The Official Unofficial Drizzt build

[Bosco]

Before I post this build just want to let everyone know that I am aware of the official stats of Drizzt Do'Urden

The latest version can be seen here
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=fr/fx20010117d

Here is the 3.0 version
http://www.wizards.com/forgottenrealms/FR_3E_Drizzt.asp

Disclaimer: Each of these were an interpretation of Drizzt from Salvatore's novels. I am not claiming to be the officianado of all things that pertain to Drizzt. I am not the high order of Drizzt cults or the end all be all to every knowledable Drizzt fan out there. I have read several of his books more then 8 but less then them all. I enjoyed the books. I did not name my toon Drizzt, Thefashizzdrizzt, Drizztorama, Drizzit, Drizzle Do'Izzle. Although Drizzle Do'Izzle does sound cool or even have the last name of Do'Urden.

I do not dream of Drizzt. And although I enjoy the books, I do not claim that this toon is the end all be all to Drizzt builds. I think it's close though. I am having a blast playing it and feel obligated to share it. Mainly because it's not really my creation but an inspired interpretation from the books I love.

I have yet to eat a tome on this toon. But with some imagination, I am sure everyone can figure out where the best places to drop those lovely +1, +2, and +3 tomes.

I am not trying to match the official stats nor would I want to. I do not believe it would play well to DDO. But if Drizzt was magically teleported to Eberron in DDO land. What would he look like?


Drow Chaotic Good
Starting stats

Str 16
Dex 17
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 8
Cha 10

6 Ranger, 6 Barb, 4 Fighter

So why only 6 ranger?

Well, Drizzt only trained with Montolio for a brief time. This is in no way claiming Drizzt gave up his ways of being a Ranger. But he did go back to his Barbaric ways after Montolio which is noted below.

Why 4 Fighter?

Drizzt originally trained under his Father, Zaknafein as a Fighter. And I wanted the extra feats hehe.

Why 6 Barb?

When drizzt spent living alone in the wilds of the Underdark he possessed a rage which was referred to as "The Hunter". He turned into this once again when he thought his freinds were killed. Besides that point, who really only wants one level of Rage?

So how does this all work out?

No idea I am only level 4 at the moment. But can outline what I have done so far and where I see the level progression.

Level 1 Barbarian Feat: Dodge At this point nothing special here just kill stuff and get to level 3 asap.
Level 2 Ranger
Level 3 Ranger Feat: Two Weapon Fighting, Oversized Two Weapon
Level 4 Fighter Feat: Mobility
Level 5 Ranger
Level 6 Ranger Feat: Spring Attack
Level 7 Ranger
Level 8 Ranger
Level 9 Barbarian Feat:Improved Critical Slashing
Level 10 Barbarian
Level 11 Barbarian
Level 12 Fighter Feat: Power Attack, Toughness
Level 13 Barbarian
Level 14 Fighter
Level 15 Fighter Feat: Stunning Blow, Toughness, or x2 Toughness not sure on that yet
Level 16 Barbarian

This isn't the correct timeline for leveling but I wanted my toon to feel as much like Drizzt as quickly as possible.

Enhancements

I havent worked it all out yet but the biggies are Tempest, the Improved Crit range with Barbs at level 6, plus 1 Str from Fighters, plus 2 con from Barb and plus 4 Dex from Drow and Ranger, and of course spell resistance.

So what will be the final stats?

No idea. I am not big on taking the time to write down what equip to get and number crunching to see where all my stats will be at. If someone wants to take the time to do that, I would love to see it.

Further Disclaimer: For the love that is all good in the world do not name your toon Drizzt or any variation of it. You will be hunted down by haters and you will most likely delete your toon from all the spam you get. Just create a name nothing like it and enjoy playing a Drizzt like toon.

Anticipated Questions and Remarks-

Q Why not just make an Elf use rapiers and a 32 point build? It would be much better.

A Yes it would. Go make an Elf

Q Why not just make a Dwarf and use axes and a 32 point build? It would be much better.

A. Yes it would. Go make a Dwarf

[Anastasios]

Enough with the Drizz, we want Artemis already...

pretty neat though thanx for sharing.

[Original]

Looks good and I like how scimitars look, hope it works out and keep us informed.

[Rothos]

Question, wouldn't Drizzt use Combat Expertise instead of Power Attack?

[Twerpp]

Enough with the Drizz, we want Artemis already...

pretty neat though thanx for sharing.

I would totally build that but male humans look so ******** in their TWF stance. Just no style to it at all very awkward looking.

[valczir]

Personally, I prefer Jarlaxle. Drizzt became far too good (as in alignment), in the end, and I got as sick of him as Salvatore did (he mentioned that he wanted to retire Drizzt after the Dark Elf Trilogy, but got too much fan mail and ended up having to start up the Drizzt stories again - something that seemed apparent in his writing style after those books, to me). Jarlaxle was just more interesting. He was so curious about people that he was willing to give up a great deal of wealth just to understand them. He was like a cat, viewing everyone else as mice.

At the same time, I am strongly against building characters from other people's books, so I wouldn't ever bother to make a Jarlaxle-esque character. I'll stick with my own creations, with their own backgrounds. Ones which are far too long to even hold my attention, let alone anyone else. =P

[query]

figured out how he progresses to L 20 yet?

[lastprophet]

erggg. if anyone has read any of the d&d fan fiction you will see something very quickly, there are two schools of writers. there are those that are gifted writers and just use a background setting to weave together an interesting tale of heroes/villians and their deeds. The other is the group who are obviously dnd fans wanted to write some fan fiction and try pitifully to incorporate true dnd rules or close to it into their books. these books are bad. pnp and ddo rules do not translate well to fiction at all.
I would highly highly suggest for anyone to avoid trying to make a ddo character based on a book character. you will just look silly and make everyone around you who has read the book want to cry in frustration.
that being said you can blame wotc for trying to shamelessly exploit salvatores success as a writer by shoving drizzt down everyones throats as a shining example of everything good that is dnd. no character you can build in either pnp or ddo will ever be close to the reality that is the salvatore vision.
that being said, salvatore is obviously bored out of his skull and just getting on the easy money train as the past few books have just been pitiful.
i applaud your attempt to try something new for you, but.... yeah

[LeCutter]

Well if Turbine ever decides to go with a 97 point build character you can certainly roll up Drizzt at that point. Personally I hate the wuss with the scimitars, and Elminster and all these other virtual gods who no matter what happens always come triumph in the end. I like characters who are flawed and have a moral ambivilance about them. Martin's Fire & Ice, now that's good fantasy...all manner of people die, those you like and dislike equally are quite, quite mortal.

[SteeleTrueheart]

Greater Two weapon fighting at level 15 perhaps?

[baddax]

Drizzit was not a barbarian sry.
A fighter/ ranger yes. barbarian No.

[bandyman1]

Drizzit was not a barbarian sry.
A fighter/ ranger yes. barbarian No.

Actually Drizzt absolutely has barbarian.

It's how they've explained the " hunter " part of his pysche. That's his rage .

[baddax]

just looked it up on the WOTC website and it definitely has him as 10 fighter, 1 barbarian and 5 ranger. Its been many years since ive read the books but i just dont remember him flying into any rages.

He is also obviously Gimp as he doesnt have Greater Two Weapon Fighting.

[Aesop]

just looked it up on the WOTC website and it definitely has him as 10 fighter, 1 barbarian and 5 ranger. Its been many years since ive read the books but i just dont remember him flying into any rages.

He is also obviously Gimp as he doesnt have Greater Two Weapon Fighting.

Its also obviously a 3.0 not 3.5 build as it includes Ambidexterity

[Uska]

How about coming up with one of the heros from the world we play in and not something by that hack RS

[silverraven]

I would hope that all these wonderful responses have taught you why mimicry of characters is a huge no-no. I tried with Phauraun Mizzrym from the War of the Spider Queen and while I had fun with him I have since started a reroll.

You can never capture a literary character in D&D of any version because writers use too much artistic license.

[Aerendil]

just looked it up on the WOTC website and it definitely has him as 10 fighter, 1 barbarian and 5 ranger. Its been many years since ive read the books but i just dont remember him flying into any rages.

That's about as close as one can possibly get to encapsulating Drizzt on paper. I think I once saw stats of him as something like an 11 fighter, 1 barbarian, 3 ranger, which is also a fair representation. He spent many years as a fighter in Melee Magthere in Menzoberranzan; a few short years wandering the Underdark in which he was partially a barbarian, focusing purely on instinct ("the hunter" aspect, hence the eventual "Hunter's Blades" trilogy); and finally a few years above ground with Montolio (it should also be noted that Drizzt has never demonstrated the capacity to cast a Ranger spell in RAS's novels).

That said, Salvatore writes how he wants to write, and doesn't necessarily feel as though he should conform to WoTC's D&D "rules", per se. His creation of a Drow Ranger, for example, is one such break from the norm, but many of his characters are hard to translate to pen and paper. Drizzt's ever-evolving statistics in D&D are one such example of how hard it is to convert a Salvatore character to PnP (ever try Jarlaxle? That one is impossible).

The other issue is that DDO is horribly, horribly overpowered. And while Drizzt's stats aren't exactly gimped for PnP by any means, they're not optimal for DDO at all, and so I don't feel it necessary to try to stick to the official stats in any way. There's only so much you can accomplish in DDO with a 13STR, non-Power Attack melee character, after all.

Make a Drow. Take some levels of Fighter and Ranger (and possibly Barbarian). Wield scimitars. There you go.
The rest is up to you

Blades high!

[bandyman1]

How about coming up with one of the heros from the world we play in and not something by that hack RS

When you've sold as many books as RS, you'll be completely justified in calling him a hack. Till then; I'm saying you are .

And when any one of the books set in Ebberon has sold as many copies as any of RS's books featuring Drizzt, maybe we'll consider discussing the hero of that work .

[revealingdarknes]

Go Song of Ice and Fire!

[Scree]

You know, for DDO purposes, it would seem that the Rouge would fit better than Barbarian in a "Drizzt" build considering the skills that would benefit. Consider the Tumble ability to go along with mobility. From what I have seen, Tumble is a cross-trained skill in all three of the "standard" Drizzt build classes.

I have attempted recreating Drizzt based on what I've learned about him and even though Rage can be somewhat helpful, I rarely ever use it. A level 1 Rage ability just isnt that great, to be honest. I think in actuality, i should reroll him as an elf with 32 point build and include my classes as Fighter/Ranger/Rogue. If i want to use rage, well, i have a ring of rage on another char that i can transfer. :P

What do you guys think?