OotS #469

[jeffh]

Nope, Vaarsuvius is tapped out as of seventeen strips ago. No potions or scrolls left, and invisibility was the very last spell in the hopper.

And even if that weren't the case, V is absolutely the last being currently alive in the OotS universe who would go out of his way to help Belkar, at least without something of great significance at stake.

Plus there's, y'know, the bit where it was specifically described as being Evasion.

 

[Ilium]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0213.html

Note that Roy points out Belkar being a multiclass Barbarian / Ranger at the end of this strip.

Ah, okay, I'm officially convinced.

I do wonder about Belkar from a rules perspective. He clearly loves to lay down the smack, but he's about as un-optimized for it as he can be. I assume he's using either dual daggers or dual short swords. As a Small creature, the short swords do 1d4 damage, and he probably doesn't have much of a Strength bonus.

Even assuming he's got Weapon Finesse to up his to-hit and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting he's still doing really lousy damage. And yet he seems quite capable in combat. How does he do it?

 

[Terraism]

And yet he seems quite capable in combat. How does he do it?

He's about 10-12 levels higher than the hobgoblins he's been laying waste to?

 

[Storminator]

I do wonder about Belkar from a rules perspective. He clearly loves to lay down the smack, but he's about as un-optimized for it as he can be. I assume he's using either dual daggers or dual short swords. As a Small creature, the short swords do 1d4 damage, and he probably doesn't have much of a Strength bonus.

Short swords did 1d6 when he started using them...

PS

 

[orsal]

weapon shrinkage

See the first strip. He uses two daggers, which when he started (3.0) were the same things that medium-sized creatures would call daggers, and therefore something analogous to what is now called a halfling-sized shortsword, but with the conversion to 3.5 they became something even smaller. The DM clearly was too dimwitted to realize that the appropriate conversion would have been to replace "dagger" with "shortsword" on the character sheet, while keeping the mechanics the same.

 

[WD40]

He's about 10-12 levels higher than the hobgoblins he's been laying waste to?

He also seems to be a lucky roller (For everything bar Spot and Listen checks.. and spell saves... )

I'm guessing Kobold is his primary Favored Enemy.. But by now he must have two... thats a feature he wouldn't miss.. and if that second one is goblin/hobgoblin.. which seems reasonable, he/his player would be well aware that he'd be meeting lots of them...

Don't forget how decent even a mediocre ranger is against his favored enemy(s)

 

[iwatt]

and he probably doesn't have much of a Strength bonus.

Why would you say that? He obviously dumpstatted wisdom to bump up an ability, and I doubt he's been shoring up his con (only Durkon and Roy seem to pass their Fort saves with any regularity). He obviously thinks he can lug Roy around easily, since he isn't willingto put him into a Bag of Holding. Given his small size carrying capacity reduction, I see lot's of indications that he has a high strength. a -2 to an ability isn't the end of the world.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Why would you say that? He obviously dumpstatted wisdom to bump up an ability, and I doubt he's been shoring up his con (only Durkon and Roy seem to pass their Fort saves with any regularity). He obviously thinks he can lug Roy around easily, since he isn't willingto put him into a Bag of Holding. Given his small size carrying capacity reduction, I see lot's of indications that he has a high strength. a -2 to an ability isn't the end of the world.

I don't know how these characters are supposed to be created, but I wouldn't be surprised if Belkar has got an 18 for his strength, leaving him at 16 for the -2 racial penalty.
His dump stats are wisdom and charisma, and his Intelligence can't be too high, either, otherwise he would spared more ranks for Spot, Listen and especially Survival.

 

[Quartz]

Even assuming he's got Weapon Finesse to up his to-hit and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting he's still doing really lousy damage. And yet he seems quite capable in combat. How does he do it?

Daggers do 1d3 or 1d4. Call it 2 HP. Give him 4 levels of fighter for Weapon Focus (+1 to hit) and Weapon Specialisation for +2 damage. At 13th level he's likely Bar 1 / Ftr 4 / Rgr 6 / Rog 2 and has Melee Weapon Mastery for another +2 and Favoured Enemy: Goblinoids for +4 damage. Bcause he's using Light weapons, he can't use Power Attack except as a gateway feat to Cleave and Great Cleave. He should be using +3 weapons. Give him Str 12 (+1 damage) and Dex 18 (+4 to hit). He gets +4 Str from Raging (an extra +2 damage). So he's attacking at +20/+20/+15/+15/+10 for 16 HP damage. Hobgoblins only have 6 HP, so he's dropping one at every hit, even if they've got a level or two of Warrior. And at AC 15, even his least attack hits 75% of the time. So he's dropping 4 or 5 of them a round; 8-10 or more if he's got Great Cleave.

Even if you make him a simple Ranger 11 / Barbarian 2 he's attacking at +18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8 and doing 14 HP damage on a hit.

And I haven't added the bonus for being on higher ground or the +1 bonus on attack rolls for being small.

And he's likely got Two Weapon Rend too.

 

[Ilium]

Wow. Good answers everybody, especially Quartz! Really brings home the fact that at medium to high level, your base damage can be completely swamped by your modifiers.

And if iwatt is right about his strength, he could even forego Weapon Finesse for some other feat that piles on more damage.