MitD XI: A good man

[3Power]

What combination of powers are you thinking of?

Timestop, Scry, Invisibility, Teleport x 2 Add Greater when needed.

That would both be an overkill and doesn't really help explain anything. Time Stop is a more difficult spell than Greater Teleport, and O-Chul and Vaarsuvius still had to get over 100 miles from the dungeon, so you likely eventually need a Greater Teleport anyway. There's no way the Time Stop helps.

Except it actually gives an explanation as to how MitD seemingly teleported them away at range. He didn't, he stopped time for everyone, including the readers.

Frankly, my money's on Ha-naga.

Access to wish, and fairly strong although, being gargantuan, too big for the umbrella (when moving), and lack of limbs make several scenes difficult to explain (like pulling on the rope). Not particularly vomit-inducing. Proposing a child version reduces the strength bellow appropriate amount. Psionic powers could explain the earthquake, but not the tower scene.

Most of this is nonsense.
In addition to the time stop combo mentioned above, it also has access to miracle, and as an advanced form of a basic D&D monster, is also fairly recognizable. It was hinted that monster is smaller than normal. Strength, earthquake and pulling rope can all be explained through spells. Nagas cast spells as sorcerors, which fits with him not knowing his own abilities. It's an abberation with a handsome face, absolutely vomit-inducing and yet beautiful. Not actually listed as speaking any languages, despite lesser naga being able to.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Timestop, Scry, Invisibility, Teleport x 2 Add Greater when needed.

Except it actually gives an explanation as to how MitD seemingly teleported them away at range. He didn't, he stopped time for everyone, including the readers.

That combination is solving a problem ("teleport at range") that doesn't exist in OotS.

Frankly, my money's on Ha-naga.
Most of this is nonsense.

I note that you didn't actually explain how any of it is nonsense.

In addition to the time stop combo mentioned above,

Which is unnecessary

it also has access to miracle

Which disqualifies it, since it therefore can also cast raise dead, which we know MitD can't.

, and as an advanced form of a basic D&D monster, is also fairly recognizable.

Which is irrelevant, and also likely false.

It was hinted that monster is smaller than normal. Strength, earthquake and pulling rope can all be explained through spells.

No, strength cannot be explained through spells for the purpose of the Tower scene, since casting strength-enhancing spells before a "hit lightly" contest is too stupid even by MitD standards.

It's an abberation with a handsome face, absolutely vomit-inducing and yet beautiful.

It's a snake. Snakes are not vomit-inducing.

Grey Wolf

[hamishspence]

it therefore can also cast raise dead, which we know MitD can't.

Didn't Redcloak cut the Monster off when he was "volunteering to help" - and make assumptions?


Something like:


"I can help"
"Do you have 5+ levels of Cleric?"
"No, but..."
"Then you can't help."

[b_jonas]

Except it [Teleport] actually gives an explanation as to how MitD seemingly teleported them away at range. He didn't, he stopped time for everyone, including the readers.

This is sort of a matter of opinion, but I do think there's a satisfying explanation for how the MitD could teleport them away, provided he's a monster who has access to a Greater Teleport spell or something similar. Right before the Escape, in #661 ninth panel, O-Chul's feet are off-panel and Vaarsuvius's feet are covered by Xykon. In #448, The Giant makes a joke where Xykon makes a touch attack just off-panel on O-Chul's ankle, so repeating the same trick later would sort of be fair on the readers, even if this time it's revealed later. (#464 makes a similar joke where Miko's deadly injury is hidden just off-panel.) We know that the MitD is powerful enough to leave his cage if he really wants to, he only remains in the cage because he's polite, and this is an exceptional case when he might ignore that. He could have quickly snuck out from the cage and make a touch attack, or more likely, reached out from the cage with only some appendage of his and make the touch attack that way. We don't see the side of his cage when he shouts Escape, that he's probably a large enough monster so might reach far, and that O-Chul and Vaarsuvius are oriented such that their feet is the body part closest to the MitD's cage. I know it's a stretch, and certainly works better in the special case when the MitD is a hive mind of insects, but it could work for other monsters too.

Ha-naga.
In addition to the time stop combo mentioned above, it also has access to miracle, […] Nagas cast spells as sorcerors,

Ha-nagas can cast Miracle as an arcane spell? Seriously? That spell is described as “You don’t so much cast a miracle as request one. You state what you would like to have happen and request that your deity (or the power you pray to for spells) intercede.” If that's true, then #541's “They'll let any old hack write a sourcebook these days.” really applies.

[hamishspence]

Ha-nagas can cast Miracle as an arcane spell? Seriously? That spell is described as “You don’t so much cast a miracle as request one. You state what you would like to have happen and request that your deity (or the power you pray to for spells) intercede.” If that's true, then #541's “They'll let any old hack write a sourcebook these days.” really applies.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/haNaga.htm

Ha-nagas can cast spells as 21st-level sorcerers, and can also cast cleric spells and spells from the domains of Chaos and Evil as arcane spells (save DC 33 + spell level). The DC is Charisma-based.

Them being able to do so isn't a power the Epic Handbook introduced though.

Certain core dragons, can do this too:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm

A dragon knows and casts arcane spells as a sorcerer of the level indicated in its variety description, gaining bonus spells for a high Charisma score. Some dragons can also cast spells from the cleric list or cleric domain lists as arcane spells.

(specifically, all the Metallic Dragons, Red Dragons, and Blue Dragons).

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Didn't Redcloak cut the Monster off when he was "volunteering to help" - and make assumptions?


Something like:


"I can help"
"Do you have 5+ levels of Cleric?"
"No, but..."
"Then you can't help."

He asked (sarcastically) if he had gained 5 levels of cleric overnight from eating mallomars. Since chewiness doesn't add XP, MitD effectively answered "no". Therefore, the species can't cast cleric spells without gaining levels.

This is sort of a matter of opinion, but I do think there's a satisfying explanation for how the MitD could teleport them away, provided he's a monster who has access to a Greater Teleport spell or something similar. Right before the Escape, in #661 ninth panel, O-Chul's feet are off-panel and Vaarsuvius's feet are covered by Xykon. In #448, The Giant makes a joke where Xykon makes a touch attack just off-panel on O-Chul's ankle, so repeating the same trick later would sort of be fair on the readers, even if this time it's revealed later. (#464 makes a similar joke where Miko's deadly injury is hidden just off-panel.) We know that the MitD is powerful enough to leave his cage if he really wants to, he only remains in the cage because he's polite, and this is an exceptional case when he might ignore that. He could have quickly snuck out from the cage and make a touch attack, or more likely, reached out from the cage with only some appendage of his and make the touch attack that way. We don't see the side of his cage when he shouts Escape, that he's probably a large enough monster so might reach far, and that O-Chul and Vaarsuvius are oriented such that their feet is the body part closest to the MitD's cage. I know it's a stretch, and certainly works better in the special case when the MitD is a hive mind of insects, but it could work for other monsters too.

Much easier on the ol' Occam's razor: canonically, OotS does not require contact to cast mass teleport.

Ha-nagas can cast Miracle as an arcane spell? Seriously? That spell is described as “You don’t so much cast a miracle as request one. You state what you would like to have happen and request that your deity (or the power you pray to for spells) intercede.” If that's true, then #541's “They'll let any old hack write a sourcebook these days.” really applies.

Yes, it can. It can "cast cleric spells and spells from the domains of Chaos and Evil as arcane spells (save DC 33 + spell level)." (source)

Grey Wolf

[hamishspence]

If a Ha Naga picked that spell for its sorcerer list, it has it. Some might pick Wish instead though, and not want unneccessary duplication of capabilities when it comes to 9th level slots.

So, some Ha Nagas might have Wish, some Miracle, some both, and some neither (very suboptimal).

[b_jonas]

No, it can't. It simply can "cast cleric spells and spells from the domains of Chaos and Evil as arcane spells (save DC 33 + spell level)." (source)

Ah ok. So it won't have Miracle, because Miracle is not available as either a sorcerer spell or in those two cleric domains. That is much better. The spells from those two domains actually make sense as arcane spells.

Err... yes, it will: "can cast cleric spells and spells from the domains of Chaos and Evil" (emphasis mine).

(I misread it exactly as you did; corrected my post above)

Whoa. WTF. That definitely makes no sense. I can buy that a powerful custom caster can cast Create Food and Water as an arcane spell, since the sorcerer spell Mage’s Magnificent Mansion also creates real food and water. You could even convince me that a powerful arcane caster can cast Silence as an arcane spell. But I definitely don't buy Miracle as an arcane spell.

Not that it matters for the MitD, since a Ha-Naga would also have access to Wish, and casting that can definitely do what the MitD did, and Wish costs 5000 XP just like Miracle.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Ah ok. So it won't have Miracle, because Miracle is not available as either a sorcerer spell or in those two cleric domains.

Err... yes, it will: "can cast cleric spells and spells from the domains of Chaos and Evil" (emphasis mine).

(I misread it exactly as you did; corrected my post above)

GW

[hamishspence]

It says "cleric spells and spells from those two domains" not "cleric spells from those two domains".

So, if it's a cleric spell that is only on the Domain list, you need access to the domain to learn it.

But if it's a "regular" cleric spell, there's no barrier.

EDIT: Swordsaged.

[Crusher]

Hm... I noticed the opening post said Athasian Nightmare beasts didn't come out until after Rich created the Monster in the Dark. But I'd like to point out that Nightmare Beasts, with Psionic Teleport, were around in 2nd Edition Dark Sun and we've had 2nd Edition monsters show up in the strip before. That version did predate OoTS significantly. Among other things, it's called out as specifically eating everything it can get its hands on and being able to destroy inanimate objects, including rock formations with attacks.

Admittedly, a full grown Nightmare Beast is 30 feet tall, so there's still some size issues. You're not fitting that under a normal umbrella.

Iirc, the 2e version is a Nightmare Beast, which is on the list of proposed creatures and is a different monster than the Athasian Nightmare Beast.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Iirc, the 2e version is a Nightmare Beast, which is on the list of proposed creatures and is a different monster than the Athasian Nightmare Beast.

I'm fairly certain that's the 3rd ed (regular) Nightmare beast (since it's from the MM), not the 2nd ed Dark Sun (i.e. "Athasian") version of the Nightmare Beast.

GW

[Crusher]

Ha-Nagas aren’t bad candidates. Defenses are probably good enough and casting covers the Escape. But its too big, not strong enough, and its questionable whether it’d cover the Circus scene.

So, I wouldn’t support it as an FBS candidate but you can certainly vote for it.

Occurs to me that Time Stop would be a handy explanation for MitD marking the extra doors. Kinda overkill, but its a great solution.

Edit - another guess or change or two and it’ll be time to update the guess totals when I get back into town (which will be a couple weeks).

[3Power]

That combination is solving a problem ("teleport at range") that doesn't exist in OotS.

The only inconsistency here is that the order and the wizard are not technically holding hands. They are still standing within touching distance within each other, not across the room.

I note that you didn't actually explain how any of it is nonsense.

I did actually.

Which disqualifies it, since it therefore can also cast raise dead, which we know MitD can't.

It's been a while, so I don't know where raise dead comes in. But as was just mentioned, MiTD doesn't know his own abilities, and if a ha-naga, he learns them as a sorceror. So access to certain spells doesn't mean he can cast them. And even if you can prove that the MiTD CAN'T have miracle, he still has access to timestop, greater teleport, etc.

No, strength cannot be explained through spells for the purpose of the Tower scene, since casting strength-enhancing spells before a "hit lightly" contest is too stupid even by MitD standards.

All the knocking miko away scene does is establish that the creature is physically strong. Ha-naga's have strength equal to giant-belt boosted Roy. Furthermore, as established, he can't control his strength and he can't control his magic.

It's a snake. Snakes are not vomit-inducing.

It's not a snake, its an abberation that looks like a snake with a human head.

He asked (sarcastically) if he had gained 5 levels of cleric overnight from eating mallomars. Since chewiness doesn't add XP, MitD effectively answered "no". Therefore, the species can't cast cleric spells without gaining levels.

That scene proves absolutely nothing. It's been established that the entirety of team evil is very lacking on the specifics of what the MiTD can do, including the creature itself.

Not that it matters for the MitD, since a Ha-Naga would also have access to Wish, and casting that can definitely do what the MitD did, and Wish costs 5000 XP just like Miracle.

I mistakenly confused wish and limited wish. Yes, wish works too.

But its too big, not strong enough, and its questionable whether it’d cover the Circus scene.

As stated before. Size can be safely ignored, your guesses on strength are arbitary, and it would absolutely cover the circus scene. I don't know why you seem to think a disgusting snake creature wouldn't freak out a bunch of commoners at first glance. I feel like you guys are collectively putting too much stock in miko being launched to the moon and a bunch of commoner reactions.

[Kish]

From http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/timeStop.htm :
While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells;

...such as Teleport.

[3Power]

...such as Teleport.

Holy crap, a sensible counter argument.

So wish it is then.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

The only inconsistency here is that the order and the wizard are not technically holding hands. They are still standing within touching distance within each other, not across the room.

There are 6 members to the order. The last two are as far from the caster as V and O-Chul are from MitD. If in OotS the teleport can reach any target within a certain distance, whether they are touching the caster or not, MitD could teleport them out from his cage.

I did actually.

No, you seem to think that you did, but you did not. All you did is say they were, and then fail to say which ones, nor provide any kind of counter.

It's been a while, so I don't know where raise dead comes in. But as was just mentioned, MiTD doesn't know his own abilities, and if a ha-naga, he learns them as a sorceror. So access to certain spells doesn't mean he can cast them. And even if you can prove that the MiTD CAN'T have miracle, he still has access to timestop, greater teleport, etc.

No, I can prove that he can't raise dead, and I have. Therefore, creatures with access to Raise Dead can't be MitD.

All the knocking miko away scene does is establish that the creature is physically strong. Ha-naga's have strength equal to giant-belt boosted Roy.

No, a gargantuan-sized Ha-Naga is equal to Roy (who can't punch people through walls). A Ha-Naga a fourth of its maximum size, i.e. equivalent to a one year old human when compared to Roy, won't even be that strong.

Yes, you are about to tell me that "he isn't as big as he should be". But the problem here is that gargantuan is much, much larger than it's current medium size:

There is a difference between "base species is large, but MitD is medium", which would indicate he is about adolescent for his species (and thus almost as strong as a full-grown individual), versus "base species is gargantuan, but MitD is medium", which would indicate he is toddler-sized, with the significant reduction of strength that would imply.

It's not a snake, its an abberation that looks like a snake with a human head.

The fact that it belongs to the "aberration" group doesn't make it aberrant in looks. It still looks like a snake. And snakes, face or not, are not vomit inducing.

That scene proves absolutely nothing. It's been established that the entirety of team evil is very lacking on the specifics of what the MiTD can do, including the creature itself.

No, it has not. RC knows exactly what MitD's species is, as per SoD.

As stated before. Size can be safely ignored,

I disagree. I think that Rich would not pick a gargantuan creature to be MitD, since it doesn't fit under the umbrella.

your guesses on strength are arbitary,

Sure, but "weaker than Roy, who can't punch people through walls" is still a problem.

and it would absolutely cover the circus scene.

No, it would not.

I don't know why you seem to think a disgusting snake creature wouldn't freak out a bunch of commoners at first glance.

Because snakes don't provoke that kind of reaction in general. Fear, yes. Disgust, no.

I feel like you guys are collectively putting too much stock in miko being launched to the moon and a bunch of commoner reactions.

Ah, yes, the "if only you would ignore all the evidence that makes my creature a poor fit, then it is a great fit" defence. Heard that one before. By people who, like you, are absolutely convinced that they have found the solution.

Strangely, most of them have disagreed on what that species is, and which scenes one can ignore.

Grey Wolf

[Crusher]

All the knocking miko away scene does is establish that the creature is physically strong. Ha-naga's have strength equal to giant-belt boosted Roy.

As stated before. Size can be safely ignored, your guesses on strength are arbitary, and it would absolutely cover the circus scene.

First, size can’t be safely ignored. RC lifted up MitD (while in a box) by himself to put him in a wagon. As an aside, if you see references to medieval carpenty around, this point launched a multi-page discussion around available woods, how boxes were built, and therefore how much the box was likely to weigh. It was magnificent in a somewhat silly way.

Anyway, even if you assume RC has an 18 STR and cast Bulls Strength on himself prior to lifting, he’s going to have a lot of trouble lifting a Ha-Naga. The same seems like it should hold for the ANB, except for two things. First, fluff notwithstanding, its merely Huge, and therefore smaller than the He-Naga. Second, perhaps explaining why its only Huge, the ANB’s fluff notes that is bizarrely light for its size and therefore liftable. I don’t know why its so light (hollow bones? Secretly a balloon creature?), but it is.

Second, the STR cut-off isn’t entirely arbitrary. Check out 1D in the initial stuff. Nerandel (whatever happened to her? She was great) did a ton of work in multiple posts linked there. In a nutshell, she worked out that MitD had to be awesomely strong (iirc like ~55) but with the right feats it could get down to the mid 30s. I think we settled on 30 as a round number that allowed a little wiggle room for artistic license.

Beyond that, it was not arbitrarily selected by GW. It was voted on by the contributors to the active thread at the time and they collectively decided it was a valid criteria. Because otherwise its a slippery slope. 27 is only a little below 30. So shouldn’t 27 be ok? But then 24 is only a little below 27, so shouldn’t it be ok? What about 20? 18? 8? Clearly a line must be drawn somewhere, and the consensus was 30, so its 30.

As a suggestion, you may be viewing this wrong. The thread is not GW’s domain, making him the person to convince for something to be “taken seriously”. The reality is that he’s often the gatekeeper, because he’s knowledgeable, tireless, and almost alarmingly on top of things. Plus, he has to make the edits if something needs changing.

However, actually making a change requires convincing the community of posters that its worth changing. In fact, to the consternation of many, GW doesn’t even vote most of the time.

So, think about it this way: whats your goal? To convince the world that you’re right? Well, then carry on, and GL. I mean, there people who have argued that the MitD is a centaur or Rich himself. People have a wide range of opinions for a wide range of reasons. Not to be discouraging, but your odds of “winning” are slim. To state the obvious, you haven’t made much progress winning over GW (or me) if thats your goal. I can’t speak for anyone else (and I shouldn’t really speak for GW, but I’ve watched him have these debates for... lets go with ‘a while’, and its usually pretty obvious), so who knows?

On the other hand, if you want to change something in the initial post or add Ha-Naga to the list of FBS candidates, then propose what you want and ask to put it up for a vote. Then make your case and try to defend it. Thats how it works.

[Keltest]

No, a gargantuan-sized Ha-Naga is equal to Roy (who can't punch people through walls). A Ha-Naga a fourth of its maximum size, i.e. equivalent to a one year old human when compared to Roy, won't even be that strong.

Not that I disagree with your overall point, but in this comic we see Roy kicking Thog hard enough to take a good chunk out of a load bearing column, which would presumably be sturdier than the wall of the tower, without even having his belt. Since Nerdanel's math only gave us remotely workable numbers after assuming that the MIDT picked up Miko and Windstriker and swung them at the wall with the intent to hurl them (from which we can conclude at least part of the scene was dramatic effect), Roy with the Belt might not be so far off from the strength of the MIDT as you seem to think. I kind of doubt he's at the exact strength level, but he may be in the low end of the ballpark.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Not that I disagree with your overall point, but in this comic we see Roy kicking Thog hard enough to take a good chunk out of a load bearing column

Errr... no, we don't. We see him kick Thog next to a column that was broken earlier by Thog (using the specific class feature that allowed him to), because Roy knew (thanks to his architecture knowledge) that the place was coming down. There is a small krack, but the bulk of the damage was made by Thog.

Please please please don't let this be v2.0 of "the cat pushed the wolf through a wall".

In fact, to the consternation of many, GW doesn’t even vote most of the time

FTR, I don't vote because, since I close the vote and thus can always change it at the last possible moment, I have given myself a half-vote (i.e. I get to pick in case of a tie), rather than a full one. Besides, I suspect most people are well aware of what my position is in any given scenario (except possibly the "pick the name for the next thread")

Grey Wolf

[Ruck]

What combination of powers are you thinking of?



2nd ed creatures have great difficulty being MitD due to needing to explain how they escaped Dorukan's dungeon 2nd ed creature trap. Beyond that, you'd need to provide such details as listed strength and defences - both tend to be substantially lower in 2nd ed, and as per the "all 2d ed creatures are easily targeted because they retain their original sheets, and thus no will defence", those would need to be taken as stated.

Grey Wolf

Just out of curiosity, would a lack of Will save explain how Xykon's Suggestion (?) spell worked so easily on MitD? (I don't have an answer for any of the other potential problems with a 2e Nightmare Beast, although you could probably fudge something about Xykon's control being stronger than the lure of the talisman-- it is just a lure, after all-- or MitD being too lazy to follow it, or something.)

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Just out of curiosity, would a lack of Will save explain how Xykon's Suggestion (?) spell worked so easily on MitD? (I don't have an answer for any of the other potential problems with a 2e Nightmare Beast, although you could probably fudge something about Xykon's control being stronger than the lure of the talisman-- it is just a lure, after all-- or MitD being too lazy to follow it, or something.)

Interesting approach. Mechanically, yeah, he would fall dominated particularly quickly. But do we know that the circus happened before Dorukan trapped all the 2nd ed creatures? And furthermore, nothing in Xykon's orders really would impede MitD from also having to follow DOrukan's amulet's orders.

GW

[Throknor]

Hey, something just occurred to me. Have you guys considered that the MitD cast time stop and did a combination of spells/spell like abilities to get V and Ochu out?

Doing more than one thing would seem counter to something that could be described as a deep ability he didn't know about, merely by being too complex to perform quickly without prior knowledge.

Didn't Redcloak cut the Monster off when he was "volunteering to help" - and make assumptions?


Something like:


"I can help"
"Do you have 5+ levels of Cleric?"
"No, but..."
"Then you can't help."

Redcloak thinks he knows with the MITD is. If he is correct then he knows without those levels MITD cannot help. It can be debated if he is correct but as the thread isn't using his assertions it only comes into play for second-degree discussions.

[Emanick]

Doing more than one thing would seem counter to something that could be described as a deep ability he didn't know about, merely by being too complex to perform quickly without prior knowledge.



Redcloak thinks he knows with the MITD is. If he is correct then he knows without those levels MITD cannot help. It can be debated if he is correct but as the thread isn't using his assertions it only comes into play for second-degree discussions.

To add to this, Redcloak very likely knows the MitD's species, but that doesn't necessarily mean he knows every last one of his abilities. For instance, let's say the MitD can cast Wish (maybe once a year or whatever). It is beyond trivial for Wish to duplicate a 3rd level cleric spell, yet Redcloak seems to assume that the MitD can't cast it (or simply doesn't consider it a worthwhile use of the spell, which is also possible). Yet we still consider it fully plausible that he has the ability to use that spell - at least occasionally, or once.

Maybe we're being inconsistent here. Or maybe it's simply not necessary that Redcloak be aware of all the MitD's powers.

[b_jonas]

Redcloak might not know everything about the MitD's powers, but he sure is doing his research properly. Just look at him in #546, #431 in which he reads books about monsters, and don't forget that he can use the help of divination magic too.

[Peelee]

The reality is that he’s [snip] almost alarmingly on top of things.

That got a chuckle out of me, I'll admit. I may steal this phrase in the future.

To add to this, Redcloak very likely knows the MitD's species, but that doesn't necessarily mean he knows every last one of his abilities. For instance, let's say the MitD can cast Wish (maybe once a year or whatever). It is beyond trivial for Wish to duplicate a 3rd level cleric spell, yet Redcloak seems to assume that the MitD can't cast it (or simply doesn't consider it a worthwhile use of the spell, which is also possible). Yet we still consider it fully plausible that he has the ability to use that spell - at least occasionally, or once.

Maybe we're being inconsistent here. Or maybe it's simply not necessary that Redcloak be aware of all the MitD's powers.

Option 3: he knows, but doesn't say anything. It's not like he's besties with Xykon here, even before all that went down.

[b_jonas]

I was just re-reading the descriptions of true dragons. Apparently an Ancient Brass Dragon is only Huge size, but could learn to cast the Greater Teleport spell. Obviously we'd need a Half-Dragon version to make its attacks weaker. But sadly, the Dungeonbred template can't be applied to dragons, so we can't make it only Large. :-)

Another facetious suggestion is that in the escape scene, when the MitD “digs deep and discovers powers that he didn't even know he had”, that power was using up the XP he has accumulated to take class levels. We learn from #124 that characters have to explicitly check their XP total and take levels, and that Roy can forget this until reminded by Haley. Maybe since the MitD was an orphan (he barely remembers his father), and people don't usually take class levels until they become adolescant, there was nobody around to teach that to him. So he looked deep into himself and realized that he could take 14 levels of Sorcerer (and perhaps a few monster hit dice) immediately, and then cast Greater Teleport.

[woweedd]

I'd assume Redcloak knows about whatever ability MITD used in the Escape scene, and I say that because i'm pretty sure it's part of the reason why Rich made sure Redcloak wasn't present for that scene: Because, since Redcloak knows what MITD is, and is quite a bit more perceptive then Xykon, if he were there, he would have put the pieces together.

[Shreav]

I'm not a D&D player, but have a few quick questions about the Protean, which seems to be the leading guess of the forum at the moment. I don't know if the forum has pinned down MitD's gender, but I'm going to use he/him/his for simplicity ...

• As a psion, would he have access to Reality Revision? I can see that it's a level 9 psionic power, but I've never really known how spell levels operate and what (character?) level you need to be to acquire them.
• Supposing that a Protean does have access to it, does the fact that Reality Revision comes under the Clairsentience discipline help explain MitD's recognition of the ritual? Note that Hypercognition, which is sometimes mentioned to explain MitD's quick understanding of things, is also from the Clairsentience discipline.
• The MitD is "permanently shrouded in magical darkness". Unless he has some ability to pierce that darkness, he wouldn't be able to see himself, right? The fact that a Protean is an Aberation would also give him Darkvision out to 60 feet.

Thanks all.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I don't know if the forum has pinned down MitD's gender, but I'm going to use he/him/his for simplicity ...

MitD self-identifies as male (See section 2a: Gender)

As a psion, would he have access to Reality Revision? I can see that it's a level 9 psionic power, but I've never really known how spell levels operate and what (character?) level you need to be to acquire them.

Proteans do not have that power listed in their Psionics (Sp) list, so no. However, if any other creature exists with Reality Revision as an Ex (Extraordinary) power, he could acquire it through Alter Shape (Ex).

The MitD is "permanently shrouded in magical darkness". Unless he has some ability to pierce that darkness, he wouldn't be able to see himself, right? The fact that a Protean is an Aberation would also give him Darkvision out to 60 feet.

Darkvision cannot penetrate magical darkness.

Yours,

Grey Wolf