I wouldn't say they're "hilariously mid tier". In the novels Drizzt's group is clearly presented on a level that would be similar to the Bhaalspawn. They struggle with vampires and receive pretty serious injuries during goblin/drow fights and fights during the Orc march on the Silver Marches. The entire Companion's Codex is full of evidence that they'd probably sit on the same level that Gorion's Ward does in BG2.
And that's for the best, tbh. A lot of the "higher powerlevel" books/teams are boring or overly convoluted. I'm looking at you Godborn.
You know what forgotten realms book did it absolutely brilliantly though? The book "The Prince of Lies" about Cyric, the mad God
One of the best Forgotten Realms novels (or dare-I-say sci-fi fantasy novels even, at that time for me in 1993 at least). Absolutely amazing imaginative take on the pantheon of Gods and their schemes against each other. Cryic is portrayed as truly mad, where in his perception of the other Gods are screaming versions of his own voice echoing in his mind. Oh and the clockwork giants, the serpent that grows in size any time anyone has a nightmare, some of the violence and levels of gore and depiction of the abyss are great. The sequel is ok but this book I'd highly recommend
edit: yeah on amazon it's almost completely 5star reviews, a few 4star. None below
Recently I've made a full drow party (CHARNAME [drow Wizard Slayer], Viconia, Vynd [mod NPC] and Baeloth) and of course we killed him.
Most of the times however we just help him and wish a nice journey - even with an evil party (hey! it's nice to have someone powerful owning you a favor!)
Too bad I can't change my vote (help him), but personally I do what I feel the main character would do based on personality and temperance. I like my story to flow as much as possible, so often times I end up helping him; either because it's the right thing to do or the character believes that helping Drizzt helps themselves.
Rarely will I actually kill Drizzt, I play few characters who would be so ignoble or evil/insane to just kill a Drow just because.
I find it morally challenging to kill a well known fictional, "good person" and I would never consider attacking him...
except that when I play the game with my evil party, my main will be based very heavily on one of Drizzt's "rivals", i.e. Artemis Entreri, and as such I feel that attacking Drizzt would be in character. But otherwise, I would never attack or refuse to help someone in need, especially an icon of such high moral standing.
One of these days, I'm gonna have to make it a point to get a collection of his books. I may be growing sick of the Realms, but I love a good fantasy setting and novel.
You're silly. Even if you dislike the characters, Salvatore does do an excellent job of showing the Forgotten Realm setting.
I had a friend who was a fan of Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Wheel of Time, all those. He always called RA Salvatore kind of an entry-level fantasy author, good for getting someone into the fantasy genre.
He used to harp on GRR Martin and compare to Salvatore, and would criticize Salvatore for his immortal heroes. He had a good point, that invincibility was a flaw in his writing up until the later books, and even when characters died they were often revived. It does tend to diminish the excitement of conflict due to removing the fear of the heroes dying
I have always helped Drzzt so far, usually taking the encounter as a challenge ~ can my party score more Gnoll kills than the Legendary Hero!! Usually try to draw some of the Gnolls away from where Drzzt is found so that my Melee characters are about to engage and then have Imoen approach the Drow.
But recently I have been getting so bent by Drzzt refusing to talk to the party afterwards, even though we rocked the encounter, that I am leaning towards the idea of activating the Gnolls somehow so they kill Drzzt without triggering the dialogue.
My ultimate goal would be to decimate ALL the Gnolls before Drzzt can get into action. And then enjoy some ROFL time when he continues flitting about mindlessly. What the heck was he doing there in the first place???
It's also nice to have characters you can keep following through the story rather than making bets on who's gonna die THIS time...
True there's a flip side to everything. I've read the Drizzt series up through Passage to Dawn, and only read the first 2 books of song of ice and fire
I prefer Salvatore's combat descriptions and his usage of d&d lore and mechanics. GRR's dialogue is incredible though
I hate that character! So many cliches, inspiring so many insipid copy cats. I struggle to find ways to justify killing him in character while not also killing Viconia but his destruction must be assured
You can't really blame the original character for the existence of copy cats.
On another note, I usually make nice and let him go. The experience is really unnecessary, as there is more than enough for a 6 person party to reach level cap, even with rotating party members.
To be fair I only go to the map to kill him and right around the time that I want to avoid a useless Slow Poison SLA.
I'm not sure if it was a mod that made him easier but last run I hit him with a wand of paralysation after a few tries and just killed him straight up totally legit no reloads no preparation.
I haven't done an evil playthrough yet, but when I do, he'll be toast. Otherwise I just talk with him, unless my CHARNAME is neutral and someone in the team has pips in scimitars.
In BG:EE, the goodness of the loot from Drizzit turns to be kinda situational.
You have to have someone proficient with scimitars for the blades to be actual boost to your team's combat ability, preferably someone specialized. I think Safana is the only NPC with scimitar profiency, so getting most out of the efficiency of Twinkle & Icingdeath, one needs to plan ahead and metagame the knowledge of their existence.
Also the mithral chainmail is the best armor in game only if you are a barbarian. Any other warrior gets same amount of protection via Ankheg plate or full plate armor, those two still allowing rings and amulets boosting AC. Of course if you are / you have in your party a ranger or fighter/thief, you can forgo the armorswapsyndrome with heavy armor when you want to have most protection but still be stealthy or lockpicky/trapfindy. I don't usually do much scouting with my rangers, and Shadow Armor is good enough fo Coran anyway, so in after my first playthrough in original BG as a Half-Elf F/T I haven't found much use for the chain.
In BG:EE, the goodness of the loot from Drizzit turns to be kinda situational.
You have to have someone proficient with scimitars for the blades to be actual boost to your team's combat ability, preferably someone specialized. I think Safana is the only NPC with scimitar profiency, so getting most out of the efficiency of Twinkle & Icingdeath, one needs to plan ahead and metagame the knowledge of their existence.
Also the mithral chainmail is the best armor in game only if you are a barbarian. Any other warrior gets same amount of protection via Ankheg plate or full plate armor, those two still allowing rings and amulets boosting AC. Of course if you are / you have in your party a ranger or fighter/thief, you can forgo the armorswapsyndrome with heavy armor when you want to have most protection but still be stealthy or lockpicky/trapfindy. I don't usually do much scouting with my rangers, and Shadow Armor is good enough fo Coran anyway, so in after my first playthrough in original BG as a Half-Elf F/T I haven't found much use for the chain.
you forgot fighter/mage. A plus 2ac stackable bonus from twinkle is quite helpful in lower the casters AC
You have to have someone proficient with scimitars for the blades to be actual boost to your team's combat ability, preferably someone specialized. I think Safana is the only NPC with scimitar profiency, so getting most out of the efficiency of Twinkle & Icingdeath, one needs to plan ahead and metagame the knowledge of their existence.
If you create good-aligned F/M with ** in scimitars, I call Twinklehunt. Not that there is anything wrong in that.
So, I helped him kill the Gnolls, talked to him afterwards, and as he is walking away right after saying "Well met, friend. Luck be on your side," I cntrl y'd his ass, lol. FYI I did get his armor and two scythes, but no experience or reputation hit.
I did go in and give myself the reputation hit and experience through EE Keeper though. Many people exploit killing Drizzt, but I am too weak, and didn't know he was on this map, so I figured why not?
Does anyone know if killing him in this way will affect anything in BGII?
I play modded games and I keep him alive to get the later quests that include him.
(It may be technically possible to kill him here and he will still spawn in his mod incarnation, as those are different creature files and dead does not carry over between them but it would spoil the immersion.)
Comments
One of the best Forgotten Realms novels (or dare-I-say sci-fi fantasy novels even, at that time for me in 1993 at least). Absolutely amazing imaginative take on the pantheon of Gods and their schemes against each other. Cryic is portrayed as truly mad, where in his perception of the other Gods are screaming versions of his own voice echoing in his mind. Oh and the clockwork giants, the serpent that grows in size any time anyone has a nightmare, some of the violence and levels of gore and depiction of the abyss are great. The sequel is ok but this book I'd highly recommend
edit: yeah on amazon it's almost completely 5star reviews, a few 4star. None below
Recently I've made a full drow party (CHARNAME [drow Wizard Slayer], Viconia, Vynd [mod NPC] and Baeloth) and of course we killed him.
Most of the times however we just help him and wish a nice journey - even with an evil party (hey! it's nice to have someone powerful owning you a favor!)
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0044.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0065.html
Rarely will I actually kill Drizzt, I play few characters who would be so ignoble or evil/insane to just kill a Drow just because.
except that when I play the game with my evil party, my main will be based very heavily on one of Drizzt's "rivals", i.e. Artemis Entreri, and as such I feel that attacking Drizzt would be in character. But otherwise, I would never attack or refuse to help someone in need, especially an icon of such high moral standing.
He used to harp on GRR Martin and compare to Salvatore, and would criticize Salvatore for his immortal heroes. He had a good point, that invincibility was a flaw in his writing up until the later books, and even when characters died they were often revived. It does tend to diminish the excitement of conflict due to removing the fear of the heroes dying
It's nice to see the character get a cameo in-game.
But recently I have been getting so bent by Drzzt refusing to talk to the party afterwards, even though we rocked the encounter, that I am leaning towards the idea of activating the Gnolls somehow so they kill Drzzt without triggering the dialogue.
My ultimate goal would be to decimate ALL the Gnolls before Drzzt can get into action. And then enjoy some ROFL time when he continues flitting about mindlessly. What the heck was he doing there in the first place???
I prefer Salvatore's combat descriptions and his usage of d&d lore and mechanics. GRR's dialogue is incredible though
Ah, okay.
In retrospect my DD beat him to death with a stick so maybe I should have gone with "Depends"
On another note, I usually make nice and let him go. The experience is really unnecessary, as there is more than enough for a 6 person party to reach level cap, even with rotating party members.
I'm not sure if it was a mod that made him easier but last run I hit him with a wand of paralysation after a few tries and just killed him straight up totally legit no reloads no preparation.
Or just watch them eventually kill him.
You have to have someone proficient with scimitars for the blades to be actual boost to your team's combat ability, preferably someone specialized. I think Safana is the only NPC with scimitar profiency, so getting most out of the efficiency of Twinkle & Icingdeath, one needs to plan ahead and metagame the knowledge of their existence.
Also the mithral chainmail is the best armor in game only if you are a barbarian. Any other warrior gets same amount of protection via Ankheg plate or full plate armor, those two still allowing rings and amulets boosting AC. Of course if you are / you have in your party a ranger or fighter/thief, you can forgo the armorswapsyndrome with heavy armor when you want to have most protection but still be stealthy or lockpicky/trapfindy. I don't usually do much scouting with my rangers, and Shadow Armor is good enough fo Coran anyway, so in after my first playthrough in original BG as a Half-Elf F/T I haven't found much use for the chain.
I did go in and give myself the reputation hit and experience through EE Keeper though. Many people exploit killing Drizzt, but I am too weak, and didn't know he was on this map, so I figured why not?
Does anyone know if killing him in this way will affect anything in BGII?
(It may be technically possible to kill him here and he will still spawn in his mod incarnation, as those are different creature files and dead does not carry over between them but it would spoil the immersion.)