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Post by tkdco2 on Dec 22, 2020 19:37:23 GMT -6
I generally avoid scaling up monsters, but then again, my campaigns have never lasted a long time. If I were to stat up the Nazgul as really high level encounters, the PCs would never encounter them until they become somewhat powerful. After all, none of them will get their hands on the One Ring.
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Post by Porphyre on Dec 23, 2020 17:59:27 GMT -6
Monster Type: Nazgul Alignment: Chaos Number Appearing: 1-6 Armor Class: 2 Move : 9 ' Hit Dice: 7 to 9 % In Lair: NA Type or Amount of Treasure: NA Nazgûl powers and abilities: - Incorporeality: Nazgûl live in the World of Shadow and are naturally invisible without their black clothes. They are totally impervious to all normal weaponry, including
silver-tipped arrows, but can be struck by ancient elven or numenorean blades (weapons +2 or more). Besides, any blade that scores a hit against a Nazgûl must make a magical item saving throw or dissolves. They also can see invisible object or creatures. - Aura of Fear: creatures of less than 4 Hit Dice hearing a Nargûl's cry or standing less than 30'' must must make their saving throw as against magic or be overwhelmed by fear (paralyzed on 1-4, flee on 5-6). The effect is amplified in darkness (- 4 to saving throws). Normal animals also become restless.
- Black Breath: those who are stricken by a Nazgûl lose two energy levels and must make a saving throw against Death Rays or fall slowly into a coma and die in 2-5 days unless treated by a Cure Disease spell.
Nazgûl weaknesses- Nazgûl fear natural fires, running water, bright magical lights and elven holy names like Elbereth and causes them to check for Morale.
- Blindsighted: Nazgûl can't see in the Material world and must rely on their mounts.
- In full daylight, their fighting ability is halved down, and their suffer a _2 penalty to saving throws and Morale.
Morgul blades: +1 daggers. A piece of the Morgul blade breaks off when it strikes a foe, inflicting the victim with a curse as it works its way to the heart, killing him in 2-9 days. A victim of a Morgul blade becomes a wraith under the control of the Nazgul. Cure spells and the herb athelas cans delay the action for one day. A Remove Curse spell and Cure serious wounds are needed to remove the piece and save the victim.
Spell casting abilities : some of the Nazgûl used their Rings of power to become powerful sorcerers. Use a eight sided dice to determine the magical abilities of a given ringwraith : 1- 5: none; 5-7: Magic User; 8: Clerical. Roll a six-sided die for level of magical ability, treating any 1's rolled as 2's and 6's as 5's.
Mounts: The black horses and fell beasts ridden by the Nazgûl are raised from birth to tolerate their unholy presence. Treat the black horses as Medium . Fell beasts are 5 HD creatures , with AC 7; 24' flying move rate
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Post by doublejig2 on Dec 23, 2020 18:31:50 GMT -6
terrifying!
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Post by tkdco2 on Dec 24, 2020 1:50:42 GMT -6
Thanks, Porphyre, that's a great writeup! Mind if I steal it?
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Post by Porphyre on Dec 24, 2020 15:23:15 GMT -6
Witch_King of Angmar
Armor Class: 1 Move: 9 Hit Points: 50 Fighting Ability: 9th level Magic Ability: 12th level. Psionic Ability: Nil.
The Witch-king uses either a Morgul blade, a Flaming sword +1 (+2 against Lawful creatures) or a Mace +3 also acting as a Staff of Striking.
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Post by tkdco2 on Dec 24, 2020 15:46:59 GMT -6
Nice writeup of the Witch King.
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Post by tkdco2 on Dec 27, 2020 18:47:29 GMT -6
Here's an addendum to the Morgul blade writeup (mine or Porphyre's):
I'm still working on the Corruption point system mentioned in the writeup. It is detailed in MERP 2nd Edition, but I will look at Dark Side points from the WEG Star Wars rpg for further inspiration.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jan 17, 2021 18:54:21 GMT -6
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Post by tkdco2 on Feb 8, 2021 0:39:42 GMT -6
The nine Nazgul are legendary, named* creatures with their own backstories, after all. In AD&D terms, they wouldn't simply be "Death Knight" but "Lord Soth" equivalents. I think power-loading their hit dice, spells and equipment is a given. *Although I don't believe Tolkien ever settled on actual canonical names for any of them**, similar to the blanks in the lore of the two Blue Wizards. They were powerful kings before receiving their Rings, however, so they were historical figures. **For instance, many people seem to think the Witch-King is named "Angmar" but that was the name of the kingdom he ruled. There's no list of ruler names from that kingdom that I've encountered, but knowing Tolkien it's entirely plausible I've overlooked them. I was just messaging one of my friends who has played MERP. I asked about whether he thought scaling was a good idea (eg use spectres for Nazgul in low-level campaigns, death knights in high-level play). He asked why include named creatures like the Nazgul, which the players probably won't be able to defeat. My response was: 1. It would be the GM's decision whether or not to include them, but they should have the option. 2. Nazgul and balrogs were included in the MERP core rulebook, and I'm trying to be as accurate as possible. 3. I would feel my work is incomplete if I omitted them, and I'm sure others would feel the same way. Still it begs the question. Should I include powerful creatures like the Nazgul and the Balrog? I am trying to decide what to include and exclude in my conversion, and I want to simplify what I have written up. Yes, they are named monsters, and they're most likely more powerful than the PCs will ever be, but they're iconic monsters and major features in Middle-earth lore.
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Post by cometaryorbit on Feb 8, 2021 18:25:39 GMT -6
Oh I think they should definitely be included.
I think the trick with statting them is that, on the one hand, they survived thousands of years, and in some situations they can be incredibly powerful.
But on the other hand their power seems kind of situational. "They have no great physical power over the fearless".
They are able to use their fear "aura" or "shadow" or whatever as a 'force multiplier' on a battlefield by wrecking enemies' morale - during the Council of Elrond Boromir describes this happening at Osgiliath, and they attempt it flying over the battlefield before the Pelennor Fields.
In that sort of situation, they are incredibly powerful. But I think they need a force *to* multiply.
Whereas a Balrog or Winged Dragon can just walk/fly in solo and steamroll opposition (the way Durin's Bane did in Moria or Smaug did in Erebor).
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Post by tkdco2 on Mar 17, 2021 17:18:46 GMT -6
I had this idea today about using AD&D spectres (7+3 HD instead of 6 HD) for regular Nazgul and lich for the Witch King.
I also thought about using Orcus as the equivalent of Gothmog the Lord of Balrogs, but he won't appear in my games.
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Post by Falconer on Mar 22, 2021 13:16:00 GMT -6
Decipher had the idea of three tiers of Nazgûl
1. The Witch-king 2. The other two Númenóreans 3. The rest
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Post by tkdco2 on Mar 22, 2021 23:14:06 GMT -6
Khamul the Easterling was second-in-command of the Nazgul, so he was probably one of the more powerful ones.
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Post by Falconer on Mar 23, 2021 18:12:25 GMT -6
Probably. Kind of interesting to consider what if he isn’t really, though. Perhaps if all the Númenóreans were to formally outrank all the non-Númenóreans in Sauron’s service, this would rankle many of Sauron’s servants, plus Sauron himself (even considering they were Númenóreans corrupted and enslaved, Sauron hates Númenóreans). Khamûl therefore “represents” the lesser Nazgûl in the leadership, thus smoothing over the internal politics of the Nazgûl. This also looks particularly good to Sauron’s Easterling coalition. Khamûl must be pretty competent, except, as the ICE materials note, Sauron must have been very displeased at him for letting Gandalf penetrate Dol Guldur. Perhaps when Sauron sent him back there with Adûnaphel, it was to pair him with someone he secretly trusted more (though it pleased him to see her belittled by being placed under a non-Númenórean).
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Post by doublejig2 on Mar 23, 2021 18:36:38 GMT -6
ICE cold analysis.
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Post by tkdco2 on Mar 23, 2021 21:34:21 GMT -6
Lords of Middle-earth vol. 2 says that despite his failure, Khamul remained one of Sauron's 4 most powerful servants (the other 3 were the Witch King, the Mouth of Sauron, and the half-troll Gothmog). But the Dol Guldur module states that while Khamul nominally retained command of the fortress, he had to have everything he did approved by the Mouth of Sauron until the latter was recalled to Mordor.
Of course, none of this is canon; it was just made up by ICE.
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Post by Falconer on Mar 23, 2021 22:37:02 GMT -6
Funny thing about Gothmog the Uncanonical Half-troll: He was born in T.A. 1203 and inexplicably survived till the War of the Ring!
But anyway, yeah, well, Decipher is non-canon, too, plus they had the restriction of not being able to use UT. So they came up with the most interesting lore they could using LotR only.
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Post by tkdco2 on Mar 24, 2021 1:07:02 GMT -6
I never bought any of the Decipher stuff. I had a look at a friend's copy, and that's the extent of my experience with the system. Is it any good? I already had a lot of MERP stuff, and I decided against getting a new system since I wasn't playing at the time.
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