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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 3031415" data-attributes="member: 1165">Unfortunately, most of us don't have access to his version of the Realms. So while criticisms of Mr. Greenwood might not be fair (unless its in his novels), criticisms of the published Realms are fair.A bit like Eberron... but not like the published setting and not like the novels, some of which (like Elminster in Hell) are written by Mr. Greenwood. In the novels, the deities are just NPCs with uber-power.Some of these don't look like PCs at all  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> None of the Chosen fit into either of those categories <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> His best known characters, except maybe Mirt, don't fit into those categories.What do you mean by cipher?You mean pull them out of the fire? Because that's pretty rare in games. But these guys should be doing that all the time - there's little reason not to.I think the CoM and other high-level spellcasting good-aligned allies are too powerful to be offering patronage. The moment you tell them the world's going to end, they should sigh, finish their manicures, and get to work. They can't metagame and assume that the published adventuring module is beatable by PCs - they have to act like powerful characters who don't want the world to end would act like.It's quite a different situation from, say, getting patronage from a high level general. Sure he can kick your butt, but he still can't take on a whole army by himself, prevent the witch king's madness, move magic portals around or otherwise solve all your problems. The most he can do is offer advice and maybe introduce you to contacts or give you weapons. (And probably not even magic weapons!)(Actually, while Mirt may be higher level than the large majority of PCs, not being a wizard, he's not capable of doing things the PCs aren't doing. Ed's wizards - in his novels - sure get a vast library of spells* available to them that PCs will never see. Mirt's not fixing holes in the Weave and - as far as I can tell - operating ridiculously accurate information networks the way Khelben does. Plus, without teleporting, he isn't mobile enough to deal with threats away from Waterdeep.)* Not that I want to use those spells as a PC. I think those spells are basically deus ex machina, and shouldn't be available at all.To conclude this well-reasoned discussion that turned into a rant about one paragraph in (whoops), I think the powerful NPCs should be treated like other NPCs (and PCs), deities should be treated as deities, and there should be a lot less deus ex machina (the first part being literal in Mystra's case).</blockquote>

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