Can't get past the entryway to Drizzit's shelter or deep into the Lucratta lair near the very beginning of the game. The hint book says to use a jump potion in the Lucratta lair but it doesn't work, nor does Drizzit's levitate ability. Any suggestions? Thanks...!

You can only go up and down using levitate, not forward, making this spell/potion absolutely worthless.
When you drink a jump potion you'll see "Jump" in your characters' skill menu.

Drizzt's shelter doesn't have a high ceiling, so jumps won't function here.
Also be sure to turn stepping mode off when you seem to be stuck behind an object.
Sometimes you can't pass an object with stepping mode on while you CAN pass it in the other mode.
It's a rather clumsy system.

Thanks....I've been stuck waiting for a reply. I plan to try it out today...hopefully I can move on further into the game.

Again, thanks. It worked. Got through the leucrotta lair and Drizzit's shetlter...got the gems enchanted and I'm off to the underdark. Personallly, I don't like turning off stepping mode but at times it is the only way to move forward.

Yeah, I can't say they tested this game very well. I recently played through Menzoberranzan, Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession and Ravenloft: Stone Prophet and the two Ravenloft games hardly have this problem at all. But in Menzoberranzan, be ready to switch stepping mode off many times.

Strahd's Possession has the problem that you might not be able to fight back in stepping mode, because monsters move in free mode and may attack you from an 45° angle (if there is enough open space on the map), while you can only turn in 90° angles in stepping mode.

Yeap, Strahd's Possession's superfast ADHD enemies are a real pain in the backside. They also seem to have a longer reach than you, so you always need to step towards them in order to attack.
Add to that the fact that a -lot- of late game enemies level drain you (and there's no cure) and you have a recipe for headaches.
Definitely my least favourite of the Ravenloft/Menzoberranzan games, even though the overall feeling of dread and hopelessness surrounding you everywhere created an amazing atmosphere.

Yes, lots of level draining enemies. I mean it's Ravenloft, you'd expect to find a lot of undead there. Negative plane protection on your front row characters is a must there. And being able to kill enemies quickly. The game also has incredibly strong golems (zombie golem!). But luckily they are all of the undead kind and can be turned by an experienced cleric. And then they spin helplessly and can safely be hacked to pieces.

Level draining is a bitch even if you have access to a restoration spell, because that spell drops you at the beginning of the lost level. So your characters can still lose hundred thousands of xp. It actually is my favourite game of the series. Mainly because of the atmosphere.

Those spells don't exist in Ravenloft 1, making the problem just a teeny bit worse. :P
You can circumvent the problem with a lot of saving and loading and keeping your protection from negative plane spell up.

I know.

But I just encountered that problem in Dungeon Hack, where my character got level drained, used a wand of restoring and still had lost more than 100k xp.

That was when I used power word reload.