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Message: <blockquote data-quote="môrgondír" data-source="post: 9759761" data-attributes="member: 7054020">I enjoyed reading this thread and discovering all of the differing ideas about what constitutes a Ranger.   I also found it very interesting how much people's idea of 'magic' in Tolkien's Legendarium differs. I think there are a great many types of magic in Tolkien, but they are rarely overt and they can be very subtle - they may be innate, like a  Hobbit's ability to disappear which Tolkien suggests only "seems" magical (Concerning Hobbits, LotR I), or found in artifice, where a crafted object (a silmaril, a ring, a sword that glows in the presence of Orcs) is imbued with certain 'magical' properties.  Magic is also most frequently found in words or speech (a spoken word opens the West Gate of Khazad-Dûm, the Voice of Saruman), and more importantly, in song (Ainulindalë, Tom Bombadil).  I also believe that the manifestation of magic power or efficacy can run along a scale, where on the low end, "things seem magical" but really aren't (like Hobbits uncanny ability to disappear), to a hurled, exploding pine cone that affects attacking wargs and orcs almost like some kind of fantasy napalm.Since Tolkien was a philologist and had a great familiarity with mythology his understanding of magic differs from mine, but I nevertheless believe that the subtler "magic" of Tolkien can exist side-by-side with the spellcasting system in D&D, if having both is appropriate or desirable in a particular game world.  When I first read 5E (2024) and encountered Hunter's Mark, it didn't strike me as spell-like at all.  I found rather that it struck me like the Hobbit's hiding ability - so uncanny that to observers it "seemed magical".  This is the ability of a archer to focus his shot (or strike) on the vulnerable spots of his quarry, a kind of tunnel-vision that requires concentration to achieve optimal efficacy ("aim small, miss small").  This has informed my own archery practice, so to me it made perfect sense that it is something which requires concentration, a kind of ritualistic focus, but not necessarily verbal utterances or somatic gestures. With all of that said, I don't have a good argument for why Rangers are necessary in D&D, but please don't judge me poorly for that.  =)</blockquote>

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