Gandalf

[FurryFighter]

gandalf wasnt fighting for some deity, I'd say warlord/wizard at the most. I mean come on, the wizard of D&D draws a lot of its influence over the course of D&Ds lifespan from tolkien.

 

[The Little Raven]

gandalf wasnt fighting for some deity

The Lord of the Rings that I read disagrees with you.

"I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. You cannot pass."

Secret Fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[FurryFighter]

Servent of the fire, not servant of Iluvatar.. He serves life, not the deity that produced it..

 

[Klaus]

Servent of the fire, not servant of Iluvatar.. He serves life, not the deity that produced it..

Which makes him an Invoker, rather than a cleric.

The D&D wizard owes next to nothing to Tolkien's wizards.

 

[Garthanos]

Historically one mans holy miracle worker was another mans wizard... it was a point of view issue, agnostic / non-religious magic is ummmm a modern invention with less myth/legend and more recent fiction behind it...

nothing wrong with that but it is an explanation why Klaus is correct in his statement

"The D&D wizard owes next to nothing to Tolkien's wizards."

Tolkien drew very much from real myth and legend for his material... including his races.

D&D's original Wizard didn't need to be that close even if it was loosely inspired by Gandalf.. its other sources of inspiration were less tightly connected to older myth than Tolkein...

When I say modern or recent it isnt necessarily that extremely modern.
The dicotomy of Wizard vs Cleric divergence is closer to the distinction of (religion versus science). And makes it still a very interesting element for story.

 

[Garthanos]

Not quite. We have weapons that deal more damage to dragons (dragonbane, iirc), reptiles (scalebane) and even fey (cold iron). Just rule it as, say, a scalebane weapon and say that the additional damage is against goblins, orcs and trolls/ogres.

Sure it could be done that way... or you could figure all of the above were nocturnals had difficulty even seeing in the sun and 1 turned to stone in direct sunlight. Every one was vulnerable to radiant in Tolkeins visualization so using Sunblade as the effect is perfectly viable.

 

[Garthanos]

Narya - Gandalfs Elven Ring of Fire

Narya - It is described as having the power to inspire others to resist tyranny, domination, and despair (in other words, evoking hope from others around the wielder), as well as giving resistance to the weariness of time: "Take now this Ring," he said; "for thy labours and thy cares will be heavy, but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weariness. For this is the Ring of Fire, and herewith, maybe, thou shalt rekindle hearts to the valour of old in a world that grows chill"

In some ways this could be interpreted in D&D terms as a booster to Will Saves and a source of hit points of some sort...

The epic ring - "Luminary Ring" is not bad - though a ring of regeneration which inspires and invigorates its wielder.

 

[Klaus]

In the fight against the Balrog's Fire and Shadow, the Ring of Fire would protect more against the Shadow than the Fire.

In fact, Tolkien's "secret fire" would be akin to radiant energy in D&D terms, while his "shadow" is necrotic.

 

[Garthanos]

In the fight against the Balrog's Fire and Shadow, the Ring of Fire would protect more against the Shadow than the Fire.

In fact, Tolkien's "secret fire" would be akin to radiant energy in D&D terms, while his "shadow" is necrotic.

Right and true... and the connection to inspiration and healing is certainly true as well ... "dark fire" ... is damaging shadow -- sure necrotic damage resistance.

 

[Garthanos]

An interesting dicotomy

The dicotomy of Wizard vs Cleric divergence is closer to the distinction of (religion versus science). And makes it still a very interesting element for story.

Just wanted to double emphasize the above - bringing in a Class that closer represents Gandalf, doesn't undermine the coolness of the Wizard -- it could be seen as revealing.

And even if the fluff is a closer match for one class than another.... does not mean you have to build it that way....