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Talya
2007-05-11, 06:17 PM
Anyone ever seen an official listing for this?

Someone pointed out to me that in the Underdark sourcebook for Forgotten Realms, Jarlaxle is listed as an 18 fighter (no character sheet.) That's absurd...he's gotta have insane ranks in use magic device, he never wears armor, he picks locks, pockets, etc. I'd actually put him at epic rogue levels with a few extra item slot feats...

silentknight
2007-05-11, 06:22 PM
I have heard of at least 3 different builds for Jaraxle and none of them are anywhere near close to each other. I would say a rogue/fighter fits with the theme of Jaraxle.

Emperor Tippy
2007-05-11, 06:23 PM
I have heard of at least 3 different builds for Jaraxle and none of them are anywhere near close to each other. I would say a rogue/fighter fits with the theme of Jaraxle.

Replace fighter with Swordsage and it may work.

Ikkitosen
2007-05-11, 06:24 PM
One fly in the ointment; Jarlaxle can cast Lightning Bolt...he seems to have a Nale build without the enchantment focus. Fochulan Lyrist variant?

Talya
2007-05-11, 06:26 PM
One fly in the ointment; Jarlaxle can cast Lightning Bolt...he seems to have a Nale build without the enchantment focus. Fochulan Lyrist variant?

Jarlaxle doesn't actually cast anything himself. But the general rules Salvatore seems to use when writing him, is that if there is any magic item in any D&D source material anywhere that might be useful to jarlaxle at a certain time, he has it on him. (People have been nearly struck blind by casting detect magic and looking at Jarlaxle.) He specifically uses items to cast spells, loves wands. (In sellswords he used a fair number of fireballs.)

FdL
2007-05-11, 06:31 PM
Yeah, rogue/fighter will do. No need to look up obscure classess that accurately represent what he can do in the books.

I actually don't see the point of having a character sheet of a character from a novel. The fun thing about literary characters is that they are not restricted to rules which are designed to play a game. They are deeper than that, and if you think about it it wouldn't make sense to write a book or make a film strictly adhering to a set of rules.

And particularly Jarlaxle benefits from this shady condition in which you never know what to expect of him. So, yeah, he can be dissected, but it would take the fun away to have and official sheet. Besides you could even not agree with what they put there. Last time I saw Drizzt's it wasn't very interesting or representative of what he is.

Talya
2007-05-11, 06:33 PM
Last time I saw Drizzt's it wasn't very interesting or representative of what he is.


Drizzt needs dervish levels to even be borderline comparable to what he is.

Caelestion
2007-05-11, 06:37 PM
The Faerūn characters are infamous for completely ignoring multiclassing XP penalties. Storm has something like a 60% xp penalty by RAW, IIRC.

Talya
2007-05-11, 06:39 PM
The Faerūn characters are infamous for completely ignoring multiclassing XP penalties. Storm has something like a 60% xp penalty by RAW, IIRC.

The Seven Sisters (and other of Mystra's poorly optimized chosen) are all centuries old, yes? They probably ignore their multiclassing penalties just by levelling slowly.

Ikkitosen
2007-05-12, 02:33 AM
Jarlaxle doesn't actually cast anything himself. But the general rules Salvatore seems to use when writing him, is that if there is any magic item in any D&D source material anywhere that might be useful to jarlaxle at a certain time, he has it on him. (People have been nearly struck blind by casting detect magic and looking at Jarlaxle.) He specifically uses items to cast spells, loves wands. (In sellswords he used a fair number of fireballs.)

In the fight with Hephaestus in Servant of the Shard Jarlaxle casts Lightning Bolt, much to the suprise of Artemis Entreri.

Jarlax
2007-05-12, 04:59 AM
Anyone ever seen an official listing for this?

Someone pointed out to me that in the Underdark sourcebook for Forgotten Realms, Jarlaxle is listed as an 18 fighter (no character sheet.) That's absurd...he's gotta have insane ranks in use magic device, he never wears armor, he picks locks, pockets, etc. I'd actually put him at epic rogue levels with a few extra item slot feats...

first thing to note is that just like rich, R.A Salvatore's characters are not really defined by the rules of D&D the first being item slots. although there are stat blocks out there for a few they rarely define the character properly, a single level in barbarian to gain Rage is not the same as the "hunter" persona of Drizzt.

using the information known about drow society from all the drizzt books Jarlaxle is either a fighter of a wizard as his first class because those are the only ones drow males are trained in from birth. however like Drizzt, jarlaxle broke away from drow society at some point and would have gained levels in other classes afterward. however jarlaxle is by nature so unpredictable and mysterious no one can say what class combination he is. but those classes are probably core only and more than likely ones from 2nd edition since he appeared long before 3rd edition was around.

personally i think he has wizard levels but also has UMD from another class, he uses wands and magical items not because he is incapable of casting spells but as a means to hide the fact that he can, in a tight situation busting out 5-10 levels of wizard spells no-one knew he had seems very Jarlaxle, as does using flashy wand movements instead of the complex hand gestures of spellcasting.

Talya
2007-05-12, 08:47 AM
using the information known about drow society from all the drizzt books Jarlaxle is either a fighter of a wizard as his first class because those are the only ones drow males are trained in from birth.


I don't think that is necessarily the case. As the third baenre male, jarlaxle as an infant was to be sacrificed at birth. When Matron Baenre's dagger wouldn't penetrate his skin, they believed he was protected by Lolth (In reality, he was protected by Matron Oblodra out of sheer mischief), but still didn't want him anywhere near them, so they abandoned him on the lake to die.

He didn't.


I doubt he was ever formally trained as is typical for drow in Menzoberranzan.

Ikkitosen
2007-05-12, 10:58 AM
Yeah, not so much an academy type.

Sorc/Swash/Rogue with awesome stats all round would be my guess.

Talya
2007-05-12, 11:39 AM
Yeah, not so much an academy type.

Sorc/Swash/Rogue with awesome stats all round would be my guess.

Actually, yes...Entreri repeatedly calls his fighting style "Swashbuckling."

Ikkitosen
2007-05-12, 11:54 AM
More brains over brawn, so int to damage works. Massive cha for sorc. and social skills. Massive dex - he is a drow!

Like most book characters, he's probably not as powerful a build as an equal ECL character we could make, but then we can see the rules.

Behold_the_Void
2007-05-12, 12:09 PM
Possibly Sorcerer/Rogue/Swashbuckler/Eldritch Knight/Arcane Trickster. I could see that.