Heavy Hitters

[Angelalex242]

See that Athletics 6?

"Hey, LM, I want to balance on the heads of two dwarves and shoot orcs dead like nobody's business."

"Okay, that's a TN 30 Athletics check..."

[Hermes Serpent]

That's only about 36% chance. Looked easier than that to me last night - he didn't miss once and IIRC got two with one arrow to boot. You've got to go to 10 Success dice to get close to certainty .

[Angelalex242]

Well...since 6d is all we can grant people as player characters...am I wrong about balancing on the heads of dwaves shooting things dead being TN 30?

With 6D of Bow, accuracy is trivially easy, and Deadly Archery is just overkill. (Orcs only have a parry of 4 or 5, and from rearward stance, Legolas only has to hit 16 or 17 with 6d. What he's actually doing is spending hope like its going out of style to use Stinging Arrow like nobody's business. Every shot he fires is piercing, and the best Edge he can have on his bow is 9. (Of course, it's a Woodland Grievous Keen Fell bow, but still...) So about 1/4 of his shots, he got piercing 'for free.' For other shots...bow's grievous damage is 7, with extraordinary success, he can do up to 15 end worth of damage (Body 4 on Legolas, thanks to Noble Blood). With 6D, he's doing extraordinary damage a lot.

Still, with 6D of bow and deadly archery, Legolas pretty much can't fail to hit.

For melee, he only has 4D, but it's 4D+6 thanks to Shadow Bane in forward stance.

[Hermes Serpent]

Come on I was having a little fun, there's no need to go all medieval on my ass with the mathematics .

[Elmoth]

I would say that Legolas is a slayer of orcs, not a warden. A young elf that is quite a hothead and has no real idea of the outside world, havin been living a secluded life in Mirkwood.

Legolas never shows any use of elven magic except his great kill ratio, so I would drop the other 2 improvements for the magic. His social skills and custom abilities might also be a tad high. Does Legolas speak Quenya and have a vast knowledge of the elvel past? I thought he was a neebie in middle earth, a youngling with few experience or knowledge of the world outside of mirkwood.

[Hermes Serpent]

Legolas is no way a young elf.

Tolkien Gateway wiki says;
"While Legolas' age is never given in Tolkien's writings, some Tolkien scholars have estimated he is at the most 800 – 900 years old by the time of the War of the Ring, and at least 500, though probably more; however, many others disagree on the maximum figure. Without any direct mention to the contrary, he could also have been born as early as the First Age. At the very least, we know he is over 139 years old, because he is older than Gimli."

While 139 would put him at a young age compared to Tauriel's 500-600, Evangeline Lilly says he's 1,900 years old in interviews. Not that anything she says is canon of course so I'd go with the scholar's 'at least 500' if we stick to canon.

[Elmoth]

In the LotR he acts like a teenager. A proficient teenager skilled in combat stuff, but a teenager none the less. He wonders at the world and shows a marked lack of understanding of it in some scenes, getting surprised.

[Hermes Serpent]

Lack of understanding of the world of the non Elves hardly makes him juvenile in any way. When you spend years contemplating starlight or pondering the intricate plots of the Enemy against your people under the tutelage of Thranduil, who himself shows little interest in the happenings in the outside world unless it directly impinges upon the Elves in Mirkwood, it is little wonder that he is baffled by the ways of short-lived creatures whose span barely exceeds the blink of an eye compared to his own.

[Angelalex242]

Well, let's see...Elven specialties are boating, fire making, swimming, woodwright, elven lore, mirkwood lore.

Being so insular, it's clear Mirkwood Lore is appropriate. As for Elven Lore...I gave him that cause he's a prince, and his father probably instructed him on this stuff.

His personality and custom skills are there because he's a prince. It requires a certain modicum of skills to not disgrace one's father.

[Stormcrow]

I think the confusion here lies in the fact that some people are talking about the book, some are talking about the movies, and some are freely mixing the two. Personally, I game strictly to the books. I am exasperated when someone gives a movie detail thinking it's in the book.