OOTS #859 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

New comic is up.

[Great Dane]

Time to google "Holy". Nice update. :D

[Faramir]

Go Roy! Let's hear it for high INT scores...

Of course the real question is how much credit Elan's dad gives to Elan for this plan.

[Amidus Drexel]

Splendidly done.

[Kish]

It's Holy Word, Durkon's tried to use it a couple times.

Kilkil is nongood, what a shock. Tarquin...

Malack is remaining ambiguous levelwise, because he's not hit by the Word. Qaar avoided getting dismissed. Sabine is likely to be sent to another plane, and...

If Tarquin is actually affected by the Word, instead of just annoyed, it will be proof that he is in fact no higher level than Durkon.

[Topus]

This brings me memory of my Earth Cleric in Dark Sun who often used the "ignore earth element" ability to pass through walls.
Good point for the underrated Durkon and his Holy Word ;)

[Eldan]

Actually, Malack is also ambiguous alignmentwise. Do we know for certain that he is evil? I always thought he might be Lawful Neutral.

[luagha]

Ah, beautiful. And it's a spell that Durkon almost never gets to use because of Belkar. (And possibly Haley, if she's too close to Neutral at the moment.)


"Gargantuan. What a great word. I so rarely get to use it in a sentence."

[Winter]

Nice. ;)

And now, give us a Blade Barrier in the smoke, Durkon.

[Dr.Epic]

What spell did Durkon use to do that?

Also, how don't you hear the dwarf in full plate?

[jimmy81]

Awesome comic as always. Thanks Rich!

[Archaicwonder]

Durkon Holy Word on a tee shirt! PLEASE?

Great plan OotS!

[Daraniya]

Assuming she doesn't make her Will Save... at a -4 no less...

[blackspeeker]

It's Holy Word, Durkon's tried to use it a couple times.

Kilkil is nongood, what a shock. Tarquin...

Malack is remaining ambiguous levelwise, because he's not hit by the Word. Qaar avoided getting dismissed. Sabine is likely to be sent to another plane, and...

If Tarquin is actually affected by the Word, instead of just annoyed, it will be proof that he is in fact no higher level than Durkon.

Thank you, I pretty much came straight here to ask. Like I'm sure more will.

[Bulldog Psion]

Here's the link as a public service:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/holyWord.htm

Dang, but it's good to see the Order with a decent plan. And it looks like Tarquin is no higher level than Durkon -- I'm surprised.

[Psyren]

In OotSland, it appears the word in Holy Word is actually "Holy."

I'm reminded of the flavor text from Lightning Blast - "Those who fear the darkness have not seen what the Light can do."

PLEASE banish Sabine.

[Zolthux]

Brilliant.

[oppyu]

Woah. Ok, I think with that 'Holy Word' depiction, this comic no longer applies as a 'stick comic'. Seriously cool stuff there.

[Winter]

Assuming she doesn't make her Will Save... at a -4 no less...

I find it a bit boring if Durkon throws out a Holy World against an equal-level party (meaning Nale and that Dark elf as Anti-Order are probably only deafened, Kilkil pssibly deaf and blind (he's no adventurer and we see he's not dead), Tarquin stays unaffected) and the outsider makes her saving throw.

My estimate is the above + Sabine being banished.

Lucky Qarr. On the other hand: Holy Word explicitly takes Outsiders to their home plane regardless of if they can hear the spell or not. So does Rich rule that this spread manages to get through the iron door and catches Qarr as well?

[LordRahl6]

Excellent planning indeed. Looks like Haley had some cloudlike spell(or spell-like ability) on the arrow, and then Durkon used the distraction and effects it created to use a

Spoiler

Show

teleportation spell, similar to Shadow Step to jump into their midst.

The "Light" ending to top it off was the perfect ending.

Now, my question is if it was only a cloud, why couldn't Zzi'Drtt see?

[Douglas]

What spell did Durkon use to do that?

Also, how don't you hear the dwarf in full plate?

Holy Word.

They didn't hear him because he literally came through the wall rather than trying to sneak past, probably using Meld Into Stone.

[Winter]

Excellent planning indeed. Looks like Haley had some cloudlike spell(or spell-like ability) on the arrow,

Tarquin says what it is: A smokestick. Basic adventuring gear.

[Chambers]

Excellent. Nicely done.

[Kish]

Actually, Malack is also ambiguous alignmentwise. Do we know for certain that he is evil? I always thought he might be Lawful Neutral.

It doesn't matter (nor do we know that Kilkil isn't Something Neutral just because he's obviously bothered by the Word). Holy Word doesn't check for evil, it checks for nongood.

[TheRiov]

Deaf+Blinded at a minimum for most the Guild. Ouch. Nicely played.

[pendell]

Wait, what ? The OOTS is fighting intelligently, for a change?

Not bad. Not bad at all.

So that's Holy Word . Must be "just the spell for tha, Lad" we saw discussed earlier.

Still, I would be very surprised if the LG is low-level compared to Durkon, so the most likely result is no-save deafening. Apart from Tarquin, of course, who doubtless has magic items up the wazoo which protect him from anything and everything. Sort of like Batman in the old Adam West show. What tactical value does that have ...?

ETA: Okay, deafening has the following tactical effects:

A deafened character cannot hear. She takes a -4 penalty on initiative checks, automatically fails Listen checks, and has a 20% chance of spell failure when casting spells with verbal components. Characters who remain deafened for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.

So it's essentially a debuff. Not decisive in itself, but -4 initiative and 20% spell failure is going to be very helpful indeed. And I see Malack has been cut off for the rest of the party, evening the odds a bit since V is also hors de combat. So a good start.

E again to add: Oh, Holy Word destroys undead of significantly lower level. Were the mummies in range of that word? Then that's another chunk of combat power removed from the Linear Guild. Nice!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Mantine]

Woah.
OOTS kicking a worthy foe's ass for the first time since.... ever?
Without some suddenly unexpected overturn of the tables, but solely due to their own battle prowess?

Keep rocking, guys. This is just too awesome to stop here.

[Psyren]

It's Holy Word, Durkon's tried to use it a couple times.

Yep - he tried here and here. Any other occasions?

[Bulldog Psion]

Tarquin says what it is: A smokestick. Basic adventuring gear.

Actually, Nale says what it is. But it is indeed basic adventuring gear.

[Voyager]

Here's the link as a public service:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/holyWord.htm

Dang, but it's good to see the Order with a decent plan. And it looks like Tarquin is no higher level than Durkon -- I'm surprised.

He could be acting.

In fact, given all of the feats he's been using, and their pre-reqs, I would expect he is rather highly uplevel of the OOTS.