jasamcarl said:
Uh, exactly that the npcs are not preoccupied and the threat is longstanding and that they are even aware of it. Those are both dubious assumptions. They don't apply in this case because the default setting is so vague that creating any such time table of what is current and not is pure dm fiat, besides which, if i understand the adventure correctly, there was a threat that pretensed the module. This isn't FR.
I'm not very familiar with the default D&D cosmology. I operated under the assumption that most rivalries between powerful races in this cosmology have gone on for centuries or millenia. If the githyanki queen is indeed a new threat to any powerful element she currently threatens, then no foul. But that doesn't seem likely.
Two, why those other elements (which aren't even alluded to in the core setting), why not the pcs?
Because, given the assumptions stated above, the queen has been a threat for quite some time to at least one power group capable of taking her down.
For those DMs who consider the heroic actions of the PCs paramount, they ARE the equilibrium.
Equilibrium?
There is no special contrivance here, the PCs are simply the ones to handle the problem, because it is presumably appropriate for them to do so given their experience at the time the hook presents itself.
Given that the problem is still there, yes. The issue is whether the problem should still exist at all.
Its nice that you have a world working in real time in your head that doesn't need to the pcs, but that certainly isn't the assumption that goes into creating most GAME products and isn't supported by any evidence you have provided from supplements. 
It's not in my head. It's on my computer. It's a quantum physics program that simulates the interaction of 10^87 particles created during a fictional big-bang. It runs on my Athlon XP 1900 and uses about 100 megs of RAM. Some people said I should use it to advance the scientific understanding of the universe. I decide to use it to make fantasy settings.
jasamcarl said:
Whatever the dm decides they are, because the core rules do not detail how npcs gain experience or what they do.
Numion said:
PCs are controlled by humans. Rules for this are presented in PHB and DMG.
NPCs are controlled by DMs. Rules for NPCs gaining exp, levels and such (in short words, adventuring) are not covered anywhere.
And, they have different wealths 
Gotcha. I had assumed that NPCs were governed by the same rules as PCs, and this assumption was advanced through inductive reasoning based on all the published NPCs that appear to have been created with these same rule. I suppose that doesn't have to be the case.
Players are going to be ticked when they find a 1st-level wizard slinging 9th-level spells, though.
Piratecat said:
Guys, stop for a second and think about the real world. The concept of the lich queen not being high enough level doesn't really stand up to logic.
Let's take the Queen of England, and assume that a bunch of multi-tentacled horrors wanted her destroyed. Now, she's no tougher than anyone else, since our world doesn't really work in terms of levels - she may be a "20th lvl queen," or what have you, but she's still as fragile as anyone else.
But do you think those anti-Brit illithids would be able to come near her?
Not a chance. Her loyal supporters would do everything in their power to save, protect and support her - in part BECAUSE she's fragile.
Same thing for the githyanki. Sure, they're queen is eeevil and power-hungry and uber-powerful, but she'll always be perceived by the githyanki as having Ultimate power, and thus they will fight for her with all their might. The githyanki lich-queen could be 1st level, and so long as her people were loyal to her she'd STILL keep back the mindflayer threat.
Just a thought.
The Queen of England would be toast. No number of guys with guns, no matter how good, can stand up to super-intelligent, brain-eating aliens that bend the universe through the sheer force of their will.
If you're saying that the gith queen is protected by servants more powerful than herself, it's possible.
EDIT: Check that, having remembered the part about the lich queen killing any githyanki above 16th-level. I guess it isn't possible.
Numion said:
And then how do the humans in all settings factor in? Their leaders are rarely even 25th level. If you use the city guidelines in DMG humans don't have much more high-level dudes than the Githyanki, even though humans don't kill 17th+ level men. So you could argue that humans are about as wimpy as the Githyanki.
Illithids hate humans too. By your logic humans should be gone too, no?
No. The githyanki shouldn't be gone, but their queen should be. If humans all banded together under a single individual of 25th level, and a powerful faction such as the illithids wanted that in individual dead, then yes, he should be dead.
jasamcarl said:
A perfectly plausible explanation. One of many...now watch the refutations come in based upon any number of dubious pseudo-canon assumptions.
Do be quiet.
