Mordenkainen: Unveiling the Legend of D&D's Master Wizard 

Haha, Greyhawks Oerth Finland so it must be called Ofinland

He’ll get a vid! They are pretty closely related

For real. Elminster the Merlin of DnD and gets slept on .

Elminster is a mary sue simp for the Goddess of Magic.

@justinhammer3196 and thats why we love him 😌

​@@The_NaturalOneswheres the vid?

Precisely.

Indeed

I don't know if it was made by Gary and Mordenkainen's player first, or if it was created with the Demon Fraz'urlubu who Gygax made up when he'd decided two partymembers with Vorpal weapons was two too many. And created a demon with Disjunction just to destroy those swords he regretted giving out.

Oh wait Mordenkainen WAS Gygax.

Yeah mordekainen was Gary's original character. The whole party gets shout-outs in earlier editions. This one just stayed popular throughout.

Yes, you are correct, speaking in this context I mean Forgotten Realms setting and lore. Misspeak on my part!

You're neglecting how many years Ed worked on other projects. He was there to help shape some of the TSR products as a consultant while he was still publishing in Dragon Magazine.

Ed's definitely a forefather of DND even if he's not literally one of "the creators" he's definitely been one of the most significant creators of official lore..

haha nice

He was, until the woke 5e writers screwed with him.

Likely was an inspiration

@@sirellyn what is your definition of woke

@@Henbot a"WOKE"en to a critical consciousness. i.e. Someone with the critical (cult) theory belief system who put it into praxis.

Elminster Gandald Sure... Mordenkainen for Saruman though??

Elminster = lecherous self-insert of the author

And the best way to make an enemy of all of your players as a DM 🤣

@@Foretelling If you want to piss them off, you'd be using Epic Spells instead of these puny level 9 spells.

Would love a vid on raistlin majere

Would be cool to have one for the Dragonlance people lol

Seriously you deserve way more views!

Between dalamar the dark Tasha they fey elminster or mordenkainen I think if they got into a fight to the death the simbul would win

Sorry sir, I’ll remedy this

Vecna and Iuz entered the chat.

Thanks man, appreciate the kind words

Storytelling. At the end of the day they have to give these guys stat blocks. In my head a lot of the lore of the books is different from the modules that have player characters in them

They take on Strahd as a group, hopefully with allies and powerful artifacts that are available. Fate chose them to find these items, where as Mordenkainen went in solo and underestimated the true power of Strahd. The party beat Strahd the same way he beat Mordenkainen, not taking him or the group as a threat.

Fair enough! It’ll take a while to make an Elminster video with all that’s out there

Vecna and Iuz are clearly more powerful. They've managed to ascend their mortality.

What about Mortykenian....the apprentice of Rick Sanchez....lol

Ya…

Wasn’t he higher level in previous editions? And does he not also have some extra powers that ostensibly put his CR well above 20?

@@jemm113 I'm not talking about his CR. He has 18 Wizard levels. Class levels are not the same as monster CR. His CR is likely well above 18, yes.

This is actually a misnomer - he's been multiple levels throughout multiple editions. Most notably, even exceeding 20th in 1st and 2nd - where you had adventure modules for up to 100th level! :D THE WILD DAYS!

@@LAJackson123 In 5th and 3rd Edition, Mordenkainen is an 18th-level Wizard. If that clarifies my point.

Sorry, but I have a character in NWN as a level 26 sorceress, level 4 bard, and level 10 Dragon Disciple, level 9 spells plus Devastating Critical with my rapier.

The real raistlin went from the red robes to the black and his deal with a dark mage fistandantalus was what gave him bad health. He fought and beat the dark queen takahisis but didn't like that future so conceded defeat and earned peace

Ya kinda feels like they wanted a bit of a big reveal for the mad mage, and mordekainen is probably the biggest name

The way I look at Strahd's RAW stats, he is so positive that he can take down the party and other opponents that he handicaps himself. He doesn't see anyone as a true equal and for that he will never put his full effort in beating an opponent. Remember that in the book, one of his goals is to find a successor. It states verbatim, "he (Strahd) shifts his attention from Ireena Kolyana and van Richten to his new guests so that he can determine whether any of them is worthy to be his successor or consort. (Eventually, he decides that none of them can replace him as master of Barovia, but he doesn't arrive at this conclusion immediately.)" pg 10 Curse of Strahd Adventure Book. He believes that he is the best of the best and everyone else is dirt beneath his shoes.

When your talking about strahd in this case, your not just dealing with “strahd the vampire” your dealing with “Lord Strahd” vessel of the “dark powers” of dread. In that scope…I can see it.

@@The_NaturalOnes the mad mage Halaster?

Mordenkainen is an 18th level wizard. He absolutely should've been able to fight the CR 15 Strahd von Zarovich.

Really?? I’ve seen many pronunciations, including just Earth. Do you know if that’s in any of the books or anything?

@@The_NaturalOnes According to the official pronunciation guide in Dragon no.93 (January 1985) p.28 and Gary Gygax on an EN-World Q&A: 'Say it as Oi-th as if you were from Brooklyn, and that's the way I pronounce it. That annoys all who take a fantasy world far too seriously.". But I met Gygax at a convention in 1983 and asked him whether drow was pronounced drow as in 'cow' or as in 'go'. He said something like - 'I say drow [as in cow], but it is your game, say it how you want', so Gary was not doctrinal about pronunciation.

You are correct in both cases. I dont care what they say is canon now.​@@elliotvernon7971

That would be really embarrassing considering I have a video on him. Ya you could debate who stronger, Mord definitely has more feats recorded in lore, but Karsus probably wins in raw magical prowess

@@The_NaturalOnes My bad this is the first video of yours I came across.

@@jaredrobinson7071 No worries, just jokin around

Maybe, I certainly had heard more about Mordenkainen, partially since their are source books he’s written about. I think maybe Elminster is in more books but as far as recent editions I think Mord has been a bit more prevalent

Only because Elminster is basically a demigod at this point. He is a chosen of Mystra, the strongest Wizard in any reality, is usually stated as a epic wizard with levels of rogue and fighter as well. Making stories with him for gameplay is really hard.@@The_NaturalOnes

@@The_NaturalOnes5e lore is watered down. Any other edition and you’d know Elminster but WotC decided they don’t care for him this last decade for some reason.

Really isn't. Either Mordenkainen doesn't exist in YOUR world cause he's Gygax' PC and you dont okay Greyhawk. Or he became powerful enough to travel the multiverse bringing his legend to every new edition.(If youre actually only playing greyhawk Theres even less wrong with his travels) Iconic characters can be turned to NPCs. And Mordenkainen is the prime example for an iconic mage. The character's changed and is part of the games lore. If you feel you're stealing someone's PC simply don't use him(or any NPCs for that matter) and make some up. Noone forces you to use Vecna/Tasha/Mordenkainen etc but saying "this character cant travel the multiverse cause his player wouldnt" makes zero sense. That would imply Gygax wouldn't Play Mordenkainen is character and the one we got in lore is a version from a different universe(parallel-Mordenkainen) either way i look at it, it makes LESS sense for Mordenkainen to remain in greyhawk than to use his abilities and explore the endless unknown

@@onkelreyleigh6353 Well, I don't use Vecna, Tasha or any other fabricated NPC as I prefer creating my own characters, but as far as Mordenkainen goes: it was Gary's personal character that he rolled-up back at 1972 at level 1 and he never allowed anyone else to play the character or even revealed the stat blocks or PC sheet in any publication. So sure, people can "use" Gary's creation in their games and WOTC can do whatever they what with the character as it's now their IP,, but in all honesty what you have is not the actual character of Mordenkainen that was created by Gary and built-up from years of gameplay, but an carbon copy imitation that was never meant to be used as an NPC.

@@samiam9538 as i said: treat him as a multiversal copy then. In all honesty i'm not feeling too bad about using Gygax' PCs. Out of everyone involved with TSR least of all his

@@onkelreyleigh6353 Anyone can use Mordenkainen just as much as Gandalf or Conan in their campaigns .But because I want to honor and accept what those authors envisioned for their creations, I wouldn't put them into my games. Besides, I can come up with my own wizards and barbarians.

@@onkelreyleigh6353 It's not...Exactly a multiverse because the various worlds of the Prime Material plane are not spun out of alternate timelines, they're actual worlds within the same Physical Reality. Thus the ability to bounce to an outer or inner plane and back into a different part of the Prime, or to Spelljammer your way over. Well, other than Strahd, Mystara, Dragonlance and a few others which have various different forms of protection from intrusion through other planes or via Spelljamming. (Like Mystara space being actual airless vacuum without any sort of Ether or Phlogiston) Eberron also has a fully unique cosmology with different planes so it's arguably the only one that's actually "Multiversal"

*mystra's ban

Thanks!

Well she’s a witch

Which ones?

I mean maybe, but did book gandalf ever canonically drink soda whole sitting in Ed Greenwood’s living room?

@@The_NaturalOnes "Hey Gary, I want to write articles about our characters visiting my house." "Yeah sure Ed, just remember to clear it with the lawyers this time"

Haha I was actually thinking this when I made it. He’s only a CR 15 which isn’t crazy

It is really bad writing but I doubt its beacuse hes male and white, cmon. Besides, they messed up pretty much everything even the flumphh. Edit: no idea how to spell flummph

Not close, Elminster is the strongest being the chosen of the god of magic, plus his silly wizard levels, magic items, etc

Mordenkainen was Gary Gygax's player character, so he was as powerful as he needed to be.

I wonder where current Gromph Baenre would stack up now that he also has the psionic abilities learned from Kimmuriel Oblodra and the Illithids.

His clone can beat a thousand sukunas lol

Who is?

Many would argue Elminster…

​​@@kanedonaldson1248 The Symbal....she is about 30 plus levels mordenkainen is low 20 level.

There’s no “proper” dnd setting, it’s a multiverse with many campaign settings. Forgotten realms may be the most popular, especially in 5e, where it certainly feels like “the” setting

Greyhawk is *THE* Dungeons and Dragons setting, it was the one most GMed and played by its Creator. However being his main setting meant others didn't get to write nearly as many novels about it, and thus it(And Mystara, another of the true OG DnD settings) ended up sidelined by the settings with more Secondary fiction, especially when the licensed videogames wanted recognizable novel characters and thus would further double down on using Forgotten Realms. (Or Eberron for DDO strangely enough, though they goofed up and gave Eberron a Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk style underdark with Drow)