Brian Compton said:
1) Assuming that, of the 20, half of these are tied to Mystra (the Sisters, Elminster, Khelben, the Magister), there are threats that they aren't aloud to address because they deal with the evolution of magic.
That's why I'm glad Mystra is dead. "The goddess of magic says
sit now." I think that's a poorly designed plot device.
2) As is often mentioned, Ed and and a close few who work on the Realms know some things that haven't been revealed yet, or have been revealed in passing.
Nice of them to let DMs know that.
Likely, certain political motivations prevent some NPC's from acting in certain situations (e.g. Elminster freeing slaves from Zhentil Keep en masse causes Fzoul to attack Shadowdale).
Elminster, as a powerful top-level hero, isn't likely going to deal with slave freeing... he's going to save the world from "the RSE of the week". I don't think Fzoul and his Zhents are all that dangerous, either, and it would be worthy goal to try to beat them and free the slaves too. Since Elminster and company can tell if a single slave-trader is sneaking into Shadowdale, I don't see why this is beyond him. Since the Simbul can single-handedly slaughter armies by herself, I don't think that's beyond Elminster either... and I'm sure he's smart enough to wear a magical and mundane disguise, with his genius brainpower and all; with all the abjurations and author-devised spells he has on him, even magical investigation won't tell Fzoul whodunit. He can do it in the novels, so who cares if it breaks the rules of the game, or for that matter, believability? In any event, I think the novels show the villains as so ineffective that the Chosen can easily handle them, and the adventures are often poorly written (save the world ... from Kiaransalee!) that there's little reason for the Chosen not to get involved. If the setting doesn't need a revamp, it needs to toss out boatloads of novels and several adventures, too, which is one reason why people complain about the novels being canon. Alternatively, they could kill Mystra and put out slightly more reasonable villains who aren't going to blow up the setting without Mystra's guardians trying to hold them down. When villains are capable of doing something like that, it's a grand adventure. It shouldn't be happening
all the time. Villains often rely on McGuffins... why didn't you do this last week? Oh, right, was studying the McGuffin. Etc. Maybe that's a poor writing device, but I still think it's better than Mystra.
I like to compare FR to Dark Sun sometimes. Why didn't anyone kill Borys the Dragon? Because no one could! Borys putting a pall of evil over the setting (he demanded 1000 slaves from the seven cities every year) was, well, a big part of the setting. The heroes can strive to eventually topple him (unless some novel series comes along, gives a hero a ridiculously uber-overpowered artifact and lets him kill Borys... wait, that's exactly what did happen). That wouldn't really work out if there was an equally powerful set of good-aligned uber-heroes holding him down. (And note, Borys did not control the world, just the area around seven cities.)
Eberron has many similarities, except the villains are generally more reasonable in terms of power. Some of the most powerful inhuman villains are often "sealed in the earth" and can only work through intermediaries... until the McGuffin releases one when the heroes are high level. I don't think the 8th-level heroes are going to be perturbed when, five years ago, a bunch of high-level heroes came out of retirement to deal with the last one that got out. It's not happening every year or anything like that.
Other villains start at a far more reasonable level (eg the Lord of Blades starts out at 12th-level) and gain levels over time (they're adventuring too). Even if the PCs can't deal with the problem, it isn't necessary for some uber-heroes to overkill the situation, as the LoB isn't about to blow up Eberron as a 12th-level character without any world-shattering artifacts.
3) Just because one can do something doesn't mean it's the best idea. Sure, Khelben could fix many problems in Waterdeep, both with his resources and astounding intellect. But then, would anyone else in Waterdeep step up to try to deal with problems?
Ding ding ding!
Call it the "Superman Syndrome"- what need is there for mere mortals to problem solve when they have superior minds to do so for them?
We have a winner! Fortunately, there's only one Superman. There's ... eight living Chosen of Mystra, plus a host of other very powerful good-aligned characters.
Such is also the path for good folk to become tyrants, or nutjobs... or both.
Ummm... sure. Actually, Khelben did seem a bit tyrannical, actually, but that's probably just his public persona.
BTW, for those who argue that the Chosen are more sane than their enemies- Ed has been saying for years that Elminster has been tottering on the edge of sanity (centuries of watching friends come and go, and humanity seemingly not getting any wiser and doing the same stupid things over and over again, can do that).
There are nine Chosen of Mystra, eight of whom are alive. (I heard there's a lot more; I'll chalk that up to rumor.) Elminster is going slightly senile, one is dead, and the Simbul is visibly mad. Fortunately, even the weaker ones are perfectly sane and enormously powerful; they can at least match a Malaugrym that contains the essence of Bane.
Long story short; years of bad novels have really hurt the setting. The uber-heroes are far more powerful than the setting or rules can support (due far more to novels than to their amazingly weak stat blocks). Short of depowering these characters or tossing out many novels (I think the latter would spark a fan revolt), I think they need to be erased and let some new heroes do things for a change.
