Niu's Role?

[Theodorus]

Of the members of the small squad Haley leads to free the slaves, Niu is the only one without a weapon. We have also never seen her in action.

She seems to be wearing the armor of a warrior, so that rules out spellcaster.

Perhaps she does hand-to-hand combat? A monk?

[Mauve Shirt]

Maybe she's unarmed because her job was to get the slaves and get out. True it's kind of silly to go unarmed anyway, but someone had to lead them to safety.

[Quorothorn]

Of the members of the small squad Haley leads to free the slaves, Niu is the only one without a weapon. We have also never seen her in action.

She seems to be wearing the armor of a warrior, so that rules out spellcaster.

Perhaps she does hand-to-hand combat? A monk?

I would think that the armor rules out Monk too...unless she's 1st-level and doesn't have too high a Wisdom bonus.

[Raging_Pacifist]

She was there to get the slaves out that's all.

[Souju]

Perhaps she does hand-to-hand combat? A monk?

just cuz you fight with your bare hands doesn't automatically make you a monk...
Not enough Bruce Lee style martial arts characters (i.e. non-lawful)

[Theodorus]

Something else to note:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0512.html

Niu runs like an anime character.

That is, with her arms trailing behind her, as opposed to swinging back and forth, which is more efficient.

I think that it's fair to say that this fact automatically makes her awesome.

[ShellBullet]

I think Niu is actually leaning in that image rather than running that anime style.

The first Vibe I got from Niu, that she was supposed to be some kind of healer, but so far there hasn't been any evidence of this...

Homebrew monk maybe?

[Quellian-dyrae]

A character's weapons aren't always visible until used (I seem to recall Miko and Hinjo pulling their swords out from behind their capes, for example), and Niu has not yet had opportunity to use her weapon. My guess is that she's an elite Azure City soldier.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Yeah. Same Hammerspace Belkar keeps his daggers. One can assume that she needed both hands free to unbind the slaves, so it would not have been helpful for her to have her weapon drawn. And when the character doesn't need the weapon drawn, neither does Rich.

[slayerx]

I'm going with hammer space... their are a number of characters i recall seeing who do not carry their weapons and them pull them out of no where... the paladins for instance you can often see without their weapons.

The only ones we see weapons for are usually those with larger weapons, like roy's sword, or Durkon's shield... Niu probably does have a weapon, we just haven't see her use it... i would guess it's a short sword or something similar; possibly a katanna if guards use those aswell.

[Grey Watcher]

Alright, I can't resist posting this any longer.

Niu's role is clearly to avoid crying.

Cookie... no, no, an entire cake to anyone who actually gets that.

Seriously, though, it's probably just a case of her weapon being too small and unimportant to be worth drawing when she's not wielding it. Therefore, it goes into the same Hammerspace as Roy's Bag of Tricks, Belkar's daggers, Elan's lute and rapier, Vaarsuvius' 27 Heroism potions, etc.

[Souju]

Alright, I can't resist posting this any longer.

Niu's role is clearly to avoid crying.

Cookie... no, no, an entire cake to anyone who actually gets that.

Seriously, though, it's probably just a case of her weapon being too small and unimportant to be worth drawing when she's not wielding it. Therefore, it goes into the same Hammerspace as Roy's Bag of Tricks, Belkar's daggers, Elan's lute and rapier, Vaarsuvius' 27 Heroism potions, etc.

given V's a spell caster, and spell casters sometimes have to keep track of a LOT of spell components, maybe V has a bag of holding?

[Purple Cloak]

given V's a spell caster, and spell casters sometimes have to keep track of a LOT of spell components, maybe V has a bag of holding?

hmm a spell component pouch of holding.....

but i should point out that their are feats that allow arcane spellcasters to wear armor, although i'm not sure what book they are in, on the other hand she could easily be a fighter that focuses in unarmed combat....

.....or have weapon conselment shticks, oh wait, wrong system

[Ikialev]

Yeah. Same Hammerspace Belkar keeps his daggers.
Like Alexander Anderson. :3

[Souju]

hmm a spell component pouch of holding.....

but i should point out that their are feats that allow arcane spellcasters to wear armor, although m not sure what book they are in, on the other hand she could easily be a fighter that focuses in unarmed combat....

.....or have weapon conselment shticks, oh wait, wrong system

i'd venture a guess that even if she IS a caster of some kind, she's probably not very high level at all

[Caractacus]

And when the character doesn't need the weapon drawn, neither does Rich.

LOVELY pun. Kudos.:smallcool:

[Raging_Pacifist]

Like Alexander Anderson. :3

According to Hirano AA's cloak is a fourth dimensional BoH of sorts.

[Aurumvorax]

I thought she was HR manager of the Resistance... :smallbiggrin:
An organization is not a real organization without a real HR department, even consisting of a single person

[Theodorus]

Sorry to keep this seemingly useless topic going, but....

Niu has been revealed as a fighter (with multiclass to rogue). I don't personally play DnD, but from what I've seen in OOTS so far, fighters that use their fists for primary weapons are probably rare. I can't remember wondering what any other significant character used for a weapon before, meaning that I've probably seen them wielding it at one point or another.

Is it stupid to believe that Niu's (apparent) unarmed-ness is significant?

[David Argall]

Quite possibly. There is a significant chance we will see very little more of her, and even less of her as anything beyond part of a conversation.

[Lupy]

Or an invisible flaming +47 greatsword...

Seriously, my bet is a katana or shortsword unfer her cloak.

[Flickerdart]

Stick figures don't have anywhere to put swords. Also, it's common for an RPG character's unequipped items to blink out of existence.

[DanielX]

Isn't a bag of holding a hammerspace to begin with? Which is how Haley carries her gold with her (speaking of which, does she still have it?), those 8 bags of holding come in handy.... you know, I would really like to have a bag of holding... but I digress.

Really, its hard for a stick-figure character to actually hide a large weapon on their person (although Belkar's daggers are 'tiny' enough that they could conceivably fit in his cloak). So it goes into a hamerspace and we 'assume' that their non-stickfigure forms "in the 'real' world of OOTS" actually have more space.

[David Argall]

Isn't a bag of holding a hammerspace to begin with?

Hammerspace is more like a Heward's Handy Haversack since you always grab the item you are looking for right away.

[Dragoon]

Isn't a bag of holding a hammerspace to begin with? Which is how Haley carries her gold with her (speaking of which, does she still have it?)

No, she lost all but one bag of it in the inn fire, #245. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0245.html)