Results 631 to 660 of 1060
-
2020-08-05, 04:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2004
- Location
- I wish I knew...
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
No Save is inherently superior to higher saving DC on this scale.
2) It doesn't require any attack rolls and it's not restricted to melee range. Fewer moving parts than Harm or Disintegrate.
3) As a (probable) domain spell, it's a less flexible option to burn; he wouldn't have been able to convert it to a spontaneous infliction spell (though spontaneous infliction is probably less valuable than spontaneous healing).
4) If Durkon has any hidden allies ready to spring into action once hostilities commence, Redcloak's got a powerful spell to squash them with.
The only real argument against using Implosion is that the target doesn't suffer any adverse consequences if they make their save - though the damage from a successful save against Disintegrate (5d6) or Destruction (10d6) is going to be unremarkable for an adventurer of Durkon's level, anyway.SpoilerQuite possibly, the best rebuttal I have ever witnessed.
Joker Bard - the DM's solution to the Batman Wizard.
Takahashi no Onisan - The scariest Samurai alive
Incarnum and YOU: a reference guide
Soulmelds, by class and slot: Another Incarnum reference
Multiclassing for Newbies: A reference guide for the rest of us
My homebrew world in progress: Falcora
-
2020-08-05, 04:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2015
- Location
- On the tip of my tongue
-
2020-08-05, 04:33 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Redcloak doesn't know Durkon's level, but he can assume a fairly high level cleric.
So assuming level 15 (or even purchased access to an 8th level spell) that gives Durkon access to Greater Spell Immunity with Blasphemy being specified before a meeting with a high level evil cleric a fair precaution - Implosion bypasses that, Redcloak would know this.
-
2020-08-05, 05:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2019
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Pretty much. Redcloak's whole character arc is about his biggest flaw being his inability to give up on the Sunk Cost Fallacy regarding The Plan. It would be weird for a single talk with Durkon to change that. In addition, Durkon's kind of working from the idea that Redcloak can get The Dark One to agree to this when earlier in the conversation Redcloak revealed that The Dark One communicates MUCH less directly with him than Durkon and Thor were expecting for a High Priest.
Like, we really know very little about how much The Dark One might react to this plan. Right Eye claimed he cared more about his revenge than his people. His only known direct message to Redcloak is "Don't screw this up. No pressure though." Frankly the main chip they have against him his that he won't survive resetting the universe. And since we know so little about him he won't know how he'll react to that.
-
2020-08-05, 06:24 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
- Location
- Fallbrook, California
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
I haven't read all 22 pages of responses to this thread, but has anyone brought up the idea that maybe Durkon and Thor are wrong about what Redcloak and the Dark One are trying to do with the Snarl? If I remember right, Thor was the one that told Durkon what the goblins' plan supposedly is. When Durkon confronted Red Cloak about it, Red Cloak did not confirm that their plan was in fact to use the Snarl to threaten the gods. That is probably what Xykon intends to do, but Redcloak may have other ideas. There may be some key facts that are being withheld. Actually, we know there is something going on with the Snarl the audience (and the Gods) don't know about.
Redcloak may be playing an altogether different game and Durkon's proposal just doesn't fit into it. The whole conversation started out with Redcloak trying to determine what Durkon and his people knew and ended with Redcloak realizing Durkon was genuinely trying to help. It would explain the reluctance as he cast Implosion. He did appreciate the gesture but the stakes were much higher than Durkon could guess.Last edited by morikahn; 2020-08-05 at 06:26 AM.
-
2020-08-05, 06:28 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2020
-
2020-08-05, 06:41 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2017
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
He also explained it to Tuskiko before killing her. Something the Giant likely included precisely so that this info wouldn’t be behind a paywall.
Forum Wisdom
Mage avatar by smutmulch & linklele.
-
2020-08-05, 06:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
- Location
- Fallbrook, California
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
I read Start of Darkness. It was a while back.. but if I remember it mostly revolves around the creation of Xykon and some early motivation for Redcloak. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the writer specified that the extra comics would not contain information that was necessary to follow the main plot of the online comic.
-
2020-08-05, 06:44 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
- Location
- Fallbrook, California
- Gender
-
2020-08-05, 06:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2020
-
2020-08-05, 06:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Panel 9, 10, 11 explain what the ritual does (or what Redcloak says/thinks it does).
-
2020-08-05, 08:04 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2020
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
What if Redcloak killed Durkon so he would go to the afterlife, and through speak with the dead be able to talk directly to Thor? I doubt this is the case, but it is kinda fun. You could even make a joke about how Durkon just keeps getting raised by evil clerics that killed him idk
-
2020-08-05, 08:16 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2016
- Location
- Seoul
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
I probably wasn’t around when it came up, but back when Nale killed Malack people were apparently complaining how Malack totally should have prepared for it and he should have done something else and I think that’s exactly what’s going on when people are trying to argue that Implosion was a Bad IdeaTM and therefore it can’t be have been for Durkon. Sometimes you don’t have the specific optimal option prepared today. Heck, maybe that was the optimal domain slot, ‘cause I’m pretty sure the Law domain 9th level spell is Summon Monster IX(lawful only).
Cool elan Illithid Slayer by linkele.
Editor/co-writer of Magicae Est Potestas, a crossover between Artemis Fowl and Undertale. Ao3 FanFiction.net DeviantArt
We also have a TvTropes page!
Currently playing: Red Hand of Doom(campaign journal)Campaign still going on, but journal discontinued until further notice.
Extended sig here.
-
2020-08-05, 08:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2010
- Location
- Porto Alegre, Brazil
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Implosion is probably the best spell to get Durkon anyway. Durkon's only bad save is Reflex with has no save or die spells for Clerics (if I remember correctly). Anything else has either a lower DC, more fail points (attack/damage rolls) or uncertainty (RC has no guarantee that there's a 5 level gap for Blasphemy and the range makes it not so subtle anyway).
A failed Disintegrate save not only isn't an instakill, but also is less likely than a failed Implosion save anyway.
-
2020-08-05, 08:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2018
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
I just realized that Durkon keeps getting killed by evil Clerics.
Durkon: I’ve just met an evil cleric of a death god! I’m sure we can be friends, because we’re both clerics. Oh No... vampirism!. Who could have predicted that?
Durkon (a week later): Look! Another evil cleric, this time of a fire god. I’m sure this friendship will work out, because we’re both clerics. Oh no... Fire! Who could have predicted that?
Durkon (two days later): Hello, evil cleric of an insane god called “The Dark One”. Would like to hang out and be buddies? We’re both clerics, so I feel safe being unarmed.
-
2020-08-05, 09:10 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2018
-
2020-08-05, 09:22 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
- Location
- Magrathea
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
An explanation of why MitD being any larger than Huge is implausible.
See my extended signature here! May contain wit, candor, and somewhere from 52 to 8127 walruses.
Purple is humorous descriptions made up on the fly
Green is serious talk about hypothetical
Blue is irony and sarcasm
"I think, therefore I am,
I walk, therefore I stand,
I sleep, therefore I dream;
I joke, therefore I meme."
-Squire Doodad
-
2020-08-05, 09:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2016
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Point taken from you and others regarding the number of 9th level spells available.
But we do have an indication: at the end of #1039, Xykon did specify "tonight", so most likely Redcloak does prepare spells at dusk, or at least he currently does.I prepared Explosive Runes before writing this signature.
-
2020-08-05, 09:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2005
- Location
- Elemental Plane of Bubbles
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Has anyone raised the possibility that Redcloak cast the spell on himself, to have a chance to confer with The Dark One directly?
-
2020-08-05, 09:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
"Besides, you know the saying: Kill one, and you are a murderer. Kill millions, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god." -- Fishman
-
2020-08-05, 09:38 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Yes they have, despite the fact that such a meeting could be done via, Gate or Plane Shift - or Commune, despite the fact that merely going to the afterlife is no guarantee of meeting a deity, despite the fact that there is no one around would might raise him - and certainly not in short order, despite the fact that it would leave the cloak completely unprotected and so enable it to be stolen or destroyed potentially ruining the overall plan if the Dark One rejected the offer ... they have raised the possibility regardless.
I don't see it myself.Last edited by dancrilis; 2020-08-05 at 09:39 AM.
-
2020-08-05, 09:43 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2005
- Location
- Elemental Plane of Bubbles
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Fair enough.
-
2020-08-05, 09:47 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2016
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
There's also the simpler fact that those are all much less painful ways of voluntarily meeting one's patron deity that don't involve a horrible, messy death in the process. And that spend lower level spell slots to do so and are thus more efficient from that standpoint too.
I prepared Explosive Runes before writing this signature.
-
2020-08-05, 10:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
-
2020-08-05, 10:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- Texas
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Yeah.
And TDO doesn't know, and Reddie doesn't know.
Given that TDO won't even talk to an evil god, Loki, TDO is going to be hard to negotiate/deal with, isn't he? There is an allusion to Tiamat being up to her own agenda, so maybe that will burble up during the course of book VII.
That would be a handy use of D&D mechanics, as well as nice cover if Xykon happens by and sees a dead, rather than alive, dwarf near Redcloak. You fight the dragon with the party you have, not the party you wish you had. Hilgya most emphatically agreed.Avatar by linklele. How Teleport Worksa. Malifice (paraphrased):
Rulings are not 'House Rules.' Rulings are a DM doing what DMs are supposed to do.
b. greenstone (paraphrased):
Agency means that they {players} control their character's actions; you control the world's reactions to the character's actions.
Second known member of the Greyview Appreciation Society
-
2020-08-05, 10:17 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2009
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Re: all of the suggestions that Redcloak should have used Blasphemy / etc. instead of Implosion, keep in mind that he didn't plan for this meeting. He's limited to the spells that he had prepared for a dungeon crawl.
-
2020-08-05, 10:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2006
- Location
- Meridianville AL
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Even if he has it prepared (likely, RC gets a lot of level 7 spells). The big problem with Blasphemy is that RC has no idea what the level difference is. He doesn't know Durkon's level, and even if he did, if RC is level 17, then 17-13=4, which means he just spent his surprise round to daze Durkon and weaken him for a brief period.
Weakened only matters if Durkon plans to pull out a weapon and fight (it does absolutely NOTHING to stop or slow down spells from Durkon). So blasphemy from RC would cost Durkon one action at the cost of costing RC 1 action and a level 7 slot.
I'm just not seeing the win there.Last edited by Doug Lampert; 2020-08-05 at 10:38 AM.
-
2020-08-05, 10:39 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Gender
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
Blasphemy also seems like a really bad choice for the dungeon crawls given that Greyview is probably True Neutral and the MitD is almost definitely non-evil (and Oona's alignment is also uncertain). Wouldn't be very helpful to incapacitate your allies mid-fight with your lockdown spell.
Even if we're supposed to agree that it's a foolproof option that he's got ready to cast, the argument seems to boil down to "Redcloak isn't doing precisely what a powergaming D&D player would do in this situation if they wanted Durkon dead, ergo he can't be trying to kill Durkon and the Implosion is clearly intended for something else!" - which really doesn't hold much water with me.Last edited by Gurgeh; 2020-08-05 at 10:40 AM.
-
2020-08-05, 10:43 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2018
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
It seems like another example for me that people need to be reminded that characters in stories are also imperfect and aren't always going to make the right decision, and that that doesn't immediately mean that they're dumb or a lost cause because if making a couple of mistakes meant you were a lost cause pretty much every person alive would be a lost cause.
-
2020-08-05, 11:23 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread
"Besides, you know the saying: Kill one, and you are a murderer. Kill millions, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god." -- Fishman