OOTS #927 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

New comic is up.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Oh great, Villainous Breakdown Tarquin, here we come.

Also, you gave Durkon the wrong color speech bubble.

[SaintRidley]

Tarquin's pissed.

[Dumbledore lives]

This should be great. I can't wait to see Tarquin break down.

[KenkakuKnight]

{Scrubbed}

[Brance_a_Lot]

I'm participating!

[Shadic]

Oh man. He's mad.

[Porthos]

You know, I don't think we've ever seen Tarquin pissed off before.

****'s gonna get real now!

[RustyVenture]

I helped!

Tarquin is pissed now. This is going to be quite literally epic!

I just realized he's pissed because of Elan asking Roy "what's next", when Tarquin should be happy Elan actually played a very important role in combat!

[Sabeki]

Welp, I think Tarquins time is up. His emotions have surpassed his reason. Bye bye, Tarq.

[Landis963]

Aha. Here we see Tarquin starting to realize that if Elan isn't the hero that he wants him to be, it would be useless. It'd be like drinking up all the "Father vs. Son" bordeaux and finding only "random peasant schmuck" boxed vintage in the cellar. Of course, the cognitive dissonance could drive him to do any number of things.

[stavro375]

Good news: Dino's gone.

Bad news: Tarquin can kill the entire order by himself anyway.

I'm surprised Laruin didn't just kill Roy outright. Isn't she powerful enough to just melt Roy's brains? Or am I confusing D&D psionics with Spelunky's? Either way I don't see why she had to stop at paralyzing Roy...

[Matt620]

Well, now their both mountless and on relatively equal footing. Miron's pretty beaten up, 80 points of electrical damage is a lot for a caster, but he doesn't look dead (good thing too, that would be as anti-climatic as Z's death)

[doctor23]

Unhappy Tarquin can't be a good thing

[Frosty]

Wow, Laruins biffed THAT easy of a concentration check?

[Shale]

Nicely done, Elan. Right in the crappy, barely-sapient Will save!

[Xesirin]

As someone unfamiliar with Prismatic Spray, could someone give a run-down of whom was hit with what?

[WindStruck]

Oh great, Villainous Breakdown Tarquin, here we come.

Also, you gave Durkon the wrong color speech bubble.

When Tarquin ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!!

[Klodin]

I'd think he should be slightly mollified that it was Elan who ended up tipping the scales.

[Porthos]

Tarquin's pissed.

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

You know, I don't think we've ever seen Tarquin pissed off before.

****'s gonna get real now!

I helped!

Tarquin is pissed now. This is going to be quite literally epic!

I just realized he's pissed because of Elan asking Roy "what's next", when Tarquin should be happy Elan actually played a very important role in combat!

I think we all know what The Word of the Day is today.

THough I have to say, if Taquin's biggest strength is keeping a calm, cool, collected head, losing his temper like this is very likely going to lead to Tarquin making mistakes that the rest of the Order can capitalize.

What are those mistakes? Beats me. But I strongly suspect that Tarquin's anger is going to be his undoing.

[stavro375]

Well, now their both mountless and on relatively equal footing.

Go read this again. Beating the full-strength order wasn't even a challenge for Tarquin fighting alone, and right now Roy, Belkar, and Durkon are basically out of the fight (unless D's vampire powers give him a new way to contribute).

[Living Oxymoron]

Another spell that requires reflex save and Tarquin goes unharmed? (orange ray, acid damage, reflex half)

Any doubt that he has Evasion?

[Raven777]

Got a feeling Tarquin is going down for real. Ironically, his inability to accept a narrative other than one of his own design is going to be his tragic downfall. Death by stubborn wrong genre savvy, if you will.

[Shadic]

As someone unfamiliar with Prismatic Spray, could someone give a run-down of whom was hit with what?

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

Here ya go.

[Muenster Man]

I first thought that this would be good for Elan and Tarquin: Elan took initiative, thwarted the villain, and saved the day (sort of), thus fulfilling Tarquin's desire for Elan.

But this seems like the sort of disobedience and defeat that Tarquin didn't expect and the one thing he didn't want: humiliation.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

People have been wanting to see the Order fight somewhat efficiently, we'll here you go!

Love that Tarquin is mad. An angry opponent makes mistakes. And making mistakes reduces you from effective evil to just evil. I think Final Boss Tarquin is about to be demoted to sub-boss Tarquin...

[Harbinger]

That was kind of a dumb move to Team Tarquin's part, attacking Roy and turning their backs on the the rest of his high-level adventuring party. Still awesome strip. I liked the prismatic spray. And that look on Tarquin's face is downright scary. If I didn't know better I'd say this is his pre-death breakdown. I... I hope I know better.


As a side note, it's entirely possible that Miron is now unconscious, unless he made his save.

Good news: Dino's gone.

Bad news: Tarquin can kill the entire order by himself anyway.

I'm surprised Laruin didn't just kill Roy outright. Isn't she powerful enough to just melt Roy's brains? Or am I confusing D&D psionics with Spelunky's? Either way I don't see why she had to stop at paralyzing Roy...

Thing is, I don't think he can. Last time they fought, the odds were stacked in T's favor, and once they realized he wasn't Thog they started doing OK against him. And now they have a wizard. Tarquin is a powerful fighter, but he's still just a fighter. I'd say the Order has a decent chance of beating him. Although Laurin is almost certainly still battle worth, and it's entirely possible Miron is, and the Order's chances of beating them are rather lower.

And isn't that exactly what Laurin was doing before V prismatic sprayed her?

[Porthos]

So for the Dino:

7) Sent to another plane.

...

Semi-Elemental Plane of Ranch Dressing maybe?

[MesiDoomstalker]

Tarquin. Is. Pissed. This is exciting!

[Golden-Esque]

Wow, Laruins biffed THAT easy of a concentration check?

The way the dinosaur is moving, that could qualify as "extremely vigorous motion while casting." The DC for that is DC 20 + the Power's level, and if she's augmenting the power, its even higher. Its believable if she rolled poorly; even if she didn't, the violent motion could have moved Roy out of range of whatever power she's using.

That's the other thing; Powers conveniently don't have verbal components, so Laurin isn't required to shout the name of her attack out in a speech bubble: we have no idea what she's using, and therefore have no idea how easy it is to maintain concentration on it.