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Power Word: Shun - a venture into social magic Prismatic Spay - only useful against dogs and cats Prismatic Well - Faerun's most colorful water Sunbean - make ordinary legumes effective against vampires Flow / Glow / Plow / Slop / Scow / Show / Snow / Stow (wow, Slow has a lot of possible...

Sauron can control weather (the Darkness/Dawnless Day), and I think the Wise knew this (Elrond had been involved in the last war against Sauron, and even if he hadn't demonstrated the ability before, Gandalf would have known what kinds of powers Maiar would be likely to have). Also, the Nazgul...

I think the question of the abundance of magic weapons is irrelevant to Moria vs the Balrog. A Balrog is physically embodied - and a Maia physically embodied is vulnerable to ordinary physical weapons. Saruman was killed by a normal knife/dagger wielded by Grima, a Man of no great 'spiritual...

There seem to be two categories of 'magical' things in Middle-Earth: 1) Elvish and exceptional Dwarvish and Numenorean/Dunadan craft - seen as magical by Hobbits and (at least most) Men, but not by their makers. IIRC Galadriel says that she doesn't understand what humans/hobbits mean when they...

Not Maiar, yes, but they are actually explained. Ch. 2 of the Silmarillion, "Of Aule and Yavanna". Yavanna petitions Iluvatar through Manwe to create defenders of the trees, and he agrees. "When the Children [elves] awake, then the thought of Yavanna will awake also, and it will summon...

Yep. True. Morgoth lost power by dissipating it into Arda at large, but Sauron didn't (I believe it says in Morgoth's Ring that Sauron was actually stronger than Morgoth had been at the end of the First Age, since Sauron hadn't diminished himself), so the Balrogs likely didn't either. But they...

When the Maiar/Valar become 'fallen' they tend to become limited in their forms, which come to reflect their inner nature. Morgoth becomes trapped in his Dark Lord form after the Darkening of Valinor. Sauron loses the ability to take 'fair' deceptive forms after the Downfall of Numenor. The...

Another point: the original OD&D had Balrog stats, before the whole copyright issue got involved and they were removed [though references to them remained]. It was a 10 HD monster, AC 2. A dozen or so dwarf fighters of 4th level or so could take it down - though with losses. EDIT: And the Hold...

I dunno... the original article is old enough that OD&D assumptions probably apply. The OD&D "Monsters and Treasure" book tells us that NPC/monster Dwarves are 1 HD, but 1 in 40 is a fighter of level 1d6 (outside the lair) or level 3-6 (in the lair). Moria should count as a lair. I don't know...

I believe at least some of that was done by Christopher Tolkien when he created the published Silmarillion (from material spanning about 50 years of evolution in Tolkien's mind - for example the Fall of Gondolin was never re-written after the Book of Lost Tales in 1918 or so). Trolls were...

Who knows? Tolkien changed his mind on this, and it's not entirely clear what was 'final'. In the earliest versions, Balrogs were a 'created race' made by Morgoth [as were the Orcs]; quite numerous - a thousand showed up at one First Age battle - and, while terrifying, quite mortal (dozens died...

The thing is that Gandalf technically has tremendous power but (except against the Balrog) is forbidden to use it. So I think it's accurate to say that (except for that one battle, where he throws lightning and stuff around for ages) he never does anything that a 5th level wizard couldn't do -...

That's because the rest of D&D is largely based on Medieval stuff, with some Classical influences and some Renaissance stuff (minus gunpowder, which was in Europe by the late Middle Ages in RL). Rapiers are Early Modern, 16th-17th century, belonging to an age of guns, transAtlantic...

Rapiers were designed for dueling, and pretty useless against armor. I don't know much about Swedish history, could be, but 30 Years War is 17th century, well into the early modern period, which is a very different style of warfare from the Middle Ages.

I think my choices have all been covered. Yes, plus other monsters that are 'draconic' but not true-dragons with age categories. Like the hatori (one I always liked, despite its obscurity). -- Definitely. Yeah, 2E Council of Wyrms setting. But there was indeed a 3E set of dragons as...

Of all the editions published so far, 5E is the closest to my own personal "ideal D&D" (BECMI being the next in line). The only things I would really change is the way some special attacks work, and maybe a bit more exploration focus baked into the core mechanics. But I certainly see the appeal...

Any updates?

I would allow for "quasi-death" under the right circumstances (divine power "absorbed" by another being, imprisonment as for the Titans or Tharizdun, etc.) But the being could then be "re-integrated" or freed with similarly significant circumstances. And powers exceptional by even divine...

In a polytheistic standard D&D setting, I personally prefer gods to be defeatable but not permanently killable by high-level characters. Even in Greek mythology, Diomedes (who was not a half-god unlike many Greek heroes) was able to wound Ares and Aphrodite and send them fleeing back to...

How did that go (if you don't mind sharing?)