What I don't get RE: FR and High Level NPC's

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

the second aprt is a fallacy - why would they intervine at all?

Because they care for the world? They don't want to lose their home land or possibly home plane? Even the most neutral wizard wouldn't let that happen. And evil ones only if it is them that destroy the world.

 

[Mortellan]

Normally I'm for less uber-NPCs in FR but I can see one reason for them to stay and that is they provide a benchmark for PCs in campaigns that tread into high level play. The players know where they stand in relation to FR's heavy hitters at all times and want to aspire to be as important as them. I've ran and played in high-level and epic campaigns that have turned ugly when there are few uber-NPCs among PC's level. Uber-NPCs are like an arms race deterrant in case you have power mad players. The only choice after that is to stunt PC advancement to artificial levels which can tick off players too.

 

[3catcircus]

Canon, Joe, not Cannon.

Honestly, it depends on the scale of the books. My favourite Realms book, by a long, long way, is Elfshadow. That book uses the background and canon of the Realms extremely well, but shouldn't do much to upset ongoing campaigns at all.

As opposed to, say, Crusade...

Cheers!

Even Crusade wasn't *that* much of an RSE - I mean - it was just a war where the participants happened to be from halfway across the world from each other. Unlike, say, the ToT, when deities were dropping from the sky...

More importantly, after Crusade, *most* of the planet went back to their own business as if nothing had happened.