Oops, my bad. Eowyn, not Aelwynn. Different saga.

Ooo... in that case, yeah why not. Gimli for Beserker! I just can't imagine the prospect of Gimli going a bit too far and slicing Pippin in two...

No, I take it back. GIMLI FOR BESERKER!

Aragorn definitly has high level Cleric ability. He used Greater Restoration to restore everyone's levels. The Kingsfoil was just the material component.

Boromir had a strong will, he just had a very deep selfish/greed streak. He held the bridge in Osgalith(sp?) for a long time against Mordor. He was a Paladin until his confrontation with Frodo.

Gandalf definitly used some kind of arcane spell in his rescue of Faramir on the Pelanor Feilds. From the description in the book, it sounded like Magic Missle. It could have been lightning, but there was no sound. I always thought that he had to have some Druid in him because he summons the equivilent of the king of Air Elementals (The Great Eagles were spirits sent by Manwe to wach over Mogroth). Then again, he could have had that ability from Manwe himself. Gandalf is hard because his divinity can explain anything you choose.

What about Aarwyn? (sp?)

Eowyn uses a sword in her duel with the Lord of the Nazgul, so that rules out her being a Cleric (unless we're to assume Priest of Tempus, which actually makes a lot of sense for Eowyn), and she never does anything Cleric-y anyway. She sounds like a straight Fighter to me, or perhaps a Paladin, as she seems to have high WIS and CHA.

Kormar, Arwen may have been some weird "Cleric/Fighter/Druid that can use bladed weapons" in the MOVIE, but in the actual BOOK she's nothing more than a useless Bard who hangs around Rivendell and looks pretty until it's time to conclude the trilogy. Well, actually, she doesn't have to be a Bard, she could be any Elven class with 18 (or 19) CHA.

That's right--I was forgetting Aragorn's Houses of Healing bit. So he might just have Restoration abilities.....or he might have performed the LoTR equivalent of using 3 Scrolls of Restoration (which can be used by anybody). And I believe Gandalf was present as well.

Gandalf's driving off the winged Nazgul from Faramir's retreat is particularly difficult to fit into BG terms. I believe the book described it as a thin flash of white light that shot from Gandalf's hand to the Nazgul, which deterred it from pursuing Faramir any further, and drove all the rest of them away. It didn't seem to do any actual harm to the Nazgul, so things like Magic Missile and Lightning appear to be ruled out; Perhaps it was something like a quick blast from the Positive Energy Plane, which cast Negative Plane Protection on Faramir at the same time. If so, the Nazgul would know that he couldn't Level-Drain Faramir any more, and had no real reason to stay. If this theory makes sense, that's another argument for Gandalf's Priest side.

As for his Wizard side, I think Melf's Minute Meteors is a better approximation of his pinecone trick in The Hobbit than Fire Seeds, simply because each Fire Seed is an area-of-effect spell, and each flaming pinecone only hit a single Warg. Gandalf's encounter with the defeated Saruman also casts doubt on Gandalf being an Invoker: That conversation at the steps of Orthanc simply reeks of Charm Person and Friends, on the part of both Wizards. And maybe there's an Alteration spell of Break Staff. As for the Warg/Worg fight in Hollin, there was no Flamestrike/Flame Arrow at all. Gandalf first seemed to grow in size (arguing that he first cast either Mislead or Project Image, then had his illusion cast Tenser's, Polymorph Self or Shapechange), and then he set all the trees on fire. The wolf chieftain was killed by one of Legolas's arrows, which happened to catch fire as it flew.

Gandalf seems the most difficult to pin down. Cleric/Mage that can wield a Longsword?

[ 11-01-2002, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

Well, I would make Gandalf a single class wizard or sorceror. As for the sword one could do the same trick as with Xan's moonblade (counts as a dagger, but looks and works like a longsword). I would give Gandalf something similar to the Bhaalspawn powers since he is a creature of divine origin.

The breaking of the staff is called Retributive Strike. It is an ability of his staff. It was in the first edition version of the Staff of the Magi. There is a good chance that they based it on what happened in the book.