I like the concept of the chosen of Mystra and the idea that her chosen has a greater affinity for magic and weave manipulation.
The thing I like the most, though, is the silver fire - pure raw magical energy, which under the right circumstances, would tear apart the fabric of the multiverse. So, although silver fire grants the chosen immense power, one has to be careful about how and when to use it. Using silver fire against one of the chosen of Shar, for example, wielding the shadow magic equivalent, could rip apart reality and create anything from dimensional portals to magical anomalies to magical dead zones.
It seems like being a chosen of Mystra represents the very pinnacle of a mortal's ability to perform magic. For anything greater, one would have to be a god.
I know that being a chosen of a God isn't a thing now, but is there any way at all to replicate being a “chosen” in 5e, or is that not at all possible?
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
One way to potentially add effects of a chosen in 5e could be to add it as a feat or a series of feats that the character can add to their sheet. This way you can add spells, effects etc all at the same time, and it only takes one minor edit of a character sheet. But not sure if you meant the mechanics of adding it, or how to define a list of features that would work as a chosen?
I’d homebrew an epic boon that lets you cast wish 1/day without using a spell slot. Then attach whatever conditions to it you like to better replicate any side effects that come from silver flame usage.
If that’s not enough, more boons to increase the number and level of signature spells.
Chosen of Mystra are able to cast more often with less effort. They also become more familiar with magic; able to detect its presence. In addition, many also develop immunities to magic, and eventually immunities to disease and poison. Mystra's Chosen are also immune to the deleterious effects from the casting and wearing of a mantle: as well as having silver fire. This could be something like this for exemple;
- Cast 1st level and 2nd level spells without expending spell slots.
- Cast Detect Magic and Identify at will as a bonus action without any component.
- Advantage on all saving throws against magic
- Resistance to all damage from magic effect
- Immunity to disease and poison and magic can't put you to sleep.
- Immunity to mantle's effect.
- Silver fire ability (1/hour) Range Self (Line 5 feet by 70 feet) DC 25 that ignore cover, deal 12d8 radiant damage and any non-living objects touched by the beams is utterly destroyed. Or Cone 70 feet wide that cause no damage, but banished dead magic area forever, instantly restoring such an area's connection with the Goddess of All Magic.
Dedicate hundreds of years of life to studying and advancing magic, creating a few spells on the way.
Hope senpai notices you
???
Profit.
How it works mechanically: you are an NPC (CR21~28) that the DM can use to cast basically any spell as needed for plot reasons. Might be a party patron and hand out quests as they are too busy with their experimentation to actually adventure much. I don't even think the 9th level spell cap applies to them, they probably haven't been given stats in 5e because they break the rules.
Probably the closest you can come within the rules is to stack several spell/magic related epic boons onto a level 20 wizard.
I believe there was a template (in 3.5e?) of sorts for the chosen of Mystra that set a base mode but then chosen got additional powers as Mystra decided. Most of those base modes are available as either feats or epic boons that could be granted. Others could be covered with permanent spells/abilities applied. Silver fire (and the related Spellfire) would have to be a homebrew creation something like Plaguescarred showed. There isn’t a template in 5e as WOtC has worked fairly hard to eliminate the chosen this edition.
I believe there was a template (in 3.5e?) of sorts for the chosen of Mystra that set a base mode but then chosen got additional powers as Mystra decided. Most of those base modes are available as either feats or epic boons that could be granted. Others could be covered with permanent spells/abilities applied. Silver fire (and the related Spellfire) would have to be a homebrew creation something like Plaguescarred showed. There isn’t a template in 5e as WOtC has workedreasonably hard to eliminate the chosen this edition.
It does make me sad that they have done that. I think the “chosen” are pretty cool. The chosen of all the various gods who had them, though obviously as someone who loves magic, the chosen of mystra are my favourite.
It does seem like wizards are trying to move away from the times when adventurers were somehow special, children of the gods or favoured kings, long forgotten beings from the depths of time, or scared by horrors unimaginable to mortal kind.
Now everyone is a farm boy who just worked really, really hard to harvest his father's crop of cabbages before deciding that he and his favourite shovel were going on an adventure, because why not? It can't be any worse than harvesting cabbages for a tyrannical father.
Instead of Xena the warrior princess, we get Joxer the hopeless.
The magic classes seem lacklustre, and the martial classes seem dull. Even the places have lost their charm.
Gone are the floating cities and ancient strongholds of primordial beings. Gone is the marvel of high magic twisted by the elves into delicate structures of ivory and gold. Gone are the rolling hills and ancient forests of the druids, the forges of the dwarves, the wonderous creations of the gnomes and the temples of lich kings who rule over humanity with an iron fist and fight amongst themselves.
Gone are the dragons and the giants and their everlasting feuds.
Gone are the demons of the abyss and their eternal struggle against the corrupted soldiers of some long-dead God, who have styled themselves as devils and trick and trap mortal souls to use them as soldiers in their war.
Now we get Barry, the vegan goblin bard with a big heart, who wants his mommy to love him, so he is going on an adventure to the city of big people to prove he's not worthless.
None of those things are gone. If they're gone from your game, that's on your DM and the players. There are chosen of the gods in lots of people's games. Just because WotC has decided to not publish rules for a seriously broken game concept that only works in pure narrative settings don't mean they've abandoned them. They just don't want to try to balance such a thing.
Did you ever read the Chosen rules in Magic of Faerun? They took pages to explain. I can't imagine it would be a fun prestige class to play in the super crunchy way that 3.5 played.
In the end, if you want something that over powered in your game, you have to work out how to make it work.
Chosen, hen and now we’re never really meant to be PCs except in an epic level game. They are meant to be NPCs just as they essentially were in the FR novels.
I believe there was a template (in 3.5e?) of sorts for the chosen of Mystra that set a base mode but then chosen got additional powers as Mystra decided. Most of those base modes are available as either feats or epic boons that could be granted. Others could be covered with permanent spells/abilities applied. Silver fire (and the related Spellfire) would have to be a homebrew creation something like Plaguescarred showed. There isn’t a template in 5e as WOtC has workedreasonably hard to eliminate the chosen this edition.
It does make me sad that they have done that. I think the “chosen” are pretty cool. The chosen of all the various gods who had them, though obviously as someone who loves magic, the chosen of mystra are my favourite.
It does seem like wizards are trying to move away from the times when adventurers were somehow special, children of the gods or favoured kings, long forgotten beings from the depths of time, or scared by horrors unimaginable to mortal kind.
Now everyone is a farm boy who just worked really, really hard to harvest his father's crop of cabbages before deciding that he and his favourite shovel were going on an adventure, because why not? It can't be any worse than harvesting cabbages for a tyrannical father.
Instead of Xena the warrior princess, we get Joxer the hopeless.
The magic classes seem lacklustre, and the martial classes seem dull. Even the places have lost their charm.
Gone are the floating cities and ancient strongholds of primordial beings. Gone is the marvel of high magic twisted by the elves into delicate structures of ivory and gold. Gone are the rolling hills and ancient forests of the druids, the forges of the dwarves, the wonderous creations of the gnomes and the temples of lich kings who rule over humanity with an iron fist and fight amongst themselves.
Gone are the dragons and the giants and their everlasting feuds.
Gone are the demons of the abyss and their eternal struggle against the corrupted soldiers of some long-dead God, who have styled themselves as devils and trick and trap mortal souls to use them as soldiers in their war.
Now we get Barry, the vegan goblin bard with a big heart, who wants his mommy to love him, so he is going on an adventure to the city of big people to prove he's not worthless.
Nice to meet you!
Not really sure what you are on about there because none of that is true. In 5E we have monks who can literally run on water, clerics who can summon avatars of their deities, barbarians who can defy death and bards who can rewrite the fabric of reality. And we haven't even gotten to the heroic characters of Theros or the Astral Drifters (who have literally TALKED TO GODS) in Spelljammer.
Do you not perhaps have access to all the contents because all the things you mentioned is right in there.
I believe there was a template (in 3.5e?) of sorts for the chosen of Mystra that set a base mode but then chosen got additional powers as Mystra decided. Most of those base modes are available as either feats or epic boons that could be granted. Others could be covered with permanent spells/abilities applied. Silver fire (and the related Spellfire) would have to be a homebrew creation something like Plaguescarred showed. There isn’t a template in 5e as WOtC has workedreasonably hard to eliminate the chosen this edition.
It does make me sad that they have done that. I think the “chosen” are pretty cool. The chosen of all the various gods who had them, though obviously as someone who loves magic, the chosen of mystra are my favourite.
It does seem like wizards are trying to move away from the times when adventurers were somehow special, children of the gods or favoured kings, long forgotten beings from the depths of time, or scared by horrors unimaginable to mortal kind.
Now everyone is a farm boy who just worked really, really hard to harvest his father's crop of cabbages before deciding that he and his favourite shovel were going on an adventure, because why not? It can't be any worse than harvesting cabbages for a tyrannical father.
Instead of Xena the warrior princess, we get Joxer the hopeless.
The magic classes seem lacklustre, and the martial classes seem dull. Even the places have lost their charm.
Gone are the floating cities and ancient strongholds of primordial beings. Gone is the marvel of high magic twisted by the elves into delicate structures of ivory and gold. Gone are the rolling hills and ancient forests of the druids, the forges of the dwarves, the wonderous creations of the gnomes and the temples of lich kings who rule over humanity with an iron fist and fight amongst themselves.
Gone are the dragons and the giants and their everlasting feuds.
Gone are the demons of the abyss and their eternal struggle against the corrupted soldiers of some long-dead God, who have styled themselves as devils and trick and trap mortal souls to use them as soldiers in their war.
Now we get Barry, the vegan goblin bard with a big heart, who wants his mommy to love him, so he is going on an adventure to the city of big people to prove he's not worthless.
Nice to meet you!
Not really sure what you are on about there because none of that is true. In 5E we have monks who can literally run on water, clerics who can summon avatars of their deities, barbarians who can defy death and bards who can rewrite the fabric of reality. And we haven't even gotten to the heroic characters of Theros or the Astral Drifters (who have literally TALKED TO GODS) in Spelljammer.
Do you not perhaps have access to all the contents because all the things you mentioned is right in there.
Maybe they only seem gone to me because lately, everyone wants to play Joe, the son of Kevin, the butcher who ran away from home because he had some gambling debts. After hearing about some adventurers who are looking for a guide, and in need of money, Joe lies to get the job.
Nobody wants to be Pharraen, the son of a banished cleric of Lolth who was raises in a temple dedicated to Pelor, after his mother fled to the surface with her unborn child and sought the protection of the gods of light, rather than surrender herself and her child to her mistress, after the boys true father was revealed to be a captured human slave that Hathor had fallen in love with and helped to free.
So, that's a bit melodramatic, but you get what I mean. Nobody ever says when asked why they want to be an adventurer, “to travel the world as living proof that the light of Pelor can shine, even in the darkest of souls”.
Once, answers like that would have been common but these days the answer is always “Ay need rips ter brass off me debts” or, “Iz like am’ll coles n coke innit bruh!”
Then you finally get to the ancient ruins, and the first thing Barry the cockney goblin bard says is, “wowzas, this place is well minted”. So, you, the only one who took history class, start to explain how it was once a floating city ruled by one of the greatest Netherese Arcanists who ever lived. Meanwhile, Barry is busy picking his nose and eating the boogers and Joe, the butcher's son wants to know where the treasure room is, and Maria, the loli blood hunter, is brooding in the corner again because there are no wolves for her to kill and she wants to kill wolves.
Leaving your character sitting there looking at all these goblin bards and half-orc butcher sons and loli blood hunters, feeling like a mind flyer is slowly sucking your brain out of your skull.
You stare at their blank faces for a while and then give up and ask the DM if you can roll to see if you know where the treasure room might be. So you roll and tell everyone the treasure room is probably east of the city. Joe the butchers son gives a loud whoop whoop, and the loli blood hunter demands to know if there are wolves, and everyone stares at you before Barry pokes you with a snotty fingernail. You tell them that you think so just so the poking will stop, and everyone cheers before marching off single file in the wrong direction, chanting, “adventure, adventure, we're going on an adventure.”
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Maybe they only seem gone to me because lately, everyone wants to play Joe, the son of Kevin, the butcher who ran away from home because he had some gambling debts. After hearing about some adventurers who are looking for a guide, and in need of money, Joe lies to get the job.
Nobody wants to be Pharraen, the son of a banished cleric of Lolth who was raises in a temple dedicated to Pelor, after his mother fled to the surface with her unborn child and sought the protection of the gods of light, rather than surrender herself and her child to her mistress, after the boys true father was revealed to be a captured human slave that Hathor had fallen in love with and helped to free.
People would rather play as something original than as a walking stereotype that has been done to death? Is that a bad thing?
So, that's a bit melodramatic, but you get what I mean. Nobody ever says when asked why they want to be an adventurer, “to travel the world as living proof that the light of Pelor can shine, even in the darkest of souls”.
I have an idea for a character whose lifea goal is literally "I wanna be remember as the coolest hero ever and I want a star constellation in the stars named after me". Barbarian-Oath of Glory Paladin-Swords bard multiclass, if you're interested in that. :)
Once, answers like that would have been common but these days the answer is always “Ay need rips ter brass off me debts” or, “Iz like am’ll coles n coke innit bruh!”
I don't even know what that means but it feels like you're actively just trying to find negatives.
Then you finally get to the ancient ruins, and the first thing Barry the cockney goblin bard says is, “wowzas, this place is well minted”. So, you, the only one who took history class, start to explain how it was once a floating city ruled by one of the greatest Netherese Arcanists who ever lived. Meanwhile, Barry is busy picking his nose and eating the boogers and Joe, the butcher's son wants to know where the treasure room is, and Maria, the loli blood hunter, is brooding in the corner again because there are no wolves for her to kill and she wants to kill wolves.
Leaving your character sitting there looking at all these goblin bards and half-orc butcher sons and loli blood hunters, feeling like a mind flyer is slowly sucking your brain out of your skull.
You stare at their blank faces for a while and then give up and ask the DM if you can roll to see if you know where the treasure room might be. So you roll and tell everyone the treasure room is probably east of the city. Joe the butchers son gives a loud whoop whoop, and the loli blood hunter demands to know if there are wolves, and everyone stares at you before Barry pokes you with a snotty fingernail. You tell them that you think so just so the poking will stop, and everyone cheers before marching off single file in the wrong direction, chanting, “adventure, adventure, we're going on an adventure.”
Nothing of this has anything to do with the game edition and everything to do that with you seeming to think there are "right" and "wrong" ways to play D&D.
Maybe they only seem gone to me because lately, everyone wants to play Joe, the son of Kevin, the butcher who ran away from home because he had some gambling debts. After hearing about some adventurers who are looking for a guide, and in need of money, Joe lies to get the job.
Nobody wants to be Pharraen, the son of a banished cleric of Lolth who was raises in a temple dedicated to Pelor, after his mother fled to the surface with her unborn child and sought the protection of the gods of light, rather than surrender herself and her child to her mistress, after the boys true father was revealed to be a captured human slave that Hathor had fallen in love with and helped to free.
So, that's a bit melodramatic, but you get what I mean. Nobody ever says when asked why they want to be an adventurer, “to travel the world as living proof that the light of Pelor can shine, even in the darkest of souls”.
Why is that a bad thing?
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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.
Maybe they only seem gone to me because lately, everyone wants to play Joe, the son of Kevin, the butcher who ran away from home because he had some gambling debts. After hearing about some adventurers who are looking for a guide, and in need of money, Joe lies to get the job.
Nobody wants to be Pharraen, the son of a banished cleric of Lolth who was raises in a temple dedicated to Pelor, after his mother fled to the surface with her unborn child and sought the protection of the gods of light, rather than surrender herself and her child to her mistress, after the boys true father was revealed to be a captured human slave that Hathor had fallen in love with and helped to free.
So, that's a bit melodramatic, but you get what I mean. Nobody ever says when asked why they want to be an adventurer, “to travel the world as living proof that the light of Pelor can shine, even in the darkest of souls”.
Why is that a bad thing?
I guess it's not bad. It just makes the purpose and the game feel less grand.
Boy trying to hide from his debtors seems like a hyperlocal pedestrian game. Like all he's going to do is hide in is grandmother's basement the next street over and maybe kill some rats.
The story ends when you have killed enough rats to pay your debt.
Boy chosen by Pelor to be the living embodiment of light and goodness in the world seems grand. Like all the world's purpose lies before you. There are so many dark places in the world, so many people who need your help, and you want to reach them all, no matter how far or long it takes.
The never ending story.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
A character's backstory is not the plot. A character's backstory is how they got involved in the plot. If the character gets into adventuring because of owing people money, it absolutely doesn't have to end because they've paid those people off.
The character could:
Keep adventuring because it's a better way to make money than their old job.
Keep adventuring because it's more exciting than whatever they used to do.
Keep adventuring because they've become romantically involved with another party member or NPC.
Keep adventuring because they've become part of a plot of earthshaking importance so now they need to help stop the evil plot of Count Dastardly from unleashing a horde of zombie ferrets on the kingdom.
Keep adventuring because...
A player simply deciding that their character has no reason to keep going with the adventure after achieving some personal goal is the fault of the player, not the PC's backstory.
Maybe they only seem gone to me because lately, everyone wants to play Joe, the son of Kevin, the butcher who ran away from home because he had some gambling debts. After hearing about some adventurers who are looking for a guide, and in need of money, Joe lies to get the job.
Nobody wants to be Pharraen, the son of a banished cleric of Lolth who was raises in a temple dedicated to Pelor, after his mother fled to the surface with her unborn child and sought the protection of the gods of light, rather than surrender herself and her child to her mistress, after the boys true father was revealed to be a captured human slave that Hathor had fallen in love with and helped to free.
So, that's a bit melodramatic, but you get what I mean. Nobody ever says when asked why they want to be an adventurer, “to travel the world as living proof that the light of Pelor can shine, even in the darkest of souls”.
Why is that a bad thing?
I guess it's not bad. It just makes the purpose and the game feel less grand.
Boy trying to hide from his debtors seems like a hyperlocal pedestrian game. Like all he's going to do is hide in is grandmother's basement the next street over and maybe kill some rats.
The story ends when you have killed enough rats to pay your debt.
Boy chosen by Pelor to be the living embodiment of light and goodness in the world seems grand. Like all the world's purpose lies before you. There are so many dark places in the world, so many people who need your help, and you want to reach them all, no matter how far or long it takes.
The never ending story.
Frodo was a rich kid who inherited his uncle’s jewelry. Steve rogers was a scrawny guy from the Bronx. Peter Parker was a high school graduate living with his aunt. Half the great epics starts with a regular schmo who falls into a grand adventure and discovers they are not just a regular schmo after all. Humble beginnings give you room to grow into something more. Joe, son of Kevin, goes out into the world and realizes he has a great purpose to bring the light of pelor to the world. It’s what character arcs are made of. Starting off as the chosen one prince doesn’t give you anyplace to go but down, and who wants to tell the story of a failure.
Not to mention, I’m not sure where “everyone” doing this is coming from. Maybe that’s your experience, but you could only ever see a sliver of a fraction of “everyone.”
Maybe they only seem gone to me because lately, everyone wants to play Joe, the son of Kevin, the butcher who ran away from home because he had some gambling debts. After hearing about some adventurers who are looking for a guide, and in need of money, Joe lies to get the job.
Nobody wants to be Pharraen, the son of a banished cleric of Lolth who was raises in a temple dedicated to Pelor, after his mother fled to the surface with her unborn child and sought the protection of the gods of light, rather than surrender herself and her child to her mistress, after the boys true father was revealed to be a captured human slave that Hathor had fallen in love with and helped to free.
So, that's a bit melodramatic, but you get what I mean. Nobody ever says when asked why they want to be an adventurer, “to travel the world as living proof that the light of Pelor can shine, even in the darkest of souls”.
Why is that a bad thing?
I guess it's not bad. It just makes the purpose and the game feel less grand.
Boy trying to hide from his debtors seems like a hyperlocal pedestrian game. Like all he's going to do is hide in is grandmother's basement the next street over and maybe kill some rats.
The story ends when you have killed enough rats to pay your debt.
Boy chosen by Pelor to be the living embodiment of light and goodness in the world seems grand. Like all the world's purpose lies before you. There are so many dark places in the world, so many people who need your help, and you want to reach them all, no matter how far or long it takes.
The never ending story.
Frodo was a rich kid who inherited his uncle’s jewelry. Steve rogers was a scrawny guy from the Bronx. Peter Parker was a high school graduate living with his aunt. Half the great epics starts with a regular schmo who falls into a grand adventure and discovers they are not just a regular schmo after all. Humble beginnings give you room to grow into something more. Joe, son of Kevin, goes out into the world and realizes he has a great purpose to bring the light of pelor to the world. It’s what character arcs are made of. Starting off as the chosen one prince doesn’t give you anyplace to go but down, and who wants to tell the story of a failure.
Not to mention, I’m not sure where “everyone” doing this is coming from. Maybe that’s your experience, but you could only ever see a sliver of a fraction of “everyone.”
You have a point, it is only experience that I'm talking about, so when I say “everyone”, I'm referring to everyone in my experience.
I guess I like the idea of an inverted hero's journey. Where the character is complete at the start but slowly begins to unravel as they are faced with enemies and events that would see them undone.
So I stead of:
Torn between duty and love a warrior can never be with a princess.
Princess kidnapped by dragon.
Warrior has to go save her.
Encounters obstacles makes allies.
Finds the cave.
Fights the dragon.
Saves the princess.
Gets home.
They marry
The warrior eventually becomes king
Many children are born
Children grow up to become skilful warriors in their own right, and eveyone lives happily ever after.
We would get:
A mighty warrior who is now a great king with many capable children, is married to the woman of his dreams.
He takes his family on on pilagramate to the singing caves, that unbeknownst to him, have been taken over by a dragon
His wife is taken by the dragon.
The King fights the dragon, but the dragon mocks him, and he eventually loses.
He escapes from the cave with help from children
He survives a series of traps in which all his children are killed.
The king decides that all hope is lost and returns home.
Upon his return home he is mocked and shamed by his people who are saddened by the loss of their queen.
The queen manages to trick the dragon, escapes and returns home to lead a successful coup against her husband.
Now no longer king and merely a warrior again, he lives on the outskirts of a peasant's, taking odd jobs where he can
When his arch nemesis, the dragon, captures the baker's daughter - the only person in the village who was ever kind to him, he sets off to rescue her, and along the way he finds allies to help him. This time, experience has taught him to be cautious, and with the help of his new friends, he defeats the dragon and saves the girl.
They return home, and he asks her to marry him. She agrees. They have a son together, and the old warrior realises that he didn't want to be King and that this was the life he wanted all along.
So, it's a complete inversion of the hero's journey. Where the character starts at their most powerful, but through a series of events, has all that power stripped away until he is relying on others to make up for his weaknesses. He is no longer a great and powerful king or a mighty warrior; he is an older man past his prime, living in a peasant's hut and married to a baker's daughter - but he is happy.
Though I guess not many people would want to play that.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
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I like the concept of the chosen of Mystra and the idea that her chosen has a greater affinity for magic and weave manipulation.
The thing I like the most, though, is the silver fire - pure raw magical energy, which under the right circumstances, would tear apart the fabric of the multiverse. So, although silver fire grants the chosen immense power, one has to be careful about how and when to use it. Using silver fire against one of the chosen of Shar, for example, wielding the shadow magic equivalent, could rip apart reality and create anything from dimensional portals to magical anomalies to magical dead zones.
It seems like being a chosen of Mystra represents the very pinnacle of a mortal's ability to perform magic. For anything greater, one would have to be a god.
I know that being a chosen of a God isn't a thing now, but is there any way at all to replicate being a “chosen” in 5e, or is that not at all possible?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
One way to potentially add effects of a chosen in 5e could be to add it as a feat or a series of feats that the character can add to their sheet. This way you can add spells, effects etc all at the same time, and it only takes one minor edit of a character sheet. But not sure if you meant the mechanics of adding it, or how to define a list of features that would work as a chosen?
One way to play it is that the person becomes an Arcane Domain Cleric, albeit with Mystra believing in them, instead of the other way around.
I’d homebrew an epic boon that lets you cast wish 1/day without using a spell slot. Then attach whatever conditions to it you like to better replicate any side effects that come from silver flame usage.
If that’s not enough, more boons to increase the number and level of signature spells.
Chosen of Mystra are able to cast more often with less effort. They also become more familiar with magic; able to detect its presence. In addition, many also develop immunities to magic, and eventually immunities to disease and poison. Mystra's Chosen are also immune to the deleterious effects from the casting and wearing of a mantle: as well as having silver fire. This could be something like this for exemple;
- Cast 1st level and 2nd level spells without expending spell slots.
- Cast Detect Magic and Identify at will as a bonus action without any component.
- Advantage on all saving throws against magic
- Resistance to all damage from magic effect
- Immunity to disease and poison and magic can't put you to sleep.
- Immunity to mantle's effect.
- Silver fire ability (1/hour) Range Self (Line 5 feet by 70 feet) DC 25 that ignore cover, deal 12d8 radiant damage and any non-living objects touched by the beams is utterly destroyed. Or Cone 70 feet wide that cause no damage, but banished dead magic area forever, instantly restoring such an area's connection with the Goddess of All Magic.
How to become a chosen of mystra:
How it works mechanically: you are an NPC (CR21~28) that the DM can use to cast basically any spell as needed for plot reasons. Might be a party patron and hand out quests as they are too busy with their experimentation to actually adventure much. I don't even think the 9th level spell cap applies to them, they probably haven't been given stats in 5e because they break the rules.
Probably the closest you can come within the rules is to stack several spell/magic related epic boons onto a level 20 wizard.
Weren't the abilities that came with being a Chosen of Mystra intentionally never fully statted out?
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.
Boons. Lots of boons.
I believe there was a template (in 3.5e?) of sorts for the chosen of Mystra that set a base mode but then chosen got additional powers as Mystra decided. Most of those base modes are available as either feats or epic boons that could be granted. Others could be covered with permanent spells/abilities applied. Silver fire (and the related Spellfire) would have to be a homebrew creation something like Plaguescarred showed. There isn’t a template in 5e as WOtC has worked fairly hard to eliminate the chosen this edition.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
It does make me sad that they have done that. I think the “chosen” are pretty cool. The chosen of all the various gods who had them, though obviously as someone who loves magic, the chosen of mystra are my favourite.
It does seem like wizards are trying to move away from the times when adventurers were somehow special, children of the gods or favoured kings, long forgotten beings from the depths of time, or scared by horrors unimaginable to mortal kind.
Now everyone is a farm boy who just worked really, really hard to harvest his father's crop of cabbages before deciding that he and his favourite shovel were going on an adventure, because why not? It can't be any worse than harvesting cabbages for a tyrannical father.
Instead of Xena the warrior princess, we get Joxer the hopeless.
The magic classes seem lacklustre, and the martial classes seem dull. Even the places have lost their charm.
Gone are the floating cities and ancient strongholds of primordial beings. Gone is the marvel of high magic twisted by the elves into delicate structures of ivory and gold. Gone are the rolling hills and ancient forests of the druids, the forges of the dwarves, the wonderous creations of the gnomes and the temples of lich kings who rule over humanity with an iron fist and fight amongst themselves.
Gone are the dragons and the giants and their everlasting feuds.
Gone are the demons of the abyss and their eternal struggle against the corrupted soldiers of some long-dead God, who have styled themselves as devils and trick and trap mortal souls to use them as soldiers in their war.
Now we get Barry, the vegan goblin bard with a big heart, who wants his mommy to love him, so he is going on an adventure to the city of big people to prove he's not worthless.
Nice to meet you!
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
None of those things are gone. If they're gone from your game, that's on your DM and the players. There are chosen of the gods in lots of people's games. Just because WotC has decided to not publish rules for a seriously broken game concept that only works in pure narrative settings don't mean they've abandoned them. They just don't want to try to balance such a thing.
Did you ever read the Chosen rules in Magic of Faerun? They took pages to explain. I can't imagine it would be a fun prestige class to play in the super crunchy way that 3.5 played.
In the end, if you want something that over powered in your game, you have to work out how to make it work.
Chosen, hen and now we’re never really meant to be PCs except in an epic level game. They are meant to be NPCs just as they essentially were in the FR novels.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Not really sure what you are on about there because none of that is true. In 5E we have monks who can literally run on water, clerics who can summon avatars of their deities, barbarians who can defy death and bards who can rewrite the fabric of reality. And we haven't even gotten to the heroic characters of Theros or the Astral Drifters (who have literally TALKED TO GODS) in Spelljammer.
Do you not perhaps have access to all the contents because all the things you mentioned is right in there.
Maybe they only seem gone to me because lately, everyone wants to play Joe, the son of Kevin, the butcher who ran away from home because he had some gambling debts. After hearing about some adventurers who are looking for a guide, and in need of money, Joe lies to get the job.
Nobody wants to be Pharraen, the son of a banished cleric of Lolth who was raises in a temple dedicated to Pelor, after his mother fled to the surface with her unborn child and sought the protection of the gods of light, rather than surrender herself and her child to her mistress, after the boys true father was revealed to be a captured human slave that Hathor had fallen in love with and helped to free.
So, that's a bit melodramatic, but you get what I mean. Nobody ever says when asked why they want to be an adventurer, “to travel the world as living proof that the light of Pelor can shine, even in the darkest of souls”.
Once, answers like that would have been common but these days the answer is always “Ay need rips ter brass off me debts” or, “Iz like am’ll coles n coke innit bruh!”
Then you finally get to the ancient ruins, and the first thing Barry the cockney goblin bard says is, “wowzas, this place is well minted”. So, you, the only one who took history class, start to explain how it was once a floating city ruled by one of the greatest Netherese Arcanists who ever lived. Meanwhile, Barry is busy picking his nose and eating the boogers and Joe, the butcher's son wants to know where the treasure room is, and Maria, the loli blood hunter, is brooding in the corner again because there are no wolves for her to kill and she wants to kill wolves.
Leaving your character sitting there looking at all these goblin bards and half-orc butcher sons and loli blood hunters, feeling like a mind flyer is slowly sucking your brain out of your skull.
You stare at their blank faces for a while and then give up and ask the DM if you can roll to see if you know where the treasure room might be. So you roll and tell everyone the treasure room is probably east of the city. Joe the butchers son gives a loud whoop whoop, and the loli blood hunter demands to know if there are wolves, and everyone stares at you before Barry pokes you with a snotty fingernail. You tell them that you think so just so the poking will stop, and everyone cheers before marching off single file in the wrong direction, chanting, “adventure, adventure, we're going on an adventure.”
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
People would rather play as something original than as a walking stereotype that has been done to death? Is that a bad thing?
I have an idea for a character whose lifea goal is literally "I wanna be remember as the coolest hero ever and I want a star constellation in the stars named after me". Barbarian-Oath of Glory Paladin-Swords bard multiclass, if you're interested in that. :)
I don't even know what that means but it feels like you're actively just trying to find negatives.
Nothing of this has anything to do with the game edition and everything to do that with you seeming to think there are "right" and "wrong" ways to play D&D.
Why is that a bad thing?
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.
I guess it's not bad. It just makes the purpose and the game feel less grand.
Boy trying to hide from his debtors seems like a hyperlocal pedestrian game. Like all he's going to do is hide in is grandmother's basement the next street over and maybe kill some rats.
The story ends when you have killed enough rats to pay your debt.
Boy chosen by Pelor to be the living embodiment of light and goodness in the world seems grand. Like all the world's purpose lies before you. There are so many dark places in the world, so many people who need your help, and you want to reach them all, no matter how far or long it takes.
The never ending story.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
A character's backstory is not the plot. A character's backstory is how they got involved in the plot. If the character gets into adventuring because of owing people money, it absolutely doesn't have to end because they've paid those people off.
The character could:
A player simply deciding that their character has no reason to keep going with the adventure after achieving some personal goal is the fault of the player, not the PC's backstory.
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.
Frodo was a rich kid who inherited his uncle’s jewelry. Steve rogers was a scrawny guy from the Bronx. Peter Parker was a high school graduate living with his aunt. Half the great epics starts with a regular schmo who falls into a grand adventure and discovers they are not just a regular schmo after all.
Humble beginnings give you room to grow into something more. Joe, son of Kevin, goes out into the world and realizes he has a great purpose to bring the light of pelor to the world. It’s what character arcs are made of. Starting off as the chosen one prince doesn’t give you anyplace to go but down, and who wants to tell the story of a failure.
Not to mention, I’m not sure where “everyone” doing this is coming from. Maybe that’s your experience, but you could only ever see a sliver of a fraction of “everyone.”
You have a point, it is only experience that I'm talking about, so when I say “everyone”, I'm referring to everyone in my experience.
I guess I like the idea of an inverted hero's journey. Where the character is complete at the start but slowly begins to unravel as they are faced with enemies and events that would see them undone.
So I stead of:
We would get:
So, it's a complete inversion of the hero's journey. Where the character starts at their most powerful, but through a series of events, has all that power stripped away until he is relying on others to make up for his weaknesses. He is no longer a great and powerful king or a mighty warrior; he is an older man past his prime, living in a peasant's hut and married to a baker's daughter - but he is happy.
Though I guess not many people would want to play that.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.