Middle Earth - LotR

[Ranger REG]

Guys, the site is still in archive. It can be restored as long as it is used and maintained.

Does it have a web-based forum specifically for Middle-Earth d20? That would be one way of using the site with frequent visitors.

(Psst. I don't have to register onto that forum if EN World is willing to host it, would I?)

 

[Swiftbrook]

Guys, the site is still in archive. It can be restored as long as it is used and maintained.

I would like it restored. I can say that I will use it, but I can not volunteer to "maintain" it.

-Swiftbrook

 

[Desdichado]

D'oh! Yep, the Witch-king and in fact all of the Nazgul were sorcerers. Good catch.

 

[Zuoken]

The soldiers of Gondor, as shown in the film, can reasonably be expected to use plate armor . . . particularly the Knights of Dol Amroth.

(Just a nitpick)

In the original Book Trilogy, the heaviest armor one could find was a mail hauberk. I remember that when the previews came out for the Fellowship there was a big outcry among the purist community because of the elves and others wearing plated armors.

 

[Desdichado]

(Just a nitpick)

In the original Book Trilogy, the heaviest armor one could find was a mail hauberk. I remember that when the previews came out for the Fellowship there was a big outcry among the purist community because of the elves and others wearing plated armors.

RIght, and "plate armor" is a bit of an "anachronism" because it flourished long after the time period that Tolkien was trying to emulate in his fiction. But to nitpick a nitpick, the Southron that Sam saw killed during the Oliphaunt episode was said to be wearing a scale hauberk, which is arguably heavier than a chain mail hauberk (and if not in reality, it certainly is in d20).

 

[Gentlegamer]

(Just a nitpick)

In the original Book Trilogy, the heaviest armor one could find was a mail hauberk. I remember that when the previews came out for the Fellowship there was a big outcry among the purist community because of the elves and others wearing plated armors.

Even in Gondor and among the knights of Dol Amroth? You may be right, I'll have to check up on that. You'd think I'd remember it perfectly having read LOTR every year for 12 years . . .

 

[Desdichado]

Even in Gondor and among the knights of Dol Amroth? You may be right, I'll have to check up on that. You'd think I'd remember it perfectly having read LOTR every year for 12 years . . .

Yes, when their gear is described specifically it is always mail.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Sauron isnt a wizard, he is a demigod. Same with Gandalf. A demigod of smaller stature than Sauron, to be sure, but still a demigod. The reason Sauron needs the ring is each act of creation(or power) sends his godly power out of his immortal vessel and into the world at large. That diminishes him permanently. To prevent this, he poured much of his power into his ring, and made the ring "recharge" itself, so he could use the ring to power his magic, instead of his essence.

That said, Finrod Fealagund nearly defeated him in a magic duel in the first age--before he'd put all of his power into his ring. I don't think you can necessarily draw the power line so sharply between mortals and maiar. It's true that the greatest mortals lost to the greatest maiar, (Fingolfin was slain by Morgroth though he put up a good fight, Finrod was defeated by Sauron though he also put up a good fight), however, that they put up a good fight indicates that they might well have bested the lesser maiar. And the lesser maiar were sometimes put to the test by the greatest mortals. Gandalf was not certain he would prevail against the Lord of the Ringwraiths and at the fall of Gondolin, Ecthelion slew Gothmog, the greatest of the balrogs. Similarly, Aerendil slew Ancalagon the black before whom even the host of the Valar faltered.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

(Just a nitpick)

In the original Book Trilogy, the heaviest armor one could find was a mail hauberk.

Can you cite where this is stated? I don't remember Tolkien definitively stating this. He refers to "mail" a lot, but I don't recall that plate mail could be ruled out, except when he specifucally states that Frodo's shirt of mail is chain. Maybe it's the connotation of the word "knight," but I always pictured the knights of Dol Amroth in plate - and remember, Imrahil held a vambrace up to Eowyn's mouth:

"And he held the bright-burnished vambrace that was upon his arm before her cold lips, and behold! a little mist was laid on it hardly to be seen." - The Return of the King, chapter VI, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"

A vambrace is a piece of armor on the forearm. Clearly in this case it is not meant by Tolkien to be chain. Now, Imrahil might have been wearing a suit of chain with solid metal bracers, but it strikes me as quite possible that if his vambraces were plate, the rest of what he wore was also.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Yes, when their gear is described specifically it is always mail.

It could be plate mail, which is distinct from plate armor . . .

At any rate, the craftsmen of Gondor I'm sure can fashion even mail that offers the equivalent protection of plate armor. I guess Masterwork chainmail could represent this for Numenorean cultures such as Gondor and Umbar.