History Characters / TheLegendOfDrizzt

->'''Class:''' Fighter/Rogue/Assassin

->'''Class:''' Skirmisher/Ranger

->'''Class:''' Skirmisher

->'''Class:''' Rogue (first life), Skirmisher (second life)

->'''Class:''' Barbarian/Battlerager

* SummonMagic: How Guen's figurine works. It doesn't ''turn into'' her as much as it summons her from the Astral Plane, where she spends her downtime resting or hunting a similar spirit of giant deer.

* Naytheist: He never doubts the existence or the power of the gods, but he flatly despises all of them on principle. This extends to clergy as well; Entreri decides he hates Cadderly Bonaduce before they even meet, as soon as he hears that Cadderly is a priest of Deneir. This turns out to be a lingering resentment from childhood, as he grew up in a hovel that was exploited mercilessly by priests of Selune.

A panther who Drizzt can summon from the Astral Plane using a small onyx statuette shaped like her. She can only appear on the material plane for twelve hours every other day; though it's possible for her to stay longer, if she stays away from the Astral Plane for more than that, she becomes drowsy and unable to fight. Also known as Guen and Whiskers.

* HeelFaceTurn: While Jarlaxle was always AffablyEvil and began his transition to ChaoticNeutral during {{Literature/The Sellswords}}, he only fully became one of the good guys around the time of ''The Ghost King'', where he sincerely wants to help Drizzt and Bruenor...but can only apologize, as he doesn't even know where to begin [[spoiler:tracking down someone's ''soul'']].

* MoralEventHorizon: Vierna was Zaknafein's only other biological child besides Drizzt, and, like her brother and father, displayed signs that she wasn't as evil as the rest of her race. After Drizzt escaped fully to the surface and House Do'Urden fell to House Baenre, she turned her attention fully towards regaining Lolth's favor.

* {{Bishounen}}: Has been complemented on his handsomeness by a ''dragon''. She also said he looked even more handsome with hair. Not to mention the narration itself, which mentions several times how ridiculously attractive he is.

* TheAce: As one of the most skilled fighters and most well-travelled rangers he is considered this by his party members, the ranger community and adventurers throughout Toril. It's even mentioned that, had Drizzt chosen, he could have been a powerful wizard. He's apparently naturally good at everything. Except talking his way out of things and lying.

* BackToBackBadasses: With Entreri. A few times.
* BerserkButton: Threatening any of his friends will more than likely end with the ones doing the threatening dying horribly.
* BerserkMode: Hunter mode, a bestial mindset that Drizzt can fall into when angry enough. He picked it up with wandering in the Underdark.
* BettyAndVeronica: Veronica to Wulfgar's Betty for Catti-brie's Archie. Swapped after Wulfgar TookALevelInJerkass in the runup to his and Catti-brie's marriage.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He is polite and trusting almost to a fault (even more so in the earlier books), but if you mess with the people he cares about he ''will'' end you.
* BlackSheep: He becomes this to House Do'Urden after he flees Menzoberranzan at the end of ''Homeland''. Given the [[BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad nature of Menzoberranzan society]], this can also make him a WhiteSheep.
* BloodKnight: He may be a profoundly wise and moral man, but he also genuinely loves to fight, and will happily leap into the heart of the very deadliest battles just for the joy of it. It's one of several reasons why he favours the harsh, violent life of a ranger even when other alternatives are available.

* CharacterDevelopment: Gets older and more accepting of necessary evil especially after the timeskip. A lot of his later character growth focuses on reconciling his old idealism with his more world-weary cynicism.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the Icewind Dale Trilogy, Drizzt is Wulfgar's SternTeacher who is rather stoic, self-possessed and mysterious with a tendency towards SinkOrSwimMentor. Later books show a more conflicted, emotive drow who is young, idealistic and is deeply protective of his friends. This might be partly due to the change in POV as how Wulfgar views Drizzt is very different from how Drizzt views himself.

* CrusadingWidower: During most of ''Gauntlgrym''. Disturbingly, instead of drowning his sorrows with alcohol, he did it with ''blood''. Although fitting for a drow, which might make it worse.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: One especially badass yet extremely tense scene in ''Homeland'' sees Drizzt call out Lolth as a ''lying bitch'' to his sister Vierna's face...''a priestess of Lolth herself no less''. A lot of the tension of the scene is whether or not Vierna or another drow will kill him for his blasphemous tantrum or not, but the fact that he is the first drow to boldly, albeit suicidally so, spit on the name of their liar of a goddess is pure badassery at its finest.

* FantasticRacism: He was a victim of this during his earliest decades on the surface due to the notoriety of his [[AlwaysChaoticEvil race]]. A recurring element in the earlier books deals with his struggle against this trope. He isn't immune to this himself; when fighting against King Obould and his orcs, he thought it absurd that the orcs didn't "know their place", though he does catch himself on it and reevaluate his position.
* FlashStep: The "Ghost Step" technique. Half SuperSpeed, half optical illusion. With perfect timing, Drizzt can step to the side in the split second his opponent's weapon passes through his own line of sight, blocking him from view and causing him to seemingly disappear. Done correctly, by the time the opponent figures out what happened, half of his more important organs will be out of place.
* FullNameBasis: Most people call Drizzt by his full name when addressing him. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''Starless Night'' when Drizzt gets annoyed that [[EvilMatriarch Matron Baenre]] addresses him by his full name at the end of almost every sentence. Even the narration was tired of it.

* HandSignals: The Drow hand cant is not used so much in later novels because he's not usually around any other drow to use it with, but he attempts to teach it to his companions with limited success.
* HeroicBSOD: After the events at Shallows during the ''Hunter's Blades'' trilogy, and a more recent one near the end of ''The Ghost King''.

* InSeriesNickname: Due to most people's inability to speak Drow Undercommon properly, most people who have only heard of Drizzt call him "Drizzit" upon first meeting.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Zaknafein absolutely hated everything to do with Menzoberranzan and the ideals instilled into drow from birth by Lolth's clergy. To say Drizzt adopted his mindset is an understatement.
* MasterSwordsman: As is common for any powerful chaotic evil civilisation, the drow of Menzoberranzan compensate for their [[FascistButInefficient lack of discipline and capacity to organise at a strategic level]] with phenomenal individual fighting talent. Drizzt followed in the footsteps of his father Zaknafein as the greatest drow swordsman of his generation, and that's enough to make him one of the greatest swordsmen in the world. The number of enemies he faces who can match or exceed him in pure martial skill can be counted on one hand, and doing so is considered an incredible achievement in-universe by anyone who's heard of him.

* MirrorCharacter: To Entreri who represents what Drizzt could have become. When he falls into his [[BerserkMode hunter mode]], he's afraid of turning into Entreri.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: While's he's considered a hero among humans that know of him, he's considered an embarrassment in Drow society.
** Ironically, his penchant for causing chaos wherever he goes (not just among them) convince the drow that he might, in fact, be favored by Lolth. [[spoiler: They're not wrong, ''Maestro'' and ''Hero'' show that he's a ''chosen of Lolth'', who equally wants him dead, suffering or as a worshipper]]

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Drizzt attempts to outrun a drow raiding party sent to recapture him, avoid Artemis Entreri, who is pursuing him in the tunnels, ''and'' tries to find a way back up to his friends while physically dragging the injured Regis along with him in ''The Legacy''.
* OrcRaisedByElves: Although technically an "adult" when he makes it to the surface, Drizzt is adopted by Bruenor Battlehammer, a dwarf, and taught to be a productive member of society (as opposed to what he was previously doing, hanging out around the edges hoping not to bother anyone).
* PintSizedPowerHouse: One of the best rangers in all the Realms is about 5'4 and 140 pounds. And he's tall for a male drow! Occasionally, characters express surprise that a legendary fighter is shorter than they expected. In one novel, he physically has to climb over a wall his barbarian companion was a head and shoulders taller than to look over it.

* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: It's implied that Drizzt's idealism is partly due to youth - by elven standards, he's a young adult. After the time skip, he's much more cynical and is now trying to marry his current cynicism with his previous idealism in the way most adults struggle with. In that sense, the series is Drizzt's ComingOfAge story.

* ThinkNothingOfIt: Given the gravity of his deeds, he's extremely modest about it. In fact, gratitude seems to embarrass him somewhat.
* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: Drizzt Do'Urden of D'aermon Na'shez'baernon, Ninth House of Menzoberranzan. As the rest of his house find out, though, business cards are the least of their worries if they want to ensure that Drizzt honours his title (or ensures that there is a D'aermon Na'shez'baernon for him to be part of in the first place).
* TheUnfettered: Spent most of ''Gauntlgrym'' being one until Jarlaxle pinned him against the wall to give him a ReasonYouSuckSpeech.
* UnknownRival: Has a habit of picking up these. In his childhood every swordsman in Menzoberranzan, including his own brother, viewed him as a rival which Drizzt never noticed. Even his rivalry with Enteri is slightly one-sided as Enteri constantly wanted to best Drizzt and all Drizzt wanted was Enteri to stop threatening him and his friends.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: While his overall demeanor and good nature hasn't changed, Young Drizzt was significantly more idealistic and optimistic, with Zaknafein especially noticing and admiring the boy's innocent smile. Much of the hardest part of reading ''Homeland'' is watching how Menzoberranzan brutally beats the sweet nature out of the poor kid, literally and metaphorically.
* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: With Catti-Brie. Whom he met when she was a young teenager.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Explored in depth. Drizzt was definitely worried about the idea of outliving his friends for his first few decades on the surface until he struck up a friendship with Innovindil, a surface elf. She advised him to live a series of shorter, segmented lifetimes, taking each as they come, rather than dwelling on the looming centuries. Her advice came into play after the events of ''Gauntlgrym'', when Bruenor, the last of his original friends, died in battle. Drizzt mourned his loss, then picked himself up and began traveling with Dahlia Sin'felle.
* WideEyedIdealist: He's this in the earlier books of the series, with ''Homeland'' being one of the most obvious examples. [[ApocalypseHow Post-Spellplague]], he has lost most of this.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: In the sense that if drow aging and development parallels conventional elf aging and development, Drizzt was actually an adolescent for well over half the books featuring him. In fact, ''Gauntlgrym'' would have been the first book where Drizzt is an actual adult by elven standards.

A panther who Drizzt can summon from the astral plane using a small onyx statuette shaped like her. Ideally she can only appear on the material plane for twelve hours every other day. If she stays away from the astral plane too long she becomes drowsy and unable to fight. Also known as Guen and Whiskers.

* ActionPet: Calling her a pet is probably inaccurate as she's closer to Drizzt's [[PlatonicLifePartners true companion]]. However she's a capable fighter and saves Drizzt's life on several occasions.
* MamaBear: To Drizzt, not only does she fight alongside him and is his loyal protector, she also has a habit of mothering him. When Drizzt does something she thinks is wrong she will still down and ignore him. She was also one of the reasons he agreed to go with Montelio and be trained as she kept nudging him into it.
* PantheraAwesome: She is big cat, and she is a skilled fighter. Just looking at her is enough to scare some characters.
* SamusIsAGirl: For the most part Guen is referred to with the pronoun "It's" or as "the cat", this was editorial mandate as Salvatore was told by Creator/{{TSR}} that as a magical item she couldn't have a gender. Early printings of the books got her gender wrong when copy-editors changed some of these to "he". Salvatore has gone on record saying his was horrified by this as he always intended her to be female.
* SummonMagic: How Guen's figurine works, it doesn't turn into her as much as it does summon her from the astral plane where she spends her down time resting or hunting a similar spirit of giant deer.

Drizzt's father/mentor and Weapons Master of House Do'Urden.

* TheAce: Widely considered the greatest weapons-master Menzoberranzan has ever known.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Brought back to life by Lolth at the very end of Hero]]
* BackToBackBadasses: [[spoiler: With Drizzt when defending Gauntlgrym. As expected, they fight very well together.]]
* BeyondTheImpossible: Similar to his son, Zak punches above his weight class taking down high priestesses and even handmaidens of Lolth.

* BloodKnight: In Menzoberranzan, Zaknafein lived mostly for fighting and killing priestesses of Lloth.
* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler:He becomes this to Drizzt when he returns in the modern era and shows that he retained the prejudices of the drow, essentially reversing the FantasticRacism Drizzt faced from humans and other surface races. It takes them both a while to work things out.]]

* CantArgueWithElves: As much as he hates the twisted effects Lloth had on drow society, he still thinks the drow are better than any other race. [[spoiler:He doesn't take it well when he returns in the modern era and learns that Drizzt is not only married to a human woman, but has fathered a half-drow child.]]
* CombatPragmatist: So much so, right down to blinding his opponents, plucking out spellcasters' tongue with a whip and [[GroinAttack kicking them where it hurts.]]
* TheComicallySerious: When we see Zak with Jarlaxle, it turns into this trope. Jarlaxle is always goofing off which contrasts the dour, brooding Zaknafein.
* CruelMercy: Zak was on the recieving end of this trope after he defeated a handmaiden of Lolth. Surprisingly, Zak suffered no punishment besides being kicked out of Bregan D'aerthe. Turns out that the handmaidens and high priestesses were letting him live so they could inflict a later punishment on him and his son.

* DualWielding: Though he's good with anything, his preferred style is two swords. Sometimes he goes with a sword and a whip, but only when going up against priestesses of Lolth, presumably for the irony (whips being the preferred weapon of such priestesshood).

* FantasticRacism: Zak isn't fully immune to drow propaganda [[spoiler: and struggles with Drizzt having non-drow friends and a human wife. ]]
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: [[spoiler: After coming back to life. Zaknafein's kind, honorable and compassionate but still absorbed much of drow propaganda. Unlike Drizzt or even Jarlaxe, he never lived on the surface or had 100 years of CharacterDevelopment, so he's working with prejudices and personality flaws still present at the time of his death. To his credit, he is swiftly overcoming this trope.]]

* MirrorCharacter: To Artemis Entrei believe it or not. Jarlaxe notices that both men are similar in personality and cynical worldview and that's why he likes them both. Zak resembles Entrei during his CharacterDevelopment.
* MoralityPet: Zak served as this to Jarlaxe where his morals set an example and helped Jarlaxe become more than just an opportunistic mercenary. [[spoiler: After his resurrection, Jarlaxe ironically becomes this for him.]]
* MyGreatestFailure: Zaknafein views not being able to guide or raise Vierna as this as she ended up brainwashed by her priestess training. To this day, he regrets not being there for his daughter.
* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Drizzt heavily idealized Zak's memory, holding him up as a paragon of Drizzt's ideals and everything he aspires to be. Justified in that Drizzt was still a child when Zak died and only saw his father with a child's hero worship.
* NoAccountingForTaste: Apparently he actually had feelings for Malice prior to the series. Boundless and Timeless retcon this into him always hating her.
* OddFriendship: With Jarlaxle. Jarlaxle goofs off and rarely takes a situation seriously while Zak is always serious, stoic and brooding. They're also from different drow classes - Jarlaxle leads a band of outcasts while Zak is as close to drow nobility as a male can get.
* PapaWolf: Don't hurt Drizzt.
* PoorCommunicationKills: He and Drizzt end up having a dramatic face-off due to this.
* QuestionableConsent: Zaknafein's relationship with Matron Malice is very one-sided and comes off as coercion or even spousal rape. Zak joined House Do' Urden under [[LeonineContract considerable duress]], despises Malice and he has to please her or risk her considerable wrath.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Subverted, as he is not evil.
* RedOniBlueOni: The Red to Jarlaxle's Blue subverting the personality stereotypes. Zak's brooding stoic demeanor hides a great deal of emotional turmoil and he thinks with his heart rather than his head, leading to impulsive decisions. Jarlaxle's lackadaisical personality means that he rarely fully takes a situation seriously, allowing him to look at things objectively. Jarlaxle spends much of Boundless and Timeless breaking up fights that Zak gets in, often acting like an exasperated babysitter.
* RedPillBluePill: Zak, like Drizzt, was given an opportunity to escape from Drow society and flee to the surface when freeing a family of halflings that he saved. Unlike Drizzt, he never took the opportunity and it's stated that this became his greatest regret.
* SacrificialLion: Killed in Homeland and again in Exile and both times push Drizzt to escape the drow.
* SixthRanger: He frequently served Bregan Da'erthe as an associate member. Malice Do'Urden consented to this partly because his successes reflected on her and partly because Jarlaxle was backed by [[GreaterScopeVillain Matron Baenre]], who could literally destroy Malice with a thought if she felt like it.
* SternTeacher: To Drizzt. He taught Drizzt swordfighting and showed him kindness but he's not above smacking Drizzt if he's being impudent or dense.
* UnknownRival: Where Drizzt inherited it from. Zaknafein had multiple rivals trying to kill him, in large part due to his reputation, though his rivalry with Arathis Hune is due to him being Jarlaxe's best friend. Zaknafein doesn't care for those rivalries, saving his hatred and energy for the priestesses of Lolth.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: It is mentioned that Zaknafein and Jarlaxle were once good friends, but Zak was betrayed by Jarlaxle at some point in the past. On Jarlaxle's part, he regrets it immensely and it starts his own path to being maybe, sort of, slightly less terrible.
* WouldHitAGirl: Zaknafein takes particular glee in killing Drow priestesses. Justified in-universe as he sees them as holding up the evil ideals of Drow society.
* WouldntHurtAChild: Played straight and subverted. He is horrified with the drow practice of murdering every member of an opposing family during a house war, including small children. At the same time he has no choice in the matter because refusing would mean his death. This later becomes a BerserkButton for him when he thinks that Drizzt murdered an elven child during the surface raid.

* AbusiveParents: Like all Matron Mothers, Malice doesn't give a shit about her children and is more than willing to kill any one of them if they hinder her acquisition for power in any way.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Her FatalFlaw. Malice simply cannot understand the bond between Zak and Drizzt and this combined with a drow female's tendency to underestimate men leads to crucial missteps. She fails at breaking Drizzt's heroic spirit, misjudges Drizzt's reaction to her murder of Zak and underestimates Zak's unwillingness to hurt his son even in death.

* HairTriggerTemper: Malice has a wicked, barely controlled temper and a tendency to lash out at her house and family. She's partially where Briza gets her foul temperament from.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Malice briefly reconsiders her devotion to Lolth when realizes it's brought her nothing but fear and misery. She ultimately convinces herself that [[IveComeTooFar she's come too far]] to stop now and that the rewards will be well worth it.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Whenever Malice kills a member of her own family, she ends up suffering consequences
** Malice killed her mother and it's implied, her siblings in her quest for power. This backfired when Malice struggled to conceive after Briza, leaving her house severely weakened from the lack of nobles.
** Malice engineered Nalfein's death through her other children in order to spare Drizzt who would grow to be the WhiteSheep of the family.
** Malice kills Zak which outrages Drizzt enough that he abandons his family.

Drizzt's older sister and the one tasked with raising him as a child and teaching him about drow society.

* CoolBigSis: When she wasn't a SadistTeacher. Vierna taught Drizzt magic, reading and other skills and was kind to him in her own aloof way.

* IncestantAdmirer: For a time, was this with Drizzt, which even in drow society is considered taboo; her mother had to warn her away when he was still a child, though it didn't stop her from trying after he was an adult.

* MoralEventHorizon: Vierna was Zaknafein's only other biological child besides Drizzt, and like her brother and father, displayed signs that she wasn't as evil as the rest of her race. But after Drizzt escaped fully to the surface and House Do'Urden fell to House Baenre, she turned her attention fully towards regaining Lolth's favor.
* NatureVsNurture: Vierna is a study on this trope. She's more compassionate and kinder than most drow, due to being Zaknafein's child, but was indoctrinated early on into high priestesseshood leading her to embrace Lloth's teachings against her better nature. Zak is guilty and appalled at what happened and her example spurs him to take a more active role in raising Drizzt.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: After getting stabbed by her brother, she finally realizes the error of her ways and forsakes Lloth with her last thoughts.
* SternTeacher: She was aloof and stern in her methods of raising Drizzt, but unlike most Lolth priestesses she hesitated in being overtly cruel to be a SadistTeacher. It took her elder sister pressuring her for Vierna to start using her whip on Drizzt and it's shown she never took pleasure in it.
* WhipOfDominance: PlayedWith. As a Lolth priestess, she wielded the SnakeWhip they're famous for, and while she's quite stern and authoritative, she was considered "soft" for her hesitation to use her whip on Drizzt when she mentored him. Their elder sister Briza (a ''high'' priestess of Lolth who was far more sadistic) eventually pressured Vierna into starting to lash him when he made mistakes to "motivate" him and teach him how to have been submissive to the supremacy of female drow. Vierna reluctantly complied and started to whip him when he made grave mistakes, which wielded results, but also damaged their relationship.

* AlwaysSecondBest: Dinin is second to Drizzt in fighting skill and knows it. It's particularly galling as he's the Elderboy and is paranoid about Drizzt usurping him the way he did Nalfein.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Is temporarily brought back to life when Lolth's handmaidens summon all driders past and present to serve Zhindia. Made permanent when he is turned back into a drow through Yvonnel's spell.]]
* BackStab: Pulled this on Nalfein near the beginning of ''Homeland'', which allowed Drizzt to not be sacrificed on the day of his birth. By law in Menzoberranzan, every third male child is sacrificed to Lolth. With Nalfein's death, Drizzt was [[ExactWords no longer the third son]] and was spared.
** UnfriendlyFire: The above backstab is pulled during a war with another house.

** Also with Nalfein to the point where he assassinated him in the aftermath of a war.

Patron of House Do'Urden; not-so-secretly the uncle, not father, of Drizzt

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: His rival is dismissive of him, his daughters don't respect him or his "title", the other males don't seem to care about him, and Malice only kept him around so she could have more children. Even when he died, the text mentioned that nobody actually cared.
* TheRival: To Zaknafein due to both of them being lovers of Malice. On his part it seems to be one-sided.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: How died. The [[spoiler:undead Zakafein]] cut his body to pieces.

* TheArchmage: She is a divine version of this, in that she's one of the most powerful wielders of divine magic in the Realms.

* BoltOfDivineRetribution: Was gifted one to use against House Oblodra after the Time of Troubles to show the entire city what happens when you annoy Lolth.
* BoomHeadshot: When she finally dies, it's with a melee version of this trope as Bruenor cleaves her skull in two.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Yvonnel would likely kill most male drow that flouted Menzoberranzan's standard gender roles, but she lets Jarlaxle and Bregan D'aerthe live. They're ideal agents for any dirty deeds she needs done that can't be traced back to House Baenre.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Yvonnel is far older than even elves normally get to, and while healthy considering her age is still frail and almost completely dependent on magic. When magic goes awry as it did in the Time of Troubles, or simply stops functioning, as when Errtu's minion revealed an AntiMagic sapphire, Yvonnel becomes nothing more than an old woman who's utterly helpless in melee combat.
* DropTheHammer: When she was a very young drow, she battled Gandalug Battlehammer and knocked his tooth out with a spell that created a magical hammer. She then enchanted that tooth to trap Gandalug's spirit.
* TheEmpress: Had been called "the uncrowned Queen of Menzoberranzan" many times during her reign.
* EvilCounterpart: To Bruenor Battlehammer, and before him to Bruenor's ancestor Gandalug Battlehammer. Bruenor instinctively realizes this, and killing her is immensely cathartic for him.

* FatalFlaw: Her blind ambition. She tries to invade Mithral Hall despite multiple setbacks, losing the element of surprise and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder drow being drow]], being unable to browbeat Menzoberranzan into being a functional army.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: She's the ruler of House Baenre, the largest, most powerful House in Menzoberranzan, and thus the defacto ruler of the city, and she is as cruel and tyrannical as her goddess.
* IHaveNoSon: Acts this way toward Jarlaxle because she's actually terrified of him, since she believed him blessed by Lolth. (She may not actually be wrong about this). She also does it so he's not connected to House Baenre, allowing him to develop Bregan Da'erthe as a strike force that she can use as needed without its deeds being publicly traced back to her. Jarlaxle is equally terrified of her, knowing that turning him into a drider would be the least of the fates she could inflict on him.

* PurposeDrivenImmortality: She lived three times as long as an ordinary elf due to her obsession with taking Mithral Hall.

* AbusiveParents: Played with. Although his mom tried to murder him as a child, and has issued many threats to put him in his place, later on he has become too powerful to attack directly,
* TheAce: A skilled warrior, incredibly attractive, so impossibly charistmatic as to make a living on the surface with relative ease, the head of a large mercanary group with more resources than you can shake a stick at, wears a huge number of magic items on his person at all times. There's very little that Jarlaxle cannot accomplish given half a chance.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Jarlaxle's always someone better is his older brother, Gromph, whose power structure is superior even to Jarlaxle's, and whose personal skill in the arcane arts blows Jarlaxle's right out of the water. ''Gauntlgrym'' shows that Jarlaxle'll go to Gromph for help and advice (reminiscent of Sherlock and Mycroft) and that Gromph has no trouble in seeing through Jarlaxle's bullshit.
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: Bregan D'aerthe is made up of outcast and castoff members of Drow society.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: It can be hard to make him lose his cool, but if you pitch him you will wind up dead in some exciting way.
* {{Bishounen}}: Has been complemented on his handsomeness by a ''dragon''. She also said looks even more handsome with hair. Not to mention the narration itself, which mentions several times how ridiculously attractive he is.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Despite his quirks, he has been extremely successful as a houseless drow ''male'' for centuries and as the leader of Bregan D'aerthe.

* TheCharmer: Jarlaxle is almost impossibly charismatic. Whereas Drizzt has been struggling most of his life to overcome a deeply-entrenched prejudice against Drow on the surface, Jarlaxle can win acceptance in a matter of minutes by sheer force of personality.

* FirstNameBasis: Most people call him by his first name (since it's the only one he gives), but notably, he's the only person to ever call Entreri by his first name in universe.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Most D&D rule sets explicitly forbid using magic items the way Jarlaxle does. Jarlaxle, presumably, doesn't care because he's Jarlaxle. Entreri goes so far as to openly speculate that Jarlaxle is secretly a mage. The Fifth Edition has some fun with his by explicitly giving him abilities that allow him to ignore the rules.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: As far as it goes, Jarlaxle is easily the ''least'' evil power-player among the drow. He does not kill needlessly, does not torture at all unless necessary, and can be bought, bargained with, or appealed to. However, Bregan D'aerthe is a money-making operation first and foremost, and will always place itself on the winning side, regardless of how many backs are stabbed in the process.

* MultiMeleeMaster: Jarlaxe can wield two swords with nearly as much skill as his old friend Zaknafein--but like Zak, is also handy with whatever weapon he can lay his hands on. This should probably be expected,, given what a motley collection his magic weapons are.

* NotMeThisTime: Jarlaxle tells Drizzt that he's '''not''' the mastermind behind the civil war in Luskan. He simply supported the real instigator in exchange for being allowed to use Luskan as an Underdark trading post. And he's actually telling the complete truth for once.
* OneManArmy: With his wits, weapons, and magic items, Jarlaxle can take on pretty much anyone or anything. Literally breaks the rules of 5th Edition D&D's magic items so he can keep all those.
* PlotArmor: Is a villain in the D&D 5th Edition adventure Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Meant for characters levels 1-5, Jarlaxle is a whopping challenge rating of ''15'', with an armor class that makes him almost unhittable by player characters of low level (rolls of 19 or 20 for characters of level 1-4, 18-20 for characters of level 5).
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Jarlaxe is a FatherToHisMen who genuinely cares for Bregan D'aerthe. The group is made up of outcast drow, most of whom Jarlaxle rescued from doomed houses and gave a home. He protects the group with his life, mourns each death fiercely and is willing to forgive failure and even outright betrayal.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: ZigZagged. While Jarlaxle is certainly morally ambiguous and is usually working with the bad guys, he is never considered an outright villain himself. This is actually averted in ''The Ghost King'' and ''Gauntlgrym'', when his role is actually as one of the ''good'' guys.

* RefusalOfTheCall: He was chosen by Lolth to be one of her agents...and flat-out refused. Then again, Lolth's most favored servants are bringers of chaos, and he certainly is that, almost singlehandedly making things more interesting in Menzoberranzan than they've been in centuries. [[spoiler: Jarlaxle's situation is foreshadowing for Drizzt's status as champion of Lolth as it shows that Lolth is willing to accept agents who don't worship her so long as they cause chaos.]]
* SelfProclaimedLiar: To Entreri. Entreri isn't sure if he's being put on or set up, which may have been precisely the point.
* SharpDressedMan: He encourages Entreri to be a SharpDressedMan by playing dress-up with him during their adventures. Jarlaxle himself is flamboyantly dressed even by the standards of the ostentatious drow.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Bregan D'aerthe is an almost exclusively male group and has very few named women. Justified in that the group is made of outcasts which means that few Drow females would ever deign to join.
* TenMinuteRetirement: Played with. Stepped away from Bregan D'aerthe after the events of ''Servant of the Shard'', but was shown to be back in control as of ''The Pirate King''. Treated in later installments to be more of a sabbatical, putting his mercenaries in Kimmuriel's command so that there'd be an opposing voice of reason and business to counteract Jarlaxle's often-whimsical orders.

* VitriolicBestBuds: An odd example, given how nuanced the Drow concept of "friendship" is. Entreri is the most openly hostile of the two, which Jarlaxle acknowledges but is merely amused by. Jarlaxle, on the other hand, is openly friendly and affectionate towards Entreri, but has no problem manipulating or exploiting that friendship when it suits him.

A pech who was polymorphed into a hook horror.

* DeathSeeker: Begs Drizzt on several occasions to kill him whilst he's still mentally himself, as the Hook Horror mind and instincts are slowly overwriting his own.[[note]]This quirk of Polymorph may be confusing to players of only later editions of Dungeons and Dragons where Polymorph only lasts for an hour and whilst you do lose your intelligence, your base personality and morality stay the same.[[/note]]
* DishingOutDirt: As a pech, he is deeply connected with rocks, able to shape stone and speak with it. Tapping on the stone walls as a hook horror is the only thing that brings some semblance of normalcy back to his life, as he is unable to properly perform his magic in that state.
* DyingAsYourself: What Clacker wants, he doesn't want to become an actual Hook Horror mentally as well as physically and asks to be killed more than once. Drizzt can't bring himself to do it. [[spoiler:He ends up getting his wish when he dies protecting Drizzt and Belwar from a cave in caused by Drizzt's fight with the zombified Zaknafein.]]
* ForcedTransformation: Clacker is a pech, who was polymorphed into a hook horror by the same human wizard who killed his friends. When Drizzt and Belwar meet him, he is slowly but surely losing himself to his new hook horror personality.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: By the time he meets Drizzt, he has forgotten his name, so Drizzt dubs him Clacker. After [[spoiler: his sudden death]], Belwar laments that they never knew what Clacker’s real name was.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Yes. Befriends animals, trusted by elves and is one of the first surface-dwellers to whole-heartedly accept a lost and lonely drow.

* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler:Dies a year after he meets Drizzt, though in his case it's from old age. He does GoOutWithASmile knowing that Drizzt would continue.]]

* {{Determinator}}: Whatever else can be said about the guy, he doesn't quit easily; he chased after Drizzt all across Faerun for years trying to get revenge on him for humiliating him and killing one of his dogs.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Allied with orcs in an assault on a ranger's grove. Murdered at least two people. Tortured monks. Threatened to rape a seven year old. Why? All because Drizzt killed one of his dogs, in self-defense.

* HarmlessVillain: Inverted. Roddy initially comes off as somewhat of a joke villain and isn't really much of a threat. But then he murders two characters and threatens to rape the then-seven-year-old Catti-brie.
* ManipulativeBastard: Has shades of this; when an adventuring party was dispatched to track down Drizzt, thinking he was responsible for the murder of a family, Roddy joined them and egged them on in trying to hunt him down. Later he managed to con an orc chieftain into launching an attack on a forest Drizzt was staying in, using Drizzt's presence there and the threat of usurpation as a means of goading him, and further down the line did his best to try and turn the already suspicious Bruenor Battlehammer against Drizzt despite his having done nothing to warrant it save for being a drow.
* NeverMyFault: Suffers from this big time; everything that has gone wrong in his life since Drizzt showed up has ultimately been of his own doing, including wasting much of his life trying to hunt down and kill Drizzt. But as far as he's concerned it is Drizzt who is ultimately responsible for his sorry excuse for a life rather than his own pigheadedness and bad judgement.
* WouldHurtAChild: Threatens to rape Catti-brie, who was a child at the time.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Twice. The first time, he encourages Graul to attack Montolio’s grove, hoping that the orc King’s forces would kill Drizzt, but instead ends up with a bounty on his head, his foot torn off, and the Winter Wolf he was serving dead, after the orcs and their worg allies are successfully repelled. The second time, he traps Drizzt and the weeping friars the drow was traveling with in a cave where they would have to pass by a dragon to get out, instead of telling Roddy the drow’s location. After seeing his plan failed he runs his mouth just enough that Roddy figures out that Tephanis lied to him a second time, cheating him out of another chance to kill Drizzt himself, leading to the mountain man [[spoiler: killing him via repeated, blunt force trauma]]. For someone who can move very fast, Tephanis doesn’t seem to think more than one step ahead.

* AllergicToRoutine: He'll find any way to try to head out adventuring instead of sitting around taking care of the boring matters of his royal station.
* TheBlacksmith: Briefly, in The Crystal Shard, but then he crafts his masterwork (Wulfgar's hammer, Aegis-Fang) and hangs up the metaphorical hammer.

* PapaWolf: Threaten Catti-Brie in front of him and your lifespan can suddenly be measured in minutes.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Single-handedly, with only the help of the other Companions, retook Mithral Hall from an army of duergar commanded by a shadow dragon. And then proceeded to take down said dragon by jumping on top of it with a keg of oil, a torch, and an axe.
* SupportingLeader: As far as politics and wide-scale events go, Bruenor is much more important than Drizzt, but isn't the focus of the novels.

* DaddysGirl: Loves Bruenor and he loves her back. She can play him like a fiddle and he just grumbles and goes with it

* ObfuscatingStupidity: A lot of people forget (or are unaware) that she's the princess of a frontier dwarven clan and assume that she's a naive child unused to adventuring, and she's quite willing to play along if it will earn her and her friends some advantage. In particular, exaggerating her NaiveNewcomer credentials when visiting Menzobarazzan lets her wreak some serious havoc.
* PeacefulInDeath: She dies peacefully in her sleep, after initially appearing to have survived her exposure to the Spellplague.
* SquishyWizard: [[spoiler: After her rebirth. She kept her magic powers but since she was raised as a normal girl by normal parents, she never relearned to fight]]
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Has this reaction after the first time she killed another human. Notably, she'd killed quite a few orcs and goblins before, and indeed had just slaughtered a group of grey dwarves a few moments before with a bow.

* BackFromTheDead: ''Charon's Claw'' shows [[spoiler: him rising from his grave as a vampire, rather unhappy about the whole situation.]] ''Relentless'' shows [[spoiler:his being cured of his vampirism and becoming a living flesh and blood person again.]]

* IdenticalGrandson: A flashback in ''The Legacy'' introduces us to Thibbledorf's ancestor Crommower Pwent. Crommower is every bit as loyal, violent, courageous and stinky as Thibbledorf. Crommower also serves as bodyguard and confidant to Gandalug Battlehammer, Bruenor's ancestor and the founder of Mithril Hall, much as Thibbledorf does for Bruenor in the modern era.

* PowerFist: Uses his armored gauntlets to punch the hell out of enemies. Some art depicts them with [[WolverineClaws wolverine...spikes]].

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Forms the "Gutbuster Brigade", a unit of shock troop battleragers, in Mithril Hall, named for Thibbledorf's favorite drink. "Gutbuster" tastes vile, but is so potent that it makes the drinker almost immune to drow sleeping poison.

* BackFromTheDead: In ''Passage to Dawn''. [[spoiler: And again in "The Companions".]]

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: His years of work along the dwarves in mines and forges made him far stronger than any human. (He literally was stronger than it was possible for a human to be barring magic in 2nd Edition rules).

* FireForgedFriends: With Drizzt and Guenhwyvar. When he first meets Drizzt, Wulfgar calls him a sorcerous dog and believes Drizzt can teach him nothing worth learning. Drizzt then (with Bruenor's permission) beats him in the span of a couple of seconds and over the span of several tendays, Wulfgar learns a great deal from Drizzt and respects him. The trio then work together to take out twelve giants together and then Icingdeath and their friendship is forever solidified.
* ForgingScene: Gets one after the TimeSkip in the first book as something of an EstablishingCharacterMoment for how the years of service have changed him.
* TheGiant: He is 7 feet tall and 350 pounds, all of it muscle. In the course of the books only a handful of the people he meets are of comparable size with him, much less larger.

* HeroicBuild: Wulfgar is insanely muscled, with broad shoulders, a massive chest, a powerful back, huge legs, a small waist and arms thicker than a fat dwarf's thighs.

* PutOnABus: Got in a fight with a [[EldritchAbomination yochlol]] and nearly won...only to be [[RocksFallEveryoneDies crushed to death]], then [[DraggedOffToHell got taken to the Abyss]] to [[FateWorseThanDeath be a balor's plaything]] for seven years. While the effects were felt by the other characters, the manner in which Wulfgar was removed was abrupt, to say the least.

* SuperStrength: Several of Wulfgar's feats of strength are beyond what even a vey strong man could accomplish. His strength is greater than Ogres and Trolls, races much stronger than humans and rivals that of Hill Giants. One of his first on-page fights has him perform a NeckSnap on a verbeeg (a lesser giant twice as tall as a human) with his bare arms, and another has him squashing a similarly large and powerful barbarian king's skull between his hands.

* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: To Catti-brie, who ends up with Drizzt.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Artemis gets slapped hard in the face with this after spending time in Menzoberranzan and meeting an entire CITY of people who think they are (and some are) better than he is at what he does. Despite all the work he has put into his skills, he is put into a position where he cannot kill anyone to raise his status, and most of the population are killers on an equal level with him.
* ArchNemesis: To Drizzt. Artemis despised Drizzt because, despite their near-equal abilities in combat, Drizzt devoted his life to, well, his ''life'', gaining friends and actually having a life worth living, whereas Entreri honed himself into a soulless killing machine and ''still'' couldn't quite match him. He sees in Drizzt the hollow emptiness of his own existence. Drizzt, for his part, hates Entreri both because he's an evil bastard, and because he sees in Entreri what he could have become if things had been different. [[spoiler:Entreri later grows out of it. He comes to respect Drizzt for the choices he took in life and the friends he made, rather than despise him for them, and as Entreri becomes a better person, Drizzt hates him less and less.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: It is revealed in the short story ''The Third Level'' and later in ''Road of the Patriarch'' that Entreri was physically and sexually abused as a child and was sold to a pedophile merchant who later intended to sell him into slavery.

* EvilWeapon: The above mentioned Charon's Claw is a cursed weapon. Doesn't have a personality aside from vague impulses, but will burn its owner alive from the inside out the minute he drops his guard. In the ''Neverwinter'' storyline, it is revealed that it has enslaved Entreri and is keeping him alive to torture him.

* JokerImmunity: Enteri's suffered multiple DisneyDeath (in one book, he "died" 3 times) and comes back every time. He's one of the few people Drizzt knows that survived a 100 year time skip.

* Naytheist: He never doubts the existence or the power of the gods, but he flatly despises all of them on principle. This extends to clergy as well; Entreri decides he hates Cadderly Bonaduce before they even meet as soon as he hears that Cadderly is a priest of Deneir. This turns out to be a lingering resentment from childhood, as he grew up in a hovel that was exploited mercilessly by priests of Selune.

* ShutUpKirk: Just before Artemis's (self-anticipated) death, Drizzt starts in on a KirkSummation, which Artemis cuts off before it really gets going.
-->'''Drizzt:''' "A man of your skills could contribute...".
-->'''Artemis:''' "Spare me your idiocy".

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: With Drizzt to an extent. He is perfectly willing to let Drizzt become a sacrifice to Lolth, but only if he is allowed the chance to defeat him in a fair battle first.
* TheStoic: Is known for his cold, emotionless personality until he started partnering with Jarlaxle, and, thanks to Idalia's Flute, he became NotSoStoic.
* ThatManIsDead: Literally said word for word at the end of ''Road of the Patriarch''. A variant by the time of the Neverwinter trilogy: Artemis/Barrabus doesn't care how people address him, and Drizzt spends the latter third of the book calling him Entreri. Herzgo Alegni, however, has a decided opinion on the matter.

* VillainousRescue: Entreri frees and teams up with Catti-Brie in ''Starless Night'' to free the captured Drizzt in the hopes that Drizzt will help lead him to the surface and away from Menzoberranzan.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Jarlaxle. Although the vitrol is almost entirely one-sided on Entreri's part, as his repeated threats to murder Jarlaxle are only met with amused laughter.

* ArchEnemy: Self-proclaimed arch enemy to Drizzt, at one point declaring himself "He who hates Drizzt most".

** DragonInChief: Errtu is about a thousand times more dangerous than Kessell and that's probably underselling it.

* {{Expy}}: Like all Balor is one of the Balrog of Moira. Errtu is significantly chattier, though.

* MotiveDecay: Becomes more obsessed with Drizzt than the Crystal Shard, because {{revenge}}. (Then again, even the smartest demons are known for getting distracted from broader goals; comes with being ''chaotic'' evil).

* WingedHumanoid: Stretch on the humanoid part, but two arms, to legs, a head, and a torso.

* MadeOfIron: Drizzt seemingly outfights Heafstaag during the barbarian invasion, impaling him on one scimitar and gutting him with another. Heafstaag is so tough he still bashes Drizzt with the flat of his axe, nearly killing the drow in one hit. Drizzt is especially dismayed to realize that Heafstaag would survive even the wounds Drizzt inflicted on him.
* TheWorfEffect: Inflicts this on Drizzt when they fight. Heafstaag is so durable he manages to overcome the vicious blows Drizzt hits him with, and nearly kills Drizzt when he retaliates. Drizzt realizes that Heafstaag would heal from their fight, but he might not be so lucky as he collapses on the field.

* BadassPreacher: One of the most powerful clerics on Toril, period. And being a Chosen of Deneir ramps this up to eleven thanks to his mastery of the Song of Universal Harmony.

* TheChosenOne: Chosen of Deneir

* TheBerserker: Not a core element of her fighting style as it would be for, say, a barbarian, but a valuable tool in her arsenal. Being a monk means discipline and control are paramount for her, but it also means that if she needs to power through pain, injury and hostile magic by switching off her brain and going into a mad battle-frenzy, she can do that and trust in her peerless martial expertise to see her through.

* HotBlooded: Has a habit of running straight into battle laughing.

* WaifFu: She's 100 lbs soaking wet and and beats up men twice her size. It's heavily implied that every ounce of it is pure muscle.

* BashBrothers: With Ivan

* GeniusDitz: Often comes up with clever plans, and has saved the day more than once with a BigDamnedHeroes moment. But still, he's a bit of a ditz. Furthermore, he managed to become a druid at a time when, by the background rules of the setting, only humans, elves and half-elves could do that.

* FantasticRacism: Against drow, thanks in part to being a surface elf, and in part do to [[TragicBigot a very bad childhood experience.]]
* FreakOut: When Drizzt visits the Moonwood in ''Starless Night'' she gets one good look at him and then attacks him.

* OurElvesAreDifferent: [[AvertedTrope Not so much in this setting]], as moon elves are as bog standard as elves get. Still, this is a series that is positively dripping with the much more exotic Drow, so this is actually exceptional.

* UngratefulBitch: Drizzt saves her as a child, refuses to harm her in a later book even though she attacks him with no provocation. She thanks him by blaming him for her mother's death and then spends ''Sea of Swords'' will the sole purpose of finding him so she can kill him. In her defense, she's not all there.
* VillainousCrossdresser: Inverted: she's a female elf who disguises herself as a male.

* ConflictingLoyalty: In ''Servant of The Shard'' between Jarlaxle and Rai-guy. He didn't want to betray Jarlaxle, out of loyalty to him for saving his life after the fall of House Oblodra, but he eventually sided with Rai-guy because he believed that Jarlaxle's behaviour would destroy Bregan D'aerthe.

* LastOfHisKind: The only survivor of the destruction of House Oblodra, meaning he's currently the only Drow psionicist left in the world. (No exactly correct: it was never mentioned that members of House Oblodra are the only psionicists among the drow)
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Rai-guy, one of the few people that Kimmuriel genuinely likes. Their friendship(so to speak)is strong enough that Kimmuriel doesn't need too much convincing to join him in a coup against Jarlaxle, to whom Kimmuriel owes his life.

* UnequalRites: Like most psionicists, he has nothing but contempt for magic-users. Notable exceptions include Archmage Gromph, whom he knows is powerful enough to destroy even mind-flayers if he has to, and Rai-Guy, with whom he has mutal respect.

!!Khazid’hea/Cutter.

* BloodKnight: Oh yeah. At one point, when the narration follows Khazid’hea, while Catti-Brie is recovering from serious leg injuries and won’t be fighting for what everyone estimates to be at least a month, it takes the time to point out that Cutter ''hates'' peace.
* BowAndSwordInAccord: How Catti-Brie utilizes Cutter.
* CoolSword: While it’s [[EvilWeapon not a very nice sword]], it is quite an awesome sword to have. It can even alter its own hilt to look like something its current/potential wielder might like; to its annoyance, however, it can't reshape its blade.

* GreenEyedMonster: It gets very upset if it isn’t the one doing the killing. It believes bows are a “cowards” weapon, likely due in no small part to the fact that as a melee weapon, it can’t be mercilessly cutting down enemies when it’s nowhere near them, and that every enemy taken down with an arrow is one it doesn’t get to kill.
* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: In a way, it seems to view partnership with a worthy warrior as quasi-romantic and battle while being wielded by them like sex.

* MeaningfulName: Many characters and the narration note how Cutter’s name is quite apropriate.

* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: The only thing that rivals its bloodlust is its desire to be wielded by a great warrior. It’s content to be wielded by someone of Catti-Brie’s skill, but it longs for someone like Drizzt to keep and use it. If it doesn’t deem its current wielder worthy, it will try to get them killed, hoping that whoever picks it up next is more suitable than the last. [[spoiler:When it's given to a revived Zaknafein, it's initially angry until it realizes Zaknafein's skill. It's soon very satisfied with its new lot.]]

* ThisIsMyNameOnForeign: Khazid’hea means “cutter” in the Drow language. Interestingly, while it means the same thing, the characters often refer to “Cutter” as a nickname for the blade, rather than a straight translation of it’s name.
* TokenEvilTeammate: Khazid’hea to Catti-Brie, Khazid’hea to the companions, Khazid’hea to...pretty much anyone who doesn’t have a similar mind/goal as it. And it’s ''always'' hungry for blood & death. [[spoiler:It calms down quite a bit when it's given a to a revived Zaknafein. Zak is a swordsman to rival Drizzt and constantly fighting, which makes Khazid'hea more than pleased to be wielded by him.]]

* AManIsAlwaysEager: Averted; while he is a sexually active character, he made a habbit of surrounding himself with the most beautiful female orcs in his kingdom, letting them grind against him during feasts and warcouncils, and showing absolutely no interest in them as a way of showing off to his men how much more disciplined and controlled he was compared to them (while also demonstrating, when the time was right, he was not afraid to ''absolutely go to town'' on a willing woman).

* ArmourIsUseless: Averted. His armour saves his life again and again.

* BadassBoast: To Drizzt;

* CombatPragmatist: Subtle, as generally speaking he's just plain good enough that he doesn't need to resort to dirty tricks, but he does have one ploy that he uses to deadly effect; when attacking, he wills his FlamingSword to blink on and off if quick succession to mess with his opponent's vision and present an opening.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When Obould appears on the battlefield before the protagonists for the first time, he immediately kills a high level wizard, ignores arrows from Catti-Brie's bow, and defeats Wulfgar-who has been explicitly noted to have extraordinary strength even for a barbarian- in one-on-one combat.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: ''Everyone'' is sure he died of his DisneyVillainDeath even though Drizzt survived the exact same fall. It is very quickly revealed that he's NotQuiteDead.

* OhCrap: the reaction of everyone on the dwarves battlefield when Obould manages to best Wulfgar in single combat.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: In his case, he does ''a lot,'' not only leading his men in battle, but also forging an exceptional orc kingdom.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: The very idea that an orc could be as badass as Obould is is utterly incomprehensible to the Companions of the Hall. This both serves him well and bites him in the ass; in battle he has the edge(not that he really needs it) because they think he'll far less formidable than he is. On the other hand, when he seeks to try and force negotiations, that same underestimation leads them to think that fighting him is the better option.

* EpicFlail: Athrogate [[DualWielding dual wields]] morning stars. When activated, one causes anything metallic it hits to rust, the other causes an explosion on impact.[[note]]He does ''not'' {{carry a big stick}}. Despite some artwork, Athrogate's weapons are described on numerous occasions as having chains separating the long handles from the heads, and what's written is canon. Also, though his weapons are called Morning Stars, which is what spiked maces are often called, "Mrning Star" actually only refers to the head of the weapon, spikes required. Whether there is a chain or not is irrelevant.[[/note]]

* HonorBeforeReason: While his ''reasons'' for fighting are rarely benevolent and are often selfish, when the fight actually gets started, he's as honourable as they come, if more than a bit brutal. He had two golden opportunities to kill Drizzt during their fight, and he passed up both of them because it would have been un-sportsmanlike.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Inverted. He's the only male priest of Lolth introduced the the series. He also had a surprisingly high status in the female-dominated religion.

* BaldOfEvil: Mostly, anyway; has a single bit of hair tied back in a long [[EvilRedhead red and black]] braid. Later does a HeelFaceTurn.

* DarkActionGirl: It really says something when your overall demeanor is the darkest in party that also includes Artemis Entreri.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Tortured her vampire lover for information, then told him to make love to her, and that if he didn't, or didn't do it well, she would kill him. While this isn't portrayed as a positive act, it isn't treated as horribly as depictions of her own rape; it serves more to demonstrate that she's a powerful character, and no sympathy is given to the vampire over it.

* RapeAsBackstory: Main reason for the offing of the offspring.

* SamusIsAGirl: For the most part Guen is referred to with the pronoun "It's" or as "the cat", this was editorial mandate as Salvatore was told by Creator/TSR that as a magical item she couldn't have a gender. Early printings of the books got her gender wrong when copy-editors changed some of these to "he". Salvatore has gone on record saying his was horrified by this as he always intended her to be female.

* SwissArmyWeapon: Includes a three-sectioned staff, [[DualWielding dual]] [[EpicFlail flails]], [[BladeOnAStick spear]], and [[CarryABigStick batons]], complete with [[ShockAndAwe lightning.]]

* BettyAndVeronica: Veronica to Wulfgar's Betty for Catti-brie's Archie. Swapped after Wulfgar TookALevelInJerkass in the runup to his and Catti-brie's marriage.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: His rival is dismissive of him, his daughters don't respect him or his "title," the other males don't seem to care about him, and Malice only kept him around so she could have more children. Even when he died, the text mentioned that nobody actually cared.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: His years of work along the dwarves in mines and forges made him far stronger than any human. (He literally was stronger than it was possible for a human to be barring magic in 2nd Edition rules.)

* InNameOnly: Game-stat example. In every appearance, he is universally described as an assassin. But when the Time of Troubles rolled around, Creator/RASalvatore got a phone call saying that the writing team planned to have all assassins die as part of a massive ritual. Not wanting to lose a beloved character, Salvatore replied, "He's not really an assassin; just a fighter with a few levels of thief who specializes in killing people."

-->'''Drizzt:''' "A man of your skills could contribute..."
-->'''Artemis:''' "Spare me your idiocy."

* ArchEnemy: Self-proclaimed arch enemy to Drizzt, at one point declaring himself "He who hates Drizzt most."

* MotiveDecay: Becomes more obsessed with Drizzt than the Crystal Shard, because {{revenge}}. (Then again, even the smartest demons are known for getting distracted from broader goals; comes with being ''chaotic'' evil.)

-->'''Jarlaxle:''' "Something had created Athrogate as he was; something had broken the dwarf to that base level, where he had no emotional defense other than a wall of ridicule and self-ridicule, fastened by the occasional rap of a mighty morningstar and hidden by the more-than-occasional drink."

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Has been spelled both "Rai'gy" and "Rai-guy."

* SerialKiller: Surprisingly close to being one, with a set hunting-pattern and pre- and post-kill rituals, though she hasn't shown any preferred type of victim besides "people who are useful to her."

* HornedHumanoid: Ram-like horns that are said to be "like Algeni's."

* OlderThanTheyLook: A minor example, in that while Effron is in his twenties, he's described as looking like "a young teenager." Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact [[spoiler: his mother is an elf]].

* RedRightHand: More "practically-boneless left arm," but yes.

* DualWielding: Though he's good with anything, his preferred style is two swords. Sometimes he goes with a sword and [[WhipItGood a whip]], but only when going up against priestesses of Lolth, presumably for the irony (whips being the preferred weapon of such priestesshood).

* SadistTeacher: Her methods for raising Drizzt to understand drow society involved quite a healthy number of lashes from her whip. Unlike most sadist teachers, it's shown she doesn't take much pleasure in it.

* WhipItGood: Another Balor racial ability.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He may be the most dangerous warrior in his army.

* {{Catchphrase}}: "Or I'm a bearded gnome!"

** DyingMomentOfAwesome: After killing the pit fiend, he pulls the lever (which only he can pull) that will stop a volcano from erupting.

* OlderThanTheyLook: A minor example, in that while Effron is in his twenties, he's described as looking like "a young teenager."
** Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact [[spoiler: his mother is an elf]].

* BodyHorror: What happens to him in ''The Legacy'': [[spoiler:he's transformed into a drider]].

* NoPronunciationGuide: Officially, his first name is pronounced "''Drist''", but a lot of people also say "Driz-et" or other pronunciations. Author Creator/RASalvatore seems to pronounce it as "Dritz" in interviews although he has also used "Drist" and "Drzit", the ''Demon Stone'' video game has it pronounced "Drid-st". It's lampshaded at least once a novel as well!

* BareYourMidriff: Besides his eyepatch, cape, and hat, Jarlaxle's other iconic piece of clothing is a short vest that exposes his abs.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Most of the barbarians hate Akar Kessell and don't want to fight for him, but Heafstaag's pledged their allegiance to him. With so many of the barbarians' best warriors killed during the war with Ten Towns, none of them can legally challenge Heafstaag for the tribal throne. Wulfgar resolves to change that.

* KillEmAll: Khazid’hea has one strategy, and “KillEmAll” sums it up without missing any details.

* AnAxeToGrind: Signature weapon is a one-handed battle-axe and a shield.

* AnAxeToGrind: His weapon of choice is a large battle-axe.

* AnAxeToGrind

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: This is the specific magical ability of his WeaponOfChoice, Aegis-fang. It's far more accurate when thrown than such a massive, ungainly warhammer should be and instantly returns to Wulfgar's hand after it finds its mark, making it a reliably nasty (and lethal) surprise for anyone who assumes he's only a CloseRangeCombatant.

* DarkSkinnedRedHead: Not very dark, but rather tanned.

* KnifeNut: He has a bracer that produces an unlimited amount of throwing knives. He puts them to good use.

* BalefulPolymorph: Clacker is a pech, who was polymorphed into a hook horror by the same human wizard who killed his friends. When Drizzt and Belwar meet him, he is slowly but surely losing himself to his new hook horror personality.

* AbsoluteCleavage: Cut down to just over her belly.

* DepravedBisexual
* DeathSeeker