Word of Recall

[BenjCano]

With regards to the events of 906 - At first I was stunned - jaw dropped and flabbergasted. I did not see this twist coming and thought it was brilliant

Then I remembered what happened to Redcloak when he was on the ropes - his divine focus taken and one eye ripped out and one round away from death. He played the old Cleric "Get out of Imminent Death Free" card in the form of Word of Recall.

Why didn't Malack Recall his way back to Bleedingham? Obvious answer; he didn't have it memorized. But why didn't he have it memorized? I know this borders on the, "Why aren't characters in OotS-verse optimized/make the best possible tactical decision," but to paraphrase Julia with regards to an evil gnome druid and a certain feat; "wait, you mean there are clerics that don't prepare Word of Recall every day?"

[RMS Oceanic]

He was out of adventuring shape? He's been sitting securely in one castle or another for around ten years, so maybe he fell out of the habit of preparing it.

[JBiddles]

Because Malack was so enraged at Nale that he used his one action to try to kill Nale.

[Defiant]

Word of Recall is a spell and spells require a standard action in D&D. When a vampire is exposed to sunlight, they are first disoriented, and subsequently limited to one move or attack action before they are utterly destroyed.

[RMS Oceanic]

Word of Recall is a spell and spells require a standard action in D&D. When a vampire is exposed to sunlight, they are first disoriented, and subsequently limited to one move or attack action before they are utterly destroyed.

Then explain Slay Living. That's casting a spell as much as Word of Recall would have been.

Also "attack actions" aren't a thing. You have full round, move, or standard. Attacking or casting a spell is usually a standard action.

I'm actually fond of the "too much pain/too enraged to think of it" theory.

[Psyren]

Z would have simply counterspelled it and that would be that; this was Malack's time to die. As far as why the Giant didn't bother to show that sequence, there wasn't really any point in it. A vampire in the sun only gets one standard action, and it was more important for us to see that:

(a) Malack hates Nale enough to make a murder attempt his last action on earth.
(b) Nale is smart enough (when he puts his mind to it ) to have planned for exactly that.

The Slay Living -> "Oh, please" exchange was more important to Nale's character and the story in general than watching a thwarted escape attempt by Malack.

[Cheiromancer]

Word of Recall is a spell and spells require a standard action in D&D. When a vampire is exposed to sunlight, they are first disoriented, and subsequently limited to one move or attack action before they are utterly destroyed.

But what about the slay living? Although I suppose an attack spell could count as an attack action. More than a word of recall would.

Poor Malack.

edit: Wow. Fast moving thread. Two responses since I started this reply.

[theinsulabot]

Actually that might even explain why Z stayed out of the fight. I thought he was doin so under orders but part of bales plan might have actually been cast dispel then on your next turn, ready counterspell against word of recall.

EDIT: you could even take that a step further and say the plan included a note not to bother if malak tried a negative energy spell since its my personal belief that drinking the negative energy potion was the cue to kill malack.

[Psyren]

That's another issue too - the RAW is "attack action." Which can be literally interpreted to be "action used to attack." Under no interpretation is Word of Recall an attack.

[Defiant]

Then explain Slay Living. That's casting a spell as much as Word of Recall would have been.

Also "attack actions" aren't a thing. You have full round, move, or standard. Attacking or casting a spell is usually a standard action.

I'm actually fond of the "too much pain/too enraged to think of it" theory.

No, it's not casting a spell as much as Word of Recall would have been.

Actions in Combat says: "Making an attack is a standard action."

Vampires "can take only a single move action or attack action and is destroyed utterly in the next round if [they] cannot escape."

The monster entry improperly references an "attack action" without properly defining it. Therefore, it must be referring to an "attack". We can thus summarize the situation as follows:

A vampire can take only a single move action, or a single standard action that is an attack (or part of an attack), before being destroyed utterly if it didn't escape.

Malack could not have cast Word of Recall since it would not have been an attack.

[Kish]

I know this borders on the, "Why aren't characters in OotS-verse optimized/make the best possible tactical decision," but to paraphrase Julia with regards to an evil gnome druid and a certain feat; "wait, you mean there are clerics that don't prepare Word of Recall every day?"

You do realize that Leeky Windstaff didn't have Natural Spell, right? (He turned back into a gnome to go back to fighting with spells.)

Yes, this doesn't border on "Why don't characters in OotS make the best possible tactical decisions"--it's right there in the middle of it. The answer is that Malack wasn't as prudent as Redcloak. That's all.

[Michaeler]

How long has it been since they left Bleedingham?

If Malack hadn't expected to go walkies today, maybe he simply didn't prepare it? I'm sure he'd have had plenty of options had he been within a built up area.

Edit: Ah no, I've checked again, Durkon at least had to refresh his spells to reunite V with the party, so whatever spells Malack had prepared were the ones he chose.

[Sylthia]

It's a 6th level spell, and maybe he thought his higher level spell slots were better spent on something else.

[King of Nowhere]

Malack was relatively low on cleric levels. with a cr of 20, maybe he felt he could not afford to spend a 6th level slot on word of recall. It's quite redundant anyway, since he can always escape in gas form. Being stuck in sunlight is the only time when word of recall would really be useful. But then, that would requiren someone to dispel it in the first place, something to prevent him from casting his second prepared slot, and something to prevent him from casting it from the staff. Pretty unlikely, I say. I think another heal or harm or windwalk slot would be a reasonable choice.

[Tock Zipporah]

With regards to the events of 906 - At first I was stunned - jaw dropped and flabbergasted. I did not see this twist coming and thought it was brilliant

Then I remembered what happened to Redcloak when he was on the ropes - his divine focus taken and one eye ripped out and one round away from death. He played the old Cleric "Get out of Imminent Death Free" card in the form of Word of Recall.

Why didn't Malack Recall his way back to Bleedingham? Obvious answer; he didn't have it memorized. But why didn't he have it memorized? I know this borders on the, "Why aren't characters in OotS-verse optimized/make the best possible tactical decision," but to paraphrase Julia with regards to an evil gnome druid and a certain feat; "wait, you mean there are clerics that don't prepare Word of Recall every day?"

What it comes down to is this: Clerics easily have a dozen or more spells that could provide protection from daylight in that situation (off the top of my head, Darkness, Deeper Darkness, Wall of Stone to make a shelter, Obscuring Mist, maybe Summon Monster in a pinch could summon something big enough to provide shade). You can argue endlessly about "Could Malack have cast X to survive?"

But he was meant to die, the plot demanded it. If the Giant had wanted to, he could have showed Z dispelling any spell Malack tried to cast, or Nale using a readied action to disrupt spellcasting. Instead he showed Nale using Protection from Negative Energy to survive.

One way or another, Nale and Z were taking Malack down.

[Blas_de_Lezo]

Perhaps he had it memorized and burned it down in the fight with Durkon to heal itself spontaneously.

EDIT: also, a vampire in direct sunlight only gets a single move action before being utterly destroyed: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/vampire.htm If Rich gave Malack one standard action, it was for narrating purpose only. Even if he had cast Word of Recall, Z could have counterspell (remember that he hasn't taken any actions since they expose Malack to the light, so he could be readying an action to counterspell).

[BenjCano]

The monster entry improperly references an "attack action" without properly defining it. Therefore, it must be referring to an "attack". We can thus summarize the situation as follows:

A vampire can take only a single move action, or a single standard action that is an attack (or part of an attack), before being destroyed utterly if it didn't escape.

Malack could not have cast Word of Recall since it would not have been an attack.

See, I wasn't going to go into the "vampires in sunlight are limited to attack actions (whatever those are)" pedantry because I thought the simplest solution to that was that the Giant had simply decided to mentally re-write that part of the entry for the same improper wording that you referenced. Malack got a standard action, and used it to attempt to take Nale down with him, and I don't care that it's not RAW.

What I care about is that it's not just a lack of tactical planning or optimization, but that it's not in keeping with his character. Remember, Malack is paranoid, cautious, and a schemer. He's part of a long-con to subjugate a continent with proxies and false flags, he helps other clerics research spells that he builds back doors into, he studies obscure grappling techniques in case he can't magically overcome an opponent and is willing to engage in a war of attrition with a cleric on-level with him.

In the novel, "Small Favor" by Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden goes to meet with three immortal wizards who are in league with Fallen Angels. Harry surprises the heck out of them by charging directly at them, causing them to scatter. His explanation for why he did so informs my thinking on this Malack incident.

Harry Dresden realized that the longer someone's been alive, cheating death, the more paranoid and fearful of death they actually become, and the greater the lengths they'll go to if presented with a threat. Hence, scattering and regrouping when an enemy unexpectedly charges right at you is preferable to standing up to them and blasting them with magic or sheer physical might.

Xykon shows that same kind of mentality on two occasions; when Ghost Soon reveals that he knows that Redcloak's holy symbol is his phylactery, his response isn't to continue the fight until he's won, because now there's the possibility of defeat. He immediately wants to bug out. No matter how close they are to winning, his immortality is threatened, and he's leaving NOW.

Same when he was fighting Darth V and dismissed the arcane power of the two soul splices. Be a lich or a vampire or a Dorian Gray knock-off. Do whatever it takes to stay in the game and avoid the Fires Below, Xykon said, otherwise you're not really playing.

Malack took three actions, in essence, when he started burning. He sent Durkon after his staff to get a fresh application of the protection spell (he didn't seem worried that Z would counterspell or dispel that), he looked around for shelter, and then tried to kill Nale. He didn't Word of Recall away , almost certainly because he didn't have it memorized.

Given what I wrote above about the psychology of the undead and immortal fearing death more than almost anything else, it's just inconceivable to me not to take the precaution of preparing WoR.

[DeliaP]

Most clerics (who were sufficiently high level that they have a "spare" 6th lvl spell slot) would prepare it as the last resort, GTFO-or-die spell. That's because most clerics, when reduced to less than 0hp or less, die.

Malack, OTOH, iswas a vampire. If he was put in a GTFO-or-die situation, he had a completely different, and in many ways rather better, option: go into gaseous form and drift away, making snarky comments along the way. It's a better option, because it allows him to reform and rejoin his party much faster.

(I once had my paladin chasing after a vampire he'd put into gaseous form, to prevent it reforming and/or see if he could follow it back to his coffin. It's really very hard to do anything to stop them escaping if you didn't prepare the ground really well...)

Malack didn't need to waste a spell-slot of Word of Recall, because very few things could actually threaten to really kill him anyway, and it's not clear Word of Recall would help with those:

- Put below 0 hp, and be more than 2 hrs from the coffin? If he was under threat of being below 0 hp, he could go into gaseous form, instead of Word of Recall.

- If he was put under 0 hp by a sudden surprisingly big amount of damage? Well he wouldn't have been able to cast Word of Recall then anyway.

- Direct sunlight? Protection from Daylight. Someone dispels it? Have it prepared twice. (Someone dispels it twice? Have it in your staff.)

- Falling into running water? Not sure if Word of Recall would have helped. (speculation, but we also don't know if Malack didn't have Protection from Running Water!)

The point being that Malack was actually very well prepared using apparently lesser spells, so had no apparent need to use up a powerful high level spell slot.

In fact Malack had pretty good backup protection to what did kill him, it's just Nale was very well aware of those backups, and played his hand very well.

[factotum]

What I care about is that it's not just a lack of tactical planning or optimization, but that it's not in keeping with his character. Remember, Malack is paranoid, cautious, and a schemer.

Which is why he prepares *two* castings of Protection from Daylight and also has the spell locked in to his staff. Is that not crazy enough prepared for you? There comes a point where even the most cautious character has to say, "If I prepare any more corner case or defensive spells I won't have anything left to attack with!", and in Malack's case this was where he drew the line.

[Wolfwood2]

Sixth level slots may well be Malack's highest level spell slot. It's easiest to say that he should 'always' memorize word of recall, but there's other spells competing for that slot and competing hard. He has the additional problem that he's tied to his coffin. It's a strength, but also a weakness.

If he leaves his coffin at home, he's screwed if he can't word of recall back to it. If he takes his coffin with him, then word of recall means he's just taken himself away from it and is vulnerable to assassins until he gets it within gaseous form range of his coffin again.

Given other classes seem to survive okay without Word of Recall, I can accept that he doubled up on his other protections and called it a day.

[Defiant]

See, I wasn't going to go into the "vampires in sunlight are limited to attack actions (whatever those are)" pedantry because I thought the simplest solution to that was that the Giant had simply decided to mentally re-write that part of the entry for the same improper wording that you referenced. Malack got a standard action, and used it to attempt to take Nale down with him, and I don't care that it's not RAW.

I don't see it as overly uncharacteristic for the Giant to agree with the D&D entries. Since when are vampires destroyed utterly by direct sunlight in a mere moment? There is plenty of literature that has vampires slowly burning to death over a course of minutes, rather than seconds. Only in D&D does it presume that a vampire has exactly 6 seconds before it is completely annihilated. As such, there are two directions you can go with this:

1. You can grant the author a liberal artistic license

There are numerous reasons why Malack would not prepare it. Perhaps it is prepared in his staff, or perhaps it is out of his level. That is, maybe his character level is so high that level 6 cleric spells are out of his reach or at the very top end of his reach. When a wizard has to make a choice between a 9th-level awesome-power spell and a 9th-level awesome-defense spell, it makes more sense to go for the power and shuffle the lower ones to more defense now. After all, what's the point of being a powerful spellcaster if you give up that power in exchange for being more prepared defensively.

I'd rather not whip out the contrived "it's the plot" defense, since that doesn't excuse poor writing or poor outcomes. But it was fairly clear in Malack's death throes that he knew he was doomed.

Why didn't Malack have "Word of Recall" prepared? Because in reality he actually did. Except the spell was called "Protection from Daylight". And he had already used it. By this I mean, he already committed lower spell-slots to his own defense. If he could actually cast level 6 cleric spells, he would likely use them for something powerful, not defensive. Note that his final action was a level 5 spell.

Vaarsuvius has already lampshaded how wizards, and by extension clerics, cannot possibly protect themselves from every conceivable threat. Malack had already protected himself from every conceivable threat by already having an extra Protection from Daylight spell prepared, and keeping even more extra in his staff.

2. You can hold the author rigidly accountable to D&D rules

In this case, the reading of D&D vampires and D&D spells comes to the same conclusion. Although I find holding an author unnecessarily rigidly to such rules, some more contrived than others, ridiculous... in this particular situation it still works out.

And it's important that it works in this situation and not that important in others where it is minutiae, since Malack's actual death is reliant on the D&D rules that vampires die so damn fast when exposed to daylight. So it makes sense that the scene should be faithful to all the other related technical details.

Thus, either way, Malack was destined to die a reasonable death (without having to invoke the old "the plot demands it" excuse).

[Rogar Demonblud]

He also could have had WoR memorized, and burned it for that Harm during the fight with Durkon.

[Kish]

Xykon shows that same kind of mentality on two occasions; when Ghost Soon reveals that he knows that Redcloak's holy symbol is his phylactery, his response isn't to continue the fight until he's won, because now there's the possibility of defeat. He immediately wants to bug out. No matter how close they are to winning, his immortality is threatened, and he's leaving NOW.

Same when he was fighting Darth V and dismissed the arcane power of the two soul splices. Be a lich or a vampire or a Dorian Gray knock-off. Do whatever it takes to stay in the game and avoid the Fires Below, Xykon said, otherwise you're not really playing.

For each, you leave out a crucial detail. When Xykon was fighting Soon, he was completely blithe about the risk to himself and his phylactery until Soon spelled out exactly how he would destroy Xykon; indeed, Xykon's abrupt shift to self-preservation would have been too late without Miko's intervention. When Xykon fought Spliced-Vaarsuvius, whatever he said about not being willing to be destroyed, he also laughed at the idea that he would retreat.

[Blarmb]

Why didn't Malack Recall his way back to Bleedingham? Obvious answer; he didn't have it memorized. But why didn't he have it memorized?

"Because Plot". More specifically because Durkon needs to be not a mind-controlled pawn because the "Party member out of the group" thing was already done, and it's not close enough to end of the story to kill someone off permanently.

[BenjCano]

For each, you leave out a crucial detail. When Xykon was fighting Soon, he was completely blithe about the risk to himself and his phylactery until Soon spelled out exactly how he would destroy Xykon; indeed, Xykon's abrupt shift to self-preservation would have been too late without Miko's intervention.

I didn't leave it out; it was kind of my point. Xykon was blithe to the situation because he didn't really think he was in danger. When Soon revealed that, yes, he was actually in danger, Xykon's reaction wasn't to fight harder and maybe take the ghost paladin down with him. It was to bug out instantly.

When Xykon fought Spliced-Vaarsuvius, whatever he said about not being willing to be destroyed, he also laughed at the idea that he would retreat.

Because he didn't think he was actually in danger. He had no reason to think that this "random evil elf dude/ette" knew what his soul-hidey place was or where it was kept. Even if Darth V blasted him to bits, he could still reform himself in his phylactery. The only time he expressed fear in that situation was when the phylactery was threatened with being dropped into the rift.

[Kish]

I didn't leave it out; it was kind of my point. Xykon was blithe to the situation because he didn't really think he was in danger. When Soon revealed that, yes, he was actually in danger, Xykon's reaction wasn't to fight harder and maybe take the ghost paladin down with him. It was to bug out instantly.

That's--

Xykon knew he was at risk of getting his body smashed by Soon. He knew Redcloak was right there, and also in danger. He knew his phylactery was right there.

And you think the fact that Xykon freaked out after Soon spelled out to him that he was in danger of destruction--but didn't bother to put the pieces together himself without Soon drawing him a picture--shows that all undead creatures make paranoid plans to preserve their own existences and it's unrealistic that Malack didn't realize he was in danger until it was too late?

Because he didn't think he was actually in danger. He didn't believe that this "random evil elf dude/ette" knew about his soul-hidey place. Even if Darth V blasted him to bits, he could still reform himself in his phylactery. The only time he expressed fear in that situation was when the phylactery was threatened with being dropped into the rift.

Again, given that your argument is that Malack was unrealistically unprepared, I'm really not sure why you're saying that Xykon's attitude of, "This person can be assumed not to know about my phylactery which is right there...that person can be assumed not to know about my phylactery which is right there..." shows prudence.

[Fish]

Why didn't he have Word of Recall prepared? Or if he prepared it, why didn't he use it? Because that's not how this scene ends. Rich already used Word of Recall once with Redcloak, and I deem it unlikely that Rich would duplicate that plot point again. Let me also say it now: it's unlikely that Redcloak will Word of Recall away during the final battle, too. It would recycle a plot point, then stall the dramatic payoff.

Is that a satisfying answer? To some, not to all. You might as well ask, "Why didn't Luke run away and join the Rebellion earlier?" Because he didn't.

I know Rich would not have provided an in-comic answer to this, as it would have given away the surprise. Malack would never have said, "I guess I won't need this Word of Recall spell today. I'll burn it as a 'healing' spell on myself." Then we, the readers, would have said, "Oho! Something is coming, where Malack will ironically be unable to Recall!" Way to give away the ending.

[Defiant]

Why didn't he have Word of Recall prepared? Because that's not how this scene ends. Rich already used Word of Recall once with Redcloak, and I deem it unlikely that Rich would duplicate that plot point again. Let me also say it now: it's unlikely that Redcloak will Word of Recall away during the final battle, too. It would recycle a plot point, then stall the dramatic payoff.

Is that a satisfying answer? To some, not to all. You might as well ask, "Why didn't Luke run away and join the Rebellion earlier?" Because he didn't.

You can't just have characters in the comic regularly using shields to protect themselves, and then have a character willfully or neglectfully fail to use one, resulting in his death. Just because the plot needed him to die. That's inconsistent and lazy. It does not make good storytelling.

In your hypothetical, Redcloak will not use Word of Recall because he will instead cast a powerful spell in a last-ditch effort to stop the good guys where it matters. This is similar to Luke. Luke went into a low-probability scenario knowing that it might save the rebels. Sometimes, a character would be willing to give up the opportunity to survive on the slim chance that they might win the crucial battle and survive anyways.

However hypothetical Redcloak doesn't use his WoR spell to escape (which he won't because of the plot), he will fail to do so in a reasonable manner. Be it dispelled, neglected through hubris, or ignored through strategy. If the author is a good storyteller (to which I'd point to the story we have before us as evidence).

This, of course, wasn't the case with Malack. But it's worth noting.

EDIT: Or was the case with Malack? You know what I mean.

[Psyren]

By RAW, he could not cast Word of Recall in this situation. And even if he could, it would have just gotten counterspelled.

There, argument over.

[Defiant]

By RAW, he could not cast Word of Recall in this situation. And even if he could, it would have just gotten counterspelled.

There, argument over.

To play devil's advocate...

Then why was the fact that he'd already cast Protection from Daylight an issue? Nale could have enacted that even if the spell was never cast on Durkon (or if he prepared three of it every day).

Possible explanation: his special spell either on its own or through the combination of the staff could be cast as a move (or free) action, per the reasonable purpose of having the spell.

If Z could counterspell, then why didn't he counterspell the Slay Living? Malack could only possibly cast one spell per round, and after dispelling it (or attempting to), Z could likewise ready another action to dispel.

Possible explanation: Z had only one remaining dispel spell, and was saving it for a spell that would spell self-preservation for Malack, being hazy on the particulars of how vampires die, and knowing Nale's potion and resistance.

***

There, I saved us another round of debating.