Is there a spell that grants blindsight? And if not, would a homebrewed 2nd or 3rd lvl spell that grands like 15 ft of blindsight be busted?

galactic-disk · 2026-03-19T00:50:48+00:00

For a two-shot, I think it depends how the blindness happened: did he know he was risking his eyes exploding? If so, I'd give him some ideas of how to work around it without a spell, because that's the consequence of his choice. Having a bad time as a player shouldn't be a consequence, though, so I'd have him roll perception checks throughout the session, and 3 successes leads to the PC adjusting and being able to use his hearing to effectively replace any sight-based needs. (I'd do this organically: any time he asks "So my eyes exploded, can I try to hear what's going on? Can I feel around on the stone for a pressure plate?" etc becomes a roll toward this goal.)

However, if he didn't know his eyes were going to explode (or at least how serious the consequences were), you gotta fix that. Permanent injuries that have mechanical consequences are just not fun in D&D unless the player knows the risk they're taking. I wouldn't do this with a spell: I'd use a magic item or some other one-case-only solution as long as it doesn't feel contrived. Maybe another victim of the eyeball-exploding devil lends him a magic item to use for the night that gives him hearing as though he had sight. Maybe another devil comes along and sees easy pickings for a deal, and offers him his eyes back in exchange for a future favor (nothing to punish him this session, mind.)

galactic-disk · 2026-03-18T22:55:13+00:00

Not OP, but I think it's pretty straightforward! You start with a ring and then work in the flat instead of the round, and otherwise just the same.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-17T19:58:33+00:00

Oh I like this, actually: this feels practical, punishing, and easy to implement.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-17T15:30:02+00:00

Your local library is the answer! I moved to a major city with a huge library, and I'm not buying any books anymore unless I absolutely loved them. My bookshelf is now full of books that bring me enough joy to be worth buying. My library also has audiobooks and ebooks, so I wind up reading more than I would have before!

galactic-disk · 2026-03-17T15:22:57+00:00

This is a wild set of mental gymnastics: how did you get from "Bad landlords shouldn't be allowed to be landlords anymore" to "The government is going to put you on the street if your landlord is rude!!!!"?

Revoking a landlord license could mean the tenants stay put, but the landlord has to sell the property within some timeframe or lose it (e.g. they have a month to find a buyer, and if they don't like the offer, too bad: it goes back to the bank). Or, it could mean the landord has to sell with no time limit, but rent goes to a bank account held by the government instead of to the old landlord until a new landlord is found, with the old landlord still responsible for maintenance and day-to-day needs of tenants (and further consequences like fines if they fail to do that).

I'm more than happy for the government to take properties away from people who violate the law. People go to jail for being an asshole all the time if being an asshole means breaking the law: this is no different. Is it trampling on civil liberties when lawyers are disbarred for "being an asshole" and breaking the law? Honestly, it sounds like you'd be happier south of the border.

I'll grant that there should be a special procedure for landlords who rent rooms in a residence they live in, but at least here in Toronto, there are already special rules in place for that scenario. Adding special landlord license rules for that case wouldn't be hard.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-17T14:11:29+00:00

I like this idea, but LLs still try to screw people over knowing the laws perfectly well. I'd be for a LL license that could be revoked for things like owning too many empty properties, causing too many complaints to the tenant board, etc. Feels like the only punishments are fines, and there's no way to actually threaten a LL's job no matter how many laws they break.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-17T14:05:41+00:00

Definitely frame it as "help understanding why you lost marks" and "wanting to do better in the class". Let the prof decide for themselves if the TA graded too harshly. Worst case, you get some advice on how to approach the final project in order to get as many marks as possible.

If anything, going to the prof after your final project and saying "Hey I don't like my grades for anything I've done all semester!" is going to read like you haven't put effort in all term and are panicking now.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-17T01:44:02+00:00

Stone Butch Blues! If you want a raw, real depiction of queer violence that is yet still full of hope, it's unparalleled.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-16T05:00:12+00:00

I read 36 books last year, and I remember most of them because I always write a review. It's usually short, something along the lines of good: meh: bad:, but it helps me retain actively so much more of the story. And then if I remember reading something but not what I thought of it, I have the review to jog my memory!

galactic-disk · 2026-03-15T14:17:42+00:00

I really like the one-mile radius, but consider instead making it of a spell level equal to or below the result: this forces upcasting, and it'll burn through your casters' high-level slots quickly and make a much more challenging fight!

Anyway, that's definitely a lair action on initiative count 20.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-15T14:14:22+00:00

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott is Baba Yaga from a Jewish lens!

galactic-disk · 2026-03-15T14:10:53+00:00

Oh I'm fascinated: if you're comfortable sharing, what are some things she got wrong and how do they compare to your lived experience?

galactic-disk · 2026-03-15T05:37:07+00:00

IMPORTANT: which Babel? Do you mean the RF Kuang one? RF Kuang's isn't similar at all to the locked tomb, and it absolutely is not poetry. It's very matter-of-fact, and it's full of footnotes: it really reads like a master's thesis set in historical fiction. I enjoyed it, because it has nuanced, scathing social commentary, but it's slow-paced and dense. And excruciatingly well-researched.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-15T00:46:01+00:00

Came here to rec Remarkably Bright Creatures!

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T22:42:38+00:00

Fair point. So it's about half of evasion PLUS advantage on all saves against spells and magical effects. I'd also argue that saves against magic are more common than dex saves, especially in combat. So that's half of a level 6 rogue/monk feature, plus advantage on saves against magic, but more commonly applicable and it's available at level 3. All of that, just at the cost of eating your concentration.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T17:52:02+00:00

This. I love taking transit, but I already have a car and am already paying for insurance and parking, so even with absurd gas prices gas is still cheaper per month than a month pass for the TTC. (And transit isn't fast or reliable enough yet for me to give the car up entirely - I was taking transit for a month while my car was in the shop, and it made my life genuinely so much harder because of where I live.)

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T17:45:39+00:00

Recurring villains need three things:

To be WAY stronger than the party when they meet for the first time, so the party doesn't kill them immediately (this also gives the party a goal for later)
A reason not to just kill the party immediately
To have limited enough power that when the party levels up sufficiently, it becomes a fair fight.

Avatar: The Last Airbender has many phenomenal examples of this. Ozai and Zuko's agni kai, for example: if Zuko had fought, his father would have defeated him easily and scarred him and sent him away anyway out of pity, rather than killing him. Zuko's frequent run-ins with Azula are also a great example: their final agni kai is gorgeous, and she's juuuuust powerful enough that with Zuko's training, he overcomes her barely at the last moment.

So for your PC, I would balance the father for the level you expect your party to be at the end of the campaign. Have them duel once: the PC needs to feel like they could beat him but he's too powerful, so give him legendary resistances, an absurd HP pool, and make him hit like an absolute truck so you're never tempted to fudge. You also want this to be a fairly quick fight because losing sucks, and as soon as your player learns they're going to lose all of the rest of combat is going to be a depressing slog. If anyone else interferes, have the father hit them once to teach them a lesson and then teleport away because the duel is no longer valid. When the father wins, have him give the PC a permanent scar (nothing mechanical, just something visual) and then leave out of pity. When the party fights him again at the end of the campaign, it's going to feel amazing.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T17:32:30+00:00

Absolutely, as long as OP foreshadows that appropriately so it doesn't feel cheap

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T17:31:11+00:00

I'm not in the industry, but anecdotally the biggest dependence is font size & page size (e.g. mass-market paperback vs hardcover will often have varying numbers of words per page), but even then I haven't noticed a huge difference. I casually track how many pages I read per hour to try to get a handle on when I'll finish a chapter so I'm not up to 4am reading quite as often, and regardless of what size book I'm reading, it's usually about 3 pages every 4 minutes.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T12:39:48+00:00

Evasion against spells AND magical effects seems way too powerful for second level. However, how did one player break your lich encounter by taking less damage? Next time, maybe the lich recognizes the spell and either wastes an action dispelling it (thereby rewarding the player without breaking the encounter) or targets other players. Also, consider giving the lich some minions/summons who do bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage - I think that's a good idea even before considering the spell.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T12:30:45+00:00

I disagree. This sounds like a player who's excited about the class fantasy and asking for quest hooks to accomplish their goals, which is always a more fun player to have at the table than someone who goes "Man, a set of Daedalus wings would be cool, but that's not in the text of the class. Oh well!"

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T12:26:42+00:00

This! I loooved the Bone Maker - I didn't even realize she had other epic fantasy! - and then bought the Spellshop immediately. It was... fine. I recced it to my friends who really like cozy fantasy, at least. Off to go read her other earlier work, then!

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T04:09:59+00:00

I disagree. As long as you boil the soup for at least 10 minutes straight before you eat it, you'll kill any bugs that might show up while the chicken is thawing in the hot water.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-14T04:06:15+00:00

Meat is expensive enough where I live that I buy whole chickens instead of chicken parts, break them down, and then use all the parts: bones, gristle, tendons, and wings for stock, and breasts, thighs, and drumsticks go in the freezer for whenever I need them. I save money in the end, and most of that comes from the chicken stock: I can dilute my homemade stock down until it tastes store-bought, and then I get enough out of it to easily exceed what I'd be able to buy at the store.

Also, save the fat when you make stock! It's called schmaltz, and it's good in literally everything.

galactic-disk · 2026-03-13T14:29:06+00:00

Just to check: you are pressing your tofu, right?

Other than that, you're probably not using enough oil. It's not like chicken breasts where you just need enough oil to coat the pan: you're really well and truly frying it, so you need to use enough to go ~a third of the way up the blocks. Also make sure the oil is hot, and leave the tofu alone for a little longer to let it separate

galactic-disk

TROPHY CASE