D&D General Weave Your Tale in the Forgotten Realms With 8 Epic Subclasses (D&D Beyond Article)

[Maxperson]

The updated lore for Calimshan has genies as warlords ruling the deserts. Think of these paladins kind of like dragon sorcerors' templars

I'll have to look at it. Even if there are genie warlords, that still doesn't necessarily mean that genies are integrated into society and every day life the way they are in Zakhara.

 

[Maxperson]

By contrast, the purple dragon knight appeared in the Forgotten Realms setting book back in 2015 as a subclass, but they provided the name banneret as an alternative name for alternative settings. Now they've chosen that to be the name for the subclass by default.

At the very least, they could at least bundle it with a suggested setting neutral name.

Yeah, they could. And I certainly wouldn't be upset at all if they did.

 

[GarrettKP]

Unless they really upped the power level of Noble Genies, they weren't even close to being minor gods. They had some more hit dice and the ability to grant wishes, but that was about it.

In Quests from the Infinite Staircase, the group patron of the party is Nafas, a Noble genie with official 5e stats.

The book says this about Noble Genie:

“Nafas is a noble genie, a rare type of genie endowed with the power to reshape reality. A word uttered by Nafas can transform a pauper into a prince, return the dead to life, or bring a meteor’s might crashing down on his enemies. Unlike some of his more haughty, aristocratic counterparts that rule over vast demesnes of the Elemental Planes, Nafas’s noble title isn’t a result of bloodline or inheritance; it’s a designation bestowed on him by the multiverse.”

They gave him a CR 23, which is in the realm of the Demon Lords and Arch Devils we have stats for, and much higher than the stats we have for a Toril deity.

 

[Maxperson]

In Quests from the Infinite Staircase, the group patron of the party is Nafas, a Noble genie with official 5e stats.

The book says this about Noble Genie:

“Nafas is a noble genie, a rare type of genie endowed with the power to reshape reality. A word uttered by Nafas can transform a pauper into a prince, return the dead to life, or bring a meteor’s might crashing down on his enemies. Unlike some of his more haughty, aristocratic counterparts that rule over vast demesnes of the Elemental Planes, Nafas’s noble title isn’t a result of bloodline or inheritance; it’s a designation bestowed on him by the multiverse.”

They gave him a CR 23, which is in the realm of the Demon Lords and Arch Devils we have stats for, and much higher than the stats we have for a Toril deity.

Well, it certainly sounds like they boosted him at least!

The 5e MM does mention noble genies as variants of those listed, but with the ability to grant wishes. So it seems noble genies vary in power, which is to be expected.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

They need to start playtesting lore changes.

They sort of do, maybe? The surveys usually have boxes where you can type in whatever you like or dislike about the subclass in general, which is where I provide my feedback on the Lore changes (not always applicable but it has been a few times now).

Whether they read and care about the comments is debatable, but WotC claims they do. All you can really do is believe them that the comments are taken into account, or don't believe them and think the entire playtest survey is a sham (entirely possible)

 

[FarBeyondC]

In Quests from the Infinite Staircase, the group patron of the party is Nafas, a Noble genie with official 5e stats.

The book says this about Noble Genie:

“Nafas is a noble genie, a rare type of genie endowed with the power to reshape reality. A word uttered by Nafas can transform a pauper into a prince, return the dead to life, or bring a meteor’s might crashing down on his enemies. Unlike some of his more haughty, aristocratic counterparts that rule over vast demesnes of the Elemental Planes, Nafas’s noble title isn’t a result of bloodline or inheritance; it’s a designation bestowed on him by the multiverse.”

They gave him a CR 23, which is in the realm of the Demon Lords and Arch Devils we have stats for, and much higher than the stats we have for a Toril deity.

The stats given for Auril are not valid as a comparison point, given the circumstances within the book those stats are listed in.

 

[Parmandur]

I'll have to look at it. Even if there are genie warlords, that still doesn't necessarily mean that genies are integrated into society and every day life the way they are in Zakhara.

In 4E Calimshan was dominated by Genies, but one of the few vits of 5E lore from SCAG on Calimshan was that the Genies were overthrown and pushed into the desert by a revolution led by a religous prophet (Chosen of Ilmater, IIRC).

In this new book, the regional Feat for the region is "Genie-Touched".

 

[Henadic Theologian]

That's not entirely accurate. This is from the 5e Paladin.

"Although many paladins are devoted to gods of good, a paladin's power comes as much from a commitment to justice itself as it does from a god."

That's a 50/50 split between the oath and the god, so about half comes from the gods.

So maybe this is 50/50 split Genies & Gods?

I can live with that. The Genies add the inner planes spice and the Gods the basic divine magic.