The weave of the forgotten realms would apply to him while he was in the forgotten realms. He doesn't get to bring the very fabric from which spells are derived with him, casters simply use what is ambient. New realm , new rules.
That being said, he is generally thought of as a 'mythic' caster. Beyond legendary. The rules we think of really apply to player characters and leave room for legendary creatures like Vecna, Mordenkainen, and Ygwilva etc ... These are NPCs for narrative purposes.
Elminster is not just a wizard he has levels in fighter and rogue(I think)plus epic levels. He is a chosen of Mystra and has traveled to other realms also.
I think on questions like this it is simple. If you are the DM are you really going to just take the stat block as it is or are you going to tweak it and make it your own to fit your campaign?
Confusingly enough, in 2e where you counted human dual level progression separately or archetype, so he could have had the story appropriate warrior/thief/priest/wizard with not hindering wizard in maximum attainable level, he was simply Wizard 29.
In 3e, where multiclassing all used the lvl 30 pool, he was higher CR template (Chosen of Mystra) Fighter 1, Rogue 2, Cleric 3, Wizard 24 + (p.class Archmage 5)
This gives him the 24+ levels as Archmage which is a "+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class" with insane bonuses to many spellcasting things a wizard simply never gets. So he is still a 29th level wizard with extra abilities.
Mordenkainen is simply Wizard 27.
Further note, that since Karsus nobody casts 10th level or higher spells. The highest is 9+ and mythals. Effective level can be higher, but no spells with minimum of 10th level can be used. Epic handbook clarifies that 10th - 13th slots can be used for metamagic and lower level spells.
A lot of the early FR lore came view “discussions between Elminster, Mordenkainen and one other Wizard in Ed Greenwood’s living room according to the dragon articles, etc. in those discussions I believe Mord acknowledged that Elminster was slightly superior but the third, also the most powerful of his world, was supposedly only L18 ( the max allowed by the gods of the world) . Sadly so many of the epic level NPCs have been retconned so badly with 5e that all we can really do is guess. Useing the earlier editions can maybe help but WOtC seems to be trying to move away from FR and back to Greyhawk so who knows just what adjustments they are going to continue to make to both worlds.
The weave of the forgotten realms would apply to him while he was in the forgotten realms. He doesn't get to bring the very fabric from which spells are derived with him, casters simply use what is ambient. New realm , new rules.
That being said, he is generally thought of as a 'mythic' caster. Beyond legendary. The rules we think of really apply to player characters and leave room for legendary creatures like Vecna, Mordenkainen, and Ygwilva etc ... These are NPCs for narrative purposes.
Ok... Morty, or Alister Blackcloak. Who is stronger?
Elminster is not just a wizard he has levels in fighter and rogue(I think)plus epic levels. He is a chosen of Mystra and has traveled to other realms also.
I think on questions like this it is simple. If you are the DM are you really going to just take the stat block as it is or are you going to tweak it and make it your own to fit your campaign?
Confusingly enough, in 2e where you counted human dual level progression separately or archetype, so he could have had the story appropriate warrior/thief/priest/wizard with not hindering wizard in maximum attainable level, he was simply Wizard 29.
In 3e, where multiclassing all used the lvl 30 pool, he was higher CR template (Chosen of Mystra) Fighter 1, Rogue 2, Cleric 3, Wizard 24 + (p.class Archmage 5)
This gives him the 24+ levels as Archmage which is a "+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class" with insane bonuses to many spellcasting things a wizard simply never gets. So he is still a 29th level wizard with extra abilities.
Mordenkainen is simply Wizard 27.
Further note, that since Karsus nobody casts 10th level or higher spells. The highest is 9+ and mythals. Effective level can be higher, but no spells with minimum of 10th level can be used. Epic handbook clarifies that 10th - 13th slots can be used for metamagic and lower level spells.
A lot of the early FR lore came view “discussions between Elminster, Mordenkainen and one other Wizard in Ed Greenwood’s living room according to the dragon articles, etc. in those discussions I believe Mord acknowledged that Elminster was slightly superior but the third, also the most powerful of his world, was supposedly only L18 ( the max allowed by the gods of the world) . Sadly so many of the epic level NPCs have been retconned so badly with 5e that all we can really do is guess. Useing the earlier editions can maybe help but WOtC seems to be trying to move away from FR and back to Greyhawk so who knows just what adjustments they are going to continue to make to both worlds.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Well, they said they were moving away from the Realms and back to Greyhawk for 3rd Edition, too, and then went all in on the Realms anyway.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Yeah, and the first two settings books are FR books so we will see how it goes. As a FR DM I don’t want to see it go away.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.