1. SPS Accounts:
    Do you find yourself coming back time after time? Do you appreciate the ongoing hard work to keep this community focused and successful in its mission? Please consider supporting us by upgrading to an SPS Account. Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting a good cause, you'll also get a significant number of ever-expanding perks and benefits on the site and the forums. Click here to find out more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
You are currently viewing Boards o' Magick as a guest, but you can register an account here. Registration is fast, easy and free. Once registered you will have access to search the forums, create and respond to threads, PM other members, upload screenshots and access many other features unavailable to guests.

BoM cultivates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We have been aiming for quality over quantity with our forums from their inception, and believe that this distinction is truly tangible and valued by our members. We'd love to have you join us today!

(If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you've forgotten your username or password, click here.)

Common Lich and the Time of Troubles

Discussion in 'Dungeons & Dragons + Other RPGs' started by Merlanni, Dec 15, 2007.

  1. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2005
    Messages:
    2,445
    Media:
    23
    Likes Received:
    53
    Gender:
    Male
    I don't get it. During the Time of Troubles all magic stopped until Midnight became Mystra. So if a lich is magically tied to its phylactary, and sustained magically,... Did they perish or what?
     
  2. Morgoroth

    Morgoroth Just because I happen to have tentacles, it doesn'

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2003
    Messages:
    2,392
    Likes Received:
    45
    Magic did not stop during the Time of Troubles just became unstable and unpredictable when Mystra was not able to control the weave. The only time magic actually stopped in Faerun (afaik) is when Karsus (unsuccessfully) tried to become the god of magic and caused the destruction of Netheril.

    Forgotten Realms has its share of inconsistencies though so in cases like this it is very likely that the author simply has not bothered to think about it from the said perspective.
     
  3. Daie d'Malkin

    Daie d'Malkin Shoulda gone to Specsavers

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2002
    Messages:
    2,636
    Likes Received:
    1
    And the emphasis that is placed on Elves being magical beings and being affected by the Weave, so what happened to them?
     
  4. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2005
    Messages:
    2,445
    Media:
    23
    Likes Received:
    53
    Gender:
    Male
    Biside from the headache.
     
  5. Morgoroth

    Morgoroth Just because I happen to have tentacles, it doesn'

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2003
    Messages:
    2,392
    Likes Received:
    45
    Times of Troubles affected the human gods, the elven pantheon was never affected by the times of troubles, it would have been a bit hard for AO to banish them too considering that they rule over much larger domain than just the elves of Toril. I also believe that the Mulhorandi pantheon or gods of Kara-Tur were unaffected because it was the deities of Faerun that broke the rules. Also I'll have to disagree with the notion of elves being magical, while they certainly have crafted some of the most powerful and ancient magic they are not beings consisting of pure magic or anything and therefore were not destroyed.

    A nice inconistency btw in FR is that Bane supposedly killed off all the assassins on Faerun together with Myrkul by some ritual to make him god again, however some of the more famous assassins such as Artemis Entreri was left unharmed. FR is simply made up of dozens of different writers and the longer this has gone on the bigger mess Forgotten Realms is becoming in defining what exactly is canonical and what is not.
     
  6. The Magister Gems: 26/31
    Latest gem: Diamond


    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2006
    Messages:
    2,364
    Media:
    16
    Likes Received:
    7
    Gender:
    Male
    Artemis Entreri I always considered to be more of a mercenary then Assassin. Thats not to say he didn't kill people for money.

    Anyway back on topic it is quite likely that SOME Lichs died during the Time of Troubles due to magical backfire, however since magic seemed to only (mainly) backfire when the spells were cast, not if they were already there (it's the difference between having a wand and using a wand) the spells tying them to the phylactary would not of been affected unless they were tampered with or put to use. (the Lich's physical body is destroyed)
     
  7. Morgoroth

    Morgoroth Just because I happen to have tentacles, it doesn'

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2003
    Messages:
    2,392
    Likes Received:
    45
    Well rulebooks and even the novels quite clearly describe Entreri as an assassin. ;)

    And yes hypothetically it's possible that plenty of liches were destroyed but it's just that canonical Forgotten Realms do not make any mentions of such happenings as far as I know. In the end the DM is responsible for inteprenting the rules and happenings so he'll have to come up with the answers for such questions if and when necessary.
     
  8. Ilmater's Suffering Gems: 21/31
    Latest gem: Pearl


    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2006
    Messages:
    1,352
    Likes Received:
    4
    It's kind of amusing looking at the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Book (3.0 ed). Artemis, despite being described as one of the best assassins in Faerun, is a 18th level character with 1 level of assassin. Much like how Drizzt is a level 16 character with 5 levels of ranger. It really begs the question if most of your class levels are as not what you are described as, how exactly to you retain such a title? Artemis and Drizzt have, by far, most of their class levels as fighter in 3rd edition (you'd think fighter was their primary identity).
     
  9. Strife Gems: 6/31
    Latest gem: Jasper


    Veteran

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2001
    Messages:
    160
    Likes Received:
    1
    Hmm, I think the books describing Entreri as being one of the best assassins were talking more about his chosen occupation, rather than his character class.

    There really is nothing to say that you need Assassin class levels to become an murderer for hire. Perhaps we have a mindset that an assassin is the sneaky-thief kind of character, who poisons his target or stealthily knives him in the back, but a powerful fighter could conceivably just barge into his target's home, kill all his guards, survive all his traps, and just finally slay his target, a powerful mage could teleport in, etc, and they could still be considered assassins.
     
  10. Faragon Gems: 25/31
    Latest gem: Moonbar


    Veteran

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2001
    Messages:
    2,015
    Likes Received:
    0
    I think there's a certain oots comic about this, yes, here we go :D
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 27, 2007
Sorcerer's Place is a project run entirely by fans and for fans. Maintaining Sorcerer's Place and a stable environment for all our hosted sites requires a substantial amount of our time and funds on a regular basis, so please consider supporting us to keep the site up & running smoothly. Thank you!

Sorcerers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.