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<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3992936" data-attributes="member: 32164">I'll take a shot. For one, it's because almost all the major &quot;problem&quot; NPCs were high-level spellcasters who were basically immune to natural aging.It's fine for a few characters, but in the Realms, it had become like a rite of passage for high-level wizards and sorcerers to become effectively immortal. And with the way resurrection works in D&amp;D, any death other than one that was pretty blatantly supernatural is usually easily reversed. So, the Spell Plague allows you to off a large number of &quot;super-wizards&quot; and not have them come back. Alternatively, you can depower a number of those super-wizards, but keep the characters around. That's a way of having the most interesting characters from earlier times remain in the Realms, but as plot-driving characters rather than plot-ruining ones.Secondly, with the edition change, magic has to work totally differently in the &quot;new&quot; Realms. The Spell Plague helps to explain away &quot;why things are different.&quot; It also fills the role mentioned above - as a metaplot to rid the Realms of a truckload of plot-ruining high-level NPCs in one fell swoop.As I mentioned in my last post, they might have chosen to keep some of those characters around, but have them become radically depowered, so that now they actually &quot;NEED&quot; to enlist the aid of other characters (like the PCs) again.That's my two cents on &quot;Why the Spell Plague?&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 3992936, member: 32164"] I'll take a shot. For one, it's because almost all the major "problem" NPCs were high-level spellcasters who were basically immune to natural aging. It's fine for a few characters, but in the Realms, it had become like a rite of passage for high-level wizards and sorcerers to become effectively immortal. And with the way resurrection works in D&D, any death other than one that was pretty blatantly supernatural is usually easily reversed. So, the Spell Plague allows you to off a large number of "super-wizards" and [i]not have them come back.[/i] Alternatively, you can depower a number of those super-wizards, but keep the characters around. That's a way of having the most interesting characters from earlier times remain in the Realms, but as plot-driving characters rather than plot-ruining ones. Secondly, with the edition change, magic has to work totally differently in the "new" Realms. The Spell Plague helps to explain away "why things are different." It also fills the role mentioned above - as a metaplot to rid the Realms of a truckload of plot-ruining high-level NPCs in one fell swoop. As I mentioned in my last post, they might have chosen to keep some of those characters around, but have them become radically depowered, so that now they actually "NEED" to enlist the aid of other characters (like the PCs) again. That's my two cents on "Why the Spell Plague?" [/QUOTE]

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