Beeple-beep beep! If Gandalf can beat a Balrog, why is he even remotely concerned about fighting goblins, orcs...

Beeple-beep beep! If Gandalf can beat a Balrog, why is he even remotely concerned about fighting goblins, orcs, or even trolls?

He cares about the little people!

UNLIKE [POLITICAL CANDIDATE]

Even war heroes can die from colds.

1: fighting the Balrog was not a fight he was sure he would win, hence why he wanted to avoid it in the first place. And it did, in fact, kill him to beat it.

2: Even if Gandalf himself was somehow immune to goblin arrows, the rest of the fellowship isn't and he needs them alive for the mission to work. Gandalf can't do everything himself, and he certainly can't be the ring bearer without disastrous consequences.

3: Gandalf isn't immune to arrows. If he gets overwhelmed and stabbed, he dies just like anyone else. He can take orcs and goblins 1v1 any day of the week, but fighting an army is another matter entirely. His soul is that of an Angel, but his body is mortal.

Because his Hroa can be destroyed by hitting it with a stick hard enough, and that would mess up his mission.

It's like asking if Sauron is much more powerful than Gandalf or a Balrog, how come he got beaten by 2-5 Elves and Men?

Gandalf is essentially immune to arrows. He's got reflexes and skills that allow him to survive countless battles without wearing armor.

As far as I know, he's only demonstrably been in one, and he got hurt in it.

I'm not so sure about that. I'd put it up to the orcs being shit shots for the most part. Gandalf, for being a literal angel, still has the body of an old man.

The perception isn't exactly helped by the films. In the OG trilogy the orcs were decently threatening, but still mooks when compared to the skills of the protagonists. In the Hobbit trilogy they degraded into being complete and fucking failures enough to make Melkor facepalm.

If he was immune to arrows, he would not have to use reflexes and skill to dodge or deflect them.

He isn't easy to kill, but that doesn't mean he can't be killed by mundane weapons. Saruman, a more powerful wizard, died from a knife to the back and falling 40 feet or so.

>if humans can kill a bear why are they even remotely cocerned about wolves or rats or insects?
because you're actually retarded

To be fair

A) in the books, it's just a knife to the throat
B) Gandalf seems to do SOMETHING, it's not entirely clear what, that robs him of the bulk of his powers. He certainly doesn't seem to have any particular magical abilities when he's scouring the shire.

Because balrogs are powerful maia and he can make an excuse to go all out on them. Goblins, orcs and trolls, they're mortal fodder and he has to sword them. While in the body of a frail old man.

He was in at least eight in the movies.

Magic in LotR seemed to be more subliminal. Actual spells were pretty rare, most of the wizards' power came from deep connections to powers beyond the physical world. Whenever two magical beings in LotR confront each other they tend to spend less time talking about their own prowess, but rather are representatives of the forces that empower them - it tends to take to form of philosophical arguments while sword-fighting, and sometimes a philosophical point will be punctuated with a flash of light or a force push.

Let me amend that statement: He's only been demonstrably in the thick of the fighting in one battle in the books, the Five Armies.

I suppose he was present at the Hornburg, Pelennor Fields, and the Black Gate, but at least in the books it isn't clear at all he's actually in the battle line.

Except that even with all that, Saruman does have certain very demonstrable powers, most especially his voice and how he affects people with it. The Hobbits definitely seem to be the kind of "simple minds" who would be vulnerable to such an effect, but he doesn't even try to sway the hobbits a la what he does with Theoden.

Yes, I myself argue often that there's a lot of magic in LoTR, it's just oftne more subtle than a DnD wizard's fireball, but that "Your Staff is Broken" pronouncement really did seem to do something to badly affect Saruman.

One other thought. Saruman's "magic" tends towards his machines and his knowledge in how to make stuff. Despite being post staff is broken, Gandalf still thinks, for instance, that he can resist the Nazgul in Orthanc itself. Take that stuff away from him and a lot of his abilities probably go with it.

Durins Bane was the last Balrog remaining, right?

>ctrl+f game
>ctrl+f rpg
>ctrl+f tabletop
>ctrl+f campaign
Tell me again how you're discussing a traditional game.
>but muh adaptation
By that logic I'm allowed to discuss The Big Bang Theory the TV show on Veeky Forums because a TBBT Monopoly edition exists somewhere.
If you don't mention the game, this thread is off topic.

It's never canonically stated to be so, but there's also no evidence of any other balrogs making any sort of effect post end of the first age.

So, probably yes, but not definitively yes.

Hahaha. You are a pathetic individual and your death will satisfy your betters.

Who are you, and what have you done with Zathras?

He only looks like old man, he is pretty fit.

You can start discussing TRADITIONAL GAMES any time.

>Butthurt black Numenorean detected

Gandalf fights in Moria, the siege of Helm's Deep, the siege of Minas Tirith, and I think at the Black Gate. That is four battles. Not only is that a countable number, you can count it on one hand.

Not him, but does he actually do any fighting in any of them? I mean he's present, but I can't think of any lines in the book that indicates he swings a sword or staff. I suppose before the main siege of Minas Tirith you have him riding out and rescuing Faramir from the Nazgul chasing him, but one of the reason Denethor's madness is at such an inopportune time is that it causes Gandalf to miss the battle as he's dealing with that.

>Waaaa my general threads aren't numerous enough
>Waaaa I can't think about tabletop outside the context of numbers in handbooks