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What were the FotR's magic items?
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<blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3307091" data-attributes="member: 13966"><p>It was me what said that, when someone was asking about solutions to compensate their PCs for having virtually no magic items in the campaign, and him mentioning that the level of Sword & Sorcery feel he was going for magic-wise was more like Lord of the Rings or something. I forget the other 1-2 movies or books he mentioned alongside it.</p><p></p><p>Just noticed this thread, and the other folks here already answered as well as I could've or better. I was just mentioning stuff off the top of my head earlier, and couldn't remember everything as I've only read the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion once each (intend to re-read them sometime though).</p><p></p><p>As others said, elves in Middle-Earth are just inherantly magical, so many things they craft carry a bit of that supernatural elven-ness despite not being explicitly forged with magic. The dwarves were created by a Valar that was over-eager for the arrival of Iluvatar's Children, the races of Elves and Men. The dwarves were made from the rock or clay of Middle-Earth (can't recall which), and were probably a bit inherantly magical themselves, though a pale imitation of what Elvenkind would be once they finally arrived. Also, dwarves and elves had an alliance of sorts for a while, as more directly evidenced by the Gates of Moria, so dwarvenkind probably learned a bit of supernatural crafting from elves.</p><p></p><p>So some dwarven and elven items made simply with exceptional craftsmanship possess a touch of non-obvious magical quality by virtue of their creators' talents. But some others were explicitly magical, like the Rings of power, the Palantir stones, some Elven swords (Sting, Glamdring, Narsil, and others; I forget if Narsil was given to Numenorean half-elves by elvenkind, or made by the Numemoreans), the Phial of Galadriel, the Silmarils (they weren't in the movies, but in the Silmarillion, they're gemstones of significant power and beauty crafted by an elf with the first Enemy's advice), and whatnot. The Men of Gondor and the Rohirrim also had a few magical items that were passed down from the Edain or Dunedain (the elf-blooded Men descended from exiles of lost Numenor).</p><p></p><p>Don't recall if there was ever any mention in the books as to whether or not Gandalf's or Saruman's staves were magical, or just items of rare wood/stone/metal that the Wizards had crafted to use as foci for magical energies. Likewise, I don't know if the elven cloaks (Cloaks of Elvenkind in D&D) were magical or not, but most likely they were (just very mildly magical, like many well-crafted elven items). Lembas and that rope were likewise just mildly supernatural from being elven-made. Other stuff I'm not entirely sure on, either, like many posters (a lot wasn't explicitly described by Tolkien as to whether or not it was magical or just functioned so well from exquisite craftsmanship and materials).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arkhandus, post: 3307091, member: 13966"] It was me what said that, when someone was asking about solutions to compensate their PCs for having virtually no magic items in the campaign, and him mentioning that the level of Sword & Sorcery feel he was going for magic-wise was more like Lord of the Rings or something. I forget the other 1-2 movies or books he mentioned alongside it. Just noticed this thread, and the other folks here already answered as well as I could've or better. I was just mentioning stuff off the top of my head earlier, and couldn't remember everything as I've only read the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion once each (intend to re-read them sometime though). As others said, elves in Middle-Earth are just inherantly magical, so many things they craft carry a bit of that supernatural elven-ness despite not being explicitly forged with magic. The dwarves were created by a Valar that was over-eager for the arrival of Iluvatar's Children, the races of Elves and Men. The dwarves were made from the rock or clay of Middle-Earth (can't recall which), and were probably a bit inherantly magical themselves, though a pale imitation of what Elvenkind would be once they finally arrived. Also, dwarves and elves had an alliance of sorts for a while, as more directly evidenced by the Gates of Moria, so dwarvenkind probably learned a bit of supernatural crafting from elves. So some dwarven and elven items made simply with exceptional craftsmanship possess a touch of non-obvious magical quality by virtue of their creators' talents. But some others were explicitly magical, like the Rings of power, the Palantir stones, some Elven swords (Sting, Glamdring, Narsil, and others; I forget if Narsil was given to Numenorean half-elves by elvenkind, or made by the Numemoreans), the Phial of Galadriel, the Silmarils (they weren't in the movies, but in the Silmarillion, they're gemstones of significant power and beauty crafted by an elf with the first Enemy's advice), and whatnot. The Men of Gondor and the Rohirrim also had a few magical items that were passed down from the Edain or Dunedain (the elf-blooded Men descended from exiles of lost Numenor). Don't recall if there was ever any mention in the books as to whether or not Gandalf's or Saruman's staves were magical, or just items of rare wood/stone/metal that the Wizards had crafted to use as foci for magical energies. Likewise, I don't know if the elven cloaks (Cloaks of Elvenkind in D&D) were magical or not, but most likely they were (just very mildly magical, like many well-crafted elven items). Lembas and that rope were likewise just mildly supernatural from being elven-made. Other stuff I'm not entirely sure on, either, like many posters (a lot wasn't explicitly described by Tolkien as to whether or not it was magical or just functioned so well from exquisite craftsmanship and materials). [/QUOTE]
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