I was surprised to see the class level cap at 10. This feels too low. I've spent most of my time in D&D campaigns in the level 11-15 range and I'm sure there are many who would like to run higher level adventures. Is it possible to have the classes expanded before it goes to print or get a supplement at a later date?
Considering they wrote a page about giving small boons once pass Level 10, IT seems a design décision made on purpose and unlikely to change. Maybe if many people send email to complain
Yeah I agree. I understand what they are trying to say with the reasoning given, but it also feels like an excuse to not have to flesh out higher levels which is a shame.
Level 10 is way too low for long term play. If FL doesn't add additional levels, I'll probably just homebrew something using AIME as a guide for 11-20.
Let's say that a Balrog has a Challenge rating of 19 (like a Balor from 5e's Monsters Manual, which is basically the same creature). Well, according to Gandalf, a Company made up of some of the greatest heroes Middle-earth could offer at the end of the Third Age stood no chance against it. Then how can you safeguard consistency in such a setting if you allow players to become so powerful that they can defeat a Balrog, dozens of Trolls, or hundreds of Orcs, on their own?
As explained in the "Beyond 10th level" section, the level cap was a deliberate design choice dictated by the need to maintain consistency with the Twilight of the Third Age. In The One Ring, no hero can grow to such levels of power, and the same approach had to be taken for
The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying. Other 5e products (for example, Brancalonia and Trudvang Adventures) take the same approach in order to maintain the feeling of a vast, dark, and dangerous world where great heroes belong only to the past and new heroes can only go so far by force of arms alone.
If the game were set in the First or Second Age, where mighty heroes like Ecthelion or Glorfindel could take on a Balrog on their own, a full progression to 20th level would make much more sense. And who knows, maybe future supplements will address that. But that is simply not the goal of the core rulebook. Long-term play should instead be handled through the special mechanism of the
heir, especially considering that the heroes will sooner or later succumb to the Shadow and will have to retire.
Riddle Skill Feedback
Let's compare those skills in two games.
The Lord of the Rings 5e
The riddle game is an accepted custom among many creatures, including quite a few that would be classified as wicked if they did not respect the ancient rules. An Intelligence (Riddle) check is used to solve a spoken or written riddle, but also to draw conclusions from seemingly unconnected scraps of information by deduction, reasoning, and intuition.
The One Ring 2e
Owing its name to the ancient game, the Riddle Skill represents the ability to draw conclusions from seemingly unconnected scraps of information by deduction, reasoning, and intuition. Adventurers also rely on Riddle whenever they are forced to talk about a subject but prefer to conceal part of what they know; for example, to tell something about themselves without revealing their identity.
As an accepted custom among many cultures, speaking in riddles is usually allowed among strangers meeting for the first time and wanting to speak guardedly. This Skill is also used to gain helpful insight from a spoken or written riddle.
First issue, LOTR5e version of this skill let you
solve a spoken or written riddle which is absolutely ridiculous. It lets players bruteforce any riddle with a simple die roll, removing any challenge and fun. TOR2e skill only allows getting
helpful insight without riddle auto-solving.
Second issue, LOTR5e Riddle skill does not even mention "speaking in riddles" part of this custom that allows characters use cypher / secret tongue to conceal something.
I would like LOTR5e Riddle skill to be adjusted to be closer to TOR2e version which is more flavorful and mechanically balanced.
Riddle should be removed entirely. IT serve its purpose on TOR but is already covered by investigation and déception on D&D. IT would just confuse players and DM like IT did on AIME
Riddle was not removed because we felt it was an evocative skill, a real trademark of the setting, given its weight in The Hobbit. However, as rightly pointed out, it could not hold the exact same areas as it does in TOR (and in the old AiME), because it would overlap with existing skills such as Deception and Investigation. Therefore, the wording of the skill was revisited: in addition to describing the character's skill with riddles, it is also used as a proficiency in case the character has to perform a "generic" Intelligence check, where pure reasoning is required (for example, when passing a piece of information to someone without others noticing it, or winning a game of skill).
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.