Talk:Hlam

A Tale of Two Hlams
There's canon inconsistency afoot. A timeline of events:
 * 1987: Waterdeep and the North. Hlam is described as a 7th level lawful good human male monk of Tyr who lives in a cave on Mt. Waterdeep, training other monks (p. 52).
 * 1988: The Savage Frontier. Hlam is mentioned as a 7th level monk of Tyr who serves as Prior at Neverwinter's Hall of Justice (p. 12).
 * At this point, it can reasonably be assumed these are the same character. They'll be referred to as "Master Hlam" (Waterdeep) and "Prior Hlam" (Neverwinter) moving forward.

It seems clear the intention was for Hlam (the original) to move from Waterdeep to Neverwinter, but for whatever reason his story diverged at that point, receiving further development in both locations. So the question is: do we treat Master Hlam and Prior Hlam as the same person, ignoring the inconsistencies (making note of them where applicable)? Or is it better to split this article in two? --Ir&#39;revrykal (talk) 12:06, November 11, 2018 (UTC)
 * 1993: Volo's Guide to the North. Prior Hlam is mentioned as being in charge of training Tyr's devoted, including weapons training. He's described as a lawful good human male "PS" (likely intended to be "P5"; level 5 Priest) of Tyr (p. 133).
 * 1996: The North: Guide to the Savage Frontier. Repeats the information from Volo's Guide, minus the crunch (p. 16).
 * 2005: City of Splendors: Waterdeep. Master Hlam is described as a lawful good, human male, monk 7/cleric 1/sacred fist 6 of Tyr. He still lives in a cave on Mt. Waterdeep, but is now also the leader of the Order of the Even-Handed that combines cleric and monk traditions. It's mentioned his order has strong ties with Neverwinter's Hall of Justice (p. 49). Hlam is described as entirely bald, and wearing simple tunics and a blindfold.
 * 2006: Neverwinter Nights 2. Prior Hlam appears at Neverwinter's Hall of Justice. Among other things, he helps Khelgar Ironfist become a monk, by giving him three trials, one of which is the "Trial of the Even-Handed". Hlam has an eyepatch over one eye, and has a full (albeit balding) head of hair. He's described thusly: "This small, aged man wears the simple robes of an ascetic, but his movements are those of a trained and seasoned fighter." He's a chaotic good human male fighter (this can be explained by Prior Hlam having placeholder statistics in the game, as he never has to engage in combat).
 * 2018: Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Master Hlam appears, again residing in a cave on Mt. Waterdeep. He's described as a lawful good monk of Tyr (a 5th-level spellcaster). He's depicted as entirely bald (no blindfold).
 * To summarize:
 * Master Hlam is an ascetic who lives in a cave on Mt. Waterdeep. He is always described as a monk.
 * Prior Hlam is an ascetic who lives in Neverwinter. He is described first as a monk, then as a priest, then as a fighter.

Possible explanation
I think if you remove the NWN2 entry from the timeline (non-canon) it could be explained that he was dual-classing temporarily losing his monk abilities while training as a priest. He began as a monk up until 1357 DR, trained as a priest in Neverwinter, and trained others, from 1358 DR to 1370 DR. It seems that City of Splendors: Waterdeep seems to try to reconcile these differences in his timeline by giving him stats his as a monk/priest, albeit shifting some of the cleric levels to the sacred fist prestige class.

The key argument for my believing they are the same character was a line from CoS:W where it said he developed a discipline that "(gave) equal weight to cleric magic and monk training".

I think the real inconsistency would be with the information form Neverwinter Nights 2. Considering his strong ties to the city from his years living there training as a priest and training other priests, it would totally make sense for him to train a possible Tyrran. I think the inconsistency in appearance could be noted or explained, along with the class, though as you pointed out that was "under the hood" information anyways.

My vote is same person. Kudos on the research!! Ruf (talk) 15:08, November 11, 2018 (UTC)