The Forgotten Realms designers get together this week to answer the question that's foremost on everyone's mind:

What interesting aspects of the Forgotten Realms can be more fully explored thanks to the new D&D rules?

Skip Williams: There are all kinds of cultures and magical practices that fit more easily into the new rules than they did with the old ones. The witches and berserkers of Rashemen, for example -- these make much better sorcerers and barbarians than old-style wizards and fighters.

Rob Heinsoo: The new D&D feats gave us a tool to use to model characters from different regions, also. Fighters from the Dalelands won't necessarily be exactly like fighters from Cormyr or fighters from Amn, and our new regional feat system lets us portray that with game mechanics.

Skip Williams: In a similar vein, the new multiclass rules work better with certain key characters' histories. Elminster, for example, has been a fighter, a cleric, a rogue, and a wizard.

Sean Reynolds: Yes, in 2nd edition AD&D, you had to have specialty priests to allow you to build clerics with powers appropriate to your deity. For example, if your character worshipped Torm, the god of paladins, you had to design a specialty priest that gave you some of the abilities of a paladin and a warrior; in the new D&D, that can be accomplished by allowing the cleric to multiclass as a paladin and remain in favor with the church of Torm. Likewise with a cleric of Mystra, the goddess of magic -- her specialty priests developed the ability to cast wizard spells; in the new D&D, these characters can multiclass as wizards or sorcerers to show their devotion to their deity. We no longer need special rules on how this works, because the D&D multiclassing rules work so well.

Rob Heinsoo: On the subject of clerics, the new D&D rules for clerical domains have given us an opportunity to detail the religions of the Realms in the campaign setting. The emphasis in the new D&D is on how the faith affects the cleric and the world, not on how many hit points the deity has. We've got 40 major deities presented in detail along with the clerical domains for all the rest of the world's deities!

Sean Reynolds: Also, because D&D allows spellcasters to create magic items more easily and at lower levels, it provides an in-game reason why there are so many minor magic items available in the Realms. No longer is item creation limited to the highest practitioners of the art -- your common hedge wizard might be able to crank out a potion now and then. And this very idea allowed us to make a radical change in one of the big villain groups...

How will the new Realms campaign setting use prestige classes?

Rich Baker: The new concept of prestige classes allows us to put very exciting spins on some of the most iconic characters in the Realms. Archmages, Harpers, Red Wizards, Purple Dragons, and Champions allow players to aspire to have their characters join some of the most interesting and influential organizations and fellowships in Faerûn.

Rob Heinsoo: Prestige classes let us present many exciting Realms-specific character options that work better than the 2nd edition AD&D kits, some of which were unbalanced and clunky.

Rich Baker: We're also going out of our way to support some of the "fringe" races that have been around as NPCs for a long time -- character races such as duergar, deep gnomes, and (you guessed it) the drow.

Rob Heinsoo: Yes... you get to play drow!!! The changes in the races in the D&D game have had wonderful echoes in the Forgotten Realms. The nonhuman races of the Realms are now more accessible as PCs, more likely to want to be adventuring with humans, and possessed of new Realms-specific options that will complement adventuring parties nicely.

Rich Baker: Players are going to find a wealth of options to explore, and they're all going to feel like part of the world to a degree that our players have never before experienced.

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