OOTS #440 - The Discussion Thread

[SiukiSwordsman]

I hope you get better soon Rich Berlew!

[Faramir]

If I recall right, the giant soldiers were decapitated when the dk charged in on his horse.

Only 4 of them. Three had died previously so that still leaves 6 of them alive.

[Blaznak]

Best health wishes!!! I, for one, don't view the webcomics as a race. They show when they show. Take care of yourself and the rest will follow.

Still, as to this comic, I really liked the independent minded familiar! FUN!

[moscatabaco]

And I'm sorry for the azurites... the losses are getting considerable.

About time the bad guys did something! Since the war started most of the corpses have been orange-skinned. And cheers for Redcloack for making the decoys way more formidable than anyone expected (I doubt the other two will do as well though).

I don't think V's gonna die - but (s)he's certainly in trouble. Can't wait 'til tomorrow!

[mvp129]

I don't think the general is dead. He didn't have the x's on his eyes. Maybe he still has some fight left in 'im.

[jindra34]

I don't think the general is dead. He didn't have the x's on his eyes. Maybe he still has some fight left in 'im.

See last panel his head is barely sticking out but it has the x's on his eyes... he's well and truly dead... i think...

[Baalzebub]

Choose your doom, then, chicken-mage: Original Recipe, or Extra Crispy?

Go Death Knight!! lol

[SteveMB]

Oh, come on, this one's easy.

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The general is not quite dead, and lying right by the DK. The general will score a critical on the DK, possibly with a buff spell from V. Or he will at least provide a 1-round distraction, allowing V to drink a heroism potion.

The X-for-eyes has been consistently used to indicate death. See panel 6. He'd dead, Jim.

[Theodoxus]

i still think it should of been called 'flu the coup', in honor of the mighty giant.

[mvp129]

See last panel his head is barely sticking out but it has the x's on his eyes... he's well and truly dead... i think...

I stand corrected. I still defer to my original post on page 4 then that I think Belkar will make a last minute save for V and justify it saying he wanted to just kill something for xp or because it wouldn't violate his MoJ.

[Glarx]

Remember the proto-brain theory? Isn't V on B's "hate" list right now? If not...

[Bilbo27]

Personally, I'd go for xtra crispy and roast that elf, but on my lighter side, the original recipe does have that added flavor, which makes V such a fun character to have around. Why didn't he offer the buffalo snacker, it would have been an easy choice. __SPOILER____ GO V! Belkar to the rescue, since he is the only one on the ground with V!!!!!!

[Professor Tanhauser]

I hate to see it, because some decent looking asians babes gut killed, but the AC forces around the Dk and, especially the general, deserved to get whacked.

I mean, there's the big bad totally evil creature face down, and you surround it and demand surrender.

Oh man, anyone that stupid deserves to be darwined.

Hey, AC forces! For future reference, next time you've got a death knight down and surrounded, you DO NOT demand surrender, you pile on it IMMEDIATELY and pound it to bone meal, got it?

[Professor Tanhauser]

As for V, maybe durkon will whack the DK and finally actually do something in the battle for AC....

[Nahmer]

As a 13th level specialist wizard, V still has 1 7th level spell remaining; the most obvious choice would be Forcecage - it allows no save or SR, it can't be dispelled and it would effectively neutralize the DK for 13 hours.

Alternatively, V could evoke a Wall of Force, preventing the DK from attacking vim or anyone on vis side.

Of course, both solutions are much too simple and obvious so can't be used without dampening the comedic tension.

[jindra34]

Nahmer ypur forgeting the comedic vale of the failed charge... seeing the DK charge straight into a wall of force would be hilarious...

[mvp129]

Remember the proto-brain theory? Isn't V on B's "hate" list right now? If not...

That is V's weak way of transferring all the blame to Belkar for kissing him on New Year's eve (Probably would never have happened if V would just come out and say his/her gender). I believe that Belkar is, of course evil, but probably views V as a necessary evil that he has to put up with for the time being. I'm sure he feels no such "loyalty" towards the DK. Besides, if the DK kills V, Belkar won't be able to (we know he at least has thoughts about it because he asked the oracle).

[Silverhawk1o1]

I don't think V has any problem, I think the idea of Belkar killing the Dk, and blaming it on the fact that he wanted xp+ it didnt break his moj, however, i have another idea. I don't know if Xykon's ring is magical, but V still has it, and she hasn't used it


That brings me to another conclusion, when the oots first met Miko, her detect magic sensed the crown as evil, but why not the ring on V's hand...

oh and for the last time im saying this, V is a Girl

Proud supporter of the Thog fanclub

[Tredrick]

Belkar is on the other side of the battlefield with the remains of the DK's force between him and the ramp, hobgoblins who are quite possibly fighting the remains of the AC forces in the area. Not exactly a one round charge here.

[Tharr]

The fun thing is he flipped him the bird sorry the bird flipped off his elf.
For some advice might as well jump off the wall use spells to run.

[Xenon]

familiar, defend me!

bird: nevermore!

[Shatteredtower]

Hey, AC forces! For future reference, next time you've got a death knight down and surrounded, you DO NOT demand surrender, you pile on it IMMEDIATELY and pound it to bone meal, got it?

What future references? You think they're all getting raised after the battle?

If we're going by the book, demanding surrender was probably the best thing to do for several reasons. First, it is unlikely that any of the warriors present were capable of penetrating the creature's damage reduction on those rare occasions that they actually scored a hit against its AC. Bone Meal is not very likely under the circumstances.

Second, it's unlikely that many of these characters invested in Improved Grapple as a feat. That means that the first person to try to grab the death knight is almost guaranteed to go down before an attack of opportunity. We've already seen what he (or perhaps she, since it's hard to tell with skeletons) could do to 5th level warriors with bear's endurance boosting their hp totals. Even without the assistance of the Spirited Charge feat, he's still likely to be capable of killing a 2nd level warrior with every strike. Still, as long as he doesn't have Combat Reflexes (good odds he doesn't), the rest are likely to at least get ahold of the death knight. They're not known for having a high touch AC, so the initial grab shouldn't be a problem. The problem is that it's not enough to make that touch attack: if you don't win the grapple check, the grab means nothing.

How many of these guys do you think could beat a death knight in an opposed grapple check? This is an opposed roll, not an attack roll: 20 is not automatic success and 1 is not automatic failure. Even assuming our DK is only 6th level, it's almost assuredly a PC build with an elite array (15 Str as its base, 16 by 6th level) vs non-elite array (13 Str as base) warriors of 1st or 2nd level. That's at least a 6 point advantage on the check, assuming a very weak death knight. (Then again, if it's that weak, could it really have such impressive spell resistance? Perhaps I'm remembering it wrong, but I understood that to be level based for the monster. Furthermore, it took out the unit commander with incredible ease.)

Odds are against anyone succeeding on that check, but with eight able to try per round (or more if they back off and are replaced quickly enough), there's a slim chance it will work. If not, kaboom -- not that the general or his minions had reason to suspect the kaboom, I wager. The powers of a death knight aren't exactly universal knowledge. Since there was hardly any way they could hope to win, trying to persuade the foe to surrender was a viable option. For one thing, it offered the possibility of zero casualties.

[Shatteredtower]

Sorry. Something screwed up the formatting of that post, and this computer gets an error glitch when I try to edit. I'll fix it when I get to another machine.

[mvp129]

Belkar is on the other side of the battlefield with the remains of the DK's force between him and the ramp, hobgoblins who are quite possibly fighting the remains of the AC forces in the area. Not exactly a one round charge here.

Nah not one round. But I said last minute save. I'm betting V gets his elven anus kicked around for a few strips, we'll prolly see some strips of Roy and Elan/Haley/Durkon with a few panels showing V's plight while the DK toys with him. Miraculously, when the DK has his scimitar raised in the air to perform his final blow (monologuing of course), B will come out of nowhere and save V just like V saved B from Miko in the throne room. #285

[jindra34]

familiar, defend me!

bird: nevermore!

nice job Poe

[Larylin]

Well, i haven't been posting here for 439 Oots strips, partly because im no native speaker, partly because (i admit) i just didnt care... but right now its 5.55 am in the morning and since im damn drunk i feel like saying:

Your Comic Strips usually just make my day when i am at work, so i owe u at least a "get better asap and keep up ur damn good work"

:) Greetings from Germany


P.S.:Need to sleep ... need to get not drunk... need to work in 2 hours :P

[Megalomaniac2]

There is one more tactic Vaarsuvius might employ.

It appears I am bested, Sir Death Knight. Fortunately, my massive intellect foresaw that my arcane powers might finally fail in this battle, and so took the liberty of drawing up this declaration of surrender beforehand.

(hands piece of paper to Death Knight)

Do I really have to say what happens next?

[jindra34]

There is one more tactic Vaarsuvius might employ.

It appears I am bested, Sir Death Knight. Fortunately, my massive intellect foresaw that my arcane powers might finally fail in this battle, and so took the liberty of drawing up this declaration of surrender beforehand.

(hands piece of paper to Death Knight)

Do I really have to say what happens next?

Runes unfortunately allows SR would rock otherwise...
Would be the perfect return of Runes though

[belboz]

The only reason I'm disinclined to think the following is that it's happened too many times already:

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DKs are Product Identity, right? I don't see them in the SRD, at least. V's best bet might be some help from another wizard...a spooooky wizard.

[jindra34]

The only reason I'm disinclined to think the following is that it's happened too many times already:

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DKs are Product Identity, right? I don't see them in the SRD, at least. V's best bet might be some help from another wizard...a spooooky wizard.

odds are Giant is not going to do the same exact trick twice... seriously it would ruin the thing...