Hope and Dread
Your mood, and whether or not you are experiencing hope or dread, affects your maximum morale, effective heals and damage received, your damage dealt, and the effective level of your skills. It can be affected by your location, by recent defeat, and by characters or objects nearby. Hope is granted by items, friendly NPCs, locations, and Edhelharn tokens. Dread is imposed by unfriendly NPCs (especially bosses) and locations. With increased hope, the world will be rendered more brightly; conversely, greater dread will cause the world to become darker and less colourful.
Cowering
Higher level encounters with more dreadful bosses will often lead to five or more dread, causing characters to cower and making the fight much more difficult. When dread is high enough to cause cowering, the mini-map will be replaced by an Eye of Sauron (as in the image on the right). Players should use Edhelharn tokens to reduce this dread and avoid cowering.
Effects of Hope and Dread
The following table shows the specific affects of each level of hope/dread. Note that stats will continue to degrade as your amount of dread increases all the way to 15, but stats can never be improved beyond 5 hope.
| Hope/ Dread |
Description | Max Morale | Healing Rec'd | Damage Rec'd | Damage Dealt | -Skill Effect Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | You sense the favour of the Valar upon you. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 14 | The stars shine upon the hour of your coming. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 13 | The blessings of all the Free Peoples go with you. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 12 | Shadows flee at your approach. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 11 | Your heart heeds not the night. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 10 | Your spirit flies free. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 9 | You cannot be daunted. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 8 | You do not know dread. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 7 | Hope strengthens your limbs. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 6 | Oppression has no hold over you. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 5 | Hope blazes within your heart. | 105% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 4 | The spark of hope grows ever steady. | 104% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 3 | Hope has been kindled within you. | 103% | 100% | 100% | 103% | 0 |
| 2 | Your heart is free from burden. | 102% | 100% | 100% | 102% | 0 |
| 1 | Your heart is light. | 101% | 100% | 100% | 101% | 0 |
| 0 | You feel neither hope, nor dread. | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0 |
| -1 | You have a vague sense of anxiety. | 95% | 99% | 101% | 99% | 0 |
| -2 | You are not sure what, but something at the back of your mind is troubling you. | 90% | 98% | 102% | 95% | 0 |
| -3 | You have a feeling something is not quite right. | 85% | 97% | 103% | 90% | -1 |
| -4 | Your unease has grown strong. | 80% | 96% | 104% | 85% | -2 |
| Below here you will cower | ||||||
| -5 | A shadow of oppression has fallen upon your spirit, causing you to cower. | 70% | 92% | 106% | 80% | -3 |
| -6 | You begin to doubt your actions, causing you to cower. | 60% | 90% | 108% | 75% | -4 |
| -7 | Hope is fleeting within you, causing you to cower. | 50% | 85% | 110% | 70% | -5 |
| -8 | The shadow of fear looms over you, causing you to cower. | 40% | 75% | 115% | 65% | -6 |
| -9 | The fear of defeat seizes your heart, causing you to cower. | 35% | 65% | 120% | 60% | -7 |
| -10 | Terror has seized you, causing you to cower. | 20% | 55% | 125% | 55% | -8 |
| -11 | You are nearly overwhelmed with dread, causing you to cower. | 15% | 45% | 135% | 50% | -9 |
| -12 | Hopelessness drags down your spirit, causing you to cower. | 10% | 35% | 145% | 45% | -10 |
| -13 | The curses of dark things disheartens you, causing you to cower. | 5% | 25% | 155% | 40% | -11 |
| -14 | The dread of the Nazgûl seizes your mind, causing you to cower. | 3% | 15% | 175% | 35% | -12 |
| -15 | You sense the Eye of Sauron upon you. The fear of defeat seizes your heart often, causing you to cower. | 1% | 5% | 200% | 30% | -13 |
Hope and Dread from NPCs and Bosses
The following table gives the radiance granted by friendly NPCs and the gloomed imposed by noteworthy hostiles and final instance bosses. This list is only a sampling and is not complete. See the page for a specific NPC or boss for more information.
| Hope/ Dread |
NPC/Boss/Location |
|---|---|
| 10 | Celeborn, Galadriel, Glorfindel |
| 9 | Elrond, Gandalf |
| 8 | Aragorn, Tom Bombadil |
| 7 | Goldberry |
| 5 | Gimli, Legolas, Radagast, Rivendell |
| 4 | Boromir, Gildor Inglorion, Elladan, Elrohir |
| 3 | Halbarad, Merry, Pippin, Sam, Cardavor |
| 2 | Bilbo Baggins |
| 1 | Barliman Butterbur |
| -1 | Frodo Baggins (due to the presence of the one ring) |
| ? | Castellan Wisdán, Zaudru |
| ? | Drugoth the Death-monger (Helegrod), Storvâgûn, Thrâng |
| ? | Mordirith, Udúnion |
| ? | Thaurlach, Thorog |
| ? | Dar Narbugud (location) |
| ? | Dar Narbugud bosses |
| -4 | The Watcher |
| -5 | Durin's Bane (location) |
| -6 | Lagmâs |
| -10 | Minas Elendúr (Room of Dread) |
History & radiance/gloom
Hope was originally given in the same units that it is today. During the second and third years of the game, designers decided to give "fractional" hope bonuses on armor, but to avoid a decimal error on armor, all hope/dread values were multiplied by 10, then a single-unit hope scale called radiance/gloom was introduced (with 10 radiance or 10 gloom being equal to 1 hope or 1 dread, respectively). Radiance was later removed from the game and all hope/dread values were divided by 10 to get them back to where they are now.
For instance, Goldberry might give 7 hope to those near her. During this change, she would have given 70 hope instead. The Watcher in Moria might give 4 dread to those near it. During this change, it would have given 40 dread instead. The Moria armor sets gave radiance bonuses ranging from 10 to 30 (with some bonuses, such as 15, or 25, which would have been a fractional bonus under the normal hope/dread system).