Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="triqui" data-source="post: 5512570" data-attributes="member: 57948">"not really, Sauron was aware of it's surrounding pretty much only at the end of the story, when he was closer to reform, and only around Mordor. Prior to that, he wasn't able to pinpoint Gandalf even if he used great powerful spells. For example, in the Battle against the Balrog, or comunicating with the Eagle Lord, and the Fellowship actually DID light more than a few fires in their run through most of Middle earth, when outside of Mordor"and "don't really worry, he won't be able to react. Just like when he was aware of Frodo in Mount Doom, he wasn't really able to do anything, but setting the alarms on and calling the Nazguls back. So if I, Gandalf, start a teleport in, say, Bree's Tavern, long before the Nazguls came to me, we'll be into Mount Doom"and "don't really worry, I'm a high level Wizard. I know "teleport without error" comes to mind to counter your "handweave DM fiat". I want a game that can't have it's plot busted, the story avoided, or the narration shortcut to the end, which is exactly what I said. Going from chapter 1 "The Story Begins" to chapter 19 "Fall of the Bad Guy" without even touching any of the wonderful 2 to 18 chapters suck in my opinion, from a narrative standpoint. YMMV, of course.Beowulf defeated a magic demon (Grendel) with magic powers, and Grendel's Mother, which is a Hag. Beowulf level isn't set on stone (just like Aragorn's level isn't), but it's quite epic level (being able to singlehandlely defeat a Dragon, where Aragorn needed a full group of Adventureres to defeat a baby troll). Same goes with Achilles (or Perseus, or Jason, or any other of the Greek Heroes). My point is, regarding to the OP, that when in fiction the spellcaster is much more powerful than the martial guy, it's not becouse of magic being more powerful than martial training, but becouse of the comparative levels ofthe Characters. Yes, both Merlin and Gandalf have power beyond Arthur or Aragorn, but that's becouse of the comparative levels of them. Merlin and Gandalf are plot devices, not "player characters", and thus aren't comparable to the main casting. However, Morgana isn't really much more powerful than Lancelot, and there are several first age warrior-type elves that can surpase Gandalf ability. Glorfindel defeats a Balrog using a club and a dagger, and Feanor or Fingolfin used to fight BATALLIONS of Balrogs.That would be true, IF the only weapon I have is the nuke, which is not the case. When one of the war contendants have only a shotgun, and the other one has an array of weapons that go from a knife (which is silent, and also useful for out of combat stuff like skinning), a pistol (which is almost as good as a shotgun, plus can be concealed), a shotgun, PLUS a nuclear weapon (which has some big hindrances, of course, but you dont have to use if you dont want, there is no balance. I, the mage, can downgrade my level of effectiveness to fighter level if I want, or in the fights that I dont really care or cant be arsed to employ my real potential. However, when the real danger appears, I *do* have a nuclear weapon, while the other guy *does not*And that happens mostly in RPG (and only in D&D-style RPG, for that matter). Fiction never (or almost never) has uber-powerful plot-ending spells. More often than not, they don't even have "teleport". Same goes with other non-D&D style RPG: A Legend of the Five Rings Shugenja isn't really more powerful than a LoFR Bushi.</blockquote>

Verification