Wow. Just, wow.

Based on a list of geological features of Mars, I wanted to sort by proximity to Olympus Mons. The formula on this page was amazingly helpful:

 http://bluemm.blogspot.com/2007/01/excel-formula-to-calculate-distance.html

List of features sourced from Wikipedia.
Diameter of Mars sourced from Google Search.

The list:

Feature Name	Type	N Lat	W Long	Diam km	Peak km	Proximity to O M	Side by Proximity	Odds 9/33 being on Trytan	Final side
Anseris	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Euripus	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Gonnus	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Hellespontus	Mons	-45.5	317.5	681		11222.131	Telthys		Telthys
Horarum	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Labeatis	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Octantis	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Trytan	Telthys
Peneus	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Peraea	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Ausonia	Montes					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Australe	Montes					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Centauri	Montes					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Chalce	Montes					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Coronae	Montes					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Libya	Montes	2.7	271.2	1229		9827.1152	Telthys		Telthys
Tanaica	Montes					9587.3592	Unknown	Trytan	Telthys
Xanthe	Montes					9587.3592	Unknown	Trytan	Telthys
Australis	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Charitum	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
E.Mareotis	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Jovis	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Trytan	Telthys
Kison	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
N.Mareotis	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Uranius	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
W.Mareotis	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Zephyria	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Telthys
Arsia	Mons	-9.4	120.5	485	16	2238.7775	Trytan		Trytan
Ascraeus	Mons	11.3	104.5	462	18	2095.3028	Trytan		Trytan
Elysium	Mons	25	213	432	12.5	5402.3709	Trytan		Trytan
Galaxius	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Trytan
Oceanidum	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Trytan	Trytan
Olympus	Mons	18.4	133.1	624	27	0	Trytan		Trytan
Pavonis	Mons	0.3	112.8	375	8.7	1979.5233	Trytan		Trytan
Pindus	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Trytan
Tyrrhena	Mons					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Trytan
Charitum	Montes	-58.3	44.2	1412		7719.62	Trytan		Trytan
Echus	Montes	6.8	78.2	203		4014.5295	Trytan		Trytan
Erebus	Montes	39.9	170.5	594		2842.7235	Trytan		Trytan
Geryon	Montes	-8	80.7	274		4266.408	Trytan		Trytan
Hellas	Montes					9587.3592	Unknown	Trytan	Trytan
Hibes	Montes	3.9	188.9	177		4145.1886	Trytan		Trytan
Nereidum	Montes	-41	43.5	1677		7473.2785	Trytan		Trytan
Phlegra	Montes	40.9	197.4	1310		4324.2224	Trytan		Trytan
Sisyphi	Montes	-69.8	346.9	198		9163.1249	Trytan		Trytan
Tartarus	Montes	25.1	188.7	1011		3802.8912	Trytan		Trytan
Tharsis	Montes	2.8	113.3	2105		1829.5928	Trytan		Trytan
Scandia	Tholi	66	135.4	1232		3501.0046	Trytan		Trytan
Albor	Tholus	19.3	209.8	165	4.5	5287.061	Trytan		Trytan
Apollinaris	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Trytan
Ceraunius	Tholus	24.2	97.2	108		2488.6119	Trytan		Trytan
Hecates	Tholus	32.7	209.8	183		5091.12	Trytan		Trytan
Iaxartes	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Trytan	Trytan
Issedon	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Trytan
Ortygia	Tholus					9587.3592	Unknown	Telthys	Trytan
Tharsis	Tholus	13.4	90.8	153		3006.6325	Trytan		Trytan

Creative Familiars in 5ED

If you're a long-time D&D/Pathfinder gamer, you're familiar with creative familiars and animal forms. Parrots who can talk, monkeys who can carry things around, legendary gorillas who circumvent normal strength maximums while wielding items without restriction...

This came up last session, so I needed to spend a little effort researching whether Talking Parrot Familiars were a part of 5th edition.

Executive summary:

1. Wizards can't speak through their familiars using rules as written.

2. Familiars are significantly weaker than previous editions.

3. You can create a spell to speak through your familiar (or companion).

Analysis:

Parrots on their own will say nonsense phrases, not meaningful speech.

At this time Familiars do not gain INT, so the Parrot is locked at 2 INT. (spell details below)

You could cast another spell to have your Parrot familiar talk. Message is close to what you're looking for, but it only communicates with the Parrot; doesn't allow it to talk to anyone but you. Magic Mouth would do what you need but it's not in the game yet.

N'Krumah's Faithful Companion spell is very like Find Familiar but avoids the "permanent but dismissable at will" Familiar bond, and there seems to be no feedback effect in 5ED anyway. Perhaps you could change it to be a 2nd or 3rd level spell similar to Magic Mouth, targetable (touch) on your familiar but doesn't need to be "pre-loaded" like a normal Magic Mouth. You can already listen through a familiar, range is unclear but implied 100'. Or, the familiar can cast a touch spell, say normal Magic Mouth that would be loaded at time of casting, technically the familiar spellcasting requires touching a creature but IMHO it would be close enough. That definitely suffers the 100' distance, so preloading the spell might be a closer-to-normal way to do it.

The 2 spells for comparison:

Faithful Companion

Smaller creature is summoned (monkey, parrot, dog, etc.), follows simple orders (fetch, guard, attack)

Find Familiar 

1st‐level conjuration (ritual) 

You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose. [statistics and rules removed]

1. within 100 feet of your familiar, you can communicate with it telepathically.

2. as an action, you can see and hear through your familiar's senses 

3. your familiar can deliver a spell that requires touching a creature.

Dwarven Forge gaming tiles - 2013 Dungeon set: Hand-painting steps

Dwarven Forge ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 to create expensive steel molds for extremely durable gaming tiles. Their initial foray into this arena was with the Dungeon tile set. I bought a few sets then, and I have pledged for more sets in their current (2014) Kickstarter campaign. The current campaign is for a Cavern set. I should state that the Cavern tiles look more difficult to paint, so I ordered pre-painted tiles this year.

In the previous Kickstarter, I bought unpainted tiles. They were perhaps $30 cheaper for set, and I felt if I wanted to paint them I could handle it myself. Around a month ago, I finally got serious about painting them. Dwarven Forge produced a very helpful in-depth video demonstrating how to paint the tiles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VCa23FMigw An experienced painter might this video unnecessary, but I certainly felt more comfortable after seeing Stephan's demonstrations. The video covers intricate details like proper drybrushing and color recommendations, to the mundane aspects like mixing paints and cleaning brushes.

  

The video shows four painting steps. The pictures below show the process from unpainted tiles to final game-ready painted tiles. I also included a picture of a tile painted using stone-texture spray paint. (Had to try it. Would have been a great time-saver.)

Comparison 1- Unpainted thru 4 coats + sprayed

Comparison 2- Final + Unpainted + Sprayed

Comparison 3- Unpainted + Final + Sprayed

Detail 0- Unpainted

Detail 1- Base Coat

Detail 2- Highlight

Detail 3- Unifying Coat

Detail 4- Final Coat

Detail 5- Sprayed

This is a link for the Cavern Tiles Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dwarvenforge/dwarven-forges-caverns-dwarvenite-game-tiles-mini

Searing Smite analysis

One of my gamers plays a multiclassed level 3 paladin / level 13 fighter. In this edition of D&D, paladins gained a new spell that applies minor (1d6) instantaneous fire damage and adds ongoing minor damage until the target makes a saving throw, which ends the spell. The gamer questioned whether multiple melee attacks would add more ongoing damage. After my analysis, I find the current ruleset is unclear. The following is my interpretation:

The proper interpretation is not to have the ongoing effects stack.

The target is burst 1d6 extra fire upon each attack. This is an instantaneous effect and it is applied for each attack. (It could be viewed that the initial 1d6 extra stacks.) Each melee attack also applies the "OMG I am on fire as a secondary effect but this effect does not have a name" secondary condition. These secondary conditions do not stack. Once the target has the condition, they have it, and they don't get another from more attacks.

(reference: While this is not specifically addressed by the stacking rules which are limited in scope to benefits and penalties, the designers have restricted stacking rules more in this version than in the past. Even METEOR SWARM explicitly does not stack with itself in 5ED, although it explicitly has stacked with itself since Expert and 1ED.)

So the secondary effect is SV VS CON (DC 8+5+5=18) or take 1d6 fire damage, success ends the spell, repeat each round.

If Cazzian wishes to overload the secondary 1d6 damage he can hit multiple targets. Of course they would each get a saving throw, and any one of them making their save would end it from that point on.

Interestingly, the SV VS CON DC 18 should probably be 8+1+5=14 due to multiclassing into a non-casting class, but whatever it's another flaw.