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taltamir
2010-01-15, 03:13 PM
I want to make a list of all the things from DnD that you need to replicate sauron's ring... Please help me here:

1. it was his item familiar
2. it was his phylactery
3. it was an artifact (only one specific way of destroying it)
4. it was a ring of invisibility
5. it was paired with a set of other rings which grants "domination" effects over the wearers of the other rings (19 other rings)
6. Scry: it granted a scry on wearer effect to sauron.

Signmaker
2010-01-15, 03:14 PM
5. it was paired with a set of other rings which grants "domination" effects over the wearers of the other rings (was it 11 other rings?)

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,

BigPapaSmurf
2010-01-15, 03:25 PM
Don't forget the truth revealed by fire.

Also nearby powerful minions of Sauron(or is it only the ring-bearers?) can sense the direction/are drawn to the direction of the ring if it is worn.

Curses non-Sauron bearers, with the strength of the curse increasing with duration of bearing. Powerful characters will immediatly become evil and ambitious upon wearing the ring. The curse is permanent, even if the Ring/Sauron is destroyed.

Depending on the resolve of the person, some will immediatly try to take the ring, though all will eventually try to take the ring from it's bearer if they are aware of it.

True seeing upon wearing.

Bearer is granted immortality(greatly increased lifespan?) for the duration of bearing, though not with his/her ideal body. Willfully giving up the ring causes rapid aging. (Notice Gollum did'nt have that problem, thus the 'willingly')

Edit #4: Also no-one who bears the ring for more than a few minutes will destroy the ring willingly.

Draz74
2010-01-15, 03:29 PM
In case you're challenged by that math, that makes 19 other Rings of Power "under" the One Ring. On the other hand, the Three were sort of independent from the One and not under its control, at least as long as they could keep themselves hidden from it.


1. it was his item familiar
:smallconfused: It gave him massive bonuses to a particular Skill?


2. it was his phylactery
Similar ... but not exactly. Since he's not a Lich. (Note that even when it was destroyed, he was still immortal and alive ... just became nearly powerless.)


3. it was an artifact (only one specific way of destroying it)
4. it was a ring of invisibility
These are undeniable.


6. Scry: it granted a scry on wearer effect to sauron.
Not really scrying. It gave him a sense of the wearer, when they put it on ... but not a perfect or clear sense. At least not immediately. When Frodo put it on in Bree, Sauron still didn't know the mysterious ring-bearer was a hobbit or other details.

Besides all of these, don't forget its corruption and anti-aging effects. Those are kind of the most important parts.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

Gentleman Bard
2010-01-15, 03:39 PM
Actually, the only Rings that were bound by the One were the Nine granted to Men. The Three were hidden, their bearers keeping them a secret (One that we do know has one of them is Galadriel, who told Frodo, I believe. I think the two others are mentioned in a book I have around here, but I don't feel like looking for them.). The Seven granted to the Dwarf-lords were lost or even destroyed in some cases. They were not bound, as far as I can remember.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2010-01-15, 03:40 PM
LotR was E6, and the rings Sauron passed out allowed the wearers to level up past 6th. All of the most powerful characters had one for quite some time: Gandalf and Sarumon each had one of the rings originally given to the dwarves, Eldrond and Galadriel each had one. Everyone else was no higher level than 6th, and it makes perfect sense that way.

Gametime
2010-01-15, 03:46 PM
Gandalf possessed the third Elven ring. When did he ever have a dwarven ring?

And the dwarven rings were all either destroyed, lost, or recaptured by Sauron. They weren't as binding as the human rings, but they did inspire feelings of greed, fear, and paranoia in the bearers; nothing good happened to those who possessed them, and most of them ended up killed by or serving Sauron.

ex cathedra
2010-01-15, 03:47 PM
Item Familiars do much more than that. It granted him +10% xp, bonus spell slots, skill bonuses, and intelligent item bonuses. And it's destruction obviously hurt him, once again like an item familiar. It's quite accurate, to be fair, if not to the scale of Sauron's Ring.

taltamir
2010-01-15, 03:54 PM
LotR was E6, and the rings Sauron passed out allowed the wearers to level up past 6th. All of the most powerful characters had one for quite some time: Gandalf and Sarumon each had one of the rings originally given to the dwarves, Eldrond and Galadriel each had one. Everyone else was no higher level than 6th, and it makes perfect sense that way.

what is E6?

ex cathedra
2010-01-15, 03:59 PM
E6 is a variant rule in which characters don't progress in class levels past sixth level, instead they gain feats at certain XP intervals.

Signmaker
2010-01-15, 04:00 PM
what is E6?

A style of play where you only ever get 6 class levels, but extra goodies to replace the lost levels.

Galdor Miriel
2010-01-15, 04:05 PM
Gandalf had a dwarven ring he gave to Thorin Oakenshield in the Hobbit, it came from Thrain son of Thror I believe.

I think that the ring was an enhancer, if Gandalf had wielded it, his magic would have been more powerful. Which is why Sauron believed the ring would be used against him, but hoped to trick the wielder. So maybe it would give you +5 to caster level or something like that.

shadowmage
2010-01-15, 04:08 PM
The specs I remember seeing one time for the old Lord of the Ring RP game was just a Ring of invisibility +90(i think) to all skills.


I want to make a list of all the things from DnD that you need to replicate sauron's ring... Please help me here:

1. it was his item familiar
2. it was his phylactery
Not sure how to represent these. As others have said not his phylactery per say. It had a part of his power, a very great part. So I would say it is more of a + great amount of stats and or skills and such.


3. it was an artifact (only one specific way of destroying it)
Yea would be this for sure.


4. it was a ring of invisibility


5. it was paired with a set of other rings which grants "domination" effects over the wearers of the other rings (19 other rings)
As others have said. It does not dominate the other ring bearers, humans were just so weak willed. But it does influence them greatly. I would say it corrupts more then dominates. I think the Nazgul were not dominated so much as corrupted and then joined him do to almost a side effect of charm from the corruption.


6. Scry: it granted a scry on wearer effect to sauron.
The Ring is more of a Scry beacon then then offer an scry effect. He had the ability to scry on his own, I.E. he Great Eye form he took. The fact the person wearing the Ring partially stepped into a different dimension drew his attention more then the Ring it's self.

It would be an intelligent item for sure. Maybe have it give +stats and class levels, while also applying neg level that are not in effect while the ring is worn.

Hoggmaster
2010-01-15, 04:10 PM
if I can find all my old MERP stuff, i give a summary of the power of the One ring, the nine and the three (don't remember if they statted out the dwarven rings)

Also Saruman never possessed a ring of power, desired them, most certainly, but never possessed one.

Gandalf's, via Cirdan the shipwright, was the ring of fire, Narya.

WalkingTarget
2010-01-15, 04:21 PM
Re: lesser Rings. The Three were extra-special Rings made by Celebrimbor alone. The other 16 were all functionally identical, 7 were given to the dwarves because that's how many clans there were and the rest went to men, but they were all originally made for and by the elves. Sauron just got them back when they weren't tricked/caught by him when he made the One. The difference between how men and dwarves react to their Rings is a product of the difference between the two races, not the Rings themselves.

As for the Rings in general: the specific powers that all of them had (including the One) was the ability to augment the "power" of the user (whatever that means; I like the idea of allowing E6 characters to level higher than 6) and the ability to preserve things against the ravages of time (which I'm not sure how you'd model as a feature in D&D).

Deth Muncher
2010-01-15, 04:35 PM
Actually, that's a good point. I think The Ring ported the wearer to either the Ethereal or Shadow Plane, as they both resemble the Material Plane so closely.

Totally Guy
2010-01-15, 04:46 PM
When worn it grants...

+10 to Fort saves
True Seeing
+8 to Diplomacy, Bluff, Concentration and Sense Motive
+4 to caster level
Access to hear to thoughts of any wearers of the other rings.
Greater Invisibility

Each unique use of the item requires a will save. DC= 35 - users Wisdom score.

Failure indicates that the character chooses a(n additional) Flaw with no benefit.

The ring's maker knows when it is used. He may make a Use Magic Device or Spellcraft check to locate the user. DC is 30 - 3x the number of flaws possessed by the character.

(The further implications of the plusses and DCs have not been thoroughly thought through... so if they're silly... feel free to adjust...)

Errandir
2010-01-15, 04:49 PM
Gandalf had a dwarven ring he gave to Thorin Oakenshield in the Hobbit, it came from Thrain son of Thror I believe.

No, Thrain's ring was taken by Sauron in the dungeon of Dol Guldur. Gandalf found him there, but came too late to retrieve the ring.

The ring Gandalf had was Narya, one of the Three. It was given to him by Círdan the shipwright when he arrived in the Grey Havens. :smallsmile:

Plactus
2010-01-15, 04:50 PM
Gandalf had a dwarven ring he gave to Thorin Oakenshield in the Hobbit, it came from Thrain son of Thror I believe.

Gandalf never had that Ring. It was passed along by Durin's heirs until it was taken from Thrain by Sauron. Thrain kept the map and key to Erebor from him, which is what he gave to Gandalf to pass along to Thorin.

Edit: Ninjaed.

THE_BIG_CHEESE
2010-01-16, 01:05 AM
In terms of the invisibility, the ring acted more like an intelligent item with a *massive* ego score, and if you failed the save (which you inevitably would), it would grant you the power of invisibility. Though it is slightly more like being taken to the ethereal plane in terms of flavor, in terms of mechanics it works just like invisibility since you can be hit by things just as well as if you were there. I definitely agree w/ the item familiar thing, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw item familiars was the Ring.

For a good mechanic of it gaining control over you, I'd suggest taking a look at the body parts of Vecna in the 2E adventure Die Vecna Die, they had good mechanics for exerting slow but inevitable control over the weilders. Phylactery comparison is a fair bet given that once one the ring is destroyed, Sauron is too, but that's more because the ring became Sauron's singular obsession and reason for existence, and his will was strong enough, along with his power still contained in the Ring, to keep him around. Once it's gone, he loses his purpose and any physical anchor he has to the world. IT's just like a phylactery with a really, really, really slow respawn time ( On the order of d100 centuries, with similar rules to the Giant of slow, pieced together regeneration ). Throw in the obsession curse with it too.

And maybe something about getting more abilities the closer you get to its theoretical Ego score, as several times it was suggested that beings such as Gandalf (likely with a high will save), though still would eventually be corrupted, would be able to glean far, far greater powers from it (being that Gandalf was in the same "class" of beings as Sauron, though still nowhere near Sauron's power). Also, halflings get some sort of bonus against corruption from the Ring.

For the mechanic of the One Ring interacting with the others, I would suggest looking at the Master/Slave rings from BoVD, the idea of those always reminded me of the way Sauron could control those wearing the other rings of power.

RebelRogue
2010-01-16, 01:48 AM
3. it was an artifact
It's the artifact! It surely is the reason there are rules for artifacts in D&D at all. The drawbacks of using such potent items seem inspired by the Ring as well.

(I have no proof of this, but I'd be mightily surprised if it wasn't so).

Agrippa
2010-01-16, 02:26 AM
It's the artifact! It surely is the reason there are rules for artifacts in D&D at all. The drawbacks of using such potent items seem inspired by the Ring as well.

(I have no proof of this, but I'd be mightily surprised if it wasn't so).

Also Stormbringer from the Elric saga.

Bayar
2010-01-16, 12:32 PM
I think that the ring doesnt make the wearer invisible, but actually makes him etheral. I mean, the Nazgul could see Frodo fine, and Frodo could see their faces and stuff...

Sebastian
2010-01-16, 12:53 PM
The best way to do the one ring in D&D

ring of invisibility + plot device.