Does any of you has ever read something about his true identity ?
1. Tensor wasn't killed in Rary's explosion. He was blown into the future. Philodor is actually Tensor transformed and returned to present time. This is why Iuz hates him so. Does Return of the Eight flatly conflict this? Probably, but maybe a clone could be raised if Tensor was in another timeline. It is interesting his little dretch form is also blue.
2. This one was from Gary Holihan. He said Philodor was a construct of Two of the Gods. Pelor and Mayaheine perhaps? I don't recall which two Gods he mentioned and keep forgetting to ask him about it.
Personally Philidor makes Elminster look cool, IMO. He doesn't exist in my campaign.
The comining of two gods is a line I've heard before. I read somewhere, and of course I cannot remember where, that it is Pelor and Allitur.
But who knows...
Originally posted by rostoff
1. It is interesting his little dretch form is also blue.
According to the monster books, 2nd and 3rd edition, all dretches are blue.
Halber
When you put it all together, it makes sense. Firstly, he's blue... in everything he does, there is blue. He transforms into a goat, it's a blue goat. That's just unnatural. He knows practically everything there is to know about anything. He's immune to virtually everything, and most importantly, to mind-influencing affects which further lends credence to the fact that he's a construct. And his sole area of interest is the Vesve and surrounding lands, which are dominated by elves and half-elves that are under direct threat.
It was also mentioned that Carl forgot to include some things like immunity to illusions, IIRC, which would've further suggested Philidor's nature as a construct.
Personally, I don't see the relation to Elminster. He's in my game 'cause I think he's cool, with or without the additional information above.
Greyhawk has enough novel personalities without inserting Elminister clones.
Or maybe just maybe he's a normal half-elvin mage who likes the color blue so much that he was always called blue and when he grew in power he became known as Phillidor the Blue.
It clicked, "Oh, Philidor is Gandalf, watching Minas Morgul from Minas Tirith."
The gods who reportedly collaborated to construct Philidor are Pelor and Corellon Larethian. I looked for the post in the GreyTalk Archives for several minutes but could not find the exact post -- though I've read it (reposted?). Noel Graham, aka Watcher, was the original poster, reportedly friendly with Carl Sargent.
I like Philidor primarily because I like the color blue. Seriously. Of the rationales, I prefer to link him to Tenser (in that Future Now way). However, I've never used Philidor IMC. If PCs were in the area and the time was right I still might take a pass on 'im.
Originally posted by Psionycx
Greyhawk has enough novel personalities without inserting Elminister clones.
This is one of those really inane comments that bug the crap out of me, not that I'm surprised you'd be the one to make such a comment.
Please explain and list all the similarities between Philidor and Elminster, aside from the fact that they're both good and wizards.
This is my main pet peeve about FR: on an average day, PC's are just extras whose sole purpose is to ooooo appreciately at the daring exploits of Ed Greenwood's signature twinks.
Philidor added nothing to the setting other than to provide someone like Elminister, a deus ex machina to pop in, cast super spells and pop out again.
And before you judge my statements as inane Delgath, even though I know you despise me, consider that your beloved writers seem to share my opinion about Philidor's irrelevance, as he vanished into obscurity again in later products.
Originally posted by Psionycx
Distant, detached, meddling twinkish NPC uber-wizards who outstrip their contemporaries in ability (at the time Philidor was a higher level than Mordenkainen or Rary) and yet ultimately add little or nothing to the player's role-playing experience.
Let's get rid of the redundancies in this paragraph. Doing so leaves us with 'distant, meddling, uber wizards who add nothing to the setting'. Right... err... wrong.
If you couldn't pull an adventure seed from the various references and NPC write-up of Philidor then, quite frankly, why are you even playing this game? There were several interesting plot-hooks involving him that didn't require him in anyway to even appear, let alone be a vehicle for deus ex machina. If you missed them, go back and reread the entries on him, here's a list of sources you can use:
Philidor [NPC]
DRG#191 - 66,68
DRG#208 - 54
FTAA - 54
FTAC - 9,83,84,87
FTAR#13
IVID
LGG - 61,128
LGJ#2 - 5
PGTG - 25,26
WGR4 - 39,41,54,55
WGR5 - 6,22,89
Yeah, so very ignored...
My problem with Phillidor and this relates to Elminster only insofar as they both are uber-twink god-like characters is the cartoonish characteristics that violate my version of Greyhawk. At least Elminster doesn't look like Papa Smurf.
[Carl Sargent’s orginal plan for Philidor; based on personal emails from him taken from Greytalk: “Oh yes, Philidor. He is more or less an “avatar construct.” The Powers of Oerth have a pact preventing them from acting directly in Oerth’s affairs including the despatch of true avatars. Philidor isn't a true avatar.
He's a construct, much as a golem is a construct, except he's a lot smarter (he is also, which the original entry didn’t state, wholly immune to any mind- or body-affecting spell because of this. You can’t polymorph him, feeblemind him, hold him, energy drain him, etc. etc.).
Surprise! Pelor and Corellon created him. The Pelor link explains the rumors of his association with Mayaheine, Pelor’s sidekick demideity, and Corellon’s link explains why he's so interested in the Vesve and the Highvale elves. It also explains why he doesn't talk about his past (he doesn't have one). (Any attempt to magically compell him not only fails, but at his option results in a 100% rebound upon the caster, often revealing the caster’s true motives to PtBW; save negates.)
Pelor and Corellon believe the time is soon coming (but “soon” to a Power means decades) when Iuz will really threaten to engulf all the Flanaess, and when that is poised to happen they’re not going to just sit around and let it happen. They would have, somehow, to placate the evil Powers, and this will depend crucially on their own followers unearthing evidence of Iuz allying with tanar’ri with the intention of swamping Oerth with these fiends. If Iuz does not intend this, evidence must be fabricated or manufactured to the satisfaction of the evil Powers that he does.
Plenty of evil Powers wouldn’t care for that overmuch. In turn, this puts Pelor and Corellon in the embarassing position of realizing that the Powers they must effect a peace with are Lawful Evil ones--which Corellon, in particular, loathes above everything (well, almost everything). The two good Powers are banking on a strategic alliance with evil to destroy the Scarlet Brotherhood, because those guys are Tharizdun-worshippers.
Now all this will take time, and Philidor has been constructed to hold the fort (especially in the Vesve and to act as a spy on the Prime Material). In the ongoing campaign, it also means the priests of Pelor, Mayaheine and Corellon are going to get some interesting visions and commands from their Powers before many years have passed. That’s a theme I'm working out in my own Greyhawk campaign and I had intended it for a module series or whatever in the years to come. But then we probably won't see that now. End Carl Sargent’s Philidor Insight]
I also wondered - why Mayaheine though? Beyond her image as the shining hope after the Wars, I wonder if Carl would ever give her a real purpose in an epic module series?
Ah what might have been...
Stuart
Originally posted by Lassiviren
...uber-twink god-like characters is the cartoonish characteristics that violate my version of Greyhawk. At least Elminster doesn't look like Papa Smurf.
Now that's freaking funny. I was LMAO when I read that, Lassiviren.
What and who Philidor is changes depending on who's e-mail you read in GreyTalk. He's Tenser, returned; He's Zagyg, returned; He's an FR parody; He's a construct, etc. So far, he's seems to be vaporware for practical purposes.
As long as the globes in the Vesve are not Will o' the Wisps, I'm cool.
Originally posted by skerrigan
Here's Carl's take, reposted from an annotated electronic copy of the Marklands, but most likely thanks to Noel Graham!
Where would someone be able to attain this annotated electronic copy?
Halber
Stuart
I actually kind of liked the character, right up until reading this post. Not sure I like the Avatar construct idea but I could be convinced by a fleshed out storyline. He rates a couple mentions in the Living Greyhawk Gazatteer so you can't say he has been forgotten.