DnD Classes?

[afro-elf]

I should have said the 1st Edition of ADnD, not the the current 3rd edition d20 system.

[Elfhelm]

Ah, the all important letter "A".

I still don't think RPers should use any TSR of WotC product for LotR roleplaying. They just haven't paid and they have completely benefitted from JRRT's creativity.

Besides, the Iron Crown material is awesome.

I noticed there is a new game for sale with movie tie-ins. I bet they have paid for the rights.

AD&D 1st edition characters from LotR - hmmm... Well, I would point again to the original Deities and Demigods book. In there a hero is even more powerful than a regular high level character. You could create Tulkas and the Istari along those lines. Then you would have to pretty much limit the development of player characters to seventh level. See, in the 1st edition a Ranger could hit as many humanoids (which includes orcs) per round as he has levels. And given his bonuses, he's unlikely to miss or even fail to decapitate. So there's no reason even for Aragorn to have more than seven levels.

Also they didn't have any kind of weapon specialization in 1st edition so Legolas couldn't fire more than two arrows per round and he would have to be built like Conan to do enough damage to kills as many orcs per round as Aragorn.

Dwarves and axes in 1st edition raised an early problem. The huge battle axes were too big and the little hand axes didn't do enough damage.

Nawwwww, bring those 1st edition books to the used bookstore and upgrade to the d20 system, or at least get the 2nd edition in which Rangers got less powerful and weapons could be specialized.

And the Cleric class, for any edition, can not be used. There are no Clerics in Middle Earth.

[Elfhelm]

But I think that my original point got lost somehow. That is, that the original D&D game was a direct rip-off of LotR. If you look those original rules over you'll automatically know the classes of the book's characters. The elves use elf, the dwarves use dwarf, the hobbits use halfling, the humans use fighter or thief, and the Istari use magic-user (or cleric?).

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I definitely agree about the cleric bit. While the Kings of the line of Luthien the Elf-mother did act as priests, they did not have clerical powers like in DND, and they most DEFINITELY did not have as much of an overt religious system as exists in DND.