Aye, back in a bit…
Swap out Ray of Frost for Fire Bolt [if that is allowed/I have that in my cantrip collection-strange to only have 4 cantrips, total]
Actually in 5e, Cantrips are locked in until you make level. Then you can change one. Spells can be swapped after any long rest. (assuming as a Wizard, you have your books. Which we’ll assume.)
Ceol’s list of prepared spells:
Level 1: Divine Favor, Heroism, Searing Smite, Shield of Fate
Level 2: Branding Smite
The riding order looks OK to me, at least for our first time out together. Thanks.
Shield of Faith, that is. 
On Felareth
Thoroncir wrote in the game thread:
Privately, he will ask Mirëgol and Hejren how well they know this hobbit Felareth, and if there is anything that would be helpful to know about him.
How much with the Elves & Gilraen know about Felareth or perhaps you could tell the party some of your history on the boat trip.
@glee; @NAF1138; @kenobi_65; @Hoopy_Frood; @John_DiFool; @Elendil_s_Heir; @MHaye
In general to all: Should we share the histories of the characters? A re-introduction & introduction in 2 cases? I have a small blurb on most, I could start there in one post and then players could expand or correct as they wish.
No problem with that here.
Likewise.
Ditto
Sounds good to me.
Sorry about being slow to reply!
I’m happy to share Ghan’s history.
Will my animals be able to cope with the cold?
(I assume my Wolfskin cloak is sufficient for me to cope with the weather.)
If all my animals can sensibly come, then my Eagle Windwing will share scouting duties with Aithorn, I’ll ride Palafax and have Fang and Anca alongside me.
I’m happy to be at the front (I assume my tracking ability is being used as a sort of ambush detection?) - however if attacked from the front, I will drop back to heal alongside the Princess.
This will allow a mob of armoured attackers* to sweep past me!
*most of the party 
I hope I understand spell -casting in 5e 
A) If I can choose to cast a ‘ready’ spell multiple times (including ‘upcasting’), then I will have ‘ready’:
Cantrips: Druidcraft, Mending + Poison spray
1st: Cure, Goodberry**, Entangle, Faerie Fire
2nd: Lesser Restore, Healing Spirit
3rd: Conjure Animals, Water Breathing
B) If instead I need to state specific spells for my 12 slots, then I will load:
Cantrips: Druidcraft, Poison spray x 2
1st: Cure x 2, Goodberry x 2 **
2nd: Lesser Restore, Healing Spirit x 2
3rd: Conjure Animals, Healing Spirit (upcast)
and cast Water Breathing as a Ritual.
**cast once at the start of each day
@glee
Cantrips have unlimited use, part of why they can’t change except when you make level.
You get to memorize 10 different spells which can be used with your spell slots
At 5th level a full spell caster (Like a Druid) gets spells slots as follows:
4 1st
3 2nd
2 3rd
Or as I write it: 4/3/2
Technically you could cast 10 Cure Wounds. 4 at 1st doing a d8+5, 3 at 2nd doing 2d8+5 and 2 at 3rd doing 3d8+5. So extremely flexible spell casting, actually pretty similar to what I had has my house or Green Book rule for 1st Edition.
So your first list above is correct, but you can memorize 2 more spells.
On the character sheet I had:
1: Cure d8+5; Goodberry 10 berries; Entangle © 90’ 20’sq str dc; Faerie Fire © 1min 60’ gives adv to hit/cancels invisibility/stealth
2 : Lesser Restore (T) ; Healing Spirit © 1min d6/t 60’; Spike Growth © 10min 150’ 20’r;
3 : Conjure Animals © 1hr; Plant Growth; Water Breathing® 24hrs
Note: Water Breathing is a ritual spell that last 24hrs. You could cast a pair of those on the party each morning for free taking about 20 minutes. Then the entire party, including animals could breath water and not worry about drowning.
Then thanks to Taurgol you get more optional spells from the Rod and better yet, Pass without Trace at will which gives all allies in a 30’ radius a +10 bonus to Stealth (Dexterity) checks and can’t be tracked except by magical means. A creature that receives this bonus leaves behind no tracks or other traces of its passage. This is an awesome ability.
What_Exit, that’s really helpful! 
I apologise for not getting it quicker - I’ve spent so long playing and running 1st edition…
Don’t worry, I’ve been playing 5e about 2 years now. I’m still getting use to it. Like you, I spent a really long time at 1st Ed and to make it worst house rules 1st Ed with half my DM’ing in a Middle Earth World so even less standard.
5e is a really good system. I never said that about 3e, 3.5 or 4e. I love the a lot of the normalization they did.
Many D&D campaigns use a mana system, of course.
This mod basically accomplishes the same end, tho it does mean that more powerful spells take up as many castings as lower level ones. Less bookwork tho our way.
I always hated the “pre-memorize slots” (AKA Vancian) aspect of D&D. They sort of tried to mitigate that in 3/3.5 with the sorcerer and mystic classes, but those classes were weakened in spell advancement to compensate for their versatility. (E.g. the sorceror frequently received spells one level behind the wizard, which in 3/3.5 meant that they were almost always easier to save against. Also, they were limited in spells known, which meant they couldn’t generally afford to take the useful utility spells and craft wands/scrolls from them.) As a result, the sorcerer and mystic were usually only taken if there was already a wizard/cleric in the party.
I like how 5 takes the sorcerer/mystic idea and applies it to all spell-casting classes, but doesn’t limit spells known. It’s like they’re trying to make a magic system that makes sense.
I still prefer magic systems that use energy/mana. I thought GURPS, for all its faults, had a great mechanic for magic. Each spell took fatigue points. Fatigue was equal to your strength stat, plus any additional fatigue you bought through the “Extra Fatigue” perk, plus any mana storage crystals you bought. It meant strength was not a dump stat for mages. Also, if you ran out of fatigue, you could start burning health to cast. But you could cast any spell you know. Granted, spellcasters were still overpowered in GURPS.
That’s not quite right. The Bard and Sorcerer use spells known rather than spells prepared.
Mild diversion - in Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), my character Rosemarrie (Laurelin Server) has met up with Ghan-Buri-Ghan and is tackling some tasks to become an honorary Druedain.
I see a combat is about to erupt in the game thread.
I’m about to leave for a dialysis session - I’m waiting on transport, and the pickup time varies. I should be back between 9pm and 10pm (BST) this evening.
Felareth would prepare for combat at night by casting Shield of Faith in his first round. He’ll generally use reactions to use Cutting Words on enemies threatening allies, especially Princess Gilraen.