How does Boromir keep fighting?

[William Ronald]

If I recall correctly, was not Rasputin poisoned, stabbed, shot and tied up and thrown into a river. As I recall, he was still trying to surface for air.

Boromir likely knew that he was going to die as soon as he saw the orcs running at him. People can summon a lot of will power to keep fighting through pain.

Also, I think Aragorn's healing skills were limited or very specialized. If Aragorn admitted that Frodo needed Elrond's help to deal with a splinter of the Morgul knife, it is likely that Boromir's wounds (far worse in the book than the movie) were beyond his power to heal.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Incredibly tough

Along the lines of the guy who walks into the ER with gunshot wounds, there's a true story in NZ of a farmer whose arm was torn off by a threshing machine. He picked it up, carried it a mile back to his farm house and rang for medical attention. What the human body can withstand is unthinkably amazing sometimes.

As for Boromir, I thought his fight just demonstrated that the abstraction of DnD hit points fairly adequately simulates heroic combat. He keeps taking hits, but because he isn't reduced to 0 hit points he keeps on fighting. Once he hits 0, he stops - but is not yet dead. That's how he is when Aragorn finds him, bleeding out.

My 2c.

 

[William Ronald]

There is a tradition in ancient and medieval literature of strong friendships between people of the same gender. Indeed, one can even site the friendship of David and Saul's son Jonathan in the Old Testament as an example of this. (Perhaps Tolkien, who by the way was one of the translators for the Jerusalem Bible, recalled David's lament for Jonathan and Saul and used this as inspiration for the lament for Boromir in The Two Towers.)

Similarly strong friendships can be seen between those who have survived hardships together.

I think the people who are uncomfortable with the friendship between Aragorn and Boromir or Frodo and Sam are barking up the wrong tree. Perhaps they should examine their own motives. I would wonder if these same people would have a problem with the real life stories of soldiers who risk a lot to save their brothers in arms or support them through hard times. To feel empathy for others is not a weakness, but a strength.

I thought the dialogue in the film between Aragorn and Boromir fit the spirit of the Lord of the Rings.

 

[ReignofGeekaos]

Well some people just scream and cry whenever intimacy is show between two man, so it's not that unheard of. Some are just idiots though.

In any event I'm leaning on the Cleave, Great Cleave, and AoA idea since it seems to work the best, well that a boat load of Hp.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Similarly strong friendships can be seen between those who have survived hardships together.

Seems like in a lot of popular culture, there are always people who look at strong male friendships and automatically see "something more" in the subtext. And it's not just in LoTR either.

I, personally, am getting tired of people who automatically assume Yaoi (male-male) relationships occur within every Anime series featuring male characters with a strong friendship. The most flagrant of this can be found amongst Gundam Wing fans ("Ooh, all the heroes are young bishonen males, so they must be Gay, never mind their obvious female love interests") and in Digimon fandom ("Taichi and Yamato MUST have the hots for each other! They keep giving hints about it!")

I have nothing against actual gay relationships between characters, but please, people, can we stop automatically assuming that hidden homosexual content is found in every series?

 

[LightPhoenix]

Dramatic license.

But in D&D terms, as had been said, he's probably knocked down to negative by the arrows, and then bleeds as the orcs run by. Aragorn doesn't kill the thing until Boromir reaches -9, which by then is too late. Aragorn runs over to hear his last words, and poor Boromir dies.

His death is by far my favorite part of the entire book.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

The Death of Boromir

It still hurts, even THIS far out, when I watch Boromir die in that film.
It is very unpleasant. It is very sad.

It whelms the actual book, in terms of power of feeling (no offense to Tolkien intended, folks.)

- - -

It is my opinion that Boromir was a high level fighter.
Not Epic, but pretty class.
Boromir also had some ranger levels, in my opinion.

But that first arrow that hit Boromir, was a lethal hit.
There was no way Boromir could have hoped to have survived that first hit - even had he been rushed to a modern hospital at once, with a full emergency room and a crew of surgeons, he might not have survived.
The blow was a Critical Hit, and it punctured Boromir's lung (if you look at where it hit.)

Boromir was in a situation where he still had Hit Points, per se, but they were RAPIDLY dwindling (as in, 10 to 20 points per round automatically lost, with no hope of stopping the loss.)

In more Real Life terms, Boromir went into Battle Shock.
In battle, warriors are known to have been able to continue fighting, long after they sustained mortal wounds - and, for that matter, wounds that should have immediately incapacitated them, like hits to the heart, liver, kidneys, or major arteries.
Whether it was shock or something else, those warriors fought on, long after they should have gone down.

I guess that, in 3rd edition terms, Boromir had the ability to keep fighting normally, even when he should have been Stunned (or worse.)
And I am guessing that Boromir had the Feat that allows one to keep fighting to - 15 hit points, able to fully function at negative hit points when one should be dying instead.

The second hit, from those giant war arrows from the long bow, hit Boromir in the stomach.
Again, it was a Critical Hit, with the appropriate consequences (and the loss of Hit Points doubled.)

The final hit was a direct hit to Boromir's heart.
A double 20 Critical, as it were - an Instant Kill Critical.

Even Boromir, for all his Feats, could no longer fight ... yet his indomitable spirit kept him alive a little longer ... long enough for his final words to Aragorn.

 

[adndgamer]

Or within the next 10 days from infection unless you have access to antibiotics.

Antibiotics? Blah!

Gimme some of that elven healing any day over petty antibiotics!

 

[hong]

The whole Boromir thing only points out flaws with hit point conventions (1+=healthy, 0=staggered, -10=dead). These are only conventions that make bookkeeping easier. If we cared about realism we would add Fort saves to stay standing/conscious. Because of the style od D&D combat, that is not really worth the trouble.

It is silly to rack your brains over what feats to give Boromir.

Bah. I bet you say the same thing in alignment wars.

 

[Hammerhead]

An interesting point, but where does it say that Iron Will assures you that you make all your Will saves against artifact-level magic items?

Actually, maybe Boromir does have Iron Will - he has it to compensate for an average (or lower) wisdom. I mean, anyone without the common sense to listen to the advice of Elrond and Gandalf isn't exactly wise themselves...

While Iron Will doesn't mean he'd always make his saves, I think there's a DnD moral to the story if he doesn't have it, and, say, Aragorn does. Aragorn takes Iron Will and thus is able to resist the ring, Boromir takes Great Cleave, mega-toughness, or something and succumbs to the ring, but leaves stacks of orc bodies when he dies. Who helps the group more?

Besides, Boromir makes sense from a Gondor centered point of view. If the Fellowship fails, Gondor is toast. However, if the Fellowship sticks together and succeeds, Gondor is still ruined because all the great heroes are off with the Fellowship. Gee, either way, he and his country lose. On the other hand, he can use the ring and hope for the best. Gondor probably lives and maybe Gandalf or someone takes him out before he becomes completely evil.