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Okay guys, before I post the content here, I want you to read this.
I've been burned before. I know Lord of the Rings fans can be pretty . . . . energetic. I've posted LotR jokes, and fun, silly little discussion ideas and have been met with derision, called stupid, illiterate, people have told me I have no place in the fandom . . . I've received so much hate that I almost didn't post this . . . but then again, I guess if I didn't post this, I'd be letting the other people win wouldn't I?
About a week ago, a fellow Pathfinder Player said he wanted to set up an adventure Lord of the Rings style but using Pathfinder 2e rules as a means to introduce people to Pathfinder 2e, and wanted to know if anyone had made characters for him to use. I thought that it sounded like a fun idea, so I agreed to do it. I figured I could pump out the Fellowship as level 5 PF2 characters pretty fast with Pathbuilder. I guess I forgot about all the derision I'd faced for a second.
So, just, before you yell at me and tell me that I'm a horrible person and that Tolkien is rolling over in his grave, let me give you some context for how I approached making these characters.
I made them first as PF2 characters. I didn't want slavish devotion to the lore to mean that I ended up making a character that didn't work in PF2. So first and foremost, these characters were designed to work in PF2, (That includes making them all the same level, I settled on 5, so they could all play together) THEN, after that, I added as much Lore to them as I could. I had to bend things, tweak things, ignore things. Will the purists be upset, undoubtedly. But these characters are designed to help people learn Pathfinder, so if they die because they aren't doing their job, then what is the point of playing the game?
I also wanted to showcase as many different classes as possible. It would have been easy to make half the fellowship rangers an half the fellowship rogues, but that's not going to introduce people to Pathfinder. So instead I tried not to repeat any classes. I did have to do one class twice (both Boromir and Gimli are fighters), but that was it. So when you ask why I made Pippin a swashbuckler? Dude took down a super troll by himself. Why is Meridoc an investigator? Because he was the 'most perceptive and intelligent of the hobbits, always studying maps.' Why isn't Aragorn a ranger? Well because that clearly falls to Legolas, and I though it would be interesting to build Stalker out as a Spirit Barbarian with an army of undead at his back (and yes, I know all about the tribe that abandoned their oath to Gondor and how it was a one time deal and that's why he has the army of the undea . . .. I know all about it. I'm doing what I can with what I have.)
So, here you go. Best I could do in the confines of what I was given. I'm sure no one will be happy, not the purists, not the filthy casuals, but it is the best I thought I could do, and I hope that at least someone out there finds it useful. Just remember . . . before you attack and degrade and yell and scream . . . there's another person on the other end of that computer screen that just did this as a favor to another human being. That guy who only wanted to share his love of Pathfinder with some friends. Maybe don't try and use this as your soapbox to put yourself up by putting me down, and let people have fun with what this was meant to be . . . a fun little diversion.