Forgotten Realms General

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>Remember the book where Arilyn enslaved Danilo's soul to her sword

Remember the time Danilo asked her to marry him and she was like "I need time to think about it and find myself" and then she went and fucked some Wild Elf, lost her virginity to him it was played off as something good because Danilo had more/other experiences with women before here? Yeaaaaah.

>Elaine Cunningham
I do think she is a rather good writer but everytime it comes to Arilyn its like her talent goes elsewhere for a smoke and only come back when she starts writing about something else.

>Because he was a shit ton more human than her, although still elf enough that he could bond with the moonblade, so for him, it was truly the only way they could be together forever. Since she was doomed to watch him grow old, and then lose his mostly human soul to a human afterlife.

If remember during Elfshadow she was in her 40s or her 60s. Sure he still dies before her but its not like they wont grow old together seeing as Half-Elves got 150 years old or something.

>Remember the time Danilo asked her to marry him and she was like "I need time to think about it and find myself" and then she went and fucked some Wild Elf, lost her virginity to him it was played off as something good because Danilo had more/other experiences with women before her?

I know three people who were not okay with that including myself.
The first one was basically saying it made Arylin a slut and therefore unworthy of Danilo, which of course is basically just sexism. Somewhat predictably the guy in question is still a virgin at 32 now.
Me and the other were basically saying it's bad because she decided that she cared more about having random sex with someone just to experience it first then she did about Danilo because she went RIGHT back to him afterwords. If it mattered to her so much she should have just broken up with him and then done her own thing for awhile, not done the equivalent of fucking a stripper at a bachelor party just because you feel inadequate somehow (like that shit even matters in a serious relationship).

>which of course is basically just sexism. Somewhat predictably the guy in question is still a virgin at 32 now.
>which of course is basically just sexism.
>Somewhat predictably
>still a virgin at 32
>just sexism
>still a virgin

Cant tell if legit SJW, hilarious lack of self-awareness or just female.

Does anyone here play in the Forgotten Realms using a system other than D&D?

Sounds pretty pointless to me. I understand stuff like Eberron conversion to SW, but FR is forever supported and inherently D&Dish.

When 4e started there was a community of realms players talking about moving over to using runequest to play FR based on AD&D lore.

>Cant tell if legit SJW, hilarious lack of self-awareness or just female.
Aren't those all the same thing?

I used Pathfinder the last time I played.

Every fantasy game I run I convert to Dungeoneer *(advanced fighting fantasy). It's easy to just sit and play. It has its own setting, but can easily cover just about anything.

pics or it didn't happen.

since WOTC isn't going to use any other setting in the foreseeable future

what's a good way to get into the Forgotten Realms?

Well what got me hooked before I even knew what Tabletop was were actually the Novels. Someone gifted me one of the Anthology-Books. I think it was "Realms of the Deep" or something.
After that I got the other Anthologies, then the Icewind Trilogy etc. Or you could try one of the games.

That depends.
The realms community tends to have a few different groups:
The people who like the setting and the potential it has for huge plots and ridiculous shit, like the greybox and other older material.
People who tend to be more in love with the characters and potential interactions will tell you to look up the novels, as there are a few actually good ones.
People who only got into the FR in the past few years tend to prefer the 3e FRCS, or the 5e SCAG.

Downsides are for all of them of course, the old FR material is not at all reflective of the way D&D has evolved, nor of the way WotC wants to handle the setting, the entire King's Thunder adventure is based on a massive retcon of giant lore, and further bastardizations from there, combined with a lot of little changes in FR lore that have started since 3e and only got bigger as the years have gone on.
It should be said I do mean changes as opposed to evolving the setting, old lore kind of pushed FR to be late renaissance pushing into a potential industrial revolution coming, guns, printing presses, greater love of building up potential technologies, even Netheril was implied to have been more magitech as opposed to just magic, but WotC remove all of that in favor of a more medieval fantasy feeling.
There's also the Drow having magical cybernetic limbs, but let's not get into that.

The novels tend to teach a setting that is very different from the way the setting actually plays, and can encourage some of the more infamous bad habits that you hear about on forums, particularly in regards to favoritism towards certain characters. There are many DMs who can get passed this, but every so often you find the one who can't. The novels also occasionally throw all logic and lore out the window for the sake of publisher mandate.

And of course, 3e FRCS, while it is popular and famous for making the setting easier to digest for people, simplification came with dumbing down.

>the entire King's Thunder adventure is based on a massive retcon of giant lore

Wait, what happened? I haven't read Giantcraft in ages.

I read that in October, along with the Threat from the Sea trilogy.

In my next campaign, the PCs will start in Chessenta before the Sharksbane Wall explodes.

Not an SJW or lacking self awareness.
Nor am I a virgin or female.
That's just something I've noticed; the weirder, nerdier slut-shaming guys who both desire and insult women at the same time out of bitterness tend to not get much action because just like guys can see it written all over other guys, girls can see it written all over them too and it's an incredibly unattractive feature to a partner in general.
This was one of those guys who seemed ONLY capable of looking down upon women (every conversation about them was just FILLED with bitterness when it came to him, to an almost comical degree) and yet fawned over them in a pathetic and transparent attempt to get laid. Never worked, still hasn't, and the rest of my friends are engaged, married, or have long-term partners.

>slut-shaming

Ah, so SJW then. Case closed.

Whatever makes you feel better buddy.
Personally I never felt the need to crusade for women's rights; my lack of a vagina led me to believe I wasn't really qualified to get involved in that kinda thing. Felt vaguely dishonest to me.

I actually was speaking of things that get you laid versus what do not get you laid.

>It should be said I do mean changes as opposed to evolving the setting, old lore kind of pushed FR to be late renaissance pushing into a potential industrial revolution coming, guns, printing presses, greater love of building up potential technologies, even Netheril was implied to have been more magitech as opposed to just magic, but WotC remove all of that in favor of a more medieval fantasy feeling.

I really liked the early-Renaissance technology level of 2e Faerun.
It made sense given the level of urban development in parts of Faerun and the relative commonality of plate armor suits and coinage all over the place. They even have bankers/money-changers in places like Waterdeep and developed merchant guilds that span multiple nations and city-states.

>There's also the Drow having magical cybernetic limbs, but let's not get into that.

Where is THAT from?

That's from a 2e sourcebook. It's basically exactly that too: Drow had one-off magitech limbs they'd staple to themselves for laughs. And for punching people with.

It started with the ordning being a mystical magical thing as opposed to a part of the culture. Then into the way the giants handle themselves, and some of the giantkin (Firbolgs being the big example) faced massive changes in even what they are, though that mostly came in Volo's Guide to Monsters.
It spirals from there.

Agreed. Part of the charm of early Faerun was that it went away from the "everything must be medieval britain" thing, and spoke of how evolutions in tech and guilds had changed the landscape considerably, to the point that guilds and cults were more important than just one wizard.
Of course, this changed before the end of 2e though. Greenwood very much wanted folks like Elminster to not be "be all, end all" characters, but TSR demanded that the novels follow super powered characters for better sales, and they also pushed for the setting to incorporate more medieval elements (the moonshae isles were originally completely different, but TSR said "let's turn it into arthurian legend land!).

The original Drow of the Underdark, in the section about Drow Artisans. As I recall it talks about how something like 3% of drow are practically savants when it comes to incorporating magic with metallurgy. The result being that drow structures and creations are often superior to even that of the dwarves, but fall apart as soon as the artisan who invented it gets killed in a siege or kidnapped because the drow are so secretive on how the stuff actually works that even their other workers have no idea on how to maintain it. It then went into how the drow have some crazy experimental technology through these artisans, including prosthetic limbs that can move and function as a real limb and even be upgraded to be strong enough to rip through metal, or eject blades for stabbing. That is accompanied with a picture of a drow woman flexing her cyber-arm while standing naked with her back to the camera, and an artisan watching her.

I always figured the drow cities would have really great magical innovations but that they wouldn't necessarily found in all the different drow cities because they don't exactly share information or trade due to their paranoia.

>and spoke of how evolutions in tech and guilds had changed the landscape considerably, to the point that guilds and cults were more important than just one wizard.

Notably, the rise of an actual coinage based economy allowed adventurers to become an actual legit professional choice (albeit a dangerous one with a high-casualty rate).

>(the moonshae isles were originally completely different, but TSR said "let's turn it into arthurian legend land!).

I actually portrayed in in my last game like Witcher'a Skellige Isles; way older fashioned and more rural and generally considered hugely backward by the mainland.
The fact that the names for shit in the Moonshaes are kinda Skellige-ey and the weird "Scots-Norse/Norse-Gael" thing they had going on fits the Shaes too.

Helm sees all

Know that, and be judged

I'm going to steal that Skellige idea, I find that far more interesting than their default set-up.

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Who is the best goodly god and why is it Lathander?

I believe you mean Chauntea.
And it's because her followers preach that you should put buns in every oven you can.

>not saving dat pic as "YOU DAMN KIDS GET OFF MY FRONT LAWN!!!"

It will never be Baby-Eater Lathander. Best good god is clearly superior Torm.

Forget the "best goodly god", I want to know which god is the most powerful god of arcane knowledge and or healing?

>most powerful god of arcane knowledge
Mystra, literal embodiment of magic. She knows all you can know about magic. If you want scholarly lore instead, you want Azuth. If you want divination-related lore, Savras. If necromancy, Velsharoon.

>healing
Ilmater, literal god of martyrs and healing, full stop.

Arcane knowledge is Mystra, without a doubt. Runners-up would be Oghma, Azuth, and Savras.

Best goodly god is obviously Tyr or Torm. Reminder that Torm during the Time of Troubles actually tried to help the place he landed in, and when he died fighting off Bane to protect mortals, Ao was impressed enough that he resurrected him at the end.

Pathfinder is just D&D 3.5.5

Amaunator bitch!

Baby-Eater Lathander is the hero we need.

Didn't that sourcebook also have a thing that Drow could stab someone with and it would suck out all their blood in like 2 rounds

Literally what.

Fun fact: Ao has only answered a single prayer, ever. It was to an orog who wanted to be a paladin of Torm.

>Shield of Innocence took the bloodstained amulet from about his neck and laid it on Stillhawk's unmoving breast. "O Torm," he prayed, "O True and Brave, please listen! Your dog begs you, do not let this soul slip out of the world. No one is truer and braver than he, and we have—"
>He coughed up blood. "We have not enough hands to fight the evil that waits below. I know... I have not served you long enough to earn the power to bring him back. And I won't ever, for this day I die, Lord. But please... please give him back his life, for his sake, for those poor brave women down there, for this whole world."
>Tears streamed down his cheeks. "Good Torm, I beg you!"
>A shimmer in the stinking air before him. A tiny point of radiance, intolerably bright, expanding to a miniature sun. The brilliance dazzled his light-sensitive eyes, threatened to burn them out, yet it filled his soul with warmth and peace such as he had never known.
>Shield of Innocence, a voice said in his mind, who well have justified your name: you alone of mortals on this world have I addressed through all the ages, and you alone shall I so address. Torm hears you, and through Him, I hear. My name has been taken in vain. You have chosen to redress this evil, knowing what the cost would be. So be it: your wish is granted.
>The light flared, expanded, enveloped Shield so that it seemed he would be consumed by it, as by the heart of a sun. Then it went out.
>The ranger opened his eyes.
>"O Torm!" the orog wept. "O Ao All-Father, I thank you!"

Are you certain the one who answered the prayer wasn't Lathander?

I read about on a D&D fansite like a decade ago, it also talked about the Cybernetics so I assumed it was a real thing

Yes, because nobody has the balls to try and imitate Ao.

Found it
Blood Spigots
These ingenious and devilish devices are used by ramming them into the flesh of a target and standing back. Their clever design forms a vacuum which sucks the blood and other fluids from the body of the target at an alarming rate. The spigot can be removed with a successful Strength check (DC 20). If the victim wishes to remove the spigot himself, he must make a successful Will save (DC 20) in order to build up the nerve to tear it out, but no such roll is necessary if the subject is willing to let someone else tear the weapon from his flesh. Removing the spigot causes 1d6 points of damage.
A blood spigot is a Small Martial Melee weapon that causes 1d4 points of piercing damage on a successful strike. If it scores maximum damage or a critical hit (x3 multiplier), it is stuck in the body of the victim and begins siphoning his blood out at a rate of 1d4 hit points of additional damage per round. Note that this does not work on undead, plants, constructs, or other creatures without a circulatory system.
Cost: 100 gp; Weight: 1 lb.

Yeah, not with that attitude you can't.

This is amazing. Why don't they create stuff like this anymore?

Discuss Kossuth.

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Can't hold a flame to Lathander.

Stop Shilling for Lathander, he's a shitty God with a shitty domain.
Kossuth drinks flames so brilliant and grand that Latjander would go blind just to look at them.

He didn't see who stole the Tablets of Fate.

He didn't see Avner, the Seraph of Death rescue Mystra.

>he's a shitty God with a shitty domain
Citation needed.

>Kossuth drinks flames so brilliant and grand that Latjander would go blind just to look at them
This is a fucking useless ability. Also Lathander is immune to light-, heat-, and fire-based attacks. Your move, Kosshite.

You have to understand Helm is mentally challenged.

I'm fairly certain Helm just spends a lot of time watching Sune's place.

It's not even that far off honestly which is why I thought of it.
>Druids
>All their castles have "Caer" in the name like Welsh ones
>Lots of sailing
>More rural then the mainland, lots of monsters everywhere
>Everyone is Scottish (the Priestess from BG1), except also fifty percent of the culture is Vikings (Northlanders) despite the accent
>Nominal high king in some eras but actually divided up into highly independent feudal domains

It's more like Skellige then it is Arthurian Romance what with Arthurian Romance being more influenced by French chivalric romanticism more often then not.

If he does that, I wonder how he manages to watch over anything else at all, since Sune has roomies, Hanali Celanil and Sharess. Two goddesses of love and beauty and the goddess of... festhalls would probably be worth a shitload of gp on pay-per-view.

Maybe Helm should talk about it with Waukeen.

Is Waukeen even taking Helm's calls? After all, he failed to notice (or care) that she was kidnapped for awhile.

I wonder who they invite over for their parties.

I still find Waukeen's whole kidnapping to be a weird affair.
"Fuck this mortal realm bullshit, I'm going to make a deal with the prince of pleasure to sneak back into the outer planes through his place."
"Oh no, totally-not-slaanesh has decided to betray me and keep me as an honored guest of his castle where everything is a constant celebration."
"I'll just wait a little bit before even trying to let anyone know I'm down here though, no reason, definitely has nothing to do with the fact that the demon lord of sex is keeping me in his private chambers."

I'm just saying, if Helm noticed he was probably considering that a sister channel to watching sune.

Lliira, for one, but I bet the ladies ask for Milil and Torm frequently too. You have to have some beefcake too.

>failed to notice (or care) that she was kidnapped

Wasn't this because Waukeen was held by a god-equivalent and it's hard to impossible to find out if a god is hiding or hidden (like the business with Cyric's sword)? To be honest, I don't remember the specifics of Waukeen's return from imprisonment.

>(the moonshae isles were originally completely different, but TSR said "let's turn it into arthurian legend land!)
Funny, because I've always seen it as not!Ireland. What between the divided clannish monarchy, not!viking invading and settling the north, fey bullshit everywhere with all the specifically irish inspired pieces of myth like fomorians and fey courts, etc..

>sune kidnapped, fun times in bondage

I'm pretty sure I know why Helm failed to find and rescue her quickly.

Arthurian is perhaps the wrong term. The story to the moonshae is that it was made during the time period when TSR was buying and making new properties every other week so as to sell more game books. At one point they got a submission for a game that takes place entirely in an England based setting with fey, magic, irish, vikings, a magical legendary sword given to a one true king, and so on. TSR then said that was cool but that it wasn't worth its own game/setting.

>MFAGA
>MyFAGA
>MyFAROG
>The answer is obvious...Trump is a wannabe-viking!

Waukeen was kidnapped, not Sune. Also, Loviatar is already god of BDSM, so if Helm's into that (he might be), he can watch Loviatar.

>Everyone is Scottish (the Priestess from BG1)

Wasn't she from the same island Jagaerda in the Savage Frontier games was from? I think she mentioned being from Vikingland and buggering off since the local priesthood of Tempus was a sausagefest. Jagaerda, of course, adhered to the Kull law (has axe, is a ruler) and gave zero shits about the local priests.

>Immune
Bitch, the time of fire based attacks Kossuth will conjure will rip your petty Lathander a new one.
Not matter how immune, nigga can't even spend a minute where Kossuth lives.

Tips for running for Ruins of Adventure? in 5e

Tell your party to get a cleric, you can't do Sokol Keep without one.

>Sokal Keep

Thank Sune the keep passwords are in that module, but I think the one in the Stojanow River pyramid (NOKNOK) is missing.

Pool of Radiance a best.

The Elemental Plane of Fire? Lathander's fire immunity says he can totally chill there, he just don't wanna because fuck fire.

>doesn't even explain how Kosshite is the better god
>starts blathering about how Kosshite will rekt Lathander when Lathander is explicitly immune to those attacks
>Lathander is also immune to fire as a sun god see

Your move.

>moonshae
Heres the thing about the setting - originally the Moonshaes werent even part of the Realms

[from drivethru rpgs product history of the moonshae module/guide]
>drivethrurpg.com/product/16803/FR2-Moonshae-1e?it=1

>UK Origins. In the mid '80s, TSR UK was producing creative products such as the "UK" adventures, Imagine magazine, and a variety of other RPG supplements. Around this time, they decided to also create a "British Dragonlance" — a new, epic multimedia setting. Like the original Dragonlance, it would be supported by both novels and adventures. Douglas Niles was in charge of the novel and he got it partly written before TSR UK's creative department was shut down in 1986 — which left the novel without a home.

>Meanwhile, Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood were preparing the Forgotten Realms for publication by the main TSR offices in Wisconsin; they wanted novels to support that line, but didn’t have time to write them on their own because they were working on the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1987) and the impending line of “FR” sourcebooks. As Niles' partly written novel was traditional (Celtic) fantasy, it was a pretty good fit for the Realms.

>Grubb and Greenwood threw out the Moonshae Islands that had been used in Greenwood's own Realms campaign and replaced them with the setting of Niles’ book. The novel, Darkwalker on Moonshae (1987), was then released as one of the first two Forgotten Realms products in May 1987 — alongside the compiled I3-5: Desert of Desolation (1987) adventure; it was so early in the release of the Realms that the novel didn't even carry the Forgotten Realms logo on the cover for its first printing!

Thats not how you spell Shaundakul.

Shaundakul isn't goodly, you pleb. CN is worst alignment.

>Lathander
>God of sun
>Not Amaunator

Look, Shaundakul is boss as fuck, but you aren't wrong, CN is worst girl.

Amaunator is god of lawful sunnyness. Lathander is god of goodly sunnyness. Myrkul is god of deadful sunnyness. I'm right, fite me.

The fuckers have been misrepresenting Lathander. He's only the his of the dawn, not the sun. Amanuator is the only god of the sun.

I never liked the dawn, high sun, dusk thing.
Just have a fucking sun god.
Also Lathander was best in the Old Empires book where he's the god of spring, renewal, and athleticism, encouraging super manly naked wrestling in his name.

>pic related, Lathander faggots

>Lathander
>devourer of babies
>not Lolth

Get your shit together, pleb.

Do you see his face? He's thinking to himself that that baby is gonna hit the spot. I can't hear Lathander's name without thinking "baby-eater". Lolth is just into freaky spider sex, she isn't too into the baby eating scene (maybe occasionally, on holiday and whatnot).

Who is the worst god of magic and why is it Shar?

>Shar
>god of magic
Son, you be having a laff.

I like Forgotten Realms, at least the way I remember it. I don;t know what its like these days but it was a very comfortable place to settle your imagination at the end of the day.

This is easily the best Half-Elf portrait I have in my collection and I would be interested to see if there is much else of this calibur. Settings and artists often struggle with depicting the half elf visually. They easily get caught up on presenting them with a visual distinction and run into a snare because the depiction of many elves starts and ends with 'human with pointed ears'.

This image understands the trick to the half elf. Their difference with humanity is mostly internal and is best expressed visually as a kind of uncanny beauty; a glamour, which this image does effortlessly.

Hear head is visibly too large, and the puffy sixties hairdo doesn't help things.

Ned Dameron is on par with DiTerlizzi, he's an excellent artist. Shame we don't see more of his handiwork.

She was drawn by Jeff Easley wasn't she?

Oh, you're right. The art style is similar to Dameron's work.

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