now, make it 4

Its a good point but preserving the blood war is literally the only plausible way of fulfilling the angels' goal of protecting the Prime Material (and every other plane as well) splitting the Celestial forces to battle both sides at once would result to obvious downfall (angels have failed raiding the abyss many occasions because staying in it makes them chaotic and to an extent self-destructive, and ex-angel Demonlords exist) and Asmodeus became a deity since 4e so having only half a ream invade on the realm of an actual god (plus the other archdevuls) are also a guaranteed failure. Fighting one side in particular is an even worse option because the unoccupied side would let the other free to corrupt the realm, and even if they succeeded eliminating either the Abyss or Hell, their forces would be worn out and more easily defeated by the remaining side. and yes their indirect involvement sounds disappointing but their subtle interference with mortals generally helps prevent a breakout of fiends because 1) its important to minimize souls that end up in the abyss/hell 2) Its also very important to stop mortals from summoning them- (especially since some demonlords like Demogorgon and Rhyxali have plans involving the Prime Material itself)

@@mistergiraffe9425 I know all the in-universe reasons. It's just that when I start thinking about it from the point of view of a character trying to solve the problem, I can't help but become overwhelmed by how obviously it's been constructed by the writers as a way to maintain the status quo. Yes, in-universe and within the context of the events that are presented, you answer Epicurus by saying 'Well actually, passively observing and not involving ourselves *is* the greater good', but boy howdy did the people writing the lore have to set up a whole bunch of very specific circumstances especially so that excuse would fly.

@@Eruvadhril I think it is a absolute brilliant way to argument why the universe is as ist is: Full of things to do for heroes. If it would not be this way, there would always be the question "Why did the angels not solve this aeons ago?" Also: No one says you are not allowed to change this in your D&D campaign. If you want a big apocalyptics battle good vs. evil over all of creation just let one of the two evils win the blood war and start open battle with the forces of good.

@@aikar6487 I usually manage it by severely scaling back the actual power that the gods are able to exert over the physical world. Not in terms of politics or potential collateral damage, but that they have a huge power drop-off when not on their home plane. That's why they want their faiths to spread, so that they can give instructions to whatever plane the worshippers are natives of, and have those worshippers carry out the god's wishes on those planes without having to work around being permanently debuffed while they're doing it.

This is sort of my premise for an aasimar who turns away from the gods of good and becomes a priest of Kelemvor. Not evil/fallen, but similar vibes. As an aasimar, everyone in his village thought he was this great savior and they felt so proud and blessed to have him grow up among them. One day, a fiendish incursion absolutely tears his town apart and he finds, to his shock, that the powers of good absolutely did not care. The people's lives were insignificant in the cosmic war of good and evil. The survivors of the incursion then despise the aasimar, assuming he had abandoned the gods and was the reason for their suffering. He leaves in disgrace, having done nothing wrong but feeling like the gods of good were uncaring and neglectful of the mortal plane. Blah blah blah, ends up finding comfort in the neutrality of Kelemvor and finds solace in comforting the bereaved, healing the sick, performing funeral rites, destroying the undead, etc. Kind of a philosophy where everything has a natural life that should be filled but not extended, so he's good with healing disease and resurrecting those killed before their time but is against those seeking immortality and undeath. During his adventuring career, gets pulled into a more cosmic good vs evil setting and now has the gods from his past calling on him to fulfill his destiny but he still feels like they treat mortals like himself like pawns and wants nothing to do with their game, but still wants to do what he feels is right. Kind of a "destiny finds you on the road you chose to avoid it" situation.

DiA's statblock is before player involvement, MToF is the failure condition of DiA where she fully embraces the fiend side.

Just because it's related to the Shadowfell in the books doesn't mean I'm not allowed to run the Hexblade with a different origin. Besides I find it very limiting to tie the Hexblade to the Shadowfell when there is so much more one can do with a Hexblade.

“Did you just call my mom a troll?!”

Yes we will get them up there for sure.

I'm totally into an overview of the Obyriths, and then deep dives on each of them.

Honestly, I'm having a hard time thinking of any big time d&d characters in the lore that have redemption arcs. Even Zariel's is dubious depending on which ending to the module WotC considers to be canon when it all gets updated. There are way more stories of falls from grace. If you're talking about pop media in general, then I can see an argument.

I'm currently playing a character that has a piece of Glasya's spark that was broken off during the Time of Troubles-it's not ever explicitly said that she possess one, but she's the daughter of Asmodeus, so eh? Anyway, he is the one tutoring my divine soul sorcerer in how to draw magic out of, and grow, the spark when she dreams after a level up. So I'll let you know? All signs point to not really, but Bowser is also totally willing to use his kids in plots for dominion.

In my game lathander just killed Helm with Mystra. Tiamat actually was hooking up with Helm (at least we think right now) during Torm's holiday where they basically act like the movie the purge. One of the characters is the daughter of helm and tiamat, yet she doesn't know this, and one of the asimars is ascended to follow tiamat who used to follow Helm but he has no idea about this relationship. So they are in Avernus right now and that's why I ask about it. Omg I just heard you talked about tiamat and zariels relationship soooo 👍

Where would tiamat want to live is she left her prison on avernus

With tiamat gone, dis bator is going frantic