So What Can This Radagast Fellow Actually Do Anyway?

[Stormcrow]

Everyone always emphasizes the herbs, beasts, and birds aspect of Radagast, but The Lord of the Rings puts his mastery of shapes and hue first and foremost.

"Radagast is, of course, a worthy Wizard, a master of shapes and changes of hue; and he has much lore of herbs and beasts, and birds are especially his friends."

So Radagast is more than just the "nature guy." He's probably more strongly the "polymorph guy," or the "illusionist guy," to borrow some D&D terms, who happens to prefer plants and animals over people.

The One Ring tends to make him the friend and helper of the woodmen, and I don't blame the writers for this; in enlarging the presence of the woodmen, it was probably unavoidable. But I always thought Radagast was more aloof than this, only occasionally sticking his nose into other people's business, even though that was supposed to be part of his job. Remember, he eventually--apparently--abandoned that job by the time of the War of the Ring. He was still a good guy, but he appears to have forsaken his mission in Middle-earth.

The Radagast of TOR is much more involved and likely to lend his aid against the Shadow, especially in defense of the woodmen.

[Majestic]

True the Radagast of the TOR books is a lot more involved, but he's also shown as being a bit forgetful or distracted at times.

One other things they've done in the books is have his cottage difficult to find, as if the path to it changes all the time (this also helps make him seem a little distant from the Woodmen). Something similar could be done with this chase, where (for tension's sake) the pursuing Orcs could be really close to the heroes (I especially like the idea of using visual cues), when suddenly the path is confounding and the pursuing Orcs find themselves trying to force their way through brambles and thickets, while the path for the fellowship opens perfectly before them.

Another simple thing you could do is allow Radagast to bestow X number of bonus dice (like Preliminary Rolls do) to the heroes during the chase; perhaps one additional one for each member of the company, to use as they see fit.