I’m gearing up for the epic conclusion of my Adventures in Middle-earth campaign and I need to add a new element thanks to some enterprising and unpredictable players. Our Beorning PC had already pushed Beorn to send troops to the players’ redoubt in the Mountains of Mirkwood and didn’t want to risk his position among the Beornings by pushing harder. So, not wanting the player to feel left out, I gave him a chance to talk to the Lord of the Eagles and request aid.

He knocked it out of the part.

So now I have to include giant eagles in the upcoming battles! Luckily, there’s a giant eagle in the Monster Manual… Except that that’s pretty small and only CR 1, which hardly reflects the huge, majestic birds we see in the books and films. Alright, well maybe the roc… But that’s also not-quite-right since it’s a massive CR 11 boss-creature. And so I turn to homebrewing. Below you’ll find a link to my pdf with three different options in there. One is a slightly modified roc which represents Thorondor, Lord of the Eagles, who is the pinnacle of Great Eagle-dom. After that is a stat block for his two lieutenants, Gwaihir and Landroval, who might come to the heroes’ aid. Lastly are the run-of-the-mill Great Eagles, still powerful creatures but not the insurmountable threat of a CR 11 creature. Let me know if they’re useful or if you’d like to try something else!

P.S. I also updated my Werewolf of Mirkwood write-up (even though we now have an official version in the Loremaster’s Guide) so check that one out too.