Nice comic

[Chad30]

Hey, I'm new. Just wanted to say this is a nice comic. I noticed it a while back, but more or less avoided it because of the massive amount of text sometimes. It's a very wordy webcomic. However, eventually I got around to reading the whole thing. It has an interesting story and funny moments.

I notice Roy's father says a warrior would be useless against Zykon, but isn't a melee fighter with high will saves and high health supposed to be one of the best counters to spellcasters? Though I don't know how high Roy's will saves actually are. Enraged barbarians are the melee attackers with big will save bonuses.

Since I have no spare money to spend, I guess I won't be able to buy start of darkness or origins of PCs. Though I gather that Haley and V have been together before they joined the larger group, and Roy and Durkon have been together longer too. I don't know about Belkar and Elan.

All the characters are interesting. I hope this comic keeps going strong.

[Loki_42]

Welcome to the forum! Just letting you know, we have a subforum specifically for discussing the comic here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22), but you're new, so no big deal. To answer your question, the reason Roy shouldn't be good against Xykon is because melee and spellcasters have a pretty high power discrepancy. Most of it comes from the fact that spells can do pretty much anything in the game if you pick the right ones, but melee can't do much more than just full attack each round. All that said, again, welcome to the forum and I'm glad you enjoy the comic!

[Lateral]

To answer your question, the reason Roy shouldn't be good against Xykon is because melee and spellcasters have a pretty high power discrepancy. Most of it comes from the fact that spells can do pretty much anything in the game if you pick the right ones, but melee can't do much more than just full attack each round.

Plus, Xykon is a lich, so he has pretty high damage reduction.

Anyway, welcome!

[Phishfood]

To quote the comic (probably very badly)

What is roy going to do? hit him with a big piece of metal?
Maybe he will bleed to death...oh right. lich.
Perhaps you will poke his eye out...oh, no lich.
You could wait til he dies of old age...oops, lich.

[Chad30]

Actually for a skeleton he should use a bludgeoning weapon. Thoiugh he was able to break the guy's neck with his fist. That may just be what we call rule of Funny, though.

Xykon may just not be squishy enough for Roy. Even when he does squish, he just comes back. I wonder if something important will happen with the phalyctery (sp?), or if it's just something to delay them and they'll just find it eventually and be about their business.

Sorry if this isn't the right place. Maybe a mod can move it. I just didn't know what else to put in my intro thread beside Hi everybody.

[Phishfood]

Actually for a skeleton he should use a bludgeoning weapon. Thoiugh he was able to break the guy's neck with his fist. That may just be what we call rule of Funny, though.

Xykon may just not be squishy enough for Roy. Even when he does squish, he just comes back. I wonder if something important will happen with the phalyctery (sp?), or if it's just something to delay them and they'll just find it eventually and be about their business.

Sorry if this isn't the right place. Maybe a mod can move it. I just didn't know what else to put in my intro thread beside Hi everybody.

The mods will move it if they see fit.

As for the neck thing, the human neck is very much the weak point of the body. Especially without any tendons I imagine it would be incredibly easy to do that. Of course, that ignores the magic that is holding his head on and keeping him moving in the first place.

[Prime32]

I notice Roy's father says a warrior would be useless against Zykon, but isn't a melee fighter with high will saves and high health supposed to be one of the best counters to spellcasters? Though I don't know how high Roy's will saves actually are. Enraged barbarians are the melee attackers with big will save bonuses.Nope. Fighters and barbarians don't have high Will saves either, they're worse than those of spellcasters (an lv20 cleric has +12 base Will, and he needs high Wisdom to cast spells so he adds another +8~10; a barbarian has +6, increasing to +8 while raging, and has no reason to increase his Wisdom). Not that Xykon uses a lot of mental attacks...

If Xykon actually took things seriously he could kill/imprison Roy with spells which can't be blocked by mundane means. The best counter for a spellcaster is another spellcaster. It's even stated that the only reason Roy stands a chance is that as a non-spellcaster he's beneath Xykon's notice.

[super dark33]

Thread more approprite in Order of the stick section.

[Chad30]

Maybe my experience as a raging barbarian in DDO has left me biased, then. It doesn't seem like a prepared spellcaster is in danger of another caster's spells by much either, given V and Z's recent battle. A bit overpowered, these spellcasters are.

[drakir_nosslin]

Maybe my experience as a raging barbarian in DDO has left me biased, then. It doesn't seem like a prepared spellcaster is in danger of another caster's spells by much either, given V and Z's recent battle. A bit overpowered, these spellcasters are.

You don't say? :smalltongue:

[Chad30]

Yes, Captain Obvious has spoken. So how's the popularity of the cast? I like pretty much everybody, and I'm not sure I can pick a favorite. I may like Belkar, as sadistic as he is, maybe because he reminds me of how player characters act in games. I also sympathized with the guy when the mark of justice went off.

It's complicated. Somewhere out there is a moral event horizon where, once a character passes it, I cease to sympathize with them. Probably the closest thing to that committed by a character wasn't even committed by Belkar, though there's nothing saying he would never do it.