''solo'' version the Drow House Captain from MToF with a bunch of magic items. I mean, he was the greatest swordsman of Menzo for a while, its gotta count for something. I think a high-level PC with access to the same magic items and boons/blessing is on par with the weaponmaster.

But again, he's a character from a book: plot armor applies. Its like if a GM in a star wars game put his their players against Vader or Luke: of course the NPC will have stuff outside the rules to be an actual challenge for a group while reflecting the powers they display in the movies/books!

That's why I think its always a bad idea to put a party against a character from the same world but from another media.

 

[Demetrios1453]

As a point of comparison, here's Achilles from Mythological Figures:

CR12
STR 17 DEX 17 CON 15 INT 11 WIS 9 CHA 9

No maxed out stats. Of course, that uses a 27 point buy and he has four feats, so you could optionally swap the feats out for ASIs instead and add four +2 increases.

Honestly, for the son of a goddess, that does seem a bit low, especially for someone renowned as one of the greatest warriors in all of Greek myth, and given the way he simply plowed through the Trojan ranks in the later books of the Illiad. Granted, at that point he had the supernatural gift of "plot armor"...

 

[Morrus]

Honestly, for the son of a goddess, that does seem a bit low, especially for someone renowned as one of the greatest warriors in all of Greek myth, and given the way he simply plowed through the Trojan ranks in the later books of the Illiad. Granted, at that point he had the supernatural gift of "plot armor"...

Sure; you can switch out the feats for ASIs and add another 8 points in there.