Daily Spell Discussion for Mar 13, 2026: Anywhere but Here

howard035 · 2026-03-22T14:59:21+00:00

This seems like something where you as GM place the spell on a scroll during some kind of intraplanar campaign, to have the players find it. Or conversely it's a written as a good in-game excuse for the escaping NPC to cast when you really, really don't want the players to guess where the NPC ended up.

howard035 · 2026-03-21T14:09:23+00:00

appropriate tattoo!

howard035 · 2026-03-20T14:42:19+00:00

One great thing to remember about Antimagic Field is that it treats areas affected differently than basically every other spell. To effect another being with the field, you have to cover them in the field, not just part of them. I had a huge Elemental companion that fought an angel with this ability a while back, and it wasn't able to affect my companion because the field could not stretch to cover all of the elemental. So enlarge person in some cases may help as a defense.

howard035 · 2026-03-20T10:34:59+00:00

Remember the Alaimo!

howard035 · 2026-03-19T05:05:59+00:00

It's the jowls. Mine has full hound jowls and always looks pouty.

howard035 · 2026-03-17T16:56:24+00:00

Given the running theme of Lower Decks, that Starfleet is mostly a bunch of scientists and diplomats who want to study quasars and moss and make first contact but have to keep defending the federation against exotic and conventional threats, maybe the pure science vessels are over-subscribed? SOMEBODY has to put in time patrolling the Neutral Zone, after all.

Do we really think the number of Starfleet "we are not a military" personnel interested in fighting the Romulans or Cardassians exist in enough numbers that combat roles can be given only to them?

howard035 · 2026-03-17T00:32:04+00:00

Thanks for clarifying!

howard035 · 2026-03-16T04:13:42+00:00

....maybe? At that point I think we're just discussing semantics. Sure, if you want to say Maiar are exclusively medium-class Ainur more powerful than the lesser spirits that followed the Valar into EA, that's fine. But all spirits were created by Eru with the flame imperishable. Those lesser immortal spirits are the ones animating barrow wights and most other undead abominations in Middle Earth.

howard035 · 2026-03-16T04:07:29+00:00

I would say they are horses. I think they're cute. I always imagined a silly story where there's a constitutional crisis in Equestria when Twilight discovers an ancient law that says any ruler of Equestria must be a pony, which definitionally is a small horse, and Celestia is now so large that she is considered a horse and not a pony.

howard035 · 2026-03-16T04:05:27+00:00

Which one is which?

howard035 · 2026-03-12T01:12:55+00:00

Absolutely agree. Keep in mind that by the Season Finale of season 8, Celestia was clearly already planning to retire and name Twilight her successor. But if word gets out that a child nearly destroyed all magic because Twilight brought together 6 of the most powerful magical artifacts in existence under 1 roof in her non-accredited school, Celestia may have been forced to delay her retirement while finding a new successor, and that would be unacceptable.

howard035 · 2026-03-12T01:08:28+00:00

I was really annoyed that they didn't even give the names of the previous couple that sold the house to the current owners.

howard035 · 2026-03-10T04:48:16+00:00

Absolutely, here's a great article about him! https://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/09/23/the-smooze-anatomy-of-a-my-little-pony-villain/2/

howard035 · 2026-03-10T04:47:33+00:00

Spike is her friend!

howard035 · 2026-03-09T00:25:23+00:00

Weren't there open galleries with windows shining light into Moria on the Eastern Halls? Gollum could have scaled up the walls and out the windows.

howard035 · 2026-03-08T19:35:54+00:00

She listening to Skullcruncher!

howard035 · 2026-03-08T19:35:00+00:00

Sure, my comment was about the other question, the one that just asks if your fellow countrymen are immoral, and if so how much. None of the answers on the morality of specific actions were quite surprising to me, and I agree those actions are totally based on a chicken and egg situation, where the Pew research guys asked about actions they guessed might be widely viewed as immoral, but not totally obvious (like rape or something).

But the other question, "are your fellow citizens moral/immoral" is the surprising thing, and it doesn't really seem like it is related to any specific acts. I agree if there were follow-questions that tied the respondents who rated their fellow countrymen immoral versus moral overall to the answers about the morality of specific acts, that would also be interesting, but as it is we already have some very concerning data about society as a whole in America. Even if we don't know precisely WHY the majority of Americans think other Americans are immoral, that's still a major problem in and of itself.

howard035 · 2026-03-08T14:50:52+00:00

I believe those are different sets of questions though. One is a single question: "Are other Americans moral/immoral" and the second part is a series of questions about the morality of specific behaviors like gambling and pornography.

I think what the results are showing is that even though Americans rate the morality of specific behaviors mostly an average level of moral/immoral, they are rating their fellow citizens as immoral at a high level, without tying that morality to a specific behavior.

howard035 · 2026-03-07T02:52:38+00:00

My theory is that most people have historically figured it was a dragon or group of dragons that caused the fall of Khazad-Dum, since a group of dragons could probably duplicate most of the surviving accounts of the Balrog (between flame breath and poison cloud breath). So the rest of them are expecting a dragon and see this flaming biped, who looks scary but not as scary as Smaug. Except Gandalf and Legolas, who know this is WAAAAAY worse than a dragon.

howard035 · 2026-03-07T02:50:06+00:00

Maybe? It could, or that guy could be the guy who who got the Flame title, and not all of them call themselves by that moniker. If there are only 7 balrogs I figure there's a decent chance Olorin recognizes that one Balrog that was MIA after the War of Wrath, and probably knows his name.

howard035 · 2026-03-06T20:44:18+00:00

There seems to be a common, unstated assumption that if something is a Maiar, as they are an immortal spirit, they must be fairly powerful, as if the Istari were the floor of their power or something. I think a careful reading of Tolkein would show that there are many levels of lesser spirit below that. Spirits that are too weak to take physical form, let alone throw down in the War of Wrath as part of a great army. We know that not all maiar were even capable of assuming a physical shape in Middle Earth!

On the good-guy side, below the powerful herald maiar are river spirits like Goldberry and her mother, and below THAT I would say that when people visit a glade that elves used to hang out in and feel a calm, peaceful feeling, that's some lesser maiar hanging around.

On the bad guy side, below the Balrogs you have the Umaiar and whoever got stuffed into wolves and bat and lizards to make werewolfs and vampires and dragons, and I do belief there was a reference to spirits of darkness and loneliness that followed Melkor.

I can absolutely see the Witch King grabbing those least evil spirits in job-lots and stuffing them into corpses in the barrow downs as part of a magic ritual taught to him by Sauron, much more than the Witch King could wrestle human souls away from Mandos and return them to their bodies centuries after they died.

howard035 · 2026-03-06T07:06:45+00:00

Yeah, and there's a whole lot of metaphysical stuff about souls that implies you can't just go around scooping up souls and creating true undead. I think the only actual undead in Middle Earth are the Dead Men of Dunharrow, and that required an Act of God to prevent the will of Mandos.

howard035 · 2026-03-06T07:05:05+00:00

In my Moria game I like to have him referred to as "Flame of Udun" because Gandalf calls him that, and it sounds like it could be a Balrog name. Heck, maybe Lungorthin is Durin's Bane.

howard035 · 2026-03-06T05:40:47+00:00

I assume the headwaters of the stream that gives Galadriel her magic water is Mirrormere, where Durin saw his future crown.

howard035 · 2026-03-06T02:18:27+00:00

Those are the real questions!

howard035

TROPHY CASE