Class and Level Geekery VIII (spoilers ahoy!)

[Lothston]

I am somewhat hesitant to support the martial adept hypothesis without some more research. The Tome of Battle to my knowledge has never been used extensively in the comic, and remains a somewhat fringe mechanic in the 3.5 ruleset (much like psionics). By Occam's Razor I'd suggest completely ruling out the possibility of more regular builds before admitting ToB stuff.

So far it seems the only part of Tarquin's routine not easily explainable by simple fighter feats is the "dwarf throwing".The vast majority of what Tarquin is doing can very easily be explained by a relatively straightforward AoO/intelligent fighter build.

Panel by panel:

Panel 1. Roy attacks, T dodges (Roy fails his attack roll due to T's Dex or Dodge bonus to AC) - nothing special here, except we know T has a measurable Dex/Dodge AC bonus;

Panel 2. Since Roy's attack is now "resolved", Robilar's Gambit kicks in, and T performs an AoO vs. Roy. He chooses to use the AoO to perform a trip attack (successfully). Since this trip attempt does not provoke an AoO from Roy, Tarquin likely has the Improved Trip feat.

Panel 4. Quick Draw + Deflect Arrows + Snatch Arrow, as pointed out before.

Panel 5. Hold the Line. Tarqin uses his AoO vs. charging Belkar to stab him with the arrow (improvised melee weapon).

Panel 6. Tarquin makes his save, or has immunity to enchantments.

Panel 7. Having cast a spell in Tarquin's threatened space, Durkon provokes an AoO from Tarquin, who chooses to use it to throw Durkon.

This is probably the only part of the sequence where no easy answer comes to mind. Fling Enemy can be taken by a medium creature with Powerful Build and rock hurling (hulking hurler levels?). There's even this amazing picture in Races of Stone:



which seems to illustrate the concept of "person throwing" quite well (Fling Ally in this case). With a little creative tinkering (and maybe a specially crafted magic item that duplicates the effects of "powerful build"), this feat could have been adapted for Tarquin's use in Rich's universe.

Of course, I'm not saying Tarquin can't have martial adept levels - actually, it would have been cool to see ToB mechanics introduced into the comic by such an awesome character.

So the "dwarf toss" is either a regular combat feat/ability that we simply haven't yet put our fingers on, or a few martial adept levels thrown in Tarquin's deadly multiclass mix.

What I wouldn't do, though, is assume Tarquin is principally a martial adept. In that case he would have probably been using maneuvers much more extensively, rather than Fighter feat chains (martial adepts are quite starved for feats as compared to Fighters), and like I said, all of his actions with a singe exception so far are explainable by Fighter feats.

Cheers.