Something I feel a lot of people forgets is that Drizzt was created during the time of AD&D to AD&D 2E where around that time Ranger was a Fighter Subclass and Ranger back then was more about Scouting and Hunting than the whole nature connection.
From reading the books at first I was skeptical about him being a Ranger because he seemed like a Fighter but at this time Ranger was just a modified Fighter and after Drizzt graduated from the Fighting School and specifically when he left the Drow I started seeing him more as a Ranger.
Drizzt is a master swordsman and knowledgable in combat during his time in Fighter School, but he was also a patrol scout that hunted and protected his town like the original 1e Rangers. After his exile he becomes more of a ranger, he learned the terrain of the underdark, learned where to hunt for food, raised cattle, even a character said at one point (I can't remember the exact quote) "He is beyond Lolth's control, on the outside it is his domain." He then learned to be more of a ranger under Mooshie, less magical but more practical. You can throw in Barbarian if you'd like for his anger but Drizzt is definitely a dexterity fighter and not a strength one.
This is the same situation as Aragon from LotR, the original 1e D&D Ranger WAS LITERALLY BASED of Aragorn FROM THE BOOKS NOT THE MOVIES. The movies did not exist when D&D 1e came out, so Aragorn is a Ranger. But due to 5e being drastically different from 1e, he's a mixture of both.
I think Drizzt was the staple D&D Ranger of 1988 during 1e, 34 years ago a year before 2e came out. Drizzt is a Fighter and Ranger multiclass, same as Aragorn.
The second Drizzt was stated out in an official product was after the dark elf trilogy and he was written as a former 18th level who trained as a ranger and lost two levels to become a 16th level ranger. You can't dual class in the same class group (this is second edition and fighters and rangers are both in the warrior class group). Mind nonhumans couldn't dual class at all. Ra Salvatore wrote this product and I think he did both to match Drizzt's origin in Exile in book 1 Homeland and game mechanics so Drizzt could specialize in Scimitars,because only single class fighters can use weapon speculation in second edition. The funny thing is Drizzt's wasn't originally specialized with Scimitars in hall of heroes which is where he is first stated out in first edition when rangers could specialize in a weapon. He never uses ranger magic in the book
s but has used animal empathy in Sojourn, maybe others. If I where to attempt to stat him out I would say go with fighter and make sure he has wilderness skills and maybe a small ranger dip even.
Well, even if there are no rules for a figurine of wonderous power being used in the way that Drizzt uses Guen, the books mention that Guen is unlike other similar figurines of wonderous power, since the figurine summons Guen and doesn't transform into her. Furthermore, there is currently no stat block for a panther as large and strong as Guen. The books mention "600 pounds of panther" numerous times, but the largest real-world panther was about 300 pounds.
As for Drizzt's class, he'd probably have most levels as a fighter, with at least one level as a ranger. However, if he did have more levels as a ranger, he'd probably have the hunter archetype so he can use the whirlwind attack action. Maybe he has a level or two as a monk since his training with Kane.
He doesn’t have any level 20 ranger abilities he’s a fighter monk
Tamahawk
Something I feel a lot of people forgets is that Drizzt was created during the time of AD&D to AD&D 2E where around that time Ranger was a Fighter Subclass and Ranger back then was more about Scouting and Hunting than the whole nature connection.
From reading the books at first I was skeptical about him being a Ranger because he seemed like a Fighter but at this time Ranger was just a modified Fighter and after Drizzt graduated from the Fighting School and specifically when he left the Drow I started seeing him more as a Ranger.
Drizzt is a master swordsman and knowledgable in combat during his time in Fighter School, but he was also a patrol scout that hunted and protected his town like the original 1e Rangers. After his exile he becomes more of a ranger, he learned the terrain of the underdark, learned where to hunt for food, raised cattle, even a character said at one point (I can't remember the exact quote) "He is beyond Lolth's control, on the outside it is his domain." He then learned to be more of a ranger under Mooshie, less magical but more practical. You can throw in Barbarian if you'd like for his anger but Drizzt is definitely a dexterity fighter and not a strength one.
This is the same situation as Aragon from LotR, the original 1e D&D Ranger WAS LITERALLY BASED of Aragorn FROM THE BOOKS NOT THE MOVIES. The movies did not exist when D&D 1e came out, so Aragorn is a Ranger. But due to 5e being drastically different from 1e, he's a mixture of both.
I think Drizzt was the staple D&D Ranger of 1988 during 1e, 34 years ago a year before 2e came out. Drizzt is a Fighter and Ranger multiclass, same as Aragorn.
The second Drizzt was stated out in an official product was after the dark elf trilogy and he was written as a former 18th level who trained as a ranger and lost two levels to become a 16th level ranger. You can't dual class in the same class group (this is second edition and fighters and rangers are both in the warrior class group). Mind nonhumans couldn't dual class at all. Ra Salvatore wrote this product and I think he did both to match Drizzt's origin in Exile in book 1 Homeland and game mechanics so Drizzt could specialize in Scimitars,because only single class fighters can use weapon speculation in second edition. The funny thing is Drizzt's wasn't originally specialized with Scimitars in hall of heroes which is where he is first stated out in first edition when rangers could specialize in a weapon. He never uses ranger magic in the book
s but has used animal empathy in Sojourn, maybe others. If I where to attempt to stat him out I would say go with fighter and make sure he has wilderness skills and maybe a small ranger dip even.
Well, even if there are no rules for a figurine of wonderous power being used in the way that Drizzt uses Guen, the books mention that Guen is unlike other similar figurines of wonderous power, since the figurine summons Guen and doesn't transform into her. Furthermore, there is currently no stat block for a panther as large and strong as Guen. The books mention "600 pounds of panther" numerous times, but the largest real-world panther was about 300 pounds.
As for Drizzt's class, he'd probably have most levels as a fighter, with at least one level as a ranger. However, if he did have more levels as a ranger, he'd probably have the hunter archetype so he can use the whirlwind attack action. Maybe he has a level or two as a monk since his training with Kane.