OOTS #638 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

New comic is up.

[Lira]

Great comic. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the title, though.

[Yendor]

Holy crap, that's awesome. Guess the dragons should learn that eating V whole never ends well for them.

[Zanticor]

Dragon's Victory. That what you get if you have epic inside! I'm so gooing to try that on my DM.

Zanticor

[RMS Oceanic]

I guess that's one way to skin a cat dragon.

Sorry, had to be said.

And now for the post-rescue family reunion.

[Mando Knight]

See, this is why you unambiguously set your terms before engaging in a wizard's duel. She never said "no pink dragons," did she?

[Starscream]

That is so totally awesome. I admit I was worried when I saw the title, so good job putting one over on me, Giant.

Anyone know what sort of dragon V became? Is there an actual pink dragon, or is that just the color of V's magic?

[aapje]

I guess having multiple personalities doesn't do any good to ones decisiveness

[Rosnet]

Nice, can't wait to see how he explains it to his "kids."

Btw, did they ever clear up how the younger dragon died to disintegrate, even though blacks are immune/resistant?

[Starscream]

I just noticed. It seems the dragon could hear the voices of the other three souls. I guess I had assumed they were only in Vaarsuvius' head.

[Harbajar]

"I think he said "shapechange" " then Monster Kill!


Another great comic and deceptively, yet, cleverly titled!

*sets as background shortcut*

Where to next I wonder?

[Kbcamaster]

DA HELL!? Good job on surprising me, Giant. And the comic's title is a nice catch. So... why is the dragon pink? Amethyst Dragon?

[[TS] Shadow]

Wow...I thought the dragon would die, but this is a really creative and awesome death. Bravo!

[Zherog]

Btw, did they ever clear up how the younger dragon died to disintegrate, even though blacks are immune/resistant?

What makes you believe black dragons are immune (or even resistant) to disintegrate?

[David Argall]

A dramatic end for the dragon. Now the rules lawyers among us are going to point out this is entirely impossible by D&D rules. All enlargement/shapechanging spells are limited by the size of the “room” and do not allow the subject of the spell to change enough to damage the room or himself. [Too many players were having too much fun with such nonsense.]

OK, Mama didn’t get a chance to off the family like I figured. Now do we get the upset family?

I can’t say I like the idea, and I don’t deem it properly prepared. Still, it is possible here. And V does have to lose the extra power some way and soon.

[Cúchulainn]

Power Word: Badass.

[MammonAzrael]

That was fantastic. I wonder what kind of Dragon V is...?

I just wish V hadn't taken out the forums along with the ABD.

A dramatic end for the dragon. Now the rules lawyers among us are going to point out this is entirely impossible by D&D rules. All enlargement/shapechanging spells are limited by the size of the “room” and do not allow the subject of the spell to change enough to damage the room or himself. [Too many players were having too much fun with such nonsense.]

Not according to the SRD. enlarge person certainly has that restriction (and even then you get a Strength check to burst the enclosure), but alter self, polymorph, and shapechange do not have that restriction. And even if they do, they would still probably get a strength check to burst the confining space, which I would assume Dragon-V made with ease.

[Nerdanel]

Finally the board is up again and I can pop in to say that the comic was awesome.

I wonder, however, what type of dragon V changed into. I wonder if this is a joke pointing out how dragons come in every conceivable hue... save for pink. I know of no pink dragons. The closest matches I can think of are the amethyst dragon, the purple dragon, and an inexplicably faded red dragon, but none of them really fit. Though with the loads and loads of obscure dragons, I cannot rule out every one of them.

Also, I think the strip has supporting evidence for the idea that V now has the Fiendish template. I think the Finger of Death was stopped by spell resistance (not conveyed by Protection from Spells, which does a different thing). Also V might have benefited from damage reduction in addition to having saved for half damage in the first panel.

Yep, I have obviously had time to think about this...

[petersohn]

Heh, heh. Pink dragon. If V weren't pink enough, then now it is.

[Mr. Pin]

WHOA! What a comic! it had the whole shebang- epic spell-slinging, a great finish, and a scary title.

those are some brave kids, huh? broken legs and all, and they're just crying a little. I'd be screaming and bawling if I was a kindergartener AND a dragon's lunch.

And I'll be the first to say that the pinkness indicates V's femininity.

[Nevitan]

Exploding Dragon = awesome.

Also: I think V's mate might suspect that it's actually V.

[Trixie]

So, what race of dragons is pink, has black eyes and has such horns?

I feel 'hilarity ensues' moment coming with forces alarmed by an appearance of the evil dragon finally arriving in force to combat the threat

[Porthos]

Flawless Victory...
FATALITY!
Vaarsuvius Wins!

[motub]

Well.

That was certainly... definitive.

I'm glad V's enragement strategy worked to get the dragon to attack hir rather than the family.

I'm sorry that the dragon died in such an awful way.

But... dang, that whole pwnage was so (incredibly) cool that I totally get what V was after in hir (side)quest for Ultimate Arcane Power.

It was so unbelievably cool that they haven't invented words to express the true coolness of the entire sequence.

Gotta say, shi may be Evil now (or shi may not; I notice that it didn't seem like shi used any Epic or Evil powers), but dang, V rocked the house. If that didn't satisfy hir need to "not fail", nothing will.

However, one must tear oneself away from the blazing glory of this shining moment to remember that there is yet another shoe to drop.

Actually, several... the family's reaction, the fiends' payment, and of course V's own reaction-- will shi give up the splice now that shi's tasted the power shi so craved? And if not (I mean, who could give that up, after you bloody shapechanged into a dragon from inside the stomach of a dragon, and it worked?), what will that mean to hir and the rest of hir life/relationships?

Wow. Just.... wow.

And on a side note, who was the dragon speaking to when she yelled for "Silence! (I will eat you ALIVE)"? V wasn't talking... the splices were talking... in V's mind... weren't they?

I'm a little worried about that.... or I would be, if I wasn't so overcome with ego gratification on V's behalf. That was, after all, unspeakably cool, what shi did.

[Ikialev]

Heh heh heh he looks like this dragon from Young Adult magazines heh.

Also, what gave her Slashes in 6th panel?
Not Acid Immunity, not Stoneskin, I believe, not Mind Blank, hell, why did he use a mind blank? Not PfS, not Shield, Fireballs don't scratch. Why use a Delayed fireball? Time is frozen, I don't think it would matter.

Pointer of Pointlessness, heh.

[harami2000]

'How many times do I have to tell you, "Chew your food…"'? So much for a mother's advice… ^^
Somewhat disappointingly rookie mistake from the scaly one, IMHO: put it down to a stressful situation? :)

(aside: The internal voices aren't?)

[Trixie]

Another thought - what happened to Vragon's rear legs and tail? There is certainly no space for them in the remaining part of the black dragon?

And, uh, again, as with AMF the spell can work the described way, so no cigar for rule haters

[T-O-E]

I was worried when I first saw the title. The last panel was a pleasant surprise.

[Porthos]

A dramatic end for the dragon. Now the rules lawyers among us are going to point out this is entirely impossible by D&D rules. All enlargement/shapechanging spells are limited by the size of the “room” and do not allow the subject of the spell to change enough to damage the room or himself. [Too many players were having too much fun with such nonsense.]

Can you back that up for me, David? Coz (following the discussion on another board) I can't find anything in the rules to back up your statement.

It would appear that neither Shapechange, nor Polymoprh, nor Alter Self say anything of the sort of being confined to a space you are within.

Here are the following links:

SRD: Shapechange
SRD: Polymorph (which Shapechange is based on)
SRD: Alter Self (which Polymoprh is based on)

The closet things that you are describing is in Enlarge Person:

If insufficient room is available for the desired growth, the creature attains the maximum possible size and may make a Strength check (using its increased Strength) to burst any enclosures in the process. If it fails, it is constrained without harm by the materials enclosing it— the spell cannot be used to crush a creature by increasing its size.

So all V had to do was make a Strength Check (in his new form, natch) to burst out of the Dragon, Alien style. As for the second sentence, that refers to the creature that is getting bigger (V in this case) and not the creature that is being ripped apart from the inside.

And while there may be some Sage Advice or FAQ ruling (or one in the Rules/Spells Compendium from WotC) that says differently, nothing in the core rules stops V from doing what he did in this past strip.

At least as far as I can tell.

[Zherog]

Why use a Delayed fireball? Time is frozen, I don't think it would matter.

There's two reasons - one better than the other.

A) You can't affect your opponent during a time stop. But you can most certainly call into existence a delayed blast fireball and have it set to explode right after the time stop ends.

B) Delayed blast fireball does more damage than a plain fireball.

V did it because of A. B is just the candy sprinkles on top of the sundae.