SoD Spoilers: Xykon KNOWS!

[Alex Warlorn]

Redcloak knows that he's lied to Xykon, but once the ritual succeeds or fails, it'll no longer matter, either the Dark One will control the gate, or the universe is destroyed and it'll no longer matter (and likely the gods along with it, INCLUDING the Dark One since he'll be right near the gate to order it to appear where he wants it).

HOWEVER, Xykon has known a talent for being smarter than he looks, he DOES have no sense of stratagy, and his Attention Deficit Disorder is glaringly apparent, but he's also shown he knows how to play people when it counts.

Right-Eye was sure that Xykon had no clue about his betrayal, but Xykon was wearing steel underwear.

Thus, whose to say he's not sporting -another- pair of steel underwear, for when Redcloak hands over the keys of the gate over to the Dark One?

[RMS Oceanic]

Xykon only got smarter after lichification, which was how he planned the whole Redcloak-kills-Righteye things. He was told about the ritual before this, so as far as I know, nothing arose since then that would make him question what Redcloak initially chose him.

No, I think somebody else will find out the truth, and tell Xykon in front of Redcloak right when they're about to start the ritual. Xykon saying "Oh, really...", glaring at Redcloak with a :smalleek: face is a worthy cliffhanger.

[Tempest Fennac]

On another thread, someone suggested that Xykon never had a ring that would protect him from positive energy due to the only ring being found on him by the Order being his Ring of Wizardry, and that Xykon lied about it in order to help to manipulate RC (he probably noticed what was going on due to the +* to Spot and Listen that Liches get, and RE was probably smart enough to cover his tracks well while plotting to destroy Xykon).

[Albonor]

I also support that, if fits with the high bluff check of sorcerers and with the fact that Xykon didn't get THAT much smarter: only very creative when being cruel and evil.

[Alex Warlorn]

Xykon could have easily forgotten to put on such a protection ring before the fight with the Order. It just feels more complex than it needs to be to say that Xykon was lying about knowing about Right-Eye.

I VERY much doubt it was random chance that Xykon asked there were the goblins who worked for him and the ones who were dead and "what kind are you Right-Eye" with a perfect view of Right-Eye's family right behind him to punch the argument home.

[Kurald Galain]

Maybe :vaarsuvius: is wearing a Ring of "Wizardry and Protection from Undead-Backstabs" - the latter fact being irrelevant until V somehow becomes undead.

[Alfryd]

Xykon may not know precisely what Redcloak is planning to do once the rituals complete, but I would strongly suspect he's guessed Redcloak's playing an angle of some sort. He may have researched some method to subvert the rituals to his own purposes by now- he is, after all, epic level, and has put decades of research into the subject.

Speaking of which- how, exactly, can a sorceror research new spells to add to his repertoire without gaining new levels? I mean, the whole point to being a sorceror is that you're stuck with a fairly limited repertoire.

[Tempest Fennac]

I assumed he may have just recorded Xykon's Moderately Escapable Forcecage onto a scroll when he developed it unless he could replace another spell with it.

[FaustianFeste]

According to my own knowledge of how researching spells work, Xykon only has to go off for some R&R for a few weeks, spend some gold and XP, and make a few Spellcraft checks, and he can come back with a new spell. no muss, no fuss, no foul.

[Ancalagon]

Speaking of which- how, exactly, can a sorceror research new spells to add to his repertoire without gaining new levels? I mean, the whole point to being a sorceror is that you're stuck with a fairly limited repertoire.

Simple: I would not trust Xykon to listen to the rules too much - especially since the author knows "Plot > Rules". Apart from that there are a few ingame-solutions that were proposed, as "Scrolls" or "Creating some magic item that casts that spell".

[Shhalahr Windrider]

According to my own knowledge of how researching spells work, Xykon only has to go off for some R&R for a few weeks, spend some gold and XP, and make a few Spellcraft checks, and he can come back with a new spell. no muss, no fuss, no foul.
Sorcerers cannot exceed their spells known via Spell Research.

As near as I can tell, Epic Spells don't actually count against the spells known limit.

For regular spells, that leaves us with the normal Extra Spell feat, or the Epic Spell Knowledge (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/epicFeats.html#spell-knowledge) feat. Either of those can be used to gain extra spells known slots.

[Kurald Galain]

Speaking of which- how, exactly, can a sorceror research new spells to add to his repertoire without gaining new levels? I mean, the whole point to being a sorceror is that you're stuck with a fairly limited repertoire.

Easy. At the point you gain a level and get a new spell slot, you say "I'm leaving this slot open for the spell I'm going to be researching the next few weeks in game time."

Or, you say "the research I am presently doing for this here new spell will be completed at the precise moment I gain a new level".

Xykon was level one on the first page of SOD, and is assumed to be around twenty as the story is now. That's a lot of level-gaining.

[Alfryd]

Easy. At the point you gain a level and get a new spell slot, you say "I'm leaving this slot open for the spell I'm going to be researching the next few weeks in game time."
Yeah, but... blowing an entire spell slot on Moderately Escapable Forcecage?

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Yeah, but... blowing an entire spell slot on Moderately Escapable Forcecage?
Three Words:

Impulse...

...Control...

...Problem.

[Alfryd]

So... he impulsively spent several weeks or months of tedious research developing a spell which was almost certain to be useless to him outside of highly specific situations? That a remarkably disciplined degree of impulsiveness.

[FujinAkari]

So... he impulsively spent several weeks or months of tedious research developing a spell which was almost certain to be useless to him outside of highly specific situations? That a remarkably disciplined degree of impulsiveness.

My guess is that Xykon didn't want a perfect forcecage. I mean, look at him begging Roy to bugger off and come try and fight him again after he'd gained a few levels. Xykon gets bored easily, and the most fun he seems to have is in climactic battles. Trouble is, he's epic, and so he doesn't get many battles that are actually challenging. Hell, he doesn't even seem to get many battles that last longer than the first round.

A spell like Forcecage doesn't do much for Xykon. Xykon certainly doesn't seem interested in keeping prisoners or pets (see Redcloak and MitD, respectively) and so an enemies' purpose, to Xykon, seems to be to amuse him while he dies. As a result, if an enemy can't put up an interesting battle, Xykon is probably all about ensuring that they survive to come back again.

He seems to know the rules of heroic motivation, and having a hero live because Xykon spares him will only piss the hero off and send them rushing back into battle just to prove himself, but having a hero believe that "they" escaped... that doesn't cause the same sense of demasculation, and as a result Xykon can plant the seeds for an actual interesting fight.

Just my opinion :)

[Shhalahr Windrider]

So... he impulsively spent several weeks or months of tedious research developing a spell which was almost certain to be useless to him outside of highly specific situations? That a remarkably disciplined degree of impulsiveness.
More like he impulsively thought he needed an inescapable forcecage and that's the end of thinking why he needed it.

There'd be far less crap in this world now if that kind of thing didn't happen in real life. And Xykon's certainly not the type to spend much time pondering the "Why" of most of his activities.

[Jimblee]

Well, it is entirely possible that Xykon researched some sort of counter to Redcloak's magic; does anyone remember a certain lich taking three years off to translate a diary?

[Requiem_Jeer]

My guess is that XME Forcecage doesn't require as much ruby dust to use.

Forcecage requires a LOT of expensive ruby dust to use. By changing the spell, he might reduce the costs involved.