The Lord of the Rings...

samcu · Post by **samcu** » Mon Jan 07, 2002 9:35 pm

Frodo, Bilbo, Sam, Gandalf and the elves like to sing.

I think it is likely that Merry and Pippin are bards/thiefs. Neutral Good, good in dex for being quite and average stats.

Sam and Frodo are more accomplished thiefs but they can't be evil, so they should probably be bards. Sam could be a swashbuckler because of his fighting capability. Neutral Good, very good in dex, better strength for Sam and higher wisdom for Frodo.

Boromir is human no matter how you cut it. The fact that he is a proud son and got drawn to the ring should make him would make him crap a normal fighter. Chaotic neutral, with good strength and low wisdom.

Aaragon can be a fighter/ranger, as he was in exile and then had to fight back his crown. Lawful good, good strength, good charisma, high wisdom.

Legolas as archer and Gimli as fighter are pretty much agreed on.

Gandalf uses fire a lot and therefore should be an invoker by trade. He is almost immortal, therefore he levels could be very high. Probably kensai/mage with level 2/60 Highest intelligent, very high wisdom and lots of hit points because of his high level.

Bilbo has to be a thief, as he is poisoned by the ring.

I also thought Saruman had great powers because of his ability to suggest. He locked up Gandalf because he talked to him when he was off-guard. Neutral good turn neutral evil with highest charisma, intelligent but only average wisdom.

I liked the way Bill and Shadowfax were used in the book. Not sure why they did not mentioned them in the movies though...

sigurd · Post by **sigurd** » Tue Jan 08, 2002 12:24 pm

Isnt it natural for any hob to like to sing? But bards? nah, only bard i can see is Bilbo, probably dualling there from a thief (not legit, but still) I can see sam a thief/fighter though. Frodo only has a great will, but he doesnt do a lot in the book really. Sam on the other hand.. he is the true hero really...And thats what the hobbits thought too in the village...Maybe some hobbits arent that stupid after all...

The other hobbits too should be thieffighters. except frodo, who is a thief with a very good charisma.

Gandalf is a great warrior, level 2 fighter seems very low.

Sailor Saturn · Post by **Sailor Saturn** » Tue Jan 08, 2002 2:29 pm

Boromir: Human Fighter, definitely not a Barbarian. His "rage" was for two reasons. 1) The ring was affecting him which caused him to try to steal it from Frodo. 2) He realized what he had done and was attempting to atone as best he could by protecting Merry and Pippin.

Aragorn: Human Ranger. IIRC, Aragorn was referred to as the Dunedain(sp?).

Frodo: Fighter/Thief with high con and wis but average(or lower) str and dex.

Pippin: Fighter/Thief

Sam: Bard. Sam was most definitely a bard.

Merry: Fighter/Thief

Gandalf: Fighter/Mage

Legolas: Archer, grandmaster with bow, proficient with daggers.

Gimli: Fighter

sigurd · Post by **sigurd** » Tue Jan 08, 2002 3:48 pm

Hm, I cant remember the ring making Boromir going crazy, at least not in the way you describe.. Well, maybe you too talks about the movie and not the book...

But he has the Rage inside him...

Obsidian · Post by **Obsidian** » Tue Jan 08, 2002 4:24 pm

Btw, Legolas isnt an archer, hes a marksman. Anyways, ya, Gandalf should have some major fighting skills, perhaps you meant 20/60. He rocked.
Aragorn is NOT a fighter. Who in their right minds would dual a ranger into a fighter?
Hes a ranger regardless.
Sam is a hard guy to pick a class for, but, I lean heavily towards a berserker thief. Delver works too, a TDD kit..
Frodo, hmm, definately a rogue, and one poor at fighting...
Ya, YAA. I reached 2 pages, firt time any of my topics got anywhere!

Thanks for the great suggestions.

Wolf_pd · Post by **Wolf_pd** » Wed Jan 09, 2002 12:33 pm

Answering the question about LotR-party pics, I have found a site which had some nice ones:
[url="http://www.kirith.com"]http://www.kirith.com[/url]

Wolf_pd · Post by **Wolf_pd** » Wed Jan 09, 2002 12:36 pm

And I almost forgot to say, if anyone noticed the guy with the hamster in The Prancing Pony, there are also pics from Boo on the site I mentioned before

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Wed Jan 09, 2002 2:59 pm

@SS, Sam as a bard? You sure?

@Knight Errant and everyone, Gandalf really doesn't have a class in D&D. The Istari (sp?) are not powerful mages, at least not like the D&D kind.

Obsidian · Post by **Obsidian** » Wed Jan 09, 2002 8:59 pm

@ Wolf pad, YOU ROCK. Awesomeness as achieved an earthly form, and it is Wolf Pad!!

As to the boo thing, neato. Wouldn't be surprised to find a BG fan in the LOTR crew..

@ whoever was saying that gandalf isnt a dnd class, your right, He is SEVERAL!
Kinda like Elminster.

seanthony · Post by **seanthony** » Wed Jan 09, 2002 11:43 pm

Nice stuff there, guys.

For me.. the party would comprise mainly of:

Frodo
Aragorn
Gimli
Legolas
Boromir (for Fellowship, only)
Gandalf

I know that Gandalf is too powerful, so he gotta be tweaked down. I don't think having three hobbits (Frodo, Merry and Pippin and/or Sam) is fun in a party. I mean, honestly, they are all quite similar... boring to play with in a party. Hence my decision on these six.

OR, ditch Gandalf, and make the party of 5.

Wolf_pd · Post by **Wolf_pd** » Thu Jan 10, 2002 6:55 am

I have given some thoughts about available equipment, but I haven't found much usuable yet. The drizzt Mithril Chain is a starter, but from what I saw in the movie and have read in the books, the AC would have to be closer to the drowstuff. So I am full of ideas of some custom mades, but I don't like the idea of offensive spells on the weapons. Maybe some anti-fear, confusion, chaos, etc would be nice, but that's all. It's sword, not a walking spellbook, ya know. Extra damage (like fire,cold,acid,etc) is ok with me.
The 2-handed axe Craig made me, is a good one, coz Gimli is all axe. Much better than the one-hander.
Anyone knows what kind of weapon Legolas has? Coz the common LotR-rule = the older the weapon, the better. See the swords the halflings got in the book and also Aragorns sword. If it's any elvish relic or so, just add a lot of +...

Obsidian · Post by **Obsidian** » Thu Jan 10, 2002 1:53 pm

Well, I know Legolas killed on of the flying Nazgul's mounts, with his bow. Meaning the weapon probably has a high enchantment level, and can fire VERY far. I think its a plain longbow, hes not strong enough to use a composite one...

Silvanerian · Post by **Silvanerian** » Fri Jan 11, 2002 5:39 am

A way to tone down Gandalf without takeing the grandour out of him, would be give him the level he really is, but only give him 9th level spells. He doesn't really use his magic that much - in the start anyway - so I think that would be a good idea.
For instance, in BG terms, if you lowlevel fellowship happened to run into a lich, it would be "beyond swords to deal with" and then let Gandalf deal with it.
But in the regular fights, just let him stand in the back, or maybe use him only as a fighter if someone really gets hurt.
That's how I would use him, so the gamebalance doesn't get to blown away.
Maybe let him use his full potential much later in the game...

I realize that it's somewhat hard work to only give him 9th level spells - you'd have to do that in Shadowkeeper and then reedit his available spell memorization when he levels up - but then again, a high level wizard doesn't level up too often.

-Sylvanerian

PS: cool side Wolf_pd

Obsidian · Post by **Obsidian** » Fri Jan 11, 2002 2:44 pm

Good Idea Silv, but, I think if I just use my own self control to limit him it'd be a LOT easier. Thanks for the good idea

Wolf_pd · Post by **Wolf_pd** » Sat Jan 12, 2002 6:47 am

@ Knight Errant

He killed the flying Nazgul'horse' with a bow he got in Lorien (according to the book), so it's Elven and more +'s to go!!

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Sat Jan 12, 2002 7:18 am

Originally posted by Bruce Lee:
<STRONG>
Originally posted by sigurd:
[qb]REally? seems odd, just look at all them runners in olympic games.. they are thin.. and not too strong.. im talking about the ones that run a long way</STRONG>
Yeah well there are different kinds of strength. Stamina is part of strength in d&d.[/QB]

I'm afraid not Bruce, Constitution is Stamina, and it says so in the D&D Character generator on the Baldurs Gate II discs.

Everclearules20 · Post by **Everclearules20** » Sat Jan 12, 2002 12:35 pm

I did the same thing, saw the movie and wanted to make a party. Most of em are the same as Knight Errant's, but i made Frodo a thief, and used Arwen as a cleric instead of gimli.

[ 01-12-2002: Message edited by: Everclearules20 ]

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Sat Jan 12, 2002 2:44 pm

Originally posted by Nippy:
<STRONG>I'm afraid not Bruce, Constitution is Stamina, and it says so in the D&D Character generator on the Baldurs Gate II discs. </STRONG>

I haven't seen that but even if it says so there, in 2nd edition ad&d it was strength that determined stamina, of that I am sure.

PoD · Post by **PoD** » Sat Jan 12, 2002 3:14 pm

Coming late to the thread, but here's a few points:

LOTR is not D&D, but it's clear that D&D was heavily indebted to LOTR. GG admitted as much.

Gandalf - definitely should be treated as a demi-god, which basically can't be handled by BG2. Most "demis" have 4 or 5 classes. I'd suggest Gandalf has a mixture of Mage (probably specialist - I suggest that all the Wizards are specialists of one sort or another); Paladin (not plain fighter) - probably Cavalier (could explain how good he is against the Balrog); few levels of Bard; few levels of Druid. Aside from his Ring and Sword, his Staff is also a major artifact - allows dual-wielding, casts "earthquake" (brings bridge down), etc. Clearly his stats major in wisdom and constitution. He is not as clever as Saruman, but *is* wiser.

Aragorn - despite the fact that he is "n" generations removed from his Elven side, the book makes abundandantly clear that in him the Kings of old are re-born. If you follow the book (rather than the film) then half-elf is not only possible, but probable. Clearly he is a Ranger, the D&D Ranger class was based on him! He has high stats all round: good with sword and bow, good endurance, above average intelligence, obviously high wisdom. As for Charisma - how do you get the most beautiful woman in Middle Earth to go for you with low Charisma?

Legolas - I'll just mention one thing. In the Books he kills an awful lot of Orcs with his dagger (around as many as Gimli with his axe if memory serves) - but that's not in Book (or film) 1.

Boromir - fighter. There's no Barbarian rage. He just has a very high constitution (=HP) and strength. Somewhat lower on wisdom, intelligence and charisma

Frodo - higher than average constitution, wisdom, dexterity (halfling bonus), intelligence (brighter than Bilbo) and charisma. Obviously not so hot on strength. Can hide in shadows, but in LOTR this is a hobbit trait. For BG this limits his class. For me only plain Bard fits.

Sam could be a low-level Barbarian with high Wisdom. The other two hobbits are clearly fighter-thieves, with higher than average strength (for a hobbit) but maybe not so high in the wisdom stakes.

[ 01-13-2002: Message edited by: PoD ]

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Mon Jan 14, 2002 2:54 pm

Gandalf may be called "wizard", but he hardly performs any magic at all! He makes 99% of his kills with his sword. I'd say that makes him either a Fighter/Mage or a Bard.

Sam is no Barbarian. He had a proper upbringing (unlike some Halflings in the Planar Sphere, I might add

).