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

[Ralif Redhammer]

Considering he stuck around in Menzoberranzan and didn't flee when he could, wisdom being his dump stat sounds about right.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Ah, yes, Forgotten Realms NPC ability scores. Because we wouldn't want players to get the mistaken impression that the PCs were actually important.

Right? Keeping it seriously old-skool here. I remember all the old 2E FR Heroes books, where every half-wit from a book seemed to have a minimum of 14 in every stat, as well as often having specialized rules which let them break generalized rules, with no particularly good explanation, and didn't fit into 2E's class/race/kit structure.

People defending this are being a bit silly, frankly. Zaknafein is not actually described as being particularly strong or clever (let alone as strong as the strongest possible human, and nearly as brilliant), indeed on the contrary he seems slightly thick and naive from the books, and having 22 DEX is just unnecessary (though more lore-justifiable due to his weird training method). I guess this is "Naive by 2E FR NPC standards", in that he "only" has 12 WIS, not the 8 which might have made sense in 5E. The INT thing is just nuts and inexplicable though. Zak is not very bright.

As others have pointed out, a specific trait to let him use Longswords as finesse weapons would have made a lot more sense than STR 20, too.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Oh, that book. If I recall, Drizzt had a certain percentage to outright just kill any opponent.

And yet I nearly broke him out when I had a player claiming that he could beat anyone.

Right? Keeping it seriously old-skool here. I remember all the old 2E FR Heroes books, where every half-wit from a book seemed to have a minimum of 14 in every stat, as well as often having specialized rules which let them break generalized rules, with no particularly good explanation, and didn't fit into 2E's class/race/kit structure.

 

[Gadget]

Granted, these are just stats, but I feel WOTC should have used other methods to meet Zaknafein's CR. There is no need to boost his stats to the stratosphere, it encourages stat pumping. Since Zak is not a PC, there is no need to keep to strictly PC creation rules when designing him; give him some legendary boons/actions/whatever that keep to the theme of who he was, that would be more flavorful and fun.

 

[Morrus]

Since Zak is not a PC, there is no need to keep to strictly PC creation rules when designing him

They really didn’t.

 

[Gadget]

They really didn’t.

Then that makes the stat inflation more baffling.

 

[Weiley31]

I say he needs a Mythic trait if your gonna give him FR stats since ya wanna make sure he gives PCs hell if a fight breaks out.

Or maybe both he and Drizzit's Mythic Trait doesn't kick in unless BOTH father and son are fighting together.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Since it hasn't been posted yet, Zaknafein's full statblock:

Looks like a Battlemaster Fighter retrofitted to fit an NPC template, like the NPCs in Volo's, and with Legendary Actions added.

 

[Mirtek]

PCs are the heroes of the story. The world's only protagonists. Four to six people out of the entire world - the PCs!

That's only one way to play the game. Indiana Jones wasn't the only hero out of the entire world. He was just the one that happened to be at the place and time that his story took place.

There were certainly other agents and soldiers doing heroic stuff against the nazis somehwere else at the same time, we just did not watch them.

 

[Morrus]

That's only one way to play the game. Indiana Jones wasn't the only hero out of the entire world. He was just the one that happened to be at the place and time that his story took place.

There were certainly other agents and soldiers doing heroic stuff against the nazis somehwere else at the same time, we just did not watch them.

So they weren’t the protagonists of the story.

I mean, you say that’s “one way to play the game”. If there’s a way to play D&D where the PCs aren’t the protagonists of the story, it’s new to me. And not something I think I’d be interested in.