Murphy's Law 7: ...Maybe?

[t209]

So what Team Gale is supposed to do?
- We know that Llyod is a deserter from Racist Kago Army.
- Matt and Radec are now couple.
- Janine abused by Johan.
- Serrin is acting as an ambassador for her Mom.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Ah, it's good to be back!

#177: He Actually Made A Listen Check

[CWater]

Hmm...

so, either Miles is getting paranoid or they're screwed

[PurityIcekiller]

Welcome back, Coffee!

And this latest comic is reminding me of something. Or maybe someone.

[Marnath]

Hmm...

so, either Miles is getting paranoid or they're screwed

It can't be both?

[blackjack217]

It can't be both?

After all Stalin was defiantly paranoid. And he most certainly had enemies.

[t209]

Next Strip...
Will it be conversation between Radec and Matthew? (if you know what I mean for the location).

[Admiral Harkov]

There's another sleep deprived guy who's friend but not quite in the secret who just fell in front of the door. Asked to by spell deprived friend, perhaps?. Or the friend the non deprived one left back in the gallows scene. This latest most probably. The last panel is from his point of view.

Next strip should reveal who he is and if they're screwed or not.

[Alagaesian]

I must be a total nerd - the penultimate panel made me think "Ooh, they follow Galilean astronomy in Aequar" and I almost had to reread the strip so I could follow the action of the comic without getting caught up in that. I've always thought that teleportation was over-simplified in magical worlds - an error of a few degrees might put you miles above the planet's surface, if not completely in outer space. And then there's the risk of teleporting yourself into the ground, or into something/someone else...High Octane Nightmare Fuel right there.

On another note, I believe Miles is extremely paranoid. I thought his lack of sleep made that a given. Would you be able to fall asleep either if you thought the Mage General was hunting you down, waiting for you to make a mistake so he could hang you at the gallows? The question here is whether Miles is Properly Paranoid or just freaking out.

So yeah, Miles reminds me a bit of V, but their sleep deprivations were probably done for different reasons. V's was a workaholic, "I can sleep when I find them" mentality that most honor-roll students should be familiar with. Miles's is probably caused by the fear that Rust would sneak into his room and kill him if he ever fell asleep for too long.

[Draconi Redfir]

Looks to me like they are looking for other Plavaan-hybrids for something, secret amy perhaps? Smuggling them out?

Now that i think about it, maybe none of them volenteered, maybe there's a kago-wide draft or something and they are all too scared to reveal what they are.

[unleet]

What? Why would you think that? At that point the fetus has spent nine months developing as a human; she would immediately go into labor and deliver humans. But you'd have to be insane or in a seriously bad situation to wildshape that late into a pregnancy. In the very early stages it's not as immediately dangerous because embryos of different species are rather similar very early in pregnancy. It's still a bad idea.

A large number of fantasy settings don't operate on anything close to accurate, modern-day physics. Yours doing so is probably the exception, not the rule.

[alanajoli]

Coffee, just found this thread and enjoyed reading all the back episodes of your comic. I'll look forward to reading more!

[t209]

Coffee, what kind of rule does Murphy's Law use? Half elf didn't complain about their own mixed heritage (especially their penalty) in your webcomic and elf got rogue bonus.

[Silverraptor]

Coffee, what kind of rule does Murphy's Law use? Half elf didn't complain about their own mixed heritage (especially their penalty) in your webcomic and elf got rogue bonus.

Well, Serrin and Luic got alot of loving support from from both their parents and Half-elf bonus's aren't that bad. They're just a little harder to optimize, which Luic did by getting he Arcane Archer Prestige class, which only Elves and Half-elves can take.

And the rogue bonus you seem to be refering to for elves is their +2 Dexterity all elves get. Its a standard bonus in D&D.

[Alagaesian]

I just thought of something else regarding teleportation. The earth moves around the sun at roughly 30 km/s. Assuming that teleportation has a speed-of-light delay, then every 10 km you teleport, you'd have to adjust you teleportation distance by the fact that the earth would have moved one meter in that time. This may not sound like a big deal, but it would enough to easily get you killed if you forgot about it or miscalculated it. That's not even taking into account that Earth also rotates in that time, though the adjustment for that would be much smaller due to the rotational speed being only 465 m/s at the equator, resulting in an effective shift of millimeters.

Even if Aequar has a slower revolution speed than Earth, the difference would be nowhere on the scale of magnitude necessary to make teleportation even remotely safe unless you knew exactly what you were doing. Lexi has a point here - sleep deprivation and teleporting across countries do not mix.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Coffee, what kind of rule does Murphy's Law use? Half elf didn't complain about their own mixed heritage (especially their penalty) in your webcomic and elf got rogue bonus.

Well, Serrin and Luic got alot of loving support from from both their parents and Half-elf bonus's aren't that bad. They're just a little harder to optimize, which Luic did by getting he Arcane Archer Prestige class, which only Elves and Half-elves can take.

And the rogue bonus you seem to be refering to for elves is their +2 Dexterity all elves get. Its a standard bonus in D&D.

Optimizer Mode Activated: Sadly half else is one of the worse races in D&D 3.5, their only bonus is a diplomacy bonus which is quite easy to make negligible. Also Arcane Archer is also a terrible class as it needs spellcasting to get into it; but doesn't progress it and while the fluff makes Elves to be awesome wizards without really optimizing they are worse than many other races (that con penalty is terrible). Besides Luic entered as a bard which doesn't have the kind of spells that are useful for Arcane Archers, at least not right out of the box, in his place I would just dip it for one or two levels and then return to bard or a better prestige class.

But this is all from an strictly mechanical point of view, so my views might not apply.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Coffee, what kind of rule does Murphy's Law use? Half elf didn't complain about their own mixed heritage (especially their penalty) in your webcomic and elf got rogue bonus.

You're asking me if Serrin is complaining and angsty.

And yeah, they're not optimized, but since when does that make things fun? At least Serrin's not an evoker who banned conjuration and transmutation (she's a generalist, but if she did specialize, Serrin would be an abjurer with necromancy and enchantment as her barred schools. Also, Miles is a conjurer, and his barred schools are also necromancy and enchantment.).

[t209]

You're asking me if Serrin is complaining and angsty.

And yeah, they're not optimized, but since when does that make things fun? At least Serrin's not an evoker who banned conjuration and transmutation (she's a generalist, but if she did specialize, Serrin would be an abjurer with necromancy and enchantment as her barred schools. Also, Miles is a conjurer, and his barred schools are also necromancy and enchantment.).

I mean reference to Pompey, who's a tragic mixed race due to his bad bonus.
- Never played D&D but know some of it spells.

[Silverraptor]

I just thought of something else regarding teleportation. The earth moves around the sun at roughly 30 km/s. Assuming that teleportation has a speed-of-light delay, then every 10 km you teleport, you'd have to adjust you teleportation distance by the fact that the earth would have moved one meter in that time. This may not sound like a big deal, but it would enough to easily get you killed if you forgot about it or miscalculated it. That's not even taking into account that Earth also rotates in that time, though the adjustment for that would be much smaller due to the rotational speed being only 465 m/s at the equator, resulting in an effective shift of millimeters.

Even if Aequar has a slower revolution speed than Earth, the difference would be nowhere on the scale of magnitude necessary to make teleportation even remotely safe unless you knew exactly what you were doing. Lexi has a point here - sleep deprivation and teleporting across countries do not mix.

Heh. My friends theorized about the immovable rods and this. One session turned into a debate about using one as a one time battering ram to an Iron fortress.

[Maquise]

Heh. My friends theorized about the immovable rods and this. One session turned into a debate about using one as a one time battering ram to an Iron fortress.

If this keeps up, we may rival the Familicide in the body count, only with catgirls. What would that be called, a Felinogynicide?

[Hiro Protagonest]

Heh. My friends theorized about the immovable rods and this. One session turned into a debate about using one as a one time battering ram to an Iron fortress.

Well, it completely destroys the point of the Immovable Rod. So obviously that's not how it works.

[Lix Lorn]

I just thought of something else regarding teleportation. The earth moves around the sun at roughly 30 km/s. Assuming that teleportation has a speed-of-light delay, then every 10 km you teleport, you'd have to adjust you teleportation distance by the fact that the earth would have moved one meter in that time. This may not sound like a big deal, but it would enough to easily get you killed if you forgot about it or miscalculated it. That's not even taking into account that Earth also rotates in that time, though the adjustment for that would be much smaller due to the rotational speed being only 465 m/s at the equator, resulting in an effective shift of millimeters.

Even if Aequar has a slower revolution speed than Earth, the difference would be nowhere on the scale of magnitude necessary to make teleportation even remotely safe unless you knew exactly what you were doing. Lexi has a point here - sleep deprivation and teleporting across countries do not mix.

Teleportation magic is relative to a physical location such as the center of the planet or the ground, rather than the spatial point it currently occupies.

[leakingpen]

Well, it completely destroys the point of the Immovable Rod. So obviously that's not how it works.

no, but in a world in which the globe turns, that means an immovable rod has some built in factor to account for it. A good artificer should be able to remove that easily.

[Silverraptor]

Well, it completely destroys the point of the Immovable Rod. So obviously that's not how it works.

No it wouldn't. If the rod stayed in exactly in the same place on a rotating planet, then the planet would move away from the rod. If your position the rod to intercept the fortress at the time it stays in the exact space its at, then the fortress would ram into the rod at such a high speed. Thats what the whole argument was about.

Being that I was a dumb dwarf fighter, I couldn't really participate in the discussion except laugh at the argument between the DM and the spellcasters of the groups.

(Of course, the one who thought about this was the same person I got into this argument in another campaign):

Spoiler

Show

[Dusk Eclipse]

You're asking me if Serrin is complaining and angsty.

And yeah, they're not optimized, but since when does that make things fun? At least Serrin's not an evoker who banned conjuration and transmutation (she's a generalist, but if she did specialize, Serrin would be an abjurer with necromancy and enchantment as her barred schools. Also, Miles is a conjurer, and his barred schools are also necromancy and enchantment.).

Coffee do you know of the elves generalist wizard substitution level? Cause it is one of the best things you can do if you don't want to specialize as a wizard, and Serrin can take it as she is a half elf-

And I have to digress having an optimized party doesn't means you can't make things fun, you just have to scale the antagonist to keep their status as a threat. And I am pretty sure you can have a lot of fun with some things optimized characters do... I know there is a joke to be found in the spiked chain and expansion combo.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Coffee do you know of the elves generalist wizard substitution level? Cause it is one of the best things you can do if you don't want to specialize as a wizard, and Serrin can take it as she is a half elf-

I've heard of it, but what exactly is it?

[Dusk Eclipse]

They are racial substituion levels you can take at level 1, 3 and five (only 1 and 3 are worthwhile to be honest)

First Level gives you an extra spell known and an extra spell slot of the highest level you can cast.

third level: Doubles the benefit your familiar gives you, so in Serrin's case she would recieve a +6 to move silently when Fyr is within arms length

fifth level, replaces you bonus metamagic feat with one drawn from an archery focused list, not really worthwhile for a pure wizard, though I guess a ranged gish might like it.

[Qwertystop]

And the best part is, you can retroactively add that, since it hasn't been contradicted yet!

[CoffeeIncluded]

What exactly does a racial substitution level do? I mean, do you give up spell progression for it or something?

[Hiro Protagonest]

What exactly does a racial substitution level do? I mean, do you give up spell progression for it or something?

You take them case-by-case, meaning you don't have to take the whole package like most ACFs.

If you want to make this something professional though, you should stick to OGL and make up homebrew for anything not covered there. Maybe you could do that for the lower tier classes, like give Lloyd a homebrew paladin fix that bases either spellcasting off charisma or Divine Grace and Turn Undead off wisdom, and gives Smites per encounter or something. Seriously, those are really the only two changes you have to make to turn the paladin into a good tier 4. Maybe give him something for the fighter levels as well.