D&D 5E Which parts of D&D came from Tolkien?

[Hriston]

As a Dunedain, he had supernatural gifts from his elven, human and maia blood.

I just have to take issue with this. Divine and Elven ancestry was not a feature generally shared by the Dunedain. Their particular traits as a race, such as extreme height and longevity, were derived from their close cultural association with the Elves of the West and the blessedness of the land they inhabited due to its proximity to the West, nor do I remember charismatic leadership being mentioned as one of those traits. Aragorn's leadership abilities derive from his particular lineage as the rightful King of Arnor and Gondor and his claim to that right, which does include non-human ancestry not shared by other Dunedain. While his lineage could reasonably be represented with the Half-Elf race in 5e, with its +2 CHA bonus, I think a custom background would be more appropriate.

 

[Shasarak]

In the D&D context, I don't really see how this is any different from - if you pray and your prayer is answered, you must be a cleric.

That's how D&D works.

In DnD if you pray and your prayer is answered then there is no guarantee that you are a Cleric.

As you say, thats just how DnD works.

 

[Hussar]

In DnD if you pray and your prayer is answered then there is no guarantee that you are a Cleric.

As you say, thats just how DnD works.

True. You could be a druid. Or a paladin. Y'know, classes that get their prayers answered because they are that class.

 

[Maxperson]

Again, Maxperson, I respectfully disagree. I don't think it's as clear as you make it out to be. A lot of Gandalf's character clearly influenced D&D wizards - to a certain extent (among many other oft-repeated other sources) - but a lot of his wizarding was clearly an aspect of being of the Maiar race.

You need to read the Silmarillion, as it will help you understand the difference that I am talking about. The entire wizard portion of Gandalf, et al. is the Order of the Istari that they belonged to. Their Maia natures were different from that.

 

[Maxperson]

I just have to take issue with this. Divine and Elven ancestry was not a feature generally shared by the Dunedain. Their particular traits as a race, such as extreme height and longevity, were derived from their close cultural association with the Elves of the West and the blessedness of the land they inhabited due to its proximity to the West, nor do I remember charismatic leadership being mentioned as one of those traits. Aragorn's leadership abilities derive from his particular lineage as the rightful King of Arnor and Gondor and his claim to that right, which does include non-human ancestry not shared by other Dunedain. While his lineage could reasonably be represented with the Half-Elf race in 5e, with its +2 CHA bonus, I think a custom background would be more appropriate.

Their long lives come from their relation to Elros and the elven, human and maia blood inside of them, not because of being friends with elves. Given the amount of time spent in Numenor, nearly all of the numenoreans would have some royal blood flowing in their veins. The only thing they got from the elves was knowledge.

 

[Shasarak]

True. You could be a druid. Or a paladin. Y'know, classes that get their prayers answered because they are that class.

Exactly. Even Warlocks can have that kind of petitioning a greater power vibe.

 

[Maxperson]

True. You could be a druid. Or a paladin. Y'know, classes that get their prayers answered because they are that class.

Or one of any number of PCs and NPCs with boons, special abilities granted by the DM, classes or class paths created by the players or DM, and so on. D&D is much more than just what the rule books lay out.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Their long lives come from their relation to Elros and the elven, human and maia blood inside of them....

So they'd be what? Half-elves? Asimar? ...
...the reason D&D has half-elves...?

Aragorn's leadership abilities derive from his particular lineage as the rightful King of Arnor and Gondor and his claim to that right, which does include non-human ancestry not shared by other Dunedain. While his lineage could reasonably be represented with the Half-Elf race in 5e, with its +2 CHA bonus, I think a custom background would be more appropriate.

I'm sure his leadership abilities are bolstered by those things, but they're also perfectly natural abilities for a given human to have or develop, anyway. In the classic game he was the archetype of the Ranger class, the class just modeled him poorly, in 3e you could've done better with an MC'd build with the right, maybe custom, PrC, in 4e he might've been a Ranger (but, really, it'd just the basis of the title 'ranger,' at that point, Pemerton is right, Warlord would be a better starting place) with a custom Theme, maybe quite similar to the Tuathan theme from HotFW, and, of course, the Legendary Monarch Epic Destiny, and in 5e, he could be a spell-less ranger with a custom background (and, perhaps, stretching the point a bit, race).

 

[Aldarc]

You need to read the Silmarillion, as it will help you understand the difference that I am talking about. The entire wizard portion of Gandalf, et al. is the Order of the Istari that they belonged to. Their Maia natures were different from that.

I have read it multiple times, as it happens to be a favorite of mine. But you need to understand something before you go about mansplaining: the content of the Silmarllion, in this case, is about as important to this overall discussion as the price of eggs in China to a Swedish dog walker. I repeat myself: all wizards that we see or know in Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion are Istari. They are Maiar. Regardless of whether their Maiar natures are different from that, there is still clearly a link between the magic of Maiar and the magic of Wizards - blurring the lines between "class" and "race" - with Gandalf and Saruman being the two most prominent wizards of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (the most popularly read books of the mythos) having influenced the popular fantasy conceptions of "wizards."

 

[Maxperson]

So they'd be what? Half-elves? Asimar? ...
...the reason D&D has half-elves...?

Aasimar would be closest, but even that isn't quite right since they have elven blood as well.