Quote:
Originally Posted by khorboth
Seems reasonable. I'll tack it on there.
That's what I was aiming for too. And... We're above that level. Any thoughts on what to trim? or disadvantages for Elves? Tolkien was not big on giving them any weaknesses. I don't think "tied to fate" is a fair thing to give a PC.
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That's kind of inherent, though. If you're playing in JRRT's world, certain things are just part of it, and Elves
are tied to Fate. For that matter, so are Dwarves, Ents, Eagles, Ainur, etc. Only Men (including Hobbits) are not.
It's sometimes hard to pin down exactly what that
means, it's not precisely the same as free will, which the other races do have. It's more a matter that Men can't be locked into a single outcome ahead of time (except by God) in the way the other races can be and sometimes are. But that can be hard to express in a gaming situation.
As for Elvish point totals...yeah, it's inherent to the world.
Elves are immortal, and the Creator granted them great gifts of mind and body, that's canonical. They are
inherently high point characters, with immortality, immunity to disease, high fatigue and HT and ST and so forth. That's
all Elves.
The Sindar and even more so the Noldor are far worse. The Sindar lived in Doriath and were ruled by and taught by Queen Melian, an angel. The Noldor lived in Valinor and were instructed by and nurtured by archangels. They have knowledge and power and gifts that are simply out of the scale of the other races, that's canonically acknowledged.
I'm not sure there's any 'balanced' way around that while staying true to the setting. Most of the 'downsides' of being an Elf, though some of them are significant, don't translate into negative points very well, because they tend to play out over centuries.
It's so much a part of the setting, in fact, that it's a key element to the backstory of
The Lord of the Rings. The Noldor of Eregion longed for the timeless peace of Valinor, but in Valinor they are immediately subject to the angels and archangels and higher ranking Elves like the Vanyar. In Middle-earth, they are the top dogs, the highest and most gifted and able people, and they liked it. That was the personality conflict that made them vulnerable to Sauron's temptations, and led to the creation of the Great Rings.