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Caladan Brood
Senior Scribe
Norway
410 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Nov 2015 : 18:05:29
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In my (non-D&D/non-Realms but darkly magical in the sense of medieval history + a dash of epic fantasy) campaign one of the PCs has been wielding a sword for the better part of five game years (ten real life years!) and he still doesn't know what makes it special (beyond the steel being red) :D
In my ever-expanding notes I've written a few triggers that would allow the PC to discover the secrets of the blade, but so far no luck hehe.
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 20 Nov 2015 : 19:04:09
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quote:
Originally posted by JohnLynch
quote:
Originally posted by Dargoth
Is there actually an ingame reason why Magic items are less common in the realms in 5ed? Did the Weave collpsing during the Spellplague nulify alot of Magic items?
Was there ever an in game reason why magic items were more common in 3rd edition? Were the Thayan Enclaves new in the 1370s (rather than a retcon)? If there was an in game reason, then the Spellplague would certainly be a good excuse (I can't find any reference to Thayan Enclaves in the FRCG).
FRA essentially updated the Realms to 2E, it described the changes to the lands and peoples (and game rules) after the Time of Troubles. Red Wizards were apparently unstoppably powerful in 1E era, and apparently much less powerful in 2E - the in-setting explanation being that they once had collective access to a "powerful artifact" destroyed during the ToT. The rules of magic changed - some magic continued to work, some magic worked differently, some no longer worked at all - the loss of an unspecified "powerful artifact" provided plausible setting continuity.
Another Mystran interregnum was catalyzed by Netheril's Fall. No goddess no magic, new goddess new magic, a period of crazed magic disruption, old magic then reformatted to the new rules. (Although I feel the disposition of "inert" quasi-magical items and artifacts was never properly resolved, which created some unanswered questions after the return of Shade.)
My interest in D&D began to wane before 4E was introduced, and the SpellPlague killed it entirely. I confess that I probably won't even give 5E a fair chance. New rules of magic seem to be more about new books to sell, not about new events in the Realms, and there's really only so many times the same Mystra-died-again plot device can be recycled before it becomes a dull footnote in Realmslore. |
[/Ayrik] |
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The Masked Mage
Great Reader
USA
2420 Posts |
Posted - 21 Nov 2015 : 03:21:16
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quote:
Originally posted by Caladan Brood
In my (non-D&D/non-Realms but darkly magical in the sense of medieval history + a dash of epic fantasy) campaign one of the PCs has been wielding a sword for the better part of five game years (ten real life years!) and he still doesn't know what makes it special (beyond the steel being red) :D
In my ever-expanding notes I've written a few triggers that would allow the PC to discover the secrets of the blade, but so far no luck hehe.
I'd recommend he reads through the Red Steel books then. That is a pretty well documented item type :P |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 21 Nov 2015 : 16:02:49
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Insofar as the magic items in 3E books are based on wealth-by-level guidelines, they're simple rules artefacts, products of the distorting lens of imposing temporary game conventions on the underlying setting lore -- which in this case is clearly set out in Volo's Guide to All Things Magical. Sometimes rules reflect settings relatively transparently, but in this case 3E supposed far easier magic-item crafting than exists in the Realms.
Let's also remember, once more, that Fritz Leiber's 'Bazaar of the Bizarre' is an absurdist satire of consumerism. |
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JohnLynch
Learned Scribe
Australia
243 Posts |
Posted - 22 Nov 2015 : 04:02:37
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| There is very little edition specific information in Volo's Guide to All Things Magical when it comes to the rules for creating magical items. They can easily be used in any newer edition, with the only potential issue being a lack of permanency spell (or a permanency spell that doesn't discourage casters from creating magical items). Once you tweak/create permanency the rules are good to be used from that point forward. |
DM of the Realms: A blog for my Forgotten Realms adventures. |
Edited by - JohnLynch on 22 Nov 2015 04:04:59 |
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combatmedic
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
Posted - 23 Nov 2015 : 16:05:18
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quote:
Originally posted by moonbeast
quote:
Originally posted by LordofBones
What the Realms doesn't do well is actually figuring out how magic can play havoc with the economy, when some enterprising wizard can become a salt or metallurgy kingpin, or can flood the market with magical items.
I always thought that the destruction of an in-game economy was always related to the unusual pricing of chickens. 
Chicken stealing is definitely a good activity for bandits and low level PCs.
SQWAAAAAAAK
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YMMV= Your Mileage May Vary. I'm putting it here so I don't have to type it in every other post. :) |
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Buying magic items in the Realms?
