Why would V stop trancing?

[Finwe]

From the SRD:

To prepare her daily spells, a wizard must first sleep for 8 hours. The wizard does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but she must refrain from movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use, conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task during the rest period. If her rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time she has to rest in order to clear her mind, and she must have at least 1 hour of uninterrupted rest immediately prior to preparing her spells. If the character does not need to sleep for some reason, she still must have 8 hours of restful calm before preparing any spells.

What useful thing could V be doing for those 8 hours? He can not be doing anything physically or mentally demanding, and I find it hard to believe that he hasn't prepared spells in the past few months.

[pswbr]

Its hard to say what is mentally demanding to a character with 20+ INT. He can do (think) alot of things in this time.

Anyway OOTS follow the Mr. Burlew's handbook and not the D&D Player's handbook. And I thank Rich for that.

[DraPrime]

Because V is an obsessed and egotistical maniac that can't admit defeat?

[GSFB]

I don't think V has been preparing spells. If she prepared spells on July 1 and never cast any until October 1, wouldn't the prepared spells from July 1 still be prepared?

V hasn't been in a lot of combat, until just now.

Therefore, V prepared spells some time ago, has been researching without rest since then, and is now running on sheer will power with only a few remaining spells ready. When that fly runs out, V might be out of magic.

This is why V is particularly vulnerable to Qarr right now.

[DarknessLord]

More importantly, how is V preparing her/his newly created spells? We saw V cast a few of them.:smallconfused:

[Roderick_BR]

Because he's paranoid, and thinks he doesn't need superfluous things like rest.

[Teron]

More importantly, how is V preparing her/his newly created spells? We saw V cast a few of them.:smallconfused:
A wizard can leave spell slots open, and fill them at any time with a bit of meditation, as long as they've rested since last using those particular slots.

[David Argall]

But the point remains. We have seen V cast a quite large number of spells since her last known rest. By any reasonable count, V is either completely out of spells or has managed to rememorize spells without resting. The first would seem to be what the rules say. The 2nd seems to be what the comic says.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

But the point remains. We have seen V cast a quite large number of spells since her last known rest. By any reasonable count, V is either completely out of spells or has managed to rememorize spells without resting. The first would seem to be what the rules say. The 2nd seems to be what the comic says.Well, V is close to out of high-level slots, but check the Class&Level thread. V with 22 Int and Specialization at 14th level is still fine on spells, assuming s/he hasn't rested since recovering spells after the battle of Azure City.

[Liwen]

Come on guys, V's not that stupid. A wizard without magic becomes as usefull as a clown. She has found a way to replenish her spells slots without the need for trance.

[HamsterOfTheGod]

Why would V stop trancing? Because it's become too pop, too bland, too over-played.

[FujinAkari]

Clearly, V is able to 'rest' without trancing. V can still theorize during this time and has simply chosen to forego trancing as it doesn't yield even the palpitable benefits that theorycrafting about possible spells TO research will produce.

[Jorrath_Zek]

Trancing for Elves is kind of a Memory Back-up. It moves what theuy've experienced and thought since the last time they tranced into Long Term memmory and out of thier present short term memmory.

Just as it takes a little more focus to remember your four birthday party than to remember the last four words I just wrote...

V has been researching spells, so by not Trancing, V keeps every thought and step V has made in that research in the fore-front of V's mind. Since V is engrossed in research, this is actually a benefitt, so that V sholdn't need to refer too often to notes to refresh V's memory.

However, every distraction becomes a constant distraction in V's memory. Humans/Dwarves see them as passing things, but for V they have been building and building with every visitation from Durkon or Elan over the monthes of research. No doubt they have seen the need to visit with V every day.

Now imagine trying to compile your thoughts over the past few monthes into a workable spells, but with everyone you have to continue sort out some stupid joke Elan told you three monthes ago as though he had just said it... Poor V! I would have left a long time ago under those conditions.

[Threeshades]

Jorrath_Zek made a pretty good point.

And on the title question, I'd like to quote johnny the homicidal maniac:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/RemordsPosthume/Wallpapers/jthmdesktop15.jpg

A bit abstract when applied to V's situation but not unsuitable.

[Nerdanel]

As driven V became, I think he noticed at one point that forgoing trance alltogether wasn't working, so he started to research a way to get rid of the need for trancing so that he could research spells more efficiently so that he could find Haley...

The way he came up with was turning himself into a lich. His recent unsocial behavior isn't due to lack of sleep, but a low charisma and no ranks in social skills combined with a newly Neutral Evil alignment. He now doesn't care a bit about other people but lacks the ability to mask that and appear funny and affable like Xykon the charisma-based caster. On the other hand, not being Chaotic Evil, V isn't in the habit of killing random people for fun. He kills only people who get in his way.


Yes, I really like that theory. I think we're going to find the truth in the very next strip, whichever it is...

[Sagus]

The way he came up with was turning himself into a lich. His recent unsocial behavior isn't due to lack of sleep, but a low charisma and no ranks in social skills combined with a newly Neutral Evil alignment. He now doesn't care a bit about other people but lacks the ability to mask that and appear funny and affable like Xykon the charisma-based caster. On the other hand, not being Chaotic Evil, V isn't in the habit of killing random people for fun. He kills only people who get in his way.


But
becoming a lich don't turn you in a skeleton immediately? And doesn't it require a bunch of things that are hard to get, specially if you're on a ship? I admit I never played DnD and never readed Start of Darkness, so I have no idea how the lich thing works here... can someone explain it to me^^?

[Mastikator]

The Lich’s Phylactery

An integral part of becoming a lich is creating a magic phylactery in which the character stores its life force. As a rule, the only way to get rid of a lich for sure is to destroy its phylactery. Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich reappears 1d10 days after its apparent death.

Each lich must make its own phylactery, which requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The phylactery costs 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lich.htm

http://www.msen.com/~muffin/ADD/Chars/wealthbylevel.html

Cross-reference conclusion: A lich would have to be at least level 14 and pay 80% of their net worth gp ever collected assuming they never used charged or sold items.

The problem with being a lich isn't a +4 LA, it's the fact that you will never be able to afford it in the first place.

Edit:

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Let's put it in a different perspective.
1 pound of gold is worth 50 gp, so 12 000 gp is 2 400 pounds (1 088.6 kilograms) of gold.
Now gold has a density of 19 grams per cubic centimeter. That's 56.4 liters of gold.

A KING would WISH he had that kind of money! Sheesh!

Edit 2:

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Sorry for going on a tangent there :P
I think V stopped trancing because as he said, it's a waste of his time. I'm pretty sure casters can recover their spells without actually resting. But he hasn't really needed to, he's clearly shunned away from distractions.

[Finwe]

As driven V became, I think he noticed at one point that forgoing trance alltogether wasn't working, so he started to research a way to get rid of the need for trancing so that he could research spells more efficiently so that he could find Haley...

The way he came up with was turning himself into a lich. His recent unsocial behavior isn't due to lack of sleep, but a low charisma and no ranks in social skills combined with a newly Neutral Evil alignment. He now doesn't care a bit about other people but lacks the ability to mask that and appear funny and affable like Xykon the charisma-based caster. On the other hand, not being Chaotic Evil, V isn't in the habit of killing random people for fun. He kills only people who get in his way.


Yes, I really like that theory. I think we're going to find the truth in the very next strip, whichever it is...

*sigh* (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92448)

He really has little or nothing to gain, and everything to lose if he chose to do that. Not to mention, he doesn't have the requisite skills or time.

[Sereg]

I think V is still "resting" (by not doing anything physically demanding) to gain spells, but instead of trancing to retain his/her sanity, V is spending that time thinking of new spells to research.

[SPoD]

The definition of rest as nothing that is "physically or mentally demanding" is vague enough that it could include reading, or even eating. V is "resting" by a lenient interpretation of the term, he/she is simply not trancing.

[hamishspence]

Which leads to solution of splitting XP and gold
costs. Epic handbook rules for items can apply at any level, and are one of the few ways for getting items without having to wait ages until you have the XP to spare to spend it all at once.

In any case, OOTS sometimes ignores standard lich rules: Redcloak make's Xykons phylactery on his behalf.

[Tyrmatt]

There is no biological need to trance for elves, but I seem to recall the PHB saying that elves who do not trance become vastly erratic in their spellcasting.
Spell replenishment occurs by reading one's spellbook, not the actual act of sleeping/trancing.

[Lunaya]

But if trancing isn't essential to an elf's health, what's the point of it? Is it simply a way of refreshing the mind?

[hamishspence]

"there are no rules for tummyaches" OOTS, Dragon Magazine.

Same principle applies here: no rules require you to sleep, only to "rest"

Here, the rules and logic conflict, so, the rules get first crack, but logic, after a certain delay, starts to kick in with "sleep deprivation" Or, in this case, trance deprivation.