Aragorn

[Rich H]

Well, Smaug is tough enough that you have to precisely hit a hole in his armor to kill him.

Which is more of a racial weakness.

The Balrog is tough enough to laugh at armies full of dwarves.

Did one Dwarf army fight him at the same time? I didn't get that impression. I thought it was more akin to skirmishes within Moria that drove out the dwarves.

The Witch King is immune to males. No Y chromosomes need apply.

Not males, 'men'; Hobbits like, oh Merry for instance, a male, still wounded him and could arguably have killed him.

So, by power scaling, Sauron, tougher then any of them, should certainly be able to shrug off a sword blow from random guy A. And he did kill both Elendil and Gil Galad, both of whom were pretty darn awesome. Isildur basically had to surprise him.

I wasn't trying to suggest that any 'joe bloggs' could hurt Sauron but concluding that something uniquely special about Narsil/Anduril, with regards to it's ability to wound Sauron, is not something I really agree with. His fear of it is not because it's the only weapon that can hurt but that it was the weapon that hurt him.

[Angelalex242]

Well. Mmmm. It's like Anduril earned cred for being the weapon that did the job. Probably gave Aragorn a bonus die or two on that intimidate foe roll against Sauron in the Palantir. Of course, Sauron already had hatred Dunedain, left over from the 2nd Age, so nothing new there.

Wonder how big the TN on the Shadow Check was for going toe to toe with Sauron, even via Palantir. Aragorn clearly passed, but wow.

[Rich H]

Well. Mmmm. It's like Anduril earned cred for being the weapon that did the job. Probably gave Aragorn a bonus die or two on that intimidate foe roll against Sauron in the Palantir. Of course, Sauron already had hatred Dunedain, left over from the 2nd Age, so nothing new there.

Definitely agree with that; and it's played out really well in the BBC Radio Play. Aragorn pretty much uses it, actively, to intimidate and scare Sauron.

Wonder how big the TN on the Shadow Check was for going toe to toe with Sauron, even via Palantir. Aragorn clearly passed, but wow.

I have a sneaky feeling that Aragorn has both high Wisdom *and* Valour; also I'd have given him some bonus dice - after all he is the true heir to both kingdoms north and south and holds the Palantir by right of birth, therefore he has a lot of things in his favour when confronting Sauron. Afterwards, he does comment that the battle of wills "... was terrible" (I believe) so he may well have picked up some Shadow and burnt a bit of Hope. It had the desired affect though, sowing fear and doubt in Sauron's mind.

It's a great scene, nonetheless, and I think it was really important that such an encounter occurred between the main antagonist and the exiled line of Kings returned.

[Angelalex242]

I always figured that Aragorn, being the true King and all, was packing 6s in Valor and Wisdom, and probably had a 6 in Longsword to go with 'em. Elrond wouldn't let anything less take his precious daughter, and Elrond's in a position to judge.