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What I believe the issue to be is that in both occasions - attacking the city and attempting to retrieve the ring from Frodo in various occasions - the WK did use magic, but at definitely different levels, levels which are at odds with what we know of his motivations.~Raynor
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No, just that the situations were different. Getting the Ring was the most important goal, but let's not forget at Pelennor Fields, by this time Aragorn had revealed himself to Sauron, causing Sauron to believe that Isildur's heir would use the Ring against him. This causes the hasty attack on Gondor, so the Siege of Minas Tirith is arguably just as important of a motive for the Witch-King as was trying to get the Ring.
As
davem cogently explained the situations are quite different. On one side the Witch-King is trying to hunt down a hobbit that carries a Ring, but he is also looking for information. He doesn't want to frighten informants to death (or go busting down gates) and he isn't this agent of death as
WCH explains. So, he has to conceal his power as he had done when he found Grima.
When he faces Gandalf on Amon Sul, than we see some sparks flying around. I fail to see why we would assume the pretty lights were all Gandalf's...as the Witch-King was referred to as a 'great sorcerer' several times.
At Pelennor, the situation calls for him to display his full power (as what we could say happened when he first faced Gandalf on Weathertop). As he is not looking for information, or for a hobbit that carries a Ring, he's trying to:
1. Destroy Minas Tirith
2. Faces a much stronger opponent in Gandalf
Also, I don't think obloquy is twisting around anything, there is a difference between....
'There, put in command by Sauron, he is given an added demonic force.'
and
'There, put in command by Sauron, he is given added demonic force.'
The first one says the Witch-King, because of his command given by Sauron has an added demonic force (I take 'demonic force' to mean that he's scarier...as the entire part is about the fear the Witch-King inspires).
The second one says that because the Witch-King, because he was put in command by Sauron, he is given added power (that power being 'demonic force.')
Or let me try to put it this way...what is scarier? A dark figure, creepy looking Wraith who comes up and asks for directions or the same said wraith who is commanding an army of 45,000+ and is out to kill you?
I don't see how breaking down the gate and his tricks is a force that the Witch-King was incapable of displaying before Pelennor Fields. Because of the several instances where he is referred to as a 'great sorcerer,' also in his bout with Gandalf on Weathertop. The reason the Witch-King doesn't display this 'gate busting' power before is because there is no need for it, there is no reason to do so. He is trying to gather information on the Ring and ultimately end up bringing it back to Sauron, very different from trying to obliterate a city and beat an opponent far greater than him.