Elves in Middle Earth

[Mathew_Freeman]

Now there has been some discussion on these very boards about how to translate the Elves of Middle Earth into a D&D format, being as they seem to be so much more powerful than everyone else, as a race, rather than any other reason.

I was struck by an idea. Try not to shoot me down. In the Epic-Level Handbook, they present a template called the Paragon. This template is supposed to indicate that this creature is an example of a perfect member of it's race. They use the example of a paragon mind-flayer.

The creature gains bonuses to virtually everything, from insight and luck bonuses to AC, through to +15 to each attribute (Str, Dex etc), also some spell like abilities. I'm not too sure about those.

So would saying that each and every elf in middle earth was a paragon elf work? Obviously, to make them even more powerful, you would first create a, say, Elf Wizard 14 and then apply the Paragon template, possibly with modifications (example: I don't understand why all paragon creatures have the same spell like abilities, maybe they could have spell-like abilities based on the kind of creature they are?).

Thoughts please, Tolkien fans and otherwise welcome...

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

See www.d20reviews.com/me/ it's a d20ME conversion hosted by EN World and look under Races. Several people have already worked on creating the races from ME.

Enjoy!!!!

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Yeah, there are a few elements of the ELH that I think would work well in Middle Earth, and the Paragon template - with a bit of fiddling - is one of those. There is a race, the Leshay, that could - again, with some fiddling - also be used for the Noldor (or the Vanyar, but they never came back to Middle Earth).

I think that normal D&D elves - with, you guessed it, some fiddling - work well for the Wood-elves of Tolkien.

All in all, not a bad idea that you suggest. Not bad at all.

 

[Dragongirl]

Just remember to make them immortal and immune to disease.

 

[Dragongirl]

By the way, that Paragon thing may work somewhat for the High Dundadan men too. Maybe halve the bonuses.

 

[nsruf]

I always thought the high elves of ME could be done as half-celestial elves (no wings).

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I always thought the high elves of ME could be done as half-celestial elves (no wings).

Yeah, that was an early thought I had.

Check the link in my sig for the ME d20 conversion site - there are a number of different interpretations.

 

[Squire James]

I tend to think of Elves as more like Aasimar than Half-Celestials... much less something truly ludicrous like Paragons. Gandalf, Saruman, and Sauron MIGHT be Paragons. The Fellowship, IMO, are mostly normal joes as far as character stats are concerned. However, Tolkien seemed to have a bias toward making his heroes some sort of aristocrat (even Merry and Pippen had to be sons of the closest thing to nobles the Shire had), but this is nothing unusual for British authors at the time!

 

[mmadsen]

The powerful elves of Tolkien's Middle Earth may not need powerful racial stats at all. They can all just be high-level characters instead of 1st-level Commoners.