How do you play a Scholar?

A Scholar is a support character whose strongest turns are often about enabling someone else or producing information.

Use Rhymes before failure matters

Lore dice are valuable because they can improve important rolls.

Use them on attacks, saves, or checks where success changes the outcome.

Do not spend them on every trivial roll.

After Endless Rhymes arrives, the resource becomes easier to use aggressively because it returns on short rests as well as long rests.

Cunning Mind makes Intelligence and Wisdom checks or the Help action available as a bonus action.

That means the Scholar can support another character while still keeping the action for another task.

Look for opportunities rather than waiting for the Loremaster to remind you.

Hands of a Healer makes short-rest Hit Dice more efficient.

A party travelling through dangerous territory may gain substantial value from resting with the Scholar present.

Healing Tradition improves this even further.

Crafts are not spells and should not be played like a spell list.

They are specialised techniques that fit Middle-earth's lower-magic tone.

Choose Crafts that answer recurring problems in the campaign.

Healing Scholars become stronger medical experts.

Wise Leechcraft improves Medicine, Hands of a Healer, and certain Rhymes interactions.

A Cure for Weariness later allows the Scholar to reduce exhaustion during short rests a limited number of times.

Lore Scholars reinforce Rhymes and knowledge.

Lore-Master improves the reliability of Lore dice.

Words of Command later allows particularly powerful successes on qualifying ability checks using Lore dice.

Common Scholar mistakes include:

A strong Scholar turns preparation, knowledge, and recovery into party-wide advantages.