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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7696775" data-attributes="member: 4937">There is a complication here.  Fire isn't part of Gandalf's natural jurisdiction as a vassal of Varda (or possibly Manwe).  He is essential an Angel of wisdom and hope, learning and words, light and truth, and has some jurisdiction over those things.  He also appears to have personal knowledge of magical lore and words of power, related to study of the things within his authority, and so to be able to cast 'spells' using those words and his natural authority.  Essentially, he knows stuff about the universe and being who he is, has a right to command it.  So he might have learned things about fire, but we know from the text that the primary source of his authority over fire is his possession of Narya - the Ring of Power concerned with the element of fire.  Narya vastly increases Gandalf's ability with fire, giving him much greater command over fire itself than he'd have without it.  In D&D terms, assuming Narya is something like a Ring of Elemental Command, we can't be certain whether anything Gandalf does with fire can't be explained as a power of Narya and not something in one of Gandalf's spell slots as a wizard.  We can be reasonably sure that nothing he does with fire is equivalent to Gandalf's racial abilities, since fire wouldn't be part of his 'portfolio'.  And thus the complication.  It's possible that any powerful manifestation of fire that Gandalf does is simply Gandalf invoking Narya's ability to cast Fire Blast or Flamestrike or whatever.Not really.  While there are parts of the text that are very hard to fit into D&D, I don't think this is one.  Gandalf attempting to shut the door in Moria is the origin of the spell 'Hold Portal'.  The Balrog simply cast 'dispel magic' or something of the sort, and beat Gandalf's caster level check.  The rest is in D&D terms merely color, and an example of good RP.Again, not really.  Gandalf occasionally uses Searing Light.  That's probably a racial ability owing to his stature as a Ainur, rather than one of his Wizard abilities.  It's easily explained in most editions of D&D with a race or template, only slightly customized or even depending on how you do it, not at all.  I'm not clear on what the first appearance of the Searing Light spell is, but in my 1e suggested stat block, it would be an easy to fit into the powers of an Agathion just by putting it on his clerical spell list.</blockquote>

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