Cannot stand the old borders personally, don't get the massive hype they've had the last few years beyond being a member-berry cashgrab. If the commander decks are only available in retro will that mean the new cards in those decks won't be available in the proper border? That would suck royally.
Yeah forgotten realms writers just kinda decided to fold egyptian, norse, and greek gods and myths into their cosmology back in the late 80s with manual of the planes. Kinda lame and uncreative if you ask me but whatever. Buncha vedic gods are in there too somewhere.
Norse maybe, but Egypt and Mesopotamia were literally torn from our world and pulled into Faerûn as slaves for the Imaskari which is one of the stronger storylines in Realms history IMO.
Oh please, you are all acting so much worried and this card will go burden in everybody binder which is exactly the same fate that Blade of Selves faced also (because it turn out, guess what, that players actually realize that cards that do literally nothing when against a single opponent are the first ones to not make the cut in a decent EDH deck)
Blade of Selves, the $30 card in nearly 9,000 decks on EDHREC? Such a burden in every binder...
Honestly, this card won't see as much play as that. I like Myriad. But they overcosted this one.
With how much players you play every day? I play every day on cockatrice with dozens of EDH players all around the world with all sort of power levels and metagames for over a decade. Never seen a single Blade in one of this games since the day Blade was printed (and not to mention LGS and kitchen table groups). Regardless of what EDHrec says, it's still true that this card does nothing when you're against 1 player and no good EDH player gonna run a 8 mana card that could even not work in late game or not work at all (so, if anything, EDHrec just proves that many EDH players just runs and makes financial speculations over a bad designed card).
Lol, what are you talking about? He's given you actual statistics proving that blade of selves is played by thousands of people. Your personal experience with 'dozens' of games without seeing the card is irrelevant.
Regardless, the 2 aren't really comparable as BoS costs 2 mana, this costs 8.
Knowing very little of Buldur's Gate (only played one game) if this is a rakshasa then shouldn't this be a demon like the others in Magic?
It could be because Demons and Devils have reversed roles between MTG and Forgotten Realms.
In D&D in general, not just FR, Rakshasa are fiends (devils).
D&D Devils encompass a much wider range of creatures than the MTG stereotypical 'naughty imp' depictions. Pit Fiends for example are devils, not demons.
People accept the rule of Kings and Lords because they are the ones that can keep them safe.
That doesn't really track. What you would see in that case is a series of warlords and conquerors and succession would only happen through violence, no princes or royal lines. Every adventuring party that solves a quest would be a tremendous political threat to the existing structure and every town would be organized around and in service to the folks most capable of dealing violence.
I think you are obviously someone who enjoys comparing the geo-politics of our own world to that of a High Fantasy setting devised in the 1970s. Good for you, but I disagree completely that's how a magical world would work. I am not debating that the majority of citizens in the Realms would be average level 0 commoners and ultimately powerless beings. However you saying only 0.0002% would have any power is ludicrous. It's not Middle Earth (a very Low Fantasy setting).
The major cities and locations across Faerun are very nuanced in how they are ruled, from Thay to Waterdeep, to Calimport would be vastly different. And of course wealth comes into it - those in power have the wealth to protect their citizens from the powers beyond their walls. And citizens, be they humans, elves, dwarves or whoever, will generally unite to face those bigger threats.
Seriously though google it you are a dissenting voice in the estimations of a bunch of DMs.
I'm a dissenting voice from a bunch of DMs? Hilarious! I think you'll find you're a dissenting voice from Ed Greenwood.
Those are the stats for an Avatar of Selune, not Selune. I was pretty sure faith and pantheons was clear on that.
I do know how to read. I would take a photo of the book for you but for fear of potential copyright - I literally have it open in front of me. Each deity has stats for themselves first and stats for their Avatar second. You clearly do not own the book. The Avatar of Selune is far less powerful than the God.
Anyway, I think we're at risk of turning a Rumour Mill spoiler thread into a massive debate about Realmslore here so I'm not going to spend lots of time with another long, drawn out response, though it is tempting - debating these things can be fun. I'll leave you to change and mould the setting as you see fit, that is the beauty of D&D after all.
Goodberry is a busted spell tbh but also it only covers food, not water. But more to my point was that if there's no resource scarcity in your dnd setting then there's no material way for society to be unequally arranged or essentially feudalist in most settings, or else you have to come up with some explanation why some people work as serfs and other people are kings if all they need to do is take a druid level or form a community around some folks who take cleric levels and just spend all day creating food and water, let alone things like stoneshaping or magical healing. The only way it works is if these abilities are actually rare.
I disagree, Fantasy does not operate like the real world in this regard. Yes there is magic which can do wonderous things, this is either a) innate from birth, b) provided by a deity or patron or c) learned over many years, so you're correct that not everyone could just take a level in Druid and cast Goodberry. However the reason people still gather together in feudal systems is because with this amazing magic comes a host of terrible threats. People accept the rule of Kings and Lords because they are the ones that can keep them safe.
So consequently even in the forgotten realms the vast majority of the population is level 0, i.e. no class levels. While more powerful people are "everywhere" that's more of a case of your party running into them to make for a good story. Folks have been talking about this forever. Even if you expect a real small population of a million people on faerun or something like that (baldur's gate alone is stated to be around 100k people) the 200 or so (really probably less) named super powerful characters represent .0002% of the population. If you're just swinging a sword around you're far more likely to hit "dirt farmer number 5" than "General Atomos of the New Korellean Army, a level 6 fighter." Honestly people quibble on the specifics and you can get lost in the bbs weeds real easily by searching "average level of person on faerun", but level 5 has never been "relatively minor."
The largest city in the Realms, Waterdeep with approximately 2 million in the 15th century, and other large cities/towns all exist because people naturally flock together to keep safe. I'm not debating there are a lot of level 0 'serfs' and yes within these 2 million there will be those in poverty, as in any city, but you really think of those 2 million, a total of 4 people would count as powerful? It's high fantasy, there is power hidden in every nook and cranny and there are multiple high level clerics in every temple. Paying to bring people back from the dead is common, who is casting Raise Dead and Resurrection if the Highest priest is only level 5?
If you lower the fantasy in your own games then good for you, but that's not canon.
Technically gods don't have class levels, they just have various feats and stuff. Even in the earlier editions of dnd that go past level 20 by that point you don't really gain hitpoints or levels, just boons and benefits.
The last time they went through and gave stats to the full pantheon (3.5) they absolutely had levels. You mentioned Selune as an example: Wizard 20/Cleric 20/Bard 9 CR - I have the book here in front of me. If they redid God stats in 5th they'd probably just give them a CR but I doubt they'll bother, they're shifting focus to other settings.
Ellywick's background is such that she's "the greatest bard in the multiverse" thanks to a deck of many things wish, but also specifically she's the main guide npc in their recent feywild book that came out around the same time as afr. You might say "wow she was made up to sell this book" but yes, that is all of these characters, and the feywild is another plane. Apparently she's also not from forgotten realms at all, but some other unknown world on the material plane. Her lute does magic idk. Probably has an amulet of the planes.
Mordenkainen lives in a tower that travels between the planes.
Lolth is absolutely a god.
I forgot Lolth and it's actually the only one I bothered getting! Regardless my point stands - Ellywick could be a level 30 bard, she still wouldn't have the innate ability to Planeswalk. She'd need a spell scroll, help from someone else or an artefact as you say - so by that logic why can't Minsc be a Planeswalker? There is no need for a spark, he's survived Sarevok & Jon Irenicus and has plenty of loot & powerful allies from it, so in this universe there's nothing stopping him.
Don't get me wrong I can't stand the character, he's like the bad joke that WotC still think everyone finds funny - there's so many better characters from the games: Edwin, Korgan, Anomen, Haer'Dalis - even Jan. Regardless there is no reason why he can't be a Planeswalker just like anyone else with the friends/means.
To "planeswalk" you dont need to be a "planeswalker" , but in MTG a "planeswalker" has a very specific meaning , including a Spark.
So mixing the different lores is already bad, but to make random creatures into MTG planeswalker is just a "gimmick", as we already have so many planeswalkers in Magic (which are supposed to be super rare) , that the entire concept is out the window anyway.
I mean yeah, but in the dnd mtg crossovers they're pretty specific: they're characters who cross planes, which in dnd are things like the 9 hells, the feywild, the shadowlands, and in the case of minsc now, the astral plane.
I mean the way people play dnd it feels like "oh just find a level 13 wizard" or you know a GM wants to do some fun stuff in the feywilds but really it's actually quite rare, and that's why all the planeswalkers in AFR are gods or a step down from them.
Minsc has also been to Hell.
And you don't need to be high level to travel between planes if you know where stuff like Fey & Shadow crossings are (people enters these accidently even), outer planes are harder, but portals do exist, as do Horizon Walkers.
I mean right but all that is pretty rare stuff, guarded secrets by archdruids and secret clerics of shar and whatever. The vast majority of the population of the forgotten realms only reads about that stuff in books. Even horizon walkers don't get detect portal until level 3, which puts them in the 99th percentile for sapient beings. I've had this conversation a bunch of times, specifically concerning 'create food and water' which is a 3rd level spell level 5 clerics can have, so you would think that this would be a post-scarcity kind of world and starvation just wouldn't exist but actually a level five cleric is like an archbishop and there are maybe 200 of them in the entire world at any given time.
Not sure where you're getting your information from but that's just not true - the Realms is an extremely high fantasy setting, there are massively powerful characters and entities everywhere. Level 5 is relatively minor and would be easy to find a priest with 3rd level spells in any town or city. 5th edition put a 20 cap on levels for player characters but there is no such power cap for the powerful beings in Faerun and beyond, right up to the Gods themselves who sit around level 40-50 (source: Faiths & Pantheons official supplement).
Also if you think Create Food & Water poses a problem, what about a few hundred Druids (even level 1) casting Goodberry multiple times a day? Hunger solved. Though I don't ever recall reading hunger being an issue in the Realms, populations are fairly low in a resource-abundant world. The pressing issues are constant monster attacks and cataclysmic events on a egular basis I would imagine.
As to your other point about Planeswalkers, of the 4 from AFR only Bahamut is a minor deity - of the rest Mordenkainen is from Greyhawk, Gary Gygax targetted him around a level 12 Wizard but that was many years ago so we can assume he's at least levelled up to use Planeshift. Zariel is a Greater Devil from Avernus so stands to reason he has the ability. The one who is most akin to Minsc therefore would be Ellywick Tumblestrum, a new character, but defined as a bard. Bards do not have access to Planeshift (Clerics, Druids & Wiza/Sorc only) therefore she too will be reliant on others to planeswalk.
Sorry to bump this but I just followed up on the dnd day thing and it looks like minsc is on the cover of spelljammer, so that dude /is/ a planeswalker now. Of the astral plane. it was weird enough when they put him in ravenloft but I guess he's a mascot now.
Again, D&D is very different to MTG in terms of planeswalking. Doesn't mean he has a 'Spark' he just needs to find virtually any Spellcaster (arcane or divine) with 7th level spells and a tuning fork to travel between planes.
Norse maybe, but Egypt and Mesopotamia were literally torn from our world and pulled into Faerûn as slaves for the Imaskari which is one of the stronger storylines in Realms history IMO.
The biggest crime is no Edwin...
Lol, what are you talking about? He's given you actual statistics proving that blade of selves is played by thousands of people. Your personal experience with 'dozens' of games without seeing the card is irrelevant.
Regardless, the 2 aren't really comparable as BoS costs 2 mana, this costs 8.
In D&D in general, not just FR, Rakshasa are fiends (devils).
D&D Devils encompass a much wider range of creatures than the MTG stereotypical 'naughty imp' depictions. Pit Fiends for example are devils, not demons.
They really aren't human any more.
I think you are obviously someone who enjoys comparing the geo-politics of our own world to that of a High Fantasy setting devised in the 1970s. Good for you, but I disagree completely that's how a magical world would work. I am not debating that the majority of citizens in the Realms would be average level 0 commoners and ultimately powerless beings. However you saying only 0.0002% would have any power is ludicrous. It's not Middle Earth (a very Low Fantasy setting).
The major cities and locations across Faerun are very nuanced in how they are ruled, from Thay to Waterdeep, to Calimport would be vastly different. And of course wealth comes into it - those in power have the wealth to protect their citizens from the powers beyond their walls. And citizens, be they humans, elves, dwarves or whoever, will generally unite to face those bigger threats.
I'm a dissenting voice from a bunch of DMs? Hilarious! I think you'll find you're a dissenting voice from Ed Greenwood.
I do know how to read. I would take a photo of the book for you but for fear of potential copyright - I literally have it open in front of me. Each deity has stats for themselves first and stats for their Avatar second. You clearly do not own the book. The Avatar of Selune is far less powerful than the God.
Anyway, I think we're at risk of turning a Rumour Mill spoiler thread into a massive debate about Realmslore here so I'm not going to spend lots of time with another long, drawn out response, though it is tempting - debating these things can be fun. I'll leave you to change and mould the setting as you see fit, that is the beauty of D&D after all.
I disagree, Fantasy does not operate like the real world in this regard. Yes there is magic which can do wonderous things, this is either a) innate from birth, b) provided by a deity or patron or c) learned over many years, so you're correct that not everyone could just take a level in Druid and cast Goodberry. However the reason people still gather together in feudal systems is because with this amazing magic comes a host of terrible threats. People accept the rule of Kings and Lords because they are the ones that can keep them safe.
The largest city in the Realms, Waterdeep with approximately 2 million in the 15th century, and other large cities/towns all exist because people naturally flock together to keep safe. I'm not debating there are a lot of level 0 'serfs' and yes within these 2 million there will be those in poverty, as in any city, but you really think of those 2 million, a total of 4 people would count as powerful? It's high fantasy, there is power hidden in every nook and cranny and there are multiple high level clerics in every temple. Paying to bring people back from the dead is common, who is casting Raise Dead and Resurrection if the Highest priest is only level 5?
If you lower the fantasy in your own games then good for you, but that's not canon.
The last time they went through and gave stats to the full pantheon (3.5) they absolutely had levels. You mentioned Selune as an example: Wizard 20/Cleric 20/Bard 9 CR - I have the book here in front of me. If they redid God stats in 5th they'd probably just give them a CR but I doubt they'll bother, they're shifting focus to other settings.
I forgot Lolth and it's actually the only one I bothered getting! Regardless my point stands - Ellywick could be a level 30 bard, she still wouldn't have the innate ability to Planeswalk. She'd need a spell scroll, help from someone else or an artefact as you say - so by that logic why can't Minsc be a Planeswalker? There is no need for a spark, he's survived Sarevok & Jon Irenicus and has plenty of loot & powerful allies from it, so in this universe there's nothing stopping him.
Don't get me wrong I can't stand the character, he's like the bad joke that WotC still think everyone finds funny - there's so many better characters from the games: Edwin, Korgan, Anomen, Haer'Dalis - even Jan. Regardless there is no reason why he can't be a Planeswalker just like anyone else with the friends/means.
Not sure where you're getting your information from but that's just not true - the Realms is an extremely high fantasy setting, there are massively powerful characters and entities everywhere. Level 5 is relatively minor and would be easy to find a priest with 3rd level spells in any town or city. 5th edition put a 20 cap on levels for player characters but there is no such power cap for the powerful beings in Faerun and beyond, right up to the Gods themselves who sit around level 40-50 (source: Faiths & Pantheons official supplement).
Also if you think Create Food & Water poses a problem, what about a few hundred Druids (even level 1) casting Goodberry multiple times a day? Hunger solved. Though I don't ever recall reading hunger being an issue in the Realms, populations are fairly low in a resource-abundant world. The pressing issues are constant monster attacks and cataclysmic events on a egular basis I would imagine.
As to your other point about Planeswalkers, of the 4 from AFR only Bahamut is a minor deity - of the rest Mordenkainen is from Greyhawk, Gary Gygax targetted him around a level 12 Wizard but that was many years ago so we can assume he's at least levelled up to use Planeshift. Zariel is a Greater Devil from Avernus so stands to reason he has the ability. The one who is most akin to Minsc therefore would be Ellywick Tumblestrum, a new character, but defined as a bard. Bards do not have access to Planeshift (Clerics, Druids & Wiza/Sorc only) therefore she too will be reliant on others to planeswalk.
Again, D&D is very different to MTG in terms of planeswalking. Doesn't mean he has a 'Spark' he just needs to find virtually any Spellcaster (arcane or divine) with 7th level spells and a tuning fork to travel between planes.