If Mystra's Chosen are a "problem" 1

I have grown rather irritated by the tedious, repetitive, and illogical claims that Mystra's Chosen, or equally narrowly focused but powerful NPC groups, are somehow an impediment for every DM to deal with, and with the equally tedious, repetitive, and illogical idea-threads for removing, slaying, or neutralizing them simply to address the non-issue of their potential disruption of the campaign. Therefore, rather than dealing with them individually, I will simply put an end to the fallacy here.

According to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the population of Faerûn consists 68,000,000 inhabitants. Therefore, in an average Forgotten Realms campaign consisting of four players, there are a minimum number of 67,999,996 corresponding NPCs. According to the Dungeon Master's Guide, 50% of all randomly generated NPCs will be of a chaotic evil, neutral evil, or lawful evil alignment. That in turn means that on average there are 33,999,998 potential NPC villains for a good or neutral oriented party to slay, thwart, or capture; or alternatively for the PCs to be slain, be thwarted, or be captured by.

By contrast, there are 9 named Chosen of Mystra in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, and arguably less than 12 (alive, dead, in-between, or otherwise out of the picture) Chosen of Mystra in total who have been named and/or given statistics in subsequent 3E/3.5 official Forgotten Realms accessories and web enhancements.

Therefore, not only do we have the statistically illogical possibility of the Player Characters ever randomly encountering, being aided, or being confronted by such a character, we likewise have the supremely illogical possibility of such NPCs acting as an automatic impediment, plot-foil, or spotlight stealer for the adventure, or as the only line of defense against the forces of evil.

Even if each of the 9 named and listed Chosen of Mystra in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting suddenly and illogically chose to drop everything at hand and devote ALL their efforts to tracking down, ambushing, and neutralizing 1 random evil aligned NPC villain per day---be it a 2nd level Aristocrat who has imprisoned the 1st level party, or a 30th level archwizard who could one day threaten Faerûn itself---it would take them 10,350 years to kill every evil being in Faerûn who had been in existence at the time they began such an endeavor. Incidentally, in a fraction of that time frame the entire population of evil beings in Faerûn would have been replaced as more beings are born (whose alignments will be just as random as those who had birthed them), and in turn gain experience and power over the years, and fill the vacant roles of conqueror king, corrupt baroness, thief extraordinaire, vile cultist, foul necromancer, or any of a dozen fantasy campaign villain clichés.

That of course is ignoring the rather obvious fact that non-player characters of the power and position of Mystra’s Chosen have an infinite number of other things that aught to be occupying their time, apart of single-handedly "ruining" an adventure before it begins; such as ruling a country, and/or heading an organization, and/or instructing apprentices, and/or creating new spells and magic items, and/or tending to the Weave, and/or pursuing the goals of their patron Goddess, and/or dealing with their own agendas, foes, and goals (as opposed to the agendas, foes, and goals of the PCs), or even in the case of a few of the Chosen--the rather simplified daily agenda that comes with being outright dead.

Apparently it is too much to ask for the endless throngs of Mystra-haters to actually read the "Concerns of the Mighty" or the "Make the PCs the Stars" sections of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Instead we on these boards and other avenues of realms discussion endure an endless stream of player/DM-contrived scenarios where they are explained out of the adventure, explained out of the story, or simply killed off altogether, when not one of the above is ever a necessary or rational approach to dealing with the phantom "problem" of their existence.

If you are a DM and the Chosen of Mystra are a “problem” in your campaign, either as potential insurmountable adversaries for your evil player characters, or as potential plot-foil and/or spotlight thief for your good player characters, then you only have yourself to blame, because the rules, guidelines, and demographics of the Forgotten Realms ensure that they reliably won't be.

If you are a player, and the Chosen of Mystra are a “problem” in your campaign, either as potential insurmountable adversaries for your evil characters, or as potential plot-foil and/or spotlight thief for your good characters, then you need to find a DM who has read the books necessary for running a campaign in the Forgotten Realms, namely the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, and/or a DM who doesn't have a fixation for using Iconic NPCs as "DMPCs", and/or a DM who understands that events found in novels focused on a given character, or massive realms-shaking events that might occur in others, are in no way representative of consistent daily life in Faerûn (for adventurers or otherwise).

Lastly, if you are a novel reader, and the Chosen of Mystra are seen as a “problem” in your ability to enjoy reading them, then a simple suggestion would be to exercise the minimal amount of common sense to not purchase novels with the names or likenesses of the Chosen of Mystra on the cover, in the title, or mentioned somewhere on the back cover blurb. It should hardly be an unbearable shock to anyone that a book bearing the name “Elminster” in the title would actually have the (gasp) audacity to show Elminster of Shadowdale as a protagonist and (double-gasp) one who, as one of the most powerful beings in Faerûn, actually succeeds in his endeavors.

Mystra and her Chosen, or arguably any other powerful NPC organization, are not a problem or impediment for enjoying the Forgotten Realms. By contrast, it would be players, DMs, and readers who cannot understand simple D&D demographics, and/or who do not read or adhere to the rules and campaign guidelines, who then in turn contrive the false idea that any ability to enjoy a campaign in Faerûn must invariably mean the ad-hoc mass-elimination or mass-omission of a mere handful of NPCs, amidst the massive pool of 68,000,000 others.