Poll: Drizzt Do Urden, Cool or fool?

[Sir Degrader]

Overpowered fool, just like elminster. I can forgive them if they have a kickass personality, like Raistlin, but Drizzt just goes around killing everything, with no real challenges.

[Arnabas]

I always like to comment on these threads about how if there's a book about a character like Drizzt, he's an uber-munchin, etc. Yet, most players have characters who will be this powerful or more so. He has two moderately powerful swords, and bracers of speed (so far in the books I have read. Any other magical equipment is pretty minor as it is rarely mentioned.) I believe he is "officially" about level 17.
When I played pnp D+D, by level 6 or 7 I had more magical stuff than that. I raised my character to level 21. Everyone here complains about level limits in BG and NWN because they want level 80 characters with +20 swords of complete-and-total-annihilation. It seems that if someone else's character is strong, he is too powerful. But we always think our own should be stronger. In the books that I have read so far, he is great fighting 1 or 2 people, but when facing multiple opponents, he knows he is in trouble. That's odd, considering that in D+D by the time you reach level 17, you can probably fight about 10 low-level guys with little to no difficulty.
And in a number of battles, he has won by luck, or by using his brain-- somethng which a level 1 character can do as well, so it's not just a matter of power.
Still, I do have one complaint about the series: characters have "died" and come back more than in the entire collection of Star Trek shows, movies, books, etc. That IS irritating.

[ 04-14-2004, 10:05 PM: Message edited by: Arnabas ]

[Timber Loftis]

Good points, Arnabus. Oh, what, don't mind me, I'm just staring at your sig. She got ID? Looks to young to be in here.

[Sir Degrader]

What would be sweet is if they attached a minigun to Spawn's arm and gave drizzt a COOL sword not the ■■■■■ one he's using now, then sent him and Drizzt off to fight to the death in a modern city, and the wilderness to make things even in a 2 round battle to the death.

[Nickzilla]

I have only seen the goody-two-shoes in BG2 and he's a pain in the arse. I had no idea he had novels based around him, what are they called?

[Melusine]

[annoying internet mode]UTFS.[/mode off]
Umm no on second thought I'll be nice. [img]graemlins/angelwings.gif[/img] There are tons of threads about the Drizzt books in the Books & Movies forum, Nickzilla, why don't you try there? Or simply type Drizzt and Salvatore (the author) into Google and I'm sure you'll find plenty of info. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, I didn't choose either of the two options. Bad literature is bad literature, I'm not even going to bother attempting to evaluate a character from those books. (and yeah, I did read a couple of them. They were very entertaining as far as that goes...)

[ 04-21-2004, 07:44 AM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

[Link]

It's not Drizzt himself, but how he seems to be able to deal with the absurdity of the enemies he's facing. A whole lair of Frost Giants for instance, or a demon (Errtu). All with relative ease, while my Baldur's Gate 2 character would STILL have trouble beating them without any decent equipment, certainly not with the equipment Drizzt is using.

[Xen]

He is something like Elminster. Edwin from BG says wisely:"Give me a 1000 years and a pointy hat and I can kick his arse" or something like that.

[Malavon's Rage]

Originally posted by Xen: He is something like Elminster. Edwin from BG says wisely:"Give me a 1000 years and a pointy hat and I can kick his arse" or something like that.

Close, I think it goes "Elminster this, Elminster that, Give me one thousand years and a pointy hat and I'll kick his arse."

[CerebroDragon]

*Grumbles Bruenor style*

There is alot of ignorance and pretty unfair judgments going on in this thread about Drizzt, who is definitely one of Forgotten Realms most eminently strong characters. If it were me and I hadn't actually read any of the novels which featured him, I'd be reserving my judgments thank you very much.

That said, I've only read the Icewind Dale Trilogy and so haven't seen the most present incarnation of him. But I'll catch up eventually. I'm presently reading the first novel of the Dark Elf Trilogy, "Homeland" which explores Drizzt's early years where its pretty evident that he wasn't the 'overpowered' fool that many have mistakenly taken him for.
I think that Salvatore knows how to subtly draw out strong ethical dilemma's and pain within Drizzt, making him a little more complex than some give him credit for.

Furthermore, Baldur's Gate I&II isn't the first RPG to feature him. For relative newbies to him, check out Menzoberranzen for a more in depth encounters with him. I don't really think that the BG series captured him very well, in all honesty...it was more of a silly gimmick than anything.