R.A Salvatore has mentioned many times in his books that Drizzt is a ranger. In all the books I have read, he never used any spells associated with the ranger class. Why? This question has been nagging me for months.
R.A Salvatore has mentioned many times in his books that Drizzt is a ranger. In all the books I have read, he never used any spells associated with the ranger class. Why? This question has been nagging me for months.
Because he only carrries one or two at most. Or he might even be a spellless variant. Rememember that he is a multi-class ranger with either fighter or barbarian levels.
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Maybe his Wisdom just sucks.
Probably because he was mostly written in AD&D era with level low enough to not get any spells through most of his adventures. Rangers got their spells much later then, at 8th level. He might got used to not relying on spells for quite a long. Also, as a ranger he would only get priestly spells belonging to Animal and Plant spheres.
He has gotten spells, as shown in the third book in the Homeland trilogy if I recall. In that one he becomes a follower of Mielikki. Most of these would be guesses at when he cast them.
For example, In the old days, he may have had some sort of access to a spell to speed up his attacks or things that you didn't see directly. Some of the times when he may have cast them would be times it would seem a more natural use, for example, shooting a dragon. However, it doesn't explicitly spell it out in the books.
in 2e I believe his spells may have been things like Animal Friendship (doesn't he have a time when he faces an animal but doesn't fight it, indicating a more natural than outright spellcasting of spells?), entangle, pass without trace, charm person or mammal, speak with animals (he does seem to sense and speak with his panther, but that might also be an result of the magic item), warp wood, hold animals, snare, spike growth.
In 3e he lost a LOT of Ranger levels if I recall which were replaced with other levels, unsure if he was high enough level to cast anything in 3e.
He does use his Dark Elf abilities occasionally in one or two books as well.
Overall, he seems to rely on high magic items (bracers of speed which also double his attacks in the books as well as I think a scimitar of speed which would increases his attacks to around 10 attacks a round in 2e, 5 attacks without the bracers or scimitar (pick one), or up to 5 in 3e as a 16th level warrior type, or down to 3-4 in 3.5 edition...and a measly 1 in 4th, but with a ton of HP (700+) and other things as statted as a monster instead.
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Hah, no, drizzt is a 15th+ level ranger in every stat block made for him.
He does not have a sword of speed. Twinkle is a +5 defender, and the other is a frost brand.
The bracers gave the equivalent of haste, I.e. one more attack. Like boots of speed in 3e.
Hehas wild empathy for dealing with wild animals.
Basically, he is always high enough level in all the books to use spells, but just never bothers to. Blame it on the author. He only uses I trinsic drow abilities, and only until they are retconned out.
Keep in mind that drizzt is NOT an optimized character. In 1e, he was an elf with spell abilities and the 20 dex only drow could have.
He has no str mod,a nd was given weapon spec just so he could viably do damage. And a custom insta-kill ability totally outside the rules.
He comes across as awesome because he's anywhere from 6 to 10 levels higher then His companions.
In a real fight, Wulfgar, with his 1e 19 level str and that +5 hammer of his would have cleaned his clock.
Run the numbers. Drizzt simply is not a great pc. He's a storybook hero levels higher then everyone around him.
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While the character in question is a somewhat divisive trope, it's worth mentioning that despite having spells, Rangers are very seldom presented as actually using them, 'cause if you want to be a druid... be a druid.
I think it's mostly a flavor bit.
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His archetype trades spells for plot armor.
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Drizzt's official stats have him as a Fighter 10/Barbarian 1/Ranger 5.
Icing Death is a +3 frostbrand and Twinkle is a +2 Defender...
And when was this? Because he is a 15th level ranger in his very first stat block, and either 16th or 18th in Heroes of the Realms. By the time of 4e, he ks definitely epic.
And very precisely Twinkle is a +5 defender.
If those are 5e stats, that's fine, but those are definitely not the ones from earlier editions.
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And when was this? Because he is a 15th level ranger in his very first stat block, and either 16th or 18th in Heroes of the Realms. By the time of 4e, he ks definitely epic.
And very precisely Twinkle is a +5 defender.
If those are 5e stats, that's fine, but those are definitely not the ones from earlier editions.
Swashbucklerdc's stats come from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, a 3rd Edition book. Those are also the stats presented on the back of his D&D Minis stat card.
Link:
https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=fr/fx20010117d
Icingdeath had some weird powers in the original trilogy of novels, where it banishes balors on contact and grants Bruenor fire immunity.
nope. It is a frost brand.
It snuffs the balors fire aura on contact, because frost brands in 1e had a 50% chance of snuffing even magical flames on contact.
The wielder of the sword has fire resistance. And drizzt knew bruenor had survived the flaming fall into the pit because of it.
It was also +3,+6 against fire using or dwelling creatures. So, the balor got chopped into by a +6 weapon and had never felt such a sting!
So the blade was played awesomely and completely straight.
Lastly, 1e balors were an 8hd+8hp creature in 1e, not the cr 20 monstrosities of later editions. They died a LOT easier.
Then you have a ton of contradiction in stats. Drizzt is a novel character, not a pc, and had nothing like those stats in core,earlier writeups.
He was definitely a ranger with converted fighter levels that got to keep his weapon spec. His gear was also worth a 16th level character.
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I did not know all that. Thank you! ^_^
welcome. Drizzt started as a 1e character in 1984 or 1986, just after 1e Unearthed Arcana came out and let you play drow, who were the only race that could have 20 dex, and finally let elves be rangers up to 15th level. Enter drizzt, level 15 20 dex drow ranger.
The character has been rewritten for every edition since. If you do not know some of the changes in the game, you can easily be caught off guard by some of the events that take place. In 4e in particular, salvatore said he had an interesting time describing drizzt's fights using 4e powers.
And when was this? Because he is a 15th level ranger in his very first stat block, and either 16th or 18th in Heroes of the Realms. By the time of 4e, he ks definitely epic.
And very precisely Twinkle is a +5 defender.
If those are 5e stats, that's fine, but those are definitely not the ones from earlier editions.
actually, in his original write up it was a 1e character, and I believe he was actually 12th level. I have this book.
The next write up I have for him I think he was actually a 16th level character. I believe I still have this book somewhere too, but unsure where it is.
He is listed as having 5 attacks at that point, most likely because he has the bracers which give him that special ability instead of having 5/2 attacks if I recall.
In addition, once you get to 3e, he would get 4 attacks for his levels up to 16th martial, and then an extra for the bracers making 5 attacks.
In 3.5, haste and such was nerfed, which I believe means he only would get 4 attacks there, but I don't think he was updated for 3.5 (or was he, I don't think I have his official stats for 3.5).
In 4e, it's a totally different beast. He is statted as a monster and hence has like 700+ HP or something (not really so concerned as to actually look it up right now).
In 1e, he has base 2 at for ranger 15, +1/2 for weapon spec...and that is with each hand, so 5 attacks. In 1e, dual wielding literally doubled attacks.
Early 3e haste doubled attacks. That was hastily revised to +1 on a full attack for 3.5.
At 16th level, with the full twf tree, he would have 4 primary and 3 off hand attacks. The bracers would add 1.
I cannot fully remember a level 12 writeup, unless it was very bare bones, perhaps from the North gazetteer. Heroes of the FR had the full writeup, +5 dwarf-made elven chain and all.
Well, hmm...so it appears he went from 12th to 15th in 1e from what you say.
Maybe it was bumped in a later book.
The writeup for the 12th level I think was short and I thik is probably about a third to half a page.
I don't believe I have the one where he is 15th level.
I believe I used to have (might still have, would have to dig through my books to find it though) the one where he is 16th, I believe that started with 2e though.
I just found another book I have from 2e, apparently he wasn't always that 16th level in 2e either. I found in Forgotten Realms Hall of Heroes where he is statted as a 10th level Ranger. It has a 4 page write up and he gets 3 attacks per round in that one. Wisdom wasn't 17 with this one though, it was 16.He had some special snowflake things with his abilities in that as well. This is a really extensive write up of him (I didn't even remember having him in this book until today...), it's about a 4 page write up.
Still haven't found my other 2e write up on him. Digging in the books a little though. It appears he got downgraded from 1e to 2e from what you describe though (if he was 15th level, and then reduced to 10th...or maybe the two stats referred to different times of his growth?).
I think he is stated in the FRCS in 3e, but no idea if he was ever stated for 3.5 however.
On the haste rules...
Ah, I have been playing PF too long, must have misremembered the old 3e and 3.5 rules...aka...remembered them wrong. I thought it was 3e that had the +1 attack (or was it a partial action) and 3.5 that did away with that or changed that in some way..
Well, guess that means I've been looking at PF (which is more akin to how you describe the 3.5 rule) far too long, or at least long enough to forget more of how 3e and 3.5 did things in that spell.
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Also, if I recall correctly (and it's been a while since I read those books, for a weird reason*)...
Didn't he quickly stop using the bracers as bracers, since the quickness actually threw off his weapon attacks? If I recall, he put them on his legs (somehow) and used them to speed up his footwork instead.
You have the right of it. He put the bracers on his ankles and used them to improve his footwork.
Because his hands moving too fast is a problem, but his feet aren't.
Or something.
According to my 2E Heroes' Lorebook (1996) Drizz't is a 16th level ranger who follows Mielikki (with most of his prepared spells dealing with animals). No mention of his speed item, though he's got a frostbrand, a +5 defender, +4 mithril chain, and his panther figurine.
(He also has "two-handed fighting style from The Complete Fighter's Handbook" with his scimitars, giving him 5 attacks a round in a system where people normally cap out at 2. Which means he'd have 10 attacks a round with 2E haste, IIRC.)
His 3E write-up had been mentioned above, but he's fighter 10/barbarian 1/ranger 5, with weapon specialization (scimitar) and improved two-weapon fighting (and no speed item), so 6 attacks a round (though at pretty bad accuracy).
And yeah, he has a 4E write-up where he's statted out like a monster instead of a PC.
Depending on when that statblock was written, he probably punches like a kitten.
(4E monsters for a long time did pathetic damage + obnoxious status effect, rather than actually dealing decent damage. (My favorite example of this going to the like level 22ish great wyrm blue dragon who did like 1d6+6 and stun in an at-will AOE.) WotC eventually re-evaluated the damage scaling and adjusted monsters better around the time MM3 came out - probably a year or more after Drizz't's stat block. Elminster's the other Forgotten Realms NPC who got a monster statblock.)
I have no idea if he has a 5E statblock yet.
Kindly note that the 'bad' effect of those bracers is pure authorial gibberish, and in an actual game there would be no downside for wearing them. They are actually one of the most desirable devices a high level fighter could wear. Authorial fiat, I guess. They are an actual magic item, but I cannot remember the precise name.
I think Dantrag was statted up as a 17th level fighter in Menzoberranzan, along with several other high level drow fighters who ended up dying in the Drizzt books. I always find it amusing when a Fighter20 is written as an idiot relying on his girdle of giant str rather then as an awesomely skilled martial combatant.
And why is his chainmail +4?
Because in 1e, +4 armor was always made of mithral, and elven chain is made of mithral.
+5 objects had to be made of adamantine, impossible for elven chain. Note that the hammer Aegis-Fang has an adamantine head...and is +5.
+1 and +2 items could be made of fine steel. +3 items were special meteoric iron-derived steel. +4 had to be at least mithril steel. +5 was adamantine steel alloy, +6 was pure adamantine.
Some more 1e history from an old grognard.
They are an actual magic item, but I cannot remember the precise name.
Bracers of the Blinding Strike.
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R.A Salvatore has mentioned many times in his books that Drizzt is a ranger. In all the books I have read, he never used any spells associated with the ranger class. Why? This question has been nagging me for months.
.
Copyright and lack of Open Gaming License. It's a legal issue,
not a D&D issue. Well, yes it is a D&D issue. But, adults have to
follow rules even if your mom says it's ok.
.
Actually Drizz't does on occasion throughout the novels use magic, though it is always a quick one line, "get her cast" sort of casting. Unlike with Elminster or Khelban "Black Staff" Arunson, when Drizz't casts, it is not played up, thus they are easy to miss, and he uses less ranger magic in the more recent post 2007 novels then he does in the earlier books, which is still not much to begin with.
Real answer bout Drizz't and magic, Ed...err I mean Elminster prolly informed him bout the clause in his contract, about not upstaging ancient wizards with martial prowess :)
They are an actual magic item, but I cannot remember the precise name.Bracers of the Blinding Strike.
that's the one.
Maybe his Wisdom just sucks.
He has a Wisdom score roughly equivalent to that of a lemming.
Drizz'l Drizz't is basically a slayer, from what I understand.
You never saw him cast a healing spell, endure elements, talk to animals, tree walk, resist elements or do all the tons of stuff ranger magic could do.
Like, ever.
Or even pull out a cure wand. Eesh.
As I recall he uses entangle once in a great while, and I swear he at least twice casts cure light wounds on Gywnavar. I have not read the older books in a good 7-8 years, but I recall that happening.
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I've always assumed that R.A. Salvatore had about as much love for writing a gaming-compliant novel as Brent Spiner does for Star Trek, in other words, not much. I suspect he sees himself as fantasy author first and foremost and D+D merely a handy onramp to getting a hit book.
After all when he was at his height in popularity, the vast majority of whom were reading his books were not gamers.
That is a good point Drahliana.
Or even pull out a cure wand. Eesh.
Considering how wands worked in AD&D 1E and 2E, this is not surprising.
Honestly, the proliferation of wands from 3E and up has always rubbed me the wrong way, stylistically...
I've always assumed that R.A. Salvatore had about as much love for writing a gaming-compliant novel as Brent Spiner does for Star Trek, in other words, not much. I suspect he sees himself as fantasy author first and foremost and D+D merely a handy onramp to getting a hit book.
After all when he was at his height in popularity, the vast majority of whom were reading his books were not gamers.
i was a gamer before I started reading Salvatore's Drizzt novels, I still enjoy them and grab the new ones when they hit paperback
I stopped reading them after The Ghost King, which is literally the worst book I ever read.
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i was a gamer before I started reading Salvatore's Drizzt novels, I still enjoy them and grab the new ones when they hit paperbackI've always assumed that R.A. Salvatore had about as much love for writing a gaming-compliant novel as Brent Spiner does for Star Trek, in other words, not much. I suspect he sees himself as fantasy author first and foremost and D+D merely a handy onramp to getting a hit book.
After all when he was at his height in popularity, the vast majority of whom were reading his books were not gamers.
Yes, but gamers were not the reason that the Drizzt novels hit the NY Times Best Seller list, when they were riding high.
I stopped reading them after The Ghost King, which is literally the worst book I ever read.
try the Neverwinter trilogy, it is very interesting to see Drizzt work with a morally grey/evil party
Nope,
I will not be a part of that.
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Hey, careful about spoilers. There might be people here interested in reading that trilogy. Whatever it is.
I don't use that excuse.
I just don't believe anyone would want to read it. :-)
Nope, I heard they kill Bruenor, I will not be a part of that.
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Oh come on, I just added a spoiler!
Bad ass in the only way Bruenor Battlehammer does anything.
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Yes, yes every dwarf must die in combat, or of a heart attack, I forgot that (tired cliche) rule. :-)
Oh come on, I just added a spoiler!
i apologize, we posted at the same time