Is TNO the most powerful being in D&D universes?
MonoCanalla
Member Posts: 291
And I am talking towards end of the game. Although gods might be out of the question. I don't have enough deep knowledge to compare him to Elminster, Bigby, or any of those lich kings, but I have reasons to believe he overpowers them. In any cases, I cans't picture any kind of PC from an D&D game being more powerful than him.
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I haven't read a lot of Forgotten realms novels, but as far as I can tell power levels.. aren't particularly consistent? At the very least the D&D adaptations don't seem interested in being consistent, nor do I expect them to be.
MotB makes a strong case for a really powerful PC though, but it's not canon of course.
I'd think TNO is just lacking the mage spellbook and the equipment that characters like the spawn of Bhaal has access. But still. That souldn't make the difference, as TNO just needs a trip to Toril to make things even.
But I wish I have more knowledge about powerful characters in Forgotten Realms, or those powerful mages from Greyhawk to be able to judge.
Or maybe he willed himself out of existence?
- The weakest Transcendent One appears if the Nameless One is level 18 or lower.
- A stronger form appears if the Nameless One is between levels 19 and 33.
- An even stronger form appears if the Nameless One is between levels 34 and 66.
- A yet stronger form appears if the Nameless One is between levels 67 and 89.
- The strongest Transcendent One appears if the Nameless One is at least level 90.
By the way, here are the stats of the version of the Transcendent One for when you're at least level 90:(By the way, this Transcendent One may be another contender for the most powerful being)
What this means is that the idea of the Nameless One potentially being a level 90 character is an idea that the developers entertained.
If TNO had access to the spells, abilities and weapons of ToB that would be a different thing, though.
Unless I am forgetting anything important.
From a mechanical perspective, 2nd edition didn't have real rules for epic level adventuring past a certain point, and certainly did not have rules to address being level 90. Even then, I'd say that Transcendent One is probably statistically more powerful than TNO (discounting of course the epic level spells masquerading as level 7 spells). The level 90+ Transcendent One has an effective health pool of almost 4,000 hit points for his weakest resistances (physical damage), which is more than 13 Watcher's Keep Demogorgons combined. To take him down, you'd need more than 22 rounds of 5 critical hits per round with a Celestial Fire (assuming all critical hits deal max double damage), which I'd describe as rather unrealistic.
Now, please consider the level cap Planescape:Torment has as non canon. It’s rather stupid. In a realistic sense, this guy can’t pretend to earn level 90 by farming the same kills over and over. I don’t know 4th and 5th D&D editions, but earning epic xp should be conditioned to new variables. Killing a thousand goblins in a day should give you that much experience? TNO is very powerful as a narrative mechanism in a particular story, but I defend that we could consider him a 20-30 level character in the D&D universe as canon. I love the story of the game so much, I’d like to consider him as a legit real player in the D&D Hall of Fame.
If we're comparing to other PCs that are permitted to reach equivalent levels, then TNO is no more powerful than a Mage of a similar level, especially considering his lack of access to gear. A semi-optimized Sorcerer or Mage Bhaalspawn would probably wipe the floor with the most optimized TNO of an equivalent level. If TNO is permitted to reach level 30 in 2e rules, then he is on par with characters like Elminster and mid- to endgame ToB Bhaalspawn.