Wise mage or powerful mage?

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How is it that the subject is now about wether that guy taking drug is powerful without his sword? I guess you don’t care about the original subject... Oh well, too bad for me...

 

We just took over when everyone else stopped posting. Or maybe we scared them off

 

Hell yeah, give me Elric over the annoying Elminster anyday. At least Elric does not pop out suddenly and destroys your evil/neutral PCs for being bastards in a fit of righteousness. ( I hate DMs who do that.)

I've read the Elminster books, but found them too uninteresting and boring to pique my interest too much. Hence, I have forgotten all their titles, though I do recall him becoming obscenely powerful. And yes, I do hate any character that has anything to do with Mystra.

Elminster: stuck up, self righteous, nosy, annoying, invincible and psuedo-wise.

Gandalf: awe-inspiring, powerful (but not invincible!) and truly wise.

Raistlin: intelligent, sinister and simply ultra cool. Could do without his constant moaning and coughing though. The DL authors overdid it slightly, I think.

But my favourite sorcerer has to be Elric. Who else can chop up his friends, lovers and relatives just so he can use their souls to power his spells? And being a vassal of Arioch, the duke of Hell beats being the gimp of Mystra, the useless bitch anyday, IMO. Stormbringer, elemental summoning and the ceaseless drug abuse are the reasons why I find Moorcock's creation a lot more interesting than Greenwood's Gandalf rip-off.

Bah. Elminster deserves nothing more than a katana through his face. And his vaunted wisdom up his ass.

 

He didn't kill everyone he cared about because he could, or because he wanted to. The only timed he killed someone close to him was when he had to, and he was none too happy about the prospect. Others either got killed by accident or threw themselves on his blade. (Which made him spend many days wishing he'd never been born.)

Ceaseless drug abuse? He didn't use drugs because he wanted to, but because he had to, unless he wanted to sit in one place for the rest of his life. I don't see that counting as abuse.

Elric is really a tragic character, tossed about by the whim of fate, not just another heartless butcher. (Although at some points he might seem like one.)

 

I think all mages I have come across in Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance are fools all- I would like Raistlin if he were not so evil, but I do like Gandalf (mainly because he CAN BE BEATEN ) I also notice the groovy way he has his pipe slotted into the top of his staff in the film when he is talking to Saruman for the first time (did anyone else notice this?!)

 

My vote goes to the Simbul, Witch-Queen of Aglarond. Anyone I've met who's read Greenwood's Elminster in Hell was instantly awed by this chaotic demigoddess that raids Avernus all by herself, mowing down Bateezu of all ranks with the fury and vigor only matched by the author of this post when presented with a box of After Eight chocolate-mints. She's got the power and she's got the the attitude, and she's sufficiently flawed to be realistically human - her taste in men is downright sad: alas, she's got the hots for ole Elminster.

 

Eh, all these poor folks who don't know the real Elminster. Admittedly, the "standard" Elminster in the source books and the Avatar trilogy sucks. But check out Ed Greenwood's books; he turns El into an extremely likeable character. Ed's interpretation makes Elminster funny, likeable, and only slightly stuck-up. Well worth a read.

Next to El, I'd say my other favorite wizards are the family of 'em that Drizzt hangs out with. I can't remember their names, but I distinctly remember laughing out loud throughout an entire chapter where one of the family's wizards dueled with another to see how many zombies they could kill. Good stuff.

Last of all, Terry Goodkind's Richard Cypher is pretty cool. And the alcoholic grandpa wizard from the Belgariad was cool, too.

 

Well, look at the dude's picture in the 3E Forgotten Realms sourcebook. He's freaking Sean Connery. That he gets laid a lot goes without saying

 

Back to the original question...
My favourite wizards to date are Gandalf, Malchor(Sp?) Harpell, and Khelben Arunsun.

Gandalf because he has loads and loads of power and knows when *not* to use it, and he doesn't think of himself as all-powerful. (Saruman beats him, and sometime in the Trilogy he says something about "not being able to face Sauron alone")
Malchor because he's also rather wise. I particularly liked his lecture to Wulfgar. (Though, for the life of me I can't remember what it's about )
Khelben because he's also cool and powerful, but I *hate* the way Elaine Cunningham portrayed him; as a snobbish, meddling beast who harasses his nephew.

I have mixed feelings about Elminster and the Simbul though.
Elminster is cool, and he's usually wise, but so many authors have tried to portray him, that sometimes he comes off as a wise old mage, sometimes as a meddling old man who's nose fits just about everywhere, and sometimes as a mysterious guide who drops hints and secrets at everyone's feet, but hides them so well no one notices them right away. (My main example of this last one, is the "Finder's Stone"). I particularly disliked how Greenwood made Elminster to be such a ladies-man, it just doesn't make sense for someone like him to do just about every beautiful woman he meets, think of Azoun IV, and what his womanizing almost did.
The Simbul I've only read about in "Elminster in Hell" and she kinda awed me, but she also bothered me. She was superpowerful and blasted all those archdevils to dust too easily, and more importantly, she did it too readily. Even Mystra was nervous about marching through Avernus, blasting all those devils to dust, but the Simbul came in and did just that. Hmmm...

 

True, but Mystra/Midnight's only been doing this whole "god" thing for a couple of years now, while the Simbil's been around for a few hundred. And besides, she's insane

 

Anyone ever though of the possability of a weak and unwise mage?

 

Actually, no...at least I haven't.

Come to think of it, that might be a great angle for a comedic fantasy novel - an average, actually fairly impotent wizard who's smoked too much Shire weed is called upon to save the world.

Well, it might at least make the next edition of Comic Fantasy

 

The preview chapter/excerpt looks pretty cool. I'll check 'em out after I finish the Sword of Truth series. Thanks for referring me