Why Does Drizzt,Irenicus, and Artemis Entreri only have a strength of 13?

concluder1 · Post by **concluder1** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 9:03 am

I find that it is a little strange that Drizzt, Irenicus, And Artemis Entreri only have a strength of 13.I Know that they are elves, but it just sems a little low. Why do you think this is?

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 9:25 am

I don't quite remember where Entreri shows up. Could you remind me plz?

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 9:37 am

Doesn't

Magior · Post by **Magior** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 9:43 am

Johnny, Entreri is not in the game, he's in a crappy series of fantasy books written by R.A. Salvatore. I've read them all. Shame on me.

Concluder, Entreri is not an elf. And why all of them have strength 13? Drizzt and Artemis are some of the best warriors in the realms because they cannot be hit because of their dual-wielding skill, very light armor and superb dexterity. Irenicus is a mage, so why should his str be any higher?

concluder1 · Post by **concluder1** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 12:40 pm

I was just saying that Mazzy, Jaheira have strength of 15, Nalia has a strength of 14, I was just saying that Drizzt and Artemis, and Irenicus strength seem low.

Tram:
I never read the books, but someone had posted stats on Artemis, and stated that he was an Elf, and could be brought in by
CLUAconsole:CreateCreature("artemis") and he will come out of the shadows and kick your the crap out of you.

Classic · Post by **Classic** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 1:07 pm

I guess they were just born that way!!

No, seriously. The mentioned characters are based on the pnp version of ad&d and frankly, everything about baldurs gate has been exagerated quite a bit. I mean, how many clerics or mages should be running around with way above average (8) strength. In SOA and probably TOB (havent played it) a party of six has the accumulated magic items of tens if not hundreds of standard ad&d parties at their disposal. I realize the programmers had to satisfy every odd party constelation but the game balance is bordering the ridiculous (BG1 was bad enough by itself).

The point is for this kind of game their stats should have been improved but for a standard game they are just very high level npcs´ and very powerful because of their high experience and great skill, not their tremendous strenght.

Artemis "should" be a great challenge, even for the mortal son of a god!

Silvanerian · Post by **Silvanerian** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 1:11 pm

Hey Classic (Tuborg, måske...?) hvor i kbh er du fra? Spiller du stadig? PnP altså. Jeg selv er fra Albertslund.

-Silvanerian

Disco Stew · Post by **Disco Stew** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 1:45 pm

Where'd you get the stats for Drizzt?

concluder1 · Post by **concluder1** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 2:00 pm

Disco Stew:

the website is http:/members.nbci.com/drowranger/

Nayl · Post by **Nayl** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 3:50 pm

Artemis is human, but he was Drizzt's equal in battle. It makes sense that his str would be the same as Drizzt. However, it was hinted that he was higher level than Drizzt (only way to make up for Drizzt's insane Dex).

I agree that other mages would/should have "normal" str. 13 is even a little on the high side but doesn't confer bonuses, so for BG/BG2 purposes, who cares?

As for the RA Salvatore series being 'crappy' it didn't start out that way. In fact, the first 6-8 books are a very fun read. The last few have been predictable, boring, and quite lame. If you want to know more about Drizzt, read the first trilogy. If you want to know about Artemis Entreri, read the second series, the Realms of Infamy, and one other... can't remember.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 5:30 pm

Irenicus looks pretty muscular for an Elven Mage...

Originally posted by tram:
<STRONG>Drizzt and Artemis are some of the best warriors in the realms because they cannot be hit because of their dual-wielding skill, very light armor and superb dexterity.</STRONG>

Superb Dex, OK, but how do dual-wielding and light armor make you harder to hit? I thought (with the way D&D works) shields and heavy armor were the way to go if you want to be the Human Wall.

Nayl · Post by **Nayl** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 5:43 pm

Even in D&D, light armor (read magical) provides superior protection without encumbering movement. If you read the advanced 2nd rules and 3rd too I think, normal plate caps your dex so you basically don't get a dex adjustment for AC.

Having magical leather or elven chain is much better (especially when you have an elf's racial max dex) for being harder to hit.

For D&D rules, yes, shield or spec in single weapon is better but for story-telling, dual weapons is why Drizzt is feared.

Magior · Post by **Magior** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 11:24 pm

Nayl, the first trilogy (Dark Elf) might *just* be worth reading. The rest of the series, especially the Icewind Dale trilogy, is simple, predictable and devoid of all thought. It's mind-numbing entertainment. Which is definitely not what I'm looking for in a good book.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Tue Sep 11, 2001 3:25 am

Originally posted by Nayl:
<STRONG>Even in D&D, light armor (read magical) provides superior protection without encumbering movement. If you read the advanced 2nd rules and 3rd too I think, normal plate caps your dex so you basically don't get a dex adjustment for AC.</STRONG>

Ah, yes, AD&D does have some funny rules that give you a Dex penalty for heavy armor, but that penalty does not apply for AC purposes!

That would make heavy armor slightly redundant. This is in D&D3.

Classic · Post by **Classic** » Tue Sep 11, 2001 8:48 am

Nope, no AC penalty for heavy armor in 2´nd edition either.

With various proficieny rules you can be pretty hard to hit even without armor. With dual-wielding you have more attacks to use for blocking/parrying. This is not implemented in the computergames but in pnp you can direct an attack towads an enemy´s attack. If you hit some odd calculation (can´t remember) you have parried his blow. Hence more attacks - more parries!

In any case, Drizzt and Artemis are powerful in the books ´cause they are capable of parrying attacks. This is not how ad&d works, so they don´t translate too well to the game.

Silvanerian: Jeg sidder i centrum og drikker tuborg! Nej jeg er sgu blevet lidt for gammel (28) til pnp. Jeg var DM men jeg har ikke tid mere pga. studie og fuldtidsjob.

Silvanerian · Post by **Silvanerian** » Tue Sep 11, 2001 1:54 pm

Classic: Hehe, skål, så! Jeg spiller nu heller ikke mere - studie og sådan. Men øl drikker jeg da stadig!

PS: I don'tr know if it was my DMs "homemade" rules, but when I was playing you could use an attack or so to get +2 to AC. It's been a couple of years now, so I don't remember the specifics. But we were all pretty low level (5th or so) and therefore we didn't use this rule much.

-Silvanerian

Nayl · Post by **Nayl** » Tue Sep 11, 2001 2:28 pm

I'm almost certain that Fighter's Handbook 2nd ed. has the rules I'm talking about. I don't have them here, but I remember the tables quite well.

If you didn't like Icewind Dale, you didn't like it. It's such an easy read, and the books can be found used, I wouldn't tell someone it's not "worth" reading.

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Wed Sep 12, 2001 5:35 pm

On Salvatore's books: some are quite good, some are bad. The best ones (IMHO) are Streams of Silver, the Dark Elf Trilogy, and Servant of the Shard.