Whose gate was best protected?

[about50heavies]

Which gates do you think were best protected?

[Koo Rehtorb]

Well it's 3.5 so... the ones with epic level casters beside them.

[FujinAkari]

Definately Durokans. It took Xykon & co like a month to take it. Soon and Lirian's fell in a single afternoon.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Lirian did the best against them, actually. Considering she straight up won and all.

[Xelbiuj]

Soon's. Him and the other ghost martyrs were enough to kill an epic lich and high level cleric, they only got away because of dumb ass Miko.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Soon's. Him and the other ghost martyrs were enough to kill an epic lich and high level cleric, they only got away because of dumb ass Miko.

Nah. That was only because Xykon got cocky and got smacked around for it.

Lirian actually had a really good trap which worked perfectly and only failed in the end because she was too nice.

[Kareasint]

Nah. That was only because Xykon got cocky and got smacked around for it.

Lirian actually had a really good trap which worked perfectly and only failed in the end because she was too nice.

I am going to vote for Lirian's as well. The main reason why Redcloak was still able to cast spells was due to an artifact. Otherwise, he would have lost his spell casting abilities as well. Even if an army came it using non-magical fire, the elves and Lirian probably had that eventuality covered since lightning strikes due to weather occur all the time. Brute force of arms would be countered by the entire forest itself.

[about50heavies]

The weakest is probably girard gate

[Morph Bark]

The weakest is probably girard gate

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Sure, by the time the Order arrived it was prettymuch unguarded, but when the family was still alive there undoubtedly were some high-level sorcerers amongst them.

[Drakeburn]

The weakest is probably girard gate

I highly doubt that.

They had illusions, traps, and some high-level sorcerers in a family of sorcerers. The death of the Draketooth family was entirely vaarsuvius's fault.

[about50heavies]

From what we have seen they rely on illusions and traps to kill their opponents . Soon's gate had 2 armies protecting it one of ghosts and the azurite army. Lirian had the whole forest and without Xykon turning into a lich her gate would still be standing. Dorukon held off Xykon for months . Out of all the ones seen so far Girard's seems to be the weakest

[Kish]

We haven't gotten to Girard's actual Gate in the story yet. Making any declaration of the strength or weakness of its defenses would be roughly as premature as doing the same for Soon's Gate when the most recent strip was #448.

[Drakeburn]

From what we have seen they rely on illusions and traps to kill their opponents . Soon's gate had 2 armies protecting it one of ghosts and the azurite army. Lirian had the whole forest and without Xykon turning into a lich her gate would still be standing. Dorukon held off Xykon for months . Out of all the ones seen so far Girard's seems to be the weakest

Dorukon alone defended against Xykon. Without Dorukon, there wasn't anything or anybody else to fight off Xykon.

After Dorukon's defeat, it was a simple cakewalk for Xykon to take over. So in my perspective, Dorukon's dungeon was the weakest.

[about50heavies]

Given the fact that xykon killed an epic level wizard he would easily kill the draketooth family as girard is dead before the familicide spell. The illusion have no effect as Xykon does not care about sending minions to their deaths

[Eurus]

Girard's Gate is a hard power level to place, because Familicide is a really hard power level to place. With the sheer number of dragons it killed, we can assume it had the ability to bypass spell resistance and either a staggeringly high DC or no save at all. Which begs the question of if Harga was actually stronger than Xykon.

(You've got to admit, it'd be hilarious to see Xy get hit by an Epic Command Undead or something.)

[FujinAkari]

Given the fact that xykon killed an epic level wizard he would easily kill the draketooth family as girard is dead before the familicide spell. The illusion have no effect as Xykon does not care about sending minions to their deaths

What minions? They're all back in Gobtopia

[ReaderAt2046]

We can't make a call on this one because Kraagor's defenses still haven't even been tested. But of the others, I think Dorukan was probably the strongest, mostly because of the sigil-shield (the one that only the "pure of heart" can open). With that, the only way the gate could have been opened was for an evil to defeat Dorukan and then some good guy to decide to unlock the gate for the evil.

[Koo Rehtorb]

We can't make a call on this one because Kraagor's defenses still haven't even been tested. But of the others, I think Dorukan was probably the strongest, mostly because of the sigil-shield (the one that only the "pure of heart" can open). With that, the only way the gate could have been opened was for an evil to defeat Dorukan and then some good guy to decide to unlock the gate for the evil.

It's not that strong a protection. He could just kidnap some good aligned peasant and force them to touch it for him. A nuisance at best.

[FujinAkari]

It's not that strong a protection. He could just kidnap some good aligned peasant and force them to touch it for him. A nuisance at best.

A good aligned archmage? Because you have to do a fair bit more than just touch the sigil to deactivate it, one would think.

[JavaScribe]

Soon's was probably the strongest out of what we have seen so far.

For one thing, it had the resources of an entire city defending it. Sure, Xykon could have beaten every one of them save Soon by himself, but not in one day and they could have found ways to be a real nuiscance. He ended up needing an army to erase them.

For another thing, even with the fall of the city, he couldn't take the gate without dealing with Soon. Soon had already proven him unable to do so short of losing his prize. Also, does "killing" an Oath spirit deal with it permanently, or does it get to come back after some number of days like a ghost? That would have made a weeks long ritual impossible, even if they could defeat Soon each and every time he came back.

[about50heavies]

What minions? They're all back in Gobtopia

Xykon still has undead minions

[JavaScribe]

A good aligned archmage? Because you have to do a fair bit more than just touch the sigil to deactivate it, one would think.

One would think, and we don't really know, but Xykon seemed to feel that Elan touching it would be sufficient. It was certainly sufficient for a certain magic item Durokan had stowed away inside his dungeon.

[Koo Rehtorb]

A good aligned archmage? Because you have to do a fair bit more than just touch the sigil to deactivate it, one would think.

Well, I suppose Xykon could be wrong about what it took, but that would make part of the climax of the whole battle kind of anti-climactic.

[Agnostik]

I'm betting on Kraagor's / Serini's.

[ReaderAt2046]

It's not that strong a protection. He could just kidnap some good aligned peasant and force them to touch it for him. A nuisance at best.

Then why didn't he? I sort of assumed that it had to be done vonluntarily or it wouldn't work.

[JavaScribe]

Then why didn't he? I sort of assumed that it had to be done vonluntarily or it wouldn't work.

Possibly because Xykon is lazy, a group of adventurers was already handy, and most importantly, the story wouldn't have worked otherwise. But even if willingness is required, it would be pretty easy for an epic sorcerer to disguise himself with an illusion and bluff a good aligned peasant into it.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Xykon doesn't exactly take things seriously most of the time. Using the convenient party of adventurers to do it was probably more fun. Also he hadn't figured it out until they were already pretty close to his lair; so, why not?

[Drakeburn]

I have to agree on two things.....

1. We haven't seen the best of all the defenses of every gate guardian yet. So we don't know for sure which one is the best.

2. So far, Soon's defenses are the strongest, with an army, ghost paladins, and city defenses. They would've had a better chance if it wasn't for Kubota, Julio Scoundrel, and Miko (and probably Belkar's mark of justice, but I'm not sure).

[Koo Rehtorb]

2. So far, Soon's defenses are the strongest, with an army, ghost paladins, and city defenses. They would've had a better chance if it wasn't for Kubota, Julio Scoundrel, and Miko (and probably Belkar's mark of justice, but I'm not sure).

Don't agree. If you're in their position the thing you're going to have to worry about is epic level threats. City defenses, an army and lowish level minions are barely going to slow an epic level challenge down.

The only thing in that city that was capable of seriously inconveniencing a real threat was ghost Soon himself. And ghost Soon isn't nearly as dangerous as an epic level druid, wizard or sorcerer.

Realistically Xykon could have beaten Azure City all by himself by flying around raining meteor swarms down on it and retreating to recover spells whenever he ran out. Having an army just made it faster.

[JavaScribe]

Don't agree. If you're in their position the thing you're going to have to worry about is epic level threats. City defenses, an army and lowish level minions are barely going to slow an epic level challenge down.

The only thing in that city that was capable of seriously inconveniencing a real threat was ghost Soon himself. And ghost Soon isn't nearly as dangerous as an epic level druid, wizard or sorcerer.

Realistically Xykon could have beaten Azure City all by himself by flying around raining meteor swarms down on it and retreating to recover spells whenever he ran out. Having an army just made it faster.

Soon may not be as powerful as an equally leveled spellcaster, but he would have had Xykon dead certainly had the very thing Xykon was after remained intact. Also, how permanent is an Oath spirit's "death"?

In any case, whether the gates were sufficiently protected isn't the topic at hand, merely the best. And how do all the other gates compare to Soon's defenses? Dorukan may have been epic, but he didn't exactly prove himself very competant in their battle and the sigils are easily bypassed once you know the secret. Lirian's defenses were much stronger, but too specialized and couldn't handle something unnatural. Girard probably does have something very special up and waiting, but everything we've seen up to now has been terribly underwhelming, even taking into account how much stronger they would have been without the Familicide.