A smaller-than-expected creature with regular-sized feet would be a pretty straightforward (maybe even humorously prosaic?) way of Oona telling that the MitD would be getting bigger, since that's how we tell with puppies.
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A smaller-than-expected creature with regular-sized feet would be a pretty straightforward (maybe even humorously prosaic?) way of Oona telling that the MitD would be getting bigger, since that's how we tell with puppies.
1) The point of the boots is that if it could wear boots then someone could lampshade him getting boots and Rich could draw round boot prints without giving anything away about his feet/mode of transportation other than size, and without a whole 'he doesn't leave tracks' discussion.Quote:
Originally Posted by unbeliever536
2) a) I'm not being as sarcastic as I sound when I ask what him being able to float does for narrowing down the list or even adding to it. I don't think I'm wrong in saying a goal of this thread is to use clues to identify the MITD, so how does it floating help do so?
b) Belkar says "there are tracks all over the place" and then calls them "strange" as he follows them. He does not say "there's a groove like a body being dragged in this direction but no other tracks". The MITD clearly drags O'Chul later, so I don't see why he wouldn't have been dragging Roy.
I'm of the opinion that either the tracks in the snow would give away the MITD or would just be hard to do. Could I be wrong? Sure, I do accept he could be floating. I'm just not seeing it help with the list.
Heck, they may just cast Fly on him for some reason. Maybe he kept tripping down the mountain or up to the doors and they got tired of it.
Remember, he wasn't just dragging Roy, he was also presumably dragging all his tea party toys (stuffed animals, chairs, table, etc). I'm personally not convinced that Belkar could consistently identify the track of dragged body (maybe he could, but I'm not certain), but MitD dragging all that stuff simultaneously would indeed leave an awfully strange track.Quote:
Originally Posted by Throknor
Perhaps more to the point, Belkar has 0 ranks in survival. He cant track for spit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusher
That's why he leaves a trail of corpses behind him... OTOH, he's unable to follow the trail of the corpses...Quote:
Originally Posted by Keltest
Floating (or floaty flying, not flappy flying) would explain more than just him not leaving tracks. It'd also explain how he managed to paint multiple doors fast enough that he wouldn't be noticed (If it had been a time cut of a few minutes between doors, it'd be more likely Redcloak or someone would look behind, wondering what was taking the idiot so long). If one of the casters had hit him with a fly spell (not impossible, seeing as I can't see any other way of reaching all the doors in Monster Hollow) and we weren't shown it, we could call shenanigans.
Does psionics allow floaty flying as a passive ability (as V seems to use Flight these days)?
Another thought occurred to me recently; in the past few strips, Rich has been very considerate of flagging up D&D rules and foibles that might not make sense to people not well versed in the rules. Things like the entire comic devoted to how positive/negative affect undead, summoned creatures being introduced in the Frost Giant scene so they'd be less of an ass-pull for Hilgya, things like that. This approach (making the comic enjoyable to non-d&d players) would require some more information about the MitD to leak out if it's a creature like the Nightmare Beast or an Uvuudaum, otherwise the reaction when shown one will be disappointing to all but the hardcore d&d players (I've been gaming over ten years, and I'd never heard of half the creatures listed until reading this thread). If we're still asking what the MitD is *after* his reveal, it kind of undercuts the scene a bit, don't you think?
No, it does not. I expect the reveal to be part of an intentionally emotional scene in which MitD comes into his own, and stops being "friends" with people who only want him around as their guard dog. That is what will make the scene powerful. V or Xykon or RC might namedrop his species, but I doubt Rich expects the 90% of his readership that don't play D&D to recognize it or even google the damn name because after all, the whole point of MitD is that he is more than his species, he is more than what his species can do for Xykon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Riftwolf
So yes, i fully expect that after the reveal, there will be a bunch of people asking what on Earth an uvuudaun is, or whatever MitD turns out to be. And a bunch of people wondering how MitD could have done X in this or that big MitD moment (e.g. "how did he get V and O-Chul out of the tower? He only has teleport, and teleport requires you to touch, and go along" or similar).
Grey Wolf
He could tell one dragon and one lizardQuote:
Originally Posted by Keltest
manfolk tracks.
I don't think there's much more to debate here. I think the "strange tracks" comment means something, and that drawing them in the snow would either be too revealing or too distracting with the slight possibility he can temporarily fly - either at will or from Xkyon or RedCloak. If a suggestion has the ability to occasionally float or fly then it helps but I'm not going to surprised (or even annoyed) if the MITD in the end does not.
Agreed. When we see MitD emerge from the umbrella, it's going to be a crucial turning point of the plot. It may be at the Final Battle, or it may be the moment he breaks free and decides to NOT eat Redcloak despite Redcloak betraying Xykon, or it may be the moment he decides to fight against X&R to save O Chul and Lien - but it's going to be a Big Deal, and the satisfaction of our curiosity will NOT be the dominant topic in the strip discussion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf_c
Meta-wise, Rich has to handle it carefully, because adding an ally to the Order who is arguably as powerful as all of them put together could shift the story from "plucky adventurers defeat Ultimate Evil" to "MitD kicks ass, takes names, Order applauds".
The strange tracks Belkar found just shows that the MitD doesn't magically float all the time. Either he's flying nonmagically, like a duck, but her wings or propellers aren't strong enough to lift her off when he's dragging Roy's heavy corpse; or he isn't floating, but is lightweight with big feet so he doesn't normally sink in the snow, but leaves tracks when Roy's heavy corpse is weighing him down. Note that the comic already points out that Roy's body is heavy in #38, so it would be fair to use that as a clue for the MitD's identity.
I'm not sure how to reconcile the idea that MitD is immensely, nay, unbelievably strong, but doesn't have enough strength to get airborne whilst carrying Roy. Something with teeny-tiny wings but a heavy body? Aerodynamics doesn't work so well in D&D in general, and the Empress of the Empire of Blood explicitly makes the laws of physics weep.
Also, when pursuing Miko to give her back her dropped purse one assumes MitD moved as quickly as possible, and he doesn't seem to be flying - how many creatures that can fly, cannot fly faster than they can run?
I'm thinking the door-marking scene indicates that MitD leaves no tracks in snow rather than that MitD flies. He left no tracks all the way down there. The "great big feet attached to lighter weight body" idea might work, except for his immense strength - most enormously strong creatures have big muscles.
The Fly spell gives a fixed flight speed (60' in no or light armor) regardless of land speed, and doesn't allow running. Any creature with a land speed greater than 30' can run faster than they can fly if their flight comes from Fly. Overland Flight has a base speed of 40', so it only takes a land speed of 20' to run faster. At least, for up to "a minute or two" (before they have to rest or slow down).Quote:
Originally Posted by Shining Wrath
Though that particular option (flight spell always-on or at-will) doesn't work for the issue of high strength without being able to carry Roy, because they allow flight while carrying up to the character's normal max load.
It doesn't look like he pursued Miko at all. He just came out the tower, waved the purse, and called after Miko. Calling after her makes sense, since he can shout loudly. But why didn't he pursue, when Xykon told him that he should stop Miko from escaping? Xykon mentions that instruction in #376 by the way, so I'll go back to the strip by strip list and edit that in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shining Wrath
How fast does Miko's horse run in #375 by the way, when Miko asked him to run as fast as he can, and might have given a potion of Haste to him? I don't know the rules for riding. And, while we're there, how fast can a Half-Green-Dragon**5 Young Adult Green Dragon fly? Does he use the 80 feet speed from the template, or the 150 feet speed from the base creature?
I believe he can use whichever he likes; the maneuverabilities are different enough for it to actually be relevant. He's got either 150 (poor) or 80 (average).Quote:
Originally Posted by b_jonas
I don't quite remember it, but are there any variant of Beholder without the Anti-magic that could be a candidate? I remember something in the lines of a Beholder Mage, or something like that.
Will have to do some research on the books when I get home.
Probably, but I feel being made of nothing but eyeballs would disqualify it on the basis of, well, several things really.Quote:
Originally Posted by D.One
Beholder Mage is a prestige class for "true" beholders, with "Must put out central antimagic eye" as a special requirement. Among beholderkin, most don't have an anti-magic central eye (death tyrants and hive mothers do; death kisses, directors, eyeballs, eyes of the deep, gauth, gougers, overseers, and spectators don't). There's also the Focused Antimagic feat, which allows one with an antimagic cone to only affect a single creature or object in the cone's range.Quote:
Originally Posted by D.One
I would be remiss, however, not to point out that most of these come from Lords of Madness, which was published in 2005 and therefore post-MitD. (Death kisses, death tyrants, eyeballs, and gougers are in older Faerun books; but explicitly referenced there by the setting-agnostic Lords of Madness, and an older version of the Beholder Mage prestige class was printed in one of those as well. The validity of their pedigree is at least debatable)
MitD hit Miko so far that the multi-story tower was no longer visible. I think I worked it out once as being a minimum of 5 miles, assuming the same curvature as our Earth. Then, Miko took care of Windstriker and herself, drinking potions and the like, and rode off. We don't know how long that took, but MitD got within shouting distance (which might be considerable) of Miko, and the art showed them as visible figures, not as dots, so I don't think he was anywhere near the tower at the time. The distance between them looks to be about 10 umbrella-diameters.Quote:
Originally Posted by b_jonas
Rule of funny applies to the distance, of course. It might have been less than 5 miles. Artistically, though, I don't think we can conclude that MitD and Miko would be visible in the same panel if MitD was standing just outside the tower that could no longer be seen. It looks like he's about 50 to 100 feet away from her, and the distance to the tower is clearly a lot more than that.
However rapidly MitD moved in pursuit of Miko, the demon cockroaches were able to keep up - but we don't know what the maximum move speed of a Fiendish Cockroach is, so that's not much help. Or they may have been riding on him. We don't know why he didn't pursue Miko, but laziness is sufficient explanation.
Conclusions:
His preferred form of locomotion is not flight. He sometimes leaves tracks, he stomps with no mention of having to land first, and he is always shown as close to the ground with his eyes at the same height. He may be able to fly (Door-marking scene supports this to some degree), but it seems likely that he doesn't usually fly around.
He can probably move rapidly when he wants - faster than normal human motion, is my guess.
He doesn't always leave tracks. This may not require flight, but choosing to fly (or having learned to fly) would explain it.
Couldn't find where he left tracks, but I may have missed it. When did it happen?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shining Wrath
Now I'm always going to associate Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers "Learning to Fly" with MitD.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shining Wrath
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5BJXwNeKsQ
Here, but as previously noted it might have been the table, chairs, toys, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by D.One
GW
Really? I just took the strips as looking in the wrong direction, so the tower is outside the view of the camera. Although admittedly the eighth panel of #374 is suggestive, so I could be wrong there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shining Wrath
I'd still like to know how fast Miko could ride on horseback in that scene. It's probably possible to tell that (at least up to some variables), I just don't understand the D&D rules for it.Quote:
However rapidly MitD moved in pursuit of Miko,
Hmm. Thwomps in Mario games start from the air and stop by falling straight down on players as their main attack, and I believe in Mario Maker they can break stone blocks. They do not stun players with an earthquake though, and there are other enemies in Mario Maker that can do that.Quote:
he stomps with no mention of having to land first
No Foo Fighters?Quote:
Originally Posted by Darth Paul
The list of creatures with feet, that can stomp their feet, but yet leave no tracks must be pretty short. A protean or a nightmare beast would leave tracks, so far as I know. So would a linnorm.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf_c
The eyes always being at the same elevation really makes me think MitD does not normally fly. Or at least, not with wings; I suppose a creature that was flying via Fly spell could always have eyes at the same elevation yet never touch the ground. I'd expect that flapping wings would occasionally raise dust, and it's hard to understand how wings would flap inside a box.
Just because he has wings to flap doesn't mean he has to flap them all the time (assuming he has them at all, of course).Quote:
Originally Posted by Shining Wrath
Which would be consistent with him being flight-capable, but preferring not to fly. OTOH, we do see him moving from time to time, and we never see dust / flapping.Quote:
Originally Posted by unbeliever536
I wouldn't expect that kind of effect to show up in the art, except perhaps very recently (unless the wings were rather long). And even then, it might be too much of a "tell" for Rich to include it. Not showing dust from wings flapping might be a bit deceptive, but not enough that I would call it a cheat.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shining Wrath
In any case, I agree that it's perfectly plausible that the MitD is flight-capable but doesn't often choose to take to the air. It explains the scene where he paints the red Xs well, for instance (although hovering works even better, since that also explains why he leaves no footprints).
Grey_Wolf_c, apologies if you've already mentioned it in the thread, and I didn't see it, but are we thinking that any of the Giant's suggested rule changes that you cite some of at the beginning in the FAQ, at section 2.d under Unbridled Shapeshifter, apply to the ruleset that governs Stickland?
I'm of the thought that the MITD can change his shape to a lot of different things, but unlike what I interpret as the Protean's description, the MITD usually picks one shape for awhile or most of the time.
(My guess remains that he's a brain-damaged Zeus from the old pantheon, so the son of a unique Titan like Kronos. Further, that'd make him a shapeshifter, as well as 'a good man,' for varying values of 'good', though we haven't yet seen any propensity for lightning or totally gratuitous sexing of everything that catches his eye. Accordingly, the MITD only thinks he should be Geased or whatever the compulsive whammy was that Xykon laid on him in SoD, which gets around the whole 'Gods are immune to mind-control' stuff.)
I don't have anything in mind for what such proposed rule changes would do to our guesses; I just wonder if we can use those proposed rule/spell/whatever changes at all. Or is the MITD "guessable" under bog-standard 3.5 SRD rules?
Its quite the stumper.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shining Wrath
Surely you mean Pink Floyd? :smallcool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Peelee