OOTS #1125 - The Discussion Thread

[Bluepaw]

An especially fitting smiley for today's comic, to be sure.

[Badend]

What I see - Mr Scruffy gets in Belkar's way and attacks him. Trying to fight back and kill Mr. Scruffy is something that is actually against Belkar's nature, so he gets a new will save and passes it.

[JumboWheat01]

Increasing the "funktastic" levels is as good a reason to touch something as anything, if you ask me.

[TuringTest]

Oh my oh my oh my I was rooting for that final Cure Moderate Wounds to work.

Dear Gods, Belkar with sunglasses is THE BADDASSEST EVER!

Time for some new ultra-cool merchandising, I suppose

[jidasfire]

Looks like it's up to Mr. Scruffy to save the day here. My own guess is he's going to jump up and activate the clasp on Belkar's cloak, which should break the domination, I believe. A freed Belkar should be enough to help turn the tide, at least for the moment. Of course, Belkar would be hemorrhaging life after that too, but we knew this wasn't going to be an easy fight.

[Leirus]

I think the stake Belkar has left has Ponchula name on it. I can see him killing her over an order to "kill the cat and be done with it". But maybe I am being to Belker-centered. This is not just about him, after all.

[dragonjek]

My guess is that Belkar's about to snap out of Domination, but because no one can see that his eyes aren't swirly anymore, he'll pretend he's still under control to get close enough to stab (preferably Durkula) with the stake he still has hold of.

[brian 333]

See, Blackwing? That's the whole problem with being a hipster.: once the idea hits the street it's no longer hip. It's like a single-use magic item. You should have saved the glasses for need instead of burning its one use in a gag.

On the other hand, they do add to the SSGOW's coolness stat.

For those who are concerned, Blackwing is prone to histrionics. If he were a character he would be the highest level in the Order due to RP exp gained from roleplaying reactions to his injuries.

[fenfire]

Well, at least V's skin isn't getting any paler. Or am I misremembering and bleeding at/below 0 HP was never represented through this?

[Chei]

I have to give that little redhead gruntspawn some credit - she survived the initial Chaos Hammer, a Fireball, one or two melee attacks from Roy, who has essentially become Unded-B-Gon at this point, and she's still trucking along fighting. I give her one, two more pages, tops, sadly, but mad respect o7

Well, at least V's skin isn't getting any paler. Or am I misremembering and bleeding at/below 0 HP was never represented through this?

Nah, the getting paler thing was specifically from being drained by a vampire. It's only been seen on Durkon.

[Lord Torath]

Blackwing and Mr. Scruffy have been best buds ever since the arena. Look how angry Mr. Scruffy got when that off-brand attacked Blackwing (page 0.5 panels 5-6)!

[fenfire]

Nah, the getting paler thing was specifically from being drained by a vampire. It's only been seen on Durkon.

Indeed, I had a feeling I'm missing something. Although it was also the case with Belkar.

[M.A.D]

I was expecting that after the last one, actually. Things weren't looking quite bad enough. I figured that there would need to be at least one more strip before we'd see the memory.

I think that's a loose estimate. That memory would either contain something so shocking that Durkula is wholly distracted by it, or it would shock him into changing his worldview entirely. Well, I doubt anything like the latter could happen, but both would require some kinda critical situation, like a climax.

[denthor]

For a wizard's familiar, Blackwing's knowledge of known undead or spells is terrible. Once dominated, the victim doesn't need to maintain eye contact, so dark glasses wouldn't do anything. Also, dominated victims take no actions besides their orders and what's necessary for day to day survival. Belkar has either been ordered to attack Blackwing or he's interpreting vague orders to include that. Likely the latter, making Belkar a nasty person.

This the point. Groups of people do just plain silly things at the table that do not help.

An example I cast teleport another mage does not. The player is told keep close to me so we can leave. That player acts first I act last. The player level me in combat goes to the other mage so now an attack of opportunity arises as I must move 15 feet to get to them.

The way it should have worked all three move to me take out the opponent I act last teleport. Instead the fastest one walked away from me and battle. The other two do nothing in the round. I cast a spell move 5 feet fear a undead.

Next round those 3 do nothing but wait for me. 2 rounds go by because they did not come to me.

[137beth]

I Hope Blackwing doesn't die!

[Vingelot]

My guess is that Belkar's about to snap out of Domination, but because no one can see that his eyes aren't swirly anymore, he'll pretend he's still under control to get close enough to stab (preferably Durkula) with the stake he still has hold of.

My guess exactly. Cue a badass one-liner, what with those glasses and all.

[AutomatedTeller]

Is the new, completely silent, Belkar reminding anyone else of the Terminator?

[Doug Lampert]

The symbol of death got triggered. Blackwong cant die! On top of everything else this is a 3.5 ruleset parody; the backlash on V if Blackwing dies is going to be massive!

There is no massive backlash. The backlash is: Lose 200 XP per level, DC15 Fortitude Save for half.

So lose one to three encounter's worth of XP, there's no enabling rule for XP loss to ever cause a level loss (the reverse has a rule). So there's no immediate effect, and the long term effect is minimal.

[Windscion]

Alternate scenario:

To save V, Roy kills Belkar. Belkar is insta-vamped by Durkula who just cannot pass up the opportunity.

Now, take a guess as to what Belkar's worst memory is.

Obviously, this assumes Durkula has an insta-vamp available. But he might have held one in reserve to use on V...

[WolvesbaneIII]

Great. Now we have the T-1000 model Belkar. As if things weren't bad enough.

Well, as long as no one gives him a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range we should only be moderately screwed.

T-800. Or in his case, B-800.

T-1000 was the liquid metal guy.

But he's Belkar, we can call him the B-1000. I don't mind.

This strip was ok. I was hoping for more memories, but oh well...

[Xianthe]

Alternate scenario:

To save V, Roy kills Belkar. Belkar is insta-vamped by Durkula who just cannot pass up the opportunity.

Now, take a guess as to what Belkar's worst memory is.

Obviously, this assumes Durkula has an insta-vamp available. But he might have held one in reserve to use on V...

I'm not sure it works that way - I think vampirism is only an option if the death is caused by blood being drained by the vampire - the insta-vamp only negates the need for three days in the grave.

(Then again, my knowledge of 3.5 is pretty rusty these days, so I may be completely wrong here...)

[Jannoire]

Alternate scenario:

To save V, Roy kills Belkar. Belkar is insta-vamped by Durkula who just cannot pass up the opportunity.

Now, take a guess as to what Belkar's worst memory is.

Obviously, this assumes Durkula has an insta-vamp available. But he might have held one in reserve to use on V...

His worst memory COULD be the day in the pyramid, when Durkon got killed...
So, IF Belkar will become a vampire (which I highly doubt, btw), he will destroy Greg to save Durkon...

[Chei]

I'm not sure it works that way - I think vampirism is only an option if the death is caused by blood being drained by the vampire - the insta-vamp only negates the need for three days in the grave.

(Then again, my knowledge of 3.5 is pretty rusty these days, so I may be completely wrong here...)

Nope, you're spot-on. Only someone the vampires suck dry gets vamped. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure they're trying to save V for that. They'd have just had Belkar finish V off if they weren't.

[Arkku]

Looks like it's up to Mr. Scruffy to save the day here. My own guess is he's going to jump up and activate the clasp on Belkar's cloak, which should break the domination, I believe.

Could be, although I would guess for a simpler: Mr. Scruffy attacks Belkar, the vampire orders him to retaliate and the thought of harming Mr. Scruffy will snap him out of it.

[Rogar Demonblud]

How about mirrored sunglasses to reflect the gaze attack back? Do regular mirrors reflect a gaze attack back at the attacker? I guess if they do, the vampire would dominate itself... hmmmmmm.

Vampires are immune to mind affecting spells and effects.

Anyone else expecting Belkar to use a Horatio Caine one liner when he pulls off the shades?

[Darkhands]

Something is up with the kerning in the word 'funktastic'... I thought he was speaking jumbled up gibberish from his injury at first glance.

Probably just the font itself and those combinations of letters, but it might be a good idea to either tweak the kerning, or write it out with spaces between each letter and manually shop it into place.

[Dion]

My guess exactly. Cue a badass one-liner, what with those glasses and all.

Belkar is about to run out of bubblegum.

[Resileaf]

Even if vampirization is in the plans for Greg and his lackeys, Ponchula mentionned earlier how many high-level spells they burned off to insta-vamp so many thralls. I don't think vampirization is a risk for anyone in the Order right now.

[Psyren]

I don't think familiars in 3.5 edition are summoned in the strict sense of the D&D meaning of that word. I think there's rules that say the master looses XP when they die (which was mentioned in the stop where black wing deliberately fails to activate the scroll properly). The rules say if the familiar is raised from the dead, the master does not get the XP back.

But I don't think black wing will die. Something funnier will happen.

Replacing Blackwing without a cleric would take a year, which is time they certainly don't have. So I don't expect Blackwing to die here, though it's not impossible.

Would putting the sunglasses on a vampire stop the gaze attack ? At least until the vampire took them off ?

No - only blocking the gaze completely would work. At best sunglasses would provide concealment, which would only be a tiny percentage chance to avoid the gaze. Worse still, Belkar is already dominated, so obstructing his sight (or Greg's) at this point would do nothing.

Worse, a vampire's gaze is supernatural, so Roy's plan to try and get a dispel off would also do nothing.

How about mirrored sunglasses to reflect the gaze attack back ? Do regular mirrors reflect a gaze attack back at the attacker ? I guess if they do, the vampire would dominate itself... hmmmmmm.

Reflections, illusions and other such images can't be used to convey a gaze attack. Even if they could. Vampires are immune to dominate anyway.

[Windscion]

Little vampire teddy bears. With little vampbear fangs. Tucked in with you at night.