TSR Best D&D Novels

[Zardnaar]

Well, it was a little complicated what happened. Salvatore got screwed by the 4e time jump of 100 to 150 years, which meant that most of his cast of characters (Cattie-Brie, Regis, Wulfgar) were going to be dead. So he wrote a trilogy and at least one short story to deal with that. Cattie-Brie got hit by the falling Weave, which spellscarred her and left her in a coma. Regis got poisoned. Mielliki came personally to collect them. Wulfgar returned to his tribe, became chief, and lived a long and fulfilling life, spawning a large family. He went out as an old man barbarian should, fighting a remorhaz or some other monster, I believe. Cadderly Bonaduce took down a dragon previous villian that was merged with an illithid and resurrected as a ghost, but to do so he had to become a ghost himself to trap it. Captain Duedermont tried to reform Luskan and paid with his life. Only Drizzt and Bruenor survived, and Salvatore's first 4e novel Gauntlegrim dealt with the death of Bruenor and Thibbledorf Pwent, leaving Drizzt all alone.

None of this was what Salvatore wanted. In fact, it's pretty well known that he and Ed Greenwood, after hearing about 4e, immediately started plotting how to "fix" it all. So bringing them back just sort of lets him continue on with the plans he had, including Cattie-Brie's transition from a fighter/archer, which she was physically incapable of anymore because of a permanent leg injury, into a spellcaster, which she started learning from Aluriel of Silverymoon. It fixes the magic hole in the party, and I also like Regis now being an actual (and effective) rogue, instead of just some commoner schmuck who gets lucky sometimes to be able to hit some distracted thug over the back of the head with a mace.

And I will ALWAYS give mad respect to the death of Bruenor. That is how a dwarf should go out!

RAS always goes with whatever the edition change entails regardless if he likes it or not.

Let's face it it's not as if he has much else to fall back on.

 

[Greggy C]

Well, it was a little complicated what happened. Salvatore got screwed by the 4e time jump of 100 to 150 years, which meant that most of his cast of characters (Cattie-Brie, Regis, Wulfgar) were going to be dead. So he wrote a trilogy and at least one short story to deal with that. Cattie-Brie got hit by the falling Weave, which spellscarred her and left her in a coma. Regis got poisoned. Mielliki came personally to collect them. Wulfgar returned to his tribe, became chief, and lived a long and fulfilling life, spawning a large family. He went out as an old man barbarian should, fighting a remorhaz or some other monster, I believe. Cadderly Bonaduce took down a dragon previous villian that was merged with an illithid and resurrected as a ghost, but to do so he had to become a ghost himself to trap it. Captain Duedermont tried to reform Luskan and paid with his life. Only Drizzt and Bruenor survived, and Salvatore's first 4e novel Gauntlegrim dealt with the death of Bruenor and Thibbledorf Pwent, leaving Drizzt all alone.

None of this was what Salvatore wanted. In fact, it's pretty well known that he and Ed Greenwood, after hearing about 4e, immediately started plotting how to "fix" it all. So bringing them back just sort of lets him continue on with the plans he had, including Cattie-Brie's transition from a fighter/archer, which she was physically incapable of anymore because of a permanent leg injury, into a spellcaster, which she started learning from Aluriel of Silverymoon. It fixes the magic hole in the party, and I also like Regis now being an actual (and effective) rogue, instead of just some commoner schmuck who gets lucky sometimes to be able to hit some distracted thug over the back of the head with a mace.

And I will ALWAYS give mad respect to the death of Bruenor. That is how a dwarf should go out!

This upset me so much. The add 100 years ruined the forgotten realms, ruined the stories, ruined every character that was not an elf. This whole keep FR lore/magic in synch with the current edition was so garbage. idk what to say, still burns. I can't even read Drizzt anymore.

I liked Dragon lance and dozens of D&D books as a teen/young adult but can't read or reread them now. For a while I searched for dungeon delving books that recaptured the feeling, but they just aren't out there.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Akabar Bel Akash from Curse of Azure Bonds comes to mind, as does Narm from Spellfire. But yeah, magic in D&D books has always had a tough line to walk. On the one hand, magic requires some degree of wonder and mystery to, well, be magical. On the other, D&D magic, by nature as a game element, is highly codified. That these high-level spellcasters are the ones most able to break those bonds, it makes sense that they are the wizard characters that the books would gravitate towards.

What is very rare in D&D novels is point-of-view, game-accurate spellcasters. Low-level spellcasters, not the uber can-do-anything-offhandedly people like Elminster or the Simbul or Azalin or Hamanu or later-books Raistlin. Spellcasters who ponder what spells to prepare that day, or who worry about whether they should use their one daily third level slot to fireball the gnolls or save it for later, etc etc.

 

[Dire Bare]

I really didn't like how they resurrected all of them, they are now more like comic book characters than anything else (characters that can never die because you know they'll always come back).

Fits in with the source material! It's pretty common for player characters at the table to come back from the dead, so why shouldn't it be mirrored in the fiction?

It was interesting how Salvatore did it . . . . each of the companions was reincarnated (not as in the spell, but as in the actual meaning of the word) as brand new babies born to new families, who looked remarkably similar to their previous incarnations. At some point in their lives, they regained their past-life memories, and now each of them had TWO lives worth of memories before they all set out to surprise Drizzt on his birthday (kidding, kind of). There were some novels that dealt with this transition, how each companion had to reconcile their old and new lives.

Also, while his best friends were all dead . . . Drizzt made new friends! Drizzt was in a dark place, so all of his new friends were dark people, I like to refer to them as the "dark companions". Once Drizzt was reunited with the original, reincarnated, Companions of the Hall, the cast of Salvatore's Dark Elf novels had become quite large!

Overall though, I do agree with you, I'm not a fan of characters dying and then magically coming back from the dead, even in fantasy stories based on D&D. But the reasons why Salvatore did this have to do with the restrictions placed on him by WotC's decisions, he basically was trying to make lemonade out of the basket of lemons WotC handed him. And, IMO, did a fairly good job at it.

Now that we're past the reincarnations in the story, the newer books just read like the status quo never changed, other than the character growth changes of Cattie Brie and Regis, and occasional references to their second lives (new families, etc). The books are still fun, the companions are still a fun group of heroes to read about.

 

[bennet]

Fits in with the source material! It's pretty common for player characters at the table to come back from the dead, so why shouldn't it be mirrored in the fiction?

Like Trinity and Neo in Matrix 4? If you are going to delete all the work put into the FR, you might as well start with a new cast of characters and reboot the place. But nope, they put them into new bodies, so just the "minds" are retained. What a great movie that would be.

 

[KahlessNestor]

RAS always goes with whatever the edition change entails regardless if he likes it or not.

Let's face it it's not as if he has much else to fall back on.

Well, he kinda has to do what he's told, or lose the ability to write the novels and make all that money. They aren't his characters and setting to mess with.

I didn't mind the time jump so much, but then I was only just getting into D&D in 4e (my first edition), so I didn't have a lot of baggage before. I do regret losing some things in the "great re-do" of 5e, like Many Arrows, and the shades of Thultanthar and such.

Oh. And whatever happened to the Abolethic Sovereignty? I never got into them much, but I know they were a big part of the Sea of Fallen Stars region, and had an outpost in Neverwinter. Did they deal with that like they did with Many Arrows and Thultanthar?

I never did much with Laerokand, either, but that would have been cool to keep around. I thought the idea of the undead organization that could teleport worldwide between graveyards was kind of cool. At least they kept Tymanther. What about the air genasi city, Airspur? Is that still around?

 

[KahlessNestor]

Fits in with the source material! It's pretty common for player characters at the table to come back from the dead, so why shouldn't it be mirrored in the fiction?

It was interesting how Salvatore did it . . . . each of the companions was reincarnated (not as in the spell, but as in the actual meaning of the word) as brand new babies born to new families, who looked remarkably similar to their previous incarnations. At some point in their lives, they regained their past-life memories, and now each of them had TWO lives worth of memories before they all set out to surprise Drizzt on his birthday (kidding, kind of). There were some novels that dealt with this transition, how each companion had to reconcile their old and new lives.

Also, while his best friends were all dead . . . Drizzt made new friends! Drizzt was in a dark place, so all of his new friends were dark people, I like to refer to them as the "dark companions". Once Drizzt was reunited with the original, reincarnated, Companions of the Hall, the cast of Salvatore's Dark Elf novels had become quite large!

Overall though, I do agree with you, I'm not a fan of characters dying and then magically coming back from the dead, even in fantasy stories based on D&D. But the reasons why Salvatore did this have to do with the restrictions placed on him by WotC's decisions, he basically was trying to make lemonade out of the basket of lemons WotC handed him. And, IMO, did a fairly good job at it.

Now that we're past the reincarnations in the story, the newer books just read like the status quo never changed, other than the character growth changes of Cattie Brie and Regis, and occasional references to their second lives (new families, etc). The books are still fun, the companions are still a fun group of heroes to read about.

Yeah, I did kind of like how The Companions went. It was fun. I wasn't too much of a fan of the dark companions, but I read them. Though Ambergris was kind of cool. Pretty basic, but a dwarven cleric is always good in my book

 

[Zardnaar]

Well, he kinda has to do what he's told, or lose the ability to write the novels and make all that money. They aren't his characters and setting to mess with.

I didn't mind the time jump so much, but then I was only just getting into D&D in 4e (my first edition), so I didn't have a lot of baggage before. I do regret losing some things in the "great re-do" of 5e, like Many Arrows, and the shades of Thultanthar and such.

Oh. And whatever happened to the Abolethic Sovereignty? I never got into them much, but I know they were a big part of the Sea of Fallen Stars region, and had an outpost in Neverwinter. Did they deal with that like they did with Many Arrows and Thultanthar?

I never did much with Laerokand, either, but that would have been cool to keep around. I thought the idea of the undead organization that could teleport worldwide between graveyards was kind of cool. At least they kept Tymanther. What about the air genasi city, Airspur? Is that still around?

No idea I stopped reading then years ago. Last one I read involved a city named Gauntlgrym or something like that.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Of the novels based on D&D settings (Dragonlance, FR, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Ebberon, etc), what would you consider your standouts?

Does Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy count? It's not officially licensed - but it was inspired by someone calling Paladins boring and that's Hommlet right there. Plus a lot more D&D with the serial numbers filed off.

 

[KahlessNestor]

No idea I stopped reading then years ago. Last one I read involved a city named Gauntlgrym or something like that.

Gauntlgrym was actually one of my favorites.