OOTS #1053 - The Discussion Thread

[DaggerPen]

I about died laughing at that last bit. Roy is never going to live his death down, huh?

[Peelee]

Roy is never going to live his death down, huh?

That's an awesome turn of phrase.

[NecroDancer]

I died at the last panel

[Spirited Charge]

Glad to see that Belkar still got to stick it to Roy; his premeditated joke wasn't wasted.

Side note: I'm eager to see how Belkar's Rings of Jumping and Feather Fall will work in tandem!

[Cicciograna]

The Giant is too much of a well educated gentleman to draw Belkar flipping off while feather falling, but were he to draw something so awesome it would instantly become my desktop wallpaper in saecula saeculorum!

[Jasdoif]

Roy is never going to live his death down, huh?

I hear he has to get Vaarsuvius a scroll of reverse gravity just so he can live up to it.

[rman]

"sweet leader approved violence"

Does the size bonus double against giants?

[zimmerwald1915]

I just hope Belkar doesn't have to go dodging the Mechane's alchemist's fire counter-attack.

Eh, he'll be fine. He has evasion.

[Sniccups]

"That one can't fly!"

Incredible, Giant.

[Lockmund]

There are giants in Belkar's playground.

[Anarion]

"That seems more like a limitation of your imagination" was a great quote. And Belkar taking proper falling precautions after falling is even a poke at Roy's previous failure to address that problem.

[Quibblicious]

Man... Belkar must have hung out with Elan off panel. His comedic execution is spot on :-D

His execution is always spot on. Goblins, wights, zombies... pretty much any opponent.

Except vampires...

Q

[Lkctgo]

Is this going to be the time when Roy's lie comes full circle, and they actually meet a giant king? AHAHAHAHA.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Roy is acting like a biased narrow minded manager here.

Judging your employees' usefulness in a given situation based only on what you know they can do, rather than abilities they have deliberately concealed from you, is neither biased nor narrow-minded.

With as wealthy as the OOTS appears to be at their level, they probably should all be carrying some backup utility magic rings around just in case. Stuff like feather fall or jumping isn't always needed, but when you need it you really need it.

The Order is pretty treasure-starved, or at least useful-magic-item-starved. This is presumably so they don't have access to whatever fun little magic items would conveniently solve their current dilemma.

Raise your hand if you've role played with someone who thought nothing of jumping off of a high cliff (or flying griffon or whatever) absorbed the landing damage with a shrug and didn't even use a healing potion before bounding off to battle. I wish Gary Gygax had gotten his original version of falling damage correctly published because then we would never have had to deal with such nonsense.

1. It's not just falling damage. It can get silly pretty quickly, with high-level characters.
2. What original version? The one based on a possible alternate interpretation of rules which was never used anywhere, and which would have barely made the problem less ridiculous?

Side note: I'm eager to see how Belkar's Rings of Jumping and Feather Fall will work in tandem!

I can see some comedy coming from that, if the Giant wants to take that angle.

Spoiler: Guesses

Show

The first things that come to mind are that either his jumps are as effective as a feather's jumps would be, or he'll jump up to stab a giant (like he was showed doing even before getting a ring of jumping) and discover he has to wait before he can land.
Seems like it's about time for a bigger comedic moment and the corresponding brief respite from drama.

[Kish]

"sweet leader approved violence"

Does the size bonus double against giants?

Sort of. For each size category increase, a creature gets an AC and to-hit penalty, along with a big damage boost.

[ThePhantasm]

I can see some comedy coming from that, if the Giant wants to take that angle.

Spoiler: Guesses

Show

The first things that come to mind are that either his jumps are as effective as a feather's jumps would be, or he'll jump up to stab a giant (like he was showed doing even before getting a ring of jumping) and discover he has to wait before he can land.
Seems like it's about time for a bigger comedic moment and the corresponding brief respite from drama.

It is feather fall, not feather jump.

[zimmerwald1915]

he'll jump up to stab a giant (like he was showed doing even before getting a ring of jumping) and discover he has to wait before he can land.

s'been done.

[ChillerInstinct]

Is this going to be the time when Roy's lie comes full circle, and they actually meet a giant king? AHAHAHAHA.

...Yes please.

This is going to be one of those "instant classic" strips, methinks. A perfect comedic storm.

[Elenna]

Any bets that he has and it is the one Belkar is using? [Of course Roy should have known when the Belkster survived the last fall]

No, Belkar bought a Ring of Feather Fall in the Gnomish town, as we saw back in #1015.

[Carl]

Spoiler: Belkar Right Now

Show

Because let's be honest...Daggers make for excellent hand-holds.

Where's this image from exactly? Something looks familiar but i can't place it.


ALso, Belkar = lol once more.

[jidasfire]

You know, as much as I love the comic overall, whenever Belkar is on-panel, my love for the series jumps about 75%. This strip is no exception. Kill 'em all, you sexy, shoeless god of war.

[Renegade Paladin]

There's a small art mistake in panel 7; the line on the ship's hull appears to be over Belkar's dagger.

[Lheticus]

The last time Belkar was this awesome, he needed a full on vision quest to be able to be. This time all it took was a Ring of Feather Fall.

And yes. I AM saying this is gonna be even better than Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator. Technically the OOTS were still running, then.

[Basement Cat]

2. What original version? The one based on a possible alternate interpretation of rules which was never used anywhere, and which would have barely made the problem less ridiculous?

The second one where people take 1d6--1st 10', 2d6+1d6--2nd 10', etc, but with no silly 20d6 cap. Sure there are plenty of high level fighters who'd still shrug off a 60' fall but it's a lot harder to shrug off 20d6 damage than a measly 6d6 damage.

EDIT: Oh, and several groups I gamed with used the tougher rule. And no damage cap, either. Picture a bunch of cynical 20 something year olds: "Sure, a 100' fall causes no more damage than a 60' fall...riiiiight!."

[Peelee]

Where's this image from exactly? Something looks familiar but i can't place it.


ALso, Belkar = lol once more.

Haven't played it, but looks like Shadow of the Colossus.

[IDrankWHAT]

Wrong bird....oooh that's rich (pun intended btw LOL) seriously it's probably what I would have done with knowing I had a feather fall ring like that LOL

[RblDiver]

It's sexy shoeless god of war time!

[ti'esar]

...Yeah, I'm standing by my previous guess that the giants aren't going to be much of an obstacle.

There are giants in Belkar's playground.

[ShinigamiKenji]

Huh.

A couple of strips earlier I was wondering if Belkar would be able to finally kill some giant, with all the bonuses he would get, but without a way to reach a large enough group of them.

He finally got the chance, in grand style, no less.

Character growth or not, Belkar is second only to Thog in terms of comedic potential. With the latter (apparently) gone...

[Renegade Paladin]

It's the term for a certain rude hand gesture - as typified in this Top Gun scene:

Fun fact; the tail fins on the planes are longer than that. Inverted cockpit to cockpit at that range would have resulted in collision and the deaths of everyone involved.