In the case of ICEWIND DALE, Salvatore addresses the fact that in the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting dark elves/drow are considered irredeemably 100% evil by virtue of their race. For the ten years prior to that, they were treated as such in almost every gaming product and novel they appeared in. Salvatore inverted that and used it to address - in baby steps perhaps - the topics of prejudice and racism. Not very effectively, perhaps, but by the standards of D&D fiction this was a cut above - if only minuscully above - the standard fare.

Plus it helps that the dark elf in question dual-wields cool swords and his barbarian mate single-handedly kills a dragon at one point.

The DRAGONLANCE books were unusual (again, by the very moderate standards of the day) in focusing on a morally ambiguous protagonist (Raistlin) and his being pulled back and forth between the forces of good and evil, law and order, reality and delusion. It's like BABY'S FIRST THOMAS COVENANT, only without an awkward early rape scene and with the single most annoying character in the history of reading (Tasselhoff 'Jar-Jar Before There Was A Jar-Jar' Burrfoot) inserted instead.