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  1. - Top - End - #181
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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin
    Assuming she even knew...

    Wild and crazy alternative theory that is very likely untrue (and very likely to have been posted by someone else in an earlier thread):
    Charlie IS the ArkenDish, and is trying to free/destroy it's ArkenKin.
    I would like to point out that this is very possible. We know nothing about the arkendish and Charlie other than it provides him with thinkamancy. I don't think we even know if he is "attuned"...
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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by lamech View Post
    I would like to point out that this is very possible. We know nothing about the arkendish and Charlie other than it provides him with thinkamancy. I don't think we even know if he is "attuned"...
    Maggie mentions Charlie's "mastery" of the Arkendish, I believe. And Parson states that Charlie's attuned to the dish here. In the same page, Parson mentions that Charlie is "no royal." That suggests that people on Erf know or think they know something about Charlie's origin.
    Quo vadis?

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Biggest question on my mind right now is not if Wanda will beat Ansom (I am sure she will, at least hurt him enough to get the pliers) but how Charlie will react when Wanda grabs the pliers and immediately attunes to them. I seriously doubt she will let go of them if that happens.

  4. - Top - End - #184
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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Really I think Ansom is going to go down, hard.

    Sure the Arkenpliers give him a huge bonus to damage against uncroaked.

    But Wanda has an Uncroaked mount thingy, and an uncroaked archon in her stack. None of them were uncroaked in the mass spell. So they are much stronger than the ones on the wall. And then they are already stronger because they are better units. And then they also get a huge bonus since Wanda is in the stack with them.

    I think Ansom will go in with the pliers, Wanda blocks with staff. Archon blasts the carpet right out from under Ansom. Ansom croaks the incidental uncroaked (everything but the mount and the archon. Wanda and her two higher uncroaked press the attack and Ansom loses the pliers.

    In a last ditch escape Ansom leaps from the wall and barely survives, but leaves the engagement.

    I think the breach will be enough to break down that section though and the Jetstone infantry will pour through the gap.

    I think the whole thing will wrap up in the Tower, with the return of Stanley and his Dwagons tipping the balance and rescuing the remaining garrison troops from certain doom.

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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by headhoncho View Post
    Right now, I'm guessing it's some function of the RCC warlords not understanding the true function and power of the arkenpliers,
    I think that's part of the issue. They've not seen the pliers in action, they do make him sort of invulnerable to uncroaked attack as long as he is flying (and thus gets initiative). Parson on the other has just seen what those things can do.

    But they were right, it's very likely that soon he will be falling from the wall. Wanda just made things very dangerous to Ansom.
    Avatar: ruthless Parson (Erfworld).

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    Assuming she even knew...

    Wild and crazy alternative theory that is very likely untrue (and very likely to have been posted by someone else in an earlier thread):
    Charlie IS the ArkenDish, and is trying to free/destroy it's ArkenKin.
    If that's true, then WTB is up with the walnuts/pigeons thing?? O_o;;;

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by Sieggy View Post
    Look at the tactical situation.

    You have Wanda (badass psycho warbitch spellcaster with a hardon for Ansom the size of a small New England state, massively boosted by the fact that he is her rival for Jillian's love . . .), an uncroaked Archon of unknown (but great, or she wouldn't be there) capability with a truly evil expression on her face, three undead unipegataurs (who look quite capable of kicking major boop all by themselves), two of whom are bearing his most trusted warlord and the warlord's beloved, both of who were sent to their croaks and subsequent uncroaking through Ansom's poor judgement. Seven effectives airborne, close to a thousand undead directly below on the wall, as well as an unknown number of ground based archers laying fire.

    And you have Ansom, a Royal with an Artifact with which he is not attuned (though it is especially effective against uncroaked), desperately fighting to keep his coalition together by fighting a valiant action in a bid to buy time for his forces to open a breach in the wall, alone and unsupported by the forces outside that wall, riding a twinkie that has already sustained an indeterminate amount of damage. If he loses his mount, he falls into the hands of his foes.

    That boy be in a heap o' hurt . . .
    Two comments:

    - If this was Discworld, Parson would be very worried right now. Ansom is being set against impossible odds, and therefore is very likely to win.

    - Wanda's clothes are way too tight for her to be hiding a hard-on. And thank goodness for that.
    Dibs on his dice.

  8. - Top - End - #188
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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Hey people, no disrespect, but please read the thread before posting. Posting the same ideas over and over just slow down the conversation and not reading the thread gives the impression of disrespect for those that have already posted (or maybe just laziness, neither is a good impression, and impressions matter when you are trying to make a point).[/rant]

    Quote Originally Posted by noncaloric View Post
    Earlier, Wanda appeared to think her stack would be enough to make a difference in the fight between Jill's stack and Stanley's stack. I wouldn't assume her stack is negligible vs. Ansom.
    Wanda was working off of the assumption that it would help, not that it would definitely work. Keep in mind that if Stanley was croaked by Jillian, Wanda would be disbanded for lack of an overlord, the way that Sizemore would have been if it weren't for Stanley having been made heir. When your boop is on the line, the odds don't matter. When failing has the same effect as not trying, of course you try, even if the chances are infinitesimal.

    Quote Originally Posted by Aquillion View Post
    The fact that Jaclyn retains her ability to fly shows that she keeps some powers, actually.
    It also finally answers a long-time question: Archons are NOT casters in the same sense as Sizemore et al.; they are units like dwagons, having magic-like special abilities. That lends credence (but does not prove) to the idea that the Arkendish gives power over Archons the way the Arkenhammer does with dwagons.

    Quote Originally Posted by multilis View Post
    She is a caster, which means lower HP and less defence
    This is a big assumption. True, it is a strong fantasy genre trope, but that does not mean it holds true on Erf.

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    I hate for my first post here to be critical, but you folks overanalyze the HELL out of these comics.
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    Quote Originally Posted by small pumpkin m View Post
    My new favourite theory.
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    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    Maggie mentions Charlie's "mastery" of the Arkendish, I believe. And Parson states that Charlie's attuned to the dish here. In the same page, Parson mentions that Charlie is "no royal." That suggests that people on Erf know or think they know something about Charlie's origin.
    Well, they THINK they know, but they could be wrong. I figure for the most part* the royals of the world are known entities. Thus any upstart overlord NOT known 'must' be a non-royal.

    *Jillian and Banhammer are exceptions, but the whole FAQ thing is an exception, to the point of being considered impossible.

    Quote Originally Posted by BarGamer View Post
    If that's true, then WTB is up with the walnuts/pigeons thing?? O_o;;;
    The ArkenHammer has sense of humor, obviously.

  9. - Top - End - #189

    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    It also finally answers a long-time question: Archons are NOT casters in the same sense as Sizemore et al.; they are units like dwagons, having magic-like special abilities. That lends credence (but does not prove) to the idea that the Arkendish gives power over Archons the way the Arkenhammer does with dwagons.
    An artifact who grants you a legion of loyal hot girls able to kill dwagons with laser beams from her hands? Now that's an artifact worth killing stuff for!

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    This is a big assumption. True, it is a strong fantasy genre trope, but that does not mean it holds true on Erf.
    We've seen Jack's stats, and they were both a 2. Sizemore also didn't seem to be much of a fighter, hiding behind stones and such.

    Since it is a game, it must have game balance, and if Mancers were capable melee units, then they would be the brokenezt, and they would have been nerfed by now.

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post

    The ArkenHammer has sense of humor, obviously.
    It did pick Stanley the lowly pikemen for his master. Go figure what the artifacts of creation think.
    Last edited by Oslecamo; 2008-12-05 at 10:10 AM.

  10. - Top - End - #190
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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    One detail that supports Charlie being attuned to the Arkendish: on Page 43 (comic 47), Wanda mentions that Stanley has a "strong personal dislike" for Charlie. Now, this could be the result of nearly anything- we don't know much about either character.

    But we do know that Stanley believes that he's on a mission from the Titans to control all the Arkentools, and seems to believe that all of them will attune to him. Therefore, the very existence of someone who posseses an Arkentool, and is attuned to it, would be cause enough for Stanley to hate them- if it is the Titans' will that he was meant to hold all the Arkentools, then certainly no one else should be attuned to them. It's not a solid case; you have to use inverse reasoning to reach the conclusion, but it seems to fit what we know about Stanley's personality and his "Titanic Mandate."

    Either way, I'm guessing that when Stanley sees Charlie in Gobwin Knob's airspace, he's going to thwack first and ask questions later. And they will all be angry questions. And they will all be directed at Parson.

  11. - Top - End - #191
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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by DougTheHead View Post
    One detail that supports Charlie being attuned to the Arkendish: on Page 43 (comic 47), Wanda mentions that Stanley has a "strong personal dislike" for Charlie. Now, this could be the result of nearly anything- we don't know much about either character.

    But we do know that Stanley believes that he's on a mission from the Titans to control all the Arkentools, and seems to believe that all of them will attune to him. Therefore, the very existence of someone who posseses an Arkentool, and is attuned to it, would be cause enough for Stanley to hate them- if it is the Titans' will that he was meant to hold all the Arkentools, then certainly no one else should be attuned to them. It's not a solid case; you have to use inverse reasoning to reach the conclusion, but it seems to fit what we know about Stanley's personality and his "Titanic Mandate."
    Someone else possessing an Arkentool at all, attuned or not, would irritate Stanley (which is not difficult in any event). In any case, there are all sorts of other possible reasons for Stanley to be annoyed with Charlie (e.g. maybe they made a deal at some point and Charlie got the better of him in much the same way he played Parson).

  12. - Top - End - #192
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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by Oslecamo View Post
    We've seen Jack's stats, and they were both a 2. Sizemore also didn't seem to be much of a fighter, hiding behind stones and such.

    Since it is a game, it must have game balance, and if Mancers were capable melee units, then they would be the brokenezt, and they would have been nerfed by now.
    Yeah, but right now Wanda seems to be the Erfworld equivalent of a mage that's used magic to buff herself up to fighter-level armor and melee combat, temporarily.

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by BarGamer View Post
    If that's true, then WTB is up with the walnuts/pigeons thing?? O_o;;;
    It's trying to give Stan the bird?
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  14. - Top - End - #194
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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by BarGamer View Post
    If that's true, then WTB is up with the walnuts/pigeons thing?? O_o;;;
    A much better question is, what do the dish and pliers do when you use them to crack open walnuts?

    I'll put down a wooden nickel that the dish sometimes spawns butterflies, and the pliers spawn kittens. ;)

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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    Wanda was working off of the assumption that it would help, not that it would definitely work. Keep in mind that if Stanley was croaked by Jillian, Wanda would be disbanded for lack of an overlord, the way that Sizemore would have been if it weren't for Stanley having been made heir. When your boop is on the line, the odds don't matter. When failing has the same effect as not trying, of course you try, even if the chances are infinitesimal.
    Parson specifically stated that while units in the field would disband upon their overlord's death, units in GK would be frozen or some such and easy pickings for the RCC

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    It also finally answers a long-time question: Archons are NOT casters in the same sense as Sizemore et al.; they are units like dwagons, having magic-like special abilities. That lends credence (but does not prove) to the idea that the Arkendish gives power over Archons the way the Arkenhammer does with dwagons.
    Just remember that it isn't flight (which can be a natural ability) that would prove that archons aren't casters. Even the use of an energy attack by Jaclyn wouldn't prove it: we have seen archons sending thinkagrams. Whether the thinkagrams are proof that at least some archons are casters or whether it's a special application of the Arkendish is not known.

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    Well, they THINK they know, but they could be wrong. I figure for the most part* the royals of the world are known entities. Thus any upstart overlord NOT known 'must' be a non-royal.
    It's precisely why I said "know or think they know." I don't like make assumptions lightly.

    On another note, don't forget that Stanley won't make it back until tomorrow. That is after Charlie's turn. We don't know what the battlefield will look like then, so I wouldn't personally try to predict just yet what Stanley will think or do when he finally reaches GK sometime in the middle of GK's turn.
    Quo vadis?

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by Oslecamo
    We've seen Jack's stats, and they were both a 2. Sizemore also didn't seem to be much of a fighter, hiding behind stones and such.

    Since it is a game, it must have game balance, and if Mancers were capable melee units, then they would be the brokenezt, and they would have been nerfed by now.
    We know very little about casters. We don't know how they increase their power. Obviously they can learn, I assume they can gain levels, and then there are apperantly "classes" such as the "master-class" Jack. So maybe Jack was "level" one. (Also I would like to point out that his stats were roughly half that of a heavy, who could have been a higher level.) Maybe casters normally have limited combat ablities because of high cost. Finally, when we go to Wanda we have even more unknowns since she isn't a normal caster. She is a croakamancer, who can cast the most powerful of findamancy spells. Maybe she is a powerful combatant too...

    There are too many unknowns about casters to make guesses about their combat ablities, especially Wanda's.
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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Most casters would possibly never see much combat because (1) they are extremely valuable and apparently relatively rare and (2) they don't normally have much of a leadership bonus.

    It still seems staggering to me that the entire RCC couldn't field a single lookamancer.

    I'd also add that we don't know what "leveling" entails. Could a caster choose to spend more "points" on combat ability? There's also no reason to believe that "all casters are popped equal." Some could have inherently greater abilities not only in casting but in other areas. (I just got a lovely idea: Wanda is such a fun character that it makes me want to find out more about her first turns on Erf, her "childhood" as it were... was she more idealistic and less assertive?)
    Quo vadis?

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    It still seems staggering to me that the entire RCC couldn't field a single lookamancer.
    I'd say it's more likely that no one in the coalition was inclined to risk their powerful, valuable casters in the field for this. And really, why should they? This was supposed to be easy. Ansom assured everyone that they'd show up, squish Stanley the Worm, split the booty, and be home for tea. No reason to send the casters out and possibly lose them to a sneak attack or random lucky shot when the battle is already a sure thing.

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by datalaughing View Post
    I'd say it's more likely that no one in the coalition was inclined to risk their powerful, valuable casters in the field for this. And really, why should they? This was supposed to be easy. Ansom assured everyone that they'd show up, squish Stanley the Worm, split the booty, and be home for tea. No reason to send the casters out and possibly lose them to a sneak attack or random lucky shot when the battle is already a sure thing.
    I had thought of that before, but you could still use a thinkamancer to communicate with a lookamancer...
    Quo vadis?

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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by Oslecamo View Post
    We've seen Jack's stats, and they were both a 2. Sizemore also didn't seem to be much of a fighter, hiding behind stones and such.
    As far as we know, Jack's stats are on par with your average level 1 infantry unit, and he has just never had reason (or maybe opportunity) to increase them. For that matter, maybe his stats are as good as Jillians and she is only more powerful because of her warlordiness and magic items. Unlikely, but possible...

    Quote Originally Posted by Oslecamo View Post
    Since it is a game, it must have game balance, and if Mancers were capable melee units, then they would be the brokenezt, and they would have been nerfed by now.
    Ah, but there are factors we do not know. If the caster:infantry cost ratio is high, an all-caster army would be very expensive, and quite vulnerable to zerg tactics.

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    Parson specifically stated that while units in the field would disband upon their overlord's death, units in GK would be frozen or some such and easy pickings for the RCC
    Yes, I was being lazy again. Bad habit. The point remains though, whether it be a sudden croaking via disbanding or a prolonged but unwinnable battle for survival.

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    Just remember that it isn't flight (which can be a natural ability) that would prove that archons aren't casters. Even the use of an energy attack by Jaclyn wouldn't prove it: we have seen archons sending thinkagrams. Whether the thinkagrams are proof that at least some archons are casters or whether it's a special application of the Arkendish is not known.
    Good point. It proves Archons are not HUMANS (in the same sense that Wanda, Sizemore, etc. are human casters). Which proves one of two things:
    A) Archons are not casters
    B) Non-humans can be casters
    We do not have conclusive proof of either.

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    It's precisely why I said "know or think they know." I don't like make assumptions lightly.
    Neither do I, except when I am unaware I am doing so, such as when I assumed you had assumed their knowledge was real.

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    It still seems staggering to me that the entire RCC couldn't field a single lookamancer.
    We know that casters are rare. We know overlords can't choose personality in the units they pop. It does not seem unreasonable to think that overlords cannot choose caster specialty* and even have some weak** evidence that overlords cannot. Put this all together and it becomes likely that many sides would not have a lookamancer at all, and if they did, they would keep them safe and sound in the capital***.

    *Assuming that specialty exists outside of preference/talent/training/label. Wanda seems to belie that notion, especially in the context of her conversation with Sizemore about studying with the Janis the Hippymancer.
    ** Why would Banhammer pop a croakamancer? Possibly to have an alternate point of view in his philosophical debates. Or perhaps Wanda was not popped as a croakamancer. Either is possible, and thus the evidence is weak.)
    *** Especially if magic items like the hats are available. Send a message back to Spacerock to have the lookamancer search for the dwagons, then have the 'mancer send the coordinates back. Thus Jetstone likely does not have a lookamancer at all, or there is a distance limit on the hats and the column is too far.
    Last edited by fendrin; 2008-12-05 at 02:18 PM.

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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by Oslecamo View Post
    It did pick Stanley the lowly pikemen for his master. Go figure what the artifacts of creation think.
    Stanley the warlord

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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    ** Why would Banhammer pop a croakamancer? Possibly to have an alternate point of view in his philosophical debates. Or perhaps Wanda was not popped as a croakamancer. Either is possible, and thus the evidence is weak.)
    Jillian said only that Wanda served under Banhammer, not that she popped under him. She may have been a spoil of war or hired barbarian.

    The latter supports the theories about Wanda being the real downfall of Faq for her own ulterior motives, since she would not have been naturally leashed to Banhammer through Loyalty and could have knowingly betrayed Faq (she also could have been truly under Bannerhammer and Turned, but in a lot of games like this a unit can't turn on its own, it has to be contacted by someone else and offered the opportunity, so I'm separating this possibility).

    We've seen time and time again that Wanda is way more than she seems, between her manipulation of Stanley, her domination on Jillian, her ability to cast outside of her domain, etc. When it comes to her, I think we're best off to assume NOTHING.

    That goes for her usefulness in close combat.

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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    Good point. It proves Archons are not HUMANS (in the same sense that Wanda, Sizemore, etc. are human casters). Which proves one of two things:
    A) Archons are not casters
    B) Non-humans can be casters
    We do not have conclusive proof of either.
    Archons could then be non-human casters, I suppose. Or at least some of them could be. Elves either have natural healing abilities or they can have casters too; yes, this would suggest that at least the altruist and lofty elves can produce a lot of healamancers, but that could be their one elf brand trait and would hardly be too much of an imbalance.

    Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
    We know that casters are rare. We know overlords can't choose personality in the units they pop. It does not seem unreasonable to think that overlords cannot choose caster specialty* and even have some weak** evidence that overlords cannot. Put this all together and it becomes likely that many sides would not have a lookamancer at all, and if they did, they would keep them safe and sound in the capital***.

    *Assuming that specialty exists outside of preference/talent/training/label. Wanda seems to belie that notion, especially in the context of her conversation with Sizemore about studying with the Janis the Hippymancer.
    ** Why would Banhammer pop a croakamancer? Possibly to have an alternate point of view in his philosophical debates. Or perhaps Wanda was not popped as a croakamancer. Either is possible, and thus the evidence is weak.)
    *** Especially if magic items like the hats are available. Send a message back to Spacerock to have the lookamancer search for the dwagons, then have the 'mancer send the coordinates back. Thus Jetstone likely does not have a lookamancer at all, or there is a distance limit on the hats and the column is too far.
    Possibly overlords cannot choose which sort of caster they get, but this seems odd in terms of traditional games and even seems unfair. Others have theorized that Wanda wasn't originally a croakamancer, if she even popped under Banhammer in Faq given her "tribe," even suggesting that she was Faq's missing predictamancer--a fact she may have hid from Stanley.

    Yes, there's also hats! That provides yet another method through which commanders in the field could communicate with lookamancers in cities. Yes, lookamancy could or probably even must have range limitations, but surely they could transport lookamancers from conquered city to city as they advance on GK. Perhaps most if not all kingdoms have lookamancers but that they wouldn't spare any because the overlords don't want to lose their services as "invasion alarms."

    In theory a caster would be vulnerable while traveling between cities, but surely this would be a manageable risk. Perhaps casters can even travel nearly instantaneously from city to city via the Magic Kingdom... perhaps that's how a single foolamancer could protect three different Faq cities.
    Last edited by DevilDan; 2008-12-05 at 03:52 PM.
    Quo vadis?

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    The only thing predictable about Wanda is her fashion sense, everything else would require a master class predictamancer to figure out.
    Avatar: Red Dwagon decapitating a Cloth Golem, wonderfully drawn by Erfworld Artist Jamie Naguchi, oh yea and Rob Balder

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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    Archons could then be non-human casters, I suppose. Or at least some of them could be. Elves either have natural healing abilities or they can have casters too; yes, this would suggest that at least the altruist and lofty elves can produce a lot of healamancers, but that could be their one elf brand trait and would hardly be too much of an imbalance.
    Ansom's comment "Lofty Elves and Altruist Elves, you'll be throwing heals where needed." gives me the impression that healing ability is a general trait of those elf brands rather than a caster ability (which would be more an individual thing).

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    Default Re: 131(??) The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by Ragn Charran View Post
    Jillian said only that Wanda served under Banhammer, not that she popped under him. She may have been a spoil of war or hired barbarian.
    The former, maybe, the latter not likely: Banhammer wouldn't have risked Wanda leaving and giving away FAQ's existence.

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    Possibly overlords cannot choose which sort of caster they get, but this seems odd in terms of traditional games and even seems unfair. Others have theorized that Wanda wasn't originally a croakamancer, if she even popped under Banhammer in Faq given her "tribe," even suggesting that she was Faq's missing predictamancer--a fact she may have hid from Stanley.
    Yes, I promoted that theory in the past... the issue with it is that when Parson sees Jack's stats he has a special of "Caster, foolamancer". That doesn't invalidate the theory, but it does then necessitate that specialization can be changed (or that Wanda was a croakamancer all along but was good enough at predictamancy to be able to do the job anyway and Jillian didn't feel like giving out that info to Ansom).

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    Yes, there's also hats! That provides yet another method through which commanders in the field could communicate with lookamancers in cities. Yes, lookamancy could or probably even must have range limitations, but surely they could transport lookamancers from conquered city to city as they advance on GK. Perhaps most if not all kingdoms have lookamancers but that they wouldn't spare any because the overlords don't want to lose their services as "invasion alarms."
    Even captured cities are dangerous... I'm still leaning towards scarcity as the issue, it is much less complicated.

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    In theory a caster would be vulnerable while traveling between cities, but surely this would be a manageable risk. Perhaps casters can even travel nearly instantaneously from city to city via the Magic Kingdom... perhaps that's how a single foolamancer could protect three different Faq cities.
    You might be right about that, but the predictamancer would likely have been able to give enough notice for the foolamancer to get to the appropriate city... ore more likely Jack would have just prevented the approaching units from finding the entrance to the chokepoint or the tunnels...

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Wow, I was doing research on Caster combat capability, and found this:

    Klog entry:
    "Wanda seems to resent the implication that she knows anything about troops or combat(though I think she does)."


    Ansom is booped.

    On general tropeing of casters, many games allow players to build death knights and 'normal' necromancers from the same base class, giving distinction only to how one chooses to train the caster. Guild Wars(class is called necromancer) and Champions(class is called death knight) both come to mind. Since we don't know Erfworld's rules on this, we can allow the possibility that 'death knight' training is possible for a caster.

    Also, since most caster skill seems to be unrelated to leveling(Stanley, who is highly concerned with leveling his uncroaked warlords is unconcerned with leveling his casters), it is possible that some fighting skill is also obtainable without actually seeing combat. Given that Wanda is such a jack-of-all-trades in magic, I'd bet dollars to smuckers she took some combat training at some point.

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by Godskook View Post
    Wow, I was doing research on Caster combat capability, and found this:

    Klog entry:
    "Wanda seems to resent the implication that she knows anything about troops or combat(though I think she does)."


    Ansom is booped.
    Knowledge about warfare is very different from melee capability. By your logic Parson could beat Ansom mano-et-mano without his sword.

    Quote Originally Posted by Godskook View Post
    On general tropeing of casters, many games allow players to build death knights and 'normal' necromancers from the same base class, giving distinction only to how one chooses to train the caster. Guild Wars(class is called necromancer) and Champions(class is called death knight) both come to mind. Since we don't know Erfworld's rules on this, we can allow the possibility that 'death knight' training is possible for a caster.
    On a similar note I once played a very effective wizard in D&D who at level 1 had a 16 str and 20 con (18 int, for those that wanna know). He was just as effective in melee combat as anyone else in the party at Lvl 1, he even one-shotted an orc with his staff.

    Quote Originally Posted by Godskook View Post
    Also, since most caster skill seems to be unrelated to leveling(Stanley, who is highly concerned with leveling his uncroaked warlords is unconcerned with leveling his casters), it is possible that some fighting skill is also obtainable without actually seeing combat. Given that Wanda is such a jack-of-all-trades in magic, I'd bet dollars to smuckers she took some combat training at some point.
    1) We don't know anything about caster leveling; they may level from casting spells instead of combat (like an AD&D 2e caster).
    2) I doubt casters could 'learn combat from a book' as it were. Attack/defense spells, sure. How to use a staff as an effective melee weapon? No.

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by Godskook View Post
    This has been mentioned in the past and in this thread. I certainly don't underestimate Wanda. And if she has a "cast headache" spell she can have other ways to hurt a unit or to place status ailments on one. I don't particularly think that her verses were a spell, but there is such a thing as rhyme-o-mancy and Wanda is adept at spells outside her own discipline.

    Quote Originally Posted by Godskook View Post
    Also, since most caster skill seems to be unrelated to leveling(Stanley, who is highly concerned with leveling his uncroaked warlords is unconcerned with leveling his casters), it is possible that some fighting skill is also obtainable without actually seeing combat. Given that Wanda is such a jack-of-all-trades in magic, I'd bet dollars to smuckers she took some combat training at some point.
    Stanley is not a deep thinker, so he would fixate on superficial matters like leveling--I'm not saying that leveling is unimportant, only that it isn't the crux of the question necessarily. Wanda could certainly have seen her share of fighting given that she survived the disappearance of the Croatan tribe.
    Quo vadis?

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    Default Re: 132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

    Quote Originally Posted by DevilDan View Post
    Wanda could certainly have seen her share of fighting given that she survived the disappearance of the Croatan tribe.
    Come on, let's be honest here.......

    s/survived/caused

    She can do the Erfworld equivalent of summoning Chuck Norris, I'm not putting anything past her........

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