How to describe Strider's combat on Weathertop
- Thread starter Lord Vangarel
- Start date
Furn_Darkside
First Post
Bihor said:
Pfft- how would they make smores, then?
FD
Uller
Adventurer
Irda Ranger said:
In the books or movies, Aragorn is a very powerful character, both physically and personality-wise. You'll see more of his power in the next movie.
I would definately expect him to have Whirlwind attack considering he has been wondering the wilds of the west fighting orcs and trolls and much much worse for the last several decades...
As for Bull Rush...why not a feat called "Great Bull Rush" (prereq: Imp Bull Rush, BAB +4) that allows you to make an additional Bull Rush attempt after you force one foe back rather than moving with that foe. Then have "Supreme Bull Rush" (prereq: Great Bull Rush, BAB +8) that allows you to keep doing Bull Rushes as long as you succeed to anyone within range. Maybe allow a single 5' step during this process.
Irda Ranger
First Post
Uller said:
Hmmm ... Bull Rush as it stands is a standard attack option, not a Feat that someone has to take. I think if you have gone to the effort to aquire the Whirlwind Attack feat chain, you could Whirlwind other things ... like Whirlwind Bull Rushes or Whirlwind Trips.
The other chain you could "link" it too is Great Cleave. If you Bull Rush the first guy, you just keep Bull Rushing until someone stops you. You could plow over a couple Ring Wraiths that way I guess (or, at least, your average Epic Ranger/ Last Son of the Line of Kings could)
Irda Ranger
Desdichado
Hero
The Ringwraith's actually weren't trying to fight Aragorn. They had done enough (what they set out to do, at least, by wounding Frodo with that knife) and so essentially just backed away from Aragorn.
BTW, that has always been one of the more disappointing aspects of LOTR -- if the Nazgul were supposed to be so tough, why'd they end up so wimpy throughout that whole first half of FotR?
BTW, that has always been one of the more disappointing aspects of LOTR -- if the Nazgul were supposed to be so tough, why'd they end up so wimpy throughout that whole first half of FotR?
DM with a vengence
First Post
The combat situation. Frodo is surronded by Ringwraiths, the hobbits are lying around behind them, hiding and needing new pants, and the ring is about to be lost. Aragorn strikes with surprise, killing a wraith in the surprise round. He wins intiative, and moves closer to Frodo to protect him. The wraiths spread out for flanking manuvers, but Aragorn is using off-hand parry with his sword and deflects their blows. He makes two attacks with the torch, killing two more wraiths. The he bullrushes one of the remaining two to the edge of weathertop, sets fire to him, and tosses him off. Then he throws the torch and kills the last one. Pretty simple, elapsed combat time, 3 rounds+surprise round, or a bit over 18 seconds.
Uller
Adventurer
Irda Ranger said:
Right, but Improved Bull Rush _is_ a feat, which is why I linked it to the Power Attack-Imp Bull Rush feat chain.
Unfortunately, Bull Rush is not a type of attack (trip is). You could whirlwind trip or disarm or iterative trip and disarm attempts. Not Bull Rush. Personally, I don't see a problem with making bull rush an attack type balance-wise. Since it isn't a feat, it is available to everyone...
Uller
Adventurer
Joshua Dyal said:
This is true both in the movie and the books. What was missed in the movie is what was going in during and about the time of The Hobbit. Sauron had taken form in Mirkwood as 'The Necromancer' and the White Council and their allies were busy battling and destroying this unkown evil (which is why Gandalf kept leaving Bilbo and the Dwarves to their own fate...he had more urgent business to attend). They were eventually successful. So in the beginning of FotR, Sauron and the Nazgul were only recently reformed and still very weak.
On top of that, Gandalf had recently battled the Nazgul on Weathertop so they were probably further weakened by that. So in the book, it was not so implausible for the "bad ass" wraiths to be weak enough that a single (heroic) Ranger could drive them off if they were in no mood to fight an unknown factor.
Desdichado
Hero
That's one way to look at it, but even in the book, they were more "wait and see" and then "hope everyone is too scared of us to go on" and when everyone went on anyway, they were completely ineffective.
In the appendices, the Witch-king is really scary, while in FotR, he's merely spooky.
In the appendices, the Witch-king is really scary, while in FotR, he's merely spooky.
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
Joshua Dyal said:
The only thing I can think of to explain it, assuming Tolkien simply didn't screw up, is that the Nazgul were afraid that either one of powerful Elves from Rivendell would be nearby, or that they would attract the attention of one, with a direct, full-bore assault. It would suck for them if they played their hand too quick and an elf like Glorfindel decided to use the Ring rather than have it fall into the hands of the Nazgul. They'd had run-ins with Glorfindel already, at least in the book, and had fought with Gandalf recently, as Uller pointed out. They'd know something was up with such powerful figures running around ready to fight.
Similar Threads
