Middle-earth spellcasters for HARP

[Falconer]

I was asked to explain how I’m handling magic in Middle-earth. The actual explanation is forthcoming; I beg your patience. For now, here’s an unexplained list of spells…


Universal: Arcane Bolt, Banish Fatigue, Blur, Boost Agility, Boost Constitution, Boost Insight, Boost Presence, Boost Quickness, Boost Reasoning, Boost Self Discipline, Boost Strength, Counterspell, Detect Life, Detect Magic, Detect Signature, Detect Trap, Detect Undead, Dispel Magic, Enchanted Rope, Guess, Landing, Light, Mage Seal, Minor Healing, Moving Ways, Projected Light, Study Target, Unlocking Ways, Water Breathing, Water Vision.

Harpers: Beguiling Voice, Calm, Changing Ways, Charm, Confusion, Distractions, Fear, Jolts, Past Visions, Phantasms, Project Voice, Quiet Ways, Sleep, Speed Reading, Tongues.

Rangers: Find Shelter, Haste, Hues, Locate Food, Natural Trap, Nature’s Awareness, Nature’s Strength, Nature’s Tongues, Path Lore, Plant Disguise, Predict Weather, Summon Animal, Traceless Passing, Tree Merge, Vision Protection.

Path of Arien - Higher: Air Wall, Bless, Calm, Cure Disease, Divine Hammer, Dreams, Elemental Ball (Air), Elemental Ball (Fire), Elemental Bolt (Air), Elemental Bolt (Fire), Fire Nerves, Holy Symbol, Intuitions, Jolts, Mage Armor, Major Healing, Neutralize Poison, Past Visions, Restoration, Shock, Stun Cloud, Turn Undead.

Path of Arien - Lower: Bless, Calm, Cure Disease, Divine Hammer, Dreams, Guidance, Holy Symbol, Intuitions, Major Healing, Neutralize Poison, Restoration, Turn Undead. Selectable: Bladeturn, Celestial Armor, Celestial Ball, Celestial Bolt, Courage, Deflections, Elemental Bolt (Fire), Fire Nerve, Fire Wall, Flash, Heat, Holy Weapon, Inspirations, Lifegiving, Lifekeeping, Mage Armor, Magic Shield, Presence, Protection Chant, Resist Damage, Warrior’s Might.

Path of Aulë - Aulendur: Calm, Changing Ways, Confusion, Drain Life, Dreams, Guidance, Harm, Holy Symbol, Intuitions, Past Visions, Phantasms, Quiet Ways, Rune Mastery, Tongues. Selectable: Analysis, Divine Hammer, Force Wall, Long Door Item, Mage Armor, Magestaff, Passing, Presence, Wards.

Path of Aulë - Khuzdul: Bless, Control Undead, Divine Hammer, Dreams, Guidance, Holy Symbol, Intuitions, Major Healing, Merging Ways, Neutralize Poison, Passing, Restoration. Selectable: Earth Tunnel, Earth Wall, Earthen Transformations, Fissure, Rune Mastery, Spikes, Stoneskin, Tremors, Trench, Turn Undead, Wards.

Path of Lórien & Melian: Bless, Calm, Charm, Confusion, Darkness, Distractions, Dreams, Guidance, Holy Symbol, Intuitions, Past Visions, Tongues. Selectable: Changing Ways, Cure Disease, Divine Hammer, Fear, Harm, Major Healing, Merging Ways, Neutralize Poison, Phantasms, Quiet Ways, Restoration.

Path of Mandos & Nienna: Bless, Calm, Control Undead, Cure Disease, Drain Life, Herbal Enhancements, Holy Symbol, Lifegiving, Lifekeeping, Major Healing, Neutralize Poison, Restoration, Turn Undead. Selectable: Celestial Armor, Celestial Ball, Celestial Bolt, Charm, Dreams, Fear, Fire Nerves, Guidance, Harm, Intuitions, Jolts, Mage Armor, Passing, Presence, Shock, Speak with the Dead, Tongues.

Path of Manwë - Lord of Winds: Air Form, Air Wall, Arcane Ball, Breezes, Distractions, Elemental Aura (Air), Elemental Ball (Air), Elemental Bolt (Air), Elemental Resistance (Air), Elemental Weapon (Air), Flash, Hues, Imbue Bonus, Imbue Charge, Imbue Exotic, Imbue Staff, Mage Armor, Magestaff, Merging Ways, Misfeel, Obscuring Mist, Phantasms, Potion Mastery, Project Voice, Quiet Ways, Rune Mastery, Shock, Stabilize Elixir, Stun Cloud, Traceless Passing, Vacuum.

Path of Manwë - The Elder King: Bless, Calm, Divine Hammer, Dreams, Elemental Weapon (Air), Guidance, Holy Symbol, Intuitions, Magic Shield, Presence, Rune Mastery, Turn Undead. Selectable: Bladeturn, Celestial Armor, Celestial Ball, Celestial Bolt, Courage, Deflections, Fear, Guardian Blades, Holy Weapon, Inspirations, Jolts, Mage Armor, Passing, Past Visions, Protection Chant, Quiet Ways, Resist Damage, Steel Skin, Warrior’s Might.

Path of Oromë: Bless, Calm, Divine Hammer, Dreams, Guidance, Herbal Enhancements, Holy Symbol, Intuitions, Plant Disguise, Traceless Passing, Tree Door, Tree Merge, Tree Skin. Selectable: Animal Forms, Control Animal, Find Shelter, Locate Food, Natural Trap, Nature’s Strength, Nature’s Tongues, Path Lore, Plant Growth, Plant Healing, Plant Transformations, Share Animal, Sense, Summon Animal.

Path of Ossë & Uinen: Arcane Ball, Control Aquatic Creature, Cool, Darkness, Elemental Aura (Water), Elemental Ball (Water), Elemental Bolt (Water), Elemental Resistance (Water), Elemental Weapon (Water), Ice Wall, Icy Mist Wall, Imbue Bonus, Imbue Charge, Imbue Exotic, Imbue Staff, Magestaff, Obscuring Mist, Passing, Potion Mastery, Quicksand, Rune Mastery, Stabilize Elixir, Stun Cloud, Summon Aquatic Creature, Underwater Movement, Unfog, Water Corridor, Water Form, Water Wall.

Path of Varda: Bless, Calm, Divine Hammer, Dreams, Guidance, Holy Symbol, Intuitions, Major Healing, Presence, Restoration, Steel Skin, Turn Undead. Selectable: Bladeturn, Cure Disease, Darkness, Deflections, Fear, Guardian Blades, Magic Shield, Neutralize Poison, Resist Damage, Sleep, Weapon’s Fury, Celestial Armor, Celestial Ball, Celestial Bolt.

Path of Yavanna: Animal Forms, Control Animal, Divine Hammer, Herbal Enhancements, Holy Symbol, Major Healing, Nature’s Strength, Nature’s Tongues, Neutralize Poison, Plant Disguise, Summon Animal, Tree Door, Tree Merge, Tree Skin. Selectable: Bless, Calm, Dreams, Find Shelter, Guidance, Hues, Intuitions, Locate Food, Merging Ways, Path Lore, Quiet Ways, Sleep, Traceless Passing, Animal Transformations, Banish Creature, Control Aerial Creature, Control Aquatic Creature, Control Land Creature, Control Plant, Creature Transformations, Cure Insanity, Growth, Plant Growth, Plant Healing, Plant Transformations, Rejuvenation, Repel Animal, Share Animal Sense, Shrink, Summon Aerial Creature, Summon Aquatic Creature, Summon Land Creature, Telepathic Bond.

[Falconer]

Let me try to explain.

HARP. HARP is somewhere between D&D and a lite version of Rolemaster. So it’s kind of perfect for me since I want to run MERP modules. It has the same number ranges and the same terminology as MERP, but the game plays lighter than MERP, it seems to me. And I think my approach to magic—or at least the way I’ve skinned it—will feel more Middle-earthy than MERP’s own.

Spell costs. Without getting too deep into it, suffice it to say that in HARP you have to “buy” spells with your Development Points, which you get whenever you level. And you also want to spend Development Points on other advancements, like skills. So though you’re looking at these rather extensive lists, for the most part you will start with a small handful.

Universal. These are the spells that anyone can cast, even Fighters, Rogues, and Thieves. They just cost a lot of Development Points for those professions; less for Rangers and Harpers; and even less for the “Path” professions.

Selectable. Where you see this, it’s because the character is supposed to ultimately have no more than 20 spells: their “Path” spells plus 8 (or whatever) from the Selectable list.

So you can see I’ve got 17 different professions (Fighter, Thief, Rogue, Harper, Ranger, and the 12 Paths), and they’ve all got some access to magic, some more, some less, and each has a different theme. This may help for those who are “not Tolkien scholars”:

Hopefully the effect will be that there will be a lot of subtle magic around. It won’t be perfect, and I think it will indeed be a bit more gonzo than Tolkien would have liked, but I like how it’s shaping up.

[Falconer]

I thought I would look at characters in Tolkien who might have been members of a given Path in the above terms. Some of these are a bit off-the-cuff, but it’s not going to be perfect no matter what (unless I spend a LOT more time on this), and it’s all for fun. Remember no given character necessarily could cast every spell of their Path, let alone necessarily would have been recorded as doing so.


Path of Aulë - Aulendur - Celebrimbor, Saruman

Path of Aulë - Khuzdul - Narvi

Path of Lórien & Melian - Galadriel

Path of Mandos & Nienna - Pallando, Aragorn *

Path of Manwë - Lord of Winds - Gandalf the Grey †

Path of Manwë - The Elder King - Gandalf the White †

Path of Oromë - Beorn surely. Alatar. Lots of characters called “the Hunter” such as Mablung, Haleth, Folca, and Vorondil.

Path of Ossë & Uinen - Goldberry, Círdan, Aldarion and lots of characters called “the Mariner.”

Path of Varda - Elrond, Gildor Inglorion, Frodo

Path of Yavanna - Radagast, Thranduil, Tom Bombadil


* Aragorn originally advanced as a Ranger before switching to the Path of Mandos & Nienna.

† Gandalf’s Ring of Fire (Narya) gave him access to Fire magic comparable to the Path of Arien. He tells the Balrog he is a “wielder of the flame of Anor” (Anor = the Sun).

[Falconer]

Since this is posted publicly, and I don’t want to pass stuff off as my own work, let me state that I am not familiar enough with HARP to do my own design work, therefore little of this is truly original. So here are some credits.

Most of the Paths are reskinned from the Clerical Orders from Bazaar Annual by Rasyr (lead designer of HARP), though there they have generic fantasy names like “Lore Wardens of Arnach.”

The Higher Path of Arien is reskinned from the Cleric of Belarus from HARP Lite.

The idea of using the above-mentioned professions and mapping them to the Valar came from the house rules of Ecthelion. Although I made a few changes.

Although I overall preferred Ecthelion’s approach, I took a few ideas from Falenthal’s adaptation (Other Minds #15): removing the Warrior Mage, removing the spells Fly, Invisibility, and Long Door, leaving in Lifegiving, Restoration, and Tree Door.

Wes Frank’s article in Other Hands #10/11 is one of the more useful articles on magic from OH/OM because it goes through individual spells and provides thoughts on how to incorporate them in Middle-earth in a reasonable manner.

Vaco’s article in Other Minds #13 is where I got the “Path” nomenclature.

The Path of Manwë - Lord of Winds and the Path of Ossë & Uinen are reskinned mage subclasses I found in the HARP Hârn Guide by NUNU.

[geoffrey]

Wow! That's a lot of thought and work.

Why is there no "path of Ulmo"?

[Falconer]

Ah, Ulmo is one of my favorite characters; in fact, Ulmo is my username on several Tolkien-related sites. But my read on him is that he’s something of a lone ranger. He has no spouse. He comes not often to the councils of the Valar. He dwells in the Outer Sea. He’ a very powerful, very wise supernatural being. But if you think of these Paths as being literally taught by the Valar, I’m afraid I just don’t see Ulmo as having one. Who taught the Falathrim and the Falmari? Ossë. To whom did Númenórean mariners devote themselves? To Uinen. So I think it would be more idiomatic for a PC to be devoted to one of them rather than to Ulmo. Now, arguably their paths are the path of Ulmo whom they serve*. I wouldn’t object to a player taking this approach. (Though really I don’t object to the players reskinning these any which way they want. I actually don’t want much overt religiosity. That’s why I like the word “path”—it implies to me a teacher of a craft moreso than a source of power.)

* - Though for most of Tolkien’s life and in the vast majority of his writings he did consider Ossë and Uinen to be full Valar. Check out your favorite version of the Quenta, Geoffrey, and take note of the Nine Gods. All the more reason I am inclined to give them their due.

[geoffrey]

That makes a lot of sense.

[Falconer]

I decided to streamline this, and my current house rules has the former twelve Paths reduced to seven:

Manwë
Varda
Ulmo
Aulë
Yavanna
Mandos
Arien

For the Paths of Manwë and Arien, I kept the first option and scrapped the second. I renamed the Path of Ossë and Uinen to the Path of Ulmo, after all. I scrapped both Paths of Aulë and came up with a new one (reskinned from the HARP Hârn Guide):

Path of Aulë: Analysis, Arcane Ball, Bladeturn, Change Object Size, Conjure Animal, Conjure Creature, Conjure Item, Dancing Weapon, Deflections, Fissure, Flash, Force Wall, Guardian Blades, Haste, Imbue Bonus, Imbue Charge, Imbue Exotic, Imbue Spell, Long Door Item, Mage Armor, Magestaff, Molding, Passing, Potion Mastery, Rune Mastery, Shock, Spikes, Stabilize Elixir, Wards.