Order of the Stick #796: Smash

[SnowleopardVK]

That explanation required the OotS to use the worst possible tactics every round while consistently rolling poorly, while Miko plays letter-perfect tactics and never has a bad roll.

Or it could account for the fact that:
- Belkar was stunned for the entire length of the fight due to his poor will save and didn't manage to get any attacks in because of it,
- V was taken down in one round due to bad physical stats and even after being healed wasn't able to hit Miko with anything other than Magic Missile anyways due to the fact that V's build is pretty bad, and that his/her usual spells (such as fireball) would hit the rest of the order,
- Haley got her weapon broken right away and was forced into melee combat (which Elan has specifically pointed out that she's no good at),
- Elan had no weapon (Haley borrowed it) and is an idiot (he was the only one in the party using anything that could actually be described as "the worst possible tactics") not to mention he had no dashing swordsman levels at that point,
- And Durkon barely participated in the fight at all because he was still convinced Thor wanted them to go with Miko.

The fight was essentially Roy vs. Miko, and Roy actually did come close to winning. The final round was him realizing that if his full attack succeeded he would beat Miko, but he surrendered knowing that she'd kill them all if he rolled badly. If the fight had in fact been Miko vs. the entire order at full strength they would have probably killed her easily in the first few rounds (which Durkon explained after the first fight with Miko, the one in the rain).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Since when is Miko the same level as the OotS at the time of the fight? I thought she was MUCH higher level, like near epic. And with a stupidly good ability score array. She won that fight because the most powerful member sat out, the killing machine got foiled by a glaring weakness (grappling), and in general she used good tactics. I don't care what people say about wizards, V sucks hardcore, Haley was of very limited use, Elan's never useful (till the last few hundred strips at least)...

I guess I'm just agreeing w/ Snow, though I think it was all of those things AND Miko being way more uber in level and stats

 

[SnowleopardVK]

I guess I'm just agreeing w/ Snow, though I think it was all of those things AND Miko being way more uber in level and stats

I'm gonna agree right back with Stream. I didn't even factor in Miko's stats in my explination, but considering that she's called the strongest member of the Sapphire Guard she's almost certainly got a good build.

The order on the other hand seem to all have rather poor builds (except maybe Durkon, but he didn't participate). Rich outright said that Belkar has a horrible will save, so although he can do a lot of damage he's still very easy to take down via stunning, Haley seems to be built pretty much entirely for ranged combat, Elan is meant for support and isn't very good at it anyways (again, until the dashing swordsman levels happened), and Roy seems to have balanced all his ability scores, meaning although he's probably better than the average fighter in noncombat situations he's going to get outshone when fighting someone who specialized in combat (such as the strongest paladin of the Sapphire Guard). V has the worst build of all of them, s/he has tons of firepower sure, but various points of the comic seem to indicate that it's likely EVERY ability score other than Int is a dump stat for V.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Doesn't the monk's Stunning Fist force a Fortitude save? (If not, it's even worse than I thought, since it's supposed to be used on spellcasters!)

Since when is Miko the same level as the OotS at the time of the fight? I thought she was MUCH higher level, like near epic. And with a stupidly good ability score array. She won that fight because the most powerful member sat out, the killing machine got foiled by a glaring weakness (grappling), and in general she used good tactics. I don't care what people say about wizards, V sucks hardcore, Haley was of very limited use, Elan's never useful (till the last few hundred strips at least)...

I guess I'm just agreeing w/ Snow, though I think it was all of those things AND Miko being way more uber in level and stats

Miko was higher level, yes. However, IME, a single high-level opponent in 3.x will still get ganked unless the odds are heavily stacked in their favor. (Eg weak PC builds, some PCs not participating, some PCs using terrible tactics, poor dice rolls, and how the heck does Lay on Hands heal that many hit points anyway?)

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Lay on Hands heals that many hit points because Miko has more Paladin levels than the order has levels, not even including her levels in Monk, AND a massive charisma (to go along with the Str 18+, the Dex 19 required for her TWF feats, her Con of at least 16, etc.... Int seems like her only real dump stat, though her wisdom is probably not *really* high). Charisma doesn't always mean likeable. It can also be the person so unforgetably irritating (see: Elan) that the mere sight is enough to make someone fly off the handle/ Every bit as much as charisma can mean sexiness (and she's supposedly attractive, too).

So massive charisma + lots of Paladin levels = lots of healing. Say she has 20 charisma, started with 18 (I think she started with a ALOT of 18s) and 15 Paladin levels. That would be 75 points of healing that she can blow all in one action. Frankly, I'm probably lowballing her charisma a bit there...

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Miko was higher level, yes. However, IME, a single high-level opponent in 3.x will still get ganked unless the odds are heavily stacked in their favor. (Eg weak PC builds, some PCs not participating, some PCs using terrible tactics, poor dice rolls...

The odds were heavily stacked in Miko's favour though, in pretty much the exact way you described. We don't know what the dice rolls were, but most of the order and especially Vaarsuvius have weak builds, Belkar and Durkon didn't participate, Elan used terrible tactics, and Haley was forced into a combat style that she's not meant for.

Considering two of the order weren't part of the fight, and Miko is both higher level than them and had Windstriker, it was barely even a "gang up on the high levelled one" fight. What the fight was was the order outnumbering Miko's side by only two to one, but having severely worse builds and levels.