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Faraer 07-31-07, 01:30 PM

What are Larloch's stats and what makes him the most powerful person on Faerun?I see beings like elminster, Larloch and others who are hundreds of years old, but only 25th level or so. SHouldn't they be around 50th at least?It states, in 2nd edition, that Larloch is a shade/lich sorceror of imense power (around lvl 46) whom controls huge armies of undead and is secretly behind Tam.Some general points to bear in mind: Character levels are not canonical and have no definite meaning in the Realms. They're designers' interpretations of the Realms into game terms which change between editions, books (sometimes even within the same book), contexts, and callibrations of the level scale, and so they tend to rise over time due to D&D's perennial level inflation. Character power is not fixed and absolute. All published Realmslore is implicitly learned through Elminster and other unreliable narrators so that DMs aren't constrained by what players have read, and players can't take advantage of information their characters don't have. Think of the published stats as a best guess. NPCs don't necessarily gain levels according to the D&D rules for PCs. The rules (of any edition) are a good way to run adventurous campaigns in the Realms, but they don't define how it works outside that context. Character levels don't determine who would win a fight. Even if stats were perfectly accurate, preparation, circumstances, allies and luck matter more than abstract raw might. So do story needs. 'Who would win' questions are wastes of time because they propose an artificial situation that ignores most of what's interesting and pertinent about the characters and the setting. These threads are allowed on the Wizards.com boards, but many people dislike them, and they're banned on some other forums. It's both pointless and impossible to say who the most powerful person is in Faerūn, unless you're attempting to play Top Trumps rather than understand the Forgotten Realms. In the Realms, no one knows these things -- and therefore neither do we -- and only megalomaniac villains think in those terms. The closest we can do is say that X, Y and Z are roughly on a par in terms of mastery of Art, battle might, or other measure.