Where are the High Men/Dunaden?

[Aaron L]

Aasimar.

Right?

Aasimar half elves?

 

[jdrakeh]

Good question, unless all heroic PCs are "High Men" and all NPC classes are the ordinary ones.

As developers have noted in the past, the base assumption about PCs (i.e., characters defined using the PC creation rules in the PHB) versus NPCs (i.e., characetrs defined using NPC classes or other methods that differ from the rules for normal PC creation) was that PCs represented the best that their race had to offer (the upper 10%, I believe), and NPCs represented everybody else (the other 90%). So, basically, your human PC is the highborn man. Just as a PC elf is considered highborn, etc, etc, etc. There is no 'highborn' race in D&D, though (and, personally, I think that the PC/NPC paradigm more accurately reflects Tolkien's intentions).

 

[PK]

; 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 agree with this, it fits the American view of equality.

JRRT was from a different time and he was a romantic. He felt that the monarchy SHOULD be of a higher stock than the common man. This is also represented in the Frodo/Sam relationship where Frodo is the landed gentry or the military officer and Sam is the trustworthy footman who is there to support his leader's noble deeds, but wants no part in the credit or glory.

As far as the original question, it probably falls into the half-elf category since the line between the elves, half-elves, and dunedain are somewhat blurred at times in Middle Earth.

 

[Hammerhead]

Plus, the idea of a "high man" doesn't really match up well with the values of D&D. You start out as a low level guy who can kill a few orcs, then work your way up to a treasure-laden monster who obliterates armies.

Besides, why should someone of elven blood be better? Half elves suck, everyone knows this.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Actually, if you wanted a race of "High Men" in your games, why not just go with Aasimar? They're just humans who have a touch of celestial blood running through their veins, giving them greater wisdom, charisma, and a couple of other abilities not held by regular humans.

 

[Illirion]

I always thought Dunedain were only more longlived than normal humans and that they didn't posses any special powers in terms of extra skills, feats and/or special abilities. At least I wasn't able to detect any special reference in the books that the Dunadain could acomplish things normal people wouldn't be capable of doing (except for a longer life). At least aragorn never showed any signs of inhuman ability which he owed to his lineage, moreso than to his training and years of wandering/adventuring.

If you'd want to create "high humans" in D&D based on the Dunedain as described in Lord of the rings I'd say they'd have a longer lifespan and perhaps a charisma bonus and some extra skill points, but nothing more than that.

And to admit that D&D is based on LotR, doesn't mean everything in LotR can be found in D&D and viceversa.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Perhaps it's my experiences with MERP where the high men were generally better that colors my opinion so.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

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.

Except in Middle-Earth, Dunadain were actually superior. Stronger, longer-lived, fairer, etc.

They were descended from the Elves (mighty in the own right) anf a Maiar (can't remember her named...they were basically Human/Elf/Angel.

 

[WayneLigon]

I've been thinking about having a 'high race' of humans in the next campaign.

Right now I'm either thinking of just using Asimar as that race, or make anyone who wants to be of 'the high race' take Human Paragon at first level and they have to take all levels of it - perhaps before Level n, or not, I haven't decided. Or I could create a Bloodline for them out of UA and make the PC take the Major version of it.

Or I could go the simple route and create a new race:

High Man: low light vision. +2 to any two stats, and three skills that are always class skills. Favoured Class: Ranger.

 

[Gidien]

Aragorn did a few things in the books that can be attributed to his innate abilities as a Dunedain. For one thing he could heal not just regular ills but supernatural ills (healing hands of the king and all that, keeping in mind that the kings of Gondor were always Dunedain). For another he went toe to toe with Sauron through the palantir, and actually succeeded in the battle of wills that occured. There are references about how fearful Sauron would be if Aragorn used the One Ring, hinting that Aragorn has inner powers to be amplified much as Gandalf does. All of the Dunedain are supposed to be worth ten men in battle (or is it more?), which hints that as a group they are superior.

I think aasimar is the best idea, since in Middle Earth the high elves were basically all powerful celestial beings (Glorifindel glowing with light as he challenges the Dark Riders, for instance). If I were to put it in a game, I'd use a similar method to Mark's. The high born could become paladins, but this class would be restricted to them.