From HofWiki

By Camdin

This article discusses the various roles of monsters in Middle-earth, as provided by Fell Beasts and Wondrous Magic. I also provide examples of each monster role as they appear in the Lord of the Rings, and discuss which monsters from Dungeons and Dragons are perhaps the most suitable for conversion if one wishes to remain as "canon" as possible. Of course, the only things that are truly canon in any chronicle are what the Narrator brings to the table, so you can use these guidelines to convert any Dungeons and Dragons creature you want to include in your chronicle.

A large part of making a new monster "fit" Middle-earth involves working it into the history that is already there, weaving it into the already rich tapestry of places and things without disrupting them or overtly altering what has gone before.

The next article in this series will talk you through the conversion process, going line-by-line through a Dungeons and Dragons monster entry.

Converting from Dungeons and Dragons to Lord of the Rings

When converting a monster from Dungeons and Dragons to Lord of the Rings, it should fit into one of the following roles: Plant (Immobile and Mobile), Beast (Natural, Intelligent, Monstrous, and Magical), Civilised Creature (Tranquil, Noble, and Warlike), Spirit (Natural, Restless, and Corrupt), and Demon (Animate and Place). I've further broken down the roles into:

What – a basic description of the creature's role

Where – the region of Middle-earth in which such a creature might live

How – how such a creature may have come to be given the history and 'the way things are' in Middle-earth

Which – the Dungeons and Dragons monsters that best fit that role as well as being 'appropriate' to the feel of Middle-earth.

Note: These conversion guidelines only concern themselves with monsters from the Monster Manual which can be found in the Dungeons and Dragons SRD (System Reference Document).

Plant, Immobile/Mobile

What

Plants include huorns, Ents, and ancient aware trees like Old Man Willow. The only plants that are truly mobile plants in Middle-earth are the Ents. Huorns can move from place to place, but they have to be commanded to do so and generally cannot walk about of their own accord.

Where

Animate plants are quite rare in Middle-earth, and are known to exist in only two places of extreme antiquity: The Old Forest and Fangorn. However, it is said that a squirrel could once leap from tree to tree from Fangorn to the sea in the west without ever having to touch the ground. In Eriador there may still be groves of trees with roots older than stones, and the deeps of Mirkwood might hold unknown enclaves of Ent-like creatures perhaps corrupted by the Shadow in Dol Guldur. Some awakened plants may have escaped the desolation of the Brown lands and might live still in fields and meads of Southern Mirkwood and the East.

How

Long, long ago, the Elves wandered far and wide in Middle-earth. They "always wished to talk to everything," as Treebeard said. The Elves awakened trees and taught them to speak, and learned their tree-speech. Once they were awakened they became the Ents, and in turn could awaken other trees (although not to the full extent that the Elves could). These second-born trees are the Huorns. The Entwives, female Ents that is, were as concerned with small trees, bushes, and flowers as Ents are concerned with trees. Like the Ents the Entwives may have awakened these lesser plants to some degree of awareness similar to the huorns.

Which

Most plants from the Monster Manual are not really appropriate for Middle-earth; Dungeons and Dragons plants are simply too mobile or too bizarre to really fit in with the explanation of how plants were awakened.

Examples

Assassin vine

Beast, Natural (Predator, Scavenger)

What

Natural beasts are the normal fauna of Middle-earth: horses, cows, sheep, dogs, and so on. The Beast category is further divided into predator, scavenger, and intelligent (dealt with separately below). The predator and scavenger roles are self-explanatory.

Where

Natural animals exist everywhere in Middle-earth, and remain true to their Earthly counterparts in their preferred climate, terrain, and behaviour.

How

You don't really need to explain how a natural beast came to exist in Middle-earth. It is assumed that they were counted among the Kelvar and awoke with others of their kind in Arda.

Which

Nearly any creature of the Animal type could exist in Middle-earth. Exceptions include dinosaurs, and giant animals like the roc.

Beast, Intelligent

What

Unlike natural beasts, intelligent beasts are self aware. They can understand speech and make themselves understood — either through actual speech or through some form of non-verbal communication. Intelligent beasts may be larger than normal or have an extended life span, but otherwise they appear to be natural beasts in every visible way. Examples of intelligent beasts in Middle-earth are Roäc of Ravenhill, the Crebain, and the Great Eagles.

Where

Intelligent beasts can live anywhere their natural counterparts live. The ravens of Ravenhill live in and around Erebor, and the Crebain live in Dunland and Fangorn Forest.

How

As mentioned in the plant role, the Elves of the Elder Days wandered far and wide awakening plants and animals to speak to them. The gift of awareness is passed from generation to generation, and soon a small band of intelligent beasts may arise and become the dominant beasts of that type in the region. In the case of the Great Eagles, they are the descendants of Thorondor, the messenger of the Vala Manwë and were blessed long ago with great size and the power of speech. Like many of the creatures of Middle-earth, intelligent beasts are either unique or they live in isolated colonies with little interaction from outsiders.

Which

Any natural beast can be an intelligent beast of the Narrator so desires. Nothing need be changed in the natural beast's attributes except for its Wits and maybe its Bearing. Those attributes should be increases to at least 3 each to qualify the beast as intelligent.

Examples

Giant owl, any animal given a high enough Wits and Bearing.

Beast, Monstrous/Magical

What

A monstrous or magical beast is a creature that is wholly unnatural and uncanny. They are the true "monsters" of Middle-earth. Such creatures may or may not be intelligent, but they are never humanoid in form. The Watcher in the Water, Wargs, the spiders of Mirkwood, and Hell Hawks are all monstrous beasts.

Magical beasts are like monstrous beasts with the exception that for whatever reason they have supernatural abilities. Such a creature might be able to innately cast a few spells, or it might have unique supernatural abilities which it can use at will. An intelligent beast or intelligent monstrous beast that takes the Magician order (if the Narrator allows such things) becomes a magical beast by virtue of its ability with spells. There are few examples of truly magical beasts in Middle-earth other than Dragons.

Where

Monstrous or magical beasts live in very few places in Middle-earth, and they aren't normally met in civilized areas. These creatures live in the wild places where they can roam free, or in the places that are dominated by the Shadow. The Trollshaws, Angmar, Mordor, Mirkwood, the East, the wild parts of Eriador, and deep subterranean pits are the homes of monstrous or magical beasts. Rohan, Gondor, Lórien, Rivendell and its environs, Erebor and its environs, the Shire, and Bree-land are all relatively free of monstrous and magical beasts.

How

Every creature in Middle-earth has a purpose for being there. They don't just exist to threaten the heroes or make overland travel difficult. Monstrous and magical beasts are the unnatural creations of Morgoth or Sauron, left over from the Elder Days and somehow existing on into the present. Many monstrous beasts, such as the Wargs and the Black Horses, were once natural beasts that were reshaped with dark arts into loyal and ferocious servants. Other magical beasts arose in the First Age and were made all but extinct by the great heroes of that time. Those that survived slinked away into Middle-earth and hid themselves away from all sight. There they wait to perhaps be once more discovered by the heroes of the later ages.

Which

Although most monsters from the Monster Manual could fit into this broad category, not all of them are really appropriate for the feel of Middle-earth. The best choices for conversion from Dungeons and Dragons to Lord of the Rings are Aberrations and Magical Beasts that have few or no overt magical powers. The beasts of Middle-earth tend to rely more on fang and claw and cunning than magic (although of course there are exceptions).

You should only select monsters for conversion that can be explained through Morgoth's corrupting influence or Sauron's strange cross-breeding experiments or ones that dwell underground and can thus remain "in the deep places of the world."

Magical, slimy, tentacled, unnatural-looking things are usually First Age horrors. They are most often unique creatures, "the last of [their] kind to trouble the unhappy world" as was said of Shelob. The more unnatural and unwholesome a creature appears to be, the more likely it is that it is a holdover from the Elder Days and no more of its kind now live in Middle-earth. Likely, too, is the fact that they live deep underground or in enclaves of great evil and would take considerable effort to find or stumble across.

A lesser creature with few true magical powers and with a form that could be natural even if it isn't should likely be the perverse work of Morgoth or Sauron. Remember that Sauron and Morgoth share the restriction that they cannot create new creatures: All they can do is twist and corrupt existing creatures. Before you select a monster to convert as a work of such perversion, look at its shape and ask these questions, "What was it created from? Why did Morgoth or Sauron bend/subjugate it? Why wasn't it used in the War of the Ring?" If you can easily answer those questions, it's likely that you have a good candidate for conversion.

Examples

Aboleth (First Age horror), ankheg (perversion), bulette (perversion), choker (First Age horror), dire animals (perversions), ettercap (perversion), grick (First Age horror), owl bear (perversion), and winter wolf (perversion)

Civilized Creature: Tranquil/Noble/Warlike

What

Civilized creatures are those that have complex societies and build cities and communities. Men, Dwarves, Elves, and Hobbits are all civilized creatures, and although one could strongly argue about how 'civilized' they are, Trolls and Orcs are included in this role. Simply put, the civilized creature role is reserved for intelligent (Wits 3+), humanoid beings.

Where

All civilized creatures have their own places in Middle-earth, and they rarely travel far from home. The world is a large and dangerous place, and wandering over its face is sure to invite trouble. The Elves live in Rivendell or Lórien, the Dwarves in the Iron Hills or Erebor or the Blue Mountains, the Hobbits live in the Shire, the Orcs live in Angmar or Mount Gundabad or Mordor, and the Trolls live in the Trollshaws. Men live... pretty much everywhere else, but mostly in Gondor, Rohan, Bree-land, Esgaroth, the East, and Harad.

How

Tolkien already tells us how each of these races came to be in Middle-earth.

Which

Honestly, none of the Humanoids or Monstrous Humanoids in Dungeons and Dragons are really suitable for Middle-earth. All of the civilized creatures of Middle-earth have finely detailed histories and societies, and their place and role in the world are intricately interwoven. Adding in new or bizarre civilized creatures would be difficult if you want to maintain the feel of Middle-earth. The same questions need to be asked of new civilized creatures as were asked of monstrous and magical beasts: Where did they come from? How where they made? What is their place in the world? How do they relate to the other civilized creatures?

Just about the only civilized creatures from Dungeons and Dragons that could fit into Middle-earth are Giants, but not all Dungeons and Dragons giants are really appropriate to the setting. Tolkien did mention Stone-giants in The Hobbit, and there is even a passing mention of ogres in Bilbo's riddling games with Gollum. Although giants and ogres are mentioned nowhere else in the Lord of the Rings or any of his other works one could take their brief mention in The Hobbit as just enough proof that they are a part of the world. Of course it has been argued that the 'ogres' mentioned in The Hobbit were actually the Uruk-hai (there is some similarity in pronunciation) or were mythical creatures from Hobbit-lore. Whether or not to convert ogres is best left to the desires of the Narrator.

Examples

Hill giant, ogre, stone giant

Spirit, Natural

What

A Natural Spirit is a creature of the land itself. Natural Spirits are not undead beings, that is, they are not the liberated sprits of creatures that were once alive but are no longer so. Natural Spirits were always invested in the forms they now have. In other game systems, Natural Spirits would be called elementals (or, in the case of the Valar and Maiar, gods and demigods). Given this description, Animate Demons and Demons of Place also fall into this category. Demons are Natural Spirits that were corrupted by Morgoth and the discordant notes he wove into the Song of Creation, or were corrupted by Sauron and his lies and promises of power.

The more powerful Natural Spirits can take on physical form and function normally in the material world. The exact form and function of a Natural Spirit varies, and they are as numerous as the stars in the sky and as varied as the notes sung by Eru in the creation of Arda. The Natural Spirits of Arda are all unique, each with its own realm, powers, abilities and motives.

Samples of Natural Spirits in Middle-earth are Tom Bombadil, Goldberry (and her mother the Old River Woman), and the gentle unseen spirit that inhabits the clear stream of Nimrodel. The Valar and the Maiar also fall into the category of Natural Spirits, and they are the most powerful examples of this type of creature to be found anywhere in Middle-earth. Animate Demons include the Balrogs, and are the only examples of those creatures described in Middle-earth.

Where

Natural Spirits can exist anywhere, for they embody the very forces of the world itself. They don't appreciate interlopers and frequently harass trespassers, but any secluded grove, serene lake, warm meadow, or babbling brook could contain the life-essence of a Natural Spirit. Few Maiar currently dwell in Middle-earth, with Tom Bombadil and Sauron being two notable exceptions. The Valar never leave the Undying Lands.

How

Natural Spirits were created in the beginning, after the first few notes of the Song of Creation left Eru's lips. They are the oldest of the oldest creatures in all of Arda.

Which

Most Dungeons and Dragons elementals could technically be converted as Natural Spirits, but the concept of walking, talking pillars of fire or water or whatever isn't really appropriate to the setting. The Natural Spirits of Middle-earth are more mysterious than that, and certainly aren't as overt in appearance as elementals. They embody the forces of the natural world, but do so in more subtle forms. If one didn't know who Tom Bombadil really was, for example, he might simply be taken as a whimsical old man who dresses funny. None of the elementals or outsiders in the Monster Manual are really appropriate for conversion.

Examples

None

Spirit: Restless/Corrupt

What

Unlike Natural Spirits, Restless Spirits and most Corrupt Spirits were once living creatures. These are the Undead of Middle-earth, the pitiful spirits of once-living creatures that have been denied their eternal rest. All Restless Spirits are incorporeal — they are diaphanous, nearly invisible things that have only hazy outlines or shadowy forms. Restless Spirits maintain some degree of free will, and they recall their past lives with regretful clarity. Not all Restless Spirits are evil, although many appear to be so due to their perpetual states of melancholy, frustration and regret. The only examples of Restless Spirits in Middle-earth are ghosts, most notably the ghosts that dwelt in the Paths of the Dead.

Corrupt Spirits are under the command of Sauron (or, in campaigns set in the First Age, Morgoth). Like all Spirits, Corrupt Spirits are normally incorporeal beings, with few exceptions. The most powerful Corrupt Spirits in Middle-earth are the Barrow-wights and the Ringwraiths themselves.

It is important to note that although they are classified as Undead creatures, Vampires and Wights in Middle-earth are Corrupt Spirits are not the spirits of once-living creatures. Vampires are Corrupt Spirits which must possess a living body, ultimately killing that body to feed the fires of Corruption that burn with cold fire deep within. The Wights are Corrupt Spirits which reside in the dead bodies of kings of Men — they are not walking corpses as much as they are corpses that have been inhabited by demonic forces of Shadow. No part of the original spirit that inhabited the body exists once the Corrupt Spirit takes it over. The Corrupt Spirit has no recollection or knowledge of the life of the Man whose body it has taken over.

Where

Restless Spirits exist only in places of great tragedy or in places where the spirits of the dead find solace or where they once felt at home. Some Restless Spirits, such as the previously mentioned Men of Dunharrow, are bound to a certain location by ancient curses. The ruins of the Second Age that litter Eriador and the lands north of Bree are prime haunting grounds, as are old houses, dark caverns, and literally anyplace else.

How

Simply put, a Restless Spirit arises whenever a creature dies but has some pressing reason to stay on in spirit form. Corrupt Spirits arise as a direct result of the will of Sauron and have some role to play in his designs: Vampires act as spies, Wights guard the treasures of the Dúnedain and keep them out of the hands of his enemies, and Wraiths are his servants and lieutenants.

Which

Any incorporeal undead can be converted as a Restless or Corrupt Spirit. Fell Beasts and Wondrous Magic already provides many examples, but that is by no means the only form a Natural or Corrupt Spirit might take. Remember that although nearly all Dungeons and Dragons Undead are evil, that is not necessarily the case for the Restless Spirits.

To maintain the "feel" of Middle-earth, corporeal undead converted to Lord of the Rings should be similar to Barrow-wights: Corrupt Spirits that inhabit and reanimate the corpses of Men.

Undead in Middle-earth are never spawned by others of their kind, so the Create Spawn special attack should simply be ignored during conversion.

Examples

Allip, bodak, ghoul, shadow, spectre, wraith

Demon: Animate/Place

See Spirit, Natural.