D&D General Who's in the Who's Who of D&D

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I think others are narrowing in on the scope WotC wants to help newcomers learn.

The named wizards in spells.
Characters named in items or artifacts.
Big recurring villains in adventures.
The major characters of import of planar realms.

 

[Orius]

Birthright

Swordmage
The Gorgon
The Whitewitch
El Hadeid
Prince Avan
Duke Borunie
Rhubie Manslayer
Guilder Kaliene
The Spider

And that's just off the top of my head. Forgive my spelling my other 12 BR players....

Heh, yes the names aren't the easiest things to spell.

But here's the thing with Birthright, the biggest characters are pretty much the domain rulers. And the way Birthright is set up, a PC regent can replace most of the NPCs, which makes them a bit more obscure. The only ones that can't be replaced are the awnshelien, and of them The Gorgon is by far the most memorable.

 

[Digdude]

Heh, yes the names aren't the easiest things to spell.

But here's the thing with Birthright, the biggest characters are pretty much the domain rulers. And the way Birthright is set up, a PC regent can replace most of the NPCs, which makes them a bit more obscure. The only ones that can't be replaced are the awnshelien, and of them The Gorgon is by far the most memorable.

I use the world for normal dnd adventures instead of domain rules.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I want to see Erac's Cousin's Book of Names.

 

[Parmandur]

Spellcasters with named Spells in the 2014 PHB:

• Bigby
• Evard
• Leomund
• Melf
• Mordenkainen
• Nystul
• Otiluke
• Otto
• Rary
• Tasha
• Tenser

Rise from your grave!

So, in one of the recent interviews, the WotC folks dropped that the PHB will get illustrations using the named Spellcasters using all of their signature Spells (Bigby using Bigby's Hand etc.). Which means they will have fully developed looks for all these folks, at a minimum, in the PHB. So I feel confident that they will each get a Lore write-up, especially if they plan to use them for rulebook protagonists in the future.

It also strikes me that these 11 are, first, all from Greyhawk, and what's more either/and/all enemies of Mordenkainen or members of his inner circle (of 8-ish). Further suggestiob that Greyhawk will be the example Setting in the DMG?

 

[Moonmover]

It also strikes me that these 11 are, first, all from Greyhawk, and what's more either/and/all enemies of Mordenkainen or members of his.immer circle (of 8-ish). Further suggestiom that Hreyhawk will be the example Setting in the DMG?

Ooh, that might be nice. I'm a big fan of the Realms, but after >= a decade of FR being the default setting, a change would be refreshing. And, I think Greyhawk is less intimidating for newcomers (the lore isn't spread out over more than a hundred novels, and it hasn't been twisted into complex shapes by multiple DC-style Crisis events). Plus Greyhawk has been pretty badly neglected since way back in 3.0.

 

[Parmandur]

Ooh, that might be nice. I'm a big fan of the Realms, but after >= a decade of FR being the default setting, a change would be refreshing. And, I think Greyhawk is less intimidating for newcomers (the lore isn't spread out over more than a hundred novels, and it hasn't been twisted into complex shapes by multiple DC-style Crisis events). Plus Greyhawk has been pretty badly neglected since way back in 3.0.

Yeah, I don't mean at the expense of other settings: they keep saying that "the multiverse is the assumed Setting" and I think that they mean it. But they are including an example Setting with a map, and all these Greyhawk NPCs are getting attention...