We all know that Drizzt isn't a 5E ranger...right? We all know that he is a drow trained as a fighter. We all know that Drizzt isn't a beast master and Guenhwyvar is a very rare magic item and not just a panther...right?
We all know that Drizzt isn't a 5E ranger...right? We all know that he is a drow trained as a fighter. We all know that Drizzt isn't a beast master and Guenhwyvar is a very rare magic item and not just a panther...right?
Anyway, would Guenhwyvar be? A giant panther?
Perhaps a standard panther stat block than add on the sidekick rules from Tasha's? Perhaps the warrior option?
We all know that Drizzt isn't a 5E ranger...right? We all know that he is a drow trained as a fighter. We all know that Drizzt isn't a beast master and Guenhwyvar is a very rare magic item and not just a panther...right?
Anyway, would Guenhwyvar be? A giant panther?
Drizzt was trained as a fighter in Menzoberranzan and just kept getting better at it, but he legit picked up some ranger levels while getting into Mielikki's religion as part of wooing a girl. In his defense, she was pretty great.
You can tag magic items and monsters as per this post:
Guen's statue was canonically onyx, so a normal panther makes sense as a starting point, since that's so similar to 5E's onyx mastiff, but she had a healthy dose of homebrew going on. E.g. she wasn't the statue - her creation process had some things go.... ah... "sideways" during production. So she's not like other figurines of wondrous power: she's a bona fide creature from the Astral Plane the statue summons. When she goes away, she doesn't turn back into the statue, she goes home. The statue's basically a beacon. The difference has come up, because her metabolism is much weirder than normal figuring animals - e.g. if you made her statblock she'd have resistance to poison damage and the poisoned condition, and you'd need to dial up her hit points (I forget the exact limits of her physical resilience, but the fact that you're not hitting her real body makes her much harder to kill than normal figurines). She's also not enslaved by her summoner, like with normal figurines - she's akin to an actual animal you have to actually befriend. And she's radically smarter than a standard panther.
I wouldn't use the stock sidekick rules, I'd manually homebrew her from a panther as a baseline. E.g. I'd manually set her Intelligence score to probably 6.
We all know that Drizzt isn't a 5E ranger...right? We all know that he is a drow trained as a fighter. We all know that Drizzt isn't a beast master and Guenhwyvar is a very rare magic item and not just a panther...right?
Anyway, would Guenhwyvar be? A giant panther?
He likely wouldn't be a monoclassed ranger, despite being one in AD&D and in Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. He was Fighter 10/Ranger 5/Barbarian 1 in 3.5 and a Skirmisher in 4E.
Chris Perkins stated him up as an 8th-level Champion Fighter. Not all interesting to me, but it is what it is. I'd probably design him far differently. But I digress, Perkins had Guenhwyvar as a saber-toothed tiger.
Remember, in AD&D ranger was a subclass of fighter so you could make that change fairly easily (they also didn’t get spell use til late tier 2 tier 3 so that explains his lack of spell use) while Gwen may have been described as a panther I’ve always seen him as more of a leap arm or jaguar with a dark coat and using the lion stat might be best for him.
Guenhwyvar comes from a special version of a figurine of wondrous power. She is summoned from the Astral Plain to the Prime Material Plain, for a period of time. She is not strictly a Ranger companion creature even if there are descriptions of her being referred to as such for Drizzt, therefore she does not necessarily share statistics with those creatures available as Ranger companions. She can exist for anyone else who owns the item, though she is pickier than most and chooses Drizzt as her preferred companion, even disobeying him at times.
The previous owner of the magical item was most certainly nothing close to a Ranger, lol.
As far as stats go, a Black Panther weighing in at 600+ lbs. would certainly fit the requisite size increase to Giant Black Panther status, methinks. Though that's work for the DM to appropriately balance it out.
as far as I read (the first 6 or so books) Guenhwyvar fought nearly toe to toe with a stone giant, a cave fisher, nearly one shotted a decently high level Drow wizard, and was capable of plowing through an entire camp of Illithids and their thralls to save Driz'zt. I think that she would likely waaaay stronger than a regular panther, like maybe something CR 6 or 7 and large sized.
as far as I read (the first 6 or so books) Guenhwyvar fought nearly toe to toe with a stone giant, a cave fisher, nearly one shotted a decently high level Drow wizard, and was capable of plowing through an entire camp of Illithids and their thralls to save Driz'zt. I think that she would likely waaaay stronger than a regular panther, like maybe something CR 6 or 7 and large sized.
That's the problem with using fiction to stat a character in a game. No way that one Drow plus one panther (unless at least one of them is practically a demi-god) goes through an entire Illithid lair and both make it out alive. They clearly had the very best protection: Plot Armor.
Drizzt is most definitely a Battle Master fighter first, with the training received from Zaknafein and Melee Magthere. If I had to guess at his Ranger Subclass, it would, and only could be, The Hunter. Which is Drizzt's primal instinct alter ego when he lived in the underdark, Something he doesn't learn to control until The Hunter's Blades trilogy, if I'm not mistaken. Regardless of his training with Montolio in Mooshie's Grove, Drizzt was already on his own path to Mielikki and being a ranger, which started when Drizzt went to the surface the very first time. Mooshie just gave him the substance.
As for Guenhwyvar, they are very much an Astral being. Literally the cosmic embodiment of the panther. It'd be akin to summoning an IRL embodiment of the constellation Leo or Ursa Major. Big stat block lol. But they can only manifest for a 6 hour period every other day. Nothing can kill them, as their body is not from this plane. Any damage that would kill them simply sends them back to the Astral Plane through the figurine. Also, if someone brings the figurine to the astral plane, they're basically the god of summoning astral panthers. Regis does this once. Guenhwyvar is told to kill Regis, and she acts like it up to the pounce. When she lands, she starts to take Regis with her, and he grabs the figurine on the way through the portal, and later returns, having cast Flock of Astral Familiars. So... definitely a Legendary Wondrous Figurine.
There was also the Time of Troubles, where magic went ****y and the gods stopped godding for a while. Drizzt sent Guen back home, but the figurine got hot and opened up a portal of fire instead of the astral gateway. I forget who breaks the figurine, probably Bruenor, but they do, and Guen gets stuck for like, a week. They basically became a 600lbs panther paper weight due to entropy from not being able to go home. Lady Alustriel eventually put together a magic poultice to mend the statue. Even she wasn't sure that it would work. So, long story short. They can be killed, but it's like killing a god.
Most of this information can be pieced together throughout the entirety of Exile, which is the second book in the Menzoberranzan trilogy.
Cattie Brie used Cutter to slice through the statue and that’s also why it was able to be fixed because the cut was clean and magical. But I had view Drizzt build the exact same way. Battle master fighter and hunter ranger specifically in horde breaker. Then with the newer editions he’d have several levels in monk. I’m no expert in monk but I believe it’d be way of the astral self.
Drizzt was the one who sliced through the statue, and he used Twinkle to do it. Cutter wasn't introduced until much later (both in and out of universe).
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
We all know that Drizzt isn't a 5E ranger...right? We all know that he is a drow trained as a fighter. We all know that Drizzt isn't a beast master and Guenhwyvar is a very rare magic item and not just a panther...right?
Anyway, would Guenhwyvar be? A giant panther?
Perhaps a standard panther stat block than add on the sidekick rules from Tasha's? Perhaps the warrior option?
Drizzt was trained as a fighter in Menzoberranzan and just kept getting better at it, but he legit picked up some ranger levels while getting into Mielikki's religion as part of wooing a girl. In his defense, she was pretty great.
You can tag magic items and monsters as per this post:
This is a panther.
This is a magic statue.
Guen's statue was canonically onyx, so a normal panther makes sense as a starting point, since that's so similar to 5E's onyx mastiff, but she had a healthy dose of homebrew going on. E.g. she wasn't the statue - her creation process had some things go.... ah... "sideways" during production. So she's not like other figurines of wondrous power: she's a bona fide creature from the Astral Plane the statue summons. When she goes away, she doesn't turn back into the statue, she goes home. The statue's basically a beacon. The difference has come up, because her metabolism is much weirder than normal figuring animals - e.g. if you made her statblock she'd have resistance to poison damage and the poisoned condition, and you'd need to dial up her hit points (I forget the exact limits of her physical resilience, but the fact that you're not hitting her real body makes her much harder to kill than normal figurines). She's also not enslaved by her summoner, like with normal figurines - she's akin to an actual animal you have to actually befriend. And she's radically smarter than a standard panther.
I wouldn't use the stock sidekick rules, I'd manually homebrew her from a panther as a baseline. E.g. I'd manually set her Intelligence score to probably 6.
To be fair to Drizzt, I’m only half way through Homeland. LOL!
He likely wouldn't be a monoclassed ranger, despite being one in AD&D and in Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. He was Fighter 10/Ranger 5/Barbarian 1 in 3.5 and a Skirmisher in 4E.
Chris Perkins stated him up as an 8th-level Champion Fighter. Not all interesting to me, but it is what it is. I'd probably design him far differently. But I digress, Perkins had Guenhwyvar as a saber-toothed tiger.
He became a ranger training with Molvolo. That's also where he picked up that god.
Remember, in AD&D ranger was a subclass of fighter so you could make that change fairly easily (they also didn’t get spell use til late tier 2 tier 3 so that explains his lack of spell use) while Gwen may have been described as a panther I’ve always seen him as more of a leap arm or jaguar with a dark coat and using the lion stat might be best for him.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
He could definitely be a basic Beastmaster under new TCoE rules today and the Panther as a Beast of the Land.
Guenhwyvar comes from a special version of a figurine of wondrous power. She is summoned from the Astral Plain to the Prime Material Plain, for a period of time. She is not strictly a Ranger companion creature even if there are descriptions of her being referred to as such for Drizzt, therefore she does not necessarily share statistics with those creatures available as Ranger companions. She can exist for anyone else who owns the item, though she is pickier than most and chooses Drizzt as her preferred companion, even disobeying him at times.
The previous owner of the magical item was most certainly nothing close to a Ranger, lol.
As far as stats go, a Black Panther weighing in at 600+ lbs. would certainly fit the requisite size increase to Giant Black Panther status, methinks. Though that's work for the DM to appropriately balance it out.
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That would work super well.
as far as I read (the first 6 or so books) Guenhwyvar fought nearly toe to toe with a stone giant, a cave fisher, nearly one shotted a decently high level Drow wizard, and was capable of plowing through an entire camp of Illithids and their thralls to save Driz'zt. I think that she would likely waaaay stronger than a regular panther, like maybe something CR 6 or 7 and large sized.
That's the problem with using fiction to stat a character in a game. No way that one Drow plus one panther (unless at least one of them is practically a demi-god) goes through an entire Illithid lair and both make it out alive. They clearly had the very best protection: Plot Armor.
Drizzt is most definitely a Battle Master fighter first, with the training received from Zaknafein and Melee Magthere. If I had to guess at his Ranger Subclass, it would, and only could be, The Hunter. Which is Drizzt's primal instinct alter ego when he lived in the underdark, Something he doesn't learn to control until The Hunter's Blades trilogy, if I'm not mistaken. Regardless of his training with Montolio in Mooshie's Grove, Drizzt was already on his own path to Mielikki and being a ranger, which started when Drizzt went to the surface the very first time. Mooshie just gave him the substance.
As for Guenhwyvar, they are very much an Astral being. Literally the cosmic embodiment of the panther. It'd be akin to summoning an IRL embodiment of the constellation Leo or Ursa Major. Big stat block lol. But they can only manifest for a 6 hour period every other day. Nothing can kill them, as their body is not from this plane. Any damage that would kill them simply sends them back to the Astral Plane through the figurine. Also, if someone brings the figurine to the astral plane, they're basically the god of summoning astral panthers. Regis does this once. Guenhwyvar is told to kill Regis, and she acts like it up to the pounce. When she lands, she starts to take Regis with her, and he grabs the figurine on the way through the portal, and later returns, having cast Flock of Astral Familiars. So... definitely a Legendary Wondrous Figurine.
There was also the Time of Troubles, where magic went ****y and the gods stopped godding for a while. Drizzt sent Guen back home, but the figurine got hot and opened up a portal of fire instead of the astral gateway. I forget who breaks the figurine, probably Bruenor, but they do, and Guen gets stuck for like, a week. They basically became a 600lbs panther paper weight due to entropy from not being able to go home. Lady Alustriel eventually put together a magic poultice to mend the statue. Even she wasn't sure that it would work. So, long story short. They can be killed, but it's like killing a god.
Most of this information can be pieced together throughout the entirety of Exile, which is the second book in the Menzoberranzan trilogy.
Cattie Brie used Cutter to slice through the statue and that’s also why it was able to be fixed because the cut was clean and magical. But I had view Drizzt build the exact same way. Battle master fighter and hunter ranger specifically in horde breaker. Then with the newer editions he’d have several levels in monk. I’m no expert in monk but I believe it’d be way of the astral self.
Drizzt was the one who sliced through the statue, and he used Twinkle to do it. Cutter wasn't introduced until much later (both in and out of universe).
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Just finished a third reading of this series and Cattie Brie in fact did use cutter aka Khazid'hea