Bane: The Enemy

[Indur Dawndeath]

Hello all,

I've given my first magic item away after 3 years of gaming. Actually two at the same time:
Elven Great Spear, used in the wars of the Last Alliance. Forged in Ost-in-Edhil by Celebrimbor
Bane: The Enemy
Flame of Hope
Superior Grevious
Rageing

Now I realised that the damage output is insane on this weapon. With Valour 4.
Success on any opponent: Dam 13
Success on The Enemy: Dam 17
Miss on the Enemy: Dam 4

Now comes the question: "Will all his evil opponents be "The Enemy"??
Or should I make a list of which orc tribes are directly under Saurons command?
Spiders, Balrogs and Dragons seems to their own masters... But a Balrog could be an Enemy on his own!!
Highwaymen are clearly not "The Enemy" unless they are spies from Mordor, somehow.

Is the Werewolf of Mirkwood "The Enemy"??

I would really like some input, as the question will be raised at the table on our next session

Cheers

[Glorelendil]

It's The enemy, so I'd say Sauron only.

Or maybe Morgoth if they can find a way to get there.

(Subtext: yes, I agree that it's a bit disappointing when you have a cool feature on your weapon that only gets used in some fights, but I'd avoid creating a general supercategory that's designed to avoid this limitation.)

[T.S. Luikart]

I have seldom given out that Bane - in all our game supplements, I know of only one weapon that has that Bane - though amusingly, like your spear, it was forged by Celebrimbor.

Bane - The Enemy - effects all creatures willingly (relatively) under the Shadow's command: Orcs and Trolls that serve him, Ringwraiths, Men that worship him, etc.

In other words - it effects a lot of opponents. It is my opinion that Bane: The Enemy weapons should raise the Eye of Sauron by an additional point, on top of the normal addition for being a Famous Weapon. They scare that crap out of Orcs, et. al. who can often identify them at a glance.

Remember that Bane weapons tend to have a strong effect on anything associated with their Bane - arguably, this means your Spear would easily pierce armour forged by the Enemy, Indur.

That said, to Glor's point - I would note this as Bane: The Shadow. A weapon intended to only get its ability versus the Enemy Himself would be Bane: Sauron. And that's not very fair, as I find it... unlikely any character will be fighting Sauron hand to hand.

[Mim]

That's a cool weapon!

You raise a great question and to add my two pence, when you search online or in books, some Tolkien scholars concur that he most likely usually wrote the term The Enemy to mean it the way that you describe at some points, but at other passages as a generic collective term for all of Sauron's servants.

It's a somewhat anachronistic term by our standards today, but a fitting one for Victorians and Edwardians, and that's how I interpret it for my games. Thus, even if some of The Enemy's servants, such as the Spiders, Dragons, or Balrogs you mention, usually act independently, they can also still do so because of the Dark Lord's influence.

That leaves you open for a lot of fun, though if you feel uncomfortable about the (admittedly) high damage, you may end-up in that disastrous LM cycle of having to beef-up their foes, and then they need more weapons, and it gets to be a problem with most games. It's a tough call, and it's one of those balance issues.

[Majestic]

I kind of like how they defined this term in Adventures in Middle-earth:

...all of your attacks made against servants of the Enemy inflict +2 damage. Such servants are Orcs, Goblins, Spiders, Trolls, many Evil Men and any other creature that willingly serves the Lord of Mordor.

I think I'm going to use this for my one character with a weapon with this Bane. And I like T.S.'s idea about adding one more to the Eye Awareness, too.

[Angelalex242]

It's probably meant to work like a Mirkwood Elf's Shadow Bane virtue. If you'd give the Elf the benefit, this weapon gets it too.

Then again, Bane: Enemy sounds like something Anduril should have. It DID cut the One Ring off...or, well, the orignal Narsil did.

[Arthur Fisher]

I'm presuming you're the Loremaster here. So, the real question is, when you created this weapon and this Bane specialty, what did you have in mind?

Do you want it to be a bad-ass weapon against just about everything they come across: Orcs, Spiders, Evil Men, etc?
Or do you want it to be a regular spear most of the time, but a bad-ass weapon against super boss fights, like direct servants of Sauron?

When you decided the Bane should be "The Enemy," you clearly had something in mind. That's a broad and loosely defined category. You could have picked orcs or dragons or wraiths. But you picked "The Enemy," a Bane specialty that is pretty much left up to the Loremaster; you. There is a reason you choose that over everything else.
So you had a goal you wanted this weapon to accomplish.
What is that goal and what definition of "The Enemy" would best help you accomplish that goal to have the type of game you want?

[Glorelendil]

I got it.

Purveyors of Cheap Kitchens.

[T.S. Luikart]

I got it.

Purveyors of Cheap Kitchens.

No weapon that we've as yet unleashed is potent enough to smite this foe, but I would pay a heavy ransom to hurl their smoking ruins upon the mountainside.

[Terisonen]

We have the same here, less they are Named (softly, because talking their Name Summon Them) You Need Some New Windows and Doors.

Edit: I first read Purveyors of Cheap Chicken. I need some sleep.