Order of the Stick 859: Smoked

OotS Golem · Jul 26, 2012

The latest installment of Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick web-based comic strip is out! Find OOTS 859: Smoked http://www.GiantITP.com/comics/oots0859.htmlhere!

Dioltach · Jul 26, 2012

OotS 859

Here it is: Giant In the Playground Games.

Rolflyn · Jul 26, 2012

That is the coolest spell effect I've seen, and by a large margin.

I'm A Banana · Jul 26, 2012

Yay, Durkon kickin' butt!

I bet he rarely gets to use that spell, what with Belkar hangin' around.

RangerWickett · Jul 26, 2012

Its effectiveness implies Durkon's higher level than the enemies. I never liked the spell, since it seemed like it was designed just to be used by high-level NPCs on the party. PCs who are fighting major villains get no benefit from it.

Artur Hawkwing · Jul 26, 2012

I believe Jim Carey in The Mask said it best, folks...

"S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-smokin'!!!!!"

I wonder if it was just good look that kept Durkon's new found friend out of the area of the smoke effect.

Noir le Lotus · Jul 26, 2012

I'm not sure that all the Linear guild is affected (I'm pretty sure that "Thog" will be unaffected in fact), but Zz'dtri and Sabine are monstrous races with LA, the flying kobold seems to be the cohort of Malar (and may have LA too) and so at least 3 members of the Linear Guild have fewer HD than the caster and will be affected.

And if Nale is the same level that our favorite dwarf, he will be defeaned for some rounds, while seeing nothing in the smoke : not the perfect situation when a fighter who really appreciates to fight you is in the area !!

SnowleopardVK · Jul 26, 2012

RangerWickett said:
Its effectiveness implies Durkon's higher level than the enemies. I never liked the spell, since it seemed like it was designed just to be used by high-level NPCs on the party. PCs who are fighting major villains get no benefit from it.

I imagine Durkon's equal to, or higher in level than all of them (that the spell hit, thus excluding Malack) except Tarquin. The linear guild differs from most major villains by having the same numbers as the "PCs" without the aid of minions, and thus they don't need to be higher level to keep an even fight.

My guess is that Qarr ended up behind the wall due to the obvious hassles of the banishing side-effect (best to just avoid him getting hit). And I'm betting Malack was put there to hide (for now) that he's not actually evil, and is in fact actually true neutral like he claims to be.

Just my opinion anyways.

MarkB · Jul 26, 2012

Word, dude.

SnowleopardVK said:
I imagine Durkon's equal to, or higher in level than all of them (that the spell hit, thus excluding Malack) except Tarquin. The linear guild differs from most major villains by having the same numbers as the "PCs" without the aid of minions, and thus they don't need to be higher level to keep an even fight.

My guess is that Qarr ended up behind the wall due to the obvious hassles of the banishing side-effect (best to just avoid him getting hit). And I'm betting Malack was put there to hide (for now) that he's not actually evil, and is in fact actually true neutral like he claims to be.

Just my opinion anyways.

Evil isn't an issue. The spell affects anyone who's non-good.

And as for banishment, it could be bye-bye Sabine for the next day or so.