@AHF It's still dumb. Drizzt should be powerful, but he shouldn't cheat. No NPC should be like that unless they're essential to the story, which should always be kept to a minimum.
I hear you. When I found out that he doesn't even wield his special scimitars, it was kind of a head scratcher.
It wasn't just Bioware. Drizzt was a tremendously popular character at that time. In this instance, Bioware was reflecting the tastes of their audience.
I think he was the equivalent of a celebrity cameo and they just wanted to deter people from killing him for his equipment. Lots of the old school video games used to have instant death features for similar actions (I am thinking back in the King's Quest, Hero's Quest, etc. sort of era).
Then why even make is equipment droppable? He was added in so players COULD kill him and devise and discuss strategies 15 years after the release. He was made cheesy and difficult to kill for that reason.
Isn't Drizzt lactose intolerant? (due to all his Underdark childhood & stuff) In that case, a huge amount of digested cheese could kill him...a really cheesy way.
For the hordes of good/neutral characters hand-waving away the myriad of RP reasons not to, I agree. For those of us playing Chaotic Stupid, it's just another disproportionately difficult day at the office.
LOL. It's all in good fun. By all means anyone should play the game the way they enjoy. "To Me", killing him or Eleminster is just cheesy. But then who doesn't enjoy a bit of cheese now and then?
LOL. It's all in good fun. By all means anyone should play the game the way they enjoy. "To Me", killing him or Eleminster is just cheesy. But then who doesn't enjoy a bit of cheese now and then?
Nah, I'd argue that Elminster (and Shandalar, given the metagaming involved) are on a whole other level than Drizzt. While the mages are scripted to just say their piece and walk/teleport away, Drizzt is only slightly more difficult to provoke than Minsc: all you have to do is be a jerk. There are plenty of other encounters with the same criteria: Sendai, Maulers of the Undermountain, etc. The only difference between those and Drizzt is the difficulty and payoff.
But you're definitely right that we all make our own definitions, so in the end, to each their own .
It's a bit funny, i'm reading atm the Dark Elf Chronicles novel, and based on the years Drizzt was alone in underdark wildness areas (maybe even taking in account the time he was in the company of Belwar), shoudn't he have any barbarian (or at least berserker) levels?
In the novel many tried but none where able to even a single time attack Drizzt from behind, which is featured in the barbarian kit (immune to backstab while enraged), and that primal rage he had on those early years in underdark could be easly taken as barbarian rage (a lot of indications for this line of thought).
By the way i advanced a bit on the reading (i'm finishing the exile book by now), and just to quote one of the phrases on the book (major spoilers of Drizzt's novels):
Book 2 - exile - chapter 19 "Headache"
"A blast of stunning energy rolled over Drizzt as he reached for his weapons. The hunter resisted, though, his thoughts simply too primitive for such a sophisticated attack form. In a single movement too quick for his latest adversary to respond to, he snapped one scimitar from its sheath and spun about, slicing the blade at an upward angle."
Based on this quote:
1° - The hunter side of Drizzt (adquired by hardening his survival instincts to the extreme by 10 years of life alone in the open wild of underdark), is made of primal feelings, not taught but infused in his existense EXACTLY as a barbarian normally get his Barbarian Rage.
By the way, only a barbarian rage would fit the description made on the novel, when they explain that the illithid mind blast failed to affect drizzt in reason of his primal state of consciousness.
2° - Drizzt is mentioned during the entire novel (until now at least) to be faster than any other drow when fighting (maybe being Zaknafein the only exception). I remember yet when Masoj on the book "Homeland" was having his final fight with drizzt and he couldn't cast a single spell cos drizzt rushed something like 10 meters before he could speak a single word).
3° - Never when his hunter side appear has someone take him from behind.
in fact Drizzt appears to have some backstab immunity cos even on the begin of the novel, before he got his hunter side, he always had a primal instinct that always make him percieve when someone tried to backstab or make an attack from behind on him, many examples could be found on his time on the Drow fighter Academy.
With those bases i now not only believe that he should have barbarian levels, but i see their absence as a mistake (of course make him a dualed barbarian/range in 2d can make his already cheese power to become more cheese, maybe ubeatable, but that would be more coherent to Salvatore Novels)
kite him,remain mobile(and hasted) and shower him with arrows and spells using a couple of traps is not cheese either wand and potions are meant to be used too(if you accidentally get hit that is)
he's just a tough mellee guy,out of melle he's a meatbag
That's already cheesy, according to some people. Personally I see nothing wrong with it, but many people find it unrealistic that an intelligent being would mindlessly chase after someone while everyone else pelted him into oblivion.
My Drow fighter soloed him after pickpocketing his equipment (i.e. duplicating the items not removing them). It required a bunch of potions and buffs, and probably a little luck (and also having max HP on level up). Note that I had all the best items in the game at this point.
That being said, I usually rotate agro between my two fighters and have everyone else pelt him with arrows/bullets. A few healing potions is all you expend using this strategy.
I used one level 10 Fighter, 2handed sword specced and went to town on him. He had the cheetah boots so when I got low I could run around him and heal with my potions
Well i just ordered all my spellcasters to summon all kinds of mobs in waves(Monsters Summoning, Animate Dead, Summon Animals, etc) to make the old cheese always busy 1hko'ing something when the rest of the party was attcking him with ranged weapons.
Priests and their Skeletons did the best as they have some ressistance to Slashing Damage.
I don't know if I can say without cheese, but here I go :
- Edwin threw him a dart - Dorn and Kagain rushed on Drizzt - Edwin used the summoning wand to bring three dogs to help the melee fighters - Deirdre (Avenger level 9) casted Magic Resistance on Drizzt, lowering his magic resistance to 18% - Edwin used again the summoning wand to replace dead dogs - Edwin casted two Magic Missile spells - Deirdre casted three Call Lightning spells
Too bad I can't use Call Lightning indoor, otherwise this would be a good strategy against Sarevok...
Comments
Didn't EE buff Drizzt even more?
He was added in so players COULD kill him and devise and discuss strategies 15 years after the release. He was made cheesy and difficult to kill for that reason.
... Wait, doesn't that mean he manages to go up 2 levels *while being dead*? I knew he was badass.
In that case, a huge amount of digested cheese could kill him...a really cheesy way.
But you're definitely right that we all make our own definitions, so in the end, to each their own
In the novel many tried but none where able to even a single time attack Drizzt from behind, which is featured in the barbarian kit (immune to backstab while enraged), and that primal rage he had on those early years in underdark could be easly taken as barbarian rage (a lot of indications for this line of thought).
"A blast of stunning energy rolled over Drizzt as he reached for his weapons. The hunter resisted, though, his thoughts simply too primitive for such a sophisticated attack form. In a single movement too quick for his latest adversary to respond to, he snapped one scimitar from its sheath and spun about, slicing the blade at an upward angle."
Based on this quote:
1° - The hunter side of Drizzt (adquired by hardening his survival instincts to the extreme by 10 years of life alone in the open wild of underdark), is made of primal feelings, not taught but infused in his existense EXACTLY as a barbarian normally get his Barbarian Rage.
By the way, only a barbarian rage would fit the description made on the novel, when they explain that the illithid mind blast failed to affect drizzt in reason of his primal state of consciousness.
2° - Drizzt is mentioned during the entire novel (until now at least) to be faster than any other drow when fighting (maybe being Zaknafein the only exception). I remember yet when Masoj on the book "Homeland" was having his final fight with drizzt and he couldn't cast a single spell cos drizzt rushed something like 10 meters before he could speak a single word).
3° - Never when his hunter side appear has someone take him from behind.
in fact Drizzt appears to have some backstab immunity cos even on the begin of the novel, before he got his hunter side, he always had a primal instinct that always make him percieve when someone tried to backstab or make an attack from behind on him, many examples could be found on his time on the Drow fighter Academy.
With those bases i now not only believe that he should have barbarian levels, but i see their absence as a mistake (of course make him a dualed barbarian/range in 2d can make his already cheese power to become more cheese, maybe ubeatable, but that would be more coherent to Salvatore Novels)
using a couple of traps is not cheese either
wand and potions are meant to be used too(if you accidentally get hit that is)
he's just a tough mellee guy,out of melle he's a meatbag
By the way, in the vanilla patched game, only his scimitar +3 was allowed to be stolen, not his Scimitar +5.
Does it have been changed in BGEE ?
That being said, I usually rotate agro between my two fighters and have everyone else pelt him with arrows/bullets. A few healing potions is all you expend using this strategy.
Priests and their Skeletons did the best as they have some ressistance to Slashing Damage.
Took a while but yeah. 100% legit.
I don't know if I can say without cheese, but here I go :
- Edwin threw him a dart
- Dorn and Kagain rushed on Drizzt
- Edwin used the summoning wand to bring three dogs to help the melee fighters
- Deirdre (Avenger level 9) casted Magic Resistance on Drizzt, lowering his magic resistance to 18%
- Edwin used again the summoning wand to replace dead dogs
- Edwin casted two Magic Missile spells
- Deirdre casted three Call Lightning spells
Too bad I can't use Call Lightning indoor, otherwise this would be a good strategy against Sarevok...