Things you never noticed II: I never noticed the first thread - Page 20

mini_magician · 10-23-2011, 09:53 AM

Since we're talking about Elan's int and wisdom a little bit, http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0002.html In this comic Elan has 6 skill points. A bard gets Int + 6. However, humans get a bonus +1. Assuming he doesn't have any magical items increasing his int, he has a negative modifier. EDIT having magical items would only mean his actual int. modifier is even more negative.

MesiDoomstalker · 10-23-2011, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mini_magician

Since we're talking about Elan's int and wisdom a little bit, http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0002.html In this comic Elan has 6 skill points. A bard gets Int + 6. However, humans get a bonus +1. Assuming he doesn't have any magical items increasing his int, he has a negative modifier. EDIT having magical items would only mean his actual int. modifier is even more negative.

I remember a Giant quote (though unfortunatly don't have a link to it) that he's singing about the 6 skill points Bard's get in 3.5 vs. whatever they got in 3.0. I have no idea how many they got in 3.0 as I didn't start playing till 4e was out.

Cizak · 10-23-2011, 10:00 AM

This was a while ago, but I thought I'd share the story.

When strip #718 first came around, I read it on a computer in the school library. That screen must have been tilted in some really weird way, because never once did I think the colours were wrong. But they most certainly were, and how do I know that in hindsight? Malack had no eyes.

Yep, the first time I read that strip Malack had no eyes. And I never checked the comic on my own computer for about two days, but when I did he had them. So it took me two days to notice Malack has eyes. He looked pretty cool without them, though...

Kish · 10-23-2011, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mini_magician

Since we're talking about Elan's int and wisdom a little bit, http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0002.html In this comic Elan has 6 skill points. A bard gets Int + 6.

Those two sentences are not complete.

"In that comic Elan sung about having 6 new skill points on conversion from 3.0ed to 3.5ed."
"A bard gets Int+6 skill points on leveling up."
"Elan hadn't just leveled up, and thus the first sentence and the second sentence have nothing to do with each other."

martianmister · 10-23-2011, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cizak

Yep, the first time I read that strip Malack had no eyes. And I never checked the comic on my own computer for about two days, but when I did he had them. So it took me two days to notice Malack has eyes. He looked pretty cool without them, though...

Wow! Scary...

Gift Jeraff · 10-24-2011, 12:30 AM

I just noticed that Malack's eyes don't have outlines, whereas all other characters with coloured eyes and faces not covered by shadows or masks (Sabine, Qarr, Tsukiko, goblinoids, kobolds, wights, etc.) have a black outline around their eyes.

martianmister · 10-28-2011, 08:45 AM

Belkar said "self buddy", not "elf buddy" as he said before.

Palthera · 10-28-2011, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MesiDoomstalker

I remember a Giant quote (though unfortunatly don't have a link to it) that he's singing about the 6 skill points Bard's get in 3.5 vs. whatever they got in 3.0. I have no idea how many they got in 3.0 as I didn't start playing till 4e was out.

They got 4 skill points.

I don't know if it's been mentioned, cause it's specifically a book thing, but in one of the Extremely Exciting bonus comics there is an extra sword just randomly in frame. It has no purpose being there, it looks like it got accidentally copied and pasted...

Peelee · 10-28-2011, 10:22 AM

I just realized Tsukiko is wearing rather skimpy attire. What with the action and tension buildup, I never noticed the see-through negligee before

Blisstake · 10-28-2011, 10:34 AM

The first spell Malack casts on Elan is Heal
The first spell Malack casts on Nale is Harm (its opposite)

Huh.

MesiDoomstalker · 10-28-2011, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blisstake

The first spell Malack casts on Elan is Heal
The first spell Malack casts on Nale is Harm (its opposite)

Huh.

Mind=Blown

Gift Jeraff · 10-28-2011, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blisstake

The first spell Malack casts on Elan is Heal
The first spell Malack casts on Nale is Harm (its opposite)

Huh.

I was gonna post that yesterday, but my post was the latest and I didn't want to double post. Great minds think alike.

On another Nale-related note, I thought it was only Sabine who had to eat the heart, but upon rereading it, it sounds like Nale has to eat it, too.

Hardcore · 10-28-2011, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by martianmister

Belkar said "self buddy", not "elf buddy" as he said before.

Hadn't noticed that!

MesiDoomstalker · 10-30-2011, 02:24 PM

I never noticed that Blackwings speech bubble actually says *whisper* over and over again.

Seharvepernfan · 10-30-2011, 03:06 PM

I just reread the entire comic this week, so I should have more of these, but in the duergar merchant panel, isamu is looking at a sap, which he uses later on (but in an earlier strip).

Right after Jirix's speech, the hydra cooking goblin millionaire has a booth set up.

Dragonglove · 10-30-2011, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seharvepernfan

I just reread the entire comic this week, so I should have more of these, but in the duergar merchant panel, isamu is looking at a sap, which he uses later on (but in an earlier strip).

Right after Jirix's speech, the hydra cooking goblin millionaire has a booth set up.

I can't find the strip he uses the sap in. Can you link it?

Pheehelm · 10-30-2011, 06:43 PM

I don't think he was ever shown actually using it, but Haley takes it from him here.

Seharvepernfan · 10-31-2011, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pheehelm

I don't think he was ever shown actually using it, but Haley takes it from him here.

Yeah, my bad. Haley takes it from him in #521.

Lord.Sorasen · 11-01-2011, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackestOfMages

except, y'know, consantly remind the guy you killed his kids.

when you've done something horrible to a person then keep reminding them that you've done it at every turn, it does make the feelings of hate more extreme

I don't know; if someone killed my family, I'm pretty sure I'd be pretty much 100% pissed regardless of the killer's words.

But more than that, the full caster's game is a game of preparation, which has been a running theme through the entire arc.

Harm is a good spell for the sake of inflicting pain. But it wasn't the best opening move. The spell that immediately comes to mind is dimensional anchor.

In this regard, a very angry cleric is going to do a lot worse than one who is premeditated. Probably made no difference in this case, but why take chances?

Shhalahr Windrider · 11-01-2011, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord.Sorasen

I don't know; if someone killed my family, I'm pretty sure I'd be pretty much 100% pissed regardless of the killer's words.

Yeah, but you’d be pissed and thinking clearly. (Maybe). Taunting is used to make the target act on a purely emotional level. Which may be a good thing, or it may be a bad thing, depending on the target’s emotional instincts. It takes a keen judge of character (i.e. Someone with a decent Sense Motive score, which is modified by Wisdom) to tell when it is a good idea.

Quote:

Harm is a good spell for the sake of inflicting pain. But it wasn't the best opening move. The spell that immediately comes to mind is dimensional anchor.

If you have won initiative, harm followed by inflict moderate wounds could end the game before your opponent gets any chance to teleport. It’s a perfectly valid strategy. And it ends things on round 1. The dimensional anchor strategy would require at least one more round, unless you had an eighth level slot available to quicken that before unleashing some insta-kill spell or another. I do not believe we are yet privy to whether or not Malack has 8th-level spell slots or if he is in the habit of using said slot on quickened dimensional anchor. All things considered Malack probably used the best strategy he had for killing someone as quickly as possible.

factotum · 11-02-2011, 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord.Sorasen

Harm is a good spell for the sake of inflicting pain. But it wasn't the best opening move. The spell that immediately comes to mind is dimensional anchor.

In this regard, a very angry cleric is going to do a lot worse than one who is premeditated. Probably made no difference in this case, but why take chances?

The problem here, as it is every time someone comes up with this, is that it assumes Malack was expecting to find Nale on that roof and was expecting him to teleport away once hurt. Clerics aren't spontaneous casters like bards or sorcerers--they have to prepare their spells in advance, and Dimensional Anchor is such a highly situational spell I wouldn't expect Malack to have prepared it on what, to all appearances, was going to be a normal day at the office.

Plus, as already mentioned, the combo Malack used would have been a pretty much guaranteed one-round kill if both spells had connected...

The Linker · 11-02-2011, 03:31 AM

Hell, the Harm should have been a one-hit kill. Given that the damage was at least 110 (10 x (level required to cast Harm)), but almost certainly the max of 150, versus a fourteenth-level character with little constitution and who's mostly Sorcerer*, Nale had to make his Will Save to survive that at all. The half damage probably would have gotten him if not for the 'cannot reduce the target’s hit points to less than 1' clause.

I intensely disagree that it would be smarter to cast Dimension Anchor and give him a turn at all with which to reveal any number of tricks up his sleeve. Malack had way more than enough raw power with which to destroy Nale in the blink of an eye. The rolls just went right in Nale's favor.

Nightmarenny · 11-02-2011, 05:16 AM

Assuming that the Cleric had prepared Dimensional Anchor it was the optimal move. Nale and his girl are of very little danger to a higher level character. Nale's only option was running away. He was dead in a strait fight.

The Linker · 11-02-2011, 05:22 AM

Dimensional Anchor could miss. Nale could have any number of things hidden away to help him escape in more mundane ways; some sort of blinding powder in Malack's eyes, Sabine carries him off. Done. Man, he could have leapt off the balcony and floated off! Dimensional Anchor stops you from teleporting, not... moving.

There was a very small chance Malack was going to not kill Nale in a single round, and Dimensional Anchor is far from infallible. I seriously contend that it had the best chances of leading to Nale's defeat.

Nightmarenny · 11-02-2011, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Linker

Dimensional Anchor could miss. Nale could have any number of things hidden away to help him escape in more mundane ways; some sort of blinding powder in Malack's eyes, Sabine carries him off. Done. Man, he could have leapt off the balcony and floated off! Dimensional Anchor stops you from teleporting, not... moving.

There was a very small chance Malack was going to not kill Nale in a single round, and Dimensional Anchor is far from infallible. I seriously contend that it had the best chances of success.

His chosen spells both require a Touch attack and a save.

Both spells had to hit to beat him.

Dimensional Anchor has no save. It has a dramatically better chance of hitting than the Cleric had of killing Nale in one turn.

As for Nale running, well gee I guess your right. To catch Nale he'd have to, gosh, run after him. There are Three high-level Characters there and The cleric probably had something with range.

The Linker · 11-02-2011, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightmarenny

Both spells had to hit to beat him.

One spell had to hit fully. Harm. As I said, it was only the save that spared him, and he needed at least 30. I wouldn't exactly blame a guy for banking on that not being resisted. The Inflict Critical Wounds was just gravy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightmarenny

As for Nale running, well gee I guess your right. To catch Nale he'd have to, gosh, run after him. There are Three high-level Characters there and The cleric probably had something with range.

Neither of the two possibilities I mentioned involved anything 'run after him' could solve, Nightmarenny. I specifically gave scenarios which would prove difficult for Malack to follow. He's not a mobile guy. And no one there is capable of flight like Sabine is.

And while I'm sure Malack has ranged attacks, nothing's going to have the one-hit capability of Harm. He only had one round in which to make any melee touch attacks; one round to bust out his best damage, and one round where he knew he had a very good chance of destroying Nale.