OOTS #1001 - The Discussion Thread

[factotum]

Why do people keep talking about Durkula's vampire spawn? Even if he used Malack's staff to accelerate their birth, just as happened to himself, their unlife expectancy in a room full of high level clerics is about 0.43 seconds. And said clerics would not have any reason to *not* zap the spawn as soon as they appear, because the rules of the Godsmoot prohibit them being there. Even if they somehow survived the clerics, they're out of spell slots and presumably much lower level than Durkula or Roy, so their effect on the fight would be negligible. The only way I can see them having any influence is if they prevent Durkula getting outright destroyed and thus allow him to escape.

[drazen]

...Or passing the will save ended the established mental control before the next round, allowing to narrate what happens and making the hero more awesome in the process. Without the swirling eyes, we would all be "Did Durkula just wasted a round doing nothing here?", and a one panel joke going "vampiric gaze" "will save" would be so lame compared to the ultimate duel of divine spellcasting.

Just like a disbelieved figment illusion doesn't disappear in a puff of logic, Charm-like spells don't simply fizzle with no effect when the affected person pass his save; instead the person recognize the foreign thoughts and dismisses them. Why is that basic flavoring of a will save so hard to imagine on these boards?

Well, I'm not a D&D player, so I can only go by the strips I've seen. Here's what I came up with:

#183 - Lizard Vaarsuvius hypnotizes the black dragon. It never snaps out of it, and even takes the order to vomit up a meal (presumably for humorous effect; would a black dragon actually consider it within its normal nature to regurgitate a delicious adventurer?).

#393 - Nale uses Suggestion on Elan. No swirly eyes, just yellow eyes. It seems to be working until Haley snaps him out of it with her revelation, and when she snaps out of her speech impediment.

#516 Thanh is dominated by Tsukiko and they eventually need Belkar to play the role of Shojo in order to snap him out of it.

#835 - Vaarsuvius has used Dominate Monster on Yukyuk, and Belkar turns him into a litter box (given that he doesn't snap out of being a feline waste receptacle, I'm not sure I want to know what that says about the hygenic habits of kobolds in OOTS). He also walks head-long into traps in the pyramid and becomes a human (kobold? feline?) shield for Mr. Scruffy during the acid attack. The only explanation I have is that the kobold couldn't break the domination but wanted it to end, so he committed suicide by obeying V's commands in a suicidal manner?

#860 - Nale uses Suggestion on Belkar. It takes effect (swirly eyes), but fails because Belkar cannot actually hear the suggestion.

There's the recent ones where Vampire Durkon hypnotizes Belkar, and the one where Malack dominated him as well. Durkon encouraged Belkar to break out of the latter, but he was unable to do so until released.

I don't particularly care one way or the other -- it works either way you read it -- but I'm not sure there has actually been an example in the comic of a completely failed, non-fizzled domination/suggestion, other than with the ancient black dragon, who simply replied "No" until it (presumably) rolled a 1.

[konradknox]

The IFCC is unable to control V's body.

Says who though? I'm sure they have some nefarious trick. They pull V's soul out of his body, protect it with that damage shield to keep it unharmed, while a demonic entity possesses it and uses his spells.

[konradknox]

Vaarsuvius could Owl's Wisdom Belkar again, and Belkar becomes immune to HPoH's mind spells. That would be the longest comeback of a joke in the entire comic.

[Keltest]

Says who though? I'm sure they have some nefarious trick. They pull V's soul out of his body, protect it with that damage shield to keep it unharmed, while a demonic entity possesses it and uses his spells.

Says the IFCC. They explicitly say so. I suppose its not impossible that they were lying, but that would be rather poor form of Rich to make such a statement of fact and then contradict it with no indication that it was incorrect.

[konradknox]

Says the IFCC. They explicitly say so. I suppose its not impossible that they were lying, but that would be rather poor form of Rich to make such a statement of fact and then contradict it with no indication that it was incorrect.

Okay. Good point.
There could however be an independent demonic entity possessing the body, not directly sent by the IFCC, though it's also a stretch.

But you know, all of that is moot, and IFCC can intervene anyway, using Vaarsuvius's soul. All they need to do is to soul splice Vaarsuvius to Durkula, or one of the evil clerics, or whoever else they have in mind, to give that person Vaarsuvius's spell slots and make some kind of difference.

They have proven that they can soul splice across classes, chaining a sorcerer's soul to a wizard. Logically they can do so to a cleric.

[Keltest]

Okay. Good point.
There could however be an independent demonic entity possessing the body, not directly sent by the IFCC, though it's also a stretch.

But you know, all of that is moot, and IFCC can intervene anyway, using Vaarsuvius's soul. All they need to do is to soul splice Vaarsuvius to Durkula, or one of the evil clerics, or whoever else they have in mind, to give that person Vaarsuvius's spell slots and make some kind of difference.

They have proven that they can soul splice across classes, chaining a sorcerer's soul to a wizard. Logically they can do so to a cleric.

The IFCC also protect V's body from tampering while his soul is held. They pride themselves on going above and beyond the expected service.

Also, I find the idea that the IFCC could splice not only an unwilling target, but an unwilling soul, to be fairly shaky. The contract didn't give them permission to do anything with V's soul but possess it.

[dmaxno]

Great comic, thanks!
I just noticed that the HPoH asked Roy to put his sword down; not to put it away, but put it down. His ancestral sword. I wondering if that was enough for a will save re-roll with a +2 circumstance bonus.