180 replies to this topic

[Dark-Mage]

The short version of that being they have taken swordplay and magic away from Elves and just left them with archery? Right...

[Bluenose]

The short version of that being they have taken swordplay and magic away from Elves and just left them with archery? Right...

They're splitting elves in two The elves with the archery/nature/wilds are staying as elves, while the magic/civilisation/cities ones get termed eladrin. Part of their desire to remove sub-races from the game, and when you think that there were seventeen elven sub-races in 3rd edition it probably isn't a bad thing. There's information about their thinking in Races and Classes, which I got for Xmas, and will post about in a bit.

[Bluenose]

One of the things I got for Christmas was the Races and Classes 4e preview book. It gives a look at Wizard's thinking as they were selecting and designing the races and classes that will appear in the first PHB next year. There's also some information about the mechanics in it, though that isn't the major theme.


In general changes, all classes have the same ability progression. You?ll add half your level to your AC, skill rolls, attack bonus, and also to your Reflex/Fortitude/Will ?armour?. Instead of having a saving throw to avoid the effects of a spell, the caster will now have to be the defence of the target. However, different classes and races will give different bonuses to various abilities. There?s also three tiers of play, Heroic (1-10), Paragon (11-20), and Epic (21-30). By the end of epic your character should be moving out of the world.


Races given significant treatment are human, dragonborn, dwarves, eladrins, elves, halflings, and tieflings, all of which will apparently be included in the PHB1. There's also a short section discussing the celestials (aasimar), drow, gnomes, and warforged, which gives reasons why they won't be in - though drow are appearing in the FR Player's Guide. One of the major design philosophies is that race needs to be more important, so there will be a selection of racial feats that can be taken at higher levels. There is also an assumption that most of the races will have a specific niche, so dwarves will mountain dwellers, elves in forests, etc. The only 'general' race will be humans, who are the most variable. There's also no desire to go into sub-races, so those are disappearing as a concept. And most of the material is more suited to the conceptual 'core' setting than to existing games, though it won't all be difficult to adapt.

Humans and Dwarves are pretty much as before, though dwarves have rather more presence on the surface than they used to by default. There's also a statement that dwarves were ignored by Moradin for some time after their creation when he moved on to other projects, which led to them being enslaved by giants and explains their bonuses fighting giants.

The elves have split into elves and eladrin. The elves are the nature-loving, wilderness living, eco-freaks who in previous editions were called variously wood-, wild-, green-, grugach-elves. The eladrin are the more "civilised" version, heavily into arcane magic and often living in the Feywild, and basically replacing the old high-, sun-, moon-, and several other elves.

Halflings are now a nomadic, world-spanning culture that live mostly in water caravans. There's an attempt to make them more like the kender of Krynn, though with less of the annoying bits. They've also grown a bit, average height being closer to four than three feet.

Tieflings now have a bit of setting background, being descended from an ancient empire and it's pact with devils. I'm not fond of the art, with large horns and thick tails, especially since it doesn't seem to match that well with the description of them. They also now breed true among themselves and with humans, which doesn't quite match the old flavour. I'm slightly worried about them as a default race, but they are said to be not common, though unusually well represented among adventurers.

Dragonborn are the only really new race. They are humanoids with draconic features, descended from spirits infused into raw elements by the draconic god Io. Their empire fell in conflict with the tiefling empire, and now they serve as wandering clans and individual mercenaries. At certain levels they'll have the option to grow wings or develop a breath weapon by taking certain feats.


The classes mentions are the traditional fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard, together with warlocks, barbarians, bards, druids, monks, paladins, rangers, sorcerers, swordmages, and warlords. Not all of these are going to appear in the first PHB, though apparently all are in various stages of development. Also, they?ve formally stated that classes will generally fit into one of four roles, the Defender, Striker, Leader, and Controller, depending on what their party role is expected to be. Among the general information is that all classes will have 'powers', an assortment of special tricks they can do with various frequencies. Most of these things will be used to emphasise the abilities that are unique to a particular class. We've already had an article talking about different types of paladin smite, and they talk about different types of barbarian rage, druids having more or less free use of their wild shape power but into a smaller range of forms, while sorcerers differ from wizards in that they have less control over their magic. There?s also an apparent goal to reduce the versatility of spellcasters, by reducing

Fighters are gaining a variety of special powers, probably many being similar to the abilities gained by the martial adept classes from the Tome of Battle. There's also talk that different weapons and fighting styles will lead to you gaining a different set of abilities, with maces being good for stunning foes, greatswords threatening all enemies nearby, and so on. Most fighters will have a range of powers that emphasise either assault (major offensive abilities), defence, or control (hindering opponents movement). All seem to concentrate on armour and melee capabilities, at least initially there's no facility for a lightly armoured duellist or archery specialist.

Clerics have a variety of powers. They remain generally competent warriors who can enhance the rest of their party?s abilities and pull them back from the brink of death. They cast a variety of battle prayers, spells, and rituals. Some of the gods may be granting different powers to their followers, so a cleric of Bane won?t be functionally similar to one of Corellon.

Rogues seem not to be changing very much. They?re still the top skill-monkeys, they still get sneak attack, and they?re still highly mobile. Most of their special abilities will relate to movement and extra effects from their sneak attacks, so they might be running up walls to leap over enemies heads and attack them from behind or stunning opponents with a sneak attack.

Wizards are changing quite a lot. Spellcasting remains their main ability, but their spells will be divided into abilities usable at will, ones usable once per encounter, and ones with only a daily use. Their at-will abilities are supposed to be weaker than a fighter?s, but their daily powers will be more powerful. They probably become less versatile, quite similar to a 3rd Edition sorcerer. Also, a lot of abilities are becoming rituals, which take a lot longer to perform but can probably be done at will if you know them.


Prestige classes are gone entirely. Instead, characters will carry on improving their class abilities throughout their career, but will also add a Paragon Path ities at 11th level, and an Epic Destiny at 21st level. These don't replace the existing class, instead adding additional options to your existing class. Most classes should have more than one Paragon Path suitable for them to go into.

[Dark-Mage]

Thanks for the info Bluenose, and it appears that my first impression of 4E still stands. They are basically turning it into a Pen and paper MMO. Quite possible influenced by the success of WoW.

Especially not that keen on what is happening to the wizard class...

Their at-will abilities are supposed to be weaker than a fighter?s, but their daily powers will be more powerful.

More powerful? They going to be able to open portals and summon food for their comrades? :-P (Couldnt resist)

In all seriousness, I guess some of the changes could be ok. Shall have to wait until I see them for myself in the new PHB.

[Tempest]

I still greatly dislike 4E, but some of these changes aren't as drastic as I feared. It sounds like they're trying to blend the most popular elements of all the DnD settings into one-we're getting Warforged, one of the signature races of Eberron, and tieflings, who are a common base race in Planescape. However, what worries me even more is that everything is starting to fall into rather simplistic categories-elves are well, elves, and fighters are fighters. I'm starting to wonder if we're going to have any downright odd or iconoclastic races/classes at all. 3.5E started developing these as time went on-some of the wierd and wacky sub-races and prestige classes that made 3.5E such fun if you were willing to look. I can only hope WotC will start developing some sense for what made DnD fun and *different*. I don't want to be playing WoW on paper.

[Zyraen]

I am reminded again why I never bother with FR Lore.

[Bluenose]

Article on the 'new' FR on the Wizards site.

Countdown to the Realms
Year of the Ageless One
by Rich Baker

The Realms of 1479 DR

Ninety-four years ago, Mystra perished and the world went mad.

Unchecked, ungoverned, the raw stuff of wild magic danced across the world, wreaking terrible destruction. Cities burned, kingdoms fell, luckless people were changed into monsters, and mages went berserk. This was the Spellplague, a rippling outbreak of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of magical catastrophes that left no corner of Faerûn untouched. For almost ten years new outbreaks appeared here and there, striking randomly and without warning. Wherever they struck, chaos reigned.

During the Year of Blue Fire and the terrible years that followed, heroes all over Faerûn battled to contain the magical plague. In some places they succeeded; in others, they failed and died horribly. Places guarded by powerful, persistent magical wards were largely unharmed; the Spellplague flowed around mythals and other such mighty enchantments. But even then, some mythal-guarded sites fell prey to invasions of plaguechanged monsters or the spells of maddened archmages. No place was truly safe.

In many places, the Spellplague wrought drastic changes to the very shape of the world. The vast Underdark system beneath the western Shaar suffered a calamitous collapse, leaving a miles-deep pit the size of a country where the Landrise once ran. Thay?s forbidding plateaus were lifted thousands of feet higher, leaving many of its cities in ruins. The Priador and eastern Thesk are a maze of monster-haunted foothills beneath Thay?s daunting ramparts now. Fencelike ridges of glass spires, drifting earthmotes covered in weird aerial forests, towering mesas of whorled stone? all over Faerûn magical landscapes are interspersed with the common rock and root of the lands that existed before. Even in countries that survived the Spellplague more or less intact, these ?changelands? stand as striking new landmarks?landmarks that sometimes harbor monsters never before seen in Faerûn.

In time, the fury of the Spellplague burned itself out. New outbreaks became fewer and weaker, and finally seemed to cease altogether. Pockets of ?live? Spellplague still exist in a few places known as plaguelands; one of the largest is a vast waste known as the Changing Lands, where Sespech and Chondath used to be. Few people dare to enter such places, but from time to time they disgorge horribly mutated monsters, tormenting the lands nearby. No new plaguelands have appeared in decades now, and some seem to be weakening as the years pass. But the damage has already been done.

No one will ever be able to create a comprehensive chronology of where and when each outbreak struck, or how each town and city fared through the chaos of the Plague Years. Countless thousands of people fled from each new outbreak, migrating here and there across the continent. War, rebellion, and brigandage reigned unchecked. Mad prophets walked the world, preaching that the Spellplague was the wrath of this god or that and demanding repentance, sacrifice, or holy war in atonement. Anarchy descended over most kingdoms and lasted for a generation or more before some semblance of authority was reestablished. The world that emerged from the Plague Years was not the same Faerûn.

The Sword Coast

The Spellplague left the cities of the Sword Coast almost unscathed. Perhaps it was attenuated by the lingering high magic of ancient Illefarn, perhaps it was deflected by the efforts of mighty heroes, or perhaps sheer chance steered the magical contagion away from the Sea of Swords; however it happened, the Sword Coast looks much as it did a hundred years ago.

In Waterdeep the great walking statues hidden within the city arose for a single day and wrecked several wards, only to suddenly halt where they stood when the Spellplague?s influence retreated again. To this day the towering colossi remain standing where they were at that moment, while the city has been rebuilt around their stony waists. Waterdeep is still governed by its Lords, advised by the Blackstaff?the most powerful mage of Blackstaff Tower, heir to the lore of the mighty Khelben. The city remains a hub of trade and commerce; all roads lead to Waterdeep, or so it is said.

To the south, the city of Baldur?s Gate became a refuge for countless thousands fleeing the ruin wrought by the Spellplague in the lands south of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Where other cities and lands turned away such refugees, Baldur?s Gate tolerated them? and now, almost a century later, it is the largest city in Faerûn, sprawling for mile after mile along the banks of the Chionthar. Each group of refugees created their own neighborhood under the walls of the previous immigrants? districts, and the city is a mad patchwork of crowded neighborhoods, each dominated by a single race or human ethnicity such as dwarf, halfling, gnome, Turmic, or Shaaran.

Across the Sea of Swords, the Moonshaes have fallen into a patchwork of small kingdoms. Caer Calidyrr still stands as the chief kingdom of the native Moonshavians (the Ffolk), but over the last century the powerful mainland realm of Amn has set its sights on this land. Amnite merchant-lords control much of the large island of Gwynneth, while the warlike Northlanders hold Oman and Norland. The Feywild, the realm of Faerie, lies close to Faerûn here, and from its shadows a dire new threat is gathering?the terrible fomorians, who dream of sweeping away the human kingdoms and subjugating the islands beneath their mighty fists.

The Empire of Netheril

Between the North and the Moonsea Lands lies a land under the dominion of shadow. The reborn Empire of Netheril now lies in the basin that once held the desert Anauroch. The new Netheril claims all of the lands that ancient Netheril once occupied, and seeks to dominate Faerûn just as ancient Netheril did twenty centuries ago. Much of Anauroch?s vast basin is still desolate wasteland, but the lords of Netheril have spent decades weaving mighty spells to summon water to the parched lands and fill the empty skies with rain. Slowly but surely, grassland grows over the dunes, and young forests cover the stony barrens.

Netheril is a magical tyranny, governed by a noble caste of shades?powerful human mages and lords who have exchanged their mortal essences for the stuff of shadow. Beneath the shade lords are the citizens of Shade, the ancient city-state that fled into the plane of Shadow when the old empire fell and survived many centuries in dark exile. They are a race of ambitious and masterful humans who strive to advance the power of their realm, hoping to earn the reward of transformation into undying shades themselves. When folk of other lands refer to ?the Netherese,? they mean the people of Shade, both human and shadow-transformed.

Decades ago, the Netherese subjugated the nomads of Anauroch and many of the savage humanoid tribes inhabiting the desert. More importantly, the Netherese seized control of the wealthy nation of Sembia in the Twilight War just before the advent of the Spellplague, and they have not relinquished it since. Sembia is the crown jewel of the Empire of Netheril, and provides the Netherese with the wealth and manpower they need to bring more of Faerûn under their control. Only the fragile alliance of Myth Drannor, Cormyr, Evereska, and Luruar checks Netheril?s further expansion? and Netherese diplomats and agents work constantly to break the alliance apart.

While Netheril claims all of Anauroch and the neighboring lands, the Netherese are still few in number, and great portions of this desolate land are left to ruins and monsters. The ruined cities of old Netheril and the Underdark caverns of the monstrous phaerimm (now all but extirpated from the Realms) hold many secrets the shades want to remain hidden, and ancient treasures they seek desperately to recover.

Imperial Cormyr

Cormyr is a strong, stable kingdom that has benefited from back-to-back reigns by very capable monarchs. Azoun V, born in the troubling times at the end of his grandfather?s reign, went on to become a just, wise, and long-lived ruler. Under his rule Cormyr quickly recovered from the chaos of the Plague Years. Azoun V successfully resisted Netheril?s efforts to bring Cormyr under its domionion, and he fought Netherese-sponsored Sembia to a stalemate in a war 40 years ago, preserving Cormyr from Sembia?s fate. Late in his reign, Azoun V enacted a new code of laws that restrained the power of Cormyr?s restless nobility and established rights for commoners oppressed by nobles. His son Foril is now king of Cormyr.

Foril has ruled for 30 years now, and while he is not the legendary warrior his great-grandfather was or the brilliant law-giver his father was, he is a shrewd statesman and administrator. Foril continued his father?s reforms, and authored the alliance of powers that keeps Netheril at bay. Standing between Sembia and Netheril, Cormyr?s best security lies in firm alliance with Myth Drannor and the Dalelands. Cormyr is wealthier and more powerful than it?s been in centuries, largely due to the foresight and determination of the Obarskyrs.

Cormyr now controls Daerlun and Urmlaspyr, two formerly Sembian cities that managed to break away from that realm before the Netherese yoke settled completely over them. During the chaos of the Spellplague and the years that followed, the small cities on the southern shore of the Dragonmere turned to Cormyr for protection. Only ten years ago, the thief-ruled city of Proskur proved so obnoxious to the Forest Kingdom?s growing trade and prosperity that King Foril brought it under Cormyr?s authority as well. Not all of these territories are content under Cormyrean rule.

Adventurers in the service of the Crown find plenty of excitement in the Stonelands, the Tunlands, and the Stormhorns, where various monsters and savage tribes (some secretly sponsored by Netheril) cause no small amount of trouble.

Tymanther, Land of the Dragon Warriors

Along the shore of the Alamber Sea, old Unther was swept away by a catastrophic outbreak of the Spellplague. Where once ancient Unther stood now stands an arid mesa-land inhabited by draconic humanoids calling themselves dragonborn. This is the realm of Tymanther. The dragonborn have proven to be a proud, martial race, and in the decades since the Year of Blue Fire they have slowly tamed the ruined changeland from the Riders to the Sky all the way to the Black Ash Plain.

Some say that the dragonborn are creations of Tiamat, hatched from vast incubators hidden beneath temples of the dragon-goddess in the cities of Unther. Others believe that the dragonborn are descended from the human population of the old empire, changed by the touch of the Spellplague into something no longer human. But the truth of the matter is even stranger: As it did in many other places in Faerûn, the Spellplague opened the door to some other realm entirely, wrenching the aeries and castles of the dragonborn from their native land?wherever that once was?and depositing them amid the chaos of devastated Unther.

The dragonborn of Tymanther are highly militarized, and the ?lords? of the land are those dragonborn who have proven themselves capable of leading their fellows. It is a harsh and unforgiving meritocracy, and each of the kingdom?s great clans is organized more like an army than a noble house. In the world from which they came, the dragonborn fought many terrible wars against true dragons, and they still harbor an ancestral hate for the winged wyrms.

Tymanther lies atop the rubble of ancient Unther, and Untheric ruins are common throughout the land. Even in its decline, Unther was a rich and populous land, and many palaces and treasure vaults of the God-King?s favorites still wait to be discovered. In other places, broken cities carried into Faerûn from Tymanther?s appearance are likewise storehouses of gold, gems, and magical artifacts. Unfortunately, many powerful monsters settled into these Untheric and Tymantheran ruins during the Plague Years, and still pose a deadly threat to those who delve too deeply.

The Changed World

This brief discussion touches on only a few of Faerûn?s myriad kingdoms and peoples. It?s a quick sketch of how a century has changed several familiar lands, and a look at one new land that has arisen during that time. Many of Faerûn?s most iconic locales are still what they were a century ago; wood elves still roam the High Forest, and pirates still sail the Sea of Fallen Stars. Other places such as Unther have changed drastically, as described above. But above all Faerûn remains a land of high magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders?the essential fantasy world for your players to explore.

In upcoming previews, we?ll take a more thorough look at other aspects of the new Faerûn?the fate of the Chosen, the nature of the pantheon, how magic has changed in the world, and an introduction to some of the new threats that now menace Faerûn. Good fortune and good adventuring until next time!

I'll make a predition: A lot of people really won't like this very much

[Dave Greenblade]

Oh man, I always thought 4th Edition was going to stink, and the fact that they're completely redoing my favourite Campaign Setting sure doesn't change my mind

[Tempest]

So all our traditional evil groups of people we're used to going up against-the ones that had complexity and depth to them-are summarily replaced by Netheril (how the **** did the City of Shade overrun that much territory, much less govern it?!), everyone's too busy fighting against Netheril and evil zones of monsters to make time for the usual diplomatic intrigue we're accustomed to, and there are large swathes of land arbitrarily marked "Adventurers Only". Joy...

[Dave Greenblade]

Wait a minute... No more prestige classes?

I really gotta get all the 3.5 Edition books I can get, before they're all replaced by 4th Edition ones...


And Bluenose, you're a real predictor

[Bluenose]

from Chris Sims blog, talking about the new FRCG:

?Lands of Faerûn? is the largest chapter in the Campaign Guide. It follows a nice, easy-to-navigate spread format, and almost every area includes an imbedded map of the region. Each entry focuses on places PCs can come from, pass through, and stay in, as well as cool experiences, sites, and plots to fuel DM imagination. It?s really the DM?s guide to Faerûn, and it acknowledges itself as just that.

Its second largest section is dedicated to threats, retaining some old foes, putting a new spin on some recognizable adversaries, and adding a few new ones. Szass Tam still stands as Abeir-Toril?s mightiest necromancer; the Zhents still plot in the shadows, hoping to reclaim lost glory; gibberlings still pour from the Underdark, but the Spellplague changed some of them. Along with these, surviving Halruaans ply a mercenary trade from a floating fortress and their few remaining skyships, and warlocks tied to a mysterious primordial entity rule Vaasa. And these aren?t the half of my work. They don?t even touch on the work Ed Greenwood did in describing the threats in his parts of the world.

The cool thing to me is that the Campaign Guide will be helpful on another level. In designing the threats, I took the approach that my design should supplement Paragon and Epic tiers, since the MM already has a great deal of support for Heroic-tier play. MM monsters are as much FR as they are D&D, and vice versa, so the FR threats can add to any DM?s toolbox. I?d happily use Manshoon?s statistics in my homebrew campaign, along with a lot of ideas for magic and such detailed in the Campaign Guide (and Player?s Guide for that matter).

I wonder what happened to Halruaa, if it's survivors are now mercenaries. Considering most of my FR gaming is set in the South, I'd lake to see what they've done to Chult, Calimshan, Lapaliiya, the Tashalar, and the Yuan-ti. Though some of it is already there, not that the Shaar really mattered to me.

[VIIIofSwords]

I expected some drastic changes with Mystra dying and all, but this is a little too drastic. I'm going to miss the backstabbing, alliance-making, oath-breaking political mire of the past.

And why do I get the impression that they're focusing on higher level campaigns? For some reason, I just get the feeling that lower level players are going to be getting a little ignored in the earlier books, though I can't pinpoint why.

[oralpain]

So basically this new history is like the Fall of Nethril, only reversed? Sounds a bit boring.

Wait a minute... No more prestige classes?

I really gotta get all the 3.5 Edition books I can get, before they're all replaced by 4th Edition ones...

Then you have penty of time.

I'm still buying AD&D 1st and 2nd edition books, some of them have been out of print for almost 30 years.

Books don't just vanish when a new edition shows up.

[Delight]

From what I've read, Ed Greenwood still plays 2nd ed. and in his campaign the Time of Troubles didn't happen .

[oralpain]

If I were to run a pen & paper realms game, I would probably do the same thing.

All of these drastic changes to the time-line that attempt to work game mechanics into campaign history do more to screw things up than anything.

The Realms has always had a rich and detailed background, but for me, and many others, the changes that came with the Time of Troubles was the beginning of the end of the Realms as a playable setting.

[VIIIofSwords]

From what I've read, Ed Greenwood still plays 2nd ed. and in his campaign the Time of Troubles didn't happen

I once was part of a long-running campaign that was just like this, except we instead modified the ToT to better suit our tastes. But we decided to nuke several high-level mage characters along with the gods. There's nothing quite so pleasant as watching the party goody two-shoes mage trip over a burned husk, only to realize that said husk used to be his idol, Elminster.

Edited by VIIIofSwords, 26 January 2008 - 10:50 PM.

[Delight]

All of these drastic changes to the time-line that attempt to work game mechanics into campaign history do more to screw things up than anything.

I think that campaing world creators should be able to discard all changes in game mechanics that they find conflicting with campaign canon. For example I don't understand how they could suddenly change elven infravision into darkvision or make a single dark elven girl allow all drow to retain their magic abouve ground .

The Realms has always had a rich and detailed background, but for me, and many others, the changes that came with the Time of Troubles was the beginning of the end of the Realms as a playable setting.

I'm not familiar with the pre-ToT realms. Could you elaborate, please?

[oralpain]

It's mostly about a trend of gross inflation that was brought to the post-ToT, post 1st edition, Realms.

The number of NPCs with god-like powers soared, and the powers of those who were already arround were often dramatically inflated.

FR went from a reasonable moderatly high-fantasy game, to where you couldn't take a piss without hitting the archmage, the lich, and the dragon hiding behind every bush.

Elminster is the prime metaphor for these changes. Almost overnight he went from a human sage and 26th level mage (plenty of powerful enough, given half a brain and a compentent DM), to a 29th level mage former fighter, former thief, chosen of mystra (which gave him immunity to a pile of spells, immortality, a 25 consitution, silver fire, and a pile of other abilities I don't even want to remember), spell-fire weilding, ultimate badass with clones, contingencies, and blessings from on high oozing from every pore and orifice.

The "old" Elminster was a learned scholar and an archmage along the lines of Gandalf/Merlin (with just enough originality to not be boring). The "new" Elminster would fit right in with the Ginyu Force of Dragon Ball Z.


Further more, some of the story/plot justifications for the rule changes where down right absurd.

1st edition had an "assassin" class. 2nd edition did not. When 2nd edition and the ToT came along, did theses former assassins (as in class) continue to be assassins (as in profession), with a simple, easy to impliment class change to thief or fighter? No, they virtually all dropped dead when their occasional patron, Bhaal, was killed. This sort of canon and thinly veiled metagaming was exceptionally annoying to many people.


In the end, even though I grew up with 2nd edition, and still run/play primarily 2nd edition, I find the pre-ToT, pre-2nd edition, Realms far preferable.

I like to run a game where the PCs have some sort of reasonable shot at becoming noteworthly campaign figures, without having to suspend my disbelief overly much. With the kind of demographics that allows any single world to have hundreds of archmages, or whole towns where the average person in the street is a 4th-5th level fighter, PCs have to reach levels of power that are just not feasable for most non-munchkin games (either that or I, as DM, must implement exceedingly cheesy and cliche plot lines) before they are ever more than a drop in the bucket.

Edited by oralpain, 27 January 2008 - 02:43 AM.

[Bluenose]

And another of the "Countdown" articles makes it's appearance:

Countdown to the Realms
Magic in the Forgotten Realms
by Bruce Cordell

Magical power and fantastic features abound in the Forgotten Realms. Arcane secrets whisper to those with the ears to hear in the eons-long movement of the continents, in rushing river rapids, in every inhalation of beasts great and small, and in the sighing cries of the wind. Raw magic is the wild stuff of creation itself, the mute and mindless will of being, suffusing every bit of matter and coursing within every manifestation of energy throughout the world.

Wizards, warlocks, clerics, sorcerers, bards, paladins, and even rogues, fighters, rangers, and other adventurers call upon personally derived threads of magic to cast mighty spells, enforce pacts with enigmatic entities, heal injury, ward against evil, or accomplish physical feats that transcend purely mortal means.

Dangerous monsters, too, call up frightful magic to accomplish their deceitful ends. Aberrations spawned by ancient magic seethe below the earth and above it, hungry for flesh and knowledge alike, waiting for the chance to feed. Dragons whose blood runs with magic wield abilities so potent that gods and primordials alike fear to face the most ancient of these mighty beings. Undead fuel their mind and protect their corpses from dissolution by powerful necromantic rituals, especially liches, whose never-ending acquisition of arcane knowledge has propelled more than a few into contention with divine designs.

Indeed, magic is so bountiful in Abeir-Toril that even the land bristles with fantastic landscapes. Great motes of free-hanging earth balance on nothing but air, amazing all those who chance upon these mighty demonstrations of nature?s glory.

If fact, the Realms are so awash with magic that the world proved particularly vulnerable to a plague that fed on magic itself.

The Year of Blue Fire
?Learn ye well the lesson of the pebble that begets a landslide. Likewise a single betrayal unleashed the Spellplague, whose consequences yet dance and stagger across Toril, and beyond.?
--Elminster of Shadowdale, 1479 DR, Year of the Ageless One

An appalling magical event called the Spellplague afflicted (and still afflicts) the world in 1385 DR.

Despite its name, the Spellplague was much more than a disease. For one, it did not restrict itself to mere flesh. All things were meat to the Spellplague?s insatiable hunger?flesh, stone, magic, space, and perhaps even the flow of time was suborned. The world of Toril, its lost sibling Abeir, and even the planes themselves were infected with a plague of change.

Most suppose the Spellplague was the direct result of the goddess of magic?s murder at the hands of the god Cyric. Some whisper that Mystra?s death was achieved through the machinations of the goddess Shar, with Cyric her unwitting stooge.

This theory holds that the world?s magic was held so long in Mystra?s Weave that when the Weave lost its weaver, magic spontaneously and ruinously burst its bonds. Areas of wild magic, already outside the constraints of the Weave, touched off first when their boundaries misted suddenly away. But eventually, few parts of Toril and the planes beyond were unaffected.

The plague raged on and on in ever-widening spirals, leaving some places completely untouched (such as many northern lands of Faerûn, including Cormyr and the Swordcoast), and radically altering others (such as Muhorand, Unther, and points south). The plague passed into the realms of demons, gods, and lost souls?dividing some realms, joining others, and generally seeding chaos.

Near-mythical realms that had passed beyond easy reach were pulled back, such as the Feywild (called Faerie in ancient days). The home of demons fell through the cosmology, unleashing swarming evil before the Abyss found its new home beneath the Elemental Chaos.

Even the long forgotten world of Abeir burned in the plague of spells, despite having been unreachable and cut off from Faerûn for tens of millennia. Portions of Abeir?s landscape were transposed with areas of Toril in the disaster. Such landscapes included their living populations, and thus places such as Akanûl and Tymanther lie as if new-birthed on Faerûn?s face. Across the Trackless Sea, and entire continent of the lost realm reappeared (called Returned Abeir) subsuming the continent of Maztica.

The Spellplague was a potent direct agent of change, but it also set off a string of secondary catastrophes.

Effects on the Weave
For eons, the use of magic in Faerûn was focused through a god of magic, most recently Mystra. Except for certain Netherese wizards of ancient days who learned the truth, most believed that no magic would be possible without such a deity. However, with the death of Mystra and jealous Shar suppressing the ascension of a new deity of magic, it became common knowledge that magic is accessible without a god to control and codify it. Now when a spellcaster speaks of the Weave, she is just using another term for magic.

Effects on the Shadow Weave
Just as Mystra controlled the Weave, the goddess Shar controlled the Shadow Weave. Not satisfied with her portion, Shar plotted to seize control of both. She miscalculated. When Cyric murdered Mystra, the Weave collapsed so completely that Shar not only failed to gather up the fraying threads, she also lost control over the Shadow Weave.

Just as magic persists without Mystra, so does the dusky power of shadow endure without Shar acting as an intermediary. Powerful necromancers have developed their own unique methods for accessing the dim energies of the Shadowfell.

Effect on Spellcasters
Many creatures that learned to cast spells and channel magic with Mystra?s Weave found themselves powerless in the Spellplague?s wake. Some never regained their power. Others worked to attune themselves to the new magical environment. Many required years to regain this facility, while others never regained the knack. Others took shortcuts to reaquire the power they?d lost, swearing questionable pacts to enigmatic beings in return for the ability to utilize arcane powers.

Today, spellcasters access magic through a dizzying array of methods. Some murmur spells and incant rituals, some forge arcane bargains, and others pray for intervention. In truth, it seems that magic can be accessed in more ways than ever before, fueled by newfound knowledge of arcane, shadow, primal, and other sources of power.

Effect on Items
Most magic items that permanently store magic, such as magic swords, cloaks, and boots, survived the Spellplague and continue to operate normally. Permanent access to magic was "installed" in these devices when they were created, so even though the Weave was used in their making, the Weave no longer played any part in their continuing operation. That said, some items that temporarily stored ?charges? of magic, such as wands and staffs created prior to the Spellplague, no longer work. If such items do work, they no longer work in the same way.

The secret of making magic items in a post-Weave world was relearned decades ago. Magic items are as plentiful as ever, as desperately sought by doughty adventurers, and as mysterious as they ever were.

Effects on the Landscape
Where magic was completely loosed, the Spellplague ate through stone and earth as readily as bone and spell. Broad portions of Faerûn?s surface collapsed into the Underdark, partially draining the Sea of Fallen Stars into the Glimmer Sea far below (and leaving behind a continent-sized pit called the Underchasm). The event splintered several of the Old Empires south of the drained sea into a wildscape of towering mesas, bottomless ravines, and cloud-scraping spires (further erasing evidence of the lands and kingdoms once situated there). Historical lands most changed by the Spellplague include Mulhorand, Unther, Chondath, and portions of Aglarond, the Sea of Fallen Stars, and the Shaar. What was once called Halruaa detonated and was destroyed when every inscribed and prepared spell in the nation went off simultaneously. This explosion was partly to blame for destroying the land bridge between Chult and the Shining South?only a scattered archipelago remains.

Tendrils of the Change Plague reached many other corners of Faerûn, sometimes directly across the landscape, othertimes bypassing great swathes of land by infecting both sides of the many two-way portals that once dotted the world.

Pockets of active Spellplague still exist today, most famously in the Changing Land. Referred to as plaguelands, each one is strange and dangerous. No two possess the exact same landscape or features, save for the fact that entering could lead one to be infected by the Spellplague. Luckily, remnant plaguelands possess only a fraction of the vigor demonstrated in the Spellplague?s initial appearance. These lingering Spellplague pockets are secreted away in hard-to-reach locales, often surrounded by twisted no-man?s land. Most of Faerûn and Returned Abeir are entirely free of such pockets, though the plaguechanged and spellscarred may appear in any land.

Effects on Creatures
When the initial wave of Spellplague infected a creature, object, or spell, the target usually dissolved into so much glowing, dissipating ash. However, sometimes living creatures survived the plague's touch but were altered, twisted, or fused to another creature or even a portion of the landscape. The initial Change Plague wave had no regard for boundaries or species, or the ability of a changed entity to survive with its new form, powers, and limitations. The most unlucky of these mewling, hideously changed survivors perished within a few days.

Luckily, the initial wave directly touched relatively few parts of Toril and Abeir. Moreover, not all creatures, objects, or spells touched by the original Spellplague were doomed, but to have survived meant having to accept change. Living creatures so affected are differentiated into two broad groups: plaguechanged and spellscarred.

Plaguechanged
A massive change in body and mind marks a creature that has survived contact with the original wave of the Spellplague during the Year of Blue Fire. Such survivors are called the Plaguechanged. Extreme alterations forge potent monstrosities in even the meekest flesh. Plaguechanged creatures are monsters, driven slightly insane by the viciousness of their metamorphosis. Few of this generation survive today, because the initial plague was so virulent, and the changes wrought were so extreme. What?s more, many decades have passed since the Spellplague?s end, so most plaguechanged creatures simply died in the interim. A few of the horrifying monstrosities remain, though, hidden away in various corners of the world.
Spellscarred
Spellscars are a phenomena of the present, gained when someone moves too close to a plagueland (where active Spellplague yet lingers), though sometimes spellscars afflict people who?ve never had any contact with rampant magic. Some individuals?heroes and villains alike?can gain spellscars and learn to master the powers inherent in them.

On rare occasions, a spellscar appears as a physical abnormality, but more often it is an intangible mark that only appears when its owner calls upon it. When this happens, a spellscar might appear as jagged cracks of blue fire racing out across a spellscarred?s forearms or hands, a corona of blue flame igniting the creature?s hair, a flaming blue glyph on the creature?s forehead, or perhaps even wings of cobalt flame. In many instances, an individual's sudden manifestation of blue fire is a reliable indicator of a spellscar.
Magic in the Year of The Ageless One
The ancient wonder of old magic yet lingers among the ruins of thousand-year-old empires, in crumbling towers of mad wizards, and in buried vaults of elder races. The modern marvels of living wizards, sorcerers, warlocks, clerics, druids, and other spellcasters stride the land as purposefully as they ever did, altering the world in small or large ways with each spell they cast. Indeed, without the divine restrictions of previous ages, magic is more abundant than ever, manifesting not only as inexplicable changes to the landscape, items, and creatures, but even in some of the most fantastic exploits of fighters, rogues, rangers, and other heroes. Magic truly does permeate all things. For all the changes wrought by the Mystra?s death, magic remains the lifeblood of Toril.

About the Author

Bruce Cordell is a D&D designer, but during his twelve years in the game industry, he has dabbled in miniatures, board games, collectible card games, d20 games, and more. Bruce has over a sixty listed credits to his name, including the Expanded Psionics Handbook, Libris Mortis, and Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. His body of work also includes three published Forgotten Realms novels (Lady of Poison, Darkvision, and Stardeep), with more on the way.

Mmm. Yes. Right. I might just need a little lie down after this.

Oddly enough, it makes me more interested in playing in this world and exploring it's themes than I have been for a while. It's not that I dislike FR particularly, but I played in it despite the setting rather than because of it. It's just I'm not sure whether it's quite FR any more.

[Isilven]

"Mystra died, magic went off, everything exploded. The end."
If they keep up with this, they're going to end up blowing up Aberun-Toril by the end of 4.5 E (you know it will happen)

While I'm interested in playing this... why didn't they just revive Dark Sun if they wanted a post-apocalyptic setting?