When a buddy was trying to give me a Forgotten Realms summary a few years back, I recall that Jarlaxale was like Batman in terms of always having some magic ass-pull of plot armor up his sleeve.
I don't even know if you would call Jarlaxle a villain these days. He has ended wars and saved good guys so many times I'm not particularly sure what's evil about him.
I feel like if I present this guy to my players they'll make a relax (relaxle?) pun out of his name and immediately get their ass handed to them for it.
He might be familiar and have mispronounced it for years because of a misleading side-glance. Drow names are tricky in general, you just need to listen for the half-dozen different pronunciations of Drizzt's name to make that apparent.
I don't care. I have called it House Baerne instead of Baenre in my head for over 20 years now, no way that's ever going to change. I can understand if other people have those same kind of brainfarts when it comes to drow names.
I remember those books, Jarlaxle was sooo cool. A male drow with no problem throwing his weight around to the other houses, and putting the matriarchs in their places.
He sounds broken. He sounds like a DM's PC. In order for him to have any kind of level of skills her needs to pretty much know everything the DM knows.
Or you steal his boat, smash stuff, and generally cause enough of a disturbance that the watch gets involved. Yes, the book actually suggests ways to defeat him, and while there are others one is to steal his boats while he isn’t home, go on a joyride, and cause chaos. I mean you’re not gonna kill him, but that’s the case for every villain in waterdeep, I mean one of them is a godamned beholder and this is a 1-4 level campaign!
TL:DR: Yes. Perhaps a cross between Littlefinger and Show!Daario Naharis? Though Jarlaxle is more aloof than either. Pretty similar in their mindset, (At least for the first few seasons) though Jarlaxle is as much mercenary as he is information broker, whereas LF is as much entrepreneur as he is political ladder-climber. Littlefinger is more "No loose ends" and Jarlaxle is more "An enemy turned to my cause, knowingly or not, is around twice as efficient as a enemy killed." That and Jarlaxle doesn't have some grand scheme of revenge that will plunge several kingdoms into chaos because some Chad roughed him up as a kid when he tried to swoop in on Chad's girl. He finds grudges to be entirely unproductive and prefers to focus on ever greater profits. Long-story made short, Jarlaxle gets kind of bored of the deadly decadent court that is Menzoberranzan and so he decides to dick around on the surface. I can't imagine Petyr Baelish ever being so whimsical.
Could someone with more experience as DnD player or DM give me an advice? I've read the Drizzt novels and I know what kind of person Jarlaxle is. I'm just starting to play in a campaign in Waterdeep, and my character is a Drow born in Menzoberranzan, so it makes perfect sense that I would know Jarlaxle in character. So my question is, when(and if) our party meets him, do I just say outright "Oh maaan... I know Jarlaxle, from way back. He is so and so", or I should ask the DM to roll a history check on him? EDIT: I guess it will be better to ask for a History roll... The thing is, if I roll a 1 it will be very hard to pretend ingame, that I have no idea who Jarlaxle is :D Then again, if I have picked a human character, I would have to pretend to know nothing of Jarlaxle anyway...
If, then Mollymauk reminds of Jarlaxle.. You always find characters with some reminicense of guys like Jaraxle, Drizzt, and other of those rememberable guys
I introduced him into my campaign recently when my players where in Luskan and none of them had ever heard of him so I'm having so much fun making them trust him while he's secretly plotting to acquire some of their more interesting magical items.
I've been waiting for a published adventure featuring Jarlaxle since the first time I met him in the Drizzt novels. This is basically a dream come true.
He can also play a role late in "Out of the Abyss", though it's probably nowhere near as much as he is in this. Meeting with Jarlaxle is one of several ways you can get into this tower where one of the Plot Coupons is, and one of the two that can get you in the front door with ease. The other is meeting his sister, Quenthel Baerne, and convince *her* to let you in. Quenthel, by the way, is the Matron Mother of House Baerne AND a Chosen of Lolth, making her essentially the mortal ruler of all dark elves. And she's got the magical might to back it up if you piss her off - she can cast any cleric spell up to 9th AT WILL as a 20th level caster, plus she can use a disintegrate spell as an action while sitting on her throne.
WotC stopped all novel publications for whatever idiotic reason. RA Salvatore still has intellectual property rights however and much of D&D is open to publication due to ogl.
I love this character and I'm thinking about using them as the villian! Can someone clarify whats evil about him though, what evil things would he get up to if he got a hold of the hoard of dragons?
jacob wyles I know this is late but Jarlaxle funnily enough is not evil aligned, he’s chaotic neutral and if I remember correctly I think he wants to buy an extreme amount of political power within the city because of how much of an asset that would be to him
I think he’s a villain in the sense that his goals can often conflict with yours. You may need what he wants, and he’s not going to be persuaded otherwise. Usually.
I am three years late... LOL: From my experience reading from Homeland up to Hero this is my subjective view on the character: Jarlaxle doesn't really have "Evil" for the sake of being evil in his mind. He's more of the Jack Sparrow archetype, albeit with a more refined sense of control about him. He'd rather not see the world on fire, for he lives here and quite likes to live a life of comfort, if this means joining heroes or helping out in some way to make sure the world he likes to live in comfort lives on, then he will do so. He won't betray you if he thinks you're of value to him. Unless it's more valuable to him to betray you. But there's a line he won't cross. He'll eventually form friendships with people: See: Athrogate, Drizzt, Entreri, etc., he'll go out of his way to help people he considers his friends. He'll make sure you're not harmed in his controlled areas, etc. But make no mistake, he's ever an opportunist, and there's nothing he doesn't do, without self-gain on the mind in some way, shape, or form. So even if he's joining you on some extravagant quest to quash a beast like some gallant hero, there's something else at play. The beast either has something he wants, or he considers it a threat to his own interests, and figures helping you, would make his own job easier. This is a character that relishes in freedom, self-improvement, and power of the self that can separate him from the city of his birth, a place he feels claustrophobic in the matron-ruled Menzo of which he's always on the lookout to be rid of. It's one of the reasons why he took over Luskan, to oversee the city from the surface, under the guise of opening trade routes to the Underdark through Luskan. Matron Baenre throwing him out was the best thing that ever happened to him. It gave him a freedom that most male drow would only wish to experience. His cunning and refusal to stay down granted him a level of power surpassed only, perhaps, by his older brother, of which I think now also resides in Luskan (See: Archmage). tl;dr: I have the mind to call him Chaotic Neutral. Rather than any of the evil alignments.
Our party is soooo stuck. How on earth do we go about getting the eye from Jarlaxle!?!? We are only Level 6, I guess defeating him is out of the question!?
