What and/or what level is Tom Bombadil

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Hi!

I just thought of Tom Bombadil from Lord of the Rings. I wondered wich char he would have to be in DnD.
I would say he would be an arch druid, but is that it? Give me some clues please

 

There are Bard elements to Tom as well after all his waty of dealing with Old man Willow is through song, but from other readings about Tom and there isn't much in either the Silmarillion or the lost Tales.

We don't know who or what Tom is, what we do know is frighteneing

1. Tom was in the world before the Valar and Melkor (the great enemy, of whom Sauron was but a lieutenant) arrived.
2. Thus Tom cannot be a Maia (similar to Olorin as Gandalf was in his youth), for they came to the world after Valar first came to the world.
3. Iluvatar who created the world is separate from Tom as Tolkien says in his writings.
4. Tom limits himself within the boundaries he has set, so that he can spend his days with Goldberry; but the powers he has within those boundaries are still immense, for instance the Ring has NO effect on him.

So a very powerful arch-druid, but only within his grove, a puissant Bard and some Cleric abilities for he affected and destroyed the Undead in the barrows.

Scary isn't it, but still outside his boundaries his power is small, but how would you get Tom past his boundary when Goldberry would have his tea ready and be singing him home?

 

Yeah Tom for sure is a strange being. Maybe he also got some rangerlevels. I read Silmarillion long time ago, but I don't remember it mentioning Tom aswell.

It's sure funny that his powers is bound to Goldberry or the Old Forest, but doesn't he command the hill creatures (later in LotR)?

Bombadil could be interesting to know more about for sure.

 

It's not so much that his powers are bound to Goldberry, but that Tom has limited them to the old boundaries of the Old Forest, it's almost as if he has taken over stewardship form the Ents in their search for the Entwives, whilst he lives happily on.

In his letters Tolkien says that Tom is there as an Enigma and intentionally so. I've always felt that he is the spirit of the world woken by Iluvatar when he shaped things, and the ring has no effect fo it is intrinsically part of him.

 

If he had to be a character then you'd have to say Druid, especially for his relative neutrality.

 

Yeah, I'll say Druid too. Althought he, technically, did Turn Undead at one point, so I'll say he was a decent Cleric too. Of course, such thing is a huge classification.

 

To do Tom right, I'd say that while the druid class would work well for him, some sort of Tom Bombadil "template" would also need to be created, which might include some nice stat bonuses (e.g. +8-12 wisdom, and smaller bonuses to other stats), turn undead ability, maybe an aura of courage, and would result in a significant level adjustment. Perhaps that template is only in effect when Tom is in the Old Forest.

As far as character level, I'd say he's definitely in the epic range.

A character as significant and as powerful as Tom just isn't going to be fully doable as a vanilla character build, IMHO, of course.

 

But to get a Tom Bombadil approximation, your build would probably trade melee power for supernatural power (as we have no evidence that he is any good with any normal weapon). That would provide a nice balance if you were ever going to play such a character.

 

Druid (20) / Bard (5) / Cleric (20) / Ranger (5) Probably. However the cleric bit is kind of wierd since he doesn't exactly worship any god, does he? Yet as mentioned before he has the power to turn undead.

 

I'm pretty sure that a cleric doesn't technically have to worship a god, but can instead worship the "divine" in a more general sense. Such a cleric chooses domains that reflect his/her personality/worldview, and favored weapon (for those with the War Domain) can also be chosen based on who the character is. Some DM oversight is generally advised with this approach.

And so that I'm not totally off-topic... Tom Bombadil rules!!

 

While I like Abomunation's attempt and think that is probably about right for Tom as he appears in LotR, I still wonder what Tom would have been like before he met Goldberry. Tom himself says that he was already on Arda before the great enemy came from outside (Melkor) and the arrival of the Valar, the elves when they first met him (somewhere around the age of trees) called him Iarwain Ben-Adar (oldest and fatherless). From this I have always felt that Tom himself is divine hence the cleric levels will work since they are a natural extension of his powers. And if this is his limited self .... ?

 

I suppose some form of native outsider won't be uncalled for. Some of the more powerful ones have spell-like abilities no lesser than those of any 20th level spellcaster. However, if we were to try to keep him closer to the regular D&D mechanics, he could have the half-fey template. It is also possible that he is a demi-deity (Divine Rank 0 for mechanical purposes), but I'm not that familiar with what abilities this would give him outside of agelessness.

For class... Er, I suppose druid would be closest because of the features and some spells. That, or an epic bard or possibly the bard PrC with high-level spellcasting (don't remember the name now, from CAdv).

An alternative is that he is simply a powerful fey creature. For example, he could be a (peaceful) leshay bard (8) seeker of the chord (2), although that might make him a bit too tough.
http://d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/leshay.htm

[ September 23, 2006, 21:53: Message edited by: The Shaman ]