OOTS #1104 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

New comic is up.

[GreyTraveller]

Yay! Nice update. Still looking grim for our heroes, though.

[Fyraltari]

I personnaly blame Belkar for that

[CoffeeIncluded]

And this is why telepathic bond is fantastic.

[knag]

Discussing strategy in front of the enemy. Pretty much my party every week.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Here we see the dangers of over-specialising in damage types when going up against some creature that is "resistant to X". The enemy knows it too, and it's not that hard to add to the resist list.

GW

[Draken]

Well, this is certainly why I always prefer to have a telepath in the party.

[jedipilot24]

That's what they get for not having someone take the Fell Conspiracy feat. At their level, they'd have an all-day party-wide telepathic link.

[Rinazina]

now the teamVamp have resistance on Cold, Electricity (natural) and Fire... not good.
What is the solution is going to come from outside?

[warmachine]

Paranoia, such as suspecting an enemy may be listening, is a survival trait.

[Eragon123]

Seeing V operate in the past against the druid and specifically getting a lesson on power being a racial bonus to listen checks. I would not be surprised if she lied and has a different spell ready to be quickened.

[Lord Torath]

See, it's times like this, you really need to have everyone in the party able to use Sign Language, or an obscure tongue no one else knows....

Thanks, Giant!

[KorvinStarmast]

Roy is supposed to be a Fighter with a high intelligence. Hmm.

Sun Tzu said: in order to defeat your enemy, first defeat his plan.
With that in mind, Sun Tzu also said: Every battle is won before it is fought
In support of that idea, Erwin Rommel once pointed out that

"the battle is fought and decided by the quartermasters long before the shooting begins

but more tellingly he said

Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning.

Sun Tzu also said: To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

Question: can the Order of the Stick achieve their aim without battle?
Is Rich setting us up here? Is the Giant getting us all ready to expect a battle scene when the core mission is to get to where Durkula is and stop him, rather than slay this collection of lesser vampires?

Sun Tzu said that all war is based on deception. So is good writing, in a lot of cases: a bit of misdirection is a common technique to set up a plot twist.

Discuss.

[LunarDrop]

Fantastic comic as always, Rich. They always make my day.

[JumboWheat01]

See, this is why you don't monologue or explain your plans when your enemies are nearby, it really ruins them quite nicely.

[warmachine]

Mass Resist Fire or Mass Resist Energy doesn't exist in D&D, though it's certainly plausible. And if I was playing a spellcaster that saw that spell, my character would be trying to copy it.

[Psyren]

And this is why telepathic bond is fantastic.

THIS. V is spectacularly bad at his job, yet he's still one of the best adventuring wizards in the world. Sad!

Mass Resist Fire or Mass Resist Energy doesn't exist in D&D, though it's certainly plausible. And if I was playing a spellcaster that saw that spell, my character would be trying to copy it.

Incorrect, it's in Complete Arcane - and we know that book is "in play" because of Tsukiko's orbs.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Mass Resist Fire or Mass Resist Energy doesn't exist in D&D, though it's certainly plausible.

Quite plausible - there seems to be books in the subject of "how to turn a single-target spell into its mass version".

GW

[Dr.Zero]

Technically Roy should have known this lesson since the time when he did the same mistake before Hinjo.

[D.One]

Mass Resist Fire or Mass Resist Energy doesn't exist in D&D, though it's certainly plausible. And if I was playing a spellcaster that saw that spell, my character would be trying to copy it.

Actually, it exists, just not in the SRD. It's from one of the classes books, I think.

Edit: OH, ninja-ed

[Surfing HalfOrc]

Darn those smart and tactically astute monsters! What happened to the days of "turn, hiss, throw a spear?"

[D.One]

Second Mind Blank cast...
Minrah has Protection from Evil prepared...
Brother Sandstone is at least 15th level, since he affected at least 15 targets with mass resist energy.

[Peelee]

Technically Roy should have known this lesson since the time when he did the same mistake before Hinjo.

It didn't have much consequence then, though. Plus, he was probably distracted by the whole "dying" affair shortly after.

[D.One]

Seeing V operate in the past against the druid and specifically getting a lesson on power being a racial bonus to listen checks. I would not be surprised if she lied and has a different spell ready to be quickened.

That would be a fairly smart twist, and with INT 24, V is quite able to pull out such strategy.

[drazen]

Well, now they're thoroughly boned, unless the vampires wander off.

[schmunzel]

Second Mind Blank cast...
Minrah has Protection from Evil prepared...
Brother Sandstone is at least 15th level, since he affected at least 15 targets with mass resist energy.

There goes my nice theory :(

Btw really lvl 15 ? I wouldnt have thought that - might it be a bluff?

sch

[KorvinStarmast]

Second Mind Blank cast...
Minrah has Protection from Evil prepared...
Brother Sandstone is at least 15th level, since he affected at least 15 targets with mass resist energy.

Perhaps, given his efforts to disrupt the Order's plan, he is actually Brother SunZutone.

[Hamste]

What is interesting is the vampire didn't ready an action to cast mass fire resist for when V starts casting the spell. Stop the damage and they hit themselves. I wonder if he has a spell or something up his sleeve that is even worse (or if the fire resistance isn't actually good enough and he is bluffing that it is so V won't try).

[D.One]

There goes my nice theory :(

Btw really lvl 15 ? I wouldnt have thought that - might it be a bluff?

sch

We see the aura of the spell covering 15 vampires (including Sandstone). Since the spell affects 1 creature/level, it means he's at least 15th.

[PH7]

Hilarious. Oh how I wish I could have my npc's pull one of these when my players are discussing strategy (and taking their sweet time with it as usual).