Runde efter runde smider troldmanden en formular. Først en fireball, dernæst en haste, så en dispel magic, og derefter en magic missile. Snart er han ved at løbe tør, medmindre vi spiller D&D 4th edition. I de tidligere udgaver og i Pathfinder og Hackmaster løber troldmanden tør for magi, men ellers skyder han løs runde efter runde.
Magi har ikke sin forunderlige side, som magi ellers har i så mange andre medier. Da Tolkiens værker er blandt de bøger, som har været med til at inspirere til Dungeons & Dragons og ligefrem konkret til en række af de ting, som vi finder i D&D, vil jeg tage en række eksempler fra Hobbitten på hvordan magi her fungerer i hænderne på Gandalf.
“Excellent!” said Gandalf, as he stepped from behind a tree, and helped Bilbo to climb down out of a thorn-bush. Then Bilbo understood. It was the wizard’s voice that had kept the trolls bickering and quarrelling, until the light came and made an end of them.
(kapitel 2)
Then Gandalf lit up his wand.
(kapitel 4)
Udover at man kan hygge sig med at identificere D&D-versionen af disse formularer, er det tydeligt at magi ikke fungerer, som vi kender det fra Hobbitten.
Gandalf har flere formularer oppe i sit ærme. Her er en, han anvender i flere omgange eller former, eller rettere det er en stil af magi, han mestrer:
But not Gandalf. Bilbo’s yell had done that much good. It had wakened him up wide in a splintered second, and when goblins came to grab him, there was a terrible flash like lightning in the cave, a smell like gunpowder, and several of them fell dead.
(Kapitel 4)
Just at that moment all the lights in the cavern went out, and the great fire went off poof! into a tower of blue glowing smoke, right up to the roof, that scattered piercing white sparks all among the goblins. The yells and yammering, croaking, jibbering and jabbering; howls, growls and curses; shrieking and skriking, that followed were beyond description.
(kapitel 4)
As soon as Gandalf had heard Bilbo’s yell he realized what had happened. In the flash which killed the goblins that were grabbing him he had nipped inside the crack, just as it snapped to. He followed after the drivers and prisoners right to the edge of the great hall, and there he sat down and worked up the best magic he could in the shadows.
“A very ticklish business, it was,” he said. “Touch and go!” But, of course, Gandalf had made a special study of bewitchments with fire and lights (even the hobbit had never forgotten the magic fireworks at Old Took’s midsummer-eve parties, as you remember).
(kapitel 5)
Now you can understand why Gandalf, listening to their growling and yelping, began to be dreadfully afraid, wizard though he was, and to feel that they were in a very bad place, and had not yet escaped at all. All the same he was not going to let them have it all their own way, though he could not do very much stuck up in a tall tree with wolves all round on the ground below. He gathered the huge pinecones from the branches of his tree. Then he set one alight with bright blue fire, and threw it whizzing down among the circle of the wolves. It struck one on the back, and immediately his shaggy coat caught fire, and he was leaping to and fro yelping horribly.
Then another came and another, one in blue flames, one in red, another in green. They burst on the ground in the middle of the circle and went off in coloured sparks and smoke. A specially large one hit the chief wolf on the nose, and he leaped in the air ten feet, and then rushed round and round the circle biting and snapping even at the other wolves in his anger and fright.
(kapitel 5)
I D&D-termer anvender Gandalf formularer som Ventriloquism, Light, Pyrotechnics/Fireball og Melf’s Minute Meteors (sidstnævnte blev introduceret med Unearthed Arcana AD&D 1st ed 1985). Med de formularer, som Gandalf ligger for dagen, er han, hvad der svarer til en troldmand på omkring level 6 i D&D-termer. Efter dette trin bliver D&Ds magi så fantastisk, at det ikke længere passer ind i Ringenes herre.
Den centrale forskel er mest af alt, at formularerne i Hobbittens tilfælde har en tendens til at løse en større konflikt eller håndtere en længerevarende situation end en kamprundes skade på modstanderne.
I jagten på fantasy-oplevelsen eller D&D-oplevelsen, er det en af ting, som jeg gerne så optræde den næste version af D&D, nemlig magi som dækker en hel rundes udfordringer. Troldmand på level 1, 2, 3 stykker kan pludselig være stærkt behjælpelig, hvis han kan redde hele gruppen ud af en styg situation med en enkelt formular.
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