Quote Originally Posted by Gilphon View Post
I think this discussion has become mired. I believe that most of us, regardless of our opinion on the acceptability on certain events in LotR, agree on the main point, which is that neither Nale pulling out that wand nor Durkon's spell fizzling qualify as Deus Ex Machina, and that even if they did, it still wouldn't be bad storytelling.
As Sabine herself said "we can't fight a cleric without a spellcaster". Then, kapow, problem solved.
Apart of the "bad storytelling" (which was never brought up), I believe they do qualify as DE's, albeit low level ones.