Where are the High Men/Dunaden?

[diaglo]

Peter Jackson cut them from the movies.

 

[JimAde]

I don't use a specific race to reflect the "Dunadan" idea - I use the PHB Bard class and limit it to humans from one specific culture.

...Snip of really cool ideas...

This rocks. Absolutely rocks the house. If I were to need such a people in my game this is how I would do it. I may have to come up with one just to use this idea.

 

[The_Gneech]

As so much else from D&D is influenced by the Lord of the Rings, why are there no high men?

Whooaaa ... dude, that's some good Kingsfoil!

...

Actually, I'd just assume that the "high man" is the PC standard. The other dirtbags all take NPC classes.

-The Gneech

 

[lukelightning]

It's still an idea of "superior race of men." I'm not saying that this is bad literature, I'm just saying that I personally don't care for an actual game-mechanic representing this in my campaign; being a liberal modern American, I've been raised with the idea that people are people and that a king is no "better" a human than the rest of us. Just look at the royal family of England: Not exactly proof of superior breeding...

I don't ignore hereditary titles and stuff in my campaign, but it's a social factor, not a racial factor. Though now that I think about it, there is an excellent example of a "special ruling race of human": the Inspired from Eberron (ooh, how about Lord of the Rings meets Eberron... it turns out that Aragorn is a quori-possessed inspired who's part of the Dreaming Dark's conspiracy to control the world...)

Tolkien's history makes it a bit more than "some men are better". The Dunedain are the men who went into the West to live among the elves and angels in olden times, and they tended to interbreed a bit. So they aren't normal humans.

In D&D, we have a whole bunch of races, some with level adjustments higher than +1. Why not have a sub-race of humans?

 

[jester47]

Actually one could use the bloodlines from Unearthed Arcana to simulate a human that had a faint ammount of elf in his heritage. Just give a human Elf bloodline and you have your Tolkeinian "High Man."

Aaron.

 

[AuraSeer]

There are plenty of races that are designed to be "like humans, but better." How about a human paragon? Or an aasimar, half-elf, kalashtar, iIllumian, or any number of others?

Changing a race of human-like beings into a subrace of humanity is just a matter of changing the flavor text.

 

[Mark Hope]

This rocks. Absolutely rocks the house. If I were to need such a people in my game this is how I would do it. I may have to come up with one just to use this idea.

Heh, thanks . As I recall, I came up with the idea first and did exactly that - found a way to shoehorn Dunedain-types into the setting so that I could use it.

Peter Jackson cut them from the movies.

They are referenced here and there in the films (Elrond goes on about them in Rivendell in FotR and get more exposure in the extended versions. Eowyn realises that Aragorn is a Dunadan in her "exactly what is wrong with my soup?" scene in the extended Two Towers.

It's still an idea of "superior race of men." I'm not saying that this is bad literature, I'm just saying that I personally don't care for an actual game-mechanic representing this in my campaign; being a liberal modern American, I've been raised with the idea that people are people and that a king is no "better" a human than the rest of us.

I agree - outside of fantasy literature, it does have an uncomfortable ubermensch feel to it.

Just look at the royal family of England: Not exactly proof of superior breeding...

Plus they're not even really English! There is an old myth from Glastonbury about a tree called the Glastonbury Thorn (supposedly planted by Joseph of Aramithea). In years gone by it allegedly used to burst into flower in the presence of English royalty but, as our somewhat haphazard royal lineage sputtered and died out over the centuries, it ceased to do so. Not that I imagine that the House of Windsor gets down to Wyrall Hill much, but there you go ...

 

[diaglo]

They are referenced here and there in the films (Elrond goes on about them in Rivendell in FotR and get more exposure in the extended versions. Eowyn realises that Aragorn is a Dunadan in her "exactly what is wrong with my soup?" scene in the extended Two Towers.

oh yeah, they are mentioned. but in the novels they had actual face time. had names. did things. etc...

 

[Pramas]

They are in the human section of the Advanced Race Codex, which is being released section by section starting soon. The human section will probably be out next month.

 

[JoeGKushner]

They are in the human section of the Advanced Race Codex, which is being released section by section starting soon. The human section will probably be out next month.

Section by section eh? :\

I can see the pros and cons of that.

Any idea on when the print version will be out?