The Fellowship of the Ring

Amongst the many things that I did over the weekend was to watch the "Fellowship of the Ring" one more time. Like the "Star Wars" trilogy, those are films I return to again and again without ever being disappointed.

Since my brane is always whirring along in the background, I found myself musing about the D&D level structure as it relates to "The Lord of the Rings". Of course, D&D is actually quite a poor fit for an LotR campaign - characters get too powerful too quickly, magic is far too ubiquitous, and the game is based on a broadly-mythologic rather than broadly-Christian basis (except for the Paladin). Still, there's little denying that LotR has had a very significant influence on D&D, and moreso once the first generation of designers were replaced by others less well-read in Gygax's preferred pulp fantasy.

Still, it's quite interesting to see how the characters fit with the level system, and various break-points that occur.

As I've contended before, it is my view that 3e breaks the level range down into three parts:

1. Low-level (1-5) characters are fundamentally mortal. They tend to be "a cut above" the norm, but they're not truly exceptional.
2. Mid-level (6-12) characters are distinctly superhuman, but they're not unrecognisable. They're the great heroes of the day; the characters who will be remembered in song in generations to come.
3. High-level (13+) characters are virtual demigods, for good or ill. They're simply not mortal, but have become almost transcendent in their power.

(I ignore epic level play in 3e, for several reasons. That's another post. Oh, and incidentally, 4e has a very similar split, being Heroic, Paragon, and Epic in nature. "Epic" means something different in 4e than it does in 3e.)

It is also my view that a character becomes first level when they choose adventure. Until that point, they're just an NPC. Sure, there are higher level NPCs out there, but there's an undefinable something about a PC... and they don't get that until they step on the road to adventure.

So, then, back to the Fellowship...

Frodo doesn't really fit any of the existing D&D classes. He doesn't have magical abilities, he's no great warrior, he's no healer, or mystic, or... Probably the best fit for Frodo is a Bard - he serves as a leader for the Fellowship, it is his presence that inspires the others, and, frankly, Bards are rather crappy on all other fronts.

Sam is pretty much a Fighter. (He's a low-level Fighter, which is why he doesn't stack up against Boromir.) There's an argument for him having at least one level in Barbarian, what with two instances of rage (in Moria and Minas Morgul), but that's probably a stretch.

Merry I would probably assign as a Ranger and Pippin as a Rogue (even better would be the Scout and Scoundrel classes from SWSE...). Though any combination of Ranger, Rogue, and Scout classes might do well.

The four Hobbits are all low-level characters, except perhaps right at the end - during the Scouring of the Shire they might well have attained mid-levels. Perhaps most interesting, though, is the question of when they attain first level. In the films, Frodo hits this when he asks "what must I do?", Sam at the point where he declares "if I take one more step...", and Pippin and Merry when the latter says, "Buckleberry ferry - follow me." (The book is somewhat different in this regard, of course.)

The next four characters are introduced at the Council of Elrond (okay, Strider was introduced before then, but bear with me...).

Aragorn is quite clearly a human Ranger. This is at once essentially unarguable (he was the inspiration for the entire class), and also quite a poor fit (the class has become much more Drizzt over two editions). At the Council of Elrond he's 6th level, having just attained mid-levels. He's able to face off against the Nazgul... but only briefly and with surprise - had they bothered to regroup they would have destroyed him. By the end of the trilogy, he has attained 12th level, become king, and basically reached the level of his advancement.

Boromir, equally clearly, is a human Fighter. He's also 6th level at the time of the Council, being almost certainly able to fight Aragorn to a standstill. He's also the highest level character in the whole of Gondor - Faramir is 5th level at best.

Legolas is an Elven Ranger (Scout is probably a better choice). Once again, he's 6th level when we first see him in Rivendell. And Gimli is a Dwarven Fighter, again being 6th level. By the end of the trilogy, these two have also gained several levels, but remain mid-level characters.

Finally, there is Gandalf. He's always going to be a bit of a tricky character to assign, what with Tolkien making the Wizards something else. Therefore, I'm going to do what SWSE does with Yoda, and give him an unknown race - a bit of a cheat, perhaps, but so be it. Gandalf the Grey is 12th level at the time of the Council of Elrond - he's right on the cusp of high-level, but he hasn't been truly tested. And, of course, he's distinctly less powerful than Saruman. (Gandalf is also quite a poor fit as a D&D Wizard, what with his spell list, his using a sword, and so on. But never mind...)

When we see him again, Gandalf the White has attained 13th level, and become high level.

Of course, these divisions and assignments are almost entirely arbitrary. Post them on a message board and you'll quickly see people arguing this, that, and the next thing. (Probably the most controversial are the assignments of levels - in particular, lots of people will argue that Boromir and the rest must be higher level. But here's the thing - if Boromir is about 7th level at the time, that last fight in FotR makes a lot of sense in D&D terms. Move to a higher level, and you have to inflate everything else to go with it.)

It's also important to note that 3e doesn't draw any explicity division between 5th and 6th level, or between 12th and 13th. They're just a matter of gaining a couple of XP.

However, I do think that discussions of this sort help frame the game. They also help set expectations in play - the notion that a high-level Fighter can throw himself off a 100ft ledge safe in the knowledge that he'll survive the fall seems bizarre at first glance... but it's much less bizarre if that Fighter is explicitly superhuman.

I think doing so also helps frame the nature of the campaign, and this is something I've deliberately applied in "The Eberron Code". At low-level, the PCs spend their time dealing with local troubles of one sort or another, but they're always at the mercy of the much greater dangers that are out there. By mid-level, they're 'names' - people in the world have heard of them and know about them - and the nature of their adventures becomes much more quest-based. They are set some important task to achieve, and they proceed to go and do it. Once they've reached high-levels, they're amongst the mightiest beings in the world, and they face equally mighty threats... and that's still to come. Thus far, the structure is fitting together very well, with the party rapidly approaching the end of their mid-level adventures. Now, all I need to do is build an appropriately large-scale ending to the campaign as a whole.