Ringwraith / Nazgûl template


Conversions


I am working on a Nazgûl template for my Middle-earth Pathfinder campaign. I've never created a template before, so I'm looking for suggestions. It's my intention to use this template not just for the Nine Nazgûl but also "lesser" spirits under their control (such as the Cargûl from LOTRO). First, I'm going to list the general powers and features of the Nazgûl, found in ICE's Lords of Middle-earth Vol. II for the MERP system, and talk about various ways to turn them into Pathfinder rules.

1) Resistant to critical strikes — Ok, this is fairly easy to do. Nazgûl are incorporeal undead, and they probably have some DR on top of that. Done.

2) Shadowy form — Nazgûl are only partially present in the material plane, and the rest of their being exists "in the Shadows outside of the world." Ringwraiths cannot die as long as the One Ring exists. If Sauron is killed (or temporarily defeated), Nazgûl lose their form and retreat to the Shadow-world. They cannot return to the world until Sauron regains his power and summons them. It can take up to 200 years for a Nazgûl to regain its form and full power after that.

The first part sounds like pretty much the definition of incorporeal. The second is a bit like a lich's relationship to its phylactery. If a Nazgûl is defeated in combat and The One Ring is not found and destroyed immediately after (not likely to happen unless you're playing Frodo), then the Nazgûl returns in a matter of days.

3) Appearance - Ringwraiths are invisible. They can only be seen by Sauron, evil Shadow creatures, or someone wearing a Ring of Power. While wearing their own Rings, Nazgûl look like they did in life. Without their Rings, they look like haggard old corpses.

Invisibility is also pretty well-defined in the Pathfinder rules. It's worth noting that Ringwraiths seem to have a strong connection to what would be Middle-earth's Plane of Shadow, and I don't know that there's any specific way to express that in Pathfinder. The Nazgûl didn't have their Rings when they were encountered in The Lord of the Rings—Sauron had taken them, presumably to keep them on a tight leash. If another party of adventurers encountered the Nazgûl at an earlier time, they might actually have their Rings and be more powerful. Not sure how the Rings, each a unique magic artifact, could be hard-coded into the template. Definitely a Nazgûl with a Ring would have a higher CR than one without it.

4) Strength of form — They have the strength and vigor of hardy young Men. They do not suffer the penalties of age, and they do not get tired easily. They do not sleep. They are weak during the day. Non-magical weapons break upon contact with their flesh.

MERP included a lot of stuff under one bullet point. From this I read that Nazgûl should have high Strength and Fortitude saves. They have the Light Sensitivity of orcs. Non-magic weapons that hit them must make a Fortitude save or gain the broken condition.

5) Vulnerability to Nature — Again, they're weak in natural sunlight. They have trouble crossing fresh running water. They are weak against fire.

All stuff that's actually pretty easy to do in Pathfinder. I'll just use the language in the vampire template for the whole running water thing.

6) Effect of Varda — Ringwraiths are weak against the power of the goddess Varda. Just saying her name "Elbereth Gilthoniel" can force a Nazgûl to flee.

Ok, so saying "Elbereth Gilthoniel" forces the Nazgûl to make a Will save or flee. This one seems most problematic to me for a roleplaying game. Any PC who happens to know this fact has a chance to defeat a Nazgûl with a free action. Even though it happens in the books, I'm of a mind to just flat-out ignore this. Any suggestions?

7) Enhanced senses — Nazgûl are blind in the material plane and use senses other than sight to see. Sounds like blindsight to me.

8) Presence — Anyone who sees a Nazgûl must make a Will save versus fear or flee in terror. MERP also says a Nazgûl can deliver a True Charm spell with a gaze. I don't know what that is in MERP, but it sounds like the Nazgûl has a very high-level charm spell-like ability, or perhaps an array of them. Not sure what part of the books this is based on.

9) Black Breath — This is the Nazgûl's most famous attack, described in numerous places in the books. MERP says it can be used 9/day, has a range of 300 feet and a 5 foot radius. Those numbers are obviously not set in stone, but they seem good to me. MERP gives the attack 3 levels of severity, depending on how badly the target fails its save—the target falls into "despair" for 1-100 rounds and the "unwakable sleep" for 1-100 hours; the target "despairs" for 1-100 hours and then "unbreakable slumber" for 1-100 days; the target immediately falls into a cursed sleep and dies from mental torment (unless healed) within 1-100 hours.

Obviously the above includes a lot of MERP terms that I don't know the definition. I don't really know if Pathfinder does tiered saves. It'd be easy to write up, but if no other monsters have it, I don't want to do it. I think this is probably best done as a poison or a disease that gets worse after so many failed saves. Any thoughts on poison versus disease? Also, should it be a Fortitude save or a Will save?

The Nine Rings of Power — Since Tolkien didn't really say what the Nine Rings did, I'm basically free to make up anything. MERP has a short description that uses MERP terminology that I'm not familiar with. Here's what it basically boils down to...
—A whole bunch of spell-like abilities. Here's where I can make all the Rings different if I want and tailor them to each wraith's specific personality.
—Can't be detected by magic/scrying.
—Wearer retains Dex bonus when flat-floted.
—Bonuses to caster level, AC, saving throws, and hit points.

I'd like the template to add +2 to a creature's CR without a Ring (the same as ghost, lich, and vampire), and +3 or more with a Ring.

Silver Crusade

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I have never created a template either. However, I will try to help!

2) This can easily be a condition of the template.

4) Easy. The ringwraiths are undead and gain the abilities of that type (such as not ageing). The template could also include a healthy bonus to Strength.

6) You might want to drop this one or modify it. Make them more susceptible to holy spells and effects. So a good-aligned divine caster has a better chance to make a Nazgûl flee.

7) Blindsight sounds right on the Nazgûl's nose.

8) You could easily have them give off a fear effect as an aura. May be check out the antipaladin. Hell, give them antipaladin levels! (Can CE work for a Nazgûl?)

9) Make the breath weapon effect differing HD. So a 1st-level character would take a more serious effect rather than a 20th-level character who might shrug off the worst of the damage.

10) I imagine the rings would be artifacts of some sort. May be the powers are influenced by the personalities of the different Nazgûl?

Hope I helped!


Only thing that strikes me in particular is #7 - I thought that the Nazgul's perceptions were generally weaker as a result of their extremely limited vision:

"The Nazgûl had poor vision in the material world, but they were acutely aware of the beings with a presence in the wraith world, like the wearer of the One Ring and certain elves. Anyone who could see into the wraith world could see the Nazgûl as they had appeared in their mortal lives."

(http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Nazg%C3%BBl#Powers_and_Abilities)

So if they do get blindsight, I would think it should have a very short range - maybe 10' or so - and anything beyond that is hazy?


Another thing is that they are supposed to get much more powerful when more are encountered. Maybe the save DCs of their special powers rise the more that are encountered? Who knows what else they would gain, eg. a bigger fear aura?
Giving them blindsense 10 ft. sounds wise, what about lifesense 100'? Their mounts were supposed to have good sight, though.

Silver Crusade

princeimrahil wrote:
So if they do get blindsight, I would think it should have a very short range - maybe 10' or so - and anything beyond that is hazy?

Except it would be greater if it involved the shadow I would imagine. I always got the impression they had a good sense of smell. That could be the movies influencing my memory.

I like the idea of blindsense and lifesense.

Grand Lodge

Also bear in mind with the Strength score thing that incorporeal undead do not have a Strength score. Obviously you could make them an exception, but as written, incorporeal undead lack Strength as well as Constitution.


Ninjaiguana wrote:
Also bear in mind with the Strength score thing that incorporeal undead do not have a Strength score. Obviously you could make them an exception, but as written, incorporeal undead lack Strength as well as Constitution.

Incorporeal creatures also can't interact with physical objects, yet the Nazgûl wield weapons and wear clothes. So maybe they're not the Pathfinder definition of incorporeal.


6) Keep it as it says, but I would make it a something a person with say a history check DC of 30+ would know


From a Pathfinder rules' point of view they aren't incorporeal at all. They interact with objects normally, they don't cross walls (nor anything else), and so on.
Make them corporeal but with the same reaction to weapons that incorporeal creatures have (immunity to nonmagical attacks, 50% with magical ones).
Also, give them something similar to the Ghost's Rejuvenation ability; each one can ultimately be destroyed only by a specific (or specific kind of) creature, weapon, magic or method.

Shadow Lodge

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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Respectable Hobbit wrote:
Ninjaiguana wrote:
Also bear in mind with the Strength score thing that incorporeal undead do not have a Strength score. Obviously you could make them an exception, but as written, incorporeal undead lack Strength as well as Constitution.
Incorporeal creatures also can't interact with physical objects, yet the Nazgûl wield weapons and wear clothes. So maybe they're not the Pathfinder definition of incorporeal.

Ghost touch weapons and armor

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

It's not really neccessary to create a Nazgul template. They're effectively GM fiat characters anyway, unkillable unless you're either wielding an artifact weapon or are the destined exception, like Eowyn. Remember these folks are essentially share the # 2 slot after Sauron the Big Bad himself.

Now a wraith templte for lesser type beings... that would be worthwhile.


Regarding 7: remember the creepy sniffing, when the hobbits are hiding from them on the side of the road.


give them the Scent (Ex) ability, as well as blind-sence 10'
Then add a bit about being able to see those who are connected to the wraith world as with True-Sight up to a certain range.

You could give them a corporial form, they are solid when they choose to be.

And note they are harmed by fire. very flamable with the dry rotted robes and such, right?


LazarX wrote:

It's not really neccessary to create a Nazgul template. They're effectively GM fiat characters anyway, unkillable unless you're either wielding an artifact weapon or are the destined exception, like Eowyn. Remember these folks are essentially share the # 2 slot after Sauron the Big Bad himself.

Now a wraith templte for lesser type beings... that would be worthwhile.

Although, of course, Sauron is really the #2... all hail Morgoth!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Interzone wrote:
LazarX wrote:

It's not really neccessary to create a Nazgul template. They're effectively GM fiat characters anyway, unkillable unless you're either wielding an artifact weapon or are the destined exception, like Eowyn. Remember these folks are essentially share the # 2 slot after Sauron the Big Bad himself.

Now a wraith templte for lesser type beings... that would be worthwhile.

Although, of course, Sauron is really the #2... all hail Morgoth!

That's true as far as the Silmarillion goes. but in Lord of the Rings, Sauron has the top spot, by the time the Nazgul were created, Melkor was permanently out of the picture.


I know, just nostalgic... lol
Back in the good ol' days when everything was getting torn asunder...
I just still think of Sauron as 'Lieutenant of Morgoth'..

On topic:
This is a really cool idea, and I am interested in adapting into my own games... I haven't played the game you are adapting this from, but I have always been interested in the Nazgul (especially after playing the Middle Earth card game) and I think this is a pretty good interpretation of them into pathfinder..

I think I would decrease the range of the black breath ability, seems more like it would be a thing they would do only when they were closer up.


I always thought of the Nazgul as some form of weakened death knights and their leader as the real deal. They emanate fear, the Witch King more or less blasts open the gates of Minas Tirith, they have plenty of martial combat skills, they fear fire because hey! undead are combustible (most lack fire resistance, you'll note), and so on. To me, they're more like the prototypes of death knights (who also had power words, that the Nazgul may or may not have had, and ice effects, which I don't recall at all).


First, Arneson wrote his wraiths based heavily on the Ringwraiths, so start there.

Second, threat LotR/S references as primary sources and ICE's game as doctrinaire (less authority).

Find the best PF undead stand-in and modify with an eye to the original text appearances.

<censored>

PROFIT!!!


Lathiira wrote:
I always thought of the Nazgul as some form of weakened death knights and their leader as the real deal.

Ringwraith's are far more powerful than Death Knights. Accurately portrayed they would be epic level opponents.

The Witch King of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgul could literally slay armies by himself, given enough time and brave/stupid men to stand against him.

I would not make them a template. There is only 9 of them after all (assuming your going for a canon game). Make them Unique special Monsters/NPC's.

I always found that Iron Crown got the flavor and feel of Middle Earth dead on. They are a great go to source for their region guides and insights into the power of the major NPC's of Middle Earth.


But, Gilfalas, a simple 10th level fighter could also slaughter armies of orcs (as presented in the Bestiary) by himself, given enough time and brave/stupid orcs to stand against him. Replace "orcs" with "human warriors" and you've got the exact same thing. "Epic"/"Mythic" and "high level" are often misunderstood, I've found. I think it was the Alexandrian that effectively redefined most people of around 5th level or so.

As to number six:

Respectable Hobbit wrote:
6) Effect of Varda — Ringwraiths are weak against the power of the goddess Varda. Just saying her name "Elbereth Gilthoniel" can force a Nazgûl to flee.

Um, this sounds almost exactly like the power strongly presented holy symbols have over Vampires. Make any critical failure on the save cause enough terror to force the Nazgûl (How do you get the carrot atop the "u"? I just copied/pasted yours.) to flee, as if under the effects of a fear spell.

Respectable Hobbit wrote:

9) Black Breath — This is the Nazgûl's most famous attack, described in numerous places in the books. MERP says it can be used 9/day, has a range of 300 feet and a 5 foot radius. Those numbers are obviously not set in stone, but they seem good to me. MERP gives the attack 3 levels of severity, depending on how badly the target fails its save—the target falls into "despair" for 1-100 rounds and the "unwakable sleep" for 1-100 hours; the target "despairs" for 1-100 hours and then "unbreakable slumber" for 1-100 days; the target immediately falls into a cursed sleep and dies from mental torment (unless healed) within 1-100 hours.

Obviously the above includes a lot of MERP terms that I don't know the definition. I don't really know if Pathfinder does tiered saves. It'd be easy to write up, but if no other monsters have it, I don't want to do it. I think this is probably best done as a poison or a disease that gets worse after so many failed saves. Any thoughts on poison versus disease? Also, should it be a Fortitude save or a Will save?

While tiered saves don't exist in Pathfinder, poison and disease does. But instead of either of those, I'd suggest it's a curse, that behaves like a poison or disease, similar in some ways, to mummy rot. With a look at constitution damage (or drain!), fatigue, exhaustion, and a crushing despair type effect, it's nearly perfect. Poison functions blindingly fast for what you're suggesting, so probably disease is better.

Something, perhaps, like this (fairly lifted from Mummy Rot):

Curse of the Black Breath wrote:


Curse of the Black Breath

Type curse, disease (injury); Save Fortitude DC [appropriate #]

Onset immediate; Frequency 1/(1d4 days) [roll secretly after each save attempt]

Effect: 1d4 Con damage and target is fatigued and subject to a crushing despair effect, both for twenty four hours; if the target is already fatigued, the target instead becomes exhausted; if the target is already exhausted, the target instead becomes unconscious; if the target is unconscious, the target must immediately make another fortitude save or die.

Cure: Black Breath can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other.

For Black Breath itself, instead of MERP's stuff, I might suggest a comparable breath weapon along the lines of a dragon of similar target CR. Find a range/affect and use that. As far as how often per day, well, that's a sticky wicket. My memories of the books are hazy at best, but I don't recall them using such things terribly often... which is bizarre, considering how powerful it seems. I might limit it to 3+<score> mod per day, or something similar, but no more often than once per 1d4 minutes.

For the fear aura (and it growing more powerful when they're together), I'd suggest using the highest DC (presuming there are different DCs) and upping it by +2 for each wraith within the aura; the aura itself should grow to the added distance of both (so two 30 foot auras would instead be a roughly 60 foot aura, or three would be 90 feet and so on). That seems similar to how Pathfinder usually handles such things as effects that stack.

For each of the rings, I'd suggest a specific relatively low-key (i.e. "not flashy") but highly useful magical effect because, honestly, Middle Earth doesn't have the flashiest of mages.

One thing I'd do, if I were you, is to take a hard look at the Vampire template. That has most of what you want right there. Adding that template to suddenly corporeal wraiths (without flight) would basically get you most of what you want, I think. Drop things that don't work (like blood draining and spell likes), downgrade the things that are too big (like sunlight weakness) but keep those things that do (like strength and charisma boosts and bonus feats). Also, fire vulnerability would be a great thing to add.

Finally, depending on what you're thinking now, I might reconfigure your perceptions of power: look at about 9th-to-14th as your power window. Most of the great mortals in Middle Earth, in Pathfinder terms, seem to hover around 5th, while immortals are around 10th. Only a few, such as Sauron, really get in the range of "near epic", and the Valar seem to be the only things that actually get to epic levels.

Anyway, hope that helps some.


Interzone wrote:
I think I would decrease the range of the black breath ability, seems more like it would be a thing they would do only when they were closer up.

You're forgetting when they basically dive-bombed Minas Tirith with the Black Breath during the Battle of Pelennor Fields.


Respectable Hobbit wrote:
Interzone wrote:
I think I would decrease the range of the black breath ability, seems more like it would be a thing they would do only when they were closer up.
You're forgetting when they basically dive-bombed Minas Tirith with the Black Breath during the Battle of Pelennor Fields.

Hmmm.. that's right....


Gilfalas wrote:
I would not make them a template. There is only 9 of them after all (assuming your going for a canon game). Make them Unique special Monsters/NPC's.

I want to make each Nazgûl an individual, so I felt a template was the best way to go. Specifically, I want to make ICE's Nazgûl, since I like their backstories, for the most part. A template could also be used to make "lesser" wraiths. The Nazgûl each had their own kingdoms and servants, and some of them might have forged lesser rings to enslave their own thralls. This idea is used in LOTRO for monsters that are called Cargûl. I've got an adventure in mind where the PCs explore an old, abandoned castle that used to belong to Adûnaphel (ICE's name for the 7th Nazgûl), and the PCs end up fighting what is basically the memory of a Nazgûl, so not at full strength.

Gilfalas wrote:
I always found that Iron Crown got the flavor and feel of Middle Earth dead on. They are a great go to source for their region guides and insights into the power of the major NPC's of Middle Earth.

MERP is an excellent resource but woefully incomplete in places.


Tacticslion wrote:
How do you get the carrot atop the "u"? I just copied/pasted yours.

On a Mac, press option-i, release, and then type u. On a PC, hold down ALT and type '0251.'

Tacticslion wrote:
For each of the rings, I'd suggest a specific relatively low-key (i.e. "not flashy") but highly useful magical effect because, honestly, Middle Earth doesn't have the flashiest of mages.

For what it's worth, I think the Pathfinder magic system works just fine in Middle-earth, especially when the alternative is to make your own magic system from the ground up. Gandalf DID create a fireball (against the wolves in Hollin) and he did call down lighting (against the Nazgûl on Weathertop), he threatened to turn people into animals, could communicate telepathically long-distance, and as Gandalf the White shot rays of holy light. He just didn't do these things as often as a Pathfinder wizard would because of the peculiar strictures of his Order. To make my campaign feel low-magic without rewriting the entire magic system, I'm simply limiting PCs' access to magic items and requiring them to be level 3 before they can go into a spellcasting class. You still get things that weren't in the books, but I'd rather do it this way than learn or make a whole new game.

Tacticslion wrote:
Finally, depending on what you're thinking now, I might reconfigure your perceptions of power: look at about 9th-to-14th as your power window. Most of the great mortals in Middle Earth, in Pathfinder terms, seem to hover around 5th, while immortals are around 10th. Only a few, such as Sauron, really get in the range of "near epic", and the Valar seem to be the only things that actually get to epic levels.

I'm using MERP as a rough guide here, dividing everyone's character level by 3. For example, Aragorn is level 36 in their system, so he ends up being 12 in Pathfinder. The Nazgûl fall into the 10 to 20 range, with the Witch-King being the only 20th level (60th level in MERP). I don't always go with MERP, though, because they made Legolas and Gimli level 8 to Aragorn's 36, and I feel the Three Hunters should be closer together in level.

Although now that I think about it, dividing by 5 might work better. Hm.

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