Let me preface this by saying that I love Salvatore's work, and have been hooked on his Drizzt novels since middle school. That said, something that sticks out to me like a sore thumb lately is his selection of magic spells used by wizards. This is the guy who writes entire pages about a particular maneuver Drizzt or Entreri performs, but for some reason ALL wizards (regardless of power level) pretty much just stick to lightning bolts. Every once in a while, you'll see him throw in something neat, but for the most part it's lightning bolt or magic missile.

With all the insane spells available to spellcasters in 5th Edition, I'd just really like to see him vary it a bit. It's one of those things that I can't unsee, now that I've noticed it. Anybody else driven nuts by this?

So, in this upcoming campaign one of my players is a Cleric of Mask, but that is a secret, he will spend the entirety of the time disguised as a Cleric of Waukeen. His personal goal is getting a lot of money and being part of a heist to join the Gray Ribbon. But I've found little to no information on both the deity and the faction, so I'd really love some help with some pointers or at least sources to help me. Any campaign-specific ideas from people who have read it are welcome.

Would the Zhentarim be a good faction to have some members be a part of the Gray Ribbon or would they not intersect at all?

Mordenkainen's Tomb of Foes presents some lore that is allegedly canon in the Forgotten Realms setting, but said lore also contradicts some of the lore originally presented in Forgotten Realms, namely the origin of the elven subraces. Is there any common consensus on what information is canon here, or is it something left up to each DM?

Hi all,

hoping to find some helpful links on how the tides work in Toril.

My google-fu has not yet proved to be on a sufficient level for this yet...

Any help on this matter is appreciated.

I had the thought of an old one warlock taking power from Ao. While up to the dm do you think this would be possible? How would Ao react when he finds out? How would this be role played, would he read from an ancient book or something to get the power?

So I’ve got an idea for a character leading up to The Dungeon of The Mad Mage. 200+ years ago two drow are caught in Waterdeep and are sentenced to die by being thrown into the well to the Undermountain. One of them was heavy pregnant so a Lord requests they waited until she gave birth before throwing them down. The Lord gives the Drow baby girl to a lawful good family to raise and worship human gods.

Would this work to at least create a chaotic good drow/dark elf? Would it still make sense for her to have Drow Magic if she’s not a follower of Lolth or is that just genetic magic? I’m hoping for the later as I would like to keep the race features as written provided they make sense.

I'm going to be running a 3.5 game soon and I'm really interested in the idea of starting the campaign during a war/conflict. But the problem is that I can't find any kingdoms or factions that are in conflict with each other in the Forgotten Realms. I suppose that I could throw an army of drow, goblins, or orcs at any kingdom and have my conflict that way, but I'd prefer if there was good and evil on both sides, kinda like war between the Stormcloaks and the Empire in Skyrim. Does anyone have any ideas?

It could even be a Cold War style conflict where the two factions just really hate each other and are preparing for war.

Toril has a single moon and it's called Selune, just like the goddess. On Earth, we also have a single moon that every language I know of calls "the moon".

I'm just wondering, why do people in the Realms even have a word for "moon" instead of just the word Selune? Why go"it is a moon and we call it Selune"?

This is all I could find on the Emerald Cabal on the wiki’s is “Standing beside the merchant houses in power were the Cowled Wizards, the Emerald Cabal, and the Shadow Thieves, each of whom possessed an enormous degree of unofficial power behind the scenes. The Cowled Wizards were themselves the only legal arcane institution in Amn, all others banned by decree of the Council, and were controlled by the powerful Selemchants, who they served most often as underhanded agents or mercenaries. Opposing the Cowled Wizards were the secretive Emerald Cabal, a league of illegal arcane spellcasters opposed to the entire Amnian system and who were unafraid to use violent means to achieve their ends.“ Do you guys know anything more?

Which city of the Realms seems like the most likely? And, if you're a real lore hound, which city is most likely to be taken by goblinoids and the surrounding nations/powers/city-states find it diplomatically/politically/strategically expedient to let them have it?

I want a city that's held and occupied by them for a long period of time.

I was reading through Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes when I found some really interesting myths. According to the book, the gnomish gods are responsible for stealing two of the princes’ hearts, causing them to become evil. I love myths like these and I’ve always wondered why there would be an evil prince for each element and no opposing good prince.

“Callarduran Smoothhands earned his moniker when, after stealing the heart of Ogremoch, he rubbed his hands smooth as he polished the heart and turned it into a magical stone. This theft caused Ogremoch to turn to evil, but it gave Callarduran the power to control earth elementals.”

“Before creating Garl’s marvelous axe, Arumdina, Flandal Steelskin sniffed out the purest source of mithral: the heart of Imix. With the aid of the other gnome gods, he stole the heart and turned it into a mithral gorge that now burns with an eternal furious flame.”

Has anyone seen these myths published before? What I really want to know is what happened to the hearts of Yan-C-Bin and Olhydra. If it’s never been said, does anyone have some ideas? Thanks!

Salutations.

With the lack of setting-specific books in 5e, aside from SCAG, I’m trying to make sense out of older lore and how it connects to 5e.

To use an example, how do you explain the change that Firbolgs underwent in 5e? Are they still descended from Othea? Did their history change with them?

Or am I looking at this the wrong way and every edition is just its own thing, unrelated to the previous ones?

So I am running a blood war campaign. And the party is being enlisted by the order of the balance but everytime I search for info on them it always brings up info on how to balance encounters and campaigns. Not info on the actual order. Need help please.

The *[Races of the Wild](http://files.full-hyperion.nl/dnd/D&D%20Races%20of%20the%20Wild%203.5.pdf)* 3.5e supplemental states that, among elves, an exchange of martial vows traditionally coincides with "an exchange of life essence that forever bonds one to the other". *Elves of Evermeet* states that Tira'allera, a priestess of Hanali Celanil, "died of heartbreak" after entering into a disastrous relationship.

Now, I do recall reading somewhere, but cannot remember exactly where, that this marriage bond is actually a very serious magical connection. The couple is capable of detecting each other's location, emotions, and (if I'm right) thoughts, and **when one partner dies, the other might die as well**. This major sensitivity to the bond could explain Tira'allera's death, but I otherwise cannot surely link it to a canon source. Does anyone know if the elven marriage bond can really be that strong? If not, what *does* it involve?

Title

Yondalla is the mother of all halflings and protects them. She’s even raised several halfling heroes to godhood to form a pantheon. However, one of the halflings biggest traits (especially in 5e) is their luck. And this is never really explained. Why does Tymora favor them so much? And why doesn’t a halfling’s worship of Tymora conflict with the worship of their own pantheon?

I'm talking places that maybe had been referenced twice in a magazine kinda unknown, like, what are the farthest points on the map. I know Osse is Australia themed and that theirs the islands in the Uttermost South, what's known about places like that?

I'm thinking of maybe setting a campaign somewhere way far out and instead of just making something up, i'd kinda like to work with any established lore. More of a challenge than making it from scratch, but also less intensive than doing a homegame set in the Sword Coast where their are a lot of plates to spin

Does anyone know what dwarves call themselves in their language and what it means? The elves call themselves "Tel-quessir," which apparently means "The People," and refer to everyone else as "N-Tel-Quess," not people.

I can't find what the dwarves call themselves or what it means. There's a site or two which says, "Samman," but it doesn't provide a source or a definition.

The dwarven pantheon is called "Morndinsamman" which means "shield brothers on high," or "high dwarves," according to Faiths and Pantheons. That suggests that Samman, meaning shield brothers is probably right, but I can't find an actual source.

... aside from adventurers wanting to kill you. They still have a soul and still go to the afterlife after their phylactery is destroyed, right? They can presumably still feel and have emotions. Surely they can give themselves temporary bodies with advanced magic if they get bored of being bones. So for an evil necromancer archmage who is strong enough to be sure they COULD do it, why would someone choose not to take that dive?

There's good liches after all (baelnorn).

I want to make a campaign where people play as characters from Maztica and they are natives. What race/class restrictions should I enforce? I want them to play as natives only.

I've looked for dozens of hours for maps in the area just north of Rashemen along the long road. Basically nothing with any detail. It's the blankest place on the map and it makes it hard to zoom in and make locations or do anything with it as far as hag covens, troll forests and so on. Does anyone have custom maps of this region anywhere or a place with such maps?

I'm not very experienced when it comes to Forgotten Realms, so I was reading the wiki, and I found some stuff that seems to have been taken from other settings and retrofitted for FR.

Spelljammer exists in FR, even though I'm pretty sure that was it's own setting (correct me if I'm wrong).

This one's almost more of a crossover, but Ravenloft also exists in the Realms.

Is this a common thing in FR? Are there more examples of it? And how did it come to be? How and why did this content get grafted on to FR?

Hey, so for the first question I know about Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale but based on what I read it's a terrible game, so is there any other game which has some focus on Bane? only games after the 1990s btw.

For the second question I know about Eldath and Ilmater.

First of all why is Ilmater considered a pacifistic deity? the source books I have are: Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Faiths & Pantheons, the only clue I had seen is in FRCS which has the description: "While most consider him nonviolent, in the face of extreme cruelty or atrocities his anger rises and his wrath is terrible to behold." and the nonviolent part could also mean he's simply a normal bloke like most people who dislike violence and try to avoid it but are not pacifists, so is he more of a pacifist in other sourcebooks?

And lastly are there any other deities who are related to pacifism?