OOTS #1182 - The Discussion Thread

[GrayGriffin]

I still have a little action on "Belkar redeems himself with a sacrifice, and we see him pop into the Chaotic Neutral afterlife." (As much as I like the thought of himself and Mr. Scruffy being reunited with Shojo, I don't think he gets there.) After all, if one instance of negligence and abandonment would have been enough to bump Roy to True Neutral, one instance of heroic self-sacrifice to save the world might certainly bump Belkar out of CE.

How does the afterlife work for animal companions, anyways?

[Svata]

They don't gain any INT, so they're still alignmentless. (and likely soulless) so they probably just... die? Either that or they go to The Beastlands

[hamishspence]

Most soul-related magic (Raise Dead, Trap the Soul, etc) works on animals.

That said, the Celestial Animal residents of the Beastlands were generally NG mortals in life, not TN animals - the plane changing the souls over time.

[Riftwolf]

Most soul-related magic (Raise Dead, Trap the Soul, etc) works on animals.

That said, the Celestial Animal residents of the Beastlands were generally NG mortals in life, not TN animals - the plane changing the souls over time.

Conjuror: Summon Monster II!
Barbarian: *makes eye contact with the Celestial Baboon* G-granny?

[mjasghar]

You’ve hit on one of the alignment issues of d&d - nature is TN yet many pro nature types are NG in the lore and fiction. Specifically rangers were for a long time only allowed t be good, which was strange when they were taking orders from TN Druid circles.
So beastlands are TN/NG whilst the real NG plane has native outsiders who are animal hybrids. Most beastlands animals are TN with only a few of the animals being ex intelligent being petitioners

[Petrocorus]

How long can you play a role before becoming the role, even unwillingly?

Do you thinks playing the perfect team player for hundreds of strips has started to affect his personality?

Though i believe that in-universe, only a few weeks have passed.

[Peat]

Just a quick thought about Belkars death: what if he *chooses* to stay dead? Like Shojo, he could prefer whatever afterlife he ends up in to a world with complicated feelings and consequences. That way, the twist to the prophecy isn't 'Belkar weasels out of death by virtue of flesh golem/vampire/divine ascension/completely rewriting the story so far to turn the Oracle into a charlatan', but that it was his choice to die and stay dead.
As for reasons why, it could be he realises he can't redeem himself so submits to eternal punishment instead (though that is probably a bit too self-hating for Belkar, these are just bus-thoughts).
Any views?

That's where my head is at too. We've already seen two characters reject resurrection because the Afterlife seemed a better bet than their mortal life and when you come down to it, Belkar's mortal life isn't exactly a hoot; too angry, directionless and afraid to be Good, and now becoming too empathetic and self-aware to be Bad. Throw in pretty much no friends - the Order tolerate him, they don't like him - and if the going's good on the other side, not a lot of reason to not move on.

This talk between them seems a little inorganic, notwithstanding that Roy knows V sold her soul to literal embodiment of evil (and therefore just mucked up their plans), Belkar has been working towards being a team player. I understand that the belittling of Belkar is supposed to show their "innermost" thoughts, but that's hella ungrateful for someone who's literally following you without compensation to vanquish a personal foe, and also just saved the world from the vampire scourge.

Well, that's Roy for you. Leaving aside just how long Belkar's been an anal fistula/how little of the change he's seen, being highly self-involved is par for the course with Roy. We've seen some growth from him but that part of him probably won't change completely.

AN ordinary fighter can do fine in a world where the enemies aren't highly optimized supermachines.

His main opponent is an Epic level Liche Sorcerer who casually went through his last encounter with Roy more or less like he wasn't there. By Roy's standards, Xykon is a highly optimised supermachine and Roy does need to be a bit more than an ordinary fighter to win that one. I guess him multiclassing would probably be a poor story choice in terms of it taking too much time to explain for a casual audience, but he should do something to help his chances - pretty much every other member of the party is.

[bunsen_h]

Seems to me that Roy's best use of limited time, just now, would be learning how to unlock more abilities of his sword.

[The MunchKING]

I guess him multiclassing would probably be a poor story choice in terms of it taking too much time to explain for a casual audience, but he should do something to help his chances - pretty much every other member of the party is.

Well yeah, but what would best help his chances is rings of Elemental Immunity and some kind of magical item that grants him spell resistance.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Mantle of Spell Resistance from the DMG gives you SR21, and I'm pretty sure they come in blue. Don't want to invalidate the merchandising, after all.

[KorvinStarmast]

Mantle of Spell Resistance from the DMG gives you SR21, and I'm pretty sure they come in blue. Don't want to invalidate the merchandising, after all.

And I think that Roy would look good with a cape, but then I get into the style points issue.
1. The Incredibles angle: No Capes!
2. "Look, guys, I'm a Fighter, not some caped superhero. Check the genre again."

[HorizonWalker]

Mantle of Spell Resistance from the DMG gives you SR21, and I'm pretty sure they come in blue. Don't want to invalidate the merchandising, after all.

Spell Resistance 21 would be completely useless against an epic-level spellcaster; the way Spell Resistance works is that it's a target number you have to beat with a Caster Level check, meaning that if Xykon was merely Level 21, he would have to roll a negative one on a twenty-sider to be foiled by Spell Resistance 21. To be at all useful against an epic-level spellcaster, you ideally want... oh, SR 30? SR 40, if you can? Thereabouts.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And there's no way to get that. The only thing that grants SR is the mantle, and it's way too low for Xykon. Could help with Redcloak though.

[HorizonWalker]

And there's no way to get that. The only thing that grants SR is the mantle, and it's way too low for Xykon. Could help with Redcloak though.

There's absolutely a way to get that. Every point of Spell Resistance above 12 costs 10,000 gold, and therefore Spell Resistance 30 would cost 180,000 gold, and 40 costing 280,000 gold. A lot of money, yes, but not an insurmountable sum for a high-level adventurer.

[hamishspence]

Once you exceed 200,000 gold pieces though, the Epic Magic Item rules come into play:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magic...EpicMagicItems

Spell Resistance 40 mantle is Epic:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magic...pellResistance

[danielxcutter]

There's a spell on the Cleric list called, yes, Spell Resistance. And there's a Mass version in Spell Compendium, too.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Not really. SR doesn't scale well versus caster level. Heck, the Mantle is a Major Wondrous Item, so you should be getting that sweet SR 21 about the lime your level appropriate encounters involve casters who can beat it about 2/3 of the time.