Pirengle:
"While it is true that evil roleplayers will still want to kill Drizzt (he IS on the side of good, after all), they would be killing him for who he is, not what he carries. In that case, the gear would be icing on the cake."
I'm sure you know this, P, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
Not necessarily all roleplayed evil characters would want to kill Drizzt. (In my mind, actually, it'd take an awful lot of bloodlust AND nuts of steel to attack Drizzt outright anyway.) Some evil characters may simply be unconcerned with the danger Drizzt faces - particularly since there're no "shinies" involved for being concerned. Or maybe you *help* him thinking that, in return for saving his life, he'll surrender to your bidding (gotta love those life debts) - only for him to spit on your plans by skipping off as fast as his legs can carry him. D'oh! [img]tongue.gif[/img]
On the other side of the coin, an extrodinarily Drow-prejudiced "good" character *may* be able to justify killing Drizzt. The character could see killing Drizzt as a moral good - purging the Sword Coast of Drow scourge - and stopping his alleged(!) do-goodery.
Whatever option is taken, the character should remain consistent. So if a character hates Drow so much he'll kill even Drizzt, the character should also attack other Drow at every possible opportunity. Consistency.
This gets back to the concept that (as noted on another forum recently) the alignment system is for developing your character. "I'm Lawful Good" doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. Alignment can help develop a character's story and history, but, IMO, it has far less bearing on a character's choices than does the character's personality, backstory, and values. To test this yourself, try playing Chaotic Evil with and without character development. It's far more difficult, for me at least, to roleplay "Chaotic Evil" than it is to roleplay "a Chaotic Evil mage who Gorion locked in the dungeon for most of her childhood where her only entertainment was mutilating the 'ratsies' and torturing the occasional prisoner." The second screams serial killer; I have an idea of what I could do with her. I could even expand a bit further: She hates father figures and goes absolutely berserk at the prospect of being imprisoned. She even slipped a poisoned dagger into Gorion's back when they were ambushed outside of Candlekeep - just to make sure.
"It's only through the use of foul play that players can obtain his items."
Hm. So, are you saying the lack of a summon limit is an actual bug? I know it was fixed somewhat in BG2, but I've not seen it called a bug in BG1 before. Definitely cheese, though.
-Lem