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4th edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide

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Wed, 2008-08-20 17:57
#1
Jadis
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4th edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide

Longtime reader and lurker here. I was wondering if anyone on the forums has bought the new Forgotten Realms guide. I just recently got it, and there is some interesting lore and cosmology. There is a whole chapter dedicated to the planes, and some interesting snippets of info that tie the world to the planes. For instance, Asmodeus is now a greater diety. And then there is this bit of info:

To quote: "The destruction of Dweomerheart sent the dying Azuth (a patron deity of mages) into Asmodeus’s fiery domain. The archdevil killed him and consumed his divine essence. He then ended the Blood War by pushing the Abyss to the bottom of the Elemental Chaos."

I wonder if this will be expanded on in the new Manual of the Planes...

Anyone else with the campaign guide notice anything interesting involving the planes?

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Wed, 2008-08-20 18:27
#2
Anime Fan
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Well, I was pleased to see

Well, I was pleased to see that normal, Planescape-type portals still exist in 4E, as opposed to the flat-on-the-ground teleportation circles mentioned in the core rulebooks. I was also pleased to see that the Infinite Staircase survived the change-over... I did note one contradiction between the FR material and the core books: in the core books, Correlon Larethian is listed as Unaligned, whereas in FR he is listed as Good. This book also gives us our first Primordial stats: some dude named Raun or Rarn the Rager, who is 33th level and on a par with Orcus from the MM. He is, interestingly, Unaligned, not Chaotic Evil as I feared they were going to make every Primordial; the Elemental Lords  Kossoth, Ishtia, Grumbar, and Akadi are also Unaligned and are worshiped same as the "normal" gods. No stats for Elminster, alas... and the new elements such as "returned Abeir" have been back-dated so that they were always "really" there, but they just came back from some unspecified other cosmology (Abeir and Toril were once one planet, then got split into two, with the Toril part being the world we're familiar with and Abeir being ruled by Primordials in some other reality; the Spellplague caused parts of each planet to interchange.)

Wed, 2008-08-20 20:08
#3
Jem
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Hmm.  So it's canonical

Hmm.  So it's canonical that there had been and is no longer a Blood War, then?

Thu, 2008-08-21 10:25
#4
sciborg2
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how can the essence of a

how can the essence of a minor god be enough to stop the Blood War? wow, the incredibly stupidity of 4e continues. saw this at the local comic shop, looked pretty expensive for such large font and largely mediocre art. travesty, thy name is 4e FR.

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Thu, 2008-08-21 17:27
#5
Anime Fan
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Well, supposedly Asmodeus

Well, supposedly Asmodeus "pushed" the Abyss down to the bottom of the Elemental Chaos, making it harder for demons and devils to get to each other, since they'd have to cross a bunch of other berks' territories to fight each other. And Asmodeus is listed as a GREATER god in the FR campaign guide... the one this I will say for the book is that it's a lot easier on the eyes than the 3E FR campaign setting book, which had much more information but was hard to read. I wonder if any of this applies to the "generic" World or just FR... yes, they technically occupy the same cosmology, but even back in 2E some things in FR didn't apply to other campaign settings (Tyr in 2E FR differed from the Planescape version of that Norse deity)... I DID like the idea of Asmodeus eating a FR deity; they've always had way too many! Azuth, we hardly knew 'ya... They DID tie the changeover in cosmology directly to events in the FR (specifically, the death of Mystra and the Spellplague); I wonder if this will apear in the Manual of the Planes, or if a more "generic" story will be given there? Garl Glittergold is still a Greater deity, so I wonder if Gnomes will be a PC race in the FR Player's Guide?

Thu, 2008-08-21 17:29
(Reply to #2) #6
Jadis
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I was actually quite pleased

I was actually quite pleased that they didn't give Elminster stats,
allowing him to be more of a background character and less of a
plot-shaper.  I was less pleased with Abeir 'dropping' out of the sky
onto Toril, which seems like a lazy plot device to explain the new 4e
races.  I do like the way that the feywild was incorporated into the
setting through the use of portals.  I was really surprised by the lack
of 'crunch' in the book; not much in the way of stats, but only brief
descriptive text of areas, villains, and plot hooks. 

Thu, 2008-08-21 17:30
#7
Anime Fan
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Oh, and one thing about the

Oh, and one thing about the Primodial stats pissed me off... it specifically states that characters under 20th level can't harm Rorn the Fury with their attacks! I think that is a stupid rule; they can't even TRY to take him down?!? At least let 'em TRY and FAIL... sheesh!

Thu, 2008-08-21 17:33
(Reply to #5) #8
Jadis
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I would be surprised if

I would be surprised if gnomes appeared as a PC race, since I'm fairly certain it would have been mentioned in the stats they released for the new Living Forgotten Realms Campaign.  Who knows though?

Fri, 2008-08-22 01:12
(Reply to #8) #9
Kobold Avenger
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Jadis wrote:I would be

Jadis wrote:
I would be surprised if gnomes appeared as a PC race, since I'm fairly certain it would have been mentioned in the stats they released for the new Living Forgotten Realms Campaign.  Who knows though?

They don't have a PC race write-up.  But they are playable as PCs along with Orcs, Goblins, Shifters, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Warforged, Shadar-Kai, Githzerai and more right out of the Monter Manual.  They don't have racial feats, that's about the only thing that really sets them from the PHB races...

Fri, 2008-08-22 11:16
#10
Shadow of Torment
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Gnomes are getting a PC

Gnomes are getting a PC writeup in the PHB 2, along with Half-Orcs.

Fri, 2008-08-22 21:19
#11
Shemeska the Ma...
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The 4e FR changes,

The 4e FR changes, especially the ones pushing it to mirror the PoL core setting (including changing the cosmology yet again), are absolutely contrived. I'm in agreement with Sciborg2 on the whole thing. FR used to be a favorite setting of mine, but at this point it's barely recognizable. Thankfully Golarion should be filling that vacated slot.

Sun, 2008-08-24 10:47
#12
Calmar
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What is PoL?

What is PoL?

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Sun, 2008-08-24 11:17
#13
sciborg2
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it's a PoS....sorry couldn't

it's a PoS....sorry couldn't resist.Seriously PoL is Point ofLight, which is basically making D&D like a Diablo Clone with monster filled lands dotted with some sparse civilization. It will be cheaper to buy Diablo III.

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Wed, 2008-08-27 14:57
#14
Quale
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they killed Ed's Realms,

they killed Ed's Realms, very few changes I like

Vaasa;

geographical changes around Azulduth, I'll place ash and salt genasi there instead of sarrukh, everything returns Frown

Shou immigrants, adds more cultural complexity

Anauroch, that it isn't entirely a desert

Zhentarim no longer in Bane's fist, but not the vampire Manshoon

Brightstar Lake connected to Sea of Fallen Stars

some of the changes in Shaar, no longer that monotone

nothing else, including cosmology which gets greater attention than ever 

 

Thu, 2008-08-28 17:52
#15
Anime Fan
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I see that the Planes still

I see that the Planes still have Alignments, abeit the new ones. Wonder what effect (if any) they will have, rules-wise?

Mon, 2008-09-08 09:48
#16
Kobold Avenger
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Briefly read through the

Briefly read through the book, I never liked FR very much to begin with, but I actually think the 4e campaign guide is alright.  Even if it's lacking a bit in some 'depth' in some places. 

I think it would have been better if the spellplague greatly affected the Dalelands and Cormyr which are parts of the setting I always found boring. 

I'm not really impressed with the tacked-on dragonborn nation, and the fact that the gnome nation of Lantan Isles were sunk, just because 1 race is new in PHB1 and the other isn't there anymore.  Yes I know there's still gnomes elsewhere in 4e FR, but I find that change to be annoying.  At least they mentioned Narfell as a source of Tieflings in FR, which it probably was in 3e as well, and didn't do some drastic setting change for it.

I like what they did for Calimshan, Netheril, and the fact that they used a lot of the Serpent Kingdoms stuff.

Somehow I feel that Eberron 4e might be better than FR 4e, only because they froze the timeline. They were originally going to add 2 years to explain the changes, but left it at the year it was.  So in this case there isn't going to be too much changes to bring it in line with a PoL setting.  Just likely retcons.

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