D&D General The Purple Dragon Knights are tied to an Amethyst Dragon (confirmed)

[TiQuinn]

A big part of the reason for the negative reactions is WOTC has been putting out a lot of bad ideas.

Guess we’ll see when they actually release the books.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

No, it's the same problem as "Somehow Palpatine returned."

Regardless of how it happened it's bringing the character back that's the major problem. It being done in a way that either violates established lore or brings in time travel or the multiverse would make it worse.

As I've repeatedly pointed out it'd be like bringing back Thanos after Avengers: Endgame.

The established laws are that anyone with a powerful cleric and enough money and access to a jeweler can come back to life.

The kind of characters who end up being major heroes and villains of the Forgotten Realms should have easy access to all of those things.

It's kind of like how it's ridiculous that Karlach has a problem in BG3 when a 13th level druid could just regenerate her heart for her and it's very likely that she should know a couple by the end of the game

 

[Necropolitan]

The established laws are that anyone with a powerful cleric and enough money and access to a jeweler can come back to life.

True Resurrection specifically says a character who died more than 200 years ago can't be brought back. That applies to undead as well.

Sammaster's been undead and then just regular dead for way longer than that.

 

[Amphytrion]

True Resurrection specifically says a character who died more than 200 years ago can't be brought back. That applies to undead as well.

Sammaster's been undead and then just regular dead for way longer than that.

According to the FR wiki, Sammaster’s phylactery was destroyed in 1373, 128 years before the new books. But it doesn’t matter, forget about true resurrection, there are countless other ways for the First Speaker to be back.

Maybe someone cast wish. Maybe Sammaster had a contingency plan. Maybe some devout followers ventured into the Lower Planes to find his resting place. Maybe they obtained his soul from fiends by bartering or via powerful and forbidden magic/ritual/lore. Maybe a godlike entity intervened on his behalf. Or maybe Sammaster himself unearthed the secrets of Dragonsight and is now able to use the dragon echoes of the First World to come back to life.

How is not important. What’s important is that he will provide adventure hooks for the campaign setting, which is the purpose of this whole endeavor. This isn’t a book series or TV show; this is a D&D world whose primary function is to present players with adventure.

If you don’t like Sammaster being back, your table doesn’t need to use him. I’m sure there’ll be other hooks in the book.

 

[Clint_L]

Eh, makes this book an easy pass so I don’t have to deal with Purple Dragon Knights in the DDB character builder when I’m working with beginners.

 

[Parmandur]

Eh, makes this book an easy pass so I don’t have to deal with Purple Dragon Knights in the DDB character builder when I’m working with beginners.

The Aubclass doesn't have a dragon, the dragon part is tied to the factions lore. Not character builder related. The Subclass is just a Warlord-ish Fighter called the Banneret now and bot explicitly tied to the PDK, essentially just an update on the SCAG version.

 

[Necropolitan]

According to the FR wiki, Sammaster’s phylactery was destroyed in 1373, 128 years before the new books.

A character being undead counts as being dead for True Resurrection. It's why Astarion couldn't be brought back to life as a mortal with it in Baldur's Gate 3.

How is not important. What’s important is that he will provide adventure hooks for the campaign setting, which is the purpose of this whole endeavor.

Why not bring Prince Rivalen Tanthul then?
Or Vhostym?
Or Ghost (the assassin from the Cleric Quintet novels)?
They were all characters just as memorable as Sammaster who got killed off in novels or sourcebooks and PCs never got to face them.

At what point does a setting become oversaturated with characters who can never stay dead?

 

[Demetrios1453]

A character being undead counts as being dead for True Resurrection. It's why Astarion couldn't be brought back to life as a mortal with it in Baldur's Gate 3.


Why not bring Prince Rivalen Tanthul then?
Or Vhostym?
Or Ghost (the assassin from the Cleric Quintet novels)?
They were all characters just as memorable as Sammaster who got killed off in novels or sourcebooks and PCs never got to face them.

At what point does a setting become oversaturated with characters who can never stay dead?

Never?

Or at least if there is a limit, the Realms are nowhere near it.

 

[Necropolitan]

Never?

So no new characters then.

Lore will atrophy because any event that requires a permanent death can't happen.

 

[TiQuinn]

Why not bring Prince Rivalen Tanthul then?
Or Vhostym?
Or Ghost (the assassin from the Cleric Quintet novels)?

I’m sorry, but who? I get that you might be deeply entrenched in the lore but are you really expecting every designer to make rules or design decisions based upon every character ever to be in a FR novel.

What’s the goal here?