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<blockquote data-quote="Sepulchrave II" data-source="post: 8567178" data-attributes="member: 4303">As this is a D&amp;D General question, I'm going to forego 5e.Gandalf is a Maia, but he also has a number of restrictions placed on his action as one of the Istari - he is &quot;clothed in flesh;&quot; furthermore, unlike - say - an unfettered Maia, he can't just reassume his &quot;angelic&quot; form on a whim. He really is stuck in the body of an old man, and subject - to some extent -&nbsp; to physical processes such as aging, hunger, death etc. I think the Ainur can be modeled reasonably well using the rules for divine beings in 3e's Deities and Demigods with a number of additional restrictions imposed - which is to say, you don't need to invent any new rules for creatures with divine rank, but you do need to excise a number of innate abilities which deities would ordinarily automatically possess, and dumb down some more egregious Salient Divine Abilities.So I'd start Gandalf as a 20HD Native Outsider with 11 Divine Ranks (he needs a modified Rejuvenation SDA as a Maia), 5 Cleric levels (for searing light against the Nazgul), and 5 Wizard levels (for lightning bolt). I'd then trim back any abilities which weren't consistent with Tolkien's view of the Ainur, and then impose additional restrictions based on the fact that he is an Istar. Salient Divine Abilities would include Arcane Mastery and Spontaneous Wizard Spells, allowing him to forego the use of a spellbook.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sepulchrave II, post: 8567178, member: 4303"] As this is a D&D General question, I'm going to forego 5e. Gandalf is a Maia, but he also has a number of restrictions placed on his action as one of the Istari - he is "clothed in flesh;" furthermore, unlike - say - an unfettered Maia, he can't just reassume his "angelic" form on a whim. He really is stuck in the body of an old man, and subject - to some extent - to physical processes such as aging, hunger, death etc. I think the Ainur can be modeled reasonably well using the rules for divine beings in 3e's [I]Deities and Demigods[/I] with a number of additional restrictions imposed - which is to say, you don't need to invent any new rules for creatures with divine rank, but you do need to excise a number of innate abilities which deities would ordinarily automatically possess, and dumb down some more egregious Salient Divine Abilities. So I'd start Gandalf as a 20HD Native Outsider with 11 Divine Ranks (he needs a modified Rejuvenation SDA as a Maia), 5 Cleric levels (for [I]searing light[/I] against the Nazgul), and 5 Wizard levels (for [I]lightning bolt)[/I]. I'd then trim back any abilities which weren't consistent with Tolkien's view of the Ainur, and then impose additional restrictions based on the fact that he is an [I]Istar.[/I] Salient Divine Abilities would include Arcane Mastery and Spontaneous Wizard Spells, allowing him to forego the use of a spellbook. [/QUOTE]

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