OOTS #1298 - The Discussion Thread

[Neoriceisgood]

Okay that was worth the wait, amazing panel.

[bunsen_h]

Did ancient cultures even know that word?

It doesn't appear so. W'pedia asserts that the scientific name "Artiodactyla" was coined in 1848. Meaning "even [in the sense of numbers] toes", I don't think it would have had much useful meaning prior to that scientific use.

[Sutehp]

Now that splash panel was more than worth the wait.

And Elan and Belkar were both wrong. That splash panel was not cool (or otherwise would have been cool), it was awesome.

[Darth Paul]

I'm late to this party, but....

HELL YEAH!!!!

[Curtis Cook]

I wish I could just upvote everybody who has posted in this thread. It wasn't just the allosaurus that was glorious, it was the return to a sense of epic in this strip. This has been a long time coming, and I'm so glad I lived long enough to see it!

[Ghosty]

Belkar tossing Bloodfeast is exactly what I thought it was referencing.

Agreed. Belkar lobs Bloodfeast and Bloodfeast itself dunks. Slightly different than the usual basketball play, lol, but I got the gist.

Piling on to everyone else, but awesome splash panel at the end. Looking forward to seeing it in print. (With mixed emotions, of course.)

[Quizatzhaderac]

I'll secede the general point about dinosaurs being lizards as I was mostly being silly. However I stand by the idea that "dire lizards" is an fitting name for D&D creatures.

Anyways. You're wrong about how taxonomy works. This kind of logic is exactly why ancient cultures thought whales were big fish.

Cladistics is a fine way to do real world biology. However, it's still a subjective choice. Ancient cultures didn't think whales were fish; they called them fish; well call them mammals. Both choices are subjectively right.

More to the point, cladistics doesn't work in OOTS world as different species don't share common ancestors, so no grouping of species would be valid.

Also I'm glad you brought up Diogenes, as his problem wasn't with one specific abstract classification system, but rather abstract classification systems in general. If you explained cladistics to him, he'd point out that the typical black dragon has light skin, red hair, opposable thumbs, nipples, and a total lack of scales, wings, breath attacks, or black pigmentation.

If I wanted to shut Diognes up, I could keep adding characteristics to my until there is no bird left to pluck and my formal definition matches the lay definition (which, TBH, would exclude dinosaurs), but that would be a very, very, tediously long definition, as natural language tends to encode a lot more information that scientific definitions.

[Bird]

More to the point, cladistics doesn't work in OOTS world as different species don't share common ancestors, so no grouping of species would be valid.

It works only to the extent that it would be funny. Blackwing did refer to pterosaurs as "clade brothers and sisters" in a punchline once.

[Mad Humanist]

Ok, since no one has apparently asked this before, what does "Alley Oop" (comic title) refer to?

Never heard of the term, and a Google search led to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley-oop - but that doesn't seem to fit expect very remotely (Belkar tossing Bloodfeast...).

That seems to fit better:

And also this

This clearly qualifies for my geeklist of games referenced in Order of the Stick: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/2...44619#10544619 and the multi-layered nature of the reference does not detract from this.

[Mic_128]

In the preceding panel he's clearly holding it pointy end forward.

Yeah, but with his hand/claws in the way A) IT's not going to be stabbing very far into him. His own claw would do more damage, and B) he'd have to hold it pretty firmly that it wouldn't just slide back along their hand, so they'd have to squeeze the sharp edges of the blade to do so, injuring himself.

[Precure]

Calder is still holding onto the Greenhilt sword, I expect that Belkar's Dinosaur will turn into shish kebab.

So, if Rich agrees with Elan, then why did he have Belkar blow it back in 1239?

To show that Belkar's timing sucks.

[MReav]

Calder is still holding onto the Greenhilt sword, I expect that Belkar's Dinosaur will turn into shish kebab.
.

Dragons don't have martial weapon proficiency and in an Anti Magic Field, it's little more than a masterwork weapon, especially in the hands of someone without the Weapon of Legscy features. He'd be better off just clawing Bloodfeast.

[bunsen_h]

Dragons don't have martial weapon proficiency and in an Anti Magic Field, it's little more than a masterwork weapon, especially in the hands of someone without the Weapon of Legscy features. He'd be better off just clawing Bloodfeast.

But there's a catch. If Calder tries to use the sword on Bloodfeast, or just whacks it on the wall or floor, the sword has a chance of being severely damaged! This could lead Roy to discover a third special property! Like, it can disintegrate into dozens of shards which can attack telekinetically, then reform into its proper shape!

[brian 333]

But there's a catch. If Calder tries to use the sword on Bloodfeast, or just whacks it on the wall or floor, the sword has a chance of being severely damaged! This could lead Roy to discover a third special property! Like, it can disintegrate into dozens of shards which can attack telekinetically, then reform into its proper shape!

And this has been foreshadowed by the shattering of the sword that required it to be reforged! This is now canon!

[Precure]

Dragons don't have martial weapon proficiency and in an Anti Magic Field, it's little more than a masterwork weapon, especially in the hands of someone without the Weapon of Legscy features. He'd be better off just clawing Bloodfeast.

Personally I expect a sword to be more effective than animal claws. Then again, maybe it's one of those things work different on DnD.

[danielxcutter]

It just so happens that those claws are the size of swords themselves.

[Peelee]

Also i have to note that dragons are not natively proficient with greatswords.

[Precure]

It just so happens that those claws are the size of swords themselves.

The sword is probably sharper.

[Unoriginal]

The sword is probably sharper.

Not while in an Anti Magic Cone.

[Precure]

Not while in an Anti Magic Cone.

I wasn't thinking of magic.

[brian 333]

The sword is probably sharper.

We're talking about a creature who has had nothing better to do for the last 8 decades than to sharpen his claws on the walls.

[Precure]

We're talking about a creature who has had nothing better to do for the last 8 decades than to sharpen his claws on the walls.

I thought he can't move?

[brian 333]

I thought he can't move?

Look at the walls. I do not know when he did that, but he did it.

[Precure]

Look at the walls. I do not know when he did that, but he did it.

These could happen before the spell has been casted.

[brian 333]

These could happen before the spell has been casted.

True, but if he has been immobilized since then, his claws are still sharp, (or dull, if you think he blunted them.)

[bunsen_h]

The sword is probably sharper.

If you're going to focus on mundane physics, the dragon has multiple claws on each "paw"/"hand", several of which are likely to hit the target at the same time while counting as a single strike. Similarly, a bite attack would probably involve lots of individual punctures from the teeth, but it's counted as just one damage "group".

[Provengreil]

Personally I expect a sword to be more effective than animal claws. Then again, maybe it's one of those things work different on DnD.

If wielded as an actual sword, then sure. Between the penalties for using a weapon of the wrong size category for you, using the weapon in an improvised manner(just look where he's gripping it), and likely lack of any weapon proficiency, the claws would be much more effective.

That whole thing looks to me like nothing more than him sacrificing one of his melee attacks per round to completely remove Roy from the fight. If the sword ends up in Bloodfeast it'll be an accident, a literal "he ran into my knife" scenario.

[Kish]

Personally I expect a sword to be more effective than animal claws. Then again, maybe it's one of those things work different on DnD.

One thing that is very much like the real world, is that attempting to mash the claws of a sparrow and the claws of a panther together into one category of "animal claws" will not help reach a useful conclusion about how damaging said claws are.

That's before we get to the facts that dragons are not animals and dragon claws don't exist in the real world.

[brian 333]

That's before we get to the facts that dragons are not animals and dragon claws don't exist in the real world.

Komodo dragon would like a word with you.

[Peelee]

Komodo dragon would like a word with you.

Komodo dragons are dragons in much the same way dragonfruits are dragons.