Level Up (A5E) LotR characters in A5E?

[Morrus]

A5E gives us more tools to design the characters we want. How would you create characters from Tolkien?

Assume any content on A5E.tools is allowed but the challenge is that nothing else is allowed—no homebrew, no OD&D stuff, etc. How can ‘raw’ A5E handle the challenge?

The building blocks are:

Heritage
Culture
Background
Class + archetype (+ level of course)
Destiny

Other than that, the interpretation is up to you. Nothing wrong with seeing different interpretations of the same character!

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Goldberry
Heritage - Planetouched (Aasimar)
Culture - Eladrin (Spring)
Background - Farmer
Class - Cleric
Archetype - Healer
Level - 11th (for Heroes' Feast)
Destiny - Devotion

 

[Deadmanshand]

I assume we are just talking about characters from…oh nevermind. I could spend a day re-creating a single Tolkien character in A5E. Besides nothing good comes of asking nerds to define Tolkien characters. This way lies madness.

 

[Morrus]

I'm gonna give Aragorn a try. Luckily we have a non-magical ranger!

Heritage - Human (Spirited Traveler)
Culture - Lone Wanderer
Background - Exile
Class - 9th-level Ranger (doh!)
Archetype - Skilled Survivalist
Destiny - Return to Glory

 

[Morrus]

I used Gateway to create Aragorn, It only goes up to 5th level so far though. The standard array definitely makes it hard to model his ability scores, so I might just assign those manually instead.

 

[TheHand]

Samwise Gamgee
Heritage - Halfling
Culture - Villager
Background - Farmer
Class - 4th-level Marshal
Archetype - Lionheart
Destiny - Devotion

My thoughts: Samwise is all about building up others and protecting them, and a Lionheart Marshal seemed like a good way to create that effect. He will also throw himself into a fight when he has to.
Level 4, because he doesn't really have followers (gained at Level 5).
Destiny: Devotion ( "I can't carry The Ring for you, Mr. Frodo; BUT I CAN CARRY YOU!")

 

[TheHand]

Gandalf the Grey
Heritage - Planetouched (Aasimar)
Culture - Forsaken
Background - Exile
Class - 9th level Bard
Archetype - Lore Weaver
Destiny - Return to Glory

My Thoughts: Gandalf is tricky and could be built a number of ways.
Though he's called a "Wizard", Tolkien's magic is far more subtle than the fireballing ways of the D&D wizard, not to mention the fact that he's actually something closer to an angel than human. I almost went with Druid, because a lot of his magical effects are very in line with nature and life, but we would have to ignore the core-mechanic of Wildshaping for it to work right in my head. Bard felt like a good compromise between the arcane and natural power, and Lore Weaver fits his particular brand of weaving stories and putting forth knowledge. Bard also works because if you've read enough Tolkien, you know celestial music is key to a lot of Middle Earth's creation.
I kept him at Level 9 because he is the "Grey", powerful when he needs to be, but not designed to move mountains.

Culture and Background were difficult to match up perfectly in my mind, but I think Forsaken and Exile work for a lone wanderer who has been sent on a millennias-old quest by Greater Powers.

Heritage is Aasimar, to reflect his true Maiar nature.

Destiny is Return to Glory, when we see him sacrifice himself to the Balrog only to return as Gandalf the White.