OOTS #808 - The Discussion Thread

[jebmak]

Just wanted to say, "I loved that last line."

[WickedWizard17]

Yeah, but not as much as I loved it when he told Thog to "Stop talking." Talk about throwing it in his face . . . xD

[Red XIV]

I think it's interesting that we see a little softer side of Thog here. The whole "Thog Hate? What was Thog saying?". I'm going to be intrigued to see if, when he comes back, he is :Belkar:'s true opposite...a Chaotic Good ( or Neutral maybe?) character in an Evil party.

I'm pretty sure it was a display of Thog being stupid: he simply forgot what he was so enraged about.

[Chaotick]

Roy finally delivers a well-shaken can of whoop-ass upon Thog. This was definitely worth the wait.

No idea if anyone mentioned this yet, but I think the title might be a double pun!
Someone already said that that's the panel where Roy gets the idea of bringing the whole place down with his cranium.
But the thing is, it's also his actual location: down the five rows (that is, the spectator rows) and beyond three columns (pillars). Well played.

[tcrudisi]

I think it's interesting that we see a little softer side of Thog here. The whole "Thog Hate? What was Thog saying?". I'm going to be intrigued to see if, when he comes back, he is :Belkar:'s true opposite...a Chaotic Good ( or Neutral maybe?) character in an Evil party.

I interpreted it as his rage wearing off. When he stopped raging, he was confused as to why he was so angry to begin with. The timing seems to support my theory as well, since he had been raging for what seemed to be a couple of minutes.

[FujinAkari]

o idea if anyone mentioned this yet, but I think the title might be a double pun!
Someone already said that that's the panel where Roy gets the idea of bringing the whole place down with his cranium.
But the thing is, it's also his actual location: down the five rows (that is, the spectator rows) and beyond three columns (pillars). Well played.

Nice catch but, yes, someone had beat you too it ^^

Comic title refers to both the specific column Roy hits and also the panel in which he figures it out? Nice meta-joke.

[gamingfreak10]

it's also a discription of what roy breaks,
5 rows (of seats) fall down and 3 collumns fall over

[NerfTW]

WAIT!

Where is Belkar?

Probably in another area. In order for the fight between Mr. Scruffy and the wolf to have taken place, the guards carrying away Z have probably been walking for a few minutes. I'd expect Belkar and Roy to meet up in the next comic, but there wouldn't have been enough time for Belkar to have even reacted to Thog and Roy, let alone help out.

[Cranica]

I think it's interesting that we see a little softer side of Thog here. The whole "Thog Hate? What was Thog saying?". I'm going to be intrigued to see if, when he comes back, he is :Belkar:'s true opposite...a Chaotic Good ( or Neutral maybe?) character in an Evil party.

I direct you to panel 5 of this comic. Thog is Evil-with-a-capital-E, just because he's stupid and easily confused doesn't make him Good any more than it makes Elan evil.

[Chad30]

Some people call this draco in leather pants. It's when a villain is liked by the audience for something (looks, much of the time), and they gloss over the bad stuff that the person does. Thog is an interesting character, but he is a sociopath. He's not a complete monster, but certainly doesn't fit into chaotic good.

He may or may not be evil. It depends on how much he understands. I don't know what alignment Giant has him listed as.

[Cranica]

He may or may not be evil. It depends on how much he understands. I don't know what alignment Giant has him listed as.

Courtesy of the geekery thread, he's either Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil. I'd go with neutral, personally, since he's not straight Barbarian and hasn't demonstrated any particular trend towards Chaotic over, say, Ice Creamful.

[Kish]

Courtesy of the geekery thread, he's either Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil. I'd go with neutral, personally, since he's not straight Barbarian and hasn't demonstrated any particular trend towards Chaotic over, say, Ice Creamful.

I would venture that making life-and-death decisions based on ice cream is highly Chaotic.

[Chad30]

Yeah, I remember that strip where he said he only held off going on a rampage as long as he still had ice cream. I forget his exact words.

I guess he's evil, then. Let his low intelligence not be an excuse for what he does. Still entertaining, though.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Page 3, panel 5. Anybody else think that Roy's leg looks like it shouldn't be able to support his weight? I know its the art style but the extreme bow in the leg is just.....disconcerning to me.

[i6uuaq]

I direct you to panel 5 of this comic. Thog is Evil-with-a-capital-E, just because he's stupid and easily confused doesn't make him Good any more than it makes Elan evil.

Was Tarquin's comment in that panel meant as meta-commentary on how many of us still love Thog in spite of his violent tendencies?

Never noticed that before.

[Cranica]

Was Tarquin's comment in that panel meant as meta-commentary on how many of us still love Thog in spite of his violent tendencies?

Never noticed that before.

Maybe not Thog specifically, but the villains in this comic are awesome enough to pick up serious fanbases. I think it was intended as a prod from the Giant to remind said fanbases that yes, while they're stylish as hell, they're still very much Evil. Those small text speech bubbles are usually leaning on the fourth wall a bit in other strips, so I definitely think it's intended to be meta.

[Zorgophlats]

Page 3, panel 5. Anybody else think that Roy's leg looks like it shouldn't be able to support his weight? I know its the art style but the extreme bow in the leg is just.....disconcerning to me.

Karate side kick. He's doing it right. I had to practice that one. It looks wrong because the art style won't let his boot bend at the ankle.

[recapdrake]

never again will we think of intellegence on fighters as prestige prereqs.

[Holy_Knight]

Actually I figured Roy was doing it intentionally even without knowing about the dungeoncrashing rules because of his facial expression. The flat or angry eyebrows as he's taunting and taking the hits from Thog just made me think it was on purpose, something which made a great deal of sense shortly afterwards.

Right. It seemed clear to me both that Roy was following a plan and what the plan was supposed to accomplish. Making a point of explaining it in a thought balloon would have been clunky and dampened the scene's impact.

[lesser_minion]

The pillars being broken by that little damage may be unlikely, but they didn't instantly shatter or break, they broke when enough damage had been done to the structure, and Roy mentions his Knowledge skill to spot the right spots to apply the damage.

The Knowledge skill simply lets you note that a cave-in could occur in a given area. You don't need any skill check to understand how to cause a cave-in once you know it could occur (according to the DMG, you have to destroy "half of the pillars holding the ceiling up").

For reference, this could kill Thog -- a cave-in deals 8d6 or 3d6 lethal damage, plus 1d6 nonlethal damage per minute until unconscious. Once unconscious, you make a constitution check (DC 15). A failure means that you take d6 lethal damage each minute thereafter until rescued or slain.

We don't know whether or not Thog will die here, but there's a rules justification either way.

Also for reference, there is no attack roll for a bull rush, only an opposed strength check (it would also provoke an attack of opportunity, but unarmed combatants aren't entitled to them).

[Phishfood]

There seems to be some confusion over why Roy is taunting Thog, as well as some people who think Roy should have just jumped out of the way, so maybe I should break this down:

-snip-

If you think that Roy was just getting his ass kicked until he got lucky and the roof fell, you are fundamentally misunderstanding what happened. Maybe that's my fault, but I was loathe to put in a clumsy speech balloon like, "If I can just get him to bull rush me into those three columns..."

It made perfect sense to me. I think even if you HAD spelt it out in a speech bubble people would still be asking.

*me thinks about 'The Windwalk Incident'*