Alt Rules for 5e Ranger Companion, Paladin Mounts, and Warlock Familiars, or How To Make Them Not Suck

   

   One thing that I like to do aside from video games is play Dungeons and Dragons, I'm relatively new to the game so fifth edition coming out about the time I started to find out about it was a great thing for me and I currently DM a game with a few of my siblings and cousins (noobs the lot of them)

     One of the bad things about 5e though is the ranger class is less than its potential especially the Animal Companion archetype and a lot of people have a house rules to make the ranger a bit better or just use the rules creatively and while thinking about this the other day I thought of the following idea, which I'm going to implement in my current game since I have a ranger in the party. Keep in mind this have not been play tested yet so could either lead to animals still being under powered or end up with them severely overpowered, we'll have to see.

    The idea is that the companion/mount/familiar is different from a regular animal allowing special training or magical powers beyond your control to effect your animal, which is why I have excluded wizard familiars.

    For example the three feats that give resistance are powered by your connection to something, a fey patron might want your familiar to spy for it, a god of life might see your connection to your mount, or your own concern for your companion combined with your pseu-drudic powers would all be reasons for the resistance.

Alt Rules

When you choose the Animal Companion ranger archetype, Pact of the Chain warlock pact boon, or are a paladin that summons a mount using the Find Steed spell every time you have an ability score in that class you may, in addition to your own improvements may now  choose to either increase two of your companion/familiar/mount’s stats by one point up to a maximum equal to the animal’s natural max (e.g. a Warhorse’s max would be 18 and a Mastiff's max would be 14) or you may choose an animal feat from the Animal Feat list.

Animal Feat List

Diver

Prerequisite: your animal has a swimming speed

Your animal has been trained in swimming enough that it is nearly as good in water as it is on land.

The animal now has the ability Hold Breath: the animal can hold its breath for 1 hour

Communicator

Prerequisite: animal has an intelligence of 6 or higher and you have an intelligence of 10 or higher.

You and your animal have special training that lets your animal communicate simple messages to others

You may cast animal messenger on your animal as a bonus action on your turn; the animal can be tiny, small, or medium but the other spell rules still apply.

Swift Flight

Prerequisite: your animal has a flying speed

Your animal is so fast that few can hit it even when it close to them.

Enemies have disadvantage on opportunity attacks against your animal.

Trained Attacker

You have trained your animal in the ways of offence

You can command your animal to make one attack against a creature as a bonus action on your turn.

Hellish Resistance

Prerequisite: You have a Warlock level of 8 or higher

Your deal with your patron extends to your familiar, protecting it from certain attacks.   

Your familiar gains a resistance to one of the following damage types:

• Fire
• Neurotic
• Acid
• Psychic

Blessed Resistance

Prerequisite: You have a Paladin level of 8 or higher

Your connection with your deity extends to your mount, protecting it from certain attacks.

Your mount gains a resistance to one of the following damage types:

• Slashing
• Radiant
• Poison
• Force

Earthen Resistance

Prerequisite: You have a Ranger level of 8 or higher

Your connection with the earth extends to your companion, protecting it from certain attacks.

Your Companion gains resistance to one of the following damage types:

• Thunder
• Piercing
• Cold
• Lightning

Dodger

Your animal is used to being in battle and can foresee some attacks

Your animal gains a bonus to its armor class based on its size:

• Tiny: + 4
• Small: + 3
• Medium: + 2
• Large: +1

Watch-Animal

You have trained your animal to be alert at all times and to warn you of possible attacks.

You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks provided your animal is within 10 feet of you and can see or hear at least as much as you can.


What do you guys think? What do you do to improve the ranger or do you like to leave it as is. I'd love to hear about it.

Until next time :)

Picture from hackslashmaster.blogspot.com

Calling all the playtesters.

     Sorry for the long gap since my last post, I've been trying to balance schoolwork and some creative projects I've been doing, namely my board game. And that is what I need you, my fellow Castler's, help with. I'm not comfortable with asking strangers to play-test and most  all of my friends would be too easy on me and it. So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to play the game and tell my what you think about it. What all you liked and what you didn't like. What seems broken and what seems underwhelming. 

     I will hopefully in the near future have original art and a set board design. The board is just suggestion, feel free to design your own. Thanks guys, hope you enjoy. 

Game rules

game board (sorry about the potato quality)

Image from lonecanuckpublishing.ca

Pokemon Z and Pokemon in real life?

     So I was a little worried that I would miss the bus so to speak on Pokemon Go but today I also learned about the leaks for Zygade so I guess I get to talk about two big bits of Pokemon news.

     First up is Pokemon Go. I'm sure most of you already know about it but to refresh: it is an app currently in production that works kind of like the game Ingress in terms of how game-play is handled. One thing I noticed about the trailer is that with the exception of one girl all the actors are in their 20s and 30s, so Pokemon Co is probably aiming at the older Pokemon audience (a claim further supported when you realize that all the Pokemon shown in the trailer are from Gen. 1.) With that and the fact that at least one senior Pokemon staffer will help out with the game, makes me definitely interested in the game. I do want to caution everybody, including myself, to not get too excited over the visuals shown since while it would be EXTREMELY cool if the game played like that it probably won't.

     The other thing I want to touch on is the fact that, accounting to a recent leak:

That's right guys that legendary from X and Y that most if not everybody ignored isn't even fully formed, 50% formed actually. With 10% form preceding it and 100% form following it. If these rumors are true it could mean both the first evolving legendary (yes I know Raquaza got a Mega but that's a different type of evolution even by Pokemon standards) and could also mean Pokemon Z is coming out. Over all I am super stoked to see what this rumor has in store for us.

Why Pokemon Amie is a great feature (rant)

   

     OK I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but I love Pokemon Amie. While I never what to see a game built solely around this type of gameplay I don't love it for its gameplay of simple mini-games and petting and feeding Pokemon, but rather its whole concept.

     You see I play Pokemon differently from most people in that I don't make my team around whose has the most stats or even who looks the coolest but rather who feels right for the team. For example in the Glistening Cave in Pokemon X I caught a Cubone because... because it seemed lonely. I know that seems ridiculous since its a video game character but something just made me think "this is a Pokemon that needs me." And I can go back in my past and bring up some sob story about how Pokemon helped me and I was just returning the favor or something but I won't.

     So let us look at Pokemon Amie. What is it? Well it is a feature in Pokemon X, Y, Alpha Sapphire, and Omega Ruby that lets you play with your Pokemon and just love on one another. So this is right up my alley. And lets look at the some of the battle quotes when you increase a Pokemon's affection

Being sent out:

• <Pokémon> trusts <Trainer> to come up with the best strategy!
• <Pokémon> turned back toward <Trainer> and nodded in understanding!
• <Pokémon> and <Trainer> are breathing in perfect sync with one another!
• <Pokémon> trusts <Trainer> to come up with the best strategy!

Come on guys these all show how much the Pokemon trusts you. Even if you've never won a battle they still know that you both will try your best.

Recovering from a status condition

• <Pokémon> managed to expel the poison so that <Trainer> wouldn't worry!

All of them end like that: So that <Trainer> wouldn't worry. Even in the middle of a battle the Pokemon is less concerned about the poison actually hurting or being frozen but more about not letting you worry.

And come on guys, every Pokemon essentially getting Natural Cure, getting increased chance to dodge moves even those with 100% accuracy and getting an increased change of critical hitting. Even if that last one occasionally comes at bad times but it comes in handy more often then not. 

What I want to say is that I play Pokemon with sentiment and Pokemon Amie has definitely helped with that and is why I think it is now a necessary Pokemon feature now.

Picture from bulbipedia.com
   

The Fireflies and the Stars

   How similar they are,

the firefly and the star

Both give us light

from here or from afar.

How much like the storyteller are

none seek fame,

but all give light.

And how silly a thing:

to give in a world of take

But the beacons of light care not

it is after all,

their duty to answer the call,

and give light to this dark and greedy world

“In hope that one day,”

All three say.

“Our light will be outshone

by the One who created this Stone

that we call Earth.”

Picture from germanshepherdadventures.wordpress.com

Here's to... A poem about Robin Williams, Mr Iwata, Lenard Nimoy, and Sir Christopher Lee

Here's to the Dreamer,

who could play a soldier or an old crone,

a salesmen or a schemer,

and could put a smile on any face.

except of course his own

Here's to the Innovator

who was the first not of kin

but without him Nintendo would fall
but thanks to his ability

it will always stand tall

Here's to the Actor

who played a scientist its true

and was an example for all of us

scared of a feeling or two

Here's to the Legend

who fought Nazis in a war.
He was descended from a king

and became the king of Mordor

and could play both the Devil and his foul Sting

Here's to them
and the stories they left behind
and praying for their families would surely be kind.

Camp Stuff

     As I said in my update post I'm working a summer job at Windermere Bible Camp, and with Nintendo's lackluster E3 announcement I don't have a lot to talk about in that sense so I guess I'll talk about this camp.

     What I do here is mostly clean up the dinning hall and making sure none of the food runs out on the buffet lines. Its tiring but its fun and as you will hopefully see, leads to come interesting stories.

     One week the campers numbered in the thousands so some volunteers from local churches helped out and were a great help but one time a group of them were standing around the buffet lines talking and I could tell that they were blocking it if anymore guests show up. I ask them to move and they ignore me, this continues for at least ten minutes until I decide to weird them away from buffet lines. So I walk down the line and when I get to the volunteers I shout: "spontaneous acid test!" And of course they just look at me weird so I just go "you failed," and saying nothing else walk away. And it worked. :)

During our off hours the staff is playing Assassin and the weapon of this round is notes. So the first night I get a knock at the door of my room on campus and I open it to see a mattress with a note taped to it. Luckily though I wasn't wearing my glasses at the time so I couldn't read the note so I just go "LOL nope," and shut the door.

It rains a lot. I don't have anything clever to say 'bout this, it just rains a lot. Its raining right now, I'm done. I'm done with this weather. I'm out/


     

Captain America is Awesome (Rant)

     OK I am sick of people making fun of Captain America because he got his powers by "cheating." Guys, Steve Rogers tried multiple times to enlist in the Army despite having so many things wrong with him that a walk around the block would leave him winded. 
     But he kept trying. And that is the point of people like me getting inspired by Cap: he was told time and time again that he couldn't help in the war, he may have even believed it himself sometimes but he never gave up. And that belief payed off since Dr Erskine was looking for someone just like Steve. A person that new his own faults but tried to get over them.
 
     I would also like to add that a personal reason that I like Cap is because he didn't change after the super soldier serum made him strong enough to support a block that knocked a god on his back from the recoil, quick enough to literally run circles around an ex paratrooper, and had the brain capacity to memorize a Hydra map after only a few seconds of seeing it, not to mention being able to survive frozen in ice for 75 years. No the serum only gave him the physical capabilities to do what his heart was telling him to do all along.

     And that is what everyone finds inspiring about Cap: that he never gave up, that he stays true to himself, and that all that awesome, that ripping logs apart with his bear hands and the muscle coordination to throw a shield like a Frisbee, was always inside him he just needed a little help from science.

Update on Myself

• Schools finally out for me so I can start getting my news articles out a bit more frequently.
• I have a summer job starting on May the 18th at a summer camp. Thankfully I'll be able to bring my laptop down so I can keep posting.
• My 3ds broke :( so unfortunately I'm not going to be able to talk about those games for a while. 
• I'd like to blog about other stuff I like in addition to video games so be prepared for that.
• I also have an about page now.

Fear the Death Potato: Pencils and Pilots offline game

   

     Happy Star Wars day guys. I was wondering what to do for today and I remembered that over the weekend my sisters and I played a really fun star wars game. Its a simple game that I found in Darth Paper Strikes Back. It can be done with a skeet of paper and two (or even just one) pencils.

1. Draw three X-wing fighters (triangles with "X's" on them) in one corner and three T-fighters (circles with lines on opposite sides) in the other corner.
2. draw the death star in the middle of the page 
3. Draw asteroids around the page. 
4. Determine who is the Rebels and who is the the Empire
5. the players take turns moving/firing by put the tip of their pencil on the edge of one of their star ships and rests their finger on the eraser end so the pencil stands straight up and uses their other hand to flick the pencil away from them so that the pencil will leave a mark on the paper
6. If the pencil mark goes over an enemy ship the fired upon ship is destroyed; otherwise move your ship to the end of the mark by drawing the ship there
7. If the pencil mark hits the Death Star your ship blows up; if it hits an asteroid you lose a turn

And that's it. Who ever shoots down all of the enemy ships wins. This is actually a pretty fun game, it is a good distraction from everyday life and is a pretty good game to bond over explicitly if you take turns drawing the page. My favorite is one my youngest sister made where the Death Star looks like a potato
(hence the title.) It is also fun to come up with variant ships and pages like the one I made of just a bunch of asteroids. Anyway hope you like this game and happy Star Wars Day.

The Simple Things: Our Heath Packs

    
     Hello all, I decided to make this week's post early partly because this will probably be the only free time I'll have until Saturday and because I thought of something earlier. I was eating a slice of ice cream cake and I thought of something: most of the world has never tasted chocolate. Think about that: chocolate a food once used as currency, a food that has spawned a new kind of addiction, a food that we pass everyday in the grocery store, and most of the world has never tasted it. And that got me thinking some more and it just made me really be thankful for things we have deemed "the simple things" because in all honesty guys: most of these things are luxuries. We think that getting out of bed and actually feeling refreshed is a simple thing that we enjoy but there are people all over the world, even here in America that consider OWNING a bed a great luxury. And I'm not making this to speak out against privilege but I do want to say something: there are five types of people in this world:

1. Those without luxuries
2. Those who have luxuries and don't appreciate them
3. Those who live for luxuries
4. Those who believe luxuries are bad, they know because they see the damage it causes every time they turn on their HD surround sound movie theater flat-screen TV
5. Those who try to appreciate everything about their lives even though it's far from perfect and try to share their joy with other people

Guys I just got to ask: why aren't there more of the fifth type? I have a friend at my church named Nick who has been a huge inspiration to me. This man has divorced parents, he is pretty much raising his niece by himself, he is constantly picked on at school because he has morals, he has gotten rejected tons of times when he simply asks someone if they would like to talk about the Gospel, this man has survived a house being burnt to the ground, and he gets angry sometimes and it's kind of scary when that happens. But he never gives up, to the point where one of his friends has asked him: "why have you not given up yet?" Nick's answer to this still amazes me: "because I have God helping me the whole way." Nick is also an amazing person in general, he laughs a lot, he tells amazing stories and funny jokes, he's in honors classes in school, he's not afraid of expressing his opinion to the point where he has come at odds with other people in our own youth group, and though I've only met his niece a few times I can say with confidence that Nick will make the best husband and father someday. I think of all this and how he can laugh through it all and I look at my struggles: not getting person records in track and not getting good grades, and I realize that I can laugh and enjoy the little things to, so I'll try to be more of a number five guy like Nick is. 

How Boss Battles Can Help You In Life

     Here we go. You've spend countless hours battling the enemies outside, getting stronger. The doors are opening. Here goes nothing, "Leroy Jenkins!!"

The boss battle is one of my favorite parts of video games, from the Gym Leaders in Pokemon to the Dragons in Skyrim, to pretty much everything in Dark Souls 2. The challenge, the frustration, enjoying the silliness of some bosses and remembering the scariness of other bosses late at night. But did you know that bosses can help you in life? Its true so lets take a look with Life, The Video Game:

     The boss battle has several main components that are in all video games, even Life these are:

• There is a time and place associated with it. Whether it is after start date or before an end date, whether it is the gym or your backyard the boss battle will start somewhere and it will end somewhere.
• The boss is challenging. Yes, even that bug queen in the first dungeon is challenging. This is something that we don't like to do: challenge ourselves. We like to coast, whether it be in our jobs, our schoolwork, our family life, etc. So what the boss does is force you to challenge yourself. For example I obviously don't challenge myself to write here consistently so that will be my goal: by May 18 I will have written and published 1 post a week. (Hold me to that guys.)
• There is a reward. That's right: you get stuff for defeating that boss. When you defeat a boss in a video game you get something, whether it be a new weapon, new item slots open in your inventory, cool armor. So when you plan your boss have a reward be part of the planing process. Not something anti the boss, like saying: if I go to the gym everyday this month I'll eat a whole pizza on the last day. That's silly and undermines both your accomplishment and your goal, but chose something that you will like. For example: if your goal is to run everyday for a month maybe your reward is that new pair of running shoes you saw in the store. So for my reward: if I write and publish a post every week until May 18 I'll get Y the Last Man Vol 1. 

     Anyway I hope this helps you guys out in some way or another. See you all next week in the next post.

Photos from Newgrounds.com artist ravenhart. and bitlanders.com 

Two sides of the same story; The Hunt for Truth trailers

    

      Hello all, with this weeks Nintendo Direct giving us only a little bit of info on a lot of topics I decided that this week I'll go over something different: the #huntfortruth Halo 5 trailers. (Spartan Locke) (Master Chief)  These trailers are interesting in that they are each a twisted mirror image of the other: they both involve one of the aforementioned Spartans talking to the other Spartan, the later of whom is sprawled on the ground below a Master Chief statue.

      What really got my character instincts going though is how different the two are, and that is what I want to cover in this article: how Master Chief and Spartan Locke are different. 

   

     First off is the thing that was most obvious to me: they talk differently, I don't mean that one has an accent that the other doesn't, nothing like that. I'm talking about the way that they talk. If you notice during the entire Master Chief ad John is unemotional and steely calm, challenging Locke verbally with questions: "is this what you wanted," and using words like "compromised," this calm is kept until, interestingly MC addresses the fallen Spartan by putting extra emphasis on only one phrase in the commercial: "Spartan Locke." This is very intriguing when you think how often Master Chief gets mad: that is, never. Also Master Chief states that Locke is being killed because his mission is done, while Chief's is just getting started.

   
     On the other hand Locke is emotional from the start: coming out of the house quiet and than intimately going into a bitterly sarcastic bit: "hail the conquering hero." The whole spheel is being said almost as if in front of a crowd. Another thing is Locke never addresses Master Chief by his name, rank, nickname or anything, he addresses him twice in the add: once as "that," and once as "you." This could mean one of two things: either Locke is taunting Chief by subliminally saying "you don't deserve a name," or he is putting him on a level less then human to make it easier for him to kill Master Chief to avoid guilt latter on. (This second theory is a practice commonly used by real word soldiers when the soldiers give the enemy names like "Camel Humpers," "Macs," or "Reds.") Also Locke states that Chief must be killed to save "us."

   

      The other thing is more of just something to reinforce said earlier stuff: their body language. Granted since both where in full MJOLNIR armor little can be said of their body language but what is here speaks volumes. For example Master Chief walks very slowly, keeps both hands on the rifle and barely looks at the statue, while Locke starts in a similar fashion, even keeping the gun at the ready for a few seconds, but then starts motioning with his hand like he his on stage and looks at the statue for almost a dramatic effect. Also when going for their hand guns Chief and Locke do it very differently, Master Chief puts his rifle in place on his armor and gets the pistol while Locke drops his rifle into a puddle and gets the pistol. All of this furthers what I've been saying: for Chief Locke is just part of a mission to be carried out, for Locke this is personal. 

   

     This all has even more questions riddled in it to begin with: why are two Spartans fighting in the first place? What happened to Locke in the Chief ad and vise versa? Why is the link for the Locke ad in the Chief video called "The Other Side of Truth" while the link for the Chief ad in the Locke video is called "Truth is Never What it Seems?" Oh well. I guess we'll have the answers when Halo 5 comes out. 

Why Do Video Game Movies Suck?

    

     With the rumors that Netflix may be making a Legend of Zelda series I want to address a sore spot among us gamers: movies based on video games. All movies based on a book or 

video game seem to fall into one of two categories: "It was OK," or "I would rather peel my eyes out with a melon baller than watch that movie again," and I want to find out today why this is.

     There is the obvious theory that video games are about a personal experience; that since movies are about someone other than yourself playing the movie almost seems like a badly put together Lets-Play, and I think this is true about the nonlinear video games: the Mass Effects, and Minecrafts of the world. This sort of games are all about you: what would you do if you were stranded on an infinite world? Who would you feed first if it was just you and a few other survivors of a zombie apocalypse? Do you pick the good option when speaking to a rival king? These are your options that you chose so yes is mostly your experience that video game movies take away.

     But that doesn't explain why so many video game novels and comics are both very popular and critically acclaimed. This though is probably not too hard to explain: video game movies are usually about the plot of the game or something very close to the plot of the game, while the novels and comics are about side stories, origin stories, or original stories that take place in the video game world. An example of this is the Sonic comic series, the longest running video game based comic, is about finding about Sonic's friends more often than finding out more about the Blue Blur. It could also be that since the comics and novels are usually written by fans of the games the pressure is on themselves to create something that they hold dear while movie directors are more like "money money money."

In Final Defense of Fairy Tales

     

    What I really want to say with all this fairy tale defense is that fairy tales are true. I don't mean that there are dragons and griffons flying around in some magical forest somewhere but magic is real; not in the sense that we have come to know: that there is good and bad magic (its all bad actually) but it did get me thinking: if magic is real what other parts of fairy tales are true? Then I realized something: most of the stories started in everyday life. That may not seem remarkable but it tells the greatest truth about fairy tales: they are just about people that decide to take a stand and when they made that stand they don't give up. And that is why fairy tales get so much hate, because they don't tell a worry free story they tell a give-up free story. And our silver spoon fed society doesn't want to except that things aren't going to be handed to them.
   

     JRR Tolkien was a Soldier in World War I one of the most hellish wars ever fought and he wrote a fairy tale that is loved by even this tech obsessed generation. Albert Eisenstein messed up the proof that eventually became E=MC2, partly because he didn't understand some of the laws that would affect the proof until later but instead of giving up he learned those laws. Both of these men not only read fairy tales but believed them. And I think that is the point of fairy tales: to take a stand, believe in your dreams and don't give up ever.

Random movie and game trivia

     Hello all, I'm writing my final Defense of Fairy Tales post for next week but I didn't want to skip out on this week like I normally do (sorry about that) I'm going to share with you some of my favorite bits of trivia about things so without further ado...

There are actually four "first Pokemon" contenders: Bulbasaur is the first Pokemon in the national Pokedex. Arceus was the first thing to exist (but only took physical form later on.) Mew was the first Pokemon to be defined as a "Pocket Monster." Finally Rhydon was the first Pokemon designed in this world.

Drowzee is thought to be based on a tapir but may actually be based on the Baku, a spirit in Japanese mythology that, granted looks like a giant tapir but according to mythology is actually capable of eating dreams like Drowzee does, which is some thing most tapirs can't do. 

The Physic type in Pokemon is weak to three types which are Bug, Dark, and Ghost, which are also three of the most common human fears, which makes sense since the Physic type is all about brain power and as anyone who has gone into their basement at night knows: fears destroy every bit of reason. 

Since most of the production time was spend on the special effects and not on the script the 2008 Iron Man had only an outline of a script when filming came around, so almost the entirety of the movie is in prov.

The CGI Empire State Building used in Peter Jackon's King Kong  took 18 months to make; the best part: the real Empire State Building was built in 14 months. 

Godzilla's famous (and trademarked) roar used in the original Godzilla was made in a rather awesome way: a resin covered glove was rubbed over the strings of a double bass and the resulting sound was than amplified in an echo chamber. 

Are Happy Endings Real?

     

     

  

   Happy endings are used by many people to say that fairy tales are a load of baloney, my theory on this is that in today's culture, especially here in America people confuse happiness with perfection. That joy can only be obtained through getting to goals, or not having any problems, or being the smartest one of your friend group, or something like that. While these are not bad in and of themselves, saying that something like that is the only way to be happy is by those things is where we get into trouble. You see in fairy tales the ending goes: "they lived happily ever after, not: "they lived trouble free ever after", or even: "they live together ever after," it goes: "they lived happily ever after." Let me explain with one of my favorite authors of all time: C.S. Lewis.

     Like Walt Disney, Clive Staples Lewis lived a sucky life: when he was about three or four his dog, Jacksie, died starting Lewis's life filled with death. On his father, Albert's, birthday in 1908, Lewis's mother, Flora Lewis died of cancer. This same year Lewis's grandfather and great-uncle died and Lewis was sent to a boarding school for two years. After that he was transferred to a different boarding school that he had to quit because of respiratory problems. He was than enrolled in a school near a health resort, it was at this school that Lewis gave up on Christianity. Lewis enlisted in the British army where his college roommate was killed in battle and Lewis was wounded and a year later and discharged. He continued his studies at Oxford University, where he published poems in school magazines and officially published "Death in Battle." Eventually he started teaching at Oxford for many years. Finally in 1929 Lewis's father died and Lewis became a theist and two years later. After a long talk with his friends J.R.R. Tolkien, and Hugo Dyson, Lewis became a Christian again. From that point on C.S. Lewis never had it easy, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. was mocked by his friends, his married life was so stressful he wrote a book about it, and he eventually died on November 22 1963 with his grave reading a favorite Shakespeare quote of his: "men must endure their going hence."

     C. S. Lewis was a great man, and I have no doubt he died happily. Why? His life was filled with death, doubt, and diseases, these are all things that people use to justify giving up. He never gave up because he never gave in. He never gave in to the idea that to be an adult you have to be a grown up. Never gave in to blaming God for all his problems. And he never gave into the idea that happiness came through anything this world could give him. And that is the happy ending: not one of wealth, sex, power, or fun, but of contentment.