#dnd-lore

1 messages · Page 22 of 1

white ravine
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It's why the people in mount celestia for example are extremely pious and devoted to their goals, the constant struggle toward self perfection is a dream to them.

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Each plane is its own heaven, to someone.

serene crater
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Pardon me to dead reply as I was at work. There's several pre made sheets, in addition to the timeline most would be dead after certain modules

jagged apex
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no, they dislike it just as much, but are better suited to live there than non natives

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no they wouldn't they would be fighting for survival and trying to gain power, overjoyed would not be anywhere near what they would be feeling, especially since they likely would be birthed as one of the lowest and thus weakest beings, remember in dnd when a mortal soul dies their memories and their soul are separated, they would have no memory of their past life, just vauge emotional recalections on the off chance they meet someone from that life

jagged apex
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because the outerplanes were where the thought based astral plane makes philosophies and morality tangible, each plane is basically it's corrospondsing alignment(s) personified from the environment, the people, the food, the animals, ect..., often in extremes, thus by mortal standards they seem like so wonderful or horrible respectively, but is not a picnic for the natives of the lower planes to live there either and not everyone of the upper planes is pious or self rightious.

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and the various gods and other powers that live there and make their divine realms there further alter those sections of it to their own preferences which their faithful will likely also enjoy, assuming they were actual believers and not just paying lip service

iron saffron
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The devils would try to persuade petitioners (aka the souls of dead mortals) to go to Hell instead. For example, they would explain to a CE soul that they would start off a larva or a manes for the rest of eternity (assuming they don't get eaten by a demon). However, if they went to Hell they would start off as a lemure and have a chance to be promoted through their wickedness.

white ravine
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Bel's still around in 5e, just demoted to second in command to the new ruler of Avernus.

grim smelt
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Does anyone know something about the geographic landscape around Waterdeep? 😅 I need the Information for my Homebrew Campaign PartyWizard

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The biome would a great information dndApprove

spark haven
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it's a port city built next to a mountain

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pretty sure it's north of baldur's gate so likely to tend colder

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hard to say if meteorology was a focus

grim smelt
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Thank you dndApprove

hidden current
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assuming paramount actualy does do a series on D&D, what plot do you guys think it will focus on, one from the various novels and adventures or an original plot

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personally wouldnt mind if the series focused on drizzt

magic jackal
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I would mind, he's overexposed imo

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Have paramount released any specific details about the show's structure?

hidden current
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nope this is the only available info at the moment "In January 2023, it was announced that Paramount+ gave the show a straight-to-series order and will consist of eight episodes, with Entertainment One and Paramount Pictures serving as the production companies."

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plus i heard a lot of writers and actors are on strike right now so it probably wont be out for a while

magic jackal
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I'd prefer new characters in a recognizable place maybe

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Honestly would be funny to see a relatively fresh party in Daggerford (and potentially leaving to go on some adventures)

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Daggerford is the starting location of at least a few adventures iirc, which would be a fun reference.

sharp owl
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No spoilers for the movie, please

eager bay
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In comparison to other powerful enemies, how powerful is the Neothelid

severe scaffold
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It depends!

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Personally, I find it about as strong as an Adult Red Dragon, if not stronger. It has an ability to incpacite you, which ends only if you long rest or are hit with greater restoration- that alone makes them super powerful imo

white ravine
hidden current
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is dragonlance in forgotten realms or another setting?

hidden current
unkempt merlin
iron saffron
cloud marten
eager bay
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Does each area of wildspace have its own great old ones?

iron saffron
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What's "tealm space"?

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Are you referring the RealmSpace where Toril (Faerun) is located?

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Great Old Ones are eldritch entities from strange and distant realms of existence (such as powerful aberrations from the Far Realm), as such they are not tied to one specific system.

eager bay
iron saffron
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So what is your question?

eager bay
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Essentially, is any homemade great old one technically canon since, yknow, there's no real defined list?

iron saffron
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This isn't a #dnd-lore question then if you're bringing up homebrew stuff.

eager bay
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I'm not planning on discussing my homebrew here

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I am asking if anything can be canon since when it comes to great old ones there is little to none

iron saffron
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Taps on channel's sign:

For discussion of the lore of the various WotC published D&D settings. Wherever possible, please indicate which setting you're talking about, eg [Forgotten Realms]/[FR], [Eberron], [Dragonlance], etc

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If you make it up for your table then it's canon at your table.

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We talk about the official canon lore that has been published by TSR/WotC in various mediums here though.

unkempt merlin
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Not all things that function as great old one patrons are necessarily aberrations or from the far realm

iron saffron
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I stand corrected.

eager bay
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Some are from between universes

unkempt merlin
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No

eager bay
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Some used to be gods

unkempt merlin
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Some are native to different planes

eager bay
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And some are from no official planes but instead between them

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Or do you believe elder evils can't also be great old ones?

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Do dragon colors mean anything in the overall DND lore?

iron saffron
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Yes, they're either chromatic, metallic, or gem.

eager bay
unkempt merlin
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For example beings like Quajath and Ukotoa from Exandria are divine progeny.

A whole host of things could function as GOOs in Eberron as another example.

Even in places like the FR, some things that are fiendlike or even elementsl can function as GOO

unkempt merlin
eager bay
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Chromatic are the evil dragons but idk about gem or metallic

unkempt merlin
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Depending on the setting chromatic are evil yes

iron saffron
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Metallic tend to be good and gem tend to be neutral and have psionic powers.

cloud marten
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metallic dragons are good at least on Krynn

unkempt merlin
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Same thing applies to Metallic and good and gem and neutral yea

eager bay
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Okay gotcha!

unkempt merlin
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In some settings color and alignment don't match in that manner

iron saffron
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You can find more info in Fizban's and the previous editions' Dragonomicon books.

unkempt merlin
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In others they influence it but aren't 100%

eager bay
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But anything on a color spectrum doesn’t really mean anything

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Like blue dragons defaulting to either chromatic or gem dragons lol

iron saffron
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What do you mean?

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Blue dragons are chromatic.

eager bay
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Ahhh okay

cloud marten
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on Krynn dragons are tied to two deities that fight each other

eager bay
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So they are set in those kinds of paths gotcha

iron saffron
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The Basic Rules and Monster Manual have the list of the chromatic and metallic dragon. Read that if you want more info on them.

cloud marten
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metallic to Palantine and chromatic to Takhisis

iron saffron
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Fizban's has the info on the gem dragons.

eager bay
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Will do!

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I took a web quiz and I got silver dragon so I’ll start there

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@unkempt merlin pandorym is from between the planes

white ravine
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Though 'Great Old One' in terms of lore is a...vague term. There are plenty of examples but what classifies great old one from elder evil and such is hard to pin down

eager bay
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The game lists 6

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And one of them is cthulhu

white ravine
eager bay
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Who is never really brought up in D&D

white ravine
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Yeahhhh I think thats his...only mention?

eager bay
unkempt merlin
eager bay
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However, wizards ended up being sued

iron saffron
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It's public domain now.

eager bay
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Or got into some other form of legal trouble

eager bay
white ravine
eager bay
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They even had stat blocks

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But they were all removed

iron saffron
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TSR has gotten into legal trouble for using copyrighted material without permission in past editions (see 1E Deities & Demigods)

white ravine
eager bay
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I am not 100% certain, but it rings every bell in my head

iron saffron
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deities_%26_Demigods

For the first 1980 printing, TSR obtained permission from Michael Moorcock for inclusion of Melnibonéan material (from his Elric series of books), and from Arkham House, which claimed to hold the copyrights on a number of works by H. P. Lovecraft, for inclusion of characters from the Cthulhu Mythos. However, Arkham House had already licensed the Cthulhu property to the game company Chaosium. Furthermore, Chaosium had also licensed the Melnibonéan copyright from Moorcock. When Chaosium threatened legal action, the first printing was halted and the two companies agreed on a compromise: TSR could continue to use the material but must provide a credit to Chaosium to do so. TSR added the credit for the second printing of the book

runic totem
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How do soul coins work as currency? How much is one worth? Are actual souls being turned into lemures just for promotions?

iron saffron
runic totem
white ravine
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Releasing the soul inside either sends it to the proper afterlife, or if its evil dunks the soul into the styx to turn them into a lemure.

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Going off stuff in DiA, one soul coin is at maximum worth the same as an uncommon potion

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With XGE that's 1d6*100, so 600/2 for 300 gp per soul coin as a rough conversion rate.

runic totem
white ravine
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Much easier to carry around 10 iron coins than 10 whole lemures.

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Or souls in general. Souls aren't easy to hold.

runic totem
white ravine
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There's more use to a soul than manpower, which is important to note

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Magic items, fuel, trading, manpower, information, etc.

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Devils especially would want to keep soul coins on hand because their war machines require them as gasoline.

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A devil has an eternity to get more, after all.

runic totem
white ravine
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If you make a devil deal for your soul, the end result is you usually are turned into a lemure under that devil's command. The discussion of when a particular soul is made into a soul coin however, that's more ambiguous.

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The rough description we get are 'trapped souls', so it's likely lemures snatched up and jammed into the infernal iron.

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Though its hard to say

jagged apex
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lemures get promoted more or less on a whim of their masters or by chance cuz they are too dumb and not really ambitious enough compared to other devils to be promoted by merit of their own contributions

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not all souls get turned into lemures, from what we know in the published history "Soul coins were minted on Minauros by Mammon. Trapped souls were infused into the coins by his greater devils and then distributed throughout the Nine Hells." and these are likely souls before being turned into anything

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only connection to lemures is in the description of it's powers "It was possible to release the soul within a soul coin. This could be achieved by casting an anti-curse spell, such as remove curse, on the coin. Once a soul was freed, the coin began rusting and was eventually destroyed. If the soul was of a good alignment, they were transported to the realm of their deity. If the soul was of an evil alignment, they were transported to the Styx and transformed into a lemure."

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historically the raw soul of dead mortal in the lower planes would be a type of larvae https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Larva
with those of baator often being too ridgid to form into what they want and those of the abyss to chaotic, being why both sides are involved in the soul trade

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so likely these larvae, if they were using a deceased creature's soul, would be infused into the coin via some form of ritual, else would just be ripping the soul out of the creature and infusing it into the coin presumably through the same if not a similar ritual

jagged apex
# runic totem So would evil souls be turned into lemures usually? Are they currency as coins a...

those who are lawful evil in the eyes of the cosmos, souls their soul to a devil with no deal to be promoted to a higher ranking form, even if still rather lower but at least would be greater than a lemure, or those slain by various hellish weapons or abilities like the fire hellion with it's soul taker trait from bigby's or the hellfire weapons of the likes of a hellfire engine from MP:MotM

jagged apex
distant brook
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Hey guys, what’s the name of Tiamat’s sister?

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And no I’m not talking about Bahamut or Sariador.

jagged apex
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i am not aware of her having any sister

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found it, is not named though, is pure in universe speculation "Some sages speculated about an unnamed multi-headed dragon goddess that could have been Tiamat's sister. According to this theory, she could have had a yellow dragon head (specifically, that of the salt dragon variant), a purple dragon head, an orange dragon head, and perhaps more heads of other colors as well. According to some proponents of this theory, this unnamed goddess was possibly killed by Tiamat in the ancient past."

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classified in the draconic pantheon as "unknown powers"

autumn jungle
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Vorel?

hazy fox
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I am curious.
Is there any DND stories (any settings) where it had Alien-style scenario...like "Oh, I brought Illithid tadpole and Slaad for research into obviously unsuited area to do business thing to them. I mean it's not like everything will go wrong and have protocols other than covering it up while also not informing that info to the team".

jagged apex
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there is a creature that is more or less a xenomorph

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sadly no info on the wiki page, so you'd have to hunt down the sourcebook

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otherwise slaad would be the next closest i am aware of, mainly cuz being chaos in body they are monstrously murderous, so experiments on such a being could result in something similar, especially if they are a red slaad as those ones implant their young, but would be sure not to kill the host

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so honestly i'd have a dig through the old 2e spelljammer stuff, especially regarding the yitsan

hazy fox
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Well, just a discussion on new movie or skit on DND franchise and I kinda had idea of them doing Alien-style scenario where the protagonists have to deal with Slaad going all xenomorph and found out about idiot mage or guild taking the eggs with zero-precaution.

jagged apex
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eh, likely more arrogant than idiot

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especially if a wizard cuz the stupid rarely survive extra planar adventures

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and could be more not having the proper procausions since planar life can be rather different especially in regards to the biology of aberrations, which though for different reasons, both illithid and slaad are classified as

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but i don't know of either having cases where someone is stupid enough to want their babies, given how they reproduce respectively, like if anything they wanna be rid of the damn things or murder them all

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though if playing in 5e, one spelljammer creature that i feel could potentially fit the bill and be a bit more of a surprise could be the Gaj described as quote "Disgorged from the Far Realm, Gaj are hideous hunters that prey on other life forms. They crawl on six insectile legs and attack with their mandibles. They ambush prey by burying themselves under sand or silt and lying in wait, lurking in dark caves, or perching on natural stone ledges, where they blend in with their surroundings. Gaj have no language, but they have the magical ability to understand the speech of other creatures.

A gaj’s head is a spongy globe about 2 feet in diameter, with three feathery antennae protruding from the top. Spaced around the head are six compound eyes, and six finger-like appendages hang over its mouth. A gaj can try to read the thoughts of another creature by wrapping its antennae around the creature’s head. Regardless of whether the attempt succeeds, this mental probe is painful and takes a toll on the victim’s well-being."

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like far as i know these things are new to dnd via the 5e spelljammer cosmology info we got in that bundle, so unlike illithid or slaad would be near impossible for players to meta game since they likely have few to no encounters with it before and there is stuff we still just don't know which is ripe for speculation

rugged rivet
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Is there any information on what kind of metal a Moonblade is made of?

iron saffron
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Probably mithral.

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There have already been xenomorph types of monsters in earlier editions, such as the kythons found in the 3E Book of Vile Darkness.

calm crest
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Gaj have been around since 2e (originally from Dark Sun, perhaps unsurprisingly). Still, they would be obscure to the typical player.

half scroll
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Not so much a DND question but it's kinda related since it's baulders gate but how come you can't just die and the parasite just leaves your head like it does for the rest of of the characters in the game, then get revived

iron saffron
half scroll
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yea i didnt know if it was dnd lore or not

iron saffron
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The illithid tadpole would normally take over its host's brain in a matter of hours. The game takes liberty with this.

eager bay
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If my players were to enter the feywild from Baldur's Gate what would the feywild equivalent of the city be?

sharp owl
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The feywild is changeable, so there'd be no fixed appearance. Given what is described about the feywild, it'd be something that reflects the 'nature' or vibe of Baldur's Gate. So maybe a massive hive of irridensent insects or a series of caves around a waterfall

eager bay
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Thank you, you just jumpstarted my brain dndNat20

white ravine
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Id make the bay full of special algae and coral that exume blood as well which turns the water a bright pink, given how many poor suckers would be thrown into the water after theyre killed.

minor dock
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can i put homebrew lore in here

modest badger
iron saffron
# minor dock can i put homebrew lore in here

Taps on channel's sign:

For discussion of the lore of the various WotC published D&D settings. Wherever possible, please indicate which setting you're talking about, eg [Forgotten Realms]/[FR], [Eberron], [Dragonlance], etc

minor dock
ionic rivet
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Then it’s homebrew or dm-world-building and not for this channel.

minor dock
serene crater
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quick question, but is there any way that Tharizdun could be freed from his chains, or to weaken them at the very least?

jagged apex
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is the plural of Alhoon still Alhoon or is it Alhoons?

jagged apex
white ravine
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Tharizdun is effectively stuck in the matrix. Any outside contact would INSTANTLY shatter that illusion and he would free himself.

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However, every god in existence and everyone under those gods would obliterate you if you even made an attempt.

jagged apex
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the speculated dogma of his cultists reads "Channel power to the Chained God, so he can break his chains. Retrieve lost relics and shrines to the Chained God. Pursue the obliteration of the world, in anticipation of the Chained God's liberation"

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but basically if he became aware the reality he is in is not real, he'd instantly break free and destroy the multiverse and remake it in his own image, himself included, as the prison more or less relies on using his own power against him

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and the reason the dogma is speculative is cuz most of his cultists can't understand a damn thing he says when they come into contact with places with traces of his power since they can't venerate him directly, is part of why he is not able to escape, if a believer could successfully call out to him, he'd snap out of the trap, which is why his name is basically stricken from all known records and memory ever since his imprisonment

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is also why he is mainly known by his aliases of "The Chained God" and "The Elder Elemental Eye"

jagged apex
serene crater
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My only other question in regards to Tharizdun (trying to read up on him but he's very obscure) did he have a reason why he wanted to destroy reality or did he do it for evils sake/get back at the gods for locking him away?

modest badger
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Tharizdun is weird lore wise as he starts off in 1e as a very different god to later editions.
He's a cold, entropic sleeper in Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, with a lot of strange implied lore within. It's not so much crazed madness, as eldritch and arcane knowledge, distant and long forgotten.

In later editions he gets merged with the Elemental Evil God/ Elemental Evil Eye from T1 and the Giant Series, who was more cthulian madness and creepy tentacles.

So he ends up around 3.5 in return to Temple of Elemental Evil as being this crazy, madness entropy god.

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Elder Eye is really more Ghuanadaur as 2e introduces Ghuanadaur as the Faerun equivalent of the Elder Eye, and also added in a connection to Juiblex. Tharizdun at this point still being a very separate entity. 3.5 decided to combine the two original 'creepy gods' of 1e Greyhawk into one, but also kept Ghuanadaur going for Faerun.

white ravine
# serene crater My only other question in regards to Tharizdun (trying to read up on him but he'...

The rough reasoning is that when the Obyriths (the original demons) sent out the Shard of Pure Evil from their dying dimension to corrupt a new world to inhabit, it landed in the hands of the god Tharizdun. The Shard infected him with a deep madness, hoping to coerce him to plant the Shard in the Astral Plane. Instead out of either a hope to control it, an act of defiance, or an act of sacrifice, he planted it in the mayhem of the Elemental Plane of Chaos (aka Limbo) which created the cancer sore on reality known as the Abyss. In his madness and with his deific powers, he was deemed too dangerous to be left alone and was thus sealed away into the Deep Ethereal by the other gods.

jagged apex
jagged apex
white ravine
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Though, it is important to note that Limbo is part of the elemental chaos.

iron saffron
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That's the 4E cosmology.

white ravine
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Yeahhhhhh

iron saffron
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I didn't care for it...

modest badger
white ravine
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Y e a h h h h h h . . .

modest badger
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Which is why the lore for Tharizdun and the EEG/EEE can be really mixed up and incoherent

jagged apex
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he basically as we know him is the complete opposite of what he was originaly a god of

jagged apex
jagged apex
white ravine
jagged apex
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from what i recall it was the glimpse briefly that was their way into his mind

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either way depending on the edition, is both a continuation and it's own continuity, so that is why there can be differences from edition to edition, but those concepts that are implied to have happen, histories that are referenced, beings mentioned, are all implied some version happened in that continuity leading up to that point, how much is the same as past ones is often up in the air until they tell us, such as zariel's fall from grace as an example

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so since we know he is in 5e, some versions of his story clearly happened in the 5e continuity

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and even within any one edition, there are multiple sources that can be theories in universe, scholarly records, meta lore for the readers to understand the setting like a sort of history, myths, or religious takes, one example of this in 5e is the first world

modest badger
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Like, in 1e, Tharizdun is a mystery even within his own module.

The Temple was built in a previous age, a secret place of worship to Tharizdun, He of Eternal Darkness. It drew the most wicked persons to it, and the cult flourished for generations, sending out its minions from time to time to enact some horrible deed upon the lands around. However, a great battle eventually took place between Tharizdun and those opposed to his evil. Unable to destroy him, they were strong enough to overcome his power and imprison him somewhere, by means none have ever been able to discover. Thus Tharizdun disappeared from the face of the earth, and from all of the other known planes, and has not been seen again since.
Tharizdun is associated with darkness, cold and radiation. Insanity is actually only a minor part of him- or rather it's far more subtle than 'you go insane'. He was made/inspired by Rob Kuntz' god.

In the World of Greyhawk Boxset he's given just a single line in a table saying he is male, universal (so not limited to one pantheon), god of Eternal darkness and Decay, and Evil. Just evil- not LE, NE or CE. Just E. But that's basically all there is for the origins of the god in 1e.

2e From the Ashes (1992) has it that the Suel Scarlet Brotherhood worship Tharizdun and has a section on Tharizdun (The Dark God)- this is the first time we'll hear this name but it'll pop up a few times:

What manner of Power Tharizdun is is unknown, although his name is associated with loss of strength and sanity, exhaustion and cold, fatigue, mind-bending illusions, depression, catatonia, and paralysis. Legend says that Tharizdun is banished and imprisoned in some unknown demi-plane, but there are those who strive to bring their old master forth.
In the table he doesn't change much from 1e, but is now NE instead of just E.
But so far, pretty solid concept. Darkness, Decay, Cold and creeping mental illness.

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Jumping ahead a little In 2e, Planescape 'On Hallowed Ground' 1996 again he gets a single line- but now he's NE and god of Dark, Decay, and Madness. He also get's a note saying

"Tharizdun is probably an aspect of the Dark God (see Dead Powers) or the Elder Elemental God (see Monstrous Powers)."
Neither of those are expanded much upon in the book. The Dark God gets a single line in a table too (God of Dark, Decay, Cold, NE) and the EEG gets a single line saying he's worshiped by any insane being, is a god of Elements and Magic and is NE. So we can see already that Tharizdun is being associated with both 'The Dark God' (who matches him better) and EEG from 1e. The EEG/EEE in T1, G1-3, and D3 was never really explained. A strange diety, that strikes victims insane, associated with tentacle monsters.

Jumping back, in 2e FOR2 'The Drow of the Underdark' 1991 makes the EEE/EEG in FR into Ghaundaur

Most humans find the worship of Ghaunadaur (also known as The Elder Elemental God, The Elder Eye, or Gormauth Souldrinker) disgusting

And 2e Monster Mythology 1992 relates EEE/EEG to Ghaunadaur and Juiblex. It talks about Elder Elemental God describing it as 'a force of pure elemental energy' that was banished from the prime plane and takes a different form in each world.

Readers of FOR2, The Drow of the Underdark, will find a specific form for this god in the Forgotten Realms, that of Ghaunadaur. The version presented there is one which fuses the identity of the (EEG), with that of an entity which appears to be its servant in some manner, Juiblex. In this book (EEG) and Juiblex are separated and statistics for both are provided. In Most worlds, their followings have a very distinctive difference."
It then goes on to explain Juiblex, a demon lord worshipped by aboleths, and the third forgotten god - 'The Dark God' who is a god of 'cold, exhaustion, and slow death' and has ancient lost shrines with strange magic items in- So Tharizdun, unconnected to the EEG.

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2e Demihuman deities 1998 reiterates this

Although Ghaunadaur is a distinct entity unrelated to the tana'ri lord Juiblex, the Faceless Lord, or the otherwise unnamed Elder Elemental God, neither of the latter two powers is active in the Realms, and Ghaunadaur has assumed both of their aspects within the Crystal Sphere of Realmspace. Gormauth Souldrinker may have once been the name of a seperate power, but if so, it has long been totally subsumed by That Which Lurks.

Now, 3e, 2000, Living Greyhawk Gazeteer- Tharizdun is back and upgraded. World destroying time. NE god of Eternal Darkness, Decay, Entropy, Malign Knowledge, and Insanity

Tharizdun (tha-RIZ-dun) is an old and evil god of uncertain origin, imprisoned by the concerted effort of all of the gods, He has not been heard from in over one thousand years. If freed, it is said that the gods would again unite to lock him away, for he wishes no less than to unravel the fabric of the universe. Sites keyed to him still exist, and his relics still hold power.

And then in 2001, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil this Tharizdun is now the baddy and "The Elder Elemental Eye is actually an aspect of Dread Tharizdun."

So. Great, we started off with Tharizdun. Who became 'The Dark God', but then was associated with the EEG/EEE in Hallowed Grounds which was then later solidified in 3.5's return to the temple of elemental evil, but EEG/EEE itself is associated with Ghaundaur, who in turn is associated with Juiblex and Gormauth Souldrinker. And sometimes EEG is an aspect of Tharizdun (3.5) or Tharizdun is a potential aspect of the EEG (2e). And Juiblex is just along for the ride.

jagged apex
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(well one out of universe explaination could be that between 2e and 3e at least license ownership changed so differences between those periods would be hard to avoid)

modest badger
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And between 1e and 2e would be Gygax (writer of both deities debut modules) leaving, and the new writers doing whatever and mostly focusing on the up and coming Forgotten Realms more.

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Nowdays in 5e, they stick with the Tharizdun = EEG, so finding lore for the diety ends up pushing you down this mess of a rabbit hole, because they were initially two separate gods with very different portfolios and worshippers, but both happened to be 'scary, kinda maddening, near forgotten' gods.

jagged apex
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yeah and it makes sense cuz him being locked up and any record of him being wiped away is kind of the only thing in universe keeping all of creation from coming undone

#

and the madness of his followers having to speculate the dogma, basically makes him the free evil big bad of choice for any dnd campaign using the official cosmology

eager bay
#

[FR]I'm curious. How would Eilistraee react if one of her chosen contracted ursinthropy?

white ravine
eager bay
#

Fair. I wad asking due to what ive come to understand about her relationship with Malar

white ravine
#

Malar's revered by lycanthropes but Malar's not really a god of them. I guess with that though she could go either way, but for a werebear I doubt she'd show them much enmity.

magic jackal
#

Certain servants of Elistraee are Elven Lycanthropes so I don't think she has any specific opposition to them

#

the Lythari

white ravine
#

Thats who I was thinkin of, couldnt remember the name

jagged apex
#

malar is evil lycanthropes, werebears are last i checked good aligned, just double checked, yep neutral good to be specific

jade dagger
#

Any Forgotten Realms loremasters? I'm trying to read up about the various factions and groups that exist out there.

#

What are some ones that are quite prominent in most campaigns that I should take note of?

jagged apex
jagged apex
#

honestly the 5 major ones are listed in the sword coast adventurers guide, but i feel the harpers and emerald enclave are 2 of the biggest, partially cuz both were involved in the recent honor among thieves movie

#

the big 5 being The Harpers, The Order of the Gauntlet, The Emerald Enclave, The Lords’ Alliance, and The Zhentarim

#

the zhentarim being the one that is more likely to be antagonistic partially do to it involving the black market

jade dagger
#

I'll read them out a bit more, I've been reading a bit about the lords alliance and the zhentarim, but i'll expand out my reading

#

thanks!

hidden current
foggy seal
#

Has there ever been a great plague in the Forgotten Realms?

iron saffron
#

Spellplague

runic totem
#

Do devils and other lower plane beings know they're evil?

#

Is evil considered "bad" in the same way as real life or is it just like a way of life

iron saffron
#

Yes, they can look at their statblock.

spark haven
#

They're in hell. I suspect the majority of them know why

iron saffron
#

Let's avoid the "Alignment" D&D Bingo card here.

spark haven
#

They either chose to be there, or ended up there as a result of their choices in life

iron saffron
#

They're devils, they're innately evil due to their nature. They will screw each other over but with a contract instead of a dagger.

#

Yes, there can be fiends who can "rise to grace" much like celestials can fall from grace, however, those rarities are more likely killed by their brethren before they can escape from the Lower Planes.

runic totem
iron saffron
#

Why are you asking these questions?

runic totem
#

Soul coins, in the wiki there's a quote from a devil where they say it has the spirit of an evil mortal so i just ended up wondering

iron saffron
#

The Outer Planes in the Great Wheel are based on the gradients of the alignments. Mortal souls go to their deities' domains in the corresponding planes that fit those alignments (there are exceptions of beings not of the same alignment as their plane)

#

Read up on the Manual of the Planes if you want to know more about the planes.

runic totem
iron saffron
#

The Forgotten Realms wiki is a good place to start.

#

It cites it sources of official D&D books.

serene crater
#

quick question but how close are the evil elemental princes to Tharizdun?

modest badger
#

As in physically or related in lore?

serene crater
#

lorewise

modest badger
#

Because lore wise the princes have been associated with the Temple of Elemental Evil, and thus the Elemental Evil Eye/ Elemental Evil God, which is connected to Tharizdun

serene crater
#

would they acknowledge his existence and venerate him or are they indifferent?

modest badger
#

This is where it gets messy again.
Because the Princes are their own power and follow their own ambitions.
And the EEG/EEE was never properly explained. Gygax in an unofficial interview said the EEG/EEE was going to be the King of Elementals, a kind of primordial chaos, 'Ali-ben-Yala'. But lore wise, the EEG just ends up being mixed into Ghaunadaur and Tharizdun.

iron saffron
#

Remember that the primordials fought the gods in the Dawn War and lost.

The Dawn War began when the mad god Tharizdun marshaled the primordials against the gods in a bid for universal domination after becoming corrupted by the obyriths.

modest badger
#

There's definitely a lot of 3.5 Dragon Magazine texts on the Archomentals / Princes, but it's pretty incoherent.

Princes of the Apocalypse in 5e is a spiritual successor to Temple of Elemental Evil, so that's the best 5e source you'll get.

modest badger
#

"The Princes of Elemental Evil are said to have a relationship with the mysterious being known only as the Elder Elemental God. Supposedly, some of the princes are that being's offspring, making them queer siblings to say the least.
-2e, Monstrous Compendium Planescape Appendix III, 1998

next pebble
#

I've always wondered how spell charges work in dnd. Is there any lore explanation to what they are? Or is it simply just a game mechanic?

iron saffron
#

Game mechanics.

modest badger
#

In AD&D it's described as needing time to gather the energy for spells, and I suppose mastery over that. Later on it's more just mechanics.

1e DMG:

Spell recovery, whether cleric/druid or magic-user/illusionist, requires about the same period of time. In order to pray and meditate for a new spell to replace one used, or in order to study and memorize such a spell, it is necessary that the spell-user rest and revitalize his or her mental faculties.
(...)
Release of word/sound-stored energy is not particularly debilitating to the spell caster, as he or she has gathered this energy over a course of time prior to the loosing of the power. It comes from outside the spell caster, not from his or her own vital essence. The power to activate even a first level spell would leave a spell caster weak and shaking if it were drawn from his or her personal energy, and a third level spell would most certainly totally drain the caster’s body of life!

And this was also when it wasn't just slots but you preparing specific spells. So you didn't have 3 2nd level slots, but rather could cast 3 2nd level spells a day and had to gain and prepare each one individually.
Clerics could rely on their own skills up until 3rd level spells, there after they had to petition their gods for higher levels spells:

Lesser clerics, then, draw only upon their education, training, and experience to gain spells, just as higher clerics do when they renew theirfirst and second level spells. In order to gain third, fourth, and fifth level spells, however, higher clerics must reach intermediaries of their respective deities in order to have these powers bestowed upon them from the plane of their deity. When clerics become very great, they must petition their deity personally in order to receive the powerful words which enable the casting of sixth and seventh level cleric spells. It is obvious, therefore, that clerics wishing to use third or higher level spells must be in good standing.

#

This idea however is carried through the editions, although it changes.
5e has the concept of 'fixing a spell in your mind' similar to the above 'study and memorize':

Before a spellcaster can use a spell, he or she must have the spell firmly fixed in mind, or must have access to the spell in a magic item. Members of a few classes, including bards and sorcerers,** have a limited list of spells they know that are always fixed in mind**. The same thing is true of many magic--using monsters. Other spellcasters, such as clerics and wizards, undergo a process of preparing spells. This process varies for different classes, as detailed in their descriptions.

In every case, the number of spells a caster can have fixed in mind at any given time depends on the character’s level.

But unlike the above concept of needing time to gather external energies, 5e goes more with it simply being taxing to cast spells:

Regardless of how many spells a caster knows or prepares, he or she can cast only a limited number of spells before resting. **Manipulating the fabric of magic and channeling its energy into even a simple spell is physically and mentally taxing, and higher--level spells are even more so. **Thus, each spellcasting class’s description (except that of the warlock) includes a table showing how many spell slots of each spell level a character can use at each character level.

magic jackal
#

Spell Charges? Or Spell slots

Charges sounds like Magic Items.

distant brook
#

What came first? The mind flayer or the tadpole?

grim dagger
#

The tadpoles come first then you get Mind Flayers. Given their reproduction though (they lay eggs, which hatch into tadpoles, eventually get absorbed by Elder Brains if they're not one of the rare tadpoles that instead become ulitharids which they themselves become Elder Brains) I'd say that Elder Brains came first.

jagged apex
jagged apex
# serene crater would they acknowledge his existence and venerate him or are they indifferent?

depends on the source, though citation is needed Olhyra's page claims that she and Imix, despite their view of each other both acknowledge the elemental evil eye as their father, Imix's page simply notes a majority of his history on the world of oerth was spent as an ally to him (cited as being from “Princes of Elemental Evil - The Archomentals” in Dragon#347), Yan-C-Bin's history claims from 4e's "heroes of the elemental chaos" that "During the Dawn War, Yan-C-Bin learned of the existence of the Elder Elemental Eye and convinced other primordials, including Olhydra and Imix, to join forces and serve that power in the hopes that they would be able to conquer the world. Following the Dawn War, the gods sealed Yan-C-Bin inside a mobile palace made of solidified air.", and Ogrémoch seems to be the odd one out not having anything that seems to make mention of the elemental evil eye

#

though the 4 cults made a recent appearance in bigby's under the section about giant gods, specifically interloper gods

#

which describes the over all practice as "Another popular avenue for giants who turn from the gods of the Ordning derives from giants’ close ties to the Elemental Planes. The nameless horror called the Elder Elemental Eye perverts natural elements, limiting them to their most destructive aspects in a way that appeals to giants who are disposed toward evil. More than most members of individual Elemental Evil cults, giants see the big picture of the four cults working toward the common goal of elemental cataclysm. Some giants even worship the Elder Elemental Eye directly rather than serving one of the subordinate cults." with it then going into the 4 specific cults and their respective elemental princes

#

so presumably their claimed connection to him is their excuse or motivation for trying to amass godhood or even just more power in general

magic jackal
turbid rune
#

I have always wondered if there is anymore stories or information about ghost walkers? I read the blood walk book and the main character was a ghostwalker and a follower of Hoar.

jagged apex
#

well ghostwalker is both the name of a sourcebook from 3.5e and a novel

#

but far as i know there is no such thing as someone being a ghost walker

turbid rune
#

That is what they called the character in the novel. That may not have been the actual name of the ability or anything

jagged apex
#

well in 5e ghost walk is the 13th level feature of the rogue subclass known as the phantom

turbid rune
#

Oh okay, I didn’t know that lol

jagged apex
#

but apart from that and the 2 mentioned books, not aware of anything from a quick google search in dnd with that term

turbid rune
#

That sucks, I always loved that character. Thanks though for the help!

jagged apex
#

honestly if it is such a blank slate, you might get some ideas to flesh out the term into a broader concept if you have access to the sourcebook

turbid rune
#

I am curious if the sourcebook has anything to do with the characters abilities from the novel

jagged apex
#

it literally includes stuff for playing ghost characters as players in that edition of the game

#

anyways if it helps the flavor text of the ability from the 5e phantom reads "You can phase partially into the realm of the dead, becoming like a ghost." after that it goes into the mechanics

#

the realm of the dead presumably in this context being the boarder ethereal plane or the ethereal plane proper

jagged apex
turbid rune
#

Thank you! Now I need to see if I can find the book and reread it. I know he wasn’t a ghost, but I can’t remember what plane his “ghostwalker” ability brought him too.

cloud dew
#

Hi, is there an official dwarven dictionary or a resource in the official books ? I have a PC cursed by Abbathor and I would like to find a way to speak with him in front of other players without them understanding. I thought it was a fun way to use some dwarven words in the middle of sentences 🙂

magic jackal
cloud dew
magic jackal
#

I'm a frayed knot.

cloud dew
cloud dew
magic jackal
#

😂

#

knot right now, I'm all tied up at the moment, but once I wrap my business up I can slack off

grave shard
#

On the planet which DnD is based on, how many functional towns and cities are there? Not ruins or the like, but actual functioning places in society.

#

I haven't vbeen able to find any sort of number online.

magic jackal
#

Okay so you'll have to specify setting because DND has multiple settings each with their own planet

#

or planets plural

#

Are you talking forgotten realms?

grave shard
#

Isn't Abeir-Toril the main one?

magic jackal
#

Forgotten Realms has that planet, and many consider FR to be the "default" setting

#

But anyhow, that's a very developed setting civilization-wise, so the amount of towns and cities is not quantified because it's too many to name.

#

Other words, there's a lot

iron saffron
#

Abeir-Toril isn't one planet but two "twin" planets.

magic jackal
#

Also the entire setting has not been completely filled in, so there's areas and regions that reasonably would have towns and cities that we don't know about.

magic jackal
grave shard
#

Gotcha. That's actually helpful info about how developed that place is.

iron saffron
#

The Forgotten Realms mainly focuses on one continent, Faerun, although there are several other continents, such as Kara-Tur, Zakhara, and Maztica (they had their own campaign setting boxed sets back in 2E).

grave shard
#

Alright, will do. Thanks for the help, guys.

unique bough
#

odd question, who would win Tyr or Tempus

#

i kind of want to pique my curiousity and i want to know which of these war gods are the strongest

shadow haven
#

I would probably say Tempus only because of him being the God of rage, fighting, war and bloodshed, I have no doubt Tyr is strong but fighting is Tempus's specialty

#

Also question. The weave was made by mystra for people to use magic, and Shar made the shadow weave as a direct counter to Mystra and also a a silent F you. But could any deity or powerful enough mortal(spellcaster likely) make their own kind of weave?

unique bough
iron saffron
#

Here are the statblocks of Tyr and Tempus from 3.5E Faiths and Pantheons for the gameplay mechanics side of such a theorical fight:

Tyr: Paladin 20/ Cleric 20; Divine Rank 18; hp 940; AC 76; Attack: +76/+71/+66/+61; Damage 1d8+23 (17-20 crit); Str 34, Dex 24, Con 25, Int 35, Wis 40, Cha 30

Tempus: Fighter 20/ Cleric 10/ Barbarian 10; Divine Rank 17; hp 1160; AC 80; Attack +85/+85/+80+/75+70; Damage 1d8+52 (18-20 crit); Str 50, Dex 24, Con 32, Int 24, Wis 29, Cha 29

shadow haven
iron saffron
#

They're both greater gods so they deal max damage and they always roll a 20 on a d20 too...

magic jackal
#

Which kinda gives Tyr a massive advantage.

iron saffron
#

I didn't include their salient divine powers that are on top of their class abilities/spells.

pale stump
shadow haven
pale stump
#

also that Empire of Magic box set setting they released that was basically Netheril era Faerun as a campaign setting, that one was great

drifting jacinth
#

Hmm. How do you think it would feel to get polymorphed against your will?

shadow haven
pale stump
#

it had a module that takes place in around the exact same year something I won't spoil in RotF ties to, which I think may have been an intentional decision wotc made in order to give DMs a ready tie in

unique bough
iron saffron
iron saffron
drifting jacinth
#

Sorry

unique bough
#

btw when i discussed this with a friend they out of pocket said tiamat could beat them, but reading into what they can do

#

is there a 5e source that states they're a lesser diety, or is it simply because they're trapped in hell

iron saffron
#

Bahamut and Tiamat have always been lesser deities (outside of the Dragonlance setting).

unique bough
#

they are saying basically
"Thats when shes in prison
Shes at like
1%
Of full power
Every form of Bahamut and Tiamat we fight is her at her weakest state"

median furnace
#

would a gold dwarf being raised in baldurs gate be lore breakingh

#

cuz i know gold dwarves tend to stay in or around the great rift

magic jackal
#

Most anyone can be anywhere, something being less likely does not make it lore breaking.

iron saffron
#

Baldur's Gate is a big metropolis city with sapient species from around Faerun and beyond.

#

Player characters don't break lore. Lore is essentially history. PCs can do whatever they want.

median furnace
#

ah okay good. i guess im just having trouble finding a good story as to why my gold dwarves parents would move to baldurs gate from the rgeat rift

#

*great

iron saffron
median furnace
#

oh okay ty

unique bough
#

but yeah basically they said new edition (5e) new lore but i can't find anything in the recent 5e books stating shes a lesser diety, all i read is marduk stripped tiamat as a greater diety and then when she became greater diety again with the Untheric pantheon Ao dissolved it and she became a lesser one

white ravine
#

(As in the fetal position, not like metroid morph ball body horror type stuff)

pale stump
#

ok I usually don't like dogpiling on wotc too much here, it's their server after all

#

but, um... did they seriously call the world of the Grayhawk setting (Oerth) "Greyhawk" in the new Bigby book?

#

that's... not what the world is called in the setting, like at all

#

I mean confusion between the name of the setting and the name of the world the setting takes place in is common for new players in many settings, that's totally fine, but it's a bit jarring in an official book

iron saffron
#

The book refers to the name of the campaign setting and not the world.

#

Most (new) players may have heard of the campaign settings but not the planet they're based on.

pale stump
#

no that reference was in a supposed in-world quote by Bigby

iron saffron
#

Which section? Sorry, I'm just looking at the "Giants of Many Worlds" section.

pale stump
#

the people living in Greyhawk (which is also Bigby's origin setting) don't call their world Geyhawk

pale stump
#

it's a quote about how the forces of elemental evil have spread among giants across the multiverse

iron saffron
#

Found it.

pale stump
#

so it'll probably be found where the book discusses that

iron saffron
#

It should not surprise me that the corruption of the Temple of Elemental Evil has spread far beyond my world of Greyhawk and infected even giants. It certainly does sadden me, though.
-- Bigby

#

Yeah, that's something a competent editor should have caught.

pale stump
#

it's a nitpick but you'd expect things like it to not make it past production

eager bay
#

I’m a bit new to Dungeons and Dragons. Can anyone tell me anything about the Illuskans?

iron saffron
#

I wouldn't be surprised most of the staff never played older editions and now much about Greyhawk. I never played Greyhawk proper but only AD&D modules that were set in it and I know enough about its lore not to have that type of mistake.

pale stump
#

a lot of people were mad at WotC over the Hadozee scandal, and while this isn't even remotely the same thing, it makes me worried that maybe WotC still aren't properly checking everything in their books before release

narrow crypt
pale stump
iron saffron
pale stump
#

hopefully in the Planescape book they don't call Sigil "the city of Planescape" lol

iron saffron
#

¯_(ツ)_/¯

pale stump
iron saffron
#

After 5E Spelljammer my expectations for 5E Planescape is very low...

eager bay
#

Does being a barbarian suit them? Would those on the mainland or the Moonshae Isles fit the class the most?

narrow crypt
#

hmm in worldanvil there is article about them

#

barbarian would def suit them

pale stump
narrow crypt
#

uthgard tribes are barbarians

pale stump
#

the uthgardt barbarians are the most archetypical totem barbarians out there

narrow crypt
#

and lots of the people in north have barbarians among them.

eager bay
#

Yeah I was told those that those who live south of the Spine of the World are more prone to have raven-black hair and those from the isles have red brown or blonde.

pale stump
#

the tribes worship different "totem animals", with each tribe worshipping a different animal totem and getting mystical powers in return

narrow crypt
#

illuskan also known as northlanders are seagoing warlike people. sounds kind of vikinglike

pale stump
narrow crypt
#

"Illuskans are more than just barbarians, however, as their culture has given rise to powerful rune-casters, fearless sailors, and legendary skalds. They also farm, fish, and mine their rugged lands, trading their goods with southern merchants. However, long-fallen elven empires, barriers of geography, and a cultural emphasis on raiding over trade have conspired to ensure that Illuskan culture and bloodlines have not take root in other lands."

eager bay
narrow crypt
#

Yes ofc.

jagged apex
jagged apex
# iron saffron Here are the statblocks of Tyr and Tempus from 3.5E Faiths and Pantheons for the...

though in 5e, anything beyond cr 30, like especially greater gods, player characters should not be fighting as basically no chance at winning to the point it would not even warrent a statblock, is kind of why in the adventure league module when escaping his prison and you are fighting him dendar is cr 30, once he busts out successfully, he goes back to full power basically and is GG for realm space and all life in it (save those that can survive without the warmth of the sun)

iron saffron
#

This is why I specfically mentioned the 3.5E book, making no assumptions it's valid for 5E. It's not meant for PCs but the theory crafting of who would win a fight between those two gods.

jagged apex
#

i know, just felt was a good time to chime in what kind of stuff you should not even bother adapting to 5e for combat purposes cuz some may try to and not realize they basically did all that work and math just to curb stomp their players with a one sided fight

iron saffron
#

WotC has moved away from giving gods' true forms statblocks since 4E.

jagged apex
#

and even then, not all god's domains and portfolios translate to combat which is the name of the game of statblocks

iron saffron
#

That said I like the use of aspects. At least in 3.5E aspects appeared to be weaker than a deity's avatar. Even demon lords and archdevils could have aspects, that way lower level PCs could fight them (see 3.5E's Expedition to the Demonweb Pits which has several aspects of demon lords around CR 8 to CR 12)

jagged apex
#

yeah though some statements by devs can be annoying cuz they fly in the face of that idea, like i recall some wotc staff members like crawford say that like tiamat in the tyranny of dragons was her true body and not an avatar and that like the demon lords were directly transplanted to toril in out of the abyss not like forced to manifest but like they in their true bodies were transported to toril, which makes little sense cuz if that were the case, i doubt it would have been to where it could have gone either way with the outcome and demogorgon would have just murdered his way to victory, since historically one of his unique abilities, that is saddly left out of his statblock is that he can murder other creatures and absorb their power and add it to his own, like with them missing certain things like demogorgon with that ability, it makes more sense that the statblocks in 5e are them at a base level, like at their most casual combat readyness, and if tiamat was in her true body when she was busting out, it makes no sense we were able to even harm her

#

like in tiamat's case it makes more sense for that to have been an avatar that she stole from another dragon god she killed in the past editions which was not retconned, and that also explains why she does not just come in for an air strike or anything like that in decent into avernus, she only has 1 avatar left and her true body and keeping her own life safe and doing her job of guarding the entrence to dis are way more important to her than fighting off blood war invaders

white ravine
jagged apex
#

if i am not mistaken was jeremy crawford specifically that made that statement, so i feel he was talking out his ass or presenting his own interpritation as if it were fact

iron saffron
#

Why not both?

jagged apex
#

cuz one would be do to a lack of knowledge and the other one would be ignoring any existing info or logic but your own

white ravine
#

Jeremy crawford, lore intern

jagged apex
#

way i see it to do both would be logically impossible

jagged apex
white ravine
iron saffron
#

I find the demon lords underpowered and weak in 5E...

jagged apex
#

cuz when working on books and content i imagine they are willing to do their research, but doubt they do when answering sage advice and stuff on twitter, now X

white ravine
jagged apex
# iron saffron I find the demon lords underpowered and weak in 5E...

like i said, to me it just seems logical that the 5e statblock are their base power, them at their weakest while still being able to keep their status as demon lord from any would be challengers, just makes more sense especially with how 5e statblocks are more often than not just average examples of creatures

white ravine
#

Demogorgon's pretty scary to a level 20 party if they have to wade through a torso high sea of dretches to get literally anywhere

jagged apex
#

and his unique ability is easy to homebrew into 5e, basically just allow him to murder another demon and add their hit points to his own as temp hp

#

or another thing is since they are specific individuals rather than going with the printed hp, max it, like max rolls on each hit die for determining hp

iron saffron
jagged apex
#

idk, is a tidbit i learned from lore of past editions, but supposedly was what made him able to basically murder his way to the title of prince of demons, he literally murdered and empowered himself on anyone that go in his way, honestly learned it in a lore video, so may wanna take it with a bit of salt, but it does not seem unreasonable, being the first tanari and to this day his own spawn being "the tarrasque of the great wheel" and the original prince of demons, obox-ob, still not confident in his own power to take back his thrown without at least finding and reuniting with another aspect of himself or amassing more raw power

#

cuz yeah historically demogorgon's son, Arendagrost, is a demon lord who is basically used by his father as a weapon of mass destruction or glorified guard dog, i adapted him to 5e once, he clocked in at cr 30 when simply converting his previously official stats to 5e mechanics and stats

iron saffron
#

I've never seen that game mechanic in any of the 3.5E Demogorgon statblocks from the various books.

white ravine
#

Sorry, more like 99% now

#

You got Rhexxed

jagged apex
#

though Arendagrost, likely had such a high cr for my 5e conversion cuz he has 3 heads each with their own breath weapon

jagged apex
# white ravine You got Rhexxed

if that is the case he likely god the idea from reading this ability cited as being from 1e "His whip-like tail had the ability to drain the life energy right out of a living foe. His tentacles inflicted a withering disease that caused living creatures to rot away in an effect similar to that of cause disease. Rotted limbs and bodies could only be cured if spells such as remove disease were cast very quickly."

#

might have assumed if draining life force said life force was going into himself

white ravine
#

Likely so, yes.

jagged apex
#

but either way, if you feel the statblocks a bit lacking, easily can fix that by maxing out the hp or adding to the spells or swapping them out as their spells in their statblocks tend to differ from edition to edition and given the way planar life works, is not unreasonable to think they might have learned some new spells or gotten good enough at them to where they rolled them into their arsenal

iron saffron
#

3.5E Demogorgon's tail does energy drain (inflicts 1d4 negative levels) and he gets 5 hp back as result.

#

Mr.Rhexx takes a lot of liberties of what he reads...

white ravine
#

Even so, I think the idea is really damn cool.

#

Like yeah, inaccurate

#

But screw it, it's a demon. Inaccuracy is a feature, not a bug.

jagged apex
#

ah, so maybe that was also one thing rhexx might have been thinking of, basically might have been trying to describe it in a way that could sum up the ability regardless of edition since it was not kept as strong in 5e, simply doing bludgeoning and necrotic, with his tenticles basically reducing the victim's max hp by the damage taken on a failed dc 23 con save

jagged apex
# white ravine But screw it, it's a demon. Inaccuracy is a feature, not a bug.

yeah part of the fun of beings of pure chaotic evil, is the unpredictability, the statblocks are basically just what you can expect as a minimum more often than not in that regard you could argue, as unless tasha has been diverting time in researching her new existance as an archfey to make sure her demonomicon is up to date i am sure even some of her lore contributions could reasonably be out of date

#

and prior to her 5e appearance in the wild beyond the witchlight and her own sourcebook, she was basically the if not one of the most knowledgeable in universe in regards to demons

white ravine
#

Im running demons since I'm doing DiA, and I'm having fun dropping 4-5 random demonic mutations on them each. Really scares the pants off of em.

#

But I digress.

jagged apex
#

i really wanna play DIA, never got to, never got past one session in the past times i have tried to play, the campaign would either fall through or i would be kicked out with out explination despite a good session

iron saffron
#

That's why I go back to earlier editions because I know at least two of my players have access to 5E sourcebooks and can check on the statblocks. I've converted 3.5E Demogorgon to 5E, mostly because I find his 5E version to be underpowered and weaker.

jagged apex
#

if it ain't contradicted in 5e or not addressed, i always assume past lore is still relevant until they give us official 5e lore relating to it in some way

white ravine
jagged apex
#

5e may seem that way cuz is less crunch and more streamlined

#

like he is still the strongest demon lord we have stats for in that edition, and again i feel the published statblocks in regards to the demon lords is them at their weakest yet still demon lord and combat ready status, it just makes sense

iron saffron
#

5E simplified everything for ease of use, just look at MoMM where they removed spell slots to limited spell lists

white ravine
#

God...don't remind me.

jagged apex
#

or else they are just ment to be used as is if you don't have prep time to adjust it to your liking

#

but since this is a lore channel i feel it more fitting to say is them at their weakest but still retaining their status

iron saffron
#

My PCs will be level 20 when they finally confront Demogorgon. They're level 7 currently and already having no problems against monsters/NPCs CR 10 or 12.

jagged apex
#

do they have magical items?

iron saffron
#

Anyway, going off track...

#

Of course.

jagged apex
#

there is one potential issue

iron saffron
eager bay
#

Would Illuskans have British accents?

white ravine
#

Nah, not really.

eager bay
#

Dang. Wish Baldur's Gate 3 had more voice options. What about Illuskans on the mainland?

white ravine
#

No clue, accent wise.

eager bay
#

Gotcha.

jagged apex
eager bay
#

Oh so British accents are headcanon? Interesting.

jagged apex
#

they can be

eager bay
#

I only ask cause all the voice options are British.

white ravine
#

Faerun's a vague allegory for europe, but that's always a bit 'eh'

jagged apex
#

but if going off the geological similarities probably a close real world aproclomation would be between the way the people of europe and farther north like greenland or scotland or what ever is north of there

#

as the continent of faerun is roughly similar to earth's europe

eager bay
#

So like Wulfgar from Dark Alliance sounds like he has a British accent from the way Jamieson Price voiced him.

jagged apex
#

sadly only 3 words are cojntained in the dictionary

jagged apex
eager bay
#

Oh ok. Yeah they do look Scandanavian.

jagged apex
#

honestly if wanting the most accurate answer possible, i'd hit up ed greenwood on twitter and see if he'd be willing to help you, he is rather active with others, showed him by adaptation a while back of wu-jen to 5e and he like it, has been one of the happies snippets of my life since

#

afterall, nobody would know the languages and people of the setting better than it's original creator, would let you get the purest answer, as we see with eberron, sometimes the continuities of wizards and the setting creators can differ

white ravine
#

i would ask him so much

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but i hate twitter

eager bay
#

That's smart. His name is Greenwood?

white ravine
#

😢

white ravine
eager bay
#

First name?

jagged apex
eager bay
#

Thanks so much.

jagged apex
#

there is my interaction with him, can go right to his twitter

sterile breach
jagged apex
#

he also in addition to youtube videos, from time to time puts out tweets with realm lore content on twitter, so while you are at it if you are into the forgotten realms, would probably be a good idea to follow him too

white ravine
#

Whats the upper plane adjacent to mechanus?

iron saffron
white ravine
#

ARCADIA! How could i forget

iron saffron
#

Well, it's a B-tier plane that's between two A-tier planes.

white ravine
#

Yeah fair

#

I even remember Gehenna though

#

And gehenna is just...eh.

primal fjord
#

I just got the Guide to the Swordcoast book, I had no idea Dwarfholds of the north were a thing but they’re dope af

iron saffron
#

They're like Midwest fly-over states. They're just there...

white ravine
#

Yeah...

jagged apex
#

yeah thinks either not touched on or only done so briefly, often risk falling into obscurity to where some can be completely unaware of them

wraith zenith
#

i have a question about time in the forgotten realms / Faerun

#

my current main campaign commenced on "the ides of uktar," or halfway through uktar

#

i'd like to acknowledge the turning of the new year as in my timeline it will be a substantial one (1500)

#

when does the "new year" tick over, and how many days between the halfway point of uktar and the new year - is it defined by the "midwinter festival"?

#

the winter solstice is also important in relation to this

iron saffron
#

Midwinter is between Hammer 30 and Alturiak 1.

wraith zenith
#

right. so midwinter isn't the same thing as new year, as it's a month late (hammer being month 1)

#

and also different to the solstice which strikes on nightal 20

#

so, from the ides of uktar i have:

14 days of uktar
one festival day (feast of the moon)
20 days until the solstice
10 days until the turning of the calendar
30 days of hammer before the midwinter festival

#

now i just have to go back through my notes to figure out where they're at 😬

iron saffron
#

Yeah, only now I track the date for my players. They started the campaign about three months before Midsummer (sailing down from Waterdeep to Tashluta) and it's been around 13 days since Midsummer (12 days out of 20 days of downtime before they set sail around the Chultan Peninsula for about four months)..

#

That God Foundry VTT has a date/time tracker.

wraith zenith
#

my table is very un-virtual 😅 but i do take comprehensive notes and have been aware of the significance of dates to this campaign

tame locust
#

Are there any official deities that are against the use of msgic?

eager bay
#

...of course there could definitely be a religious organization that says the God is against magic.

#

"Do as I say not as I do!"

#

Lol

white ravine
#

Unless you mean like...official lore questions.

stray heath
white ravine
#

S'what I do.

eager bay
#

Such as necromancy

white ravine
queen sand
#

Ok, are genasi specifically human and an elemental, or can they be from other races?

iron saffron
#

Yes they can be of any humanoid and elemental.

eager bay
#

How does a huminoid mate with an elemental?

#

Arnt elementals just elements?

marsh depot
#

im confused about the mukltiverse. how do the gith go around ransacking entire universes? is knowledge of the multiverse commoonplace? are the planes of existence multiverses within themselves ?

magic jackal
#

Where did you read that the Gith go around ransacking entire universes?

magic jackal
eager bay
cedar badger
#

Anyone knows about Waterdeep's Masked Lords? Do they take off the mask in a safe place and live the rest of the day as a commoner/noble?

gloomy brook
#

Yeah, they're regular people who wear a special mask and robes when they have to do their work. The average gardener might be a Masked Lord and you'd never know it

spark haven
#

it wouldn't be a great secret identity if it was their only identity

#

Yes, they take the masks off.

cedar badger
#

How are they not getting tracked though? Is there underground paths to specific buildings that they can take off the clothes and get in the city as commoner?

#

how does the transition goes

spark haven
#

they're rich

#

they can afford security, they can afford body-doubles

#

they can afford spies to tell them who's plotting their downfall

spark haven
#

Masked Lords do their job, change, and then leave the area as civilians

#

magic disguises exist, too, that could be dropped or raised in an instant

cedar badger
#

I was just curious about the changing room part, the magic detail may work as well, you are right

spark haven
#

Yeah, magic exists, so secret passages or secret changing rooms aren't much of a stretch

#

All you have to do is check in with the security desk, enter the building, find the broom closet, spin counter-clockwise four times and clockwise three times while chanting "Mary had a little lamb"

#

now you're in the Lord's Chamber

unkempt merlin
#

Iirc their amulets also protect them from all types of divination and the like

spark haven
#

ooh that's right

#

like i said, they are rich

#

they can just buy protection

unkempt merlin
#

Iirc they also often use disguise self stuff

cedar badger
#

I saw lots of dead Masked Lords in the wiki though, they don't have that much protection on their in civil part of life to get no attention I guess

spark haven
#

they're still mortal

#

they're just politicians

#

they're not actually special

#

just rich

jagged apex
#

a lot of the masked lords' protection tends to come from their largely unknown identities last i checked

spark haven
#

Complete immunity to divination magic would go a long way to that end for sure

#

They're not untouchable, they're mortals and they exist in physical space so no matter what they leave a non-zero amount of clues behind as they move through and impact the world

jagged apex
# spark haven like i said, they are rich

not all the masked lords are rich, at least the way ed greenwood himself has explained interactions in more modern days with the likes of Laeral Silverhand and the one guy who actually plays a rather surprisingly important role do to him basically not really hiding him being a masking lord, even if most don't believe him, he talked about it in one of his youtube channel videos

#

was in one of his parts for the two part vids "Ruling Waterdeep From The Shadows: Who Are The Masked Lords"

spark haven
#

Rich might've been reductionist, but I don't think any actual janitors are being Masked Lords

jagged apex
#

i literally recall one such example he gave was something to do with dung, like that one of their day jobs had to do with dung

spark haven
#

neat

#

don't get me wrong, i'd love a janitor Masked Lord, i just generally assume that power structures try to keep their power consolidated

#

it's how they maintain continuity

jagged apex
#

eh, maybe if the wrong person becomes the open lord i could see that happening, but to my knowledge waterdeep is not canonically that corrupt

#

the second part i believe that talks about the more low class members

spark haven
#

fascinating

#

if waterdeep's political structure leans that direction i might have to mess around there

jagged apex
#

that guy from the movie, if he had kept his job longer than he did in the film, probably would have started becoming a more typically corrupt goverment

#

murt, may have mispelled that, is the one that basically is rather open about being known as a masked lord and people not necessarily believe him right away

#

also, he and laeral have a hilarious dynamic

#

Forge Fitzwilliam, that was the guy from honor among thieves i was thinking of

#

though that was neverwinter, but guys like him are not ideal in any political role anywhere unless you want a typically corrupt politician

#

about the 12:20 minute marker in the second part is apparently where he makes the examples i was thinking of

#

streetsweeper and dung carter

vital heron
jagged apex
#

was not saying he was, those are two seperate examples

jagged apex
eager bay
#

The only hybrid that made sense is human and elf's for me

eager bay
#

And draconics arnt humans and dragons

#

That's half dragon

eager bay
#

Oh i forgot that

#

Okay what about Minotaur? Are they transformed by Greek Gods like in mythology?

#

Lemme remeber

#

Minatours are basically

#

Descendents of humanoids

#

Transformed by rituals

#

By cults

#

These cultists reject d like laws or something and wanted to return to nature

#

But they do bread into each other

unkempt merlin
eager bay
cedar badger
#

I am kind of confused about the link between the Weaves

runic totem
#

Are all elves reincarnated? Would a cleric go to their god's plane?

#

Do elves never go up in population if they all reincarnate but not as animals

spark haven
#

Elves reincarnate? That's news to me

#

outside of Tolkien's Halls of Mandos at least

runic totem
obsidian gate
#

elves in dnd have past lives and can even remember some stuff from those lives under the right conditions

spark haven
#

fascinating

obsidian gate
#

its part of the reason why they dont like to sleep ususally

runic totem
runic totem
obsidian gate
#

I think all elves would know about this sooner or later, they do get glimpses into their past when they trance or sleep.

clerics dont go to their god's plane I think, though I guess if an elf worships a non elven god, maybe exeptions exist

#

elven population is somewhat fluid, because souls dont always immediately reincarnate

#

they can spend an variable amount in the afterlife of Avandor, before returing to the world

#

elven populations often become larger ahead of times of peril, of their gods are able to see those times coming anyway

runic totem
obsidian gate
#

an elven cleric? unclear if they wouldgo to a different afterlife than regular elves or not.

white ravine
#

The only ones that don't are the drow, because Corellon hates them.

white ravine
#

As for the god's plane thing, most elves worship the Seldarine so that's neither here nor there

#

HOWEVER in the case of a non-seldarine worshipper, we can look to greenwood's tweets for an answer

#

Which is they still go to Arvandor.

obsidian gate
#

good to know

white ravine
#

Aye.

#

I am the #1 and only existing DND elf fan

obsidian gate
#

hmm, what about this part of tome of foes:

Elves who die of old age without experiencing Transcendence are believed to have been denied admission to Arvandor, and thus their souls pass on to other planes and are never reincarnated. The living are left to guess why this might be true, but an elf’s conduct during life often offers a clue. Drow never experience Transcendence, for example, and the same is true for elves who turn to the worship of gods other than the Seldarine.

#

doesnt this contradict the tweet?

white ravine
#

Not really. Looking at Transcendence this is what we get:

'Yet there is one sure sign that an elf is nearing the end of life: cataracts in the shape of crescents, points down, that appear over the pupils of both eyes when the elf is in trance. This change, commonly known as Transcendence, is evidence that Sehanine Moonbow has opened the door to enable the elf's soul to return to Arvandor—a direct sign from the gods that it's time to get one's affairs in order.

How much time an elf's body has left is never certain. Whether hours or years, the period is marked by both intense joy and great sadness. Most mortal elves accept their upcoming fate with optimism or resignation, but some react by throwing themselves back into the labors of life with a frenzy other elves consider unbecoming.'

#

Roughly, transcendence is a mark that an elf is accepted and ready to return to Arvandor. If that stage never comes, that means the gods themselves are denying the elf for some reason

#

It wouldn't be for worshipping another god, or at least I wouldn't imagine that's the case based on what Greenwood said

#

But it'd be for say...being a serial killer.

#

It's why the drow don't go to Arvandor, Corellon just kinda hates em.

#

Oh...wait hm.

#

Hmmm

#

I see what your saying now

#

That is strange...though Greenwood's tweet DID come after Tome of Foes.

#

So...take it or leave it?

#

🤷‍♂️

obsidian gate
#

also, reading further into tome of foes, it seems like the fate of drow souls is kind of a mystery? maybe I am missing something.

#

they dont reincarnate but does that mean lolth makes new souls? what happens to dead drow?

white ravine
#

Dead drow go to the fugue like any other soul

#

Where they come from though?

#

UHHHHH...

iron saffron
#

The Lolth worshipping drow would go to the Demonweb Pits, no?

obsidian gate
#

okay but the souls of dead drow would then be judged and claimed by a god, right, most likely Lolth? And then they just end up in the abyss/demonweb pits?

white ravine
#

Likely lolth, after all she is their

'patron'

deity

iron saffron
#

There's also Eilistraee remember.

white ravine
#

Yeah

#

Of course, it's not a very good look if an escaped drow wizard of mystra leads a life of promoting magic and good natured-ness only to get soul sucked into the abyss and turned into fleshy goop

obsidian gate
#

sure, I meant those that worship lolth woulöd og to her

white ravine
#

Yeah, penchant toward lolth but exceptions as usual

obsidian gate
#

I assume followers of the other dark seladrine gods go to their deities

white ravine
#

Most likely

#

Can't imagine them ALL going to lolth

#

That's almost cruel

iron saffron
#

I think she has pleaded to her father about not being a stickler to not allowing drow souls to go to Arvandor?

white ravine
#

Maybe? Cant remember.

obsidian gate
#

the other drow deities also reside in the abyss, right? (except Elistraee)

white ravine
#

Though this does open the big question of where the hell drow souls even come from

iron saffron
#

Yes, the Dark Seldarine

white ravine
#

They make em?

#

Oh, you meant omegons question

#

Nvm lol

obsidian gate
#

Tome of foes mentions a few drow make it to Avandor, could be mostly Elistraee worshippers and a few drizzt types

iron saffron
#

The "Drizzt types" are all the drow ranger PCs created in the late 80s and 90s...

white ravine
obsidian gate
#

though, if elven souls can be sometimes claimed by non elven deities, like the earlier passage suggests, then we could expect small numbers of drow across pretty much all afterlives

iron saffron
#

I swear 3E melee ranger type were created because of Drizzt...

obsidian gate
#

or at least across all afterlives that arent species exclusive

iron saffron
#

Given there's an enclave of Eilistraee worshippers who hang outside of Waterdeep I would say that non-evil / non-Lolth worshipping drow aren't as uncommon as RA Salavatore makes it out to be.

obsidian gate
#

yeah he has some kind of beef with her I beleive

iron saffron
#

Ed Greenwood created her to balance out Lolth.

obsidian gate
#

maybe the whole dancing naked in the moonlight is not his thing

#

I cant totally blame him

iron saffron
#

He wanted his protagonist to be unique and Drizzt can't be unique when there's a church of non-evil surface dwelling drow (mostly female too!)

obsidian gate
#

that is true too I guess

iron saffron
#

Have you tried it?

obsidian gate
#

no

iron saffron
#

Anyway, Eilistraee is my favourite deity because she and her worshippers goes against the grain of the evil Lolthian drow.

obsidian gate
#

yeah I love her too

iron saffron
#

As much as I loved Drizzt when I first read the Crystal Shared in 1988 he's a bit long in the tooth now... Dude, we get it, you're a good-aligned drow "ranger." He's been brooding for over 30 years (he's catching up to Batman)

#

Anyway, switching to something else. For the personal side quest for one of the PCs it takes place in Halruaa, the hermit kingdom of wizards and their floating towers and airships. I've taking them around the kingdom and I had wanted to have the BBEG (Tuerny the nalfeshnee (originally from Greyhawk lore)) to be in Chasolné. Chasolné, which on the outside are two giant stone heads, is an abandoned temple that is actualality a secret laboratory for two sarrukhs.

I'm surprised this place has never been used in an adventure before.

white ravine
#

Asmodeus is my GOAT

hazy fox
iron saffron
#

That's his opinion. (And he's wrong about her)

hazy fox
#

Yeah.
But at least it wasn’t Smedman’s novels that paint her in bad light.

iron saffron
obsidian gate
#

damn, what was WotC smoking

iron saffron
#

They wanted to prop up Drizzt to keep him unique. Can't have competition with other good-aligned drow on the surface...

obsidian gate
#

sure but they didnt have to be so racist and gross to do that

queen sand
#

It says there are alternate ways to become a Genasi besides lineage/birth. How might this happen???

unkempt merlin
#

becoming a genasi is like becoming a sorcerer in a lot of ways

#

lineage, birth during an event of elemental magic, exposure to elemental magic, etc

obsidian gate
#

is it? I figured it was more like tiefling or aasimar. you are born that way or not

iron saffron
#

It's the genetic lottery for those not born from genasi parents, like tieflings, aasimars, and redheads

runic hatch
#

Yo can someone just DM me like...everything

#

I'm about to start managing a campaign and I know like

#

Nothing

#

I need a lot of baseline knowledge very fast

#

Both to help things along and have more fun with it

#

I need nutshelling lol

#

I don't think the mechanics will be as hard for me to pick up as the lore and overall world/worlds?

#

I would be very appreciative 🤣🤣🤣🤣help

iron saffron
#

Everything of what?

runic hatch
#

Yes. What are the playable races, lore, lands, idk what to ask because I do mean baseline nothing. I know dungeons and dragons is a game with funny numbers and imagination. Is basically what it boils down to

#

I get the mechanics and how it works

spark haven
#

it sounds like you just need to read the handbooks

runic hatch
#

To some degree

spark haven
#

Players Handbook, maybe the DMG

runic hatch
#

I want to. Just easier to see if there's people around who can give a more concise breakdown for a complete beginner. A crash course, if you will

#

Is there anything like that around?

#

I mean those books are huge and generally pricey afaik

spark haven
#

not really, there's no singular canon or official setting, and the ones that exist have mostly existed for decades

#

which means there's a lot of material, and a lot of it is inconsistent

#

there's a forgotten realms wiki on fandom

#

that's probably your best bet

runic hatch
#

Ok. So as long as I learn the general mechanics more, I'm basically good?

spark haven
#

The lore of your setting is very flexible

runic hatch
#

Just throw in whatever works as long as it works within the rules

iron saffron
#

Read the Basic Rules

spark haven
#

You can use other people's stuff or write your own

#

Or some combination

runic hatch
#

Yeah I do apologize for the random questions. I've learned it never hurts to ask tho

#

And the explanation did help a good bit, thank you

iron saffron
#

This channel is for about official D&D lore

runic hatch
#

Sorry for the confusion, I'm actually just playing to begin with. Managing the real life social and mechanical aspects for now alone of the first campaigns in my group

#

I'm good with discord and bringing people together, but that's my limit for now. I'll shut up though lol

serene crater
#

quick question but would a giant worshipping more than their own gods be considered a taboo? (EX: fire giant worshipping Asmodeus while worshipping Surtur and Annam)

fallow leaf
#

fr wiki says fire giants often worship kossuth, god of elemental fire

serene crater
#

huh, interesting

storm dagger
#

It’s generally not considered proper by giant culture to worship deities outside their main ones

torpid quartz
#

What is the elemental evil?

#

The core 3 books mention it multiple times but as far I can find don’t actually explain it

serene crater
#

Depends, there's the cult, Tharizdun the evil elemental eye and the whole thing

#

The cult itself is a group dedicated to the four elements and unified under the evil elemental eye. Some cultists are fully devoted to the elemental cult while others only follow it for their own selfish gains. They worship the four evil elemental princes. Ogremoch for Earth, Olhydra for Water, Imix for fire, and Yan C-Bin for air

#

Im still learning myself so I apologize for any loose descriptions or information missing

iron saffron
#

Cultists who worship the Evil Elemental Princes (see Princes of the Apocalypse campaign).

The Princes of the Apocalypse is a homage to the classic 1E AD&D Temple of Elemental Evil, although that one the BBEG is Zuggtmoy.

soft silo
#

I think I came across a clashing of new lore vs old lore in forgotten realms

#

The orc word for orc is nothok, and the orc word for goblin is nothokari, implying that goblins are closely related to orcs, but goblins are from the feywild while orcs, to my knowledge, are not

zenith dust
#

people name things they don't understand all the time

soft silo
#

Well I think the clash is that goblins being from the feywild is relatively new lore

iron saffron
#

Yes it is.

unkempt merlin
#

Yes and no

zenith dust
#

it may or may not be

unkempt merlin
#

They've always had connections to the feywild

zenith dust
#

but orcs have never been "Goblinoid" like Hobgoblins and Bugbears

#

so they weren't right regardless of the feywild connection

unkempt merlin
iron saffron
#

The plane of Feywild is relatively new to 4E (Plane of Faeries was in 3E Manual of the Planes).

unkempt merlin
#

Yes I suppose saying "feywild" is inaccurate. Connections to the fey would be more accurate.

soft silo
#

Isn't the modern FR goblin lore that maglubiyet conquered goblins in the feywild and brought them to the material plane for some nefarious purposes

iron saffron
#

Maglubilyet isn't their creator god but an upsurper.

soft silo
#

Yeah that's what I'm saying

white ravine
soft silo
#

He conquered them by killing their gods or something along those lines

white ravine
#

'ari' could possibly mean short for example

#

So if Not means green and hok means skin then Nothokari would mean short green man

iron saffron
#

Goblins back in AD&D were red or yellow, not green.

unkempt merlin
#

They are still yellow in FR 5e

#

Mostly at least

iron saffron
#

I'm sure CR had an influence making them green

soft silo
#

To be fair goblins are universally considered green by most people

iron saffron
#

Not in D&D lore...

soft silo
#

Yeah I know

#

Usually you hear goblin and picture a little green thing

unkempt merlin
white ravine
#

Could also be that the mixture of those terms makes it a new term

soft silo
#

It doesn't help that I've got red/green/yellow color blindness and any pale shade of green, yellow, red, orange, etc all kinda look the same to me

iron saffron
soft silo
#

I looked up dnd goblin just to remind myself of how they're typically depicted and the very first example I genuinely couldn't tell if it were green or yellow

thorny phoenix
#

Are nobles among eladrins in Feywild?

jolly bolt
#

Is Fizban the Fabulous one of Bahamut's disguises when he changes shape?

iron saffron
#

Fizban is the human form of Paladine the Platinum Dragon.

#

Dragonlance doesn't directly tie Paladine as Bahamut (but it's quite obvious).

magic jackal
jolly bolt
fallow leaf
iron saffron
#

Great Wrym specificially

jolly bolt
iron saffron
#

World not universe.

#

There are many worlds in the Material Plane. Each world may have an echo of a greatwrym.

jolly bolt
#

K

#

I just can never get my greatwyrm lore right

white ravine
#

The echo thing in fizbans is generally weird

#

dont fault yourself for it

iron saffron
#

It's new lore for 5E. Personally I found it just lazy, much like there was only one statblock representing all metallic great wrym dragons (and similarly for gem and chromatic)

magic jackal
#

I found the stat blocks to be lazy, but I really enjoyed the lore.

#

I love the idea of a first world, the elegy taking after greek style epic poetry, and the echoes as an explanation of why there are dragons on every world.

#

Plus becoming a greatwyrm being a form of ascendancy that takes immense effort and will to achieve is more interesting to me than just getting older

white ravine
white ravine
iron saffron
#

I had wished Fizban's had expaned to East Asian-inspired long/lung dragons...

white ravine
#

God. I miss lung dragons.

iron saffron
#

1E gold dragons looked like Chinese dragons so I was upset when 2E gold dragons had wings (kinda... the 2E MC1 said they could have a wingless form for swimming). 3E made them with fan-like wings that ran down the length of their bodies.

#

I remember as a kid one of my (white) friends said it was wierd that the 1E gold dragons were wingless and looked like snakes. Being ethnic Chinese I didn't find it odd at all.

fallow leaf
#

yeah idk if wotc is scared of pulling another hadozee situation with trying to add more asian inspired monsters or what

#

but it is weird that fizbans didnt even try with it

hexed turret
#

Wait so I’m super confused, what are Gods in DnD? Do they have a physical form? Are they spiritual beings? I need some elaboration and what I find online is just confusing

iron saffron
#

Deities are mentioned in both the PHB and DMG.

#

They're gods, near omni-potent beings from the Outer Realms.

#

What don't you understand about gods? Mythological gods have existed throughout (real world) humanity. D&D gods are loosely based on them.

hexed turret
#

I just don’t understand whether they have a physical form or not

iron saffron
#

D&D gods have power levels — demi-god, lesser god, intermediate god, and greater god. Their divine power level depends on the number of followers.

#

They have aspects / avatars that are physical manifestations used to appear in the Material Plane (and occasionally other planes of existance outside of their home plane).

#

Aspects / avatars are much weaker than the true forms of the gods.

#

3.5E Deities and Demigods (and the 3.5E Forgotten Realms' Faiths and Pantheons) had statblocks of the gods' true forms and their avatars.

#

4E had Lolth and her aspect in MM3.
5E only have aspects of a handful of gods.

hexed turret
white ravine
#

Sorta spiritual, sorta not. It's one of those godly situations where a god's true form kind of obliterates mortal men through proximity.

#

You can go to the outer planes and flat out meet gods (usually their avatars, but sometimes not) as they lay around doing business

iron saffron
#

Gods' true forms are in their domains on an Outer Plane.

#

They control their domain so it's next to impossible for hostile mortals to "invade" their domain.

#

That said, gods can die. Corpses of dead gods can be found floating in the Astral Plane.

#

It takes a lot to truly kill a god. It's not that unheard of for dead gods to be resurrected.

hexed turret
#

So are their domains just like mini-planes of their type?

iron saffron
#

The gods' realms are subsets of the Outer Plane they reside on not separate planes onto themselves.

hexed turret
#

How can you reach that? Like could you just enter it?

iron saffron
#

As a mortal you first need to leave the Material Plane for the Outer Planes, usually via Astral Plane or spells like Gate. Then you need to head to the plane where the god resides — so Bahamut's realm is called Bahamut's Palace and it's on the first four layers of Celestia, however, it can be reached via four portals named after the Four Winds on the Elemental Plane of Air (each guarded by warden archons).

cloud marten
#

there is that one plane from Planescsape setting that's middle of all other planes that has gates to every plane

iron saffron
#

The Outlands, aka Concordant Domain of the Outlands or the Concordant Opposition.

cloud marten
#

right that one

iron saffron
#

It's the Outer Plane of True Neutrality. In the centre of the Outlands is the City of Sigil, which is ruled by the Lady of Pain, a god-like entity.

#

There are "doors" to other planes throughout the city. The key to unlock each door is unique and unknown.

quartz cradle
#

is there any precedence in the lore (any setting) of devils possessing people? I know they're essentially trapped in the nine hells, and mortal cultists etc. can summon them via rituals or portals, but would they have any reason to actively possess & control the body of a mortal, giving themselves a sort of "avatar" on the mortal plane to act directly through?

iron saffron
#

No, devils want mortal souls not be stuck inside a mortal body

#

There are demons that can possess

magic jackal
#

Devils would likely not possess as Oldman said, what they would more likely do if they needed an actor on the material plane, and couldn't do it or won't do it themselves for whater reason would be to either mind-control a humanoid, or make a bargain/pact with them of some kind, or otherwise influence them through subtle (or less subtle) manipulations.

white ravine
quartz cradle
#

okay, thanks all. the reason I ask is that I wanted to think of some sort of "grand plan" for my campaign's devil cult that isn't the age-old fallback of "we're gonna have a big ritual and open a portal to the nine hells and then uh, something something world domination." and I was thinking that something like possessing important figures (heads of state etc.) would be a good goal? but if it's uncharacteristic of devils then maybe not

#

but I guess instead of possessing them it would be manipulating

magic jackal
#

Well, the lore we've been referring to is primarily Forgotten Realms, I'm not super familiar with the lore of other 'official' D&D settings.

quartz cradle
#

I'm doing a homebrew campaign but most of the lore I'm pulling from to bolster it is forgotten realms compliant, so I'd probably better stick with that for the sake of consistency

iron saffron
quartz cradle
#

yes yes, I was asking about whether my idea aligns with official lore so it was relevant to both!

iron saffron
#

Loumara demons are insubstantial and can possess bodies

quartz cradle
#

thanks, I'll check them out

iron saffron
#

If you want a fiend that possesses

mint wave
#

Could someone be a warlock of Large Luigi?

silent atlas
#

Do graz'zt and tasha have any children together

iron saffron
silent atlas
pale hornet
#

Graz'zt is a demon prince and the offspring of Asmodeus and Pale Night

iron saffron
#

Iuz is a god in Greyhawk lore

silent atlas
#

Luz may be too strong for what i need the

pale hornet
#

Graz'zt held Tasha as a comcubine and she bore him many children. To be fair she enslaved him first then he enslaved her. Now they have a really messed up love/hate realtionship.

#

Graz'zt put all their children into hiding so you can make one up.

silent atlas
#

Im looking cr11-16 for a avatar of said demon

pale hornet
iron saffron
#

Beef up a cambion

magic jackal
iron saffron
#

Wrong demon lord as the father

silent atlas
#

I eay thinking makeing it into a demonic looking fey witht with the creature being treated as both fey and fiend-demon

pale hornet
#

All the dragon magazines are free to view on the internet archive.

#

Sorry, dragon magazine 414 has the article on tasha and graz'zt romance

silent atlas
#

They nerfed him from 4thed

iron saffron
#

There's another issue on her (I'm at the mall so I don't know which one off hand)

#

He's nerfed in 5E too

silent atlas
#

Thats what i ment lol

#

32 to 24

#

The weakest of the big 3

iron saffron
#

Everything has been nerfed now on 5E

silent atlas
#

Is the. Spell plague how they explaned the nerfing or was that a earlyer edition

pale hornet
# iron saffron Everything has been nerfed now on 5E

Eh, lots of things can be beefed up with minor tweeks to resistances and immunities. Look at old books for ideas. You can keep zombies threatening by simply giving them resistance to piercing and bludgeoning damage.

#

Spell Plague was earlier

silent atlas
#

What was 5th edition excuse then?

pale hornet
#

They just wanted the system symplified

#

Check out the 2nd edition.

#

It's closer to 2nd edition with 3rd edition grafted on

silent atlas
#

I seen second ed in balder gate 1 and count under stand it lol

magic jackal
#

Also Monster Stat blocks in 5e are pretty close to exclusively player-facing

#

They shouldn't be taken as a relative measure of power between two Monsters, only between a Player Character and a Monster.

silent atlas
#

Exclusively player facing?

magic jackal
#

As in, they're not meant to be compared with other monster stat blocks because they're geared towards combat with PCs, not with other Monsters.

#

So they don't necessarily reflect the relative power levels of the creatures in the lore when compared with each other.

pale hornet
#

Gameplay and story segregation

crude blaze
pale hornet
#

Like you have knife to a guys throat in game. Do you play it as insta-death or like in combat where a dagger only does 1d4+ damage.

mint wave
#

Could someone be a warlock of Large Luigi?

magic jackal
silent atlas
#

So should a make up a new sion of graz'zt and tasha or use an existing one

magic jackal
pale hornet
#

Use literature and media for inspiration

magic jackal
silent atlas
#

Btw this new demon sion is being made for my wild beyond the witchlight campaign

pale hornet
mint wave
#

Yes?

pale hornet
magic jackal
silent atlas
#

Ik but tasha sisters seem a bit incompetent to of came up with sealing tasha on there own

crude blaze
#

Maybe they lucked out this one time

pale hornet
# magic jackal Again, not for this channel.

I'm not discussing it. I'm explaining why there are discrepancies between what you expect from the lore and the actual gameplay. I'm explaining that you don't have two different systems for monster and players because of my example. It's just to vague and making two systems complicates things. That's what I meant. Have I cleared that up for you?

silent atlas
#

So what is the thing in lore that scared tasha into hiding in the first place

pale hornet
silent atlas
#

Before 1314 dr

pale hornet
#

She hid when her kingdom fell. She hid from Graz'zt at one point. There's a quote in her book about having her life burn down and built back up more times than she can count.

silent atlas
#

Cause my campaign take place in 1314 dr

magic jackal
pale hornet
pale hornet
silent atlas
#

Also how important is mordicainen to the forgoten realms lore in my setting he never recovered from what happened to him in barovia and i wanna know the repercussions

magic jackal
pale hornet
#

The Demiplanes of Dread is another huge can of worms to be opening. Time doesn't even work the same there.

pale hornet
magic jackal
#

I'm definitely done if that's what I'm getting.

silent atlas
pale hornet
#

That's a tough one. So much changes between editions. All I can say is the Dark Powers forcus on the dark lord and toy with them. Everyone else is colateral damage.

#

Mordenkainen wouldn't have been a target for the dark powers unless he was a dark lord (he wasn't). But he wouldn't be able to leave unless he defeated the dark lord. Only Vecna has been able to brute force his way out.

silent atlas
#

Tasha removed him from barovia in the mad wizerd state

pale hornet
silent atlas
#

||I mainlyent when strahd said i have plot armor ans veat him into a state of maddness||

pale hornet
#

The only people to escape the demiplanes were Soth and Vecna.

serene crater
#

Wasn't their rumours Azlin got out?

pale hornet
#

Venca ripped his way out because the Dark Lords were dumb enough to try to trap a god that feeds of of forbidden knowledge, darkness and evil.

crude blaze
#

Azalin is AWOL in 5E, yes

pale hornet
#

Soth just gave up and the Dark Powers found him not fun to torment anymore.

silent atlas
#

||The demiplain was weeken in my campaign cause asmodiaus was the interfearing tribg to turn strahd in a arch devil ||

crude blaze
#

There is actually a domain dedicated to being the "garbage disposal" of failed domains called Klorr.

serene crater
#

Why am I imagining the one world from loki where all variants went to but were destroyed

pale hornet
#

The only places there are only one of are the planes beyond the material

#

You can actually universe hop from one another through the non-material planes

serene crater
#

Ikik, but the fact there's a spot where failed worlds (at least domains of dread) go to slowly be destroyed and forgotten

pale hornet
#

Here's one for anybody interested in using it, in my games, the Far Realm is not only the void outside reality and the multiverse. It is the resting place of the remains of previous multiverses. That's why it's so messed up. Many of the monsters and creatures are mutated leftover from previous multiverses. That includes god and demons.

winter stream
#

Heh im running a curse of strahd campaign thats gone a bit… off track and the PCs are working with strahd now

#

In terms of clerics can one’s deity of worship be strahd? I know hes seen as a god by barovians but im not sure of the technicality there

magic jackal
#

He's not an actual Deity, no.

white ravine
echo parcel
#

in forgotten realms have sorcerers always existed or did they start exsting as a result of an event?

magic jackal
#

There's no specific singular event that counts as the genesis of sorcerers, they've always been a part of the world iirc.

echo parcel
#

ok

#

just wondering whether it had antything in connection ot karsus casting the karsus avatar spell and messing up the weave

magic jackal
#

No, that's got nothing to do with the existence of Sorcery in the Forgotten Realms.

echo parcel
#

ok just checking ty

peak island
#

[Forgotten Realms] Spoilers for Plague of Ancients/RotF AL. ||Does anyone know if there's any lore about what happens to the Thuunlakalaga Clan after the end of DDEP10-02 (Song of Spears)? Both Old Goat and Kaskur are dead, and the Krag has a had a huge incursion from the Far Realm. Suuk One-Eye enigmatically appears right at the end but the adventure kind of ends on a cliffhanger. Does anything in DRW continue that thread? I know there's a LARGE Xorvintroth arc involving Thayan Wizards trying to excavate the city after it's been blown up by the adventurers, but does it link at all to the Goliaths?||

eager bay
#

If I wanted to do the "dog years" comparison for dwarf age vs humans, what would it be?

#

Like, 20 years for dwarves = 1 human year kind of thing

peak island
#

it's not really how the lore works, but if it's your world and you want to play it that way then just divide the dwarf years by the human years for average lifespan and that'd be your multiplier

#

I don't have the numbers to hand atm personally

eager bay
#

I'm going off of the DnD Beyond description of them becoming mature by the age of 50 when they can live to 350 years.

peak island
#

by "become mature" it's more of a cultural thing as I understand

#

similar to elves where they're not considered adults until they're 100

eager bay
#

Elves ages go into the 1,000's too so trying to dog year compare to human years is a nightmare in it's own right

iron saffron
#

Elves and dwarves mature to physical adulthood around the same pace as humans.

Elves don't consider themeselves as an adult until 100-years-old. That's when they choose an adult name and they forget the previous reincarnation.

#

Just look at real world long lived animals like the Greenland shark or giant tortoise. They reach adulthood rather quickly for survival but then "coast" afterwards for centuries afterwards.

mint wave
#

Could someone be a warlock of Large Luigi?

waxen dune
#

i mean... you can be a pixie barbarian so i dont see why not

magic jackal
#

I don't think there's anything formally established in the lore regarding that, but it's possible since he's a powerful aberration.

white ravine
#

Id imagine you could but I doubt he would send you out on quests beyond 'pick up the new alcohol shipment from the spaceport'

magic jackal
#

That'd be pretty funny, most warlock patrons are like "Collect their teeth, kill these innocents, drive people mad." and then there's Large Luigi who's like "Get me a beer would ya, champ?"

half ferry
#

What sort of things do the fey of the summer court do? Like what is their main goal??? What jobs do they perform? (Forgotten Realms)

iron saffron
#

Party.

half ferry
#

really? :o-- they don't manage they fey wilds or anything like that??

sterile breach
spark haven
#

A fae prince doesn't hold office hours where the sewage guild spend 14 hours planning a new series of latrines for the city. The city folk will gather together under a circle of oaks, dance naked for 13 days and 13 nights, and summon a quintet of water elementals who each jealously guard their own section of the town's waterways

eager bay
#

what exactly is KI

sterile breach
#

Ki was an internal energy of one's body, described as either spiritual energy or life energy. It was a subtle energy, but it could be used to perform incredible feats by pushing the body to and beyond its physical limits.

From https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ki.

I'm sure someone will pull the relevant info from official sources.

eager bay
#

is it magical? is it come from nature? is it like the force where it's in all things type deal?

eager bay
#

ok

serene crater
#

quick question, but is it possible for a mortal to become a rakshasa?

iron saffron
#

Rakshasa are fiends, not really.

tribal dagger
#

This is more of a mechanics answer, but you can cast true polymorph or shape change, if my memory is correct of the restrictions

white ravine
tribal dagger
#

Was pinged? I saw a message but it was deleted

iron saffron
#

My bad. Please ignore.

sacred cosmos
hazy fox
#

So part of me wonder if anyone thought up "a good-aligned Rakshasa with a checkered suit" (like assuming if TSR or WoTC had Captain Marvel fan who wanted to homage Tawky Tawny, a tiger buddy of Captain Marvel)? Maybe magazines, DND after-actionr report, or maybe parody comics.

vital heron
balmy pulsar
#

Hey lore nerds, I’m looking for a particular reference, and can’t remember which D&D book it’s in.

Which 5e book talks about the pact primeval?

balmy pulsar
#

No worries, found it- it’s mordenkainen’s tome of foes. Beneath Asmodeus’ entry in the blood war section

modern mirage
#

Where do good drow live ? In small little communities ?

peak island
#

depends on the setting

#

usually they're lone free agents in FR, idk if there's any documented communities?

#

Exandria (CR's setting which has a book published by WotC) has a whole nation of Drow who are not under the sway of Lolth's cult

#

I hesitate to say "good" because people aren't monolithic and so there are good and bad drow there like all people in all places

modern mirage
balmy pulsar
peak island
#

there's apparently a fairly big temple to Eilistraee in the undermountain (under Waterdeep)

modern mirage
balmy pulsar
#

Oh I love that

peak island
#

it MAY be destroyed now

balmy pulsar
peak island
#

unsure

#

there's also apparently a newer one called the Dancing Haven in Waterdeep proper

modern mirage