Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nellisir" data-source="post: 6021957" data-attributes="member: 70">Existence of archmages yes, usage of archmages to disrupt the storyline, no. Exactly the opposite.I suppose in retrospect it's obvious that people would assume I was talking about Elminster and Khelben.  Frankly, it didn't occur to me.  I've spent exactly zero time playing or DMing canon FR or GH, and I've never played with a DM that used either of those settings.  I haven't read the novels in years.  I was thinking about DMs and house campaigns, and people who think archmages do nothing but sit around and build golems all day.  While surfing their magic mirrors. And thus intentionally do not use them as NPCs or story elements, or allow them to dominate the game when they do use them, because "that's what archmages do".Mea culpa.Well, I thought the beauty of Cook's setup was that a lot of the difficulties the uber-mages experienced were a result of their own nature, not their level of power.I don't co-DM. I'm talking about NPCs (says so first post), not PCs.  Players don't determine NPC actions, so there's only one author on that side of the storyline.If you're running a prewritten module, and the NPC is detracting from enjoyment of the game, then a) it's probably bad writing, and b) it's definitely bad DMing.Played and seen played, several.  Generally the more powerful they were, the bigger their Achille's heel was.  Usually lacked staying power.  Also a different paradigm from the antagonist or "neutral" NPC archmage, which is the explicit subject of the original post.And yet, RAW, they still sleep 8 hours every night, eat 3 meals a day, require an hour to regain spells, and crap regularly.  Iron Man, not Superman.</blockquote>

Verification