Could V end it, if he took the rest of OotS?

[homeosapiens]

As in the topic. Could V have the job done if he waited for Roy&company? I was kinda sure back in those day's, but now im not. V still was weak(saving throws, hp total etc) and rest of the Order? What could they possibly do?Durkon could heal and use restoration, but isn't that all? B., H.,Elan and Roy doesn't seem to have much assets in fighting Xykon at the time. V still is voulneable to death effects. What do you guys think?

[Procyonpi]

As in the topic. Could V have the job done if he waited for Roy&company? I was kinda sure back in those day's, but now im not. V still was weak(saving throws, hp total etc) and rest of the Order? What could they possibly do?Durkon could heal and use restoration, but isn't that all? B., H.,Elan and Roy doesn't seem to have much assets in fighting Xykon at the time. V still is voulneable to death effects. What do you guys think?

:elan: No. Dramatic convention dictates that they have to deal with the other two gates :smallbiggrin:

[homeosapiens]

Well i meant more theoretically. We know it didn't and couldnt happen becouse of the plot. But could they beat him? Apart from the story and everything? I thnik from everything we know about them - no. The only turning point is sorcerers/archmage epic spell. We dont know what was it.

From my point of view its far harder to kill Xykon then to kill V. Reddie, Tsuchiko and Jirix cal heal him and he is immune to death effect, direct damage by Roy(for egzample) doesnt do much good+ he can fly.

[TheBlackShadow]

Don't forget Roy has the starmetal-enhanced Greenhilt sword - that's got to count for something.

[Cyborg Mage]

Remember, V may not have been able to defeat Xykon, but it wouldn't have mattered if he did. Xykon would just have regenerated anyway, V would have needed to be able to destroy both Xykon and his Phylactery in the same stride. Remember, Roy only defeated Xykon because there just happened to be an Evil-creature incinerating Magical ward nearby. This time, all the magic wards nearby are Xykon's, he has the support of an entire nation's worth of Goblinoids and Undead and let's not forget the giant hole in reality that the Snarl could just happen upon at any time. My guess is to finish off Xykon, the Order will probably have to stage a Military Coup, harness the power of the Snarl themselves or something else like that.

[paddyfool]

Here's the thing...

Xykon seems increasingly bored and frustrated with the whole Evil Overlord business, and to be in it merely for the pursuit of further power and to humiliate RC. Also, he's getting tougher at at least the same rate as the Order are.

I'm therefore increasingly wondering if he might not do the following:

Some sort of perverse heel-face-turn and actually save the day in the end (since it's been spelled out that you basically have to be an Epic-level mortal to battle the Snarl).

Wouldn't that be fun?

[TheBlackShadow]

I admit, that would be cool, but I'm wondering about what thematic implications that might have...

[Ancalagon]

Xykon still would be a horrific evil in the world that had to get destroyed...

[Kish]

Here's the thing...

Xykon seems increasingly bored and frustrated with the whole Evil Overlord business,
He does?

As in Start of Darkness, Xykon only enjoys watching things die now. That's not new. If anything, he's shown in the online comic that he can actually get serious, when his phylactery was stolen.

He's not interested in strategy, so he arranges to not have to think about it. That's what he has Redcloak for, and that also dates back to Start of Darkness.

[King of Nowhere]

Durkon to cast heal and restoration, Roy to deal some damage and maybe disrupt, the rest of the oots to take down redcloak and tsukiko.
Maybe it wouldn't have made the difference, but it would surely have helped.

[homeosapiens]

Roy couldn't distrupt at that point - H. Greenhilt said, he needs to spend a feat first.

About reast of the team influence:
Belkar- easy to charm, dominate etc.
Durkon-well only one guy making much difference for me
Roy-V could cast fly on him, still thwacking with sword didnt seem useful last time.
Haley-sneak attack and then what?Destruction from R. and we dont see her anymore:/ Only Jirix seems weak enought to fall for it, but maybe, with the chain lighting...
Elan-become friends with MitD and O'chul fast?

[Bongos]

Maybe if V had teleported Oots and all the rest of the paladins. The best effect they would have had would be distracting or killing Redcloak before he had time to figure out and tell Xykon about V's the soul splice. If they could have managed that, V may have had his powers longer and possibly have damaged Xykon enough to where everybody combined might have been able to kill him or at least destroy the phylactery.

[Souhiro]

Well, dramatically, the Sacred Order of the Stick would have failed, since the only way to defeat the Final Boss (I.E.: Xykon) is in a Final Battle. If you defeat it before, then he just isn't the Final Boss.

But if V would had carried the rest of the SOotS with him, AND he would had LISTENED to them, He would have dealt against Tsukiko and Redcloak (Easy Money for an über-mage; he could have them easily dispatched in a few turns) while Roy Disrupts, Durkon HEALs (To the party and Xykon, since all the undead traits) Haley uses Holy-Water-Soaked arrows, and so.

You know, perhaps you remember that old tires ad: "Power is Nothing without Control": Without any self-control, V was doomed to fail.


PD: Sorry for my awful gramar. I'm an evil spaniard from the vile spain.

[Kish]

The Sacred Order of the Stick? :smallconfused:

[homeosapiens]

Do you people ever read a thread before u write? Everything(mechanically)you spoke about was discussed earlier.

Well, dramatically, the Sacred Order of the Stick would have failed, since the only way to defeat the Final Boss (I.E.: Xykon) is in a Final Battle. If you defeat it before, then he just isn't the Final Boss.
I said -without "power of plot". Read first post. Geez.


But if V would had carried the rest of the SOotS with him, AND he would had LISTENED to them, He would have dealt against Tsukiko and Redcloak (Easy Money for an über-mage; he could have them easily dispatched in a few turns) while Roy Disrupts, Durkon HEALs (To the party and Xykon, since all the undead traits) Haley uses Holy-Water-Soaked arrows, and so.

1.V cant waiste any round for anyone exept Xykon-he can die from any of his death effect spells.
2.Roy can't distrupt -he doesn't have a feat yet. Grandpa said "you gonna have to spent a feat for it later".
3.Soaking in holy water has no effect - it works as acid, you have to throw a full flask.

If you dont agree, discuss it, but remember not to say what already had been said.

[Darth Hunterix]

all the rest of the paladins

You mean "all two of them"?
Anyway, I don't think Hinjo would go, since someone must rule the Azurities. Would Lien do much diffrence? Well, paladins do have some tricks good against undead, doesn't they?

Anyway, the rest of the Order would do two things for sure:
1. They would set O-Chul free earlier (and heal him), and as we know he is quite useful against Team Evil (he killed Jirix, took Reddie's eye and pissed off Xykon all alone, with an improvised weapon).
2. Reddie and Jirix would be a little too busy to use they Knowledge (Nerd Stuff) skills.

That sounds helpful to me... So the answer is: "who knows...".

[Bongos]

You mean "all two of them"?
Anyway, I don't think Hinjo would go, since someone must rule the Azurities. Would Lien do much diffrence? Well, paladins do have some tricks good against undead, doesn't they?


Yeah, I know, both of them! I reckon evil V just wouldn't really give Hinjo a choice, he just teleport them all without asking.

So you got V fighting Xykon for a longer time without losing his soul splice. You have the rest of Oots and 3 paladins (Lien, Hinjo and O-chul) possibly managing to kill Redcloak.

If the rest of the crew manage to kill Redcloak, then Durkon casts Disruption on some swords and everybody gangs up on Xykon while Haley attaches the phylactery to an arrow and shoots it into the rift?

So then you got the 3 paladins smiting evil, Roy with the star metal sword, the disruption spell on the swords doing whatever it does, V blasting away with the benefit of the meat shields. Durkon healing and casting buffs.

Elan is adding buffs through his singing and Belkar? Doing whatever he can I guess, distracting Xykon with his comedy?

I reckon Xykon would still win.

[King of Nowhere]

Roy couldn't distrupt at that point - H. Greenhilt said, he needs to spend a feat first.


No, that is an entirely different thing. I was referring to ready an action to make a partial charge (as far as I know it counts as partial action and can be done as a readied action) and attack in melee (or to attack from afar without need for charging) the enemy caster when he's attempting to cast. No prerequisites at all.
That's what I had in mind for Roy to disrupt. He should be able to hit Xykon with a moderately bad attack roll (especially considering Xykon only considers other arcane casters as sserious threats, so I don't think he spent much on armor enhancing items), and deal enough damage to have a real chance of interrupting Xykon's spellcasting.
Of course V would have needed to cast fly on him, otherwise he would be unable to reach a flying Xykon. But a fly spell was not an issue with V's powers. Probably even hinjo could have had it casted by some mid level wizard npc.

Remember that V managed to deal a fair amount of damage to Xykon by himself, so a couple hits from a greatsword with power attack and some mass healing spell (heal the party and damage Xykon at the same time) may well make the difference.
Of course it is supposed that the rest of the gang keeps redcloak from healing X

[Beorn080]

Personally, I've always maintained that the OotS, even without Rezzing Roy, would have beaten Xykon when V went after him.

First, they would have had O'Chul as backup, which admittedly they wouldn't know about but he would have been in there. I'm sure he would have LOVED a +5 starmetal greatsword instead of a broken bar. Since he took down Jirix and Redcloak by himself, I'm sure he would have been a major asset.

Second, with V keeping Xykon occupied, its now Redcloak, Jirix, and Tsukiko vs Elan, Haley, Durkon, Belkar, and O'Chul. Without Redcloak's and Tsukiko's help, I'm not sure if Xykon would have won, but it would have been MUCH closer. The MitD would have been a wildcard though. However, Tsukiko didn't show up for a few rounds, so there is also that.

Honestly, I'd put the fight at the, Special Trick makes fight easy level.

[Darthteej]

No, that is an entirely different thing. I was referring to ready an action to make a partial charge (as far as I know it counts as partial action and can be done as a readied action) and attack in melee (or to attack from afar without need for charging) the enemy caster when he's attempting to cast. No prerequisites at all.
That's what I had in mind for Roy to disrupt. He should be able to hit Xykon with a moderately bad attack roll (especially considering Xykon only considers other arcane casters as sserious threats, so I don't think he spent much on armor enhancing items), and deal enough damage to have a real chance of interrupting Xykon's spellcasting.
Of course V would have needed to cast fly on him, otherwise he would be unable to reach a flying Xykon. But a fly spell was not an issue with V's powers. Probably even hinjo could have had it casted by some mid level wizard npc.

Remember that V managed to deal a fair amount of damage to Xykon by himself, so a couple hits from a greatsword with power attack and some mass healing spell (heal the party and damage Xykon at the same time) may well make the difference.
Of course it is supposed that the rest of the gang keeps redcloak from healing X

All of this works on the assumption that Team Good can coordinate themselves after being unwillingly thrust into a hostile environment.

[Larkspur]

Xykon seems increasingly bored and frustrated with the whole Evil Overlord business

Xykon is increasingly uninterested in governance, which he... never cared about. He's still very much on board with the Plan itself, and the fact that he gave his half to Tsukiko for her to study means he's actually thinking about it, which for Xykon is an unusual level of investment. I'd be surprised if his current errand doesn't turn out to be getting either intelligence or materiel for the assault on Girard's Gate.

As to the actual question... I think it depends whether Team Evil felt inspired to stay and fight for the throne room or not. If Xykon just flies up above the building a few hundred feet he's out of range of everyone except V, and Redcloak certainly wouldn't stick around to defend the throne room against the Order- he'd fall back and grab a zillion hobgoblins for reinforcements, at which point the Order would be in essentially the same position they were in when they lost the initial war for Azure City. Xykon could probably take out Super-V eventually even without Redcloak's strategic advice, and V couldn't help the others against the goblin hordes because he'd be busy with Xykon, so if Team Evil are sensible, split up and fall back, our heroes are dead, or at best have to teleport out in disgrace.

For the Order to win, Redcloak has to be uncharacteristically stupid and stick around to be killed. The instant he Word of Recalls there's a whole tower of goblins between him and them, and he'd still have the phylactery, because he wouldn't be blindsided by an attack by O-Chul if he was already defending himself against half the Order. He can retreat in a single turn, so he'll be very difficult to corner, and as soon as he escapes the Order has lost. Add to this the fact they don't know he should be their primary target and O-Chul can't tell them without giving away the plan, and it's going to be awfully difficult for them to kill Xykon permanently.

And even if they do, if they don't have a second mass teleport in reserve they probably die by attrition, because between Tsukiko and the hobgoblins Team Evil have allies who will try to avenge their deaths by drowning the Order under a tsunami of mooks.

[olthar]

No.

If you take out all plot-related badassery, then no.

Sample battle (assuming a pretty stupid team evil):
V teleports in with the order. Xykon and co. isn't expecting this, so the order gets a surprise round.

Surprise round: V does nothing because of fizzle. Roy and Belkar move and attack Xykon. Haley sneak attacks one of the goblins. Durkon casts some anti-undead spell.

Round 1: Lets assume that the entire order goes before any of team evil. (The order needs all the help they can get.)
V casts the chain lightning again. All other characters repeat.
Xykon does the same thing he did (completely ignoring the 2 melee fighters who are weak and can't really do anything anyway).
Instead of true seeing, Redcloak heals himself (with heal). Since nobody directly engaged him in melee, he can do this.
Jirix, also unengaged uses his turn to call to nearby goblins for help (I'm sure they have some sort of clerical spell that can be used for assistance calls). Assuming somehow Redcloak missed that, Jirix uses his turn to open MitD's cage.

Round 2: V and Xykon perform the same actions.
Belkar and Roy engage Redcloak and/or Jirix, whichever is in range. If it is Jirix he probably dies, especially if Haley also attacks him. Durkon's probably out of prepped anti-undead spells at this point (since today wasn't kick down xykon's door day) So he breaks out the hammer and moves to engage.
Jirix is dead. Xykon doesn't change his actions. Redcloak shoots a Disintegrate at Roy, who makes his save (why not), but still hurting Roy.
MitD does... who knows what.

Round 3: Tsukikio arrives (last to act, definitely summons help)
At this point the battle is essentially unwinnable for the order. Even if they manage to kill Jirix, Redcloak, and Tsukikio, which is unlikely, they cannot hurt Xykon in any meaningful manner, and there is an army of goblins coming for them now. Tsukikio wouldn't be attacked by anyone other than maybe Haley in round 3, which means dancing lights definitely got cast (assuming something else hadn't summoned people) and the next round she can join in. If it actually looked dangerous then Xykon would unveil the MitD, who only really cares about Mr. Stiffly.

Also, O'Chul's baddassness was probably to fit the law of cool. If this fight were done strait, then he wouldn't be able to use an improvised weapon to maim Redcloak with a single smite evil and kill Jirix without the smite evil. (Of course, in an actual fight they would just die of fright because O'Chul scowled at them).

No, I didn't forget Elan. I wrote down everything he could do to influence the battle one way or the other.

[homeosapiens]

Well i think you are beeing too harsh on Order. I still think they would lose, but just not becouse they couldn't kill Redcloak, Tsuchiko and Jirix - i think they would fall pretty fast. After getting chain lighting from V. charge and full attacks from Roy,Belkar, sneak attacks from Haley Goblins could both die in first round. Even if...

Xykon has finger of death, right?
Lets assume V is 15 lv wizard with +1 mod to con. He also gets +8 from protection from spells.So it is +5base+1con+8 protection, total of 14. Sucks.Bad.

Xykons finger of death -10(base)+7(th level spell)+9(min cha mod from geekery thread)=26

V needs to roll 12 to just not die streight away, and this is assuming Xykon has no other or higher bonuses to his spells saves. If he has, which he probably does, V is a toast streight away. Roy should probably die from finger straight away too, but well, rule of cool...

[paddyfool]

What V did wrong wasn't going in without the order, but going in without summoning up a horde of solars/ pit fiends/ epic-level whatever, without some epic-level scrying beforehand, and without a whole pile more buffs on him. (Had he done all that, however, he probably wouldn't have been V...)

[Kilremgor]

Well, V could've won if (s)he hasn't neglected appropriate buffing and summons. If you have advantage of preparation and first strike, voluntarily losing them is sign of extreme pride and miscalculation.

But even without all the buffs,
1) Get Durkon to cast Death Ward on him
2) Cast Greater Invisibility on self
3) Teleport in
4) All members of the order attack Redcloak to kill him or keep him busy
5) V kills Redcloak, than Tsukiko, than finally Xykon with incredibly lame but working tactic:
if RC or Tsukiko hasn't cast any invis-penetrating spell, damage spell and Quickened Invisibility each round
or if they had, Greater Dispel and Quickened Invisibility.
... and wins.

Quickened Invisibility can be both prepared, cast by Sorcerer if he, like Xykon, has ACF to trade familliar for 'normal' metamagic, or just if any of splices has 1 rank of Automatic Quicken - two latter scenarios are very likely.

With that tactic, Xykon can't target V with anything really dangerous short of Meteor Swarms which are easily survivable with buffs.
Superb Displelling will get wasted. Even if it does get invis as un-targeted area dispel, it will get recast round later.
Energy Drain will be meaningless due to Death Ward which can't be dispelled - first invis should get dispelled, and doing so is problematic and takes actions.

Of course, that's only easy assuming foreknowledge of that specific Xykon weakness - but it demonstrates that killing Xykon is doable. After all, lack of way to penetrate invisibility is often death (heh, 'undeath-to-final-death') sentence.

But anyway, if V took all Order members, summoned a bunch of monsters, then cast Greater Invis and teleported everyone in fight would've been much easier.
After all, that's what summoned monsters and low-level cohorts etc. are for: triggering all the traps and enemy contingencies, while you calmly evaluate enemy strength and strike from invisibility with devastating effect.

[slayerx]

I'd say probably yes...
Like Xykon says, power equals power, and power could easily come in the form of comrades... if two people have a whole lot magical power, then the winner will be the one with the most powerful friends to back him up

While V counters Xykon blow for blow, the rest of the order can take on Redcloak and Tsukiko... Without Redcloak and Tsukiko, V might just be able to keep holding off Xykon. And i do believe that the 5 members of the order (and O Chul who will join the fray) would be able to take out Redcloak and Tsukiko... So once it's down to the order vs Xykon alone i do think that with all of V's magical might, the rest of the order will be able to make the difference and win the day.

[Larkspur]

I dunno, the question "Could someone with V's power and infinite knowledge of the enemy's weaknesses defeat Xykon if s/he waited for the Order?" strikes me as a different (and slightly unfair) question than "Could V, operating under a severe time constraint and not even knowing obvious things like liches are immune to electricity, much less Xykon's specific fighting style, defeat Xykon if s/he waited for the Order?"

It's not like V has time to wait a day for Durkon to get new spells, so I think we have to assume Durkon's got whatever random stuff he wanted for an average day in the middle of a sea voyage. Give the Order time to grab weapons and heal, (but not to Rez Roy, because that would take an hour V doesn't have), and then they have to go in. V can use general buffs- not doing that was idiotic- but we have to take into account the facts that a) s/he apparently knows nothing whatsoever about liches and b) no one on the side of the angels has ever seen Xykon fight a caster, so they don't know his style. Can that group win? It's going to be damn hard, I think, especially since they lose instantly if Redcloak Word of Recalls.

Otherwise, to make it a fair fight you have to assume Team Evil have reciprocal infinite knowledge of Team Good's weaknesses and the flexibility to adjust their fighting style accordingly, and also Redcloak like Durkon magically knew this would be the day of the big boss fight and prepped a bunch of Summon Creatures to keep the melee fighters away from him.

[slayerx]

Battle plan...

-First the order casts all of their buffs before teleporting
-They then teleport into battle
-V, engages Xykon alone, playing on the defensive... he basically uses his soul spliced magical energy to counter spell (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0166.html) most of Xykon's attacks; he will have to watch out for the necromantic spells though...
-Roy, Belkar, and Mr. Scruffy take on RC in close combat
-Elan and Haley take on Jirix
-Durkon throws around heals... possible thor's might on RC
-Jirix will probably go down fairly quickly as he is not that high in level
-Tsukiko will come in and elan and Haley will be able to engage her
-O Chul' would break out and join the fray
-Being in melee combat puts our evil caster minions at a serious disadvantage (durkon can use dispell to help keep tsukiko grounded)
-random variables: other goblins hardly matter since they can barely hit the order much less damage them... Wights would be a problem, but only if Tsukiko is given a chance to actually get their back up
-Frankly, with Durkon to help keep them alive, i think the order will be able to get rid of RC and Tsukiko (whether that means killing them or forcing them to retreat)
-Xykon may try to use MitD, but O'Chul can use the power of friendship to keep him at bay
-Once the order is done with the minions, they will join V against Xykon
-V will dispel Xykon's overland flight, and thus put him at Melee range
-At this point, V can either switch to offensive, or focus more on counter spelling Xykon and protecting the order
-At that point they just keep wailing on Xykon until his pounded into dust

[rewinn]

...they lose instantly if Redcloak Word of Recalls....

Excellent point.

This may be a fun intellectual exercise (hey why not!) and in a straight-up PvP battle maybe Darth V plus the Order can pound X into dust, but if RC escapes with the phylactery it's all for nothing.

[Larkspur]

if RC escapes with the phylactery it's all for nothing.

Exactly. In the unlikely event the Order could smash Xykon's body and retake Azure City from the eleventy billion hobgoblins holding it, their victory still wouldn't matter because holding Azure City isn't actually a mission objective for Team Evil. If it came down to retreating to save himself and Xykon vs. fighting for Goblintopia and getting them both killed, Redcloak would have a hard choice, but I think everyone who's read SoD can guess which one he'd pick.

It's actually a worse outcome for our heroes than the "real" outcome from V's solo attack, because in a battle where the Order had the numerical advantage they'd miss O-Chul's chance-in-a-million Rule of Cool-based opportunity to dump the phylactery in the sewer and delay Team Evil's attack on Girard's Gate.

[slayerx]

Excellent point.

This may be a fun intellectual exercise (hey why not!) and in a straight-up PvP battle maybe Darth V plus the Order can pound X into dust, but if RC escapes with the phylactery it's all for nothing.

Ya, expect V is epically powered... one powerful scry on our favorite goblin and one teleport is all it will take for them to hunt him down... So the only way RC can escape is if V uses up all his spells slots that can be used for scrying and teleport, or looses his conjurer soul-splice...

Even then, their is still hope as the OotS have several days to scry out and hunt down RC before Xykon can regenerate enough to be in fighting form... And from what we know of RC's word of recall location, it doesn't teleport him very far from where they were fighting... it would be possible for the OotS to follow haley to the resistance, and from there keep tabs on RC and launch another attack on him after they regained their spells

not to mention... Haley might actually have a good idea of where RC's private sanctum might be (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0526.html)

[Kish]

Ya, expect V is epically powered... one powerful scry on our favorite goblin

You're assuming either Ganonron or Jephton developed an epic scrying spell. Why? The epic spells the splice demonstrated were: Familicide, a thoroughly necromantic epic killing spell in line with Haerta's specialty. Epic Teleport, an improved version of a normal conjuration spell in line with Ganonron's speciality. The splice seems notably lacking in "a diviner who sought out even the best-warded secrets."

[Bongos]

Well we don't know that the Cloister prevents scrying inside itself. You can't scry into it from the oustide, probably can't scry from inside to out, but what about inside to inside?

But this thread brings up good points, any real strategy would have to target the phylactery and Redcloak.

Of course Oots doesn't have to worry about that anymore.

[slayerx]

You're assuming either Ganonron or Jephton developed an epic scrying spell. Why? The epic spells the splice demonstrated were: Familicide, a thoroughly necromantic epic killing spell in line with Haerta's specialty. Epic Teleport, an improved version of a normal conjuration spell in line with Ganonron's speciality. The splice seems notably lacking in "a diviner who sought out even the best-warded secrets."

If you recall, V was very gunho about scrying through whatever powerful barriers that was blocking her path (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0643.html)... implying that the added magical might she got from her splice would be enough to get through the cloister

And if you try to assume that V's magic still would not work, then that kkind of takes away from that comic as the major joke is that the moment V has the power to find Haley, someone hands her the answer... less funny if V's splice would have failed her


But this thread brings up good points, any real strategy would have to target the phylactery and Redcloak.
Ya, so i guess what's much simplier than hunting down RC, would be to make it so that one of V's very first moves is a dimension Anchor on RC... no word of recall for him

[snikrept]

V's defeat was already engineered by plot; namely, that V was hasty and used the power as a cudgel. If V had bothered to go in with a plan, having additional people wouldn't have mattered much. With that much power (and a bit of forethought and planning) V should have mopped the floor with Xykon&co. by himself.

[Kish]

If you recall, V was very gunho about scrying through whatever powerful barriers that was blocking her path (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0643.html)... implying that the added magical might she got from her splice would be enough to get through the cloister

Vaarsuvius was also very gung-ho about the idea of going after Xykon. If you take what Vaarsuvius thinks s/he can do as somehow implying what will actually work, then that implies that s/he should have won. And yet, s/he didn't. S/he assumed that "enough raw arcane power to dwarf any other arcane spellcaster" translated into, "I am now omnipotent"; it's a mistake s/he repeated again and again, starting with when s/he asked the Oracle his/her question to begin with. We readers should not lose sight of the fact that Spliced-Vaarsuvius was not omnipotent.