Forgotten Realms General? Forgotten Realms General.

>>50504655
First for Lathander is best god. His light will purify these forgotten lands of evil.

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>>50505009
He's actually the worst. Sammaster did nothing wrong.

>>50504655
Which realms?

>>50505823
We've all forgotten.


>>50504655
Actually, favorite forgotten realms of people?

>>50505945
Amn. No contest.

Why is Larloch so sexy?

>>50507000
Only you can answer that question.

>>50505945
Damara and Vassa, no contest.

>>50506780
You know Larloch is smokin'.

Question for FR DMs. Anybody here ever add an OC deity to the already overstuffed pantheon of the Realms?

>>50507235
Sure, you, as the DM, essentially play the part of Ao, the overseer and babysitter of the divine toddlers that is the Faerunian pantheons.

You can elevate, include, demote as you wish.

>>50507274
Does that make the Avatar Crisis a timeout and the Sundering the end of a play date?

>>50507289
Yes. Yes, it does. This is remarkably apt.

>>50507274
Incorrect. Ao is subservient to a greater power, implied heavily to be the DM. Still, DMs have the right to add deities as they wish.

Personally, I never have. Part of the appeal for me with the Realms is that the pantheon is so well described and fleshed out. I have no need to add to it.

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>>50507274
>>50507289
>>50507361
Close enough.

>>50507539
>Incorrect. Ao is subservient to a greater power, implied heavily to be the DM.
That's always been retarded.

>>50507588
Canon is canon, stupid as you may feel it is. Personally, I quite liked it. It was a minor and nice nod to DMs.

>>50507633
There's never been any instance of so-called "canon" that's completely fucking retarded?

And Ao shouldn't answer to anybody, because you as the DM are Ao. Otherwise, it's like saying the Lady of Pain is answerable and subservient to a great power.

>>50507633
It's completely unneeded and deliberately obnoxious.

i was thinking of doing a character from the dale lands who's family had been killed by a zhentarim raid. does that sound legit?

>>50507708
>overdone as fuck
>child of sembian spies killed by the zhentarim in the court of corrmandyr taken in by a purple dragon knight that found the child
>you start off as a fighter and will multiclass into rogue as your uncle visits the court and recognizes you for whom you are and offers to start training you as he did his younger brother. after that, you go your own way to avenge your parent's death.

What system are people playing in?

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>Forever DM is massive FR fanboy
>Half the group has read at least a dozen FR novels
>All games take place in FR pre-spellplague
>Newer/less well-read members (including 2 females) sit in awkward silence as the FR nerds discuss or argue over aspects of the setting midgame

>>50507815
2e. The last good one.

>>50507815
Neverwinter Nights

>>50507878
Baldur's Gate II and Throne of Bhaal bro.

>>50507815
5e

>>50507920
Any good as a system? The SCAG was very meh.

>>50507918
Baulders Gate doesn't have roleplaying servers

>>50507963
My group is 15 years ongoing with a few who have played since 2e and we love it. We played 4e for a brief time before dumping it for Pathfinder until 5e came out.

To be honest, we're running 5e with 3e FR flavor. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book from 3e is our primary source material until a lot more comes out for 5e. As far as we're concerned, the Spellplague never happened.

>>50505009
im playing a lathander cleric atm during the time of troubles

>>50508145
Are you trying to convert and/or smite everyone blatantly evil?

>>50508275
I'm spreading the words of Lathander by erecting a temple in his name in the town of Tilverton to house the Blade of Lathander we have left over from the curse of the azure bonds adventure.

But yes there has been quite a lot of undead smiting and my character is constantly trying to get the party rogue to step out of the shadows and into the light.

>>50508047
>the Spellplague never happened.
It sure didn't. And good stuff. 1e and especially 2e Realms had the best fluff and best supplements.

How are you finding the lowered power levels running in 5e?

>>50508357
Good stuff.

That's what Lathander would've wanted.

>>50504655
How is Forgotten Realms across all five editions of D&D? What are the strengths and the flaws of each?

>>50508513
the 100 year time jump completely fucked over FR.

or rather the fact that nothing that happened in those 100 years has been fleshed out has fucked FR over.

all the pre spellplague stuff is pretty good desu

>>50508513
1e and 2e had the best fluff and best supplements bar none. Lands of Intrigue, the Faiths & Avatars line, Cloak and Dagger, all of these came from this time period.

3e was alright, the supplements got more crunch heavy and stats heavy, which is alright if you want those kinds of games. They did include the mercantile monopolizing Red Wizards faction so that was pretty great and Bane got brought back from the dead, triumphantly exploding from the shell of his son's body.

4e had the Spellplague and the sundering of Abeir-Toril into Abeir and Toril. 4e Realms was good if you didn't have any investment in the setting beforehand and liked a fucked up Realms.

5e brought back a huge number of deceased deities into the pantheons again and basically retconned what happened in 4e without calling it a retcon.

I have a copy of Forgotten Realms, but I never got around to reading it, and I really love Ebberon. What are the best things about Forgotten Realms?

>>50507840
10/10
Would bang

>>50509093
What edition?

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>>50509093
The best things about Forgotten Realms?

Sexy sado masochistic drow. "There's no safe word where you're going, pretty lady."

>>50509173
3.5, thinking about getting the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (so 3.5 & 5th)

had a fun campaign where our party was a genasi paladin, imaskari mage and a netherese mage. Basically it was a buddy cop/archer where we went around diffusing potential situations and taking out members of our nations who threatened the delicate peace. We were noble warriors trying to keep the cold war cold.

>>50509198
Access the 1e and 2e troves for the 1e and 2e supplements. Read through those instead.

I recommend Lands of Intrigue for the nations of Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan, the Faiths & Avatars line for sweet details on the Faerunian faiths (they are hands down some of the best supplements to come out of any setting), Cloak and Dagger for organizations.

FR is similar to Greyhawk in that it's high fantasy, but also bears some real world analogues and influences.
What specifically would you like to know?

>>50509274
What would you say is the best thing about Forgotten Realms as a campaign setting?

whats the kobold lore? Where the kobolds at?

>>50509322
The sheer abundance of lore and that it's all quite well written even if it gets a bit purple prose.
On the other hand, this extensive development of the setting might also be a bit off-putting to some players and DMs who might want more freedom to develop their own version of the setting. This doesn't preclude these players or DMs to build the Realms as they see fit, Ed has said so.

A potential problem might be the high-leveled NPCs that might solve every problem of the setting, but they're easily taken care of.

Dunno much about kobold lore though.

>>50509322
>>50509525
Kobolds are shit.

>>50510061
Gnome detected.

>>50509322
Humans are the shit in the FR. Elves are sorta coming back after their self imposed exile, but they were diminishing.

The dwarves also had problems with fertility but Moradin rewarded them with increased fertility, except the duergar and derro got nothing. Because Moradin is racist.

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>>50507235
Not yet.

>>50507815
My next game will be using Pathfinder, with DSP's psionics and Path of War.

>>50509203
Were you Harpers?

>>50510541
>playing pathfinder
Bro.

>>50510541
>>50507235
Someone should convert the god avatar stats to PF or 5e.

>>50509322
You really need to read through a few supplements, my definition of best would be different to your definition of best.

I would definitely recommend tracking down the pdf supplements of the older editions. 3e and later editions really don't show you the writing quality of the Realms.

What should be purged from the Realms.

>>50511451
Definitely Mystra and her everything.

>>50511797
Why do you have to hate on Mystra?

What incarnation is she as of 5e?

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>>50510568
From AD&D, or 3.0?

Some of them might not work of PF, because Paizo would use mythic levels.

I don't know if any avatars for Golarion have been written as enemies yet.

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>>50512112
The same one from 4th edition, since she didn't die during the Sundering.

If the realms are so interesting, why were they forgotten?

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>>50513645
Because some people want to forget about the:

BDSM femdom drow
CG dual-wielding ranger drow
Hippie drow
Year of the Drow
LG/NG/CG undead Elves

I've also had players forget, or never knew, that Baldur's Gate, those Salvatore books, and Neverwinter Nights take place in the Forgotten Realms.

Why did they get rid of the spell plague? Best thing to happen to the Realms.

>>50507657
>Otherwise, it's like saying the Lady of Pain is answerable and subservient to a great power.

Well, not answerable, just unable to overcome and trapped at the mercy of. Because she's a Darklord, of course, with Sigil being her Dread Domain. Or something close to that effect. Sigil's a weird one, I'll grant you, but there have been stranger Domains and odder Darklords.

>because you as the DM are Ao

No, I'm not. I'm the DM. Ao is just another NPC.

>>50515548
A lot of people hated it.

>>50515885
Well I guess I asked a simple question and got a simple answer.

Is there a setting that can compete with Forgotten Realms?

>>50515938
The problem with Spellplague is that all it did was turn Forgotten Realms into a bloodier, more boring version of Eberron.

>>50515670
>Because she's a Darklord, of course, with Sigil being her Dread Domain.
That's a unique theory. Haven't run into that one before. Have any supporting documentation to back up that position? Or are you just making a statement based on observation?

>>50516088
Nah he's just talking out of his arse.

>>50513600
Wasn't she murdered by Cyric though?

>>50512649
Ideally from AD&D and from the Faiths & Avatars series; I don't think the gods themselves would have stats but their avatars certainly might.

For Pathfinder, you could replace mythic with divine ranks, they'd work like mythic but would also attach an appreciable bonus to attacks, damage, spells, saves and whatnot.

With their avatars, the already statted demon lords and Great Old Ones might be a good starting point to work off of.

How might you go about statting them?

>>50515548

It didn't make enough people who did not care/ did not like FR like it, and it made too many people who did like it drop it to be profitable,I guess.

I was a fairly content FR fan before that happened. After that. I mostly washed my hands off the setting. I could ignore a book or five with BS NPCs or developments, but when you officially nuke the setting and splice it with another one just to make sure all the 4E BS can work in it? Eff that.

I could have cared for Dark Sun if I enjoyed 4E and had a decent DM for it, or for Planescape or Spelljammer if they got any support. As it is, I got into Golarion.

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>>50517636
I think she was only half dead.

Not stable enough to maintain the Weave, but alive enough to transfer her consciousness into a bear in Elminster Must Die.

To fans of the FR, what do you like best of about the setting?

>>50517636

She was, then she reformed or something.

I think it made no sense. Previously, when Mystra died, magic stopped, rather than go haywire. The whole cataclysm would work a lot better if she was "poisoned" instead.

>>50517883
>>50517921
Ha, Cyric can't even get the execution of his portfolio right. What a failure of a god.

>>50517957
And for his failure, I think he was downgraded to only being the god of Strife.

>>50517903

It's depth. I know a lot of people say it is a shallow Tolkien rip off. But owning all the books I do there is just a lot to it. I exclude all major characters and keep it to the fluff for every area and nation. There are yeeears worth of content in a massive world that gives some structure and genuine feel of a breathing world to my players.

>>50518054
So, Bhaal got handed back the portfolio of murder and Leira got handed back the portfolio of illusions?
Is Cyric even a greater god at this point?

>>50517921
>>50517883
>>50517957
Mystra never even died. She was badly wounded, and shattered. Parts of her went wild, the only conscious part hid in the form of some magical bear that Elminster spent 100 years looking for.

>>50518177
Greater/Intermediate/Lesser isn't a distinction that 5e makes anymore.

I'm pretty sure Cyric will lose Strife to the reborn Myrkul by the next edition anyway.

>>50517883
>>50517921
>>50518333
Did they use murdered at any point? Or something similarly meaning? Cos I don't think Wizards understands what those words mean if nothing catasphoric happened to her.

>>50518414
Yes, at the start of 4e they said Cyric murdered her, and all the printed content for 4e used "murdered." But Greenwood and Salvatore retconned it.

>>50518462
>hating on based Cyric
What are they doing?

>>50518073
This. Definitely this.

You don't even need any of the named characters, just the fantastic fluff.

>>50518717
Because post-Spellplague FR was really badly received. And they decided to turn things back to roughly AD&D stuff, hence bringing back Bane and Bhaal and Thay being evil wizards instead of happy merchants.

>>50518887
>Thay happy merchants
But this was one of the best things to come out of the 3e FR.

>>50518887
Bane was already brought back in 3e, dude.

>>50516061
Yes, as if Eberron itself isnt already boring enough.

>>50516061
Eberron is a legitimately good setting in its own right. Also much better than FR in many ways.

I liked Spellplague FR. Am I the only one?

>>50519970
Yes, yes you are.

>>50519970
Why would you shit on the setting like that?

>>50518462
They definitely should've consulted Geeenwood more.

>>50510503
Aren't duergar evil though? Aren't they the dwarven equivalent of drow, even to the point that their skin and hair are permanently cursed to grey, to show their true nature?

>>50522153
Duergar aren't inherently evil, Moradin just abandoned them to the Mind Flayers because their patron god was exiled.

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What's the rarest and most obscure elven race in Forgotten Realms?

>>50522428
They are sociopathic monsters who are incapable of loving their own family, kidnap, enslave, and torture other races, and literally celebrate whenever a female of their race is knocked up by a devil.

Mate, that's fucking evil.

>>50516088
Pulled from my ass, but I like the theory. It also keeps things "tight" - the Dark Powers are established as being able to block the powers of deities, so folding Sigil into that gives us the smallest number of moving parts. Of course, the Lady herself is the one who supposedly keeps the deities out of Sigil, but perhaps the answer to that is that Her Serenity is herself one of the Dark Powers, who has become a Darklord as well for some inscrutable reason.

The ultimate point simply being that I don't mind Ao having a boss.

>>50522469
Star Elves, perhaps?

>>50522469
Sea Elves, because nobody gives a shit about ocean faggots.

>>50522548
Don't they have an entire book series dedicated just to them?

>>50510541
this is the weird party guy. No we weren't we made up some name for ourselves I forgot. We had an ongoing feud with radical harpers though

>>50522499
This is a completely retarded theory though, not gonna lie.
The dark powers specifically scrutinize people and bring in the darkest of the bunch to trap and punish. They're like the town of Silent Hill except as a group and on steroids.

The Lady wants no attention and will actively flay and maze those who worship her, try to grab her attention, establish temples in Sigil or interfere with her dabus. Otherwise she couldn't give a toss about anyone.

There's completely two different modus operandi and operate on completely different planes. The implication is that Ravenloft is in a hidden demiplane while Sigil is on top of an infinitely tall (logically impossible) spire in the Outlands, or wherever it is now. The spire dilutes and diminishes the power of the gods.

Ao having a boss is as retarded as the Lady being a Dark Power. We all know she's three squirrels in a dress.

>>50522628
I don't know, but the're definitely the rarest in actual play.

>>50522469
Wouldn't it be the ilyathri, those wolf shape changing bastards or the avariel, the winged elves?

>>50522469
The ilyathari, the elven subrace so obscure, they didn't get stats in 3.5, an edition notorious for statting literally everything. The fucking Star Elves got stats in 3.5, but the ilyathari didn't. That should tell you something.

>>50522840
>>50522801
I was thinking more along the lines of which race of elves is rare enough that even other elves would be caught by surprise to encounter one. But not so rare that they wouldn't be immediately recognizable as an elf.

But the only race that keeps popping up in my head that fits that category are the drow. They may or may not be smaller than their surface cousins in number. But they sure as hell aren't common on the surface.

But then you have the whole evil demon worship baby murder backstory to work up, and I don't want to be accused of trying to create a mary sue edgy rip off of Drizzt.

I just want an average joe elvish character whose race is unusual enough to make them stand out. But not so rare that it becomes their soul defining trait.

>>50522934
Oh god, I can already see the look in people's eyes as they quietly wonder if the only reason I chose that race is because I'm a furfag.

Should I risk it?

>>50522934
Where are the Ilyathari statted? The closest I can find are the Lythari (wood elf werewolves), who did get stats in 3e.

>>50522985
Yes. Do it. Also tell us what stats and edition you're using, I've literally never seen them outside of fluff mentions in a few books.

>>50522966
It would be the lythari, who are almost unheard of, or the avariel, who are presumed extinct.

>>50523085
I meant the lythari. And where did they get stats? I own almost every Faerun book for that edition and none of them have the lythari. I can find avarial, star elves, wood/moon/high/dark/sea/half elves all just fine, but no lythari.

>>50523117
The FR wiki cites Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun, Monster Manual 3.5, and Races of Faerun for its Lythari 3.X stats.

>>50523157
Yeah, I own those, and they're not there. It must mean that they're normal wood elves with the template for lycanthropy, not that they have unique stats. That's pretty lame.

Also, on the topic of rare as fuck elven subraces, what about the Marel? The CE sea elf drow? They're so rare everyone forgets they're a thing.

>>50523184
>they're not there.
There's a block on them on MoF p93.

Lythari:
These elf-werewolves
share all the
abilities of common werewolves, except that they do not have a
hybrid form. Their alignment is always chaotic good, and they are
often higher-level characters in elf form.
In wolf form, lythari are beautiful, with pale gray or silver fur and
intelligent blue or brown eyes. In wood elf form, they are beautiful
and otherworldly, even for elves. Tall and pale-skinned, they have
light blue or green eyes and silver hair.
Lythari can only pass on their lycanthropy to other elves, and only
in a special ritual performed with the complete consent of both parties.

They also have entries in Tables 9-1 and 9-2 in Races of Faerun. Those entries are, however, exactly the same as werewolf ones (apart from alignment).

It's weird because the lythari aren't strictly lycanthropes. They have no hybrid form for example.

>>50523184
The Marel aren't related to elves. They're "Sahuagin" mutants.

>>50522153
They are lawful evil as a race but some abominations might exist.

>>50523260
Yeah, the lythari are mentioned in Monsters of Faerun but aren't statted. You're supposed to take the werewolf stats, slap on elf traits and forbid them from getting a hybrid form.

They're given more hard traits in Races of Faerun, but not necessarily a statblock.

Did anyone else find the Kings and Counselors series to be completely retarded at the end?

Why haven't more arcane casters turned to the Shadow Weave? Surely the temptation of the power gained there is too enticing to ignore?

>>50504655
What games have you run in FR or what games have you played in?

>>50524830
Because the Shadow Weave is a trap. It makes you a slave to Shar.

>>50525058
None, I've only read the books. But I want to so bad. ;-;

>>50525317
The Weave makes you a slave to Mystra.

>>50524830
>>50525317
>>50525474
Speaking of the Shadow Weave, the Shadow Weave is known to cut through Weave spells like a knife slicing through butter, but can the Weave effect the Shadow Weave in the same way?

>>50525474

Mystra in pretty much any of her incarnations did not care much what you did with magic. The Zhents and the Red Wizards get perfectly fine access to the Weave despite directly opposing some of her most powerful mortal (ish) allies. Did Mystra ever deny access to the weave to anyone fighting Elminster, The Simbul or the like? Try fighting Sharrans on a regular basis as a Shadow Weave user.

Also the Shadow weave doesn't work that well for certain kinds of magic.

>>50525603
Doesn't continued use of the Shadow Weave also increasingly numb your emotions, leaving you a hollow shell?

>>50508668
>4e Realms was good if you didn't read the 15+ years worth of lore made for the setting and wanted your pc to actually matter outside of backwater communities that somehow still had near epic level COMMONERS
Lore glut 30 years running didn't make 40k any better, either, anon.

>>50510541
>Were you Harpers?
look at this newfag

no, he said "imaskari" and "netherese". Both of those empires were gone thousands of years before the harpers ever came about.

>>50515670
>all these clueless berks thinking the Lady ain't just the Lady

>>50515548
95% of customers love the realms
>ruin the realms
>sales plummet
>confusedpsychopaths.jpeg

>>50526240
Harpers also profess to be do-gooders but really contribute to the continued fucked up nature of the Realms.

>>50518344
>>50518177
According to Greenwood, his take is that Cyric is dwindling because of Bane.

>My own take on this situation is that as Bane grows in power, Cyric inevitably loses, and that Bane is inherently stronger (less insane, for one thing) a personality, and thus will eventually win the “who’s the big bad guy?” contest between them. The faith of Cyric is MUCH younger than the other large priesthoods of Faerun, and from the first has been dominated by opportunists from other churches seeking more personal power -- a recipe for schisms, struggles, and a weak church. So whatever happens to the gods themselves, the Church of Cyric is by no means a predictable or a consistent force for anything.

Weak and divided young church, plus a god who spent his formative divine years losing power until he became weak and divided, even insane. Damage done.

>>50526212
>>50526267
A "friend" enjoyed the 4e Realms, but he's fucked in the head and smugly convinced of his superiority.

>>50518344
That distinction was something that I really liked, it also gave a representation of their personal power as powered by their worshippers.
Ao gave them the directive to do well by their worshippers and any loss of faith would also weaken the god and demote it in power and divine rank.
With this gone, that directive doesn't make as much sense anymore, in that you can't demonstrably show the divine hierarchy.

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>>50526240
The Imaskari came back at the end of Darkvision to rebuild their empire.

Races of Faerun mentions three groups of pureblooded Netherese on page 108 that aren't Shades.

>>50526289
I just didn't see the need for a setting to be so far it's own ass as the people who contributed to it.
People like Greenwood are as cancerous to FR as a whole as the CEO of GW is to 40k (guess who his favorite army is? Space Wolves! Couldn't you tell?). They didn't create the setting, but they act as though they are authorities of it, and people suck their cock even tho FR, like most D&D settings, was a patchwork setting made by many people.

>>50526479
>Greenwood
>didn't create FR

Um.

>>50526479
Ed seems like a chill guy, based off what we know of him. He doesn't dictate as canon on what goes in your Realms, they're your Realms. Because WotC acts like Ed only works when they need him, Ed buys his own copies of the Realms books. Some of the other designers might have their heads so far up their asses though.

>>50526479
Ed literally created FR. But he doesn't act like it's solely his baby, it's the colloboration that makes FR what it is.

>>50526519
>said he was not the sole contributor, and can't even begin to claim it as "his", anymore than Gygax can claim Greyhawk as "his"

>>50526554
You said they, implying he, didn't create the setting.

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>>50509195
Agreed.

>>50526479
>they act as though they are authorities of it
Ed of all people doesn't act like this. Do you want to keep talking out of your ass?

>>50526268
yeah yeah, cry harder

tfw my rogue3/mage2 slipped and died in sunken netherese ruins this week

>>50526964
whoops my thief was actually level 4

either way he fell a long way and died, now the party lost heaps of cash and don't even want to climb down and get me

>>50526964
What edition? And where are these ruins?

>>50527041
2e and I'm in the anauroch, not very far though. not sure if the ruins are there in canon or if they were homebrewed but i think its part of one of their floating cities that has been swallowed by sand

>>50526990
>>50527102
That would make sense. Don't know how much you know about what lies beneath Anauroch, but going down there is a bad idea.

So you're be making a new character?

>>50527155
I personally don't know much about what's down there but yeah my character was the driving force to even go to a place that dangerous (i had ancient history:netherese prof and sold them on the idea of powerful magical artifacts just sitting there waiting to be found) so I think next week they will assess if they can salvage the treasure and +1 dagger on my corpse or if they will cut their losses and leave.

ill roll up some stats and see what i can play when they get back to town

>>50505945
>Actually, favorite forgotten realms of people?
Unapproachable East is best region. Rashemen/Aglarond/Thay/token small trade city and principalities make for the best setting in the realms, fuck the sword coast.
Underdark is great too.

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>>50505945
Old Empires, which could be thought of as not!Greece, not!Egypt, and not!Babylon.

>>50526936
Harper detected.

I swear to Cyric everytime those who harp get involved everyone involved is worse off than before.

>hey guys our group that was investigating the night parade in Calimport found evidence for them planning to do terrible stuff, lets contact the pasha and let the army handle that stuff
>nah we do it on our own
>Later hundreds of people die including all but one of the Harperagents
>oh no

>hey guys maybe its not a good idea helping the last of the royal elven bloodline on Evermeet create a magic portal so she can meet up with her human lover for some dickings whenever she wants
>later someone uses this very portal to assault the royal palace in Evermeet
>oh no

>hey guys maybe instead of banishing this bard with megalomania for conducting magical experiments on humans and creating his half-crazed clone we should just, I dunno, kill him
>Later on said bard teams up with an evil archwizard, a Lich, the Fire Knives and a Cult of Moander
>an Avatar of Moander gets freed from his elven prison under Yulash and goes on a destruction spree until it the Dragon Coast where it takes 1/4 of Westgate as it dies in a explosion
>The clone assaults Immersea with his undead and nearly drops a flying castle on the town
>oh no

>>50526479
>hating on Greenwood

Stop talking out of your mangina.

>>50505009
>not being a scribe of Deneir and recovering lost knowledge in forgotten ruins while using your intellect to help people

you're worshipping wrong

Seeing shit like >>50527289 makes me wonder if I am really the only who genuinly likes the Coast of Swords.

Its quite literally the fantasy version of the wild west. How can one not like it?

>>50527444
Nevermind their incompetence, their mission statement alone is enough to classify them as chaotic evil:
>The Harpers were a semi-secret organization dedicated to promoting good, preserving history (including art and music of old) and maintaining a balance between civilization and nature by keeping kingdoms small and the destruction of plant life to a minimum. They considered the elven empire of Myth Drannor shortly before its fall to be the pinnacle of civilized history and strived to recreate the world in that image.
Now nevermind preserving history (which is fair and decent of them), but keeping the realms divided and preventing anthropization is literally what terrorist luddists would do.
And let's not even consider how they believe an elven culture that self-destroyed is somehow supposed to be perfect.

>>50527424
Oh man, Old Empires is completely amazing.

>>50527207
I definitely won't spoil anything because you should get to discover its secrets yourself, but you find out the reason for [REDACTED] and why [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] is, and about [REDACTED].

Good luck with the rest of your adventure. D'y'know what you might be rolling up?

>>50527494
>Its quite literally the fantasy version of the wild west.
I'm not seeing it frankly.
Besides, it's not like it's bad, it's just wayy overplayed and overfluffed. It basically has all the issues of the forgotten realms, and none of the best parts. One of the best campaigns I've played was set between Waterdeep and the Moonshae, so it's not like I hate the region, but other places are just more enticing.

>>50527444
Topfuckingkek.

>>50506780
>>50507206
>>50527289
>>50527424
These are all great. I'd like to know about Sembia tbqh, it's cities and mercantile houses. We did get a based series of books though, so definitely not gonna complain.

>>50527563
Wasn't Sembia the place they were never going to release a supplement on, so GMs could detail it as they pleased?

>>50527570
Really? Guess that explains a lot.
We did get a small snippet of what it was like in the 3e FRCS, dunno about the other editions.

>>50527444
>where it takes 1/4 of Westgate as it dies in a explosion
And nothing of value was lost from that scum-infested shithole.

>>50527514
Myth Drannor just before its fall was a shitshow of plotting elven families doing their best to politic their way to destruction.

>>50527613
>Myth Drannor just before its fall
You mean, Myth Drannor without a coronal backed by half a dozen chosens of Mystra keeping peace through annihilation of dissenting houses?
Because Cormanthor was exactly the same before Elminster showed up, only they lacked the 5th column of outsiders dividing house interests even further.

>>50527645
The big thing that changed after Elminster showed up was primarily the creation of the mythal, which served all elves and non-elves equally. Despite the best efforts of many elves to corrupt it and make it do shit like kill all humans inside it.

>>50527645
Two, Elminster and Srinshee. After the Coronal died and the Srinshee left with the Crownblade, Khelben showed up, bringing it back to two. Then Elminster disappeared sometime before the end of Myth Drannor, and wasn't around when it fell because Mystra had apparently decided that it wasn't working any more and trapped him in a tomb in temporal stasis for a couple centuries.

>>50527613
>>50527645
>>50527669
>>50527682
The gold elves did nothing wrong!

>>50527645
>>50527669
>>50527682
Fucking Mystra and her meddlers.

>>50527669
I'd answer to this, but we'd end up going into /pol/ territory, so let's not.

>>50527736
Anon, Myth Drannor fell literally because the gold elf factionalism and asshole tendencies drove all the talented people away from Myth Drannor to other cities, so when the Weeping War rolled around, there weren't many left to defend it.

>>50527783
Nah, Mystra did all right keeping it going for a while by sticking Elminster there. It was falling apart already because of politics, so she decided to cut her losses.

If you want to blame a god for Myth Drannor, blame Corellon and the rest of that pantheon.

What are some lore gems from prior editions that people would've liked to have been kept for subsequent editions?

>>50527835
>If you want to blame a god for Myth Drannor, blame Corellon and the rest of that pantheon.
How so? Because of the rampant kinslaying and the creation of the sorting-but-also-slaying swords that would also obliterate entire houses?

>>50527835
>gold elf factionalism and asshole tendencies drove all the talented people away from Myth Drannor to other cities
Yes well, when the answer to dissent is a chosen of Mystra coming to eradicate your whole house, people kinda bail, anon.

>>50527835
>>50527872
Dissenting opinions will not be tolerated by Mystra's Chosen.

>>50527872
>gold elf nobles
>talented
Pick one. I was referring to things like the majority of the High Court wizards deciding to secede in protest against the noble houses, a "Council of Twelve" from the noble houses basically ruling like tyrant oligarchs and driving craftsmen out, mages to disband (the Seven Wizards of Myth Drannor, for example), and even setting the priests against each other to the point that temples turned into fortresses guarding against attack from Myth Drannor's own army.

>>50527910
>Pick one.
After Elminster killed all the good ones, what did you expect? Perhaps if Eltargrim hadn't tried to force a reform who caused the flower of cormanthyrian youth to rise against him, the following generation wouldn't have been so shit.

>>50527853
Entropy is a Primordial, not a piece of Tiamat
Red Wizards are still merchants
Smokepowder guns and bombards are spreading
Psionics exist
Steam engines exist, but progress is stagnant

>>50527884
Manshoon might the the most reasonable among Mystra's Chosen nowadays.

This is why Myth Drannor should have been closed off to the other races, the other races would just fuck things up.

>>50527923
They were shitty before Elminster arrived, they were shitty after he arrived.

>>50527736
Aryvandaar. Crown Wars. Vyshaan. Fey'ri.

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>>50527996
Didn't one get tricked into releasing the Phaerimm and bringing Shade back to Faerun?

>>50527996
>>50528077
That's all just human propaganda. You don't see an elf writing about those things.

>>50528093
Everybody knows elves can't write.

>>50528077
No, that one was a half-moon elf, half-wood elf.

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>>50528077
>>50528093
>>50528106
Its funny how many of Faeruns Problems can be traced back to Elves murdering the shit out of each other.

Since they crashlanded on Toril Elves have done nothing right other than removing Dragons.

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>>50528186
Elf genocide best day of my life

>>50528106
Human words are beneath them.


>>50528107
Wouldn't this mean they're just a moon elf or just a wood elf? There's no halves with the elven subraces iirc.
They should also bring back calling elves by their metallic composition.

>>50528207
Possibly. His father was a moon elf and his mother was a wood elf though. He seemed to be much more moon elf than wood elf in attitude. His sister was the opposite.

>>50528233
Azariah, Elaith Craulnobur's daughter is born of a gold elf mother; Elaith is a moon elf. Azariah turned out to be a full gold elf.

>Read Brimstone Angels because of demons and shit
>It's a shitty romance fan-fiction tier story

Any good books that feature demons in them?

>>50528278
The Empyrean Odyssey, I've only read the first book and it's servicable but am completely unsure it pans out.

>>50505009
Amaunator was/is cooler
Tho apparently theyre the same person?

>>50507815
An OSR system called ACKS

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>>50528278
Blades of the Moonsea trilogy - has a tiefling warlock
Erevis Cale trilogy and Twilight War trilogy - has a half-fiend psychic, the son of Mephistopholes

>>50507815
5e, but before spellplague.

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>>50527583
Oh yes. They promised not to get into a number of places, and if memory serves all of them have been gotten into.

>>50527522
Ah, the Old Empires, home to such tourist attractions as the city that worships a sphere of annihilation and another that selects its king through the Olympic games.

>>50527494
Sword Coast as the Wild West? But that's civilised from the top to bottom! You probably mean the Savage Frontier, which has that "settling new lands and meeting hostile tribes" vibe.

>>50529237
Yeah, they lied about giving out info for various places. Happens. Honestly, I'm kinda ok with that white lie of theirs.

>>50528348
Yes, as much as a god can have multiple aspects.

Lathander is the dawn, and Amaunator is noon.

>>50531445
Plus there's some sort of divine agreement going on that you can have multiple gods of the same thing without it turning into something like a multi-player challenge in football. Like Faerun has a god of war, Kara-Tur has its own god of war, and the same with - off the top of my head - gods of knowledge (Oghma/Chih Shih), literature (Deneir/wossname) and love (Sune/wossname).

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>>50532508
Some of them are playing the long game.

Faerun has four gods of war in the main pantheon: Tempus (war), Red Knight (strategy), Garagos (skill at arms), and Valkur (naval warfare).

Eventually, the Red Knight will take over from Tempus, unless Garagos somehow defeats them both.

>>50528348
>>50531445
Amaunator didn't even try to prevent his own death, he just took it like a pushover. What a chump.

The fact they were merged into one was retarded. Both existed at the same point, in 2e and now in 5e. And none of them are also Myrkul, who was dusk.

>>50525658
Doesn't continued use of the Shadow Weave also increasingly numb your emotions, leaving you a hollow shell?

I wasn't sure if that was canon or me misremembering, so I would not mention it.

My point is that Mystra lets Weave users get away with a lot more than what Shar allows Shadow Weave users.

Also, from a conceptual perspective, the Weave and thus Mystra was born from the merger of Shar and Selune's energies from their primordial battle. It already is light, darkness and shadow and it has been so since day one. Having a "dark" version of it struck me as stupid ever since I read it.

>>50532508
>>50532619
The agreement was you couldn't have the same portfolio in the same pantheon, but belonging to different pantheons or races was OK. This is how there's Anhur in the Mulhorandi pantheon, Ramman in the Untheric pantheon, all representing war and all belonging to human pantheons.

Which was why Garagos came into such conflict with Tempus. Each recognized they were going to annihiliate each other unless they took on different aspects.
Garagos was the loser in this conflict and seceded war to Tempus.

>>50529237
>Ah, the Old Empires, home to such tourist attractions as the city that worships a sphere of annihilation and another that selects its king through the Olympic games.
That's fucking boss.

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>>50533605
The city, Luthcheq, also grows Witchweed, and burns wizards at the stake for sacrifices to the Sphere of Annihilation (Entropy).

>Weed of the Witch (Witchweed):
>The foul fumes of this weed affect all wizards. When burned, it produces a 30-foot-radius vaporous cloud. Any wizard within its vapors begins to cough violently, is unable to cast spells, and suffers 2 points of damage per round. The weed burns for 10 + 1d6 rounds.
>This long green weed is grown and used frequently in Luthcheq, a city in Chessenta where wizards are forbidden. When burned, it produces a foul stench similar to burning tobacco.
>Witchweed is typically bundled in shipments of 13 stalks.
>XP Value: 1,000

It got nerfed in 3.0.

Luthcheq is featured in the Maiden of Pain.

>>50533807
It helps to note that the nobels of Luthcheq also consider elves and dwarves as "wizards", because not only are they insane but they're racists too.

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>>50533930
According to the "Demihumans of Chessenta" section, half-elves are as tolerated as half-orcs, so they're more like Zarus followers.

Besides, it's safe to assume that if you meet an elf in Faerun, he's probably a mage of some kind.

>>50533930
It makes senses that elves are considered wizards, but don't dwarves dislike magic?

>>50533807
Also, fucking 3e, have to ruin everything.

>>50534046
Don't look at me man, just reporting what the entropomancers think about shit.

In fact I'm considering including the Luthcheq nobles in my upcoming Tethyr game, saying one of their number has "received a vision" and set up shop with a mini-sphere in Riatavin. Just for kicks, since they're neat and I'm not going near Chessenta in this campaign so I won't have another way to use them.

>>50534092
>>50534092
Neat idea dude.

And it's good that the entropomancers are all encompassingly speciest.
Do they gain anything from the sacrifices? Or is it for the lulz and their consuming hatred for wizards?

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>>50534217
Entropy will produce "daughter" spheres of annihilation, or create an abishai to serve their house.

>>50534298
>worship of Entropy consists of eldritch rites
>a gignatic sphere of annihilation that no force - divine, magical or mortal - may stop
It's a goddamn great old one.

>>50534298
Cool, where might more information on it be found? In 3e, 4e?

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>>50534773
It's a Primordial in later editions, like Dendar the Night Serpent, or the Elemental gods.

>>50534787
3e - Lords of Darkness, Maiden of Pain (novel)
4e - Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, The Captive Flame and The Whisper of Venom (novels)

>>50504655
Does that mean I will never get hero to fall in love with me?

>>50535102
What the shit is a primordial? The name already sounds retarded.

Dendar and Kezef and that elf-eater stool shaped thing should all be eldritch abominations or great old ones.

Thanks man.

>>50535337
Wat.

>>50528278
forsaken house
dissolution

>>50535427
Primordial is the retarded name they picked in later editions for elder evils like Dendar and Kezef and the Elf-Eater and shit. Don't know why they called them primordials but they did.

>>50527514
>Harper
I can't defend a fictional group written by people who apparently didn't get the memo, but I can say that in real life, empires are never good for anybody

small, nationalist countries are best for everybody, and ideally there should be lots of nature left alone

technology is the best thing ever, as long as psychopaths don't run civilization (and sometimes even then, as they can't control everything), but don't act like you have to rape the entire planet with a massive empire in order to have it

>>50535489
4e had a Titanomanchy theme for its cosmology, but the Titan monster was already using the name, so all the big elemental uber-beings were called primordials.

Didn't work at all for FR but the PoL setting wouldn't be as good without them.

>>50535489
>>50536007
Why couldn't they have kept the titan name?

>>50536359
Because D&D already has titans, the Titan creature itself. The theory is that because the Titan was already using the name, they couldn't make all these creatures called Titans, so they called them Primordials instead.

>>50535648
Empires with imperialist agendas are never good, empires as federations of similarly leaning nations isn't bad.

Nationalism is never good however, this is the root cause of supremacy movements, you might be thinking of patroitism? And even that is shit when taken to extremes.

Whatever did happen to the technological advancements of the realms?

>>50536906
WotC retconned technology out.

Which is stupid and I tend to ignore it, personally.

>>50536906
>empires as federations of similarly leaning nations isn't bad
t. harper

>nationalism
>bad

what are you even arguing

>>50537282
You realize what arises/arose out of nationalism, yes? Especially if it's taken to be the extreme form of patriotism and feeling smugly superior over other countries.

>>50537048
This is retarded. More technological items and the fact the realms was entering into an industrial revolution was a good idea.

>>50537771
Never go full retard.

>>50537901
instead, go to pol and learn about the real world

>>50537995
You got kicked in the head way too many times.

Instead, let's discuss the fucking Realms you turbotard three-chinned autist.

>>50537995
You're telling him to go full retard.

Is there a handy dandy place to download all of the 1e / 2e PDFs of FR lore?

I'm considering running a campaign in the FR for the first time and don't know where to start.

>>50538088
yeah I hate objective reality too

>>50538330
Does your handler know you're loose?

>>50538323
Yeah, man, there's Megas of both 1st/2nd edition and 3rd edition Realms supplements in the Share thread.

Otherwise try dnd.rem.uz

>>50538438
>tfw no arguments, so better throw insults

What I can't figure out is if the primarily female harpers would be cucks for liberalism, or if, being a secret society of agents and rangers and mages and shit, they would be jew-wise and red-pilled. Would they fight or help nazi germany?

>>50538690
>yeah, nice "arguments" you have there
It's not am insult if it's genuine concern for your mental state.
What the fuck are you blathering about? Normal people don't talk like that.

>>50537707
Agreed. I loved the writings about how wizards were fearing the fact that guns would replace their roles on the battlefield, as well as the fact that the Printing Press was terrifying every intellectual with how that might influence the uneducated masses.
Combine that with the fact Volo's Guide to All Things Magical also suggests that literally anyone can learn the arcane with dedication and a teacher, and you have a really interesting situation that would have been awesome to see evolve in the setting.

Also the Gondsmen experimenting with prototype steam engines.

>>50538753
Could it have turned into Eberron if progress kept marching forward?

>>50539082
>Eberron
No, the way 'chosen' and the divine are handled are completely different, cosmology is also significantly different, and Realmslore seems to imply that civilizations have a tendency of advancing rapidly until self-destructing, such as Imaskar, Netheril, and so on.

>>50539117
Hubris, arrogance, meglomania and the thought they were gods brought on the downfall of those civilizations.

>>50539082
>>50539117
no, it's much easier in faerun to reach high levels and faerun has much more powerful magic

>>50539201
To be fair, most high level wizards do tend to get delusions of godhood.

>>50539339
>>50539719
Fucking wizards and their no concept of right and wrong.

>>50540597
I think it's almost a given that wizards go a bit mad with power as they get to the really high levels.

What changes is that in their insanity they either:

a) Do something really stupid and die.
b) Become a lich.
c) Get the "dangerous insanity" going.

By dangerous insanity, I mean that they're insane, but still cogent, cognizant, and similar, planning, plotting, working centuries-long schemes. A you don't need to worry about, B tend to get smacked down by adventurers. It's C that's the nasty one. Elminster, Manshoon, Larloch (overlaps with B, I guess), Telamont Tanthul, and various other big guns.

>>50540654
Mystra also coddles them.

>>50540654
They're just all fucked in the head. No warriors suffer from that problem.

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>>50526588
Muh nigga.

>>50528077
I love how grumpy that Drow looks.

>You damn piss-skins dragged me out of the Underdark and forced me to stand in this blinding sunlight all so some jack ass could paint our portrait?

>FUCK, my Matron is going to skin me alive and nail my balls to the wall...

>>50528207
Unless you're drow, you are either full drow, or half drow. It doesn't matter if both parents are elves. If one is half drow, then both parents view the child as a halfbreed. Elves are racist as fuck.

There really is no difference between the drow and their more pale skinned surface dwelling cousins. The drow are just honest about their narcissistic superiority complex and openly acknowledge their racial prejudice.

>>50542170
>>50542204
Drow are based af.

>>50542223
They really are, I'd rather take a sadistic monster who admits it and doesn't hide it over someone who convinces them self and others that what they do is right and just because they are "pure" and "noble" and their chronological age somehow gives them more wisdom.

>>50542204, >>50542440
The Elves of Evermeet book makes moon elves seem kind of sad honestly.
They move around a lot (for a given definition of "a lot", they tend to settle in a place for around 70 to 80 years before moving on) because they largely spend their time in places dominated by races that will die well before they do and they dislike watching their friends die over and over so by moving around a lot they don't have to deal with it as frequently.
Sun elves are pretty condescending though. It mentions most of them are "good" and don't like it when evil folks do evil shit but are so ridiculously self-righteous about it and so religiously uptight that most of the other elves subraces are glad they basically all stay on Evermeet where they only ever have to deal with them if they decide to sail there one day.

Sylvan elves (back before 3e there was no difference between wild and wood elves, "wild" was just a semi-indulging neologism for them) are just hardcore motherfuckers who waste you if you come into their forests without permission. If you're an elf they politely ask you to leave instead, but you still don't get to stay unless they all agree it's okay.

>>50542440
You're thinking of Dragonlance elves where being good or evil aligned seems purely to be a matter of race and deity choice and behavior is largely irrelevant apparently.
Faerun elves have all different sorts of personalities due a bit more cultural exposure to groups other then just themselves, though sun elves are hopelessly xenophobic compared to wild and moon elves.

>>50538690
Actually there's more named male Harpers then not.

>>50538323
Actually if you just google search the names you can find it pretty easy.
That's literally all I did.

http://www.4shared.com/folder/vrNdZlzD/DD_online.html

>>50542587
I've seen it specifically stated that there are more women in the harpers than me.

>>50527444
Honestly, given how the Harpers are supposed to work (basically just an independent spy network really) the novels seem to exclusively show Harpers who are really goddamn bad at their jobs.
Then again they barely have any organization as it is anyway and main novel characters tend to be adventurers too and adventurers tend to escalate situations way beyond their control in a general sense.

It's just easier to point fingers at the Harpers then an extremely vaguely defined socio-political class of roving weirdos who are useful for dealing with all the dangerous shit in the world and arise due to unique and odd instances in each case.

>>50542750
Where?

>>50542759
They recruit a variety of people, but the majority tend to be human, elven, and half-elven rangers and bards (people who are free to roam around a lot); there are more female than male Harpers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_(Forgotten_Realms)

I didn't originally see this on wikipedia, so I don't know which source it comes from.

>>50542753
I think the forgotten realms novels are largely written by people who seriously don't give a fuck about what anybody else wrote

>>50542818
>I think the forgotten realms novels are largely written by people who seriously don't give a fuck about what anybody else wrote

I do believe you are correct sir.
It's kinda telling how the most famous series of character novels in the setting have been going on for over three decades and yet only the events of two novels are even noted in the campaign setting book themselves.

one thing I think most of you aren't getting is that the harpers successes aren't really known; you only ever hear when they fuck up, kinda like real agencies

>>50540654
I think they recently revealed that Larloch's existence was a "Plan B" initiated by Mystryl (back when she was also goddess of time), to ensure that if the realms get completely fucked (read: 4e) it could be reversed.

Which is basically turning one of the truly terrifying people of the Realms into a plot device, but whatevs.

>>50542986
My issue with their successes is it's shit like "We successfully assassinated a surprisingly intelligent orc who we believe was going to assemble his people into a force that could actually be controlled and directed. That way we don't have to worry about a potential waaagh or the orcs getting their shit together."

>>50543052
I've never seen anything so.... CIA as that before, but you can't say they aren't right in that specific case; orcs are dicks

usually they're working against evil organizations, churches, thay, etc

>>50543092
Orcs and Thay are dicks of course and a terrorist group believing in their moral superiority is not at all a problem.

>>50543052
Basically this >>50543092.
You never hear anything about them targeting leaders (and they rarely seem to actively assassinate anyone, what with them stemming from an edition where assassins were always Evil aligned no matter what) of countries and such, and seem mostly tied up in intrigue wars against groups like the Zhentarim and the Red Wizards and the Church of Bane rather then focusing too much in individual nations in Faerun.
They did nothing about Obould Many-Arrows for example or the Kingdom of Many-Arrows that came after.

Not to say Harpers don't stick their noses where they don't need to, because they totally do. They just have different sorts of targets and seem to favor less then direct action against them.

>>50543138
t. banite

>>50543184
>they rarely seem to actively assassinate anyone

Arilyn Moonblade, the Harper Assassin (in more ways than one), sends her best.

Truth be told, I don't understand what good killing a Zhent boss does, since they probably have resurrection as a perk for the job unless there's some sort of Banite/Cyricist/general Zhentarim power play going on or if the boss that was killed was such a stupendous arse that nobody wants him back.

>>50543261
rarely doesn't mean never
and to be pedantic, she wasn't a harper when she did assassin work for them, she was more of a detached associate

>>50543020
Nah, that was just Larloch deciding that nobody else was suited for the job of managing magic, the thing he loves above all and has seen all these fucking idiots play around with like a child with daddy's gun and no respect for it, than him at that point. He was tremendously unimpressed with Elminster and has to explain how to do things like he was talking to a child, so clearly his goddess's successor's Chosen aren't really all that hot shit they should be in his opinion compared to REAL Chosen like him, so he can't trust those idiots either.

There are worse choices for a new deity of magic.

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>>50542753
>>50542986
>>50543092
>>50543184
>>50543261
>>50543430
>HideHarperThreadsIgnoreHarperPostsDoNotReplyToHarperPosters.jpg

>>50543261
Arilyn is pretty much the only one I can think of.
Also, a pretty hilariously standard barely not a self-insert from the author herself.
What is it with lady fantasy authors and their almost comically idealized fantasy heroines?

It's not always a bad thing (a few books I've read were still quite good as a kid with one) but it's even more reliable then guys doing it I've noticed.

>>50544792
Never actually been "for" the Harpers and never played one before; I just know a oft-repeated meme when I see it because I've actually read the setting material.

Harpers seem like a somewhat shadier version of the well-meaning ruler NPC character; he does okay but really if he ever needs anything to get done for real or if you need actual problems solved he needs an adventurer or four because he's too busy wrapped up in his own bullshit to do it himself.

>>50543261
>>50544806
Wasn't there a harper assassin from the shadowking books whose purpose was to assassinate harpers who learn too much about certain topics or have the potential of shaking things up a bit TOO much?

>>50544906
There's also those Moonstar guys who basically are following a single dude's personal agenda which he doesn't bother to explaing to anyone else.

>>50544943
Man, fuck the Moonstars. Khelben is a nutter.

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>>50543261
>>50544806
>Arilyn Moonblade
Oh, her.

I still find it ironic that while I generally liked the Harper-Series Arilyn was always the worst part about them.
Like, literally every character other than her seemed to be more interesting. I even kinda liked Danilo Thann.

All in all I find it weird that people shit on Drizzt all the time when Arilyn exists. Then again you can tell that Salvatore actually enjoys shitting on Drizzt for his good drow acts while Arilyn tends to be a selfish cunt and a hypocrite and Cunningham describes how everyone is a-okay with that and how she gets away with it.

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>>50545961
>Khelben is a nutter.

Khelben is the Forgotten-Realms version of Henry Kissinger.

>the Moonstar guys who basically are following a single dude's personal agenda which he doesn't bother to explaing to anyone else.
Just like the various Harper Enclaves.

>>50545961
The Moonstars aren't evil or anything and Khelben usually does good, but he's like an ultra-paranoid CIA vet who compartmentalizes the shit out of information and fails to explain what's going on because "they don't need to know"; maybe his intentions are good but your plan is going to go to shit when you die because you failed to tell even a few people what the plan was and leave them all to clean up your mess.
>>50546117
I didn't mind Danilo Thann too much, but yeah, Arilyn was annoying as hell.
And Salvatore clearly just wants to write about dwarves and gnomes and halflings all day because like 80% of his supposedly "Drizzt-centric" novels are about them.
>>50546222
>Henry Kissinger
But no Magic Murder Bag
>Harper Enclaves
Let's be real here; there is exactly ONE Harper Enclave, and the rest are really just random guys who go around sharing information with each other rather then anybody following an actual plan.
It even mentions that Harpers are kinda split between people who care about who says what at Berdusk and the people who don't and just follow their general objectives in their own ways.

Has Kissinger ever had a smoking hot wife, but is also a wild looking fey type creature?

>>50545961
>>50546222

People tend to forget that even the grey box described him as LN (good tendencies). Explains why he wasn't happy with the goody-two-shoes Harpers and their sort, and in turn why his "Waterdeep first, the rest last" tendencies tended to grate on the Harpers.

>>50550474
This explains why he's great though.

>>50509093
the bigass pantheon

>>50551224
I don't know that he's great. More like "tolerable, sometimes".

>>50505009

Umberlee is Bitch Queen of the Waves and best God. Fuck the baby eater.

>>50552450
Not this "Umberless best sea god" tripe again, companion. I told you last time: Valkur best sea god.

>>50546117
Remember the book where Arilyn enslaved Danilo's soul to her sword, and it was treated as a good thing and bridging that gap between human and elf plus character development for her?

>>50552450
>>50552986
Ya'll motherfuckers need Ilmater.

>>50525058
I ran a 3e game in early college that featured a moody goth cleric of Shaundakul, a tactical dwarven barbarian, a halfling manslut/pyromancer, and a constantly dying elven ranger. There were hags and drow chicks and a fake resurrection where someone's body got swapped with a demon-doppleganger. There were wererats in Waterdeep and duergar with flying castles and an exploding frost worm that fragged half the group. I think the campaign climax featured the party crashing an illithid spaceship into the Ruins of Myth Drannor, fighting a red dragon marilith hybrid, busting a God out of prison in Pandemonium and killing Ao with his own sword.

It sounds quite gonzo now but it had a good buildup and those guys loved their characters so much.

And fuck Ao, anyway.

>>50555427
People Elaine Cunningham to be a good author though.

>>50556629
This is fucking amazing, but how could you possibly defeat Ao?

>>50556629
Ao would slap your shit so hard.

>>50556629
>killing Ao with his own sword
This is literally impossible, unless you were an overdeity.

>>50555427
Was it really enslavement though? I thought it was consensual on his part. Because he was a shit ton more human than her, although still elf enough that he could bond with the moonblade, so for him, it was truly the only way they could be together forever. Since she was doomed to watch him grow old, and then lose his mostly human soul to a human afterlife.

I was more pissed off by the fact that she undid it the first opportunity she had. I mean, shit, he's good enough to fuck, but not good enough to be your soulmate?

How do you NOT make a mary sue elf character in Forgotten Realms?

Isn't Elaine Cunningham an actually good author though.

>>50551707
Damn fucking straight.

And each deity is fucking insane.

>>50558893
I remember enjoying her books when I read them. But I should also note that I read them back in highschool, so for all I know, they could be Twilight tier.

>>50557578
I don't honestly remember how I bullshitted the fluff but it was basically a sword made by something like Ao for that express purpose: like an arrow of slaying: overgod.

They had to hold it with the severed hand of a still-living God and were supposed to not think or talk about it, or horrible madness, etc. I don't remember how they contrived to get him to show up.

They never really found out what kind of effect it had on a long-term scale cause that was the end of the campaign, but it was kind of a build-up to an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic realms, which I still think would be kinda cool.

>>50558121
Canonically, sure. But it was sort of a last giggle after a bunch of high-level god bothering. I liked a lot of the Realms but I was ready to try something different with the setting and having the ancient storied heroes actually be the dick PCs who broke the world is/was funny.

>>50533364
it isnt so much as having its own 'dark' version of it, rather its the negative or mirror opposite of it.

thats why shadow magic users tend to have slight variations of regular weave magic, and also why theyre inclined to certain types of magic over others.

>>50525575
Not really, no. last time i checked, this was because shadow magic is insidious and can rip apart regular magic at the seams.

but hey, on the topic of the shadow weave, since its still a thing in 5e, do you think we'll see some official shadow magic stuff?

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>>50559294
Yes. It was destroyed when Mystra died because it was so connected, but they're retconning everything else.

The only places where it will be used are Sembia, that one cult in Halruua mentioned in the "Counselors and Kings" trilogy, and by that one half-elf from the Shadow Stone.

>>50559294
Is the Shadow Weave actually a thing in 5e?
Because that's fucking sweet. You would've thought Ao would've bitchslapped Cyric and Shar so hard for their part in the debacle that was the Spellplague.

>>50559482
Is Aeron Morieth just a random dude?

>>50559496
pretty sure it is, yeah. at least it was given a mention since forgotten realms is the default setting again.

see >http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2014/08/on-forgotten-realms-in-5th-edition.html

>>50559599
Good shit.
Where was it mentioned there though?
And when might we get stats for the named Realms personalities?

>>50559573
He was the main character of the Shadow Stone. He became the Sceptanar of Cimbar by defeating the previous one, but gave the position to Melisanda of Arrabar so he could return to being the guardian of the Maerchwood.

>>50559482
That elf from that series starring his mother sitting on Elminster's lap also tapped into the Shadow Weave.

>>50559788
And on that note.

>>50559788
The elf from the Return of the Archwizards?

>>50559573
He's somebody who managed to blend Weave and Shadow Weave. There was a 3E snippet that has Shar instructing her followers to watch him very closely and learn everything they can, but not to interfere with his studies. Presumably Mystra is doing the same.

Could be an interesting plot hook, if they'd ever picked up on it.

>>50561122
It's not looking good.

>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Baker_%28game_designer%29

>On December 14, 2011, Baker announced on his Wizards.com community page that Wizards of the Coast had eliminated his position and he would no longer be an employee of the company. He acknowledged the possibility that he would continue to write for the Forgotten Realms novel line, and hoped to continue design work on the company's miniature lines on a freelance basis.

The last few novels he wrote were the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy. Half elves could live almost twice as long as humans, so Aeron Morieth could still be around in 5E. He wouldn't be in an adventure, but he could be in a novel.

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