Hi guys,

I would need your help on a subject. Let me explain:

I am starting a campaign, set in the Forgotten Realms, just before the Time of Troubles in 1358 (I still have a few months with Bane and Myrkul's "divine heist"), but which was supposed to catch up with the major historical events of that time.

I have done as much research as possible on the period, but some questions remain. Among other things, do we know if the divine magic of priests/paladins as well as that of druids will be affected in the same way as the magic of mages by the fall of Mystra?

Also, do you have any major differences in "lore" in mind that should be taken into account for adventures set at this time in order to try to remain faithful to the general history of this D&D universe? (For example, I deliberately keep Dragonborns out of my stories to introduce them in a big way to my players when we do a campaign set during the Spellplague period.)

Thank you in advance for your insights on the subject.

The Forgotten Realms wiki has a page on the Time of Troubles.

right at the top is a short summary, which says:

The immediate effects of this edict were threefold. First, divine magic (spells granted to clerics by their patron deities) ceased to function altogether unless the cleric was within one mile of their deity's avatar. Second, arcane magic (a force channeled from the Weave by wizards and sorcerers) ceased to be regulated by its steward, Mystra, and became dangerously unpredictable. Third, the characteristically immortal and aloof deities were now vulnerable (though still devastatingly powerful) and dwelling among the civilizations of Faerûn.

Okay, so for divine magic, it's ultimately worse than for arcane magic... We'll have to see how to classify druidic magic, I would tend to say that it is closer to divine magic but... I have a hard time thinking it's the same thing. (The goal being to define, in the context of scenarios taking place during these events, what to do with this or that class... or make certain classes unavailable during these periods.)

Thanks for the response anyway.

Not sure if it's much help, but the adventure Shadowdale has some info on playing during the Time of Troubles. (Archive.org or DMs Guild) At a glance, it looks like they just had all casters causing wild magic-like effects, and clerics could not prepare any spells higher than 2nd level. Also, although it specifically mentions clerics, in 2e clerics and druids were the two types of Priest characters, so they are similarly grouped, however, rather than a deity, druidic magic is drawn from nature itself. So I could see valid arguments being made to treat them just like clerics or for treating them differently. Either way, take the 2e stuff with a massive grain of salt, balance was not high on their list of concerns in general, and Ed Greenwood (who wrote the three adventures based during the Time of Troubles - Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep) built an interesting world, but unfortunately isn't as skilled of an adventure writer and game designer.

Plus the penalties can be tricky because, mechanically, it would very difficult to play a cleric during the Time of Troubles, but storywise, they would one of the best classes to play! So it's a tricky trade off.

That being said, the three adventures and/or associated novels could have some interesting nuggets to use for inspiration.

Oh, thanks for the info and additional sources, I hadn't thought to look into Shadowdale. As I only play in 5th edition, I wasn't hoping to just copy and paste content from older editions. Actually, for game mechanics, I'll figure things out even if it means doing some homebrew. As long as I don't break the lore too much and can move on to the next events, that's fine with me. (In the long run, the idea is for my group to have experienced a few adventures during each of the key periods in the Forgotten Realms universe, so they feel more in tune with this world!)

Thanks for your reply.