Where are the High Men/Dunaden?

[lukelightning]

There certainly is a lot of RP potential in including "high men" in a campaign. Think of 'em as "super nobles." You could make a character who's just a plain-old-human who despises the superiors; you could make a high-born character who really is the essence of "noblesse oblige." You could make a high-born human who is just a greedy schmuck who likes bossing around people.

Just be sure that for PCs there is no power imbalance; if there is a substantial bonus for being a high man, there should be some penalty, or LA, or something like that. Again, long life is not worth an LA; I think long life + social power/status would be worth a feat.

 

[JoeGKushner]

There certainly is a lot of RP potential in including "high men" in a campaign. Think of 'em as "super nobles." You could make a character who's just a plain-old-human who despises the superiors; you could make a high-born character who really is the essence of "noblesse oblige." You could make a high-born human who is just a greedy schmuck who likes bossing around people.

To a certain point, giants in the Arcana Evolved campaign fit the "high men" model and are generally the nobles of the setting, having freed it from oppression, and the giants are not all well loved either.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Well, Tolkien's half-elves weren't really a blend; they lived as an elf or as a mortal, as they chose.

-The Gneech

The Half-Elves were either just like a regular elf, Elrond for example, or a man with a very long lifespan and many elf traits that made him far superior to the normal man as the Numeneorians were since they were decended from Elros brother of Elrond. Needless to say
being blood kin to elves rocked in Middle Earth to say the least.

I'm not offended by the concept and wouldn't mind things in my ancient fantasy games being different than what we accept in our modern society. C&C's half-elves are good in this regard. You choose if you want to be elvish or manish and the game stats differ based on that choice. I could see making the manish half-elves Numenorians or something like that.

 

[Akrasia]

... I forget how the Dunedain get their name EXACTLY. ...

'Dunedain' means 'men of the West' in Sindarin ('grey elvish').

...
They're still Men. And in Middle-earth, Men have a tendancy toward corruption, even the Numenoreans. For example, the Mouth of Sauron is a Dark Numenorean.
...

The 'Black Numenoreans' ('Mornumedain') were those Numenoreans who were corrupted during the Second Age, but survived the downfall of Numenor in various havens and colonies. The port of Umbar was a main base for the Black Numenoreans during the first part of the Third Age, though they were eventually defeated by Gondor.

 

[Akrasia]

Denethor was so far removed from the line of Dunedain that he was basically just an "ordinary man". Pretty much all of the Dunedain remaining were either part of Aragorn's retinue, or hid out in the southern lands as bad guys.

That's not true. (Although you are right that the surviving Dunedain of the North -- the descendents of Arthedain/Arnor -- were true Dunedain.)

The ruling stewards of Gondor (the House of Hurin) were of (almost) pure Dunedain stock (at least according to Tolkien). Denethor himself had a sharp mind, and only became unhinged after using the palantir (the visions he saw were manipulated by Sauron).

True Dunedain also survived in Dol Amroth (a part of southern Gondor). Prince Imrahil is described in the LotR as a man who resembled the Numenoreans of old. Indeed, the Dunedain of Dol Amroth were thought to have Elvish blood (more recent, that is, than the Dunedain in general).

Most of the men of Gondor were of 'mixed' heritage by the time of the LotR, but the Dunedain of the House of Hurin and Dol Amroth were definite exceptions.

 

[ruleslawyer]

For the relevant passage re Denethor:

[Denethor] is not as other men of his time, Pippin, and by whatever be his descent from father to son, by chance the blood of Westernesse [Numenor] runs nearly true in him; as it does in his other son, Faramir...

Now, as to Dunadan/Dunedain: I have always felt that Tolkien is difficult to model in D&D because his characters derive their "powers" so much more evidently from race, lineage, divine grace, or flat-out luck than from straightforward experience. While I share some other posters' discomfort with the classist/racist elements that emerge (and remember that LotR is in part a mammoth response to what Tolkien felt were the undesirable arriviste notions of industry and modernity), I also think that it WORKS in LotR, and that D&D, as well as much [excellent] fantasy literature, does, for better or worse, take a lot of this from Tolkien (hence the five different human-like PC races, each embodying particular tendencies that could easily be seen as subsets of the human mindset, and "inherently evil" races like orcs and goblins). I'm OK with it largely because my players and I know the pedigree of this and have fun playing with it and using it to our narrative advantage.

But this is sorta general. A truly Tolkienesque depiction of High Men really starts with the Elves, who either need to have the half-celestial template (minus wings) slapped on (a not-so-bad facsimile of elven abilities in LotR) or some serious stats that would probably warrant a +2-3 LA. Give the Half-Elves either the same stats as the Elves, or allow them to take the path of Men and run roughly an LA +1 template of some sort (stat boosts, low-light vision, some resistance to disease and increased longevity). Use that template for the Numenoreans, and then either continue it for the serious Dunedain (like Aragorn) or use a feat that confers a watered-down version of the benefits for lesser Dunedain. Those are my thoughts.

One thing, of course, is that all of these folks who actually DO anything (Elves, Men, and Half-Elves alike) should have LOTS of character levels to reflect their tremendous age and power.