OOTS #1260 - The Discussion Thread

[KorvinStarmast]

Is the rest of Team Evil hiding on the chance that a bunch of heroes will try to take down Xykon while he is supposedly weaker? It seems possible.

Redcloak is investigating the cave. Xykon is referring to Redcloak doing a 'sherlock holmes' thing.

[Fyraltari]

Redcloak is investigating the cave. Xykon is referring to Redcloak doing a 'sherlock holmes' thing.

I think BriarHobbit meant that this was Team Evil pretending to split up because Xykon's bored in order to lure out their ennemies.

[M.A.D]

Can anyone tell me which spell Xykon is using to draw? Looks like a waste of a spell slot to his already expended repetoire

[Jervis]

Can anyone tell me which spell Xykon is using to draw? Looks like a waste of a spell slot to his already expended repetoire

I’ve done a bit of a look into this. You need a lot more damage than you would think to dig into stone with most spells. TLDR it’s probably either disintegrate fineness or a reach spell metamagiced touch spell like Scalding Touch or Storm Touch. The conversation clearly took more than 6 seconds so it needs to be something with a duration.

[Peelee]

I’ve done a bit of a look into this. You need a lot more damage than you would think to dig into stone with most spells.

It doesn't need to dig in to the stone, only make a mark on it. My money's on Scorching Ray with the homebrew rule of "it leaves scorch marks on rocks". Sadly there's no fiery version of the Ray of Frost cantrip that I know of.

[Thermophille]

It doesn't need to dig in to the stone, only make a mark on it. My money's on Scorching Ray with the homebrew rule of "it leaves scorch marks on rocks". Sadly there's no fiery version of the Ray of Frost cantrip that I know of.

Ironically, although fire is considered a 'weak' damage type for spells like Fireball due to the number of creatures with resistance/immunity, the ability to start fires with a cantrip is strong enough that none deal fire damage.

[Psyren]

Another in favor of scorching ray - sure he's only using one beam when we see him, but he might be just putting the finishing touches on his oeuvre, and prior to that was utilizing multiple lasers.

[bunsen_h]

My money's on Scorching Ray

It's ROY, dammit! I'll give you a "scorching"..!

[Peelee]

It's ROY, dammit! I'll give you a "scorching"..!

Scorching Roy was early comic. After the deva told him to be nicer he largely took it to heart

[bunsen_h]

Scorching Roy was early comic. After the deva told him to be nicer he largely took it to heart

Don't forget about his flaming sword.

[Grey Watcher]

Scorching Roy was early comic. After the deva told him to be nicer he largely took it to heart

Honestly, given how indifferent and standoffish he could be, I would think Roy of Frost would be a better description.

[Ekul]

Honestly, given how indifferent and standoffish he could be, I would think Roy of Frost would be a better description.

Well, in the period directly after his sword was broken I'd say he was more of a Roy of Enfeeblement

[No good @ names]

Can anyone tell me which spell Xykon is using to draw? Looks like a waste of a spell slot to his already expended repetoire

I’d go with “Giant’s ray of visual humour”

[bunsen_h]

I’d go with “Giant’s ray of visual humour”

Could be. But I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Xykon researched a ray-of-blasting spell, with an extended duration, for the specific purpose of things like graffiti and torture.

I knew a guy who put a year and a half of his company's R&D resources into a product with almost zero market potential, because he thought it would be a cool thing. He did no market research, but he wanted to be able to brag that he had it in his pocket. What ultimately got produced didn't even do the cool thing that he most wanted, because it turned out to be literally impossible in a product that size, and he didn't put any time into researching feasibility either. People sometimes let their biases -- their desire for a Cool Thing -- overrule what might be considered wise expenditure of time and effort by a neutral observer.

[danielxcutter]

Ooh boy, that sounds bad.

[bunsen_h]

Ooh boy, that sounds bad.

"Suppose a researcher is at an out-of-town conference, and gets an idea for a chemical structure. He wants to be able to punch it into his pocket computer and start the calculations right away! He doesn't want to have to wait until he gets home!"

"But... not many people have pocket computers. And they're really slow, really low-powered compared to a desktop machine. For any structure complex enough to be of interest, it would be faster for the person to scribble the idea on a piece of paper and wait to run the calculations at home, than to start it right away and do it on a pocket computer."

"I want to be the first guy in the world to do [really complicated] calculations in my pocket!"

"But... the computational requirements for [really complicated] calculations scale as the fourth power of the number of atoms in the structure. Again, pocket computers just don't have the power to do that kind of work."

Etc. This was in the days before remote desktops, VPNs, and so on. Ultimately, the pocket-computer version of the product didn't do [really complicated] calculations at all; in fact, it was only able to do the most basic forms of calculations in that field.

At one point while I was doing support for that company, I was asked by a prospective customer about the feasibility of doing [really complicated] calculations on a compound with 38 atoms in it. I did a quick estimate, and wrote back that the memory requirement to store the data was on the order of a hundred times the size of the high-end consumer disk drives of the day. The calculation could be done by an alternate mode which didn't store all of that state data, but that slowed the calculation down proportionately. I suggested that he'd be better off by waiting a decade or two until computers were more powerful -- politely / humorously / apologetically, as it wasn't a stupid question, just a "this is the state of current technology compared with what you'd like to be able to do".

[Grey Watcher]

Well, in the period directly after his sword was broken I'd say he was more of a Roy of Enfeeblement

And then when Xykon flew him in loop de loops over Azure City, he was briefly Roy of Sickness.