Salamandyr
Adventurer
It seems to me that FR's focus on powerful NPC's has a lot to do with 2nd editions editorial stance toward storyline settings. Pretty much every campaign setting, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, suffered from it during the same time. Dark Sun may possibly be the worst. There's a whole module that consists of the players following the heroic NPC's as they overthrow the Sorcerer King. Bleh. Everything was a novel tie-in. TSR wanted campaign settings that were essentially storybooks, and you can't have a coherent storyline when you don't control the main characters.
I guess that, with the prominence of the Realms, that problem is just that turned up to 11. It doesn't seem like it was a huge problem in 1e, or 3e, or even 4th. It's just a bad taste left over from 2nd edition, and too many players believing that they have to let the novels influence their campaigns.
I guess that, with the prominence of the Realms, that problem is just that turned up to 11. It doesn't seem like it was a huge problem in 1e, or 3e, or even 4th. It's just a bad taste left over from 2nd edition, and too many players believing that they have to let the novels influence their campaigns.