The Order of the Stick: May

[Tarlonniel]

Maybe Thog won't perceive singy-man and his toothpick as a threat ;)

[Zherog]

oooh! oooh! Maybe Elan will create an illusion of puppies! ;D

[dktsang]

How hard would it be for Elan to latch the Girdle onto Thog? ;D

[Grey Watcher]

oooh! oooh! Maybe Elan will create an illusion of puppies! ;D

I can just picture thog experiencing such a tormenting moral dilemma.

thog smash singy man.

but singy man has puppies.

thog likes puppies.

but, on the other hand, thog must smash singy man...

(it goes on for several hours, while the rest of the linear guild is defeated and long after the illusory puppies are gone)

[Rhia]

Great strip again! I love the look on Nale's face when he realizes what Roy is saying in the end. ;D

[Grey Watcher]

How hard would it be for Elan to latch the Girdle onto Thog? ;D

Well, Thog would have one of two reactions. He'd either be fascinated at the new developments in the situation or he'd wax philosophic as his sensitive side comes to bear. Or, he'd just be a dumb angry half-orc female and Elan would be in pretty much the same situation. Or worse, he could be forced to make the Will save of all time against "thog thinks singy-man pretty."

And Rhia, I too enjoyed the reaction take for Nale before the chase begins. Priceless! ;D

[Tarlonniel]

Or worse, he could be forced to make the Will save of all time against "thog thinks singy-man pretty."

*falls out of chair laughing*

[Dolash]

Reminds me of Shrek, when Donkey realized he was talking to a female dragon, who seemed to be taking a liking to him.

[Nareth]

I think Elan will be ok. After all, Belkar and Haley are now free of their opponents. Perfect time for Haley to flank Thog and "Sneak Attack" again :)

[dktsang]

I think Elan will be ok. After all, Belkar and Haley are now free of their opponents. Perfect time for Haley to flank Thog and "Sneak Attack" again :)

Have we forgotten about Barbarians getting Uncanny Dodge? Thog only took two levels of Fighter, so it's unlikely he's four levels lower than Haley...

[Grey Watcher]

I think Elan will be ok. After all, Belkar and Haley are now free of their opponents. Perfect time for Haley to flank Thog and "Sneak Attack" again :)

Nah, makes too much tactical sense for the OotS. I can just picture a transgendered Thog chasing Elan and a berserk Roy chasing Nale until the two finally run into each other. ;D

[dktsang]

Or worse, he could be forced to make the Will save of all time against "thog thinks singy-man pretty."

Nale does have a Charisma of 18...

Of course, it's never been made clear whether a 'Girdle would change your sexual orientation (or, indeed, your mind at all) in the short-term. Scientifically speaking [sic], the hormones would probably change you in the long-term, but we're counting in rounds, not [ahem] cycles...

[Dolash]

Ah yes, the scientific principles behind the belt of gender-bending, a most riviting concept ;D.

[Grey Watcher]

Nale does have a Charisma of 18...

Of course, it's never been made clear whether a 'Girdle would change your sexual orientation (or, indeed, your mind at all) in the short-term. Scientifically speaking [sic], the hormones would probably change you in the long-term, but we're counting in rounds, not [ahem] cycles...

I was going to say that's way more planning than the Giant probably cares to do, but I've already been proven wrong there. :P

[SP_Wes]

Lo' fellow OoTS fans. Came from Squidi's site awhile back and decided to join now to say that the battles have been great so far, but...

If Thog dies, I'll cry. He's too awesome to die. He is, in the words of Will Farrel, scrumptulicious (sp?). And remember, anyone who refers to someone as talky-man can't be truly evil.

[Duskrider_Moogle]

Welcome to the boards, mate.

Personally, I would only cry if poor Thog died an ignoble death at the hands of Elan.

Although come to think of it, it is kinda depressing that criminal mastermind Nale could be held off by Elan, of all people.

[The Giant]

Well, he is a mastermind, just not very powerful in a fair fight. If he can't Sneak Attack, it would be close. After all, he has the same Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution as Elan, because they are identical twins.

[Fantasy]

Whee! The mage duel wasn't quite what I expected, but I loved it all the same. Best lines in the strip:

Sleep.
Elf.
Oh, right.

The scary wizard on the coast has struck again...

[Wanderer]

Just out of curiosity, for those of us who don't know anything about this Drizzle character other than his existance... What precisely were those scimitars doing with that green lightning stuff?

[The Giant]

A spell.

There's nothing to know. The spell thing had nothing to do with the Drizz't character at all. Don't read too much into it, I wanted Zz'dtri to use a spell and draw the scimitars, so that's what happened.

[Wanderer]

Ooooh. Normally they say the name of the spell when they cast it, which is why I thought it must be something inherent to the scimitars. Thanks for clearing that up. :)

[The Giant]

Yeah, well, the fact was I couldn't find a spell that looked the way I wanted it to, so I fudged it.

Consider it to be a Silent Spell. ;)

[Dolash]

(pre-huge-post comment, Thog is most definetly evil, he killed a poor defensive elf girl, for crying out loud. Acts of murder against those underserving should be met with only the most terrible punishments.)

Ok, so so far here's my impression of The Order of the Stick.

I like the comic, and I believe there are two reasons for this overall. One of which are the witty jokes about Dungeoms amd Dragons. The jokes are well-timed, often completely new, and flow well in the comic despite them using meta-game concepts and words. The second reason, seems to be how developed the characters are after what would be called a "Short time" for a webcomic.

My impressions of the individual characters is already well-formed, indeed is was very shortly in to the webcomic. And each seems to have enough interesting character to be more then a two-dimensional stereotype. The same rings mostly true with the Linear guild, who's personalities were either the same as their double (as in the case of the kobold and Belkar) or the opposite (as in the case of Mr. Greenhilt and Thog).

Also, I am intrigued so far as to where the plot is going. You see, many webcomics start off with an introductory situation or villain, and eventually build up to bigger and more powerful situations or villains, until at last the characters go head to head with a main super-villain, who is usually only slowly introduced over the process of their earlier escapades. This Lich does not seem to be especially special in any way, at least not yet, and I am unsure as to wether he will fall in short order and allow the Order to move on to bigger things, or wether he becomes a recurring villain.

The curiosity of this villain also causes me to consider his dungeon. It is immeadietly evident that either A) he has something planned involving the Order and is willing to lose his low-quality troops for it to ensure the Order suspects nothing as it digs deeper down, or B) He is merely old-fashioned and thinks this is how you're supposed to defeat adventurers. If neither of these apply, then why does he not rally his forces and assassile the Order all at once? He could quite easily overwhelm them that way.

Another thing about this dungeon is that it had three elemental shrines, at the end of which were a trio of elemental guardians, whom I must confess I saw no logic in killing besides increasing the risk that the Order would catch on that the guild was evil (they didn't even loot the bodies!), but what is even more curious is that they were there in the first place. For one, judging by their apperance, their choice of words, and their horror at their own agonizing deaths, I believe I can deduce that they are of good alignment. If this is the case, then what did they live off of? Where was their food or water supply? And why didn't the monsters kill them? And heck, what were they even supposed to DO?

Which eventually leads me to my next point, which is on ressurections. Eventually, every gaming group on the face of the planet has used one. What makes me curious is that when the Order escapes - which, I assume, will be by going back the way they came - what will be their ressurecting policy? Some parties have a policy of only reviving PCs, some believe in ressurecting everyone they can possibly find whom they deem worthy, some use the simple spell "augury" to determin wether it is a good idea to revive the person or not. Will the Order have fallen team members? Probably, its' dramatic. Also, they have yet to spoof ressurection in The Order yet, as such it is a prime candidate for jokes.

So when they do wrap up here, it will be an interesting way to judge their alignment loyalty and also their personalities when they discover the Linear Guild left dead innocents in their wake. I imagine Belkar will want to leave them, Elan will have to be told "They're just sleeping" ("Then why is that one made of stone?" "Because sylphs become statues when they sleep"), and I imagin it would be too much for Durkon, unless he has the appropriate restorative spell for petrified persons. However, I would be dissapointed if they were not encountered again, as although they seemed to only serve a one-gag purpose, to prove that the guild is evil and kills people, their role in the whole three elements shrine has greatly aroused my curiosity.

Another curiosity is the creature in the shadows. Obiously he is a most terrible monster the lich will deploy upon his enemies, either to distract them while he escapes, to aid him in combat, or to take on the heroes altogether. But oddly enough, it does not seem to be very brave at heart. I mean, its' scared of the dark, not a good sign. I wonder wether he will even be brave enough to fight the Order? I suspect he is a dragon of some sort, as they are common boss foes, but it is only a guess.

Now, another thing that has perked my interest is the process by which these comics are made. I have assmebled a guess based on art style, but it is only one from a dozen different methods Mr. Giant could make these comics. Perhaps he pencils the characters, inks them, scans them, colours them? That is a common method indeed and allows for efficiency and interesting drawings. The other possible conclusions is that the whole thing is done in an art program, which leads me to believe he has some way of replicating each character and adjusting it for each scene, to assure they continue to look alike panel by panel.

Lastly (yes, this post has an end!) I would like to bring up the point of their character's future growth and expansion. As I said, there are many upcoming scenes which will define them greatly - fighting the hidden monster, hunting down any surviving Linear Guild members, encountering dead innocent people, doing battle with a boss character (lich), division of major spoils, and so forth - and an important part of a good, surviving webcomic is that the characters evolve. If a character doesn' evolve, and remains the same no matter what occurs, often s/he will become stale, and the comic will fall into a rut. So I hope that Mr. Giant will develop the characters outwards from their beginning personalities some time off in the future.

Anyways, that's my assessment. A very good comic indeed.

[Matuse]

Just goes to show you, that nobody can beat the lawyers.

Great stuff.

[Tarlonniel]

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

And moreover, V rocks.

Edit: I like the black guy (even though he is a l****r). Very much Elan with a J.D. ;)

[Grey Watcher]

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

And moreover, V rocks.

Edit: I like the black guy (even though he is a l****r). Very much Elan with a J.D. ;)

I thought he was hispanic? I mean, Rodriguez? (He is, by the way, one of my favorite characters. The spooooooky wizard!) I wonder if the Giant will make copyright lawyer avatars? (hint hint)

[Tarlonniel]

I thought he was hispanic? I mean, Rodriguez?

Eh, you humans all look alike to me ;) Actually I didn't remember that he'd been given a name at all, much less a Hispanic one. Rodriguez the spooooky copyright lawyer... hee hee....

[The Giant]

Phil Rodriguez, esq., is indeed latino. In fact, Tarlonniel, your post totally confused me because I didn't know which character you were talking about, because you blanked out the word "lawyer" too!

Dolash: Thanks for the indepth analysis. For your info, on another thread, I discussed that I make OOTS entirely in Adobe Illustrator, a vector-based art program.

[Tarlonniel]

Ah ha! My evil plan is succeeding! Having thoroughly confuzzled the Giant, his mind is now vulnerable to the subliminal suggestions within my posts. Soon I will have molded OotS to my will and then - with the power of the Stick behind me - I'll be unstoppable! The comic universe is mine! Bwa ha ha ha ha!

.... Ahem. Y'all didn't see nothin'. Move along now. 8)

[JD]

"That is the intellectual property of every villian in the history of villians!"

*Looks over the shoulder looking for people in suits, and laughs when he sees two*

*Says spooooooooooky wizard to self and laughs, making everyone in the libary look*