Magic hating faction at the Forgotten Realms

[Nihilus]

Hello fellow adventurers and dungeon masters!

I'm going to run a new campaign with a few friends that takes place in the Forgotten Realms. So one of my players thought of an idea about his character background. Be a fugitive or something like that running from a Wizard/Sorcerer hating faction.

I know that a lot of guys hate sorcerers (like the red dudes of thay) but I'm looking for something that hates magic generally.

[Psyren]

"Hates magic" isn't enough to go on; we need to know what he likes as well. How extranormal does he want his own character to be?

For instance, I can be a psion that hates magic, a binder that hates magic, a warblade/crusader that hates magic, etc.

[hamishspence]

"Hates arcane magic" - there's a faction in Lords of Darkness, called House Karanrok- they reside in the city of Luthcheq in that nation of Chessenta, and worship an enormous sphere of annihilation.

[Zeta Kai]

This organization here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12060170#post12060170) is an anti-magic group that I recently posted in the World-Building forum. Its name means "the Magic Hunters". It is originally from the Hourglass of Zihaja project, but can be adapted to fit into any campaign setting. Feel free to use it, should it suit you.

[Yora]

"Hates arcane magic" - there's a faction in Lords of Darkness, called House Karanrok- they reside in the city of Luthcheq in that nation of Chessenta, and worship an enormous sphere of annihilation.

That's the only one I know. I think the Uthgardt barbarians from The North also really don't like arcane magic, but I'm not completely sure and they are hardly an organization. It's just part of their culture.

[Kol Korran]

how about something similar, yet different- in FR there are two sources to magic- The Weave, and The Shadow Weave. (created by Shar) your guy could be opposed by users of the shadow weave for some reason, less likely just because he is a wizard, but perhaps one of the following:

- he discovered some secret plan, an agent or base of operation of theirs.

- he somehow interact differently with one of the weaves or both: perhaps he's more powerful in the regular weave, or he's not affected by the shadow casters improved abilities, or perhaps he can use the shadow weave without being corrupted? (thought that may take a feat)

- the module Tearing of the Weave presents an alternate counting of the years, alternate prophecies, known mostly by the priesthood of Shar. perhaps he is to play some key role in choosing which counting is more dominant at some point?

i still had it written in a campaign log it seems:

1352 Year of the Dragon Year of the lost king

1353 Year of the Arch Year of the Masks

1354 Year of the bow Year of the Great Reaping

1355 Year of the Harp Year of the Retreat

1356 Year of the Worm Year of the Drow

1357 Year of the Prince Year of the Spell Flames

1358 Year of Shadows Year of the Ascention

1359 Year of the Serpent Year of the Carnival

1360 Year of the Turret Year of Armies

1361 Year of the Maidens Year of the Golden Discovery

1362 Year of the Helm Year of the Sun

1363 Year of the Wyvern Year of Winter

1364 Year of the Wave Year of Lords

1365 Year of the Sword Year of Joyous Elves

1366 Year of the Staff Year of Icy Waters

1367 Year of the Shield Year of Unmasking

1368 Year of the Banner Year of the Sons

1369 Year of the Gauntlet Year of the City's Sorrows

1370 Year of the Tankard Year of the Deep War

1371 Year of the Unstrung Harp Year of the Toppling Towers

1372 Year of the Wild Magic Year of Dark Returns

1373 Year of the Rogue Dragons Year of Madness

1374 Year of the Lightning storms Year of the Unraveling

1375 Year of the Bent Blade Year of False hopes

1376 Year of Risen Elfkin Year of Harsh Goals

1377 Year of the Cauldron Year of Broken Hearts

1378 Year of the Cauldron Year of Broken Hearts

1379 Year of the Lost Keep Year of Lost Wisdom

1380 Year of the Blazing hand Year of the Dull Blade

1381 Year of the Starving Year of the fool

1382 Year of the Black Blazon Year of Unwelcome Guests

1383 Year of the Vindicated warrior Year of Unjust Rewards

1384 Year Three Streams Bloodied Year of Stolen Thrones

1385 Year of the Blue Fire Year of the revelation

i don't remember which column is the regular counting and which is the Shar counting, and i don't have my FR books no more, but if you do, it shouldn't be a problem to figure out.

[herrhauptmann]

Lets see, Karsites (ToM, descendents of Karsus and his slaves) are unable to cast spells of any sort. And as a race, they breed true, but create recessive genes when breeding with humans (and other races, in case you want karsite half orcs)
Fluff says they have a few enclaves bent on controlling the world.

There's the Kir-lanans, they hate the gods and all divine casters. They can not cast divine spells. And are as a race cursed to Kelemvors realm as faithless. I always felt they should've done more to make the Kir-lanans a noticeable threat in 3.X.

If you pull in some eberron, Quor-bred gets you a bit of psi immunities (forget the specifics).

Rangers can take FE:Arcanists.

Shining South has a prestige class called magehound, but I'm pretty sure it's for casters that hunt casters. Also, it's an early 3.5 book, so power creep is probably significant.

Occult slayer is a good way of surviving against mages, but doesn't do much to help you kill them.
Witchslayer and Suel (Netherese?) Arcanamach give ways for melee to use a disjunction on a caster. But the save is pretty low, and the arcanamach is a prebuilt gish PrC.

And of course there's the Mageslayer line of feats. Mageslayer, Pierce Magic Concealment (requires blindfight), and Pierce Magic Protection (would bypass even Epic Mage Armor spell)

There's just a few ways that mage haters can have a mechanical effect.

[CapnVan]

"Hates arcane magic" - there's a faction in Lords of Darkness, called House Karanrok- they reside in the city of Luthcheq in that nation of Chessenta, and worship an enormous sphere of annihilation.

To amplify that, Tiamat is now issuing divine spells to the cults adherents. They've also started expanding into other areas of the Realms with the goal of eliminating all wizards. The original sphere has since spawned more versions of itself, via Tiamat, allowing them to transport them out of the one Chessentan city they began in to their various mansions/bases around the Realms, which then stand in for the original.

Lords of Darkness (presumably intentionally) doesn't detail where those extensions of the cult are. Meaning you can easily use them anywhere.

[Venger]

Check out "Forsaker" from Masters of the wild. their flavour text literally starts out with:

"Magic is evil."

you need iron will/lightning reflexes/great fort to qualify (so you can get in at lvl 1 w/2 flaws as a nonhuman and w/1 as a human) and you get SR10+class lvl, some fast healing (limited to a finite pool of hp/day) and some DR/+x weapons that is predicated on you destroying class lvl x 100gp in magic items every 24 hours and a few other things

in order to qualify you also have to give away all magic stuff you own and never have another one (no potions, no nothing) and can never be the willing target of a spell (no heals, no buffs, no teleports, nothing), your SR automatically applies and if you cheat you lose your powers for a year and a day. full BA, good fort/will. excellent choice for a magic hater.

[Lupis2004]

There's always Gond, basically the God of technology. His clergy aren't keen on magic so there could well be a breakaway faction who want to take out arcane casters; whether or not they are backed by Gond himself or another God that has seen an opportunity to cause trouble (depending on your period Cyric would be the perfect God to both masquerade as Gond initially to drive the priests mad and to use them against Mystra).

[Bugbeartrap]

There's the Cowled Wizards from Amn that are very much into hunting down rogue spellcasters. However, as they are spellcasters they don't "hate magic".