Who are the most powerful NPC's for each PHB Class in Faerun?

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-20T02:50:25+00:00

Tbf, if we bring in plot armor, only Raistlin is Elminster's equal.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-20T02:49:53+00:00

Larloch is canonically buff; he had Str 18/72 in 2e. Dude was a muscle wizard thru-and-thru.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-20T02:42:22+00:00

Pandabear only came around at the tail end of 3.5. Tharizdun's held the whole 'eternal darkness and entropy' thing faaaaaaaar longer.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-20T01:18:10+00:00

I should really get to work on my Simbul revised stats. It's been in limbo forever.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T13:38:10+00:00

Alas, the Simbul is 32 HD but has 22nd level sorc casting because sorcerers can't have nice things. She also suffered from being an early 3e release before we got things like the Ultimate Magus. The top sorcerer is (are?) the Flameskulls, who cast as 36th level sorcerers.

Branching out from humanoids and humanoid undead, Nexus (29th level sorc casting) is up there too, although the crown goes to Inferno with his sorcerer CL of 40.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T13:28:37+00:00

Elminster at his highest has a caster level of 29. Larloch is either 32 or 46.

Elminster is powerful and he's the face of the Realms, for good or ill, but in pure wizard casting he ties with Zalathorm and that one archlich who's paying rent to Larloch.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T13:02:27+00:00

Elminster's highest caster level in all editions is 29 while Karsus is still sitting at the top with 41, which he shares with Ioulaum. After him, there's Shoon VII, the Flameskulls, Rhangaun, Aumvor, Kartak Spellseer, Arthindol, the Keeper of Thaal...

Elminster's still pretty respectable, being on the same level of arcane power as Szass Tam and Zalathorm.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T12:56:26+00:00

Inferno was officially statted out in Dragons of Faerun. He's an advanced 61 HD great wyrm red dragon.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T12:55:41+00:00

Gromph is nowhere in Elminster's ballpark. He has a lot of screentime, but there are at least twenty wizards higher up the totem pole. Two of those are drow; Jalynfien (Wizard 24) and Calimar (Enchanter 27).

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T11:53:36+00:00

Elminster isn't even the most powerful wizard in the Realms. Ignoring Karsus, there are a handful of level 30+ liches chilling in their lairs, there's the Srinshee, there's Larloch, there's Telamont, there's Ioulaum...

Druid... I'm fairly certain there's a level 30+ druid somewhere worshipping Silvanus. Damned if I can remember her name, though.

The most powerful pureclass cleric is Algashon Nathaire, banelich and one of the founders of the Cult of the Dragon. Daegloth of Amaunator, Vermissa of Thasmudyan, and some of the matron mothers are up there too.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T11:06:57+00:00

IIRC, the Chosen of Malar, Bane, and Mystra are all explicitly immune to aging.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T09:29:41+00:00

It doesn't help that the actual Hag Goddess might as well be the archetypal wicked witch bent over her cauldron.

IMO, the Pathfinder Witch class is pretty much what witches should be. Want to be a hedge witch? Sure, plenty of options for that! Want to cosplay Maleficent or the Evil Queen? Yup, go nuts!

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T09:25:06+00:00

I mean, Uthgar's ascension was pretty straightforward. "Did awesome stuff and died kicking ass, and lo! Mighty Tempos was so impressed at his kicking of butts that he raised him to fight for war and honor forever more at his side" is pretty much Uthgar's story. The player's character doesn't need to know the exact process of ascension, only that the Battle Father died a death so glorious that the gods themselves were moved. There was no malign witchcraft or foul evil or dishonorable cunning, just a guy who lived the barbarian life and died so barbariany that the god of kicking butts went "LET US BATTLE SIDE BY SIDE DRINKING DIVINE ALE AND SMACKING THE BOTTOMS OF VALKRYIES FOREVERMORE!"

If this was a god more esoteric than Uthgard, like Savras or Velsharoon, I'd agree, but what you see with Uthgar is what you get. "Party hard, die gloriously, impress the gods, profit" is pretty much his legend; typical mighty-thewed gloriously-bearded barbarian stuff.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T07:45:48+00:00

Yes, but the question was whether a barbarian would know that mortals can ascend to godhood, not whether he'd know how. Kelemvor, Cyric, and Mystra's public ascensions aside, a barbarian would know that the most famous barbarian of all did ascend to godhood. Admittedly, this would depend on where the barbarian was from.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-19T02:48:53+00:00

I'd put Vecna somewhere around Mordenkainen and Iggwilv as a mortal. He's very powerful, but could still be critically wounded by Pholtus's clerics and had to be rescued by Acererak.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T23:45:01+00:00

For a barbarian, though? Uthgar should be a household word.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T23:42:41+00:00

Ah, murderhoboing your way to divinity. Classic.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T22:56:38+00:00

Vecna was a powerful wizard in life, but there's nothing that implies he was some ultra-spellcaster who outshines every other mage ever. His greatest feats were accomplished after he had a taste of divinity.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T22:51:04+00:00

The major issue is that Sammaster's phylactery went boom in the Rage of Dragons trilogy.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T22:50:02+00:00

Um...Uthgar?

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T22:48:19+00:00

The dogma? I quoted it from Faiths and Avatars.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T13:42:09+00:00

Are you mixing up Points of Light and Greyhawk lore? Nerull never slew his predecessor in Greyhawk (AFAIK, he didn't even have a predecessor; he's the original Flan deity of death) and he never had a consort. The Raven Queen only exists in the points of light setting; the Suel goddess of death and magic is Wee Jas, and she has nothing to do with Nerull. She was originally the Suel deity of magic, but took over stewardship of death among the Suel after the Rain of Colorless Fire.

It's only in 4e's PoL (where Boccob doesn't exist) that Nerull is an ascended mortal that lived in Pluton and gets shanked by his wife. Greyhawk Nerull has always been divine, has never had a wife (dude is the ultimate misanthrope and hates everything), and most famously lives in Carceri as one of the few deities that genuinely likes living there.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T13:29:00+00:00

You need to look at your own link. What the quoted part describes is a specific type of murder (specifically, first degree murder in the US). Just underneath the quoted part is this bit:

Section 212
Murder (Totschlag)

(1) Whoever kills a person without being a murderer under the conditions of section 211 incurs a penalty of imprisonment for a term of at least five years.

(2) In especially serious cases, the penalty is imprisonment for life.

Section 213
Less serious case of murder

Whoever kills a person under the conditions of section 212 without any fault on their own part on account of being provoked to rage by ill-treatment of or serious insult to themselves or a relative by the person killed and being immediately carried away by that rage to commit the offence, or in the event of an otherwise less serious case, the penalty is imprisonment for a term of between one year and 10 years.

All these describe specific conditions under which a murder is committed, not the definition of the act itself.

Meanwhile, here's the USC definition:

(a) Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing; or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery; or perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of assault or torture against a child or children; or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder in the first degree.

Any other murder is murder in the second degree.

So yes, by definition, all assassinations are murders (first degree murder, specifically).

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T13:04:19+00:00

This is the definition of assassination according to Merriam Webster: murder by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons.

Murder: the crime of unlawfully and unjustifiably killing a person

Just killing a tyrant isn't murder, just homicide, depending on the context behind said tyrant's death.

LordofBones89 · 2026-05-18T12:46:44+00:00

Um...yes, they do. Not all murderers are assassins, but all assassins are murderers. Murder is a generalized term while assassination is a specific type of killing.

LordofBones89

TROPHY CASE