Recent content by Benjamin Olson

  1. Benjamin Olson

    Giant He-Man Lightning Rod installed in Sao Paulo

    Yep. But to clarify, as far as I can tell in the original cartoon show opening castle greyskull was introduced with lightning in one shot, and then in a separate shot He-Man "having the power" in front of the castle involved a flashy sparklery effect which while not completely unlike lightning...
  2. Benjamin Olson

    D&D General Advice for DMing for children

    I've run summer camp games for the age group, and will hopefully be running a game shop campaign for a similar age group starting later this month. My thoughts, in no particular order: I'd say the key thing to anticipate is that a "do whatever you like" game hits different for people who don't...
  3. Benjamin Olson

    D&D General Subclass and Feat Path thoughts (+)

    My basic issue with the "thematic feat path" concept is that feats come so rarely in 5e that it feels almost just as constrained as taking a subclass (and is battling with taking an often much needed ASI). I do think it has some value in the absence of subclasses that are available to multiple...
  4. Benjamin Olson

    D&D 5E (2024) The Price of a Soul (Lich Path problems)

    It's a little odd that the little "initiate" wannabe lich is arguably much more evil than the full-on lich. I mean devouring souls to prolong your foul simulacrum of life is one thing, but consuming them just for a minor benefit on your next attack (and I guess "for practice") is kind of...
  5. Benjamin Olson

    D&D 5E (2024) The Price of a Soul (Lich Path problems)

    I don't really think upping the spell level and material cost of resurrecting someone whom nobody is going to resurrect in either case is the evil part. I think the probable implication that you've robbed their soul of an eternal afterlife is the evil part (though depending on where the soul was...
  6. Benjamin Olson

    D&D General Miss at Most Once per Duel with Studied Attacks, Elven Accuracy and Vex?

    I think if I was setting out to exploit this I would have to go Champion Fighter. An expanded crit range when you're rolling like 7 d20s a turn (by time this gets online) is pretty wild.
  7. Benjamin Olson

    D&D General What is your experience with party size in Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage?

    I haven't played it, but my guess would be 2024 characters will mostly hit above their weight-class against 2014 monsters, so I would recommend starting an undersized group against those, and maybe swapping in the (usually a little beefier) 2024 monsters if they are steamrolling things. Healing...
  8. Benjamin Olson

    Daggerheart survey from Darrington Press

    Generally it makes more sense to cater one's product line or offerings to the opinions of people who intend to keep buying or consuming them rather than those who do not. Now arguably I'm on the fence, because while I'm not pleased or satisfied with Daggerheart as a game, I'm still conceivably...
  9. Benjamin Olson

    Daggerheart survey from Darrington Press

    So I think the core failing of this survey is that they kept asking me about what products, digital tools, etc. I think would be good without ever establishing whether I actually like the game or want more products from them. Since the answer to both is "sort of, but not really" I'm probably not...
  10. Benjamin Olson

    D&D General What's the least spookiest Wizard Subclass?

    I think we would need a clear explanation of what you actually mean by "spooky" to resolve this, clearly critical, question. But, I'd go with Evoker, because, to me the core of spookiness is about our anticipatory unease at what the spooky person or thing might do or be capable of doing, and...
  11. Benjamin Olson

    New Lord of the Rings movie in the works centered around Tom Bombadil

    Or the author of the article focused on the most memorable thing from the chapters the project is focused on, which was the weird, unexplained maybe god that the characters met. He's also the easiest thing to make some sort of Jackson trilogy compatible narrative around, since the movies have...
  12. Benjamin Olson

    New Lord of the Rings movie in the works centered around Tom Bombadil

    I always felt like he must have been an incredibly important character to Tolkien given that a substantial chunk of time was spent on him despite him having minimal narrative impact and his significance to the worldbuilding being a giant confusing questionmark. But no, he's clearly not all that...
  13. Benjamin Olson

    D&D General How elder scroll does species

    While in principle I think it would make a lot of sense for different human cultures (which in a traditional historic or fantasy world would heavily align with different human ethnicities) to have different plausibly culturally based strengths (such as a list of skills to choose a free...
  14. Benjamin Olson

    The Greatest Mustache(s) in History

    Seems more like a "greatest mustaches of the 20th and 21st centuries (belonging to non-dictators)" poll to me.
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