Characters / Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Character page for the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

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The Party

In General

"An excess of caution is not part of the culture of this party, is what I'm getting at." -David J. Prokopetz

• Anti-Hero Team: The central team starts out as self-serving rogues, which is actually fairly common for a typical D&D campaign. Doric mellows them out with her more noble cause to save her homeland and even then she's got contempt for humans in general.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Holga the Barbarian, Simon the Sorcerer, and Edgin the Bard fill these roles respectively. Doric's Wild Shape allows her to fill in any one of the aforementioned roles depending on the situation.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Edgin (sanguine), Holga (choleric), Simon (melancholic), and Doric (phlegmatic).
• Idiot Hero: Nobody in the party has an Intelligence-based class, and it's not just relevant for a game mechanics joke when a herd of intellect-devourers completely ignore them. Individual members may be cunning, devious, and/or adaptable, but long-term planning and impulse control are not their specialties.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Edgin and Holga are about a decade or two older than Simon and Doric.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: They may be thieves and rogues, but what keeps them sympathetic is their utter refusal to harm innocent lives while pursuing their goals.
• Worthy Opponent: To Forge and Sofina; the latter in particular respects them for having the courage and tenacity to slay her men and escape from the Underdark with their lives, enough to grant their request to fight for their lives in the arena (and possibly getting resurrected as powerful slaves) in spite of having them captured and dead to rights.

Edgin

Edgin Darvis

"We must never stop failing, because the minute we do, we've failed."

Played by: Chris Pine^{Other languages}Emmanuel Garijo (European French), Nico Sablik (German), Carlo Vázquez (Latin American Spanish)

"Years ago, I swore an oath to fight tyranny, defend the oppressed, and ask nothing in return. [...] To be honest, there were times when I began to question the 'ask nothing in return' part of my Harpers' oath."

A human bard. He used to be a member of the heroic Harpers, until the death of his wife drove him to thievery.

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• Absurd Phobia: He's perfectly brave going up against human(oid) foes ranging from city guards to Red Wizards of Thay — but a flashback shows that he was so frightened of a harmless dragonfly that he hid from it under his bedsheets.
• Action Survivor: A pure example, thanks to his class getting hit hard with the Adaptational Wimp stick. He's not a caster and he's barely a fighter, but he can come up with a steady supply of decent ideas, inspire his team, and stay alive and largely unharmed in incredibly dangerous situations until they need more ideas and inspiration.
• Adaptational Wimp: Bards in the game are powerful, versatile Jack of All Trades support casters who spend most of their time in the thick of the action even if they're not directly hitting people over the head (although some bard colleges can do that, and are actually quite good at it). Edgin demonstrates no native magic whatsoever over the course of the film, and is a pure Action Survivor specialising in leadership, strategy, and tactics. Oddly, his official stat block (released to promote the film) does include some magic spells, but he is never seen overtly using any (though Bardic Inspiration can be overtly magical or simply a morale-boost effect depending on campaign). Also, the spells are all support spells, not damage ones (Friends, Charm Person, Disguise Self, and Message). In an interview with Daley, he suggested that he saw Edgin as a character played by a very casual player, who hasn't bothered to learn how the casting rules work and just focuses on hitting people.
• Anti-Hero: He's a selfish thief, but the movie eventually presses him into doing the proper and heroic thing.
• The Bard: While he does not display the magical abilities of bards in the source material onscreen ^note an official character stat block released by Wizards of the Coast does state he possesses bard spells, he's an excellent performer, he's extremely charismatic, he's got a wide variety of other skills and talents, and his biggest contribution to the team is encouraging them to overcome their problems and be better. He also plays the lute!
• Beware the Nice Ones: A loving father and rogue who insists on not hurting anyone during their heists. Also a former Harper who sabotaged the Thayans' plans so much they hunted down and killed his family, and is perfectly willing to smash a lute into the back of a Thayan mage's head.
• Broken Hero: He knows he's responsible for his wife's death, having broken his oath and leading the Red Wizards to his home.
  Edgin: Me? I'm the champion of failures!
• Chaotic Good: invoked His promotional stat block lists Chaotic Good as his alignment. He's a thief but still heroic at heart — he tries to minimize harm with his thievery and is driven primarily by his family.
• Chaotic Stupid: In the opening scene, he and Holga break out of jail right before they are about to be paroled for good behavior. Had they waited and listened for just a few more seconds, they would have been able to leave without having to worry about the forces of order chasing them.
• Deconstruction: Of the Harper ideology. Normally a valiantly heroic force of good for Baldur's Gate/Dungeons & Dragons' lore, Edgin's predicament in the beginning of the film is entirely because of the Harper's creed to never ask for payment. This leaves him and his wife Zia poor, and turns Edgin to occasional thievery just to get by and make his place livable, and starts the film's plot because Edgin took one gold bar from a Red Wizard just so that he and his wife would be a little more comfortable even on that meager take from the entire hoard and the Red Wizards wouldn't let that go. While Edgin keeps some of the Harper qualities as he becomes an Anti-Hero and mostly keeps his irritations to himself, he still remains somewhat caustic and disillusioned even to the ending and can barely stand Xenk even when it's clear he's helping them out.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: After Sofina, an epic level undead mage, casts a Time Stop spell to defeat the party during the final battle, she walks up to a seemingly frozen Edgin to gloat in his face. He proceeds to tell her that her breath stinks.
• Exact Words: He promises his daughter many times to bring back her mother. While he means to bring his wife back to life, in the end he uses the single-use Tablet of Reawakening to return his best friend Holga to life, who has been Kira's mother in all but blood for as long as she can remember.
• Expy: His status as The Team Normal, and his role of being the planner who specifically makes new plans when the old ones fail makes him one of Adric Fell from the 4th edition comic Dungeons & Dragons: Fell's Five.
• The Face: Is the most socially adept of the party, which is natural given his role as a bard.
• Fantastic Racism: Almost refuses to ask Xenk for help because he's a Thayan, just like the people who killed his wife.
• Guile Hero: As a bard, he's not necessarily a Non-Action Guy (but he's a Non-Action Guy), and his strength comes from his ability to develop plans and inspire his allies to be the best versions of themselves to accomplish them.
• The Heart: A slightly grittier version considering his own personal shortcomings and issues, but he otherwise fits as being the most emotionally aware and socially adept member of the party (even if that isn't saying much). One of the biggest arguments for why he's a Bard despite possessing no obvious bardic magic is due to his genuine ability to be inspirational and charismatic when the party needs him to be, being the driving force that keeps them together in whatever Zany Scheme they drum up.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: In a desperate ploy to provide for his family during his time as a Harper, Edgin stole a bar of gold from some Red Wizards he had helped capture. He didn't realize until later that the Red Wizards marked their treasure in order to locate it if stolen. The gold he stole led a team of Red Wizards to his home while he was away, resulting in his wife's death.
• Improbable Weapon User: Downplayed since it's far less effective than what his companions bring, but his go-to move in a fight is to bonk someone with his lute. According to his official character sheet, it was reinforced to act as an impromptu weapon in a pinch.
• Indy Ploy: Edgin has a tendency to pivot to a new plan if the current one gets into trouble. It's actually the chief thing that makes him useful as a battlefield commander, letting him react to unexpected developments and keep his eye on the bigger picture so the rest of the team doesn't have to.
  Edgin: If the existing plan fails, I make a new plan.
  Doric: So you make plans that fail?
  Edgin: No.
• It's All My Fault: Edgin admits that his wife's death is his own fault; he stole gold from a Red Wizard's treasure trove but didn't know that Red Wizards mark their gold, so the Wizards were able to trace the gold to Edgin's house and kill his wife, Edgin blaming himself further because he wasn't there to at least try to help.
• Keep the Reward: He deconstructs the "ask nothing in return" part of the Harpers' oath. Quite simply, he can't provide for his family without some form of material compensation, and this fact drives him to thievery and then causes him to leave the Harpers entirely.
• The Leader: Robbing Castle Never is his idea. He's the party's initiator, planner, and rousing-speech-giver when the going gets tough.
• Leitmotif: "I Wasn't Always a Thief", which plays during his backstory and is the instrumental for "Juice of the Vine", the song he sings at several points in the movie.
• Like Brother and Sister: When telling the judges his backstory, he recalls how he met Holga and says she was like a sister to him.
• Lovable Rogue: Edgin is a thief and swindler who steals "only from those who can afford it" and is played by Chris Pine with the charm dial turned all the way up.
• Mistaken for Romance: A barkeep mistakes him and Holga for a married couple, with the two immediately being disgusted at the thought.
• Non-Action Guy: He's a noncombatant who prefers to let other party members (particularly Holga) do the ass-kicking. He'll bash someone on the head with a lute if necessary, though. His stat block and promotional art also show him with a shortsword, but he never uses one in the film. The directors compare to the coach of a sports team; he comes up with the play and inspires his party members to make it happen.
• The Oathbreaker: Subverted; he swore off allegiance to the Harpers following his wife's death, even tossing his code book into her pyre, before resorting to a life of thievery. However, Xenk is willing to forgive Edgin and usher him back in, claiming "You may have forsaken your oath, but your oath has not forsaken you." Edgin snarks at the idea, but Xenk's decision is ultimately well-founded — Edgin has lost much and stumbled in his path through life, but he's fundamentally a good person who will always choose to do the right thing to help those in need, Harper or not.
• Papa Wolf: When Forge has Kira at knifepoint, Edgin is doing everything he can to keep himself and his crew calm, but clearly wants nothing more than to throttle the man he once called a friend. The entire reason he sets out on this quest was to get Kira back.
• Parents as People: His selfishness leads to the loss of his wife and results in his disappearance from his daughter Kira's life for two years. Winning back his daughter's trust is an uphill battle, but he gets there in the end.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Zig-Zagging Trope. Despite fitting the general image of a bard, Edgin in practice functions more like a rogue with a lute instead of the musical support caster most D&D players would be familiar with.
• Platonic Life-Partners: He and Holga are best friends who always have each other's backs, even raising Edgin's daughter together. However, they display no romantic interest in each other throughout the film.
• Power Stereotype Flip: Bards typically have very high charisma and are encouraged to be persuasive and seductive, leading to the stereotype of the Horny Bard. Edgin, despite being very handsome, The Face of the party, and making a remark about a lot of people liking his lips, is not ever shown to be seductive or interested in women aside from his late wife. In fact, by present day the only important women in his life are his daughter and his completely platonic best friend.
• Seeks Another's Resurrection: Edgin is motivated by the possibility of bringing his wife back to life. Faced with the death of his best friend Holga, who is also his daughter's surrogate mother, he decides to revive her with his resurrection tablet instead.
• Struggling Single Mother: He was a gender-flipped example to Kira before Holga came along. In his speech, he remarks that Holga took pity on infant Kira, not him.
• The Team Normal: Can't cast magic like Simon or Doric, nor does he have the combat prowess of Holga.
• Utility Party Member: Compared to his companions he's useless in combat, but he makes up for it by being The Face of the team who can strategize on the fly or create a diversion when necessary.
• White Male Lead: He's the focus character of a team otherwise consisting of two black men, a Latino woman and a Caucasian woman.

Holga

Holga Kilgore

"What have we got to lose?"

Played by: Michelle Rodriguez ^{Other languages}Ghada Al-Akel (German), Erica Edwards (Latin American Spanish)

"We need to think of our own hides right now."

Edgin's closest friend. She is a human barbarian who was exiled from her clan because of her relationship with a halfling.

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• Action Girl: Holga, a barbarian woman, likes beating people up and wields a variety of weapons throughout the film.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her ex-husband Marlamin gently calls her "Ho-Ho" after the two make amends and part amicably for good.
• Amazonian Beauty: Holga is a tough, muscular barbarian warrior who's nonetheless attractive and has male admirers (including having a former husband).
• Amicable Exes: Subverted at first with her former husband Marlamin, who she insists on meeting up with to get closure even after he sent her the equivalent of a divorce paper as well as realising he married another barbarian during her time in prison. Played straight however, when they are nothing but respectful to each other, with Marlamin even warmly wishing for her to find love and happiness with someone else, prompting her to accept his handshake as they reconcile and part as friends.
• The Big Guy: She's easily the most physically able member of the team, a Blood Knight who's capable of taking down squads of knights on her own without breaking a sweat.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Naturally, she's the only member of the party to bite it in the final battle (being played by the Chronically Killed Actor Michelle Rodriguez, this also doubles as Vasquez Always Dies), though it is quickly subverted once Edgin uses the tablet to revive her back to life.
• Blood Knight: She loves a good brawl which is quite fitting for a barbarian mind you.
• Brutal Honesty: Her tendency of being blunt with her words doesn't make her an ideal choice for verbal negotiations and planning; she prefers to use physical violence. Hence why Edgin handles most of them.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: She's a tough barbarian who prefers to punch first and ask questions later, and fittingly wields an axe pilfered from a guard for most of the film. In the climax, it is briefly dipped in molten metal, making it look even gnarlier.
• Chaotic Good: invoked Her promotional stat block lists Chaotic Good as her alignment. Like Edgin, she tries to be as good as possible with her thievery, rebels against unjust authority figures and is driven by her positive relationships with other characters.
• Chaotic Stupid: In the opening scene, she and Edgin break out of jail right before they are about to be paroled for good behavior. Had they waited and listened for just a few more seconds, they would have been able to leave without having to worry about the forces of order chasing them.
• Combat Pragmatist: If she doesn't have her preferred weapon in hand, she will instead use everything around her in a fight. Guards included. Her official character sheet gives her the Tavern Brawler feat, which is all about using whatever's on hand as a weapon, including Good Old Fisticuffs if nothing's on hand, and lets her easily use her great strength to grapple enemies and manhandle them around.
• The Exile: Holga was exiled from her barbarian tribe because of her relationship with Marlamin.
• Face Death with Dignity: Holga is stabbed in the chest with a Red Wizard's blade during the final battle, a wound that most resurrection magic can't save her from. She calmly reassures Kira and Edgin that she has no regrets and considers her death in battle A Good Way to Die, and goes out singing the song that Ed had used to cheer her up earlier.
• Hairy Girl: Actress Michelle Rodriguez stated in interviews that she decided to stop shaving her armpits specifically for the part, on her own accord, as well as bulking up at the gym, to really play up the tough image of the character.
• Has a Type: She's a buff woman who's implied to have a thing for tiny guys with peaceful, sensitive personalities: her ex-husband is one, and she winks at another who looks like he matches the description in the ending. It's probably not a coincidence that even her strictly platonic Best Friend, Edgin, is a relatively lightly-built Non-Action Guy with a talent for music.
• Improvised Weapon: She's not just a Multi-Melee Master with conventional weapons — she's capable of seeing the lethal potential in absolutely anything. Even giving her a potato is a recipe for mayhem. Fittingly, her official character sheet gives her the Tavern Brawler feat, which makes her capable with both these and her bare hands.
• Invulnerable Knuckles: She repeatedly punches foes wearing steel armor and helmets without hurting her hands at all. During one fight, she even punches through a thick wooden shelf and doesn't get so much as a splinter.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • When picking up her backup gear from her ex-husband, Holga finds that during her two years in prison he had moved on and remarried an equally formidable but kinder shieldmaiden who prioritizes a happy home over adventure. While understandably heartbroken by this discovery, Holga graciously accepts his wish that she also finds true happiness and a family to call her own, wishes him happiness with a warm handshake, and leaves him in friendship.
  • A non-romantic example by the end. When Edgin revives her with the tablet after her death, she is shocked and incredulous, having expected and wanted Edgin to use it to revive Zia instead so she, Edgin and Kira can be a family.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: She was exiled from her tribe for marrying Marlamin, a halfling.
• Mama Bear: She's furious when Forge holds a knife to her surrogate daughter Kira's throat and threatens violence if the girl isn't released. After she nails Forge in the face with a surprise potato, she coldly exclaims "Nobody hurts my Bug!"
• Mistaken for Romance: A barkeep mistakes Holga and Edgin for a married couple, with both of them immediately being disgusted at the thought.
• Multi-Melee Master: Just like in the game, being an experienced barbarian means that she's familiar with the use of every conceivable weapon (and quite a few inconceivable ones, for that matter). She generally goes for axes because she particularly likes them, but fighting her in, say, an armoury has much the same effect as Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Kilgore, which is exactly the kind of name many D&D players would name a barbarian.
• Parental Substitute: She became a mother figure to Kira after the death of Zia, Edgin's wife, raising her from a baby until her teenage years. Edgin realizes that she basically is Kira's mom and decides to resurrect her instead of Zia.
• Perpetual Frowner: Her default expression is a scowl, which only lets up around people she truly loves and trusts.
• Platonic Life-Partners: She's Edgin's best friend who's been with him through thick and thin, even helping him rear Kira. However, they display no romantic interest in each other throughout the film.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: In spite of being banished from her tribe due to marrying a halfling, Holga still holds immense pride for her warrior heritage, enough so that she takes dying from the incurable wound of a Red Wizard dagger with remarkable grace, happily stating that she will die a hero and honorably join her ancestors in their tribe's Warrior Heaven. She was hence visibly disappointed when Edgin chose to bring her back to life with the Tablet of Reawakening, after realizing that she was the true mother of Kira's life.
• Race Fetish: Has a thing for halflings. Both her ex-husband and a guy she flirts with at the end of the movie are halflings.
• Stout Strength: You'd be pushing it even to call her Hollywood Pudgy, but she's not the twig you'd expect from most Hollywood films, and her armor makes her look thicker than even her muscular frame delivers.
• Super-Strength: Very minor and never directly stated, but she appears to be much stronger than a typical human, able to throw armored men with ease and knock them out with punches to their helmets.^note The strength stat (STR) on her supplementary stat block is listed as 19, higher than a human's untrained maximum by one. By 5e rules she'd be able to push or lift about 570 pounds. She also has a +7 Athletics skill.
• Super-Toughness: She takes being punched, slammed into walls, and being thrown around with no apparent injury, implied to be because of her barbarian powers. ^note In the tabletop game, barbarians have resistance to most forms of conventional attack while raging, and constitution is one of the barbarian's key attributes, meaning several of her class features key off of it. Holga's CON is listed as 16.
• Tattooed Crook: She's got a lot of tattoos on her arms, and spent years earning her living as a thief alongside Edgin.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's extremely butch, to the point of having married a small, sensitive, nurturing man and played the role of "no-good drunken husband" with him. However, her bond with Kira is decidedly maternal, with Holga having cared for her since she was a baby and gifting her the invisibility necklace in the first place.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Unless you have a death wish, do NOT get between her and her potatoes. Even when she first meets Edgin and looks after him (out of pity for his daughter), she gives him a Death Glare for trying to reach for one of the potatoes she has for her lunch. She even throws one at Forge to get him to release Kira!
• Unwanted Revival: Downplayed. Holga perishes in the final fight with Sofina, but Edgin — realizing just how important she is to his daughter — chooses to use the Tablet of Reawakening to bring her Back from the Dead. Her first words to Ed after being revived are "Don't tell me you wasted that thing on me!", but she quickly embraces him and Kira, and seems perfectly content in the epilogue to be back among the living.
• Wrestler in All of Us: As evidenced during her fight with the execution guards, Holga's capable of busting out moves (chokeholds, grand slams, suplexes, etc.) that wouldn't look out of place in a WWE ring.

Simon

Simon Aumar

Played by: Justice Smith ^{Other languages}Marco Eßer (German), Alejandro Orozco (Latin American Spanish)

"Oh, here we go. I hate how everyone thinks you can solve any problem with 'magic'. There are limits. This isn't some bedtime story. This is the real world."

The group's half-elf sorcerer. Though he is the descendant of a famous wizard, his self-esteem issues get in the way of his magic.

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• 11th-Hour Superpower: Edgin claims that this is the only way Simon acquires new abilities — he can't get the hang of them until the exact moment when he desperately needs them. This is borne out with Simon managing to learn to attune magic objects right when the guards have him cornered and only the Helmet of Disjunction can save him. It's justified as his self-doubt constantly gets in the way and hampers his casting. It's only in life-or-death situations that he can actually focus enough to make them work properly. However, his actual 11th-Hour Superpower is overcoming his self-esteem issues and thus the handicap it placed on his magic.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: His attempts to attune with the Helmet of Disjunction involve a psychological knackering by a mental version of his ancestor. He wins when he gets angry enough to slug it in the face, revealing his ancestor was actually a projection of himself.
• Chaotic Good: invoked His promotional stat block lists Chaotic Good as his alignment. He was a member of Edgin and Holga's more-heroic-than-not crew, operates as an independent scammy sorcerer in the present, and has the decidedly heroic character arc of gaining confidence.
• Commended for Pushback: Elminster refuses to let Simon attune with a magical helmet due to Simon's lack of confidence. When Simon punches Elminster, Elminster says "it took you long enough" and lets him use the helmet.
• Counterspell: Being a D&D sorcerer, he knows Counterspell. He tries to use it against Sofina's Time Stop spell, but it's too strong of a spell for him to counter. He successfully manages to do so when she attempts it again as her trump card during the Final Battle, commenting he got better since last time.
• Die or Fly: Edgin realised long ago that as long as Simon is in grave danger, his magic delivers, because he has no time to doubt himself - which he apparently exploited for years, but admitted to Simon only recently.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: His lack of confidence is lampshaded repeatedly as a glaring character flaw. Because he doesn't think he's a good sorcerer, his magic tends to falter until critical moments. He finally breaks out of it at the end, and he becomes much better at his magic.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Simon doesn't believe he's a good sorcerer and feels he'll never live up to his ancestor Elminster Aumar. It's shown this is an outright limiter on his power (which makes sense as sorcerers have Charisma as their main casting stat), and when he's in a situation where he forgets about it, he becomes a lot more successful. This is shown by the mental version of his ancestor, who was echoing his own insecurities back at him, turning into himself after he slugs the projection in the face, symbolically overcoming his insecurities. By doing so, he instantly shows himself as a far better mage when he's not putting himself down, and manages to hold off Sofina, a Red Wizard, for a good while all by himself.
• Inept Mage: His attempts at magic result in fizzles more than they result in bangs, and Edgin often has to give him pep talks. This is attributed to his self-esteem issues, and he gets both more confident and better at magic over the course of the film. It's zigzagged as while his spells leave something to be desired, his knowledge of magic is extensive, from identifying the only counter to a magical ward from its name alone to knowing how to use a magic staff he just discovered. After he finally overcomes his insecurities, he instantly loses the inept part.
• In the Blood: This is what it means to be a sorcerer — he was born to his magic rather than learning it like a wizard, making his powers strong, simple, and more than a little chaotic. In his case, he's a distant descendant of the legendary archmage Elminster, husband of the goddess of magic Mystra herself (note that this is not quite the same as being the descendant of Mystra — the two had an infamously open relationship).
• Magicians Are Wizards: Played with. Simon is a sorcerer introduced trying to eke out a living with stage magic. But in a fantasy setting where spellcasting is extremely common, his show comes off as extremely boring and basic, which is fine — because his actual plan is to distract the audience with how bad he is at magic as he pilfers their valuables.
• Pointy Ears: Has these as a sign of his half-elf heritage.
• Mr. Exposition: He provides Doric with some explanation of why Edgin is upset to work with a Thayan ("He has some history with the Thayans.") and a Harper ("He has some history with the Harpers."). Downplayed, as he doesn't really provide any explanation beyond that.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: During his sorcerer show in his reintroduction, he purposfully uses unimpressive spells in order to to distract the audience while using another spell to steal all of their money.
• Psychoactive Powers: Another fundamental element of being a sorcerer. Since his magic is a part of him, it's directly tied to his emotions and self-image, which is his greatest weakness and his greatest strength — he's literally as good at magic as he believes himself to be. If he thinks he's an Inept Mage, he's an Inept Mage, but if and when he breaks past his self-esteem issues, the results are spectacular. Given that sorcers power their spells through their charisma (which in DnD means the force of their personality rather than likeability or like how smoothly they can talk), this makes 100% sense.
• Shout-Out: He's a young sorcerer named Simon.
• Squishy Wizard: Simon is capable of pulling off some impressive magical tricks when he puts his mind to it, but he's physically weak enough that a commoner can kick his ass. After he's revealed to be conning a crowd of peasants, he escapes their wrath by the skin of his teeth, but not before being tackled, choked, and punched a few times.
• Took a Level in Badass: Once he overcomes his self-esteem issues, he becomes significantly more powerful, capable of blasting away half a dozen soldiers and even holding his own against Sofina. Most notably, he's able to successfully counter her time-stop spell, which he had been unable to do earlier in the film.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He's a sorcerer, which means he's this by definition.
  • His turbulent and unreliable innate magic mostly makes him seem like an Inept Mage, but when it works, it really works. He even manages to give a solid accounting of himself against a high-ranking Red Wizard of Thay, making up for the gap in their magical knowledge with pure arcane grunt.
  • Where Simon tends to fail in power, he makes up with in utility. The early brawl in the playhouse demonstrates this well enough; no magic he uses is the one he wants to use, but he manages to make good use of every single bit of it. It isn't until about the halfway point where he starts getting good enough to both get what he wants and have the wits to use it.

Doric

Doric

"The only way to succeed in this is to have confidence it can be done."

Played by: Sophia Lillis ^{Other languages}Friedel Morgenstern (German), Jessica Ángeles (Latin American Spanish)

"As you can imagine, I don't trust humans. I find you all to be hateful and selfish."

An acquaintance of Simon's and a tiefling druid adopted by the Emerald Enclave. She now fights on their behalf to protect their home.

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• Abusive Parents: Her human parents, who hid her in an attic for years before abandoning her in the woods as she's a tiefling (part demon).
• Action Girl: Doric, a female druid, actually turns into an owlbear (a huge monster), tossing her enemies around in that form.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed since many people find them already deeply attractive because of these traits, anyway, but Doric lacks a lot of the common, modern Tiefling physical traits (such as a vibrant red skintone, glowing empty orbs for eyes, and sharp teeth), and instead just looks like a typical young, cute human girl with horns and a tail. While her appearance does line up with earlier depictions of Tieflings, per canon, Tieflings were all retroactively connected to Asmodeus, Lord of the Hells, and given a more "standardised" appearance with reddish skin, large horns, tail, and other demonic traits. While a Tiefling with such 'light' demonic traits as Doric's is still entirely possible, no comment is made about her human-passing nature and with no other Tieflings in the film to compare her to, its unclear if this is just her being uniquely less demonic or the film downplaying Tiefling's demonic appearance.
• Adaptational Wimp: Zig-zagged. Her Voluntary Shapeshifting is far more versatile than it would be in the games. However, druids are also support casters capable of casting a wide array of elemental-related spells. Doric however doesn't use any, presumably to ensure that the Inept Mage Simon doesn't look even more inadequate than he usually does. It is possible that she is a Circle of the Moon Druid, who focus on bigger and better Wild Shape, but even they are more than capable of casting spells.
  • Also played straight with her Tiefling status, which as of present D&D lore^note minor worldbuilding details indicate the film takes place near the end of the 15th century, which would put it square at the height of 5E era canon she should have a natural resistance to fire, and Hellish Rebuke, an ability to hurl fire at an attacker in response to being hurt. The former never comes up as she's never set on fire or otherwise burnt, but the latter is notable as she is hit several times in fights and the attacker is never harmed.
• All There in the Manual: Her angsty and tragic backstory, along with a big chunk of her personality and issues, is covered mostly by the promotional materials, official game module and novelisation. The film proper? A tiefling abandoned by her parents and a happy-go-lucky person, let's move on to the next cool scene. It goes as far as making the character in the film seem to be a different person than the one that was written for all the supplementary stuff.
• Animorphism: She fluidly shapeshifts into various animals and beasts throughout the film. While trying to escape the Neverwinter guards, she goes from bug to rat to bird to deer. Her official stat block fittingly lists her as a Circle of the Moon Druid, the subclass devoted to their ability to turn into animals.
• Boomerang Bigot: An unfortunately common consequence of being a tiefling, which means you're a human child who's manifested inhuman traits in the worst possible way. Doric's home village reacted predictably poorly to having a part-demon in their midst, leaving her with little but distrust and hostility for her own species.
• Brutal Honesty: She's got No Social Skills and enough residual misanthropy that she's got little interest in learning any, so she says what she thinks with an alarming lack of varnish. In particular, Edgin and Holga can only cringe when they hear Simon repeat her explanation of why she broke up with him.
• Chocolate Baby: Tieflings like her are amongst the strangest, most mysterious, and most ill-reputed examples in the setting. For humans, engaging in a Deal with the Devil (or more... intimate relations with one) will permanently taint your bloodline, meaning that even perfectly normal people can find themselves the parents of very abnormal children if they're unlucky enough to have the tiniest scrap of fiendish DNA. Doric's parents had what is, sadly, the normal reaction to their little girl inexplicably turning out to be a part-demon, which is why she's a Boomerang Bigot living as far away from her fellow humans as possible.
• The Comically Serious: To a lesser extent than Xenk, Doric treats the heist as a serious proposition and questions her partners' capability at every opportunity.
  Doric: Does this mean you make plans that fail?
• Cute Monster Girl: Doric has only a pair of small horns and a tail to mark her as a tiefling. This gives her a stronger resemblance to the tieflings of D&D's 2nd and 3rd editions, as opposed to the more monstrous-looking tieflings from 4th and 5th. (In fact, she has a striking resemblance to Neeshka.)
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Doric gradually warms up to the party despite being initially quite hostile.
• Discard and Draw: Compared to druids in the tabletop game, Doric's magic is extremely limited, but she compensates for it by being able to wildshape seemingly at will; in-game, wildshape is limited to a few times per day.
• Druid: Druid is her class, and fittingly, she's the one with the strongest connection to nature (via her backstory of wanting to protect the Emerald Enclave and her animorphism abilities). She's officially listed as a Circle of the Moon Druid, who focus on Wild Shape and utilizing it as their main combat tactic.
• Fantastic Racism: Doric repeatedly says how much she distrusts as well as dislikes humans. This is due to her Freudian Excuse.
• Forgot About Her Powers: Despite relying on her Wild Shape ability for almost everything, she regularly forgets she can just morph into something else - bigger, faster or flying - despite otherwise abusing her powers to get things done. Given how plot-breaking her particular version of Wild Shape is, it's hard not to see why it's routinely ignored outside set pieces build around it.
• Freudian Excuse: Doric has a chip on her shoulder due to being abandoned by her parents for her tiefling status and reared by wood elves.
• Horned Humanoid: Doric looks mostly human but has a short pair of horns on her head, indicating her as a tiefling.
• Improbable Weapon User: Her primary weapon when she isn't Wild Shaped is a wrist mounted slingshot that shoots hard nuts or pebbles^note A sling, which is what slingshots are classified as in-game, only deals 1d4 bludgeoning damage, making it the weakest bludgeoning weapon in the game but backed up by the fact that it is ranged.
• Jack of All Trades: Her shapeshifting and slingshot prowess allow her to be more versatile and fit almost any role in a plan or heist, be it stealth/recon (shapeshifting as a small/inconspicuous animal) or long-range/melee attack (her slingshot and shapeshifting into her Owlbear form, respectively).
• Locked Out of the Loop: As the only member of the team who hasn't worked with Edgin and Holga before, she needs a bit of explanation from Simon about Edgin's personal history with the Thayans and the Harpers.
• Madwoman in the Attic: When she was born, her parents told the village their baby had died and kept her in a locked attic with straw to muffle the sound as a result of her being a tiefling. They sent her goat milk and stale bread to keep her alive. She learned to talk by listening to them. She thought this was normal until her parents had a human baby who wasn't sent up to the attic with her.
• Magic Pants: Doric's clothing disappears when she shifts and reappears when she regains human form.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: Her favored form in combat is an owlbear, a mix of an owl and a bear (in this case, a snowy owl and a polar bear). Notably, in the games druids (even Circle of the Moon Druids like Doric) can't do this (owlbears are monstrosities and druids can only turn into beasts), but the creators allowed it on the logic that if a player wanted to do it, it'd be too cool not to allow it if they were the DM.
  • Obviously she made a deal with the DM whereby she gave up most or all of her spell slots in order to improve her wildshape.
• Mundane Utility: In the Druid's Call novel, she uses her owlbear form to prank the ex-boyfriend of a woman she meets at a tavern.
• Nature Hero: She's a druid with the power of animorphism who lives with the Emerald Enclave in the forests, and fights to protect their habitat.
• Neutral Good: invoked Her promotional stat block lists Neutral Good as her alignment. Within the film, she's averse to humans and goes up against Neverwinter because they're threatening her home.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: After Sofina is Brought Down to Normal with an anti-magic bracelet, she turns into an owlbear and brutally mauls her to death.
• Not So Above It All: At the end of The Druid's Call, Doric returns to her parents' house. Having found a loving family, close friends, and a position of respect, she no longer feels any pain when she returns even when she sees the attic where she was imprisoned. However, since she isn't perfect, she goes into their sheep pen and transforms into an owlbear.
• Orc Raised by Elves: Well, a tiefling reared by elves.
• Parental Abandonment: Her human parents abandoned her in a forest rather than let their neighbors know they had a tiefling child.
• Pointy Ears: Probably would be ignored entirely, given this is D&D, if not the fact she's born from a couple of humans.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Makes a few prejudiced comments about humans.
• Prehensile Tail: Other than the tiny horns, that's the only visible sign that she's a tiefling. Also doubles as a Chekhov's Gun; she briefly uses it to hang on to the carriage during the heist sequence.
• Primal Polymorphs: A shapeshifter with the power to assume a wide variety of shapes, including a fly, a worm, a mouse, a hawk, a cat, a deer, and even an owlbear... and as the team's druid, she's not only devoted to the preservation of the forest, but also blunt, lacking in social skills, and more than a bit on the misanthropic side.
• The Reliable One: Whatever Doric does, you can bet she's going to succeed.
• Redhead In Green: She has bright red hair and wears dark green leather.
• Rule of Cool: Doric being able to wild shape however many times she wants without a long rest, let alone into an owlbear, isn't mechanically possible in game. Even an Archdruid, which can do the former can't do the latter. It's also the most visually awesome way to illustrate a druid's main ability, so it mostly gets a pass. The creators have even outright cited this trope as why she can turn into an owlbear.
• Sixth Ranger: In the context of the heist crew, Doric is a new addition while Edgin, Holga, and Simon are all veterans, bringing to mind a player who joins partway into a campaign already in-progress.
• Square Race, Round Class: A tiefling druid. She does, however, end up tangled into a roguish adventure anyway.
• Suffer the Slings: She wields a slingshot on her wrist, fitting her nature-oriented characterization.
• Tap on the Head: Gets knocked out by one of Forge's guards. She wakes up a few scenes later and is stable enough to play the games.
• Token Good Teammate: She is the only one of the primary quartet that has no criminal background and is in this heist specifically for the sake of the Emerald Enclave. Also of note is that it's pretty clear the Emerald Enclave didn't start the conflict, only reacted to it, meaning Doric's one of the few who hadn't directly antagonized anyone by the beginning of the film. It's telling that in his "we're all failures" speech, Edgin doesn't actually have anything bad to say about her as a person despite being extremely cutting about Simon, Holga, and himself.
• Token Non-Human: She's the only fully nonhuman in the party, emphasized by a few comments about how she really distrusts humans. Simon points out that he's a half-elf, but in practice, it's a negligible difference.
• Tragic Bigot: Distrusts humans but that's understandable considering her abandonment by her human parents and humans' general prejudice towards tieflings.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Her Wild Shape functions this way, letting her change between her humanoid form and almost any animal shape at will, including an owlbear. Notably, she's officially listed as a Circle of the Moon Druid, the subclass devoted entirely to Wild Shape.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Druids in this setting are capable of casting a variety of nature-based spells. Doric, on the other hand, is a Circle of the Moon Druid, a subclass whose abilities are exclusively devoted to the Wild Shape ability rather than casting. Fortunately, her shapeshifting is so versatile she doesn't need to use anything else.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Doesn't care for humans but comes to respect her human companions by the end of the Neverwinter heist.

Xenk

Xenk Yendar

"You may have forsworn your oath, but your oath has not forsworn you."

Played by: Regé-Jean Page ^{Other languages}Leonard Hohm (German), Héctor Emmanuel Gómez (Latin American Spanish)

"Should the way become too dim, you may take my hand, and I will lead you."

A powerful and experienced human paladin who hails from Thay.

---

• The Ace: He's a very good fighter, a well-read scholar, and an honorable paladin; he's so heroic that all of Edgin's party members have heard stories about how great he is. The official stat blocks reflect this, as everyone else has a CR of 5 while his is 10.
• Advertised Extra: Xenk gets a prominent role in the trailers and his own character poster, a spot on the main poster, and is billed third in the credits, giving the impression he'll be a part of the core team. In truth, he plays the role of the Guest-Star Party Member and is only in the film for about twenty minutes.
• Antiquated Linguistics: He speaks in more formal and old-fashioned English compared to the rest of the party. This reflects his age (he is over a century old) and experience, but also provides humor.
  Simon: I was being ironic.
  Xenk: I find irony is a blade that cuts who wields it most especially.
  Edgin: Yeah? Is that what you find, Xenk?
• Combat Pragmatist: Subtle, but the moment combat breaks out he's instantly shooting and stabbing as many enemies as he can. He has a backup blade within his sword, can shoot his sword's tip from a distance, and is rumored to have killed a beholder with a sharpened gourd.
• The Comically Serious: Xenk is serious and earnest to the point of parody, which in turn exaggerates the silliness of the rest of the team. Regé-Jean Page described him as the hero of a dark and serious fantasy story who accidentally wandered into the wackiness of a D&D campaign.
  Xenk: [completely seriously] To drag her back to her old life is to deprive her of her new one.
  Edgin: Can someone else ride next to this guy?
• Cool Sword: His Daggersword, which can transform between... being a dagger or a sword. It can also be cloaked in holy energy for extra damage ^note As he's an Oath of Devotion Paladin, it's unclear if this is a capability of the sword or his Sacred Weapon from the Channel Divinity ability..
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He singled-handedly demolishes Dralas' minions without any of them laying a finger on him.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was in the crowd on the night of Szass Tam's coup, and barely escaped the Beckoning Death himself — he was nearly dragged into the cloud by his own mind-controlled parents before getting away.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He wears the Thayan emblem and bears some Thayan head markings, but is one of the nicest guys in all Faerûn.
• Detect Evil: He's a paladin, so he's able to sense the villainous Thayan assassin squad just before they make themselves known.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Correctly predicts that the thieves will honor their oaths, even though they were lying to him at the time. Would come across as Stupid Good, except he doesn't bother giving the benefit of the doubt to Forge, who is a treacherous bastard.
• Facial Markings: He has a mark on his forehead, gained from barely escaping the Beckoning Death spell in his childhood.
• Famed In-Story: Xenk's heroism is so well-known across the lands that everyone in the party except for Edgin has heard of him.
• Genre Refugee: An amusing twist as by all accounts, Xenk is a completely sincere take on The Paladin, being kind, dignified, a powerful fighter, a wise source of inspiration, and speaking with old-timey fantasy dialogue that should fit within a straightforward high fantasy world expected of Dungeons & Dragons. However, Honor Among Thieves — while not a parody — is much more breezy, lighthearted, and sardonic of a fantasy film than whatever more serious story Xenk must have fallen out of, which subsequently recontextualizes him as an out-of-place Parody Sue whose straightforward goodness creates a jarring contrast with those around him.
• GMPC: He possesses several traits common to such characters — He's Famed In-Story, more powerful than the entire rest of the party put together, possesses a backstory designed to evoke interest, and is set up so that the party have no choice but to accept his help. However, he avoids most of the negative traits associated with this archetype such as self-righteousness, Railroading, and hogging narrative focus away from the actual players as he's only with them for one dungeon before exiting the plot. In other words, he's a GMPC utilized correctly.
• Guest-Star Party Member: He's a competent and powerful warrior who pops up in the second act to lead the team through the Underdark, but exits the story before the third, telling Edgin that the rest is up to them.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: He's in the most traditionally heroic of the party in class (paladin), attitude (invokedLawful Good), and approach to heroism (Knight in Shining Armor-esque) and is thus the only major character to wield a knightly-looking longsword. He also has a daggersword for additional melee strategies.
• Hero of Another Story: He's a well-known hero who's had many off-screen adventures. Every member of the party except Edgin has heard of him and he's crossed paths with Dralas before.
• Honorary True Companion: Xenk assists the team in retrieving an important artefact and offers important background information, but declines to join them for the final confrontation. He does, however, retrieve Forge in the end, helping tie up a loose end.
• Ideal Hero: Xenk is a textbook paladin — he has a strong sense of good and justice, is amazing in a fight, and goes out of his way to help people. Even most of the main party have heard of his exploits. Edgin, for all his selfish thievery, is even inspired by his promise to Xenk to conduct selfless heroism at the end. He's officially an Oath of Devotion Paladin, which has being this as part of their Oath.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed; while not an outright jerk, he's a comically humourless, patronising Holier Than Thou stuffed-shirt who manages to thoroughly annoy the entire party (Edgin especially). He's also the real deal as a paladin, a shining, incorruptible beacon of strength and virtue who serves as an incredibly valuable ally during their time together and provides genuinely useful moral guidance.
• Knight in Shining Armor: As a paladin he fits this trope to a T. He's a powerful paladin who seems content to wander Faerûn in search of people to help and evil forces to defeat, and is unfailingly kind, polite, and loyal to everyone he interacts with.
• Lawful Good: invoked His promotional stat block lists Lawful Good as his alignment. He is driven to traditional heroism primarily by his strong moral code, and takes laws and vows very seriously.
• Literal-Minded: He often needs euphemisms, figures of speech, and sarcasm explained to him. For example, when Holga calls Forge a "son of a bitch", Xenk asks her why she would blame his mother; when Edgin suspects that Xenk has "something up his sleeve", Xenk (who of course has excellent senses) overhears and reassures them that the only thing up his sleeve... is his arm.
• Long-Lived: Xenk is much older than he looks — he was present for the aftermath of the century-old battle for the Helm of Disjunction, and had survived the Beckoning Death spell in Thay a significant amount of time prior to that. This is due to his brief exposure to the Beckoning Death making him not 100% mortal.
• Mark of the Supernatural: His narrow escape from the Beckoning Death spell gave him the tattoo markings of the converted undead, but without any further external changes. They were Thayan symbols, which is why those who recognize them are surprised to see his noble and compassionate character after what's implied to be a century of Thay having its reputation as The Necrocracy. It's implicit, and confirmed by background material, that this partial conversion is why he's lived so long.
• Mr. Exposition: It's he who explains how the Red Wizards are able to cast a spell that turns an entire city into undead servants, which the heroes piece together as the villains' actual plan in the final act.
• Multi-Melee Master: Xenk carries a longsword and a daggersword (that can split into a dagger and a shortsword). He wields all with precision and skill.
• Nice Guy: Xenk may seem to be a haughty snob, but that's only because he walks an (often literally) straight and narrow path. And while the standards of nobility he expects in others may be strict, he practices what he preaches, and is completely sincere, selfless, honorable, compassionate and kind in his every word and action.
• Not So Above It All: Despite his stoic and serious demeanor, he trolls Edgin with his preternatural sense of hearing while the party's in the Underdark, smirking with amusement when Edgin whispers "I hate you!" at him in annoyance.
• Once Killed a Man with a Noodle Implement: To help establish Xenk's badass cred, Simon claims he once defeated a beholder with nothing but a sharpened gourd. Edgin does not believe this.
  Simon: Something sharp.
• The Paladin: Fitting for his paladin classification, he is a righteous warrior with powerful fighting skills and a great knowledge of lore. According to his official stat block, he is an Oath of Devotion Paladin.
• Parody Sue: Xenk is inhumanly perfect — a righteous and knowledgeable fighter whom everyone fawns over. Edgin is the only one unwilling to take him seriously and tries repeatedly to undercut him, but Xenk never takes the bait... making him seem even holier and the situation even more humorous.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Xenk initially is confused by Simon's comment of how the Red Witch raising the dead would be lovely.
• Sixth Ranger: He fills this role by joining the party much later in their quest and being massively more powerful and competent than all four of them combined.
• Sole Survivor: He's the only known Thayan who escaped Szass Tam's spell that turned his entire nation into the dark lord's mindless minions.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: After helping the Party retrieve the Helm of Disjunction, he separates from them instead of leading them against Forge and Sofina. His explanation for doing so is simply that defeating them is their quest, not his. This is a rather weak excuse, but on the one hand it is true that by leaving them on their own, Xenk allows the Party members to grow, and on the other hand it is obvious that defeating Sofina with him would probably have been easier, faster, and therefore boring for the audience. Another reasoning is that as a Paladin, Xenk would be treading into morally grey territory by aiding the party in their heist, even for good reasons, and thus risking a fall from grace. The fact he does step in to arrest Forge at the end shows that he was nearby and willing to step in if necessary, but was willing to give the party a change to resolve the quest themselves and prove themselves heroes.
• Super-Senses: Implied to be a result of his narrow escape from the Beckoning Death as a boy, alongside his extended lifespan. It's first played as a joke when he overhears the rest of the party gossiping about him, then leads into an action scene when he smells that their foes are nearby. ^note The latter appears to be an on-screen interpretation of the paladin's "Divine Sense" ability, which allows the paladin to sense certain types of creatures nearby, including undead, which the Thayans themselves are.
• Survivor Guilt: The Feast of the Moon tie-in comic shows he feels intense guilt at leaving his parents to be zombified by Szass Tam even though he was just a child.
• Token Heroic Orc: As a native of Thay, his presence shows that while the Red Wizards serving Szass Tam might be as evil as can be, the people living under their rule weren't necessarily so as shown by the flashback when Szass Tam had to use the Beckoning Death spell to turn most of the Thayans into his Brainwashed and Crazy slaves. He even describes Szass Tam's takeover as a "coup", implying the Thayans might have been a bit strange but certainly not willing to go as far as Tam is.
• Touched by Vorlons: He took a glancing touch from the Beckoning Death in his narrow escape from it it as a boy, which left a slight mark on his forehead and unnaturally long life.

Neverwinter

Forge

Forge Fitzwilliam

"Never put your trust in a con man."

Played by: Hugh Grant ^{Other languages}Patrick Winczewksi (German), René García (Latin American Spanish)

"Well, hang on. I'm a god and a lord. I really am doing all right!"

A former member of Edgin's crew, a human rogue who is now the Lord of Neverwinter.

---

• Adaptational Wimp: Probably even more than the case with the heroes: Forge is classified as a Rogue — a class of very deadly and cunning scoundrels and combatants — but he shows no real combat prowess in the film, preferring to sit back as the incumbent Lord of Neverwinter and use his position of power to stop the good guys. His character sheet says he can wield a poisoned dagger and a heavy crossbow (the poster even shows him wielding the latter), but the closest he gets to using either is an attempted Hostage Situation on Kira, which gets foiled. Given he was an active adventurer and part of Edgin's crew, he clearly used to be effective, and this might be justified due to him being years out of practice thanks to ruling Neverwinter in luxury.
• Archenemy: While Sofina is the actual main villain, Forge is the main archenemy to the party as a whole. In the case of Edgin's crew, it's because he stabbed them in the back and is holding Edgin's daughter and convincing her Edgin abandoned her. In the case of Doric, it's because he's trying to wipe out her home and people.
• Bait the Dog: He's introduced as having been a reliable ally to Edgin, pointedly swearing on his life to protect the Tablet of Reawakening when Edgin gets captured and imprisoned, and while he's spoken of as having an ego, it's first mentioned in a largely playful manner. Then Edgin reunites with him, and his charming façade immediately gives way to a genuinely selfish, antagonistic narcissist who refuses Edgin his Tablet and his daughter.
• Bastard Bastard: An early clue that Forge is not a good guy is in his name; the prefix "Fitz" ("son of") before a surname, in Anglo-Norman England and France, sometimes denoted the bearer as an illegitimate child^note  usually of nobility, as in "Fitzroy"— from the French fitz roi, "son of the king". Sure enough, he's a ruthless Con Man who doesn't share Edgin and Holga's scruples and is perfectly willing to let everyone in Neverwinter suffer undeath and slavery as long as he gets rich.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Forge will stab anyone in the back without a moment's hesitation if it benefits him. It's telling the only person he doesn't stab in the back is Sofina, and that's likely only because he's the only one in Neverwinter fully aware of how powerful and evil she actually is. Even his promotional statblock references this, as he has an ability where he deals more damage to creatures friendly towards him.
• Con Man: An experienced veteran in the profession, both solo and as part of a team. Unfortunately, he doesn't draw much distinction between colleagues and marks, as Edgin and company found out to their cost.
• Consummate Liar: Forge is an expert at deception. He turns Kira against Egdin by playing on her concerns, telling her that the theft where Egdin was caught was simply an attempt to earn money. When Egdin does return later, after Forge has him carted off, he lies to Kira, saying Egdin left after being given money.
• Deal with the Devil: He made a deal with Sofina to help her with her plan to take over Neverwinter and turn its population into loyal undead in exchange for her help in taking over Neverwinter and robbing it blind. She actually keeps her end of the deal.
• Dirty Coward: Forge is confident when he's in control of a situation, but the moment he's actually under threat he reveals his true colors. He pulls out every stop to avoid confronting the heroes directly and make off with all his loot before the Beckoning Death devours the city alongside snapping at one of his servants when he's placed too high up. When the heroes finally confront him, he proves willing to pull a knife on Kira in order to escape, and even in the end, he tries to excuse his deeds with a backstory about his mother and then tries to leap out the window with Jarnathan rather than face up to any of his deeds.
• Disc-One Final Boss: As far as the heroes are concerned, he's the Big Bad, being the one the party came together to deal with and they hold the most animosity for. However, once he's defeated, they now have Sofina to deal with as she begins her endgame.
• Evil Counterpart: While he's the Archenemy for the entire party, having betrayed all of them, Forge most resembles a nastier version of Edgin. Both are charming con men with silver tongues and limited combat abilities. Where Edgin tries to support his friends and family, Forge is completely wrapped up in himself, and any affection towards others is limited at best and completely false at worst. Even their Fatal Flaw of greed is similar, though Edgin only started stealing for his daughter, and has clear lines he won't cross, while Forge will sacrifice anyone and everyone for his big score.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. He claims that he did truly love Kira, but then immediately follows by saying that what he truly loves about her is being able to control and manipulate her, as shown by how he lies about Edgin's intentions so he can keep Kira under his control.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Edgin initially barters to let them die in the game, he noticeably freezes up and stutters saying it's "better they die here." Given he's fully aware of Sofina's plan, it seems even he finds leaving his betrayed former teammates to become undead slaves is too cruel.
• Evil Is Hammy: Hugh Grant plays up the fun bombast as the bastardly Lord Forge Fitzwilliam.
• Evil Is Petty: Lies to Kira about her father and refuses to give her back to Edgin, solely because he enjoys the "sense of godhood" molding a young life gives him. He also keeps the Tablet of Reawakening he promised to Edgin, apparently out of sheer greed. If he had just reared Kira honestly and given Edgin his daughter and the tablet when he came around, Edgin would have had no reason to come back later and utterly destroy his plans.
• Fatal Flaw: Greed. He's already the Lord of Neverwinter and plans to steal an entire boat of treasure, but he refuses to give Kira or the Tablet of Reawakening to Edgin, which provokes him into pulling off the heist against Forge. Notably, he does not even seem to have any use for the Tablet at all, simply keeping it in his collection of riches because it is valuable. He even tries to carry a jeweled chalice nearly as big as he is while he's fleeing for his life.
• Faux Affably Evil: Though his duplicitous nature is revealed early on, Forge acts like a charming old man for much of the film. He doesn't drop the act until Edgin and co. threaten to take off with his loot, as he pulls a dagger on his surrogate daughter.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Runs head-first into this problem in the epilogue. Turns out that regardless of how poor your relationship with your mother was, it's not an adequate justification for helping an Evil Sorcerer try to kill and enslave an entire city-state (in that order) while stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Yes, he's a Con Man named "Forge". His cooked-up Freudian Excuse about his mother's poor influence might actually have a little truth to it.
• It's All About Me: As Lord of Neverwinter, he plasters images of himself everywhere, including a hot-air balloon that floats above the city. Prior to this, he betrayed the rest of the original group and assisted Sofina in casting a spell that would basically turn an entire city into monsters just so that he could get rich.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: While Sofina is the main antagonist, the party's personal animosity is largely with Forge himself due to his backstabbing nature in the case of his former party and tyranny.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He kept his promise to take care of Kira, only to quickly reveal that he has been lying to her to turn her against her father. He also mentions how fulfilling he finds being a father... in that having a child he can mold in his own image gives him a sense of godlike power.
• Meaningful Name: To forge is to fabricate or copy an item that resembles the genuine article; and true to his namesake, even his love for Kira is ultimately a fake self-serving mask.
• Narcissist: While he shows the occasional glimmer of humanity, he's mostly just an appetite on legs who sees other human beings as useful but ultimately disposable dispensers of riches and fame. The fact that he describes becoming a parent as being like becoming a god tells you everything you need to know about him.
• Neutral Evil: invoked His promotional stat block lists Neutral Evil as his alignment. He's selfish and motivated by a desire for wealth and power, and willing to side with the evil Red Wizards because they can get him the riches he desires.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Edgin wouldn't have had any reason to oppose Forge if he hadn't kept his daughter and the Tablet for himself.
• Non-Action Guy: While he's classified as a Rogue and is shown in his promotional poster wielding a crossbow, Forge never gets a chance to demonstrate any of the combat prowess associated with his class, primarily using his position of authority and alliance with Sofina to impede the heroes. The closest thing we get to him taking action is taking Kira hostage at knifepoint.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Forge Fitzwilliam is a comically smug, effete, and condescending Jerkass but actually comes closer to destroying a major Faerûn city than most in the setting's centuries-long history. The fact he manages to conquer it and rule it for a year doesn't help.
• Parental Substitute: Edgin charged him with the care of Kira in his absence, which Forge actually did and genuinely enjoyed (though largely because he liked having someone look up to him). And he was genuinely planning to take Kira with him on his escape from Neverwinter until the heroes intervened.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Likely the reason he doesn't betray Sofina - he knows damn well how dangerous she is and that backstabbing her is suicide. He instead just does as she demands and bolts as soon as she lets him.
• Puppet King: He rules Neverwinter in accordance with the wishes of the Red Wizards because he'll get rich in the process. He doesn't mind. Though he intends on evacuating Neverwinter once the Red Wizards commence their invasion.
• Rags to Riches: Went from a no-name rogue to the Lord of Neverwinter in the two years since Edgin and Holga were imprisoned. Holga is shocked, wondering how a clown like Forge landed such a big gig. He likely got it by having Sofina bewitch Lord Neverember and then manipulating his way into power with his charisma and the money he got from the thief jobs.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Forge is happy to abandon Neverwinter when Sofina prepares her plan to turn it into The Necrocracy.
• Smug Snake: At the end of the day, he's just not as good a Con Artist as he thinks he is, mainly because his narcissistic hunger has worn away much of his self-control and ability to convincingly act like a human being. Everyone finds his constant jokes and manufactured chumminess annoying, and Sofina talks about how it took her a great amount of restraint to put up with it for two years. When he faces the Absolution Council in the epilogue, his attempted sob-story is so unconvincing that they barely let him get a couple of sentences out before rejecting his appeal, and his escape attempt fails miserably because he wasn't smart enough to check his exit routes first.
• Stupid Evil: Edgin and his crew would have no reason to go about their heist and take down Forge if he had just let them have the Tablet of Reawakening, which is only useful for him in monetary value amongst his many riches, whereas the party actually wants to use it for its intended purpose. While he could have also been truthful with Kira, he at least had an innate desire to keep her around, unlike his complete lack of actual care about the Tablet. By failing to follow this pragmatism, he ends up losing everything and stopping Sofina's plot by proxy.
• Token Evil Teammate: Before he betrayed the party, he was the sole evil-aligned member. Unlike the Lovable Rogues he associates with, he is genuinely maliciously self-serving.
• The Usurper: Ascended to power in Neverwinter after the Red Wizards put the rightful Lord in a vegetative state through magic.
• Villain Has a Point: While he'll say whatever he needs to to keep Kira under his thumb, he did turn out to be correct about Edgin's motivations being more selfish than he led her to believe.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Is the well-loved and seemingly democratically elected leader of Neverwinter.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: His character sheet states that he has a poison dagger and can use a heavy crossbow, both weapons considered cowardly. (Daggers and poison are associated with underhandedness; crossbows are considered coward's weapons because they need less strength and practice to use than regular bows.)
• Would Hurt a Child: Is willing to cut Kira's throat if it means getting the city's treasury.

Sofina

Sofina

"You know not the scope of my power!"

Played by: Daisy Head ^{Other languages}Rubina Nath (German), Karla Falcón (Latin American Spanish)

"And just as I begin to purge this place of its living filth, you dare interpose. Now, as you die, rest assured it will not be the end. For you will forever suffer."

Forge's right-hand woman and a Red Wizard of Thay.

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• All for Nothing: Thanks to the heroes, all the effort she put into her plot to take over Neverwinter and turn it into a kingdom of the dead amounts to nothing. She doesn't take this well. Humorously, a particularly galling point for her that she brings up in her rant against Edgin is that his actions have ensured the two years she spent dealing with Forge were all a wasted effort, and this seems to be the primary motivator for her angry retaliation.
• Bald Mystic: Invoked as a signifier of rank in The Magocracy. While she usually wears a cap to conceal her head, her scalp is completely bare to show off her ritual tattoos (something all Red Wizards do) and the fact that she's been granted the gift of undeath, meaning she couldn't grow a proper head of hair even if she wanted to.
• Begin with a Finisher: She opens the Final Battle with the 9th level spell Meteor Swarm. While it doesn't work, it shows how utterly furious she is at the heroes for foiling her plans.
• Big Bad: The main antagonist of Honor Among Thieves, whose manipulations catalyze the Neverwinter plot the heroes are fighting against.
• Bright Is Not Good: Part of the package of being a Red Wizard. Her order are so infamous that going around wearing ominous, somber blue robes is actually less threatening in-universe than returning them to their usual vivid scarlet.
• Brought Down to Normal: The party manages to defeat her by slipping an anti-magic bracelet on her wrist. Without her magic, she's completely vulnerable to Doric mauling her as an Owlbear.
• Chain Lightning: She uses this spell to kill the guards at the Harper stronghold in the flashback.
• The Comically Serious: What little humour Sofina has comes from her absolutely dour demeanour brushing up against the more colourful characters around her, namely Forge.
• Court Mage: Her cover story is that of Lord Neverwinter's right-hand wizard.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: She has black makeup or paint around her eyes that only serves to make her look even more Obviously Evil.
• Dark Action Girl: She's the main villain of the story, who's a very skilled Red Wizard and fights off the heroes on her own, stabbing Holga with a knife as well. They only defeat her with guile.
• Deal with the Devil: She made a deal with Forge to help him pull off his plan in exchange for him setting her up to turn Neverwinter's entire population into undead. She actually keeps her end of the deal, despite the fact she can't stand him.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Acts as The Dragon to Forge but is really the one in charge, though Downplayed since she is actually one of Szass Tam's chief minions instead. Played straight in her relationship with Szass Tam as he cannot act outside of Thay, so his plans are only a threat with Sofina carrying them out.
• Evil Chancellor: Played with. Sofina is certainly an evil chancellor, but she's not a treacherous one — her "lord" is actually a Con Man puppet-figure whom she deals with fairly and professionally despite her personal dislike of him.
• Evil Is Hammy: She laughs maniacally when she reveals she disguised herself as Kira to capture Edgin. Weaponized against her when she takes time to gloat later; it gives Kira time to slip an anti-magic bangle on her.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Played for Laughs when Forge asks her to use her magic to cool down his tea. Instead of freezing/chilling the cup, she covers her finger in ice and dips it in the tea, grossing him out. Given that she is later revealed to be undead, it's implied she did it simply out of spite since she hates Forge.
  • She disguises herself as Kira and laughs in Edgin's face at his attempted apology before capturing him, seemingly just to be cruel.
• Evil Laugh: After Edgin falls for her trap when she's disguised as Kira, she laughs maniacally in his face.
• Evil Sorcerer: She's a high-ranking member of perhaps the most famous and recognizable evil wizard (not "sorcerer" -- the distinction is important in D&D) faction in the world, and takes great pride in her mission to expand their empire of murderous arcane tyranny.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Spending centuries mastering magic in a totalitarian magocracy would go to anyone's head even if said head wasn't literally decorated with tattoos showing off what an amazing and talented wizard they are, and it's the one true gap in her armour. She visibly fumes about having to hide her rank and position by going undercover and working alongside inferior mortals, regularly coming close to breaking her cover or killing off vital assets (even if she has just enough self-control to keep herself back from the brink), and the heroes only manage to turn the tables on her because she can only see them as nonentities, annoyances, or potentially useful undead "recruits", never serious threats.
• Glamour Failure: After trapping the protagonists in a Time Stop, the illusions masking her undead nature slip away to reveal her true appearance; withered and corpselike with tattered, rotting robes. While it appears at first that she simply no longer feels the need to maintain the ruse, it's actually because an invisible Kira slipped a magic-dampening cuff on her wrist while she was gloating.
• The Heavy: She is a servant of Szass Tam and is ultimately furthering his evil schemes, but Tam is far away ruling over Thay so Sofina serves as the primary antagonist the heroes have to deal with and is the one actually executing the Evil Plan on the ground.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: She is the one to agree to let the heroes be in the High Sun Games rather than execute them then and there, because they'll make powerful undead minions. This game gives them access to the magic-dampening cuff that they'd ultimately slip on her to depower her long enough to kill her.
• Honor Before Reason: A villainous example; the only reason she allows Edgin's request to spare him and his party to compete in the High Sun Games instead of killing them on the spot is that they managed to outlast and outsmart her and Forge's lackeys. However, it may overlap with Pragmatic Villainy given her plan to unleash the Beckoning Death on the arena; if they were the first to be transformed and resurrected as her slaves, they'd be more than capable of hunting down anybody trying to flee the stadium and any immediate threats.
• I Gave My Word: Despite utterly loathing every second of interacting with him, she still keeps her end of the bargain she made with Forge after he keeps his.
• Kick the Dog: Arguably, her cruelest moment in the film is when she disguises herself as Kira and mockingly laughs after Edgin pours his heart out to her in an attempt to apologize to Kira.
• Knight of Cerebus: While Forge is just about as vile as she is, he at least has quite a few humorous lines and makes efforts to act charming around others. Sofina, in contrast, is a deathly serious villain who immediately darkens the mood whenever she shows up.
• Long-Range Fighter: As a Squishy Wizard, Sofina prefers staying at range, raining down powerful spells on her enemies from a distance. It's notable that even before depowering her, the party does far better fighting her when they get into melee range than trying to fight her at long range.
• The Man in Front of the Man: Sofina may act as adviser to Forge, but she's really the one in charge.
• Meteor-Summoning Attack: One of her most powerful spells is Meteor Swarm, letting her drop a rain of meteors on her opponents. She opens the Final Battle with it, but the heroes manage to avoid it.
• Neutral Evil: invoked Her promotional stat block lists Neutral Evil as her alignment. She and Forge obtained leadership of Neverwinter through duplicitous means, and Sofina is plotting to commit a massive crime in the name of the villainous Red Wizards. However, she comes closer to Lawful in some ways, like honoring a promise to someone she openly despises and giving her opponents a fair chance to survive as a Worthy Opponent, rather than killing them when she has the chance.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: She captures the heroes when they sneak into Neverwinter, and while Forge is ready to just have them killed as soon as possible, Sofina convinces him to let the heroes die fighting in the games instead, acknowledging them as worthy opponents who should be turned into undead servants during her ritual. If she had just killed them when Forge suggested it, then her Evil Plan would've succeeded without a hitch.
• Not So Stoic: Sofina spends a vast majority of the film in a controlled and menacingly cold poise, expressing outward emotion on only a small handful of occasions, most of which actually serve to make her more unnerving.
  • While accompanying Forge as he presents the Castle Never's vault to their rich patrons, Sofina suddenly announces her detecting an additional presence in the room, taking a few moments to assess the surroundings before turning to a housefly (in fact a Wild-Shaped Doric) and letting out a deafening scream straight out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
  • During the heroes' heist on the castle, Edgin discovers Kira and confesses to her all his mistakes and pleas for forgiveness while inviting her to escape with him. Kira smiles warmly and starts laughing... and laughing, and laughing, revealing herself to in fact be a disguised Sofina, who continues laughing in Edgin's face as she ensnares him with Black Tentacles.
  • In a less insidious sense, Sofina visibly loses her cool as she watches her Beckoning Death spell being entirely negated before her eyes. She returns to Tranquil Fury mode once she begins fighting the heroes for foiling her plans, lasting all the way until she discovers she's been slipped an anti-magic bracelet, immediately giving way to her getting annihilated by an angry Owlbear.
• Obviously Evil: Even before she's revealed as a Red Wizard, neither her imposing dark gown and headdress, nor her dark makeup, nor her creepy way of talking make her look like a paragon of benevolent magic. The general impression throughout her interactions with Forge's peers and subordinates is that the Lords' Alliance aren't too fussy about their members having evil wizard advisors so long as they're not genocidal imperialist evil wizard advisors.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Implicitly justified. The Red Wizards are human (give or take a bit of necromancy), and chiefly distinguished by their ritual tattoos and iconic red robes. Give her a change of wardrobe and cover her head, and you've just got a standard pasty wizard with eccentric dress sense, so that's all she and Forge do. In a conversation with her master, she mentions that she resents even doing that much, and she's back revealing her tattoos and turning her robes scarlet whenever she can afford to.
• Person of Mass Destruction: In D&D tradition, she's a high level wizard and capable of massive displays of destruction.
• Pragmatic Villainy: As much as she hates Forge she does honour her end of the bargain and let him leave with the city's treasures once his role is done.
• Really 700 Years Old: Sofina is stated to be three hundred years old and is actually undead.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The reason Red Wizards like her are so feared and hated is because they've found an exciting new way to combine slavery and genocide. Their objective is to kill everyone in the world and resurrect them as their subjects, and it's what she's been tasked with doing to the city-state of Neverwinter.
• Smug Super: Sofina has a high opinion of herself and is very confident in her abilities. When she actually starts showing off her magic, she proves she's right to be confident in her abilities.
• Squishy Wizard: In classic D&D tradition, becoming a master of the dark arts doesn't leave you much time for hitting the gym even if you've been around for centuries. Once the heroes find a way through her huge and deadly arsenal of spells and get her into owlbear range, it's all over bar the smashing.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She makes it no secret how much she hates working with Forge and the very moment his part in the scheme is done she growls at him to get out. It's to her credit that she manages to keep up her Pragmatic Villainy and honour their deal despite this.
• Time Stands Still: She has access to the Time Stop spell, letting her freeze everyone around her in time, though she never uses it to actually attack in frozen time and it's unclear if she actually can (as in 5e you can't, though some previous editions allowed it). She uses it in the escape during the flashback, resulting in Holga and Edgin getting captured when they're caught in it. She tries to use it again during the Final Battle, but this time Simon manages to Counterspell it and the heroes pretend it worked to lure her into a trap.
• Uncertain Doom: She is seemingly killed off by Doric beating her to death and then having rubble dropped on her body — on the one hand, as an undead Red Wizard of Thay, this normally wouldn't actually kill her (and Thayan assassins recovered from mortal wounds earlier in the movie); on the other hand, she was wearing an anti-magic bracelet that suppressed her powers at the time, so possibly she is actually dead.
• Undeathly Pallor: Her extremely pale complexion is an early sign that she's an undead Red Wizard.
• Undignified Death: After she gets distracted by a cheap bit of theatre and her own Evil Gloating, an angry owlbear repeatedly smashes her into the pavement until she stops moving, then does it a few more times to make sure. And a few more. Then flings her into a wall. Where some rubble falls on to her. It's not a particularly glorious way to go for anyone, let alone one of the oldest and most powerful wizards on the continent... assuming she actually is dead, of course.
• Vain Sorceress: A variant. She's an incredibly proud sorceress who's obsessed with her appearance not because she's particularly fussy about conventional beauty standards (which she's actually quite happy to leave behind), but because she needs to show off her hard-earned power and authority to the world. Even hiding her status as a Red Wizard gets under her skin. In fact, she'd probably consider it a deadly insult if you called her a "sorceress" — she's a wizard who has her magic because she damned well sat down and learned it.
• Villainous Breakdown: She spends most of the movie stoic and composed, with only some overt displays of anger. When the heroes manage to finally foil her plan by luring the people out of the arena before she can turn them into undead, she loses her composure and starts screaming a trio of Big Nos. Tellingly, she opens the Final Battle with what looks like (and her official stat block confirms to be) Meteor Swarm, a 9th level spell, showing how monumentally enraged she is.
• Villain Respect: While she had Edgin's entire party captured, bound, and dead to rights, she accepts his proposal for them to be allowed to fight for their lives in the arena, out of respect for their courage and tenacity. She is implied to realize that, should they turn during the Beckoning Death, they'll be among the most powerful of the Red Wizards' soldiers. Her declaration of respect remains quite sincere, however, being her only conversation with Forge that isn't dripping with venomous spite.
  Sofina: They defeated my men and yours; let them fight in the arena. They deserve that much.
• Villainous Virtues: Ironically for a film about The Power of Friendship, hers is loyalty. She's a diligent and devoted servant of her country, and she honours her deals with outside assets no matter how degrading and annoying she might find them. This very same sense of honor also compels her to grant the requests of captured enemies who earn her respect through cunning and bravery.
• You Need a Breath Mint: After she casts another time stop spell to defeat the party in the final battle, she walks up to a seemingly-frozen Edgin to gloat in his face. Edgin gives the jig up by complaining her breath stinks.

Kira

Kira Darvis

Played by: Chloe Coleman ^{Other languages}Emilia Raschewski (German), Fanny Piedra (Latin American Spanish)

Edgin's beloved daughter, who is under the care of Forge.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Holga calls Kira "Bug".
• Damsel in Distress: She's a young girl, and for most of the movie the main party is trying to rescue her from Forge.
• Happily Adopted: She basically considers Holga her mom and loves her to death. Which is why Edgin ends up resurrecting Holga instead of Zia.
• Invisibility Cloak: Her necklace can turn her invisible. This lets her defeat Sofina.
• Little Miss Con Artist: Downplayed. Kira's a young girl, but she was a fully fledged member of Edgin's crew, using a pendant of invisibility to aid in her thieving.
• Magical Accessory: Kira has a necklace that lets her turn invisible.
• Morality Pet: Edgin and Holga would seem a lot more amoral were they not genuinely concerned with Kira's welfare and motivated by their desire to get her out of Neverwinter. Even Forge, for all his self-serving and duplicity, took to being her surrogate father quite well, though he admits that being a dad is more of an ego boost for him.
• Nice Girl: Kira is sweet, kind, and loving to everyone but her father, initially. She warms up to him at the end when he finally admits his true intentions and faults, as well as seeing through Forge's lies.

Neverember

Lord Neverember

Played by: Richard Croxford

The rightful lord of Neverwinter, who Forge and Sofina kept in a coma.

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• Continuity Cameo: One of four characters from established Dungeons and Dragons lore, having been around since the first lore for the Forgotten Realms was released.
• Forced Sleep: Spends most of the movie like this due to Sofina's magic.
• The Good King: He's a lord but otherwise fits. He's a benevolent ruler who banned the Gladiator Games, made peace with the Emerald Enclave, and rewarded the party heroes.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Rewards the heroes that saved him and liberated his city, makes peace with the neighboring elves, and banned the brutal High Sun gladiator games.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He spends most of the movie in a coma and only awakens once Sofina is defeated, but once he does, he gives the party members everything they wanted: Edgin and Holga get their pardon, he makes peace with the Emerald Enclave, and the group is showered with rewards.

Thay

Szass Tam (SPOILERS)

Szass Tam

Played by: Ian Hanmore

"The living have befouled this world long enough. Take solace in knowing that your work here is nearly complete."

The evil lich ruler of the Thayan empire and master of all Red Wizards, including Sofina.

For more information on him, see here.

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• The Archmage: Generally considered the most powerful lich (undead wizard) in the world, and a walking advertisement of why becoming a lich is an excellent career move for wizards, with the only significant drawback being that he only has power within Thay.
• Benevolent Boss: Surprisingly, yes - his only scene in the present has him conversing with Sofina about how her plans are progressing, during which he expresses sympathy toward her annoyance with Forge and tells her that her patience and planning will soon be rewarded. Given that he was Surrounded by Idiots trying to raise a Dread Ring in canon, he likely knows what she is going through.
• Better Living Through Evil: The sales pitch that secured him a country and a government. Thay would be much harder to run and expand if he hadn't been able to convince a steady supply of like-minded wizards that ruling The Necrocracy as immortal tyrants was a fantastic career move.
• Continuity Cameo: Szass Tam is one of the few individuals in the story who is not an original character, but an existing and quite important villain from Dungeons and Dragons already who's been around in the lore since the 1990s.
• The Emperor: The High Regent of the Magocracy of Thay, complete with the desire to spread his empire to Neverwinter and beyond.
• Face Framed in Shadow: At one point he speaks to Sofina about their plan from the shadows of her office, with his face and body barely visible to the audience.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He's Sofina's boss, and that's all you need to know about him. The continued existence of his empire is well outside the scope of this film.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: Well, unliving forever, at least. He's the greatest existing example of why any sufficiently power-hungry wizard will want to go lich — it's given him all the time in the world to master his magic, and made it vastly harder for his rivals to (permanently) kill him. The rest of the Red Wizards see him as their ultimate ideal to aspire to and hope to join him as the eternal god-kings of this world and any others they can get their bony hands on.
• The Man Behind the Man: He's the one pulling Sofina's strings in her efforts to convert the people of Neverwinter into his undead slaves.
• The Noseless: He has a very skeletal face and thus no cartilaginous nose. He looks a bit like a combination of Voldemort and the Red Skull in this regard.
• Omnicidal Maniac: A rare case where the omnicidal guy isn't a maniac, just incredibly unethical. As the deathless Sorcerous Overlord of The Necrocracy, he has a perfectly sensible reason to want to kill everyone - it's how he gets new subjects. He also views the living as 'defiling the world,' as in the source material.
• Orcus on His Throne: A plot point. The trade-off for being the immortal, omnipotent god-king of Thay is that he's confined to his country's borders, and so he has to rely on agents like Sofina to expand those borders through grand necromantic rituals. He can only personally act defensively, not offensively.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Downplayed. He only has power (implicitly including the power to keep himself alive, because lich) within the borders of his own country, which is why he needs to rely on agents like Sofina to expand his influence.
• Sorcerous Overlord: The most notorious example on the continent. As a wizard who gained superhuman power through undeath and then stole an empire for himself with a Zombie Apocalypse, he's a byword for sorcerous tyranny.
• The Unfought: He isn't directly encountered by the party since he's away overlooking his territory in Thay and can't leave, instead only appearing to talk with Sofina via a magical projection.

Dralas

Dralas

Played by: Jason Wong

"Must be all that foul mortal blood."

An undead warrior who serves Sofina and Szass Tam.

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• And I Must Scream: Implied to be his fate after getting Eaten Alive. Having Resurrective Immortality can only make his stay in an adult red dragon's digestive system even more drawn-out and unpleasant.
• The Brute: He's better at physical combat than Sofina is, and is thus sent to personally dispatch Edgin's group after Forge's men failed to kill them. This leads to a standoff in the Underdark.
• Eaten Alive: Well, he's undead, but is still chomped wholesale by Themberchaud while attempting to flee.
• Flaming Sword: The Thayan assassin Dralas wields a distinctive sword lit with green flame (implied to be the self-explanatory spell Green-Flame Blade).
• Resurrective Immortality: How his particular brand of undeath appears to benefit him - he can sustain mortal wounds from a paladin (a class particularly skilled at re-killing the undead), seemingly die, and then get back up again about a minute later, none the worse for wear. It's implied that Xenk has killed him many, many times in the past century.
• The Worf Effect: While Dralas proves himself a formidable warrior against Xenk, he is swiftly eaten by Themberchaud, showing how dangerous the dragon is.

Others

Zia

Zia Darvis

Played by: Georgia Landers

"Stop trying to capture it. You just have to let it go."

Edgin's late wife and Kira's mother. She was tragically murdered by Red Wizards in retaliation for Edgin's efforts as a Harper.

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• Animal Motif: Zia is implied to have reincarnated as a dragonfly, as one appears on her pyre and Edgin keeps seeing dragonflies throughout the film. It's revealed that this dates back to a time early in their marriage where they had to herd a dragonfly out of the house and Zia told Edgin "You just have to let it go". One appears right at the end after Holga dies, implicitly giving him her blessing to let her go and resurrect Holga instead.
• Deader than Dead: Edgin states that no cleric can revive someone killed by a Red Wizard's blade, hence why he wanted the tablet, one of the few things that can resurrect her.
• Happily Married: As evidenced by a flashback to her and Edgin's wedding day, and just how badly Edgin wants to resurrect her with the Tablet of Reawakening. She even stays with him despite him being unable to provide a stable source of financial income for their family due to his job as a Harper; all she needs is his love for her and Kira.
• The Lost Lenore: Edgin took her death by Red Wizard quite hard and his attempts to bring her back from the dead drive much of his actions through the movie. He even lampshades her death as really important to his motivation when recounting his backstory in the opening.
• Mama Bear: Performed a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Kira from the Red Wizards by hiding her in a cabinet.
• Posthumous Character: She was killed before the movie begins and only appears in flashbacks or visions.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: A loving wife and mother who dies prior to the film's events through no fault of her own.

Themberchaud

Themberchaud

Played by: N/A

A pudgier-than-average adult red dragon the team encounter in the Underdark.

For more information on him, see here.

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• Acrofatic: Yeah, he's getting around by rolling, but he's REALLY getting around.
• Adaptational Dumbass: In Dungeons & Dragons, dragons are intelligent creatures, perfectly capable of reason and conversing with others, as is Themberchaud himself in the Out of the Abyss module. In the film, he's seemingly a feral beast. Somewhat justified, as the heroes neither attempt to talk to him nor is he in the film long enough to be further developed.
• Ancient Evil: Red dragons are big by default, but even they take a very long time to grow to Themberchaud's size. He's likely older than every other character in the film, and quite likely to outlive them all by centuries or even millennia (with the possible exception of Szass Tam and Elminster).
• Atop a Mountain of Corpses: The party realizes that the slope they're standing on is made of bones seconds before the dragon who ate all of them emerges from its lair.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Themberchaud may be a silly-looking pug of a dragon who's unable to fly and can't ignite his fire breath without an external flame source, but he's still an adult dragon that devours an entire group of undead assassins, shrugs off a holy blade between the eyes, and forces the protagonists to flee, barely escaping with their lives. If he was in decent shape, he would've easily killed them all.
• Breath Weapon: No self-respecting red dragon is without their fire breath, and despite Themberchaud really letting himself go, his flames are still frighteningly effective. The film does some light worldbuilding in illustrating how it works beyond "it's magic": he's described as exhaling a flammable gas, and there appears to be some kind of organ in the back of his throat that sparks like a strike-based lighter and provides the flame. His lighter-organ seems to have some unspecified problem with it, though, meaning that it can't ignite the gas he breathes properly and he has to rely on external assistance (such as from the plumes of lava in his volcanic lair) to do so.
• Continuity Cameo: A mainstay of the game since as early as 2nd Edition, Themberchaud is one of four individual characters not original to the film, along with Lord Neverember, Szass Tam, and (as a vision) Elminster Aumar.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The minute he shows up, he eats or crushes the warriors from Thay sent to kill the protagonists.
• Expy:
  • Being a fire-themed creature that the heroes of a fantasy adventure encounter whilst traversing an underground city makes Themberchaud the story equivalent of the Balrog. His confrontation with them even involves a broken bridge, like the Balrog vs Gandalf.
  • Ancient Red Dragons are typically Gargantuan in size (check), with an Intelligence score of 18. As a Red Dragon who's a bit too Gargantuan for his own good, but who doesn't appear to be the sharpest sword in the armory, Themberchaud is rather reminiscent of the Empress of Blood.
• Fat Bastard: A Villainous Glutton Ancient Evil monster who's become so massively obese over a lifetime of selfish hedonism that he resembles a huge red scaly ball, and moves by rolling as much as walking.
• Giant Equals Invincible: He is by far the largest creature in the movie, and nothing he is hit with can do more than slow him down.
• Handicapped Badass: His obesity is so extreme that it visibly hinders his movement, and he has an unspecified problem with his fiery breath that means he has difficulty lighting it without external aid, but he's still a colossal Invincible Villain monster who's incalculably far out of the heroes' league.
• Invincible Villain: Themberchaud may be comically obese, but he's still one of the most powerful beings in this or most other worlds, and as far out of their league as if they'd just awakened Godzilla. Even a century-old paladin sinking his holy blade right between his eyes only manages to stun him for a short while, and their only realistic option is to escape his lair before he eats/fries/otherwise annihilates them.
• The Juggernaut: Themberchaud is so big he can easily crush or eat any human sized creature he comes across and is far too big to do any real damage to.
• Laughably Evil: The fact that he's so badly out of shape lends a great deal of levity to his scenes. An Ancient Evil kaiju trying to crush our heroes? Terrifying. A morbidly obese Ancient Evil kaiju trying to crush our heroes by rolling over them? Hilarious.
• Lightning Bruiser: He is enormous, and despite his bulk, he can move fast by rolling like a barrel.
• Made of Iron: Xenk driving his sword into Themberchaud's head all the way down to the handle does little more than annoy the dragon.
• Rent-a-Zilla: Adult reds are amongst the biggest creatures in the world even if they don't have Themberchaud's... girth. He's basically Godzilla with wings and an eating disorder.
• Run or Die: He's an adult red dragon — you escape him or he fries and eats you. Simple as that.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Pursues the heroes through a collapsing bridge, getting stabbed, and then through rock to the point of getting his head stuck, all for a rather measly meal given his size. Though red dragons consider humanoids (especially humans and elves, and everyone in the party was at least half human) to be Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious.
• Villainous Glutton: An evil red dragon who clearly enjoys engorging himself on anyone or thing that stumbles into his lair.

Elminster Aumar (Spoilers)

Elminster Aumar

Played By: David Durham ^{Other languages}Oliver Siebeck (German)

"Funny thing about magic: it chooses who to wield it and it does not suffer fools."

The legendary great-great grandfather of Simon Aumar, and a phenomenally powerful wizard Simon has no illusions of ever living up to.

For more information on him, see here.

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• The Archmage: One of the most powerful wizards in the Forgotten Realms, strong enough that his bloodline carries enough potential for Simon to become a wild magic sorcerer five generations down the line.
• Continuity Cameo: Though technically he does not actually appear in the flesh at all, Elminster is famously one of the strongest wizards in the Forgotten Realms.
• Famous Ancestor: Simon is the great-great-grandson of Elminster Aumar, the greatest wizard in the history of the Forgotten Realms. In an inversion, Simon rarely brings up his lineage because he's sure he'll never live up to Elminster's skill and power.
• Race Lift: Elminster is shown as somewhat darker skinned than his usual depictions in artwork. Justified: he's actually another facet of Simon's mind, specifically his self-doubt.
• Really Gets Around: Elminster has had a lot of lovers in his long life, hence why a lot of his descendants are off on their own. It's quite likely he has no idea who Simon is.
• Trickster Mentor: Appears as a vision to Simon when he tries to attune to the Helm of Disjunction, berating him for not being good enough to be worthy of attuning to it at all. Eventually, when Simon punches him in the face, he is impressed, indicating he may have never been there at all, but rather a manifestation of Simon's self-esteem issues.

Marlamin

Marlamin

Played By: Bradley Cooper ^{Other languages}Alexis Victor (European French), Tobias Kluckert (German), José Gilberto Vilchis (Latin American Spanish)

A halfling and Holga's ex-husband.

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• Amicable Exes: He clearly doesn’t hold any bad feelings towards Holga despite breaking up with her.
• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Broke up with Holga while she was in prison.
• Amazon Chaser: He was married to Holga and his new wife is also a large, strong barbarian woman.
• Caring Gardener: Marlamin is a sensitive, nurturing man who grows his own food.
• Has a Type: Both his ex-wife and current wife are barbarian warrior women.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: On top of his sweet and caring personality, he keeps house, gardens, and cooks.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: He's a halfling who's been married to two barbarian human women.

Absolution Council

Absolution Council

Played by: Nicholas Blane (Anderton), Bryan Larkin (Norixius), Sarah Amankwah (Torbo), Clayton Grover (Jarnathan) ^{Other languages}German: Hans Hohlbein (Anderton), Erik Range (Norixius) | Latin American Spanish: Paul Stanley (Norixius)

The committee in charge of hearing the cases of the Revel's End prisoners after a year of their sentence and decide whether to grant them a pardon.

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• All There in the Script: Apart from Jarnathan, whose name is repeated by Edgin to a comical degree, and Anderton, whom Edgin addresses by name briefly, the councillors' names are only found in the credits, as is the fact that while all three men on the council hold the title Chancellor, Torbo's title is Baroness, which becomes relevant when she appears at the tournament in Neverwinter.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor poor Jarnathan; not only was he caught in a storm on his way to the hearing, but he was shoved out a window as an unwilling accomplice to escaping fugitives. Then when Forge attempts the same strategy, Jarnathan gets thrown into a brick wall.
• Cosmopolitan Council: They are a parole committee consisting of a human (Anderton), a halfling (Torbo), a dragonborn (Norixius), and an aarakocra (Jarnathan).
• Dark Is Not Evil: Norixius is a black dragonborn, but despite what his menacing appearance may indicate, he is a Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Turns out that they're surprisingly good at their jobs despite seeming like uncaring bureaucrats, ably assessing the truth and relevance of prisoners' pleas for mercy and correctly deciding who is and isn't redeemable.
• Face of a Thug: Norixius, with his bulky saurian head, dark scales, and gruff demeanor, looks rather sinister. However, he's the one who shouts at the escaping Edgin and Holga in an understandably exasperated tone that their pardon had been approved, indicating that he's more sympathetic to prisoners like them than he initially seems.
• Fat Bastard: Subverted. The lead councilor, Anderton, is heavily overweight, which combines with his bulky jewellery and expensive-looking robes to make him look like a stereotypical Corrupt Politician. Like his colleagues, though, he turns out to be a kind-hearted and perceptive Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Hero Antagonist: They send out a warrant for the arrest of Edgin and Holga, something that dogs them for the rest of the story, and Torbo in particular draws the attention of several guards to Doric during the climactic heist. But this is only because they're trying to uphold the rule of law, and the fact that they pardoned Edgin and Holga shows that they would have been fine letting the duo go free if they hadn't broken the law once again to escape.
• My Nayme Is: Jarnathan, not Jonathan. That he is an aarakocra perhaps justifies this.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: As Edgin and Holga carry out their escape plan, Norixius protests that they had already approved their pardon.
• Taught by Experience: They made sure that the method of escape that Edgin and Holga used would never be repeated. After his own pardon is denied, Forge attempts the method only to end up crashing into the stone wall as all windows were removed and the curtains put up.

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