Word of Recall

[Kornaki]

I don't know, I'm pretty happy with the "Tarquin is level 20 and Malack is level 12 and Tarquin expects Malack to hold up his end of the adventuring bargain, which probably doesn't mean spending half his highest level spell slots on a way to teleport to safety and leave Tarquin to die"

For Redcloak, a level six spell is a commodity - he can cast a dozen more powerful spells. For Malack, a level six spell is his go-to most powerful move - having it be word of recall would be pretty lame and not the best teamwork in the world

[Tock Zipporah]

See, I wasn't going to go into the "vampires in sunlight are limited to attack actions (whatever those are)" pedantry because I thought the simplest solution to that was that the Giant had simply decided to mentally re-write that part of the entry for the same improper wording that you referenced. Malack got a standard action, and used it to attempt to take Nale down with him, and I don't care that it's not RAW.

What I care about is that it's not just a lack of tactical planning or optimization, but that it's not in keeping with his character. Remember, Malack is paranoid, cautious, and a schemer. He's part of a long-con to subjugate a continent with proxies and false flags, he helps other clerics research spells that he builds back doors into, he studies obscure grappling techniques in case he can't magically overcome an opponent and is willing to engage in a war of attrition with a cleric on-level with him.

In the novel, "Small Favor" by Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden goes to meet with three immortal wizards who are in league with Fallen Angels. Harry surprises the heck out of them by charging directly at them, causing them to scatter. His explanation for why he did so informs my thinking on this Malack incident.

Harry Dresden realized that the longer someone's been alive, cheating death, the more paranoid and fearful of death they actually become, and the greater the lengths they'll go to if presented with a threat. Hence, scattering and regrouping when an enemy unexpectedly charges right at you is preferable to standing up to them and blasting them with magic or sheer physical might.

Xykon shows that same kind of mentality on two occasions; when Ghost Soon reveals that he knows that Redcloak's holy symbol is his phylactery, his response isn't to continue the fight until he's won, because now there's the possibility of defeat. He immediately wants to bug out. No matter how close they are to winning, his immortality is threatened, and he's leaving NOW.

Same when he was fighting Darth V and dismissed the arcane power of the two soul splices. Be a lich or a vampire or a Dorian Gray knock-off. Do whatever it takes to stay in the game and avoid the Fires Below, Xykon said, otherwise you're not really playing.

Malack took three actions, in essence, when he started burning. He sent Durkon after his staff to get a fresh application of the protection spell (he didn't seem worried that Z would counterspell or dispel that), he looked around for shelter, and then tried to kill Nale. He didn't Word of Recall away , almost certainly because he didn't have it memorized.

Given what I wrote above about the psychology of the undead and immortal fearing death more than almost anything else, it's just inconceivable to me not to take the precaution of preparing WoR.

Just because it's what you would do doesn't mean it's what Malack would do, and just because he didn't act the way you expect doesn't mean he is "acting out of character." It means you, personally, have an opinion about his character which isn't correct compared to what the writer would tell you about his character.

Malack isn't Harry Dresden. He isn't Xykon. He's Malack, priest of the God of Death. "I'll take you down with me!" is completely in character for him.

There are a few hundred Cleric spells in the books. A few dozen are level 6 like word of Recall. Malack gets 2-3 to pick per day. Just because he chose Harm instead of Word of Recall doesn't make him a poorly portrayed character.

[JustWantedToSay]

How does one actually designate their sanctuary for word of recall?

Could it be that The Giant would interpret it as the place where you prepared the spell?

Bleedingham is more than a day away.

[Kornaki]

How does one actually designate their sanctuary for word of recall?

Could it be that The Giant would interpret it as the place where you prepared the spell?

Bleedingham is more than a day away.

When you prepare the spell you pick the sanctuary, and it can be any place which is familiar to you. His quarters in the palace would definitely qualify

[Fish]

You can't just have characters in the comic regularly using shields to protect themselves, and then have a character willfully or neglectfully fail to use one, resulting in his death. Just because the plot needed him to die. That's inconsistent and lazy. It does not make good storytelling.

I disagree. There are plenty of examples where the villain is ironically undone by his own favorite maneuver, or pushed into defeat by the very thing he tells others to guard against. There are many, many stories where a character sacrifices himself for his cause. I can't count the number of times a story has a character fights to the end in the face of certain death, because he fervently believes it is the right thing to do.

Redcloak is literally the Dark One's messiah. I can't see the final battle going down, with the future of all goblinkind riding on his every move, and Redcloak running like a frightened rabbit because things aren't going his way. Self-sacrifice for his god and Plan? Yeah, that's Redcloak.

[Defiant]

I disagree. There are plenty of examples where the villain is ironically undone by his own favorite maneuver, or pushed into defeat by the very thing he tells others to guard against. There are many, many stories where a character sacrifices himself for his cause. I can't count the number of times a story has a character fights to the end in the face of certain death, because he fervently believes it is the right thing to do.

Redcloak is literally the Dark One's messiah. I can't see the final battle going down, with the future of all goblinkind riding on his every move, and Redcloak running like a frightened rabbit because things aren't going his way. Self-sacrifice for his god and Plan? Yeah, that's Redcloak.

I think you missed my point, because I am in complete agreement with you.

My point was that if an arrow is heading towards a character, and the character has a shield and knows how to use it, it is bad storytelling to have the character die to the arrow by not using his shield, just because the character had to die. In the same way, it's bad storytelling for the author to completely ignore the existence of "Word of Recall" as a viable retreat option, even if a character is destined to die.

Good storytelling on the other hand, incorporates the items available and plausible within the world. For example, imagine Redcloak trying to run away but ultimately dying, and he didn't use WoR; with the reason he didn't use WoR being that the plot demanded for him to die at that point. That's lazy and stupid. Instead, there will be a strong in-world and in-character reason for it, such as he wouldn't be trying to run away at all, hence why he didn't use the spell. The spell still exists, and must exist, as a realistic option to all characters who have demonstrated they can use it (such as Redcloak).

[Psyren]

Then why was the fact that he'd already cast Protection from Daylight an issue?

It wasn't. Nale was just covering his bases.

Again, the question in this thread is "why didn't he X?" By the rules he can't, by the plot he didn't. Nothing to see here. That's all I'm saying.

If Z could counterspell, then why didn't he counterspell the Slay Living?

Given that he watched Nale quaff the NEP elixir and has a decent Int score, it's safe to assume he knew it wouldn't be needed.

[Defiant]

Given that he watched Nale quaff the NEP elixir and has a decent Int score, it's safe to assume he knew it wouldn't be needed.

Did you miss my "possible explanations"?

My point wasn't to challenge your assertions. It was to show that, while you are indeed correct, there is actually more to the discussion than that. But it still comes to the same conclusion.

[Porthos]

Which is why he prepares *two* castings of Protection from Daylight and also has the spell locked in to his staff. Is that not crazy enough prepared for you? There comes a point where even the most cautious character has to say, "If I prepare any more corner case or defensive spells I won't have anything left to attack with!", and in Malack's case this was where he drew the line.

This is the best explanation. Either that, or it was in his staff.

Consider, Malack wasn't planning on Vamping anyone when he made out his spell list. Thus, for him, his extra Protection From Daylight filled the same role as Word of Recall. Moreover, as you note, he figured he had plenty of backups in case someone went to town on him via Dispel Magic.

No, he used his sixth level spells for other things. Like say, dispelling his enemies' spells and Harming them.

[BenjCano]

Xykon knew he was at risk of getting his body smashed by Soon. He knew Redcloak was right there, and also in danger. He knew his phylactery was right there.

Xykon was happy to let Redcloak hold onto his phylactery when he took on Durokon. He was happy to let Redloak when the mid-level adventurers assaulted his throne room. He was happy to let Redloak hold onto it when they went into the hobgoblin war cap. He was happy to let Redloak hold onto it when they cleared out the dungeon of good aligned monsters. He was happy to let Redloak hold onto it when they disabled the watchtowers. He was happy to let Redloak hold onto it while he dueled Miko. He was happy to let Redloak hold onto it during the battle for Azure City, the side trip to zap the last boat in the harbor, etc. etc. etc.

Again, given that your argument is that Malack was unrealistically unprepared, I'm really not sure why you're saying that Xykon's attitude of, "This person can be assumed not to know about my phylactery which is right there...that person can be assumed not to know about my phylactery which is right there..." shows prudence.

Xykon, up until Redcloak lost the phylactery to O-Chul, was perfectly content to let him keep it, and bring it into dangerous situations even against challenging adversaries who had time and opportunity to try to figure out where the phylactery was.

It's in keeping with Xykon's character to arrogantly flash his phylactery to anyone who looks at Redcloak without them knowing what they were seeing. When O-Chul got away, Xykon knew that the cat was out of the bag and he couldn't hide the phylactery in plain sight anymore. I suspect that this informed his decision to build the astral dungeon for the phylactery as much as to punish Redcloak for letting O-Chul take it away from him.

And you think the fact that Xykon freaked out after Soon spelled out to him that he was in danger of destruction--but didn't bother to put the pieces together himself without Soon drawing him a picture--shows that all undead creatures make paranoid plans to preserve their own existences and it's unrealistic that Malack didn't realize he was in danger until it was too late?

Word of Recall isn't just a "I'm a vampire exposed to sunlight and about to die" contingency. It's a, "The situation is completely FUBAR" contingency. What if Tarquin had been on the wrong end of some of V's disintegration spam? Suppose the defenses around the gate had been stronger than anticipated, and Malack was on the losing side of a battle against a couple of copper dragons or a solar or something? Suppose Xykon showed up in a Meteor-swarming mood? Word of Recall lets Malack and Tarquin (or Tarquin's body/ashes) take a draw out of the mouth of victory.

Look, what I'm saying is that if Malack HAD Recalled his way back to Bleedingham when Nale sucker-punched him, no one on the board would be crying foul or that it was out of character. Because of COURSE someone as paranoid and cautious as Malack would have WoR prepared, just in case of the worst case scenario. I find his failure to prepare the spell out of character.

I don't know, I'm pretty happy with the "Tarquin is level 20 and Malack is level 12 and Tarquin expects Malack to hold up his end of the adventuring bargain, which probably doesn't mean spending half his highest level spell slots on a way to teleport to safety and leave Tarquin to die"

You can take other people with you when you Recall, one for every three caster levels. Think about what the Linear Guild had on their to-do list for the day, in order of certainty of occurring:

1. Take on a group of mid-to-high level adventurers in an effort to seize control of an artifact-level gate.
2. Deal with a clan of guardians of said gate, the guardians who founded by a high-to-epic level wizard
3. Survive and navigate the dungeon the guardians listed above constructed to defend the gate, which includes presumably many traps and illusions
4. Potentially defend said gate from the "scene-chewing villain" who ALSO wanted control of the gate.

Going into a situation like that, are you telling me that Tarquin would have objected to Malack using a 6th level slot so they could get out of dodge if the situation turned hairy?

[Fish]

My point was that if an arrow is heading towards a character, and the character has a shield and knows how to use it, it is bad storytelling to have the character die to the arrow by not using his shield, just because the character had to die.

That suggests that every character with gun should never not get to shoot; that every character with armor on will always live; that every trick which works once will always work again. I don't agree with that at all.

I get what you're saying about poor plotting and conveniently forgetting their powers; for instance, the Star Trek folks always seemed to run into "electromagnetic interference" when the transporters would be really handy, or they simply forget things like "well, we did discover that alien body-switching machine back on Camus II, but let's pretend we never heard of anything like this before, because it would make this plot too easy." If we know they have it, they should use it. Or try, at least, when it makes sense to do so.

[Porthos]

Look, what I'm saying is that if Malack HAD Recalled his way back to Bleedingham when Nale sucker-punched him, no one on the board would be crying foul or that it was out of character. Because of COURSE someone as paranoid and cautious as Malack would have WoR prepared, just in case of the worst case scenario. I find his failure to prepare the spell out of character.

I am starting to tire of the phrase 'out of character'. Might be because it is getting used a lot lately.

Look, I will buy that it would have been in-character for Malack to prepare Word of Recall. But that does NOT mean it would have been out of character for him not to. All it requires is for him to have confidence in his already established backup plans of: Turn Gaseous to get out of Dodge in fights I'm outclassed and Cast my near infinite supply of Protection From Daylight.

There. In character.

Besides, Malack isn't the 'Gosh Darn Batman'. It hasn't been established that he has a contingency for every possibile situation from every character's possible action.

And thank god for that. Batmen can get boring when they get too Battish.

Malack got outsmarted and he paid with it with his life. Or death. Well undeath.

[Psyren]

Look, what I'm saying is that if Malack HAD Recalled his way back to Bleedingham when Nale sucker-punched him, no one on the board would be crying foul or that it was out of character. Because of COURSE someone as paranoid and cautious as Malack would have WoR prepared, just in case of the worst case scenario. I find his failure to prepare the spell out of character.

How do you know he didn't prepare it?
Again, the rules do not allow him to use it. And having him use it and be smacked down by Z would just be a waste of panels better used for improving Nale's characterization, given that Nale will actually be a going concern.

Malack was a plot device. His part is done. Devoting more comic real estate to fleshing out his every contingency is a nice-to-have, but ultimately just padding.

[BenjCano]

Besides, Malack isn't the 'Gosh Darn Batman'. It hasn't been established that he has a contingency for every possibile situation from every character's possible action.

You mean...aside from building backdoors into spells he helps design, studying grappling as a means of immobilizing a caster protected from his energy/blood drain, researching and double preparing a spell to protect against his biggest weakness and keeping ~50 charges of it on a staff besides?

You're telling me that THAT sort of character wouldn't keep a "Get out of a FUBAR situation" spell on tap in case of exactly the sort of treachery that killed him? Or some other unforeseen situation that threatens him and/or Tarquin?

[Defiant]

That suggests that every character with gun should never not get to shoot; that every character with armor on will always live; that every trick which works once will always work again.

No it doesn't.

If we know they have it, they should use it. Or try, at least, when it makes sense to do so.

Exactly.

Suppose that we know Malack had Word of Recall prepared, and we know that his personality is to flee and seek revenge later rather than die in hope of taking down Nale with him. Then the last comic was poorly done, and you can't throw up your arms in the air and say "oh well, that's what the plot demanded". Malack absolutely should have retreated in such a case and had the ability and desire to. I know the storytelling process starts with plot first and goes to scenes second - that just means that the ultimate outcome (Malack dying) was done improperly.

But this isn't a problem in this situation for the myriad of reasons brought up. Maybe he did have Word of Recall prepared, but he substituted it for Harm in the fight with Durkon (believing his other spell(s) to be more important). Maybe he didn't have it prepared because he had ample other defenses prepared. Maybe he saw this as his last chance ever to kill Nale and was willing to give up his life to do so. Many of these possibilities are more than plausible. So there is no issue with the last comic.

But if none of these possibilities were available, and it made no sense, then you could in fact come to the conclusion that the result was incorrect or did not make sense. You can then declare yourself or leave it to the author to conclude that "since storymaking is actually the reverse, with the plot set in stone, then this means that the method of arriving at this result was improper". They both say the same thing - there's something wrong with this comic.

But since this is a very deeply devised comic, with countless plot elements unknown to us, such a critique must consider missing information. For example, we could not reach a conclusion that the author's characterization of the IFCC is correct just because their actions make no sense up to this point, since their plan has not yet been revealed. It could work out that their actions are entirely in keeping with the plan and their characters. Given past plot resolutions in the comic, I expect seamless and logical integration of plot and character factors to continue unabated.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

You mean...aside from building backdoors into spells he helps design, studying grappling as a means of immobilizing a caster protected from his energy/blood drain, researching and double preparing a spell to protect against his biggest weakness and keeping ~50 charges of it on a staff besides?

You're telling me that THAT sort of character wouldn't keep a "Get out of a FUBAR situation" spell on tap in case of exactly the sort of treachery that killed him? Or some other unforeseen situation that threatens him and/or Tarquin?

Yep, because he considers himself adequately protected without the need of using three, rather than two, spell slots.

Your argument is untenable. If Malack had been able to cast word of recall, and got counter'ed for his troubles, then you'd be arguing that he should've had two on tap, I'm sure.

But it can't work that way. At some point, a character decides that he is protected enough, and that he needs some offensive weapons/spells if he is to go against dangerous enemies. Since he already has "backdoors into spells he helps design, studying grappling as a means of immobilizing a caster protected from his energy/blood drain, researching and double preparing a spell to protect against his biggest weakness and keeping ~50 charges of it on a staff", why would he need to waste yet another spell slot on this? I.e. when, according to you, is it enough? Because it sounds like if you were Malack, you wouldn't get out of bed without filling every 6th level spell slot with WoR and similar.

Grey Wolf

[Fish]

You're telling me that THAT sort of character wouldn't keep a "Get out of a FUBAR situation" spell on tap ...?

There's a finite limit to the number of backup-backup-backup plans one can have. Malack deliberately researched a spell to protect from daylight. He prepared it twice daily. He built it into a staff. Had he planned to vamp anybody that day, he likely would have had more, but it was an unexpected scenario -- as was blowing up the pyramid and suddenly being in the open during daylight, after a heavy spell-use adventure against a fellow cleric and inside a dungeon filled with illusions. If you question anything, it's that he used his "emergency backup" protection spell on Durkula while they were still inside the pyramid.

"Prepared" is one thing. You're demanding that he was so prepared, that he escaped. Not gonna happen.

[Cifer]

@psyren
The "attack action" part from the vampire description is just plain bogus - there is no such thing as an "attack action" in the rules, so my presumption for what was meant would be "The vampire gets one half of a regular turn, then it's ashed" - and even that one seems to have been broken for a more standard movie vampire dusting time (which is entirely acceptable due to feats).

@topic
As others noted, I find it entirely in keeping with what we know of Malack that there is a limit to his precautions. Being a vampire already gives you quite a few more "last layers of defense" compared to a regular human and Malack's low number of spells means that there is a point where he absolutely can't be killed, but it coincides with the point where he stops being useful for any mission but "Don't get killed".
Additionally, we don't know how many spells he had to burn off-panel that were originally intended for some more self-preservation.

[Psyren]

You mean...aside from building backdoors into spells he helps design, studying grappling as a means of immobilizing a caster protected from his energy/blood drain, researching and double preparing a spell to protect against his biggest weakness and keeping ~50 charges of it on a staff besides?

Why won't anyone read the actual rules for staves?

[Killer Angel]

Clearly, "Nerghal, save me", is the activation's phrase of word of recall.

(i know it's not, but given that we're wildly speculating...)

[Fish]

Exactly.

Suppose that we know Malack had Word of Recall prepared, and we know that his personality is to flee and seek revenge later rather than die in hope of taking down Nale with him.

Suppose we knew that Malack had four wheels and bucket seats. Then he'd be a car, and he could have just closed the sunroof.

But we don't know those things about Malack, do we? In fact, at least twice before, Malack's instant, instinctive go-to response is to kill Nale immediately. See here and here; also his request to Elan here for Nale's skull.

Trying to kill Nale fits in exactly with his behavior as we know it.

[Snails]

Look, what I'm saying is that if Malack HAD Recalled his way back to Bleedingham when Nale sucker-punched him, no one on the board would be crying foul or that it was out of character. Because of COURSE someone as paranoid and cautious as Malack would have WoR prepared, just in case of the worst case scenario. I find his failure to prepare the spell out of character.

You are basing your opinion on a lot of guesses, not data. It would be out of character for Redcloak, but not necessarily Malack.

Malack is used to having the advantage, due to a well-hidden peculiar nature. He has a lot of staying power, even without WoR. He is not used to fighting against an enemy who has carefully planned to fight him.

I would also say that his team is probably not thrilled with a healer in the party who is likely a measly 12th level caster, who prepares Harm, Slay Living, Protection from Daylight, Protection from Daylight, Quickened Inflict Moderate Wounds, Flamestrike every day. Where is the healing love? Adding Word of Recall to this list means he does not have even a single Heal spell, which makes him worthless as a healer for a high level party.

[Snails]

@psyren
The "attack action" part from the vampire description is just plain bogus - there is no such thing as an "attack action" in the rules, so my presumption for what was meant would be "The vampire gets one half of a regular turn, then it's ashed" - and even that one seems to have been broken for a more standard movie vampire dusting time (which is entirely acceptable due to feats)..

Actually, there is a clear definition of "attack action". We can define it negatively: it is those things that cause you to break the Invisibility spell.

I agree it is rather awkward, but I think the designers point is to accomplish exactly what we see here. The vampire is driven to either step quickly to safety or attack viciously. That is a feature, not a bug.

[Porthos]

You mean...aside from building backdoors into spells he helps design, studying grappling as a means of immobilizing a caster protected from his energy/blood drain, researching and double preparing a spell to protect against his biggest weakness and keeping ~50 charges of it on a staff besides?

You're telling me that THAT sort of character wouldn't keep a "Get out of a FUBAR situation" spell on tap in case of exactly the sort of treachery that killed him? Or some other unforeseen situation that threatens him and/or Tarquin?

Yes that is exactly what I am saying because such a character feels all of these sorts of defenses are sufficient.

Preparing for ludicrious situations is more Tarquin's bag when it comes to character motifs.

[Defiant]

{SCRUBBED}

[The Giant]

But it can't work that way. At some point, a character decides that he is protected enough, and that he needs some offensive weapons/spells if he is to go against dangerous enemies. Since he already has "backdoors into spells he helps design, studying grappling as a means of immobilizing a caster protected from his energy/blood drain, researching and double preparing a spell to protect against his biggest weakness and keeping ~50 charges of it on a staff", why would he need to waste yet another spell slot on this? I.e. when, according to you, is it enough? Because it sounds like if you were Malack, you wouldn't get out of bed without filling every 6th level spell slot with WoR and similar.

As others noted, I find it entirely in keeping with what we know of Malack that there is a limit to his precautions. Being a vampire already gives you quite a few more "last layers of defense" compared to a regular human and Malack's low number of spells means that there is a point where he absolutely can't be killed, but it coincides with the point where he stops being useful for any mission but "Don't get killed".

Which is why he prepares *two* castings of Protection from Daylight and also has the spell locked in to his staff. Is that not crazy enough prepared for you? There comes a point where even the most cautious character has to say, "If I prepare any more corner case or defensive spells I won't have anything left to attack with!", and in Malack's case this was where he drew the line.

Sixth level slots may well be Malack's highest level spell slot. It's easiest to say that he should 'always' memorize word of recall, but there's other spells competing for that slot and competing hard.

All of this.

Also, I would point out that Malack was being expected by Tarquin to fulfill the traditional role of the cleric in this party: healing. Since he's an Evil cleric, that means he has to actually prepare his healing spells in advance. So in addition to the Harm and Greater Dispel Magic spells he already cast, he had at least one Heal spell prepared.

At what point did he feel confident that his amazing supernatural abilities, custom magic items, and defensive spells prepared were going to be enough? This point. Being wrong does not make him a fool.

[BenjCano]

I'll say it one more time, then bow out of the conversation due to irreconcilable differences.

Word of Recall is NOT a quadruple redundancy meant to protect Malack against sunlight.

Word of Recall is a spell you use when the situation is completely FUBAR. If V disintegrated Tarquin, or if the Buffy the Vampire Slayer had secretly been a member of the Draketooth family (someone write that fanfic quick!), or if the final defense of the gate had been a triple Disjunction spell followed by a Maximized Sunbeam, or if Xykon hailed from a small town called "Meteor-Swarm Spam the Albino Lizard" and gotten homesick on teleporting in, or if Nale turned traitor with a secret weapon or to exploit a momentary weakness, or if an ancient copper dragon had come swooping in, or if, or if, or if...

Just because WoR can be countered or negated through Dimensional Anchoring doesn't mean it's not a spell I wouldn't devote a spell slot to every day.

Because it sounds like if you were Malack, you wouldn't get out of bed without filling every 6th level spell slot with WoR and similar.

Funny story, the only time I played a cleric in high level play he prepared WoR every single day, and used it exactly once. The party was unlucky and sandwiched between three advanced banshees and a cairn linnorn. The party's paladin and I were able to Recall away and avoided a TPK because of my obsessive preparation of WoR.

EDIT: Huh, a comment from the Giant himself. Thanks for clarification, Rich.

[Psyren]

@psyren
The "attack action" part from the vampire description is just plain bogus - there is no such thing as an "attack action" in the rules,

There most certainly is. And even if there isn't and you define it as "a standard action" - the "attack" is still there, so it would have to be a standard used offensively in some way. Again, this is speaking purely from RAW.

Word of Recall has one purpose and one purpose only - to retreat. Thus it cannot be an attack.

[S.Carrot]

{SCRUBBED}

[Kish]

It's in keeping with Xykon's character to arrogantly flash his phylactery to anyone who looks at Redcloak without them knowing what they were seeing.

Yes, exactly. Or to put it another way, it's in keeping with Xykon's character to regularly stake his existence on his ability to beat the crap out of his enemies--and not worry about his retreat method unless he has his nose-hole mashed in the fact that he's at real risk of permanent destruction.

Or to put it still another way, your argument about "undead psychology" is incorrect, though for some reason you seem to keep changing the subject from it whenever it's challenged.