"Drizzt Is Not Stupid"

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NOTE: This topic concerns a modification for Tutu. That is why I have posted it here, even though its changes affect BG1 content.

Hello -

I know that seeing famous characters like Drizzt and the word "mod" used in the same sentence is normally enough to send people running for the hills, but even so...

I'm not much of a modder at heart, but there was one thing that always annoyed me dating back to my early days of lurking at SP reading Baldur's Gate threads. A large number of people were in the habit of making Drizzt their first stop so that they could cheese him and get his stuff. I always wished I could change that about the game, and so I have (for Tutu, anyway).

"Drizzt Is Not Stupid" is a *very* small-scale mod that seeks to make Drizzt more resistant to lamery without buffing him into a god or something like that. Of course, the very people that might like the idea of such a mod are the last people who actually need it, but even so...it makes me feel better to go about the game, ignoring this mod's small changes, knowing that if I *had* attacked Drizzt, it wouldn't have yielded anything good for me. If you feel the same way, you may read more about the mod or download it right here.

 

Admittedly this is kind of tangential to your post, and it might just be me, but man, I completely hate Drizzt. I don't even know why. I should probably reserve judgement without having actually read any of Salvatore's books, but something about him just rubs me the wrong way and I like to kill him, regardless of his loot and my PC's alignment.

 

Hello -

The mod isn't really designed to take away your freedom of choice in the game -- you are still welcome to attack Drizzt. It is designed more to protect Drizzt from common engine exploits, so that if you do force a confrontation, you'll have to participate in a fair fight.

 

I like Drizzt, but he's started an ANNOYING cliché among certain roleplaying servers in NwN. Good Drow. They're uber, ultra, massively rare, but they're everywhere on RP servers. It winds me up.

 

Well, to me there are two ways to kill Drizzit without putting your party members at high risk. While both are cheesy, one is at least reasonable, the other is completely unreasonable.

1. The more reasonable way is to surround him with so many summons that he can't possibly reach your characters, while everyone in the party pelts him with missile weapons. Yes, it's cheesy, but at least it's reasonable in the respect that if there are 12 wolves, 24 hobgoblins, and 24 gnolls between you and Drizzit, that Drizzit is necessarily going to have to kill a bunch of them before he reaches you. It's certainly not a very sporting way to kill Drizzit, but it's reasonable. However, this exploit is pretty much taken care of in TuTu, when the limit of 5 summon creatures is put in place.

2. The much less reasonable way to kill him is to use the sacrifice one character, and then have everyone else shoot arrows at him over the pond trick. That's total cheese.

If the mod just takes care of point #2, it will be successful IMO. If Drizzit is just smart enough to run around the pond and attack the party, the mod will accomplish it's function.

I have never tried killing Drizzit in TuTu, but with the summons limit, I think it would be much more difficult. It's probably not possible to be able to maintain enough summons on the screen before he'd start hacking up your characters. Basically, I'm saying that with a maximum of 5 summons on the screen at any time, Drizzit could likely kill them quicker than you can summon them.

 

Yeah, I think the good drow thing probably does it for me too. Or possibly the two-weapon thing. At least Viconia has no pretense of being good. Well, until TOB. Pfah.

 

On the other site this mod can also be looked upon as a tactical encounter. Now you would actually have to hink in order to beat the bugger, instead of making use of an exploit everyone knows about anyway.

 

Hello -

@Sir Farivald:

I almost made the mod only for my own use for this reason -- enough Drizzt and Drizzt-inspired characters! But as I mentioned above, de-exploiting Drizzt is something I've wanted to do for a long time, and I thought others might feel the same way.

@Aldeth:

I think you'd find this tactic unsatisfying, even without the summoning limit (which can be removed by a Tutufix component). Drizzt can slice and dice lesser summons so quickly that you'd literally have to devote a mage to resummoning as soon as he's able, once per round. That's expensive in terms of wand charges. And Drizzt only fights them to a point -- once he pares down the summons to a reasonable number, he favors party members as his target. Also, he isn't alone when he reappears.

No pond. He withdraws from the initial encounter, because he is too vulnerable alone and in the open. He will reappear later in the game in a location more favorable to exploit prevention.

@olimikrig:

While the mod was made in the spirit of not fighting him, this is certainly true. Most importantly, he will obey the rules of the game world if you do fight him. Just be wary -- a fair fight with a Drizzt whose abilities are grounded in reality still does not bode well for a BG1-level party.

 

Oh, it's certainly not satisfying - that's what I meant when I said it wasn't very sporting to kill him that way, but it's effective. What you describe is accurate, but without the limit it is possible to keep him surrounded with summons so he can't get to you. I have used this tactic in the past, and with a no-summon limit, I generally find myself burning through an entire wand of monster summoning when fighting him. So it costs me 5000 gp to kill him - not that much.

How does he currently not obey the game rules? My initial thinking would be 1.) He seems to do more damage with those scimitars than he should, and 2.) He's wielding two weapons (even in unmodded BG) when your characters aren't allowed to wield two.

 

@ Aldeth

As the readme in the link MacReady provided, he for one has 10 attacks/round, and a flat-rate 30 points bonus to damage.

@MacReady

Sure, but tutu introduces quite some new tactical possibilities through new spells and the likes. Furthermore with a removal of the xp cap (I don't remember whether tutu alters the xp cap), and if playing with TotSC one can reach fairly high levels.

 

So the mod also normalises his weapon damage and attacks per round?

Might give it a try when I finally succumb to Tutu. Certainly sounds more interesting than just exploiting his weak AI and slaying him at the pond, though I wonder at how much easier he'd be to fight with a lower overall fighting power. Maybe have him quaff a potion of storm giant strength to compensate for his lowered damage, or a potion of speed to double his attacks, or something.

Also the dialog seems very Drizzt-esque.

Edit: Another slight tangent, sorry; I don't think he does have 10 attacks per round in his unedited state. The engine interprets attack per round integers higher than 5 a little unusually - 6 is actually 1/2 attack per round, 7 is 3/2, 10 would be 9/2.

[ January 31, 2006, 17:32: Message edited by: Prine ]

 

Hello -

@Aldeth:

True...but he is no longer alone, either. That would complicate the all-summons approach. Further, I think you'd find that a successful implementation of the strategy (i.e., if you neutralized the other threats) would still not result in the death of Drizzt.

In his unmodified state, he has ten attacks a round, and every time he hits you you must make a save or suffer an extra 30 points of damage. His attacks have been reduced to a number appropriate for a ranger of his level, and the extra damage thrown out entirely. He is still very lethal, though.

Also, since this is for Tutu (BG2 engine), players are allowed to dual wield.

@olimikrig:

True enough. In the end, the goal is to make him less exploitable, but not invincible.

 

I've read Salvatore, and you and everyone else in the world are right to hate the character.

You're right about that. With all due respect, it's pretty obvious by now that BIO put Drizzt in the game for exactly the purpose that so many "cheesers" have used him for, or BIO would've have made one of his scimitars stealable, and they wouldn't have made him drop both scims and his mithril chain mail when killed.

 

Hello -

Nonsequitur.

Obviously they anticipated his being killed by some, but it hardly follows that having everyone kill him was their intent.

Anyway, the mod doesn't prevent hostility. It aims to smarten Drizzt up a bit so that his poor AI doesn't allow him to be taken advantage of so easily.

 

Yeah, I doubt his being killed by the player was necessarily the developer's intent. But it's an RPG, so you have to have the option to kill him and pillage his corpse!