How does Boromir keep fighting?

[Celtavian]

Re

I don't see the difficulty in determining why Boromir kept fighting.

Middle Earth is a low magic campaign with it's fair share of powerful items.

I just think Boromir was a high level figher with a low armor class. He didn't wear much armor and I don't think it was enchanted.

He could have quite a few feats for cutting down numerous low level foes considering he has been fighting the orc armies of Mordor almost his entire adult life. He could have taken that many arrow shots because he has alot of hit points.

As I said before, they streamlined Boromir against the orcs from the book. Boromir had alot more arrows in him in the book than he did the movie. Three lousy arrows to down Boromir the Brave is ludicrous.

 

[Corinth]

Not if Lurtz is a 4th level fighter with Str 18, a mighty composite longbow (+4), WF:CLB & WS:CLB and Boromir is a 12th level human fighter. With all other stats as per the DMG NPC defaults, Boromir goes down in three average-damage critical hits (which is how I see it) and was about to get CGDed when Aragorn arrives.

 

[ReignofGeekaos]

Hell you could almost argue that he was the epitome of his race, meaning that if he was Suraman obvisuly placed him in charge due to the fact he was in fact superior to his breathen, so he may have had a higher Str and Con, as the fight with Aragorn showed he was a pretty tough guy.

 

[CMonkey]

Maybe it wasn't down to his hitpoints at all. The arrows could have been enchanted with the Poison or Contagion spells and/or the Wounding and human Bane traits.

That'd settle his hash in short order...

CM.

 

[Bob Aberton]

What happened to Boromir IS plausible in RL.

The hit to the lung was not neccessarily fatal, although it did cause internal bleeding. A person can live with just one lung...

The hit to the abdomen pierced the intestines, but, once again, was not instantly fatal. Boromir never would have survived the infection that followed, but he could and did survive the pain and internal bleeding.

The hit to the heart did NOT fully pierce the heart. If it was just a graze, he probably could have fought on.

Also, given Boromir's position as a leader of the Armies of Gondor, he probably had a few levels in the Commander class, hence the "fight to the bitter end" ability which allowed him to keep fighting.

Boromir (Human Ftr15/Commander4)

As a side note, the notorious pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, fought on for something like THREE HOURS with 25 gunshot wounds to the torso and a cut throat. He eventually collapsed from blood loss after three hours of fighting.

 

[Abdul Al Hazrad]

I've given this some thought recently myself, not so much in terms of how Boromir kept fighting, but the relative levels of the characters. Here's my 2 cents:

Gandalf = 20th level wizard + ECL +5 as a 1/2 Celestial
Aragorn = 18th level ranger/3rd level paladin
Legolas = 21st level ranger
Gimli = 21st level fighter
Boromir = 16th level fighter
Frodo = 3rd level commoner/3rd level fighter
Sam = 2nd level commoner/2nd level bard
Merry = 1st level commoner/1st level ranger
Pippen = 1st level commoner/1st level Paladin

What do y'all think?

 

[Celtavian]

Re

There is no way Boromir was a lesser fighter than Legolas or Gimli. He had fought far more often in his short human life than either of them.

He is the best human warrior in the most prominent human kingdom of that time. Even Faramir and the other men acknowledged him as their best war leader and warrior.

Are you using the book or the movie to determine his level? Just remember, they chumped Boromir in the movie.

 

[hong]

I agree. If it does keep going I'll ask the mods to close it myself. Now I didn't say Boromir needed a prestige class. I was thinking more of what would a Son of Gondor, or Protecter of the White City prestige class be like. I think the idea has some merit, and could be very interesting to see what people come up with.

Well, if you go purely by what's in the books, you don't really have a lot to work with. What do we know about Boromir, in terms of concrete abilities? He's tough, he fights orcs, and it takes a lot to kill him. This is pretty vague material for basing an entire prestige class on. Ideally, a prestige class should represent a specific character concept, organisation or skillset. Boromir is basically a really badass fighter; you don't need a prestige class just for that. "Son of Gondor" is just an honorific for any (male) person from Gondor, so a prestige class based around that would be like a prestige class based on being a Cormyrian or a Greyhawk citizen. Not very sensible, nu?

Now you certainly could come up with a "White Tower guard" or "Ithilien ranger" prestige class; these are slightly more specific roles than just "son of Gondor". However, if you want to come up with abilities to fill out 10 levels, or even 5 levels, you're going to have to think laterally.

Also, if you're thinking only in terms of how the result would fit into your game, as opposed to building a completely new setting, you don't really have to make up new prestige classes from scratch. There are already plenty of guardsman, archer or captain PrCs out there. Just file off the serial numbers and make whatever changes are necessary to fit your own game.

 

[Ezrael]

Well, here's a possible perspective that might help.

When I was fourteen, I was shot by a hunting broadleaf arrow fired by a drunken deer hunter in a tree with a composite bow. The arrow went into my pelvis, just above the gas tank of the dirtbike I was on at the time.

I did not feel it. I *saw* it, but I felt nothing. I rode the bike home, got off, walked up to my front door, opened it, walked into the house, told my mother to come into the kitchen, and went to the fridge for a coke. She came into the kitchen and saw the arrow lodged in me and screamed, and that's the last thing I remember. (I passed out at that point.) I still have a scar to the left and down from my belly where it hit me.

So I can say that if I, a totally normal (possibly even subnormal) young man, could go ten miles on a motorcycle after taking an arrow, it's possible for a warrior of Gondor to keep fighting. Secondly, it's not like plausibility is the first concern of the story, really.

**Edited because I saw that I'd typed the arrow went *through* my pelvis, which would have been a lot worse than what actually happened, which is that it lodged in me.

 

[Dragongirl]

Well this isn't D&D rules, but under the old Iron Crown MERP rules Boromir was a 20th level warrior with 150 HPs, for comparison Aragorn was a 36th level ranger with 185 HPs.