D&D\u2019s most iconic hero would have been a perfect fit for Baldur\u2019s Gate 3\u2019s evil route Larian Studios\/Wizards of the CoastBaldur\u2019s Gate 3 is arguably the new face of Dungeons & Dragons, but what about the most well-known character associated with the tabletop game? D&D\u2019s biggest hero is a notable absentee from Tav\u2019s adventures, and it\u2019s a massive missed opportunity. Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 features cameos from some of the biggest D&D characters, like Elminster and Volo. These heroes have appeared in tons of books, both narrative-focused epics and offering their insights in Forgotten Realms lore. However, a certain drow is nowhere to be seen in Baldur\u2019s Gate 3, which is shocking to longtime fans of the franchise, considering how often he has appeared in previous D&D video games. Drizzt Do\u2019Urden is D&D\u2019s biggest character by a wide margin While the true protagonists of D&D are the player characters, there\u2019s one fictional hero who can be said to be the face of the franchise: Drizzt Do\u2019Urden. Created by R.A. Salvatore, Drizzt\u2019s story has been told across many D&D novels. The hero is a drow Ranger who fled the Underdark to live on the surface world, where his kind is not welcome in most cities, thanks to a long and bloody history. Drow are feared across the Forgotten Realms due to their devotion to Lolth, an evil goddess that manipulates them into performing terrible deeds. Unsurprisingly, Drizzt had a hard time making friends on the surface, but his bravery and heroism eventually made him one of the most famous heroes in the Forgotten Realms. Indeed, his popularity (both in-game and in the real world) helped form a shift in attitude towards drow, which is why they aren\u2019t attacked on sight in Baldur\u2019s Gate 3. The D&D video games love including the drow Ranger As a melee-focused character, Drizzt has been a popular choice for video games, both as a playable hero and as an NPC. His appearances include Menzoberranzan, Demon Stone, Neverwinter, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, and a starring role in Dark Alliance. Notably, Drizzt appeared in the first two Baldur\u2019s Gate games. You encounter him alone in the first game and alongside his friends, the Companions of the Hall, in the sequel. In both games, you can either fight alongside Drizzt or try to kill him and steal his gear. (Good luck with that second option. Drizzt is one of the most skilled warriors in the Forgotten Realms, and even your 6v1 advantage won\u2019t save you from being sliced to pieces by his scimitars.) Drizzt is nowhere to be seen in Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 It\u2019s astonishing, then, that Drizzt doesn\u2019t even have a cameo in Baldur\u2019s Gate 3. He\u2019s appeared in so many games, yet he\u2019s not in the biggest D&D title ever. (Technically, the cast of Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 met Drizzt in an episode of High Rollers, where Astarion got to fanboy over the famous Ranger, but this didn\u2019t happen in the game \u2014 although, a certain reference in the new epilogue may make these events canon.) In a game where we\u2019re forced to suffer through Volo\u2019s bad poetry and Elminster trying to pull a Gandalf on Gale, we don\u2019t get a simple glimpse of Drizzt. Annoyingly, you can find lots of small references to him throughout the overworld, but the drow himself never bothers to show up in person. It\u2019s a shame that Drizzt isn\u2019t part of the game, as there\u2019s a perfect role for him in the story. He would make an ideal post-game boss for the Dark Urge Considering he\u2019s one of the mightiest heroes in the Forgotten Realms, you wouldn\u2019t have much of a reason to fight him as a good character outside of some special circumstance where he was being mind-controlled or you were facing a simulacrum created by magic. Not all Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 characters are heroes, however. There are some who are as evil as any monster that stalks the Forgotten Realms. Those who choose to play as the Dark Urge Origin character have the option to commit some utterly horrendous acts, leading to a conclusion where you wrest control of the Netherbrain. But what if someone tried to stop you before you could tap into the power of your birthright? Drizzt and the Companions of the Hall (Bruenor Battlehammer, Catti-brie, Guenhwyvar, Regis, and Wulfgar) would make for incredible optional bosses for evil runs. Heroic characters aren\u2019t likely to run afoul of Drizzt, but a villain can absolutely expect to meet the business end of his blades. Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 already has powerful optional bosses for good routes, such as Ansur, the undead dragon, and Raphael the devil, so it\u2019s only fitting that villains have their challenging foe awaiting them at the end of the story. An appearance by Drizzt and his allies would also give players another chance to face the foe that D&D fans love and hate the most: another adventuring party. These guys always have the best gear, but they might be the most challenging enemies in the tabletop game, as they can match the players in action economy, using their own tricks against them. He could even work as an ally against the end boss Using Drizzt just so your Dark Urge can kill him would mean that only a small percentage of the player base would see him. After all, Larian Studios\u2019 1st-year anniversary stats for Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 revealed that only 15% of custom origin players used the Dark Urge. This doesn\u2019t mean that Drizzt would have to appear exclusively in the evil route, as there\u2019s a perfect place for him, with the \u201cGathering Your Allies\u201d quest. At the end of Baldur\u2019s Gate 3, the allies you\u2019ve made throughout the game can be called in on in the final battle. This would have been the perfect place to slot Drizzt in for the good players: give him a short questline in the city of Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 and have him fight alongside you at the end. That way, your character can fight alongside D&D\u2019s greatest hero without him overshadowing you. (Although, if he happens to die, then he\u2019s not going to need those magical scimitars anymore. You\u2019ll give them a good home.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
D&D\u2019s most iconic hero would have been a perfect fit for Baldur\u2019s Gate 3\u2019s evil route Larian Studios\/Wizards of the CoastBaldur\u2019s Gate 3 is arguably the new face of Dungeons & Dragons, but what about the most well-known character associated with the tabletop game? D&D\u2019s biggest hero is a notable absentee from Tav\u2019s adventures, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}