An instant is '1 standard action with verbal, somatic, material components' now? Very quickly, yes. Instant, no.Styphon wrote:which leaves us with "kills something very tough over the course of a week" vs "disintegrates something very tough in an instant"
Ignoring that quibble, that's a false comparison and you know it. 'Very Tough' is not a universal characteristic. Do you think a 13th level D&D mage could instantly disintigrate farscapes mile after mile long Budong?
I'll pander to this mechanics discussion a bit longer... a 13th level mage would be limited to a whopping 5d6 - equivalent to a few arrows from a shortbow - of damage to a Balor (popularly reputed to be based on the Balrog) a similar 'huge monstrous demon' unless it rolls particularly poorly on its fortitude save.
Here are the things you have to prove for your stance to be anything but retarded, vaguely graded in the order of difficulty I'd expect.
- This V fellow is capable of casting, has in his spellbook and typically prepares each morning 'Disintegrate'
- The game mechanics of D&D apply to things with no similar D&D stats, as opposed to a quantifiable amount of damage (which Disintegrate isn't, in that it's basically magical phasorisation) in the manner you propose.
- That somehow, Balrogs aren't tough enough to 'pass thier fortitude save' and reduce its effectiveness to relatively nothing.
- That even if Gandalf had the ability to cast that spell, he would be able to employ it against a being whose counterspells 'almost broke' him.
Moving onto a more general point. Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth in general isn't written like a game, with physics designed to be fun and playable. It's written to resemble epic poems, more than anything, and generally have some verisimiltude. Real life isn't a video game, where you're basically immune so long as you have enough first aid kits, and, as a war veteran, Tolkien knew that far better than me. Even the mightiest of his characters are vulnerable. Morgoth was wounded by an elf a fraction of his size, even as he slew him, and Gandalf is no match, on his own, for entire clans of wargs. Glorfindel can cow the Witch King, but he still doesn't take the presence of the Nazgûl as a trivial matter.
Just because you beat an opponent once, doesn't mean your 'power level' is going to somehow let you do it next time. Gandalf may be powerful, but he can still be killed if just one orc gets lucky and shoves its barbed, wicked sword in his gut. Let alone trying to simultaneously take on dozens of wargs.
In this respect, D&D (and apparently, by extension) D&D characters are far more powerful than both Middle Earth's, and any comparable others with even a dash of realism. Anyone who's talked D&D on Spacebattles before has doubtless encountered the mindset that D&D derived characters are pretty much like this.
About as realistic as Sonic the Hedgehog, but powerful, I suppose.