The deck of many things is depending on the edition an artifact or magic item. As such it is encountered via adventuring. Any exp granted by it comes from adventuring, just like exp granted by gold in 1e came from adventuring. Adventuring is not just killing monsters, nor is that the only way to gain exp while adventuring.
No, and the god didn't give them to her. Those levels are never hers. Rather they are the god's or the temple's, depending on what the story about her gaining the temporary use of those levels actually is.
The Deck of Many Things is the proof of theory. I don’t own a vast collection of DnD material, I have to use what I have. It is a legendary item, it can grant XP. If a magic item can do it, a god can do it and demon lords and the like can do it under the correct circumstances.
If a gods power, which is locked within whatever temple this is by my reading, can grant temporary levels, then it seems there must be a way to grant permanent levels. And even if they can’t be permanent giving someone temporary power for 100 years accomplishes the same effect for most of the playable races.
If you want to keep insisting I am not providing proof that my theory is plausible, then fine, continue to deny that the gods cannot do anything more than give templates which grant spells and physical and mental changes, and that can never translate into actual level gain because that requires XP and the gods are never shown directly granting XP in a setting book.
Modules are not canon. Not because I don't want them to be, but because in general they just aren't. The same goes for novels. Look at Star Wars. Tons of novels with tons of great stories, but not canon. These FR novels and modules aren't canon unless the company actually makes those changes in the setting and/or adds those stories to setting supplements.
Nothing is canon unless the company explicitly says so. Many things are just farmed out to people to use the logo on, but aren't actually officially product history. Again, see Star Wars.
Star Wars is a very interesting example to bring up. Do you happen to remember when Force Awakens was announced? When they said the entire Expanded Universe was being declared non-canon and people flipped out?
If the novels were never considered canon, people would not have lost their minds. The novels were accepted canon by everyone involved until the movie studios decided to say otherwise.
Ed Greenwood has it in his contract that anything he says or writes about the Realms is canon, unless WoTC specifically says it is not. That means any realms product that has Ed’s name on it is canon, accepted by the company, until the company specifically calls out something as non-canon.
This is the official stance of the company and you cannot say it is not. Things beyond the setting book are canon. I’m sorry if that ruins things for you, but then… that is part of what we’ve been calling the problem isn’t it? That the canon FR has some serious issues.
That never happens from anything inherent to the FR, though. The high level NPCs don't appear in a single scene, ever, unless the DM puts them there. No high level NPC is watching what is going on, opting not to step in and stop it. There are no high level NPCs aware of all the happens, making weird that no high level NPC stepped in to stop it. The only way that will ever happen is if you have a bad DM.
It doesn’t take a bad DM. There are pitfalls everywhere.
Any “Save the Realms” plot that takes place brings up the question of why one of the premier guardians of the Realms (and it is a list longer than just Elminster and Driz’zt) is not getting involved. I mean, isn’t the whole plot of Out of the Abyss and Rise of Tiamat involve threats so great that multiple nations and organizations join forces? You don’t have to be paying very close attention to the world to notice that a threat has loomed that got the USA, Russia, China, India, ISIS and the Illuminati to work together.
But lets go smaller. Let’s say the plot is a necromancer attacking and threatening a city. Silverymoon… wait, isn’t the leader of Silverymoon an incredibly powerful wizard… uh, Waterdeep then…. No also has an incredibly powerful immortal wizard in charge…. Neverwinter? Isn’t there a full on order of Paladins based there…. Okay, small town, Secomber. *Wikis secomber* As long as the Famed sage and alchemist Amelior Amanitis is a non-combatant sage instead of a powerful wizard
And if you decide to go forward with one of these cities being in danger anyways, you need to carefully balance the level of threat. It can’t be a threat big enough to get the leader of the city involved, but it does need to be a big enough to threat to get your party involved and feel like they saved the city.
It can be done, but man is it aggravating to have to constantly balance these incredibly powerful people who could be doing something about the threats to the people, but somehow don’t, but are also not seen as lazy incompetents who refuse to protect their people, so that your players can be the stars of the show, but also probably not end up as the leader of any of the major cities, because the people there are powerful and well-loved heroes…
Do you really think a party of levels 1-15 can compete with an epic wizard like Raistlin?
Depends on what we mean by competing. If a level 1 party faces Raistlin directly no, if they face his minions then yes.
Look at the justice league. Batman shouldn't even be there according to this philosophy. Between Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter, the rest of the League should be overshadowed and not even bother, and that's with the big guys actually present.........unlike what happens in the Forgotten Realms.
So because your party includes a level 20 wizard, barbarian, mystic and paladin it can’t include a level 20 rogue?
Does batman have super powers, no. Does he need them, no. Does this make him a bit of a mary sue character who is never truly in danger of losing, yes.
Two thoughts:
1. Maybe Superman just trusts Daredevil and is willing to let him handle it?
2. More importantly, in your example, Superman is constantly onscreen, reminding the audience of his presence. If he's not there, then there's no reason for the audience to think about him or even remember that he exists.
To take another example, I just (finally) saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This is a universe where there are far more powerful characters than Captain America, and yet that didn't make the movie less satisfying in any way.
Yeah, it can work. But I think it is easier to pull off in a 2 hour movie than a 2 year campaign.
Also, because I’m a bit of a nerd, the marvel movies have a few advantages. They haven’t put forth the entire roster yet, and by the time of Winter Soldier we really only had the Avengers team. Thor is off world, Hulk is unreliable and too dangerous, and Black Widow was a big part of that plot. That means the only person who could have gotten involved and is a significant game changer is Stark (War Machine is owned by the Army, and therefore compromised by the whole HYDRA thing anyways). Follow that with Cap delving into the secret spy network within the secret spy network, and we’ve got some plausible deniability that actually works.
And has this.
"Most are more inclined to agree with Greenwood as he is the 'father' of the Forgotten Realms. Furthermore, Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms, and according to the original agreement between him and TSR, everything he writes and says regarding the Forgotten Realms is canon, unless or until superseded by published material from TSR or WotC."
I'm curious to see that agreement.
Are you asking that someone track down the contract written a few decades ago and signed by Ed Greenwood and TSR?
Because I seriously doubt anyone is going to do that. Like, at all.
My response to High Level NPC in FR. Hmm Tom Cruise, and Beyoncé are high level Bards in the real world. Guess who is not going to help you with your high school production of Grease? Or that evil gang of country and western rappers who are shaking down your friends for their lunch money.
Now where was it every said the novels were canon? Especially for 5 E. Give me a statement, link, a quote from a designer of 5E, an Amazon gift card, etc supporting the idea that a dm MUST follow the novels. The only source books I know for 5E are DMG, PHB, MM, Sword Coast, Volo’s yo-yos Monsters, and the various adventure path hard backs.
Post #805 has the link that explains every single novel is considered canon unless specified otherwise.
As for High school productions, you are completely correct, however, when you’re players are standing on the stage of the Grammies and “Anti-sound Bieber” shows up to destroy all music forever… won’t they wonder maybe a little, where the heck some of the biggest names in music are?
This isn’t a “Dang, Elminster keeps beating up the bandits” problem. This is a “If we’re saving the world from an evil goddess ripping through reality, what is the guy who’s supposed to be protecting reality doing?” problem. They are similar problems, but not the same.
