Tolkien elves

[Stonegiant]

Some buddies of mine are coming into town this weekend. We talked on the phone about somethings to do and one was D&D. I was thinking a one in Middle Earth and how to handle elves popped into my mind. Since magic is so much more subtle, than it hit me; instead of having the elves be fighters and magic-users, I thought what if they were only allowed to be clerics (drop the weapon restrictions). I would have to go through and remove blatant over the top spells and Tolkien elves magic always struck me as more healing and protecting than offensive in nature. As for Turning undead I was thinking what if that roll was actually to either ignore their effect or to know how to defeat the undead.

Does this seem a viable alternative way to handle the elves or am I completely off my rocker and taking way to many pain meds?

[Zulgyan]

This may help:

admin said:

I found the Elf Spell List that I had been looking for. It's by far my favorite and I think would work equally well with OD&D or Classic.

Credit to Michael Wallace, who created this list.

First Level
1. Charm Person (MU 1)
2. Detect Magic (MU 1)
3. Light (MU 1)
4. Locate (Druid 1)
5. Predict Weather (Druid 1)
6. Read Languages (MU 1)
7. Read Magic (MU 1)

Second Level
1. Continual Light (MU 2)
2. Detect Evil (MU 2)
3. Entangle (MU 2)
4. ESP (MU 2)
5. Locate Object (MU 2)
6. Obscure (Druid 2)
7. Warp Wood (Druid 2)

Third Level
1. Clairvoyance (MU 3)
2. Create Air (MU 3)
3. Dispel Magic (MU 3)
4. Hold Animal (Druid 3)
5. Hold Person (MU 3)
6. Protection from Poison (Druid 3)
7. Water Breathing (MU 3)

Fourth Level
1. Charm Monster (MU 4)
2. Confusion (MU 4)
3. Growth of Plants (MU 4)
4. Hallucinatory Terrain (MU 4)
5. Massmorph (MU 4)
6. Plant Door (Druid 4)
7. Summon Animals (Druid 4)

Fifth Level
1. Anti-plant Shell (Druid 5)
2. Conjure Elemental (MU 5)
3. Contact Outer Plane (MU 5)
4. Feeblemind (MU 5)
5. Hold Monster (MU 5)
6. Pass Plant (Druid 5)
7. Woodform (MU 5)

[WSmith]

A quick and dirty way to handle this with little thinking is to allow elves to fight as fighting men, cast cleric spells but using the magic user casting chart, and use the magic user saving throws and XP progression. This is not a lot of work, and might not be a good long term, but if you are looking for something quick, it could fit the bill.

[Stonegiant]

The way I envision this is that they won't be called clerics but something else, what I don't know yet. I would probably give them a level limit of 8th level. They would be limited to various cleric spells (but no flame strikes etc.). The Turn Undead ability becoming the know how to defeat the undead and their effects ability appeals to me (wights can only be destroyed by sunlight, recovery from <insert undead>'s effect can be countered by this <insert method[herb, etc.]>, etc.

More to come.