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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6347850" data-attributes="member: 4937">While I don't disagree that there is a large power disparity between the party members of the Fellowship, you are giving the hobbits short shrift here.&nbsp; At the beginning of the story, only Merry and Pippin are not a match for a lone orc.&nbsp; Sam is a match for an orc - and proves it in the Mines of Moria.&nbsp; Frodo is a more potent combatant than Sam, and remains so until late in the story when he's utterly exhausted from fighting the ring.&nbsp; However note, once he claims the ring he's a match for Gollum who is more than a match for a single orc - he eats orcs and is more than capable of 'squeezing them' even without the ring.&nbsp;&nbsp; So, keeping in mind that Frodo &gt; Sam, what's Sam capable of?&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, by near the end of the story not only has Sam defeated orcs in single combat, he defeats a huge half-fiend spider in single combat.&nbsp; Sam &gt; Merry and Pippin, but Merry goes toe to toe with the Witch King of Angmar + a Fell Beast and together with just young girl defeats him, and Pippin defeats a troll one on one.&nbsp; So when Gandalf says prior to the scouring of the Shire, &quot;I know longer have any fears about any of you.&quot;, he can mean it.&nbsp; Merry + Pippin + Sam (Frodo doesn't even fight) dispatch a few hundred bandits as if the EL is 4 levels beneath them.&nbsp; Granted, they raise an army on the spot to do it (though its really not clear that they need to for any reason other than redeeming the Shire from its fallen state, since they pretty much bully the bandits, and Merry defeats their leader in single combat), but even the raising of the army implies a certain degree of skill associated in RPGs with being high level/high point value.&nbsp; If the four had decided to defeat the bandits with typical D&amp;D style commando tactics and taken them apart piecemeal, there is no reason to think that they couldn't have done so.None of that necessarily means that even at the end of the story the hobbits are as potent as Aragorn, Boromir, or Gandalf are at the beginning - each of which could taken on a small army of orcs single handedly - but it's not as if the hobbits add no value to the party.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6347850, member: 4937"] While I don't disagree that there is a large power disparity between the party members of the Fellowship, you are giving the hobbits short shrift here. At the beginning of the story, only Merry and Pippin are not a match for a lone orc. Sam is a match for an orc - and proves it in the Mines of Moria. Frodo is a more potent combatant than Sam, and remains so until late in the story when he's utterly exhausted from fighting the ring. However note, once he claims the ring he's a match for Gollum who is more than a match for a single orc - he eats orcs and is more than capable of 'squeezing them' even without the ring. So, keeping in mind that Frodo > Sam, what's Sam capable of? Well, by near the end of the story not only has Sam defeated orcs in single combat, he defeats a huge half-fiend spider in single combat. Sam > Merry and Pippin, but Merry goes toe to toe with the Witch King of Angmar + a Fell Beast and together with just young girl defeats him, and Pippin defeats a troll one on one. So when Gandalf says prior to the scouring of the Shire, "I know longer have any fears about any of you.", he can mean it. Merry + Pippin + Sam (Frodo doesn't even fight) dispatch a few hundred bandits as if the EL is 4 levels beneath them. Granted, they raise an army on the spot to do it (though its really not clear that they need to for any reason other than redeeming the Shire from its fallen state, since they pretty much bully the bandits, and Merry defeats their leader in single combat), but even the raising of the army implies a certain degree of skill associated in RPGs with being high level/high point value. If the four had decided to defeat the bandits with typical D&D style commando tactics and taken them apart piecemeal, there is no reason to think that they couldn't have done so. None of that necessarily means that even at the end of the story the hobbits are as potent as Aragorn, Boromir, or Gandalf are at the beginning - each of which could taken on a small army of orcs single handedly - but it's not as if the hobbits add no value to the party. [/QUOTE]

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