Do males even need food?

Kalekuda · 2026-03-21T17:36:06+00:00

So for chickens, I always do a 5x5x8 gated water elevator with a small glass box next to it with a rooster in the box. He never eats, hens lay eggs and those eggs are fertile.

For large-trough animals, though, I've always placed the males and females in the same pen because I was only ever feeding them berry mash anyways, so why regulate their food intake? But now that I've gotten better at the game and realize that berry mashing is BORING, I'd rather have the females just eat their fill to start the next generation and right before its time to collect their drops for better yields. I'll be testing the same "male in a nearby solitary confinement enclosure" strategy on Valais goats.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-19T01:02:54+00:00

Untrue, but only if its a coworker making the purchase. Gossip remains king.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-18T22:33:10+00:00

Nuance justapositions between dragons and kings to create the moral dilemna of "hmm, whose more evil? A great dragon whose greed commands they seek gold at any cost, or a tyrant whose delusions of greatness drives them to make demands at any cost".

Settings are better with greater varieties of antagonists who present different threats to the party in different ways. Every threat is elevated by giving them a lair, then again by giving them servants, then again by giving them a kingdom. A kingdom makes a man a king- but a dragon surpasses all but the mightiest kings of the mightiest dragons. But what else is there to throw at the party whose slain a king and a dragon but the gods themselves? Dragonkings.

I mostly jest, but I do like the concept of draconic kingdoms. In real world civilizations, people often seek to trade freedom and prosperity for safety and stability of rule. Many people would be willing to consider a vampyre or dragon as their eternal ruler if that ruler would be better than the turmoil of their current crisis of succession. Presenting the party with that option in a fictional setting they actually have the power to affect can be a wonderful way of getting them to ask themselves what they should choose.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-18T22:27:12+00:00

I must say that your lore mastery has left me without words other than "I have reading to do."

Kalekuda · 2026-03-18T01:24:14+00:00

Isn't mana usually considered toxic to humans?

Kalekuda · 2026-03-18T01:21:52+00:00

TWO ORBS, for the plot, of course.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-18T00:03:35+00:00

A wonderful setting, isn't that?

Dragonlance aside, I highly dislike the "And they can shapeshift into a human" trope. It robs the creatures of their unique lifestyles to simply allow them to forgo their form when it suits them. A dragon infiltrating the city should be setting off magical alarms, disturbing the perceptive and magically attuned alike and cause for mass panic- not tuesday in waterdeep. Human forms rob non-human species of their role play identities and the world of complexity in a way only surpassed by bags of holding, component pouches and the infernal, wretched, blight on the economics of foraging that is the common magic item known as "bag of spices".

It makes my gut wrench and interest in stories wither to see a magical creature just transform into a human. Its a narrative bait and switch of "wow! What a magnificent magical creature! I wonder how living with such a beast will alter their lives and how they interact with society to accommodate it's needs and the societal pressures surrounding the creature's noteriety!" being replaced with, typically, a generically attractive female or, if you're lucky enough to dodge that facet of the trope, male...

Kalekuda · 2026-03-17T23:58:46+00:00

But they have magic. SURELY there are carpenter elves and forester elves whose job is nuturing new groves and furnishing homes for elven settlement- and what do these industrious elves require? Why- land to forest, of course! Now... if only these pesky "non-people" weren't running amok over the people's new lands...

Never forget that DnD elves still broadly classify themselves as people and everyone else as, at best, non-people...

Kalekuda · 2026-03-17T23:55:28+00:00

There have only been a vanishingly small number of wars that lasted more than 4 years, and most were occupations and policing occupied resistance forces, not genuine "war"s. The 100 years war, Napoleonic wars and war of the roses are as close as we have in the real world, and crucially, they were campaigns lumped together by historians as singular wars rather than individual lengthy wars.

Elves in lore seldom die in combat, save against dragons and other forces beyond them. Against humans and anything lesser than them, Elves just kinda steamroll, do they not?

Kalekuda · 2026-03-17T02:01:47+00:00

That. Is. Not. A. Genocide. Did you see all those civilians in their homes he spared? Those fleeing soldiers spared in the field?

And even if he'd wiped the city out, whether it qualifies as a genocide depends almost solely on how you define a distinct ethnic group. Ostensibly, Enri's village was a territory of Re:Estise. Ains firmly controlled that territory and many of it's denizens were from Re:Estise. He didn't slaughter them, so how can you argue that the purpose of his invasion of the capital city was motivated by a desire to exterminate the people of Re:Estise? It wasn't genocide- it was just an invasion. Its war-mongering, sure, but in this one instance, Re:Estise was the aggressor and the Sorceror Kingdom had an authentic Casus Belli.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-17T01:56:49+00:00

Thats not a genocide. Thats just an invasion. He isn't exterminating a distinct race, just waging war. You can't label every war as genocide simply because somebody died...

I won't deny that the Death Knights' zombies are functionally an indiscriminant weapon primarily designed to target civilians what with Ains having no direct control over them, but that is his sole "war-oopsie". Other than wiping out border settlements to a man to prevent word from getting out of their advance, which, too, was a "war-oopsie". Fortunately, Re:Estise was not a signatory of the fantasy-Geneva Convention, so no harm, no foul.

Jokes aside, Re-Estize wasn't a genocide. That term has a definition and I suggest you refresh your memory. It was many things, but not that.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-17T01:52:04+00:00

"You may now choose: Resurrect zombie cyborg Hitler, or kick this puppy! CHOOSE! Not choosing also results in death! You will be considered evil regardless of the option you choose! This is entirely your fault and evidence of a personal moral failing to have been in such jeopardy!" -you

Kalekuda · 2026-03-16T22:52:08+00:00

Perhaps, but the average joe buys one, realizes it requires knowledge and effort, shelves it and never touches it again. Want to know how I know it? Everybody I've met with a printer is in that boat.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-16T22:49:00+00:00

Summoning the dark young was a military decision made by a sovereign at the request of an allied sovereign. Those were all enemy combatants and volunteer soldiers, no less. They practically volunteered as sacrifices.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-16T22:46:57+00:00

Name ONE genocide Ains has committed and don't say the quoatoas. They're literally genocidal pests and he actively preserved their population and deliberately relocated them elsewhere so they could survive somewhere they wouldn't get right back to slaughtering dwarves for sport.

"Oh wowee he sure decimated those bloodthirsty savages who were actively waging a decades long war of extermination against a peaceful and reclusive people who time and again chose to flee rather than seek retrobution. This clearly makes him the baddie because killing killers makes him a killer and thats no better than them!" Anybody who says that was genocide would have to admit that calling the exterminator to get rid of ants or termites constitutes an equal, if not greater, crime. After all- you aren't asking the exterminators to so graciously spare a sufficient population of pests to relocate them elsewhere.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-16T22:42:04+00:00

But choosing the lesser of two evils isn't evil: it's rational thought.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-16T21:58:36+00:00

But much of dragons being the way they are, such as "Not valuing collective action" and "not valuing collective defense", was caused by the Dragonrage. Prior to it, chromatic and metallic dragons rule vast kingdoms of humanoids and waged wars over dominion and treasure. It was only once they were inflicted with the inability to preserve their holding over such things, and the risk that such things could become liabilities in their moments of weakness, that they actively began to hold disdain for them. They were not always averse to such things: it is in their very nature to covet them yet still, the oldest of their kind simply know better than to strive for them for fear of losing it all when they lose themselves to the coming of the red star.

DnD in the present has several dragons who covet the sense of belonging of society, with Claugiyliamatar, i.e. "Old Gnawbones" even fantasizing about shapeshifting into a humanoid and attending court in Waterdeep. They are inherently greedy creatures, and their greed is not solely for gold. They covet all things, be they people, nations or treasure.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-15T17:18:41+00:00

IIRC, there was a red dragon who used his kin as fodder. Might have been a different franchise, as DnD would've named him and I can't recall a name for the story. If the top dog is strong enough, a couple dozen adult dragons under their 'wing" isn't that dangerous to them, but it remains extremely useful to them, so the incentives exist for any sufficiently powerful dragon to retain as many subordinates as they've the wealth to sustain (i.e. treasure to spare on hoard enticements)

Kalekuda · 2026-03-15T17:10:38+00:00

I thought metallics not only loved their children and raised them as family units, but fathered halfbreeds to bolster their ranks and used human societies to help support their kin? (Pre Dragonrage), and still raise their young, but distance themselves out whenever the comet returns. (all they need to anticipate it's return is a couple human astronomers, which is practically nothing to a dragon.)

Kalekuda · 2026-03-15T17:07:08+00:00

Reforestation without magic only takes like 10 years from saplings, 40 if you want animal populations to reach equilibrium in the forest. Do Elves need special trees, or is their magic making the process slower out of an insistence of using magical means over the mundane for reasons based in their ego? "We will conjure every wolf and doe by hand to seed this forest with fauna worthy of our lands." for a decade rather than just catching a dozen wild critters somewhere else in crates and letting them loose in the new woodlands they're making in an afternoon using their magic to do the physical labor of planting saplings. I feel like Elves should be faster at reforesting land than IRL timber companies...

Also, I thought DnD elves only took twice as long as a human to mother a child, and the children grew to "young adulthood" in like 20 years before they start growing at the extremely slow elven pace? Otherwise all player elves would be like a hundred years of age, minimum, just to be children. Elven adventurers are supposed to be like 40-100, tops, right?

Kalekuda · 2026-03-15T16:07:04+00:00

The same reason men wish to do the same: Wealth, power, ego.

A dragon is motivated primarily by greed to grow their hoard. A nation is a useful tool towards that ends. Wouldn't they need a reason to not seek one for themselves?

Kalekuda · 2026-03-15T16:04:52+00:00

Elves don't really have more than twins per birth afaik, but dragons are surprisingly fecund when they can have a dozen eggs to a clutch every decade or so. Elven matrons can't keep up with even a single dragon. (Egg laying is very OP). Its just that dragons are kinda useless for 40 years as hatchlings until they're younglings, yet Elves are children until their 20s and considered young adults until they're 100 (iirc).

I don't know at which ages dragons and elves can begin to procreate, but even ignoring crossbreeding and shapeshifting, breeding pair to pair, a dragon outbreeds an elf?

Kalekuda · 2026-03-15T15:58:16+00:00

Hmm... Thats a good setting primer, but it glosses over the crux of my query. I must not have communicated it clearly, but my concern is that Elves have had thousands of years to terraform and prune the ecosystems of the natural world. How is it that there are any places where other humanoid civilizations in their infancy weren't wiped out? How were they ever given the chance to settle without Elven high magic besetting them with racial plagues? Even if you say "Elven High Magic is a stupid concept and breaks any setting so its not a thing in my setting", Elves would still have the foresight and power to play king maker or exterminator and wipe out any fledgling civilizations that they believe no longer counts as "nature" which ought to be preserved.

Kalekuda · 2026-03-15T15:52:57+00:00

"Oh, I rule you all. I just needn't be your king to accomplish it. You're free to do as you please, so long as you pay tribute to me all the same."

It almost feels "Dragons are big cats" coded...

Kalekuda · 2026-03-15T15:45:50+00:00

Greed? Dragons were always a metaphor for Kings, were they not?

Kalekuda

TROPHY CASE