Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nellisir" data-source="post: 6019958" data-attributes="member: 70">Cook's wizards, in both the Bleak Empire series and the Black Company, tend to fall into one of two categories: "regular", and "world-shaking".  In D&D terms, there are plenty of wizards under 10th level, and a very few, very powerful ones above 18th level, and almost none in-between.  The archmages all tend to have very long lives.  Some withdraw (Varthlokkur, usually), some meddle (Varthlokkur and the Star-Rider), and some Are Involved (Mist, aka the Empiress of the Bleak Empire).  Inevitably schemes cross, and uninvolved characters get drawn in.I'm making general statements rather than specific, but specifically addressing high-level NPCs that are often a point of complaint (ie, what is there for PCs to do?  Why doesn't Khelben/Elminster/Mordenkainen/Rary handle it?)Hiring staff, creating golems, and whatnot are all ways of handling an "intrigue" - it doesn't have to be  "hands-on".  At some point, the apprentice/spy/assassin/major domo has to report back and the wizard has to make a decision.  There are only so many threads that one can pull and handle. In Cook's most recent book, the villain has difficulties precisely because he has too many intrigues, and he's been unchallenged for too long.  He finds his emergency caches destroyed.  He doesn't bother to disable traps after they're done, and gets snarled (an annoyance more than a danger, and the trap has been up for decades, if not centuries.)</blockquote>

Verification