January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Discuss the comic here!
User avatar
FleesFromTrees
Mumbles Incoherently
Posts: 17

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by FleesFromTrees » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:53 pm

To be fair, Big Ears is the party member with one of the highest hp (after willfully maiming Complains, I'd put him highest remaining), and has pretty baller magic armour that is likely to have helped with mitigating the damage somewhat.

Guess we gotta see what Maxo Kickaxo can do to save the team, if anything

Punzil504
Mumbles Incoherently
Posts: 20

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by Punzil504 » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:59 pm

Ansan Gotti wrote: I'm with you the whole way, BUT under that scenario, Big Ears ought to be deader than fried chicken. The fact that he's only -8 rather than dead (blown apart, etc.) makes me shake my head.
Big Ears was still wearing full armor, even if a lot of its magic may have been connected to the Axe. Also, Herbert being the Deus ex Machina GM that he is (look at all of the loot that he's given to and taken away from Minmax and Forgath), it wouldn't surprise me if he rolled each character's damage separately rather than say "The group takes x damage." Complains has the damage from the pearl minus Ears' smothering it, but plus the damage suffered from getting his hand lopped off. We also don't know how many hit points each of them has at full strength, or when they were last healed to that level.

Sutremaine
Whispers Softly
Posts: 43

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by Sutremaine » Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:44 pm

SirButcher wrote: At least one item survived - you can see the blue cloth on the last panel, right side. I think this is the pain cloak. Although I don't know how it can help now as the damage already done.
I don't think bleeding out (or whatever the slow countdown to -10 reflects) is magical damage. Assuming they're at positive HP, MM or Fumbles could chuck the cloak over Big Ears to stabilise him temporarily, which leaves only Complains in need of an immediate Heal check. Thaco also needs attention, but he's at a relatively healthy -2 HP.

User avatar
ForgetsOldName
Is Heard Often
Posts: 301
UStream Username: TwoCoo
Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by ForgetsOldName » Mon Jan 16, 2017 8:18 pm

I can think of lots of possibilities.

Forgath, Bowst, and Idle show up. Forgath is actually very close to this dungeon, except that he's underground.
There's something in the room that mitigates the bad joke pearl somehow, like a healing item.
Two words: Door Golem.

My favorite wild scenario though, involves a teapot...
The old name was Twocoo. The avatar is the scariest thing in Wizardry I, circa 1981.

User avatar
Krulle
Transcribes Goblins
Posts: 8116
Contact:

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by Krulle » Tue Jan 17, 2017 1:05 am

Ansan Gotti wrote:
GathersIngredients wrote:More precisely it said it would DO enough damage to kill everyone in the room. But since Ears shielded the others with his own body, he probably absorbed a bunch of damage that was "meant" for the others.
E.g. the creator of the lol pearl accounted for the size and shape of the room, but while taking into account most explosions are ball-shaped, expanding from their origin (unless "redirected" by something else), maybe he (or she) didn't allow for someone sacrificing themselves like Big Ears did, because they didn't anticipate it.
I'm with you the whole way, BUT under that scenario, Big Ears ought to be deader than fried chicken. The fact that he's only -8 rather than dead (blown apart, etc.) makes me shake my head.
Possibly part of the magic. The blast is as strong as it needs to be to put one person to -8. So that he may, under fortuitous circumstances, be saved. That way the party and your players cannot complain about the dungeon being made to kill them off and end the game. They and their dice throws still have a chance. But if someone needs a critical 20, he's in bad luck, as we know the next critical throw will be a 1 (I wonder how Herbert plays that).
Yet, also at least one shielded persons went down to minus 7 and another to -2.
Now it is up to MaxoKickaxo to save the day, who, prima facie, only seem to have lost consciousness.
Goblinscomic transcriptions
Collection of G:AR cards

User avatar
RocketScientist
Global Moderator
Posts: 5888
Location: Massachusetts

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by RocketScientist » Tue Jan 17, 2017 2:43 am

I love the coloring in this strip. Wow!

Also, we could really use cleric right about now. Yikes.

Morgaln
Likes to Contribute
Posts: 243

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by Morgaln » Tue Jan 17, 2017 2:50 am

Krulle wrote:
Ansan Gotti wrote:
GathersIngredients wrote:More precisely it said it would DO enough damage to kill everyone in the room. But since Ears shielded the others with his own body, he probably absorbed a bunch of damage that was "meant" for the others.
E.g. the creator of the lol pearl accounted for the size and shape of the room, but while taking into account most explosions are ball-shaped, expanding from their origin (unless "redirected" by something else), maybe he (or she) didn't allow for someone sacrificing themselves like Big Ears did, because they didn't anticipate it.
I'm with you the whole way, BUT under that scenario, Big Ears ought to be deader than fried chicken. The fact that he's only -8 rather than dead (blown apart, etc.) makes me shake my head.
Possibly part of the magic. The blast is as strong as it needs to be to put one person to -8. So that he may, under fortuitous circumstances, be saved. That way the party and your players cannot complain about the dungeon being made to kill them off and end the game. They and their dice throws still have a chance. But if someone needs a critical 20, he's in bad luck, as we know the next critical throw will be a 1 (I wonder how Herbert plays that).
Yet, also at least one shielded persons went down to minus 7 and another to -2.
Now it is up to MaxoKickaxo to save the day, who, prima facie, only seem to have lost consciousness.
First of all, -8 doesn't count as killed by D&D rules. Secondly putting one person to -8 means vastly different amounts of damage . For a level 4 paladin like Ears, that's about 50-60 damage, depending on their CON. That damage would be more than enough to kill a monk like Thaco (or almost any character under level 4, for that matter). For a level 20 fighter the pearl would have to do several hundred damage. So unless the explosion does different amounts of damage to every person, it should have done enough damage to kill Ears several times over.
In other words, the pearl lied.

Your.Master
Mutters to Themself
Posts: 27

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by Your.Master » Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:53 am

Krulle wrote:But if someone needs a critical 20, he's in bad luck, as we know the next critical throw will be a 1 (I wonder how Herbert plays that).
The way I'd do it:

The next time somebody throws a 1 *or* a 20, it counts as a 1, and the Crit Window now reflects whatever you just rolled. The Crit Window starts at something random, 1 or 20, but from then on it reflects the roll that caused the previous Crit. So if the Crit WIndow says 1, and Alice rolls a 1, then he fumbles and the Crit Window still says 1. Now Bob rolls a 20, he fumbles and the Crit Window says 20. Then Charlie rolls a 1, he succeeds and the Crit Window says 1.

The does mean that not only is the next crit a fumble, every given roll is twice as likely to be a 1 as it would normally be. But that's balanced against when it's a 20. And the players know this, so when there's no enemies nearby they can take fairly trivial actions where a fumble isn't so bad, and they can avoid their really intense failure-will-SUCK moments during the optimal crit window.

User avatar
SpeaksManyLanguages
Poorly Locked Patron
Poorly Locked Patron
Posts: 331
UStream Username: dbg_
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Contact:

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by SpeaksManyLanguages » Tue Jan 17, 2017 6:30 am

How is this an explosion that will kill everyone in the room if a guy in a magic armor doing a "jump on a grenade" thing doesn't even get instagibbed? His action is intended to absorb as much of explosive damage as possible, so he should be much more damaged than with the normal explosion, which was "enough to kill".

Doesn't look "more than killed" to me. Looks more like he can still stabilize.

edit: meh, you all already discussed it.

User avatar
thinkslogically
Game Master
Posts: 17223
Location: Florida

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by thinkslogically » Tue Jan 17, 2017 6:47 am

RocketScientist wrote:Also, we could really use cleric right about now. Yikes.
...Careful what you wish for! I predict we're about to see Kore catch up.

User avatar
Glemp
Poorly Locked Patron
Poorly Locked Patron
Posts: 1082

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by Glemp » Tue Jan 17, 2017 7:36 am

SpeaksManyLanguages wrote:How is this an explosion that will kill everyone in the room if a guy in a magic armor doing a "jump on a grenade" thing doesn't even get instagibbed? His action is intended to absorb as much of explosive damage as possible, so he should be much more damaged than with the normal explosion, which was "enough to kill".
Just to add, my personal theory is the item description is interpreted by the DM and calculated on the fly. This time, he decided to be nice and ignore armour values.

User avatar
locastan
Remains Silent
Posts: 9

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by locastan » Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:38 am

We also did not see yet what remains of Ears' frontside. His arms might not be the only thing blown away. o.O

User avatar
SuperVaderMan
Extensively Logorrheic
Posts: 6177

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by SuperVaderMan » Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:53 am

Ha ha, going from 4th wall breaking jokes to gory dismemberment and drama in the span of two pages. What's tonal consistency? Lol, idk man.

I do know I'd be pretty pissed at my DM if they pulled this kinda crap at the table.
Last edited by SuperVaderMan on Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
spiderwrangler
Game Master
Posts: 21091

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by spiderwrangler » Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:54 am

I saw that as his right arm being draped in front of him, out of sight from this angle rather than having been blown off.
Games I GM:
► Show Spoiler
Games I play in:
► Show Spoiler

User avatar
locastan
Remains Silent
Posts: 9

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by locastan » Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:22 am

spiderwrangler wrote:I saw that as his right arm being draped in front of him, out of sight from this angle rather than having been blown off.
I am not sure. There is very little shoulder left there... :/

User avatar
spiderwrangler
Game Master
Posts: 21091

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by spiderwrangler » Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:26 am

Eh, if it's slumped over far enough, it'd be hidden from behind. Until we see a raggedy stump or an armored right arm across the room...
Games I GM:
► Show Spoiler
Games I play in:
► Show Spoiler

(^_^)
Mumbles Incoherently
Posts: 22

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by (^_^) » Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:33 am

GathersIngredients wrote:Also, I imagine that Big Ears' shielding would have another side effect, namely that possibly some of the other items that got pulled from the wall "survived". Because the beams of light that were supposed to destroy them got shielded as well.
Explosions are energy, heat, they get around obstacles (shielding) quite easly, especially in closed room. Beams of light on other hand are beams, traveling in straight line and either getting absorbed or reflected. Unless they can travel trough solid objects making shielding pointless, then he might have as well saved them all. At least from beams damage. But since we've seen big flashy explosion, it's unlikely they were shielded.

And now that we're talking about damage to items, wonder how that explosion (and/or possibly act of sacrifice) affected Axe.
spiderwrangler wrote:Party switch time? :|
It is decent time for Forgath to come back into play. Personally, I would rather have him come in and do the saving, and only after that switch to flashback of his part of story, but that's just me.
Morgaln wrote:For a level 4 paladin like Ears, that's about 50-60 damage, depending on their CON. That damage would be more than enough to kill a monk like Thaco (or almost any character under level 4, for that matter). For a level 20 fighter the pearl would have to do several hundred damage. So unless the explosion does different amounts of damage to every person, it should have done enough damage to kill Ears several times over.
In other words, the pearl lied.
Dungeons are always adjusted to party level. There does not have to be any extra effect on pearl adjusting it's damage to character, it simply has to do enough damage to be capable of killing any adventurer of expected level. And since it goes out of it's way to also destroy items, it's using mechanics that are potentially survivable on purpose.

User avatar
Lurks_In_Shadows
Cures Light Wounds
Posts: 7630
Location: In the Pharoh's mud pits, making bricks without straw.

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by Lurks_In_Shadows » Tue Jan 17, 2017 11:35 am

(^_^) wrote: Explosions are energy, heat, they get around obstacles (shielding) quite easly, especially in closed room. Beams of light on other hand are beams, traveling in straight line and either getting absorbed or reflected. Unless they can travel trough solid objects making shielding pointless, then he might have as well saved them all. At least from beams damage. But since we've seen big flashy explosion, it's unlikely they were shielded.
Yes and no. It doesn't take much to shape the direction of a blast. If you were to place a stick of dynamite on a rock and set it off, it probably wouldn't do much. Slap a handful of mud on top, and it'll powder the rock while doing less damage to the surround. This is the equivalent of someone throwing themselves on a satchel charge. Since the room is pretty big, there would be some space for the blast wave to diminish. But it is a room and not open sky, so I would still expect anyone in the room to be a minimum of stunned (like a big flash-bang). I would say Names is in as rough of a shape as he is due to having his hand cut off just prior to the blast.

User avatar
RocketScientist
Global Moderator
Posts: 5888
Location: Massachusetts

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by RocketScientist » Tue Jan 17, 2017 11:39 am

thinkslogically wrote:
RocketScientist wrote:Also, we could really use cleric right about now. Yikes.
...Careful what you wish for! I predict we're about to see Kore catch up.
I wished for a cleric, not a paladin. :)

User avatar
thinkslogically
Game Master
Posts: 17223
Location: Florida

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by thinkslogically » Tue Jan 17, 2017 12:08 pm

oh one healer is much like another :lol:

User avatar
WokkaWokka
Mumbles Incoherently
Posts: 16

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by WokkaWokka » Wed Jan 18, 2017 2:02 am

Just a random thought...

But is it possible that the existence of the LOL Pearl is actually the critical failure displayed to the group as the 1 in the staff?

The staff was pulled, and then Fumbles asks if there is anything else, MinMax looks and finds something. Sounds like between the two of them, someone made a critical fumble of a search check... Something that you would have normally overlooked, but instead notice and it is extremely bad. The reveal of the 1 on the staff also falls between the discovery of the pearl and hearing it's description. Seems intentional.


Just thinking that perhaps the '1' failure may not be hovering over their heads like the Sword of Damocles it seems... and instead it has already been rolled.

User avatar
SamWiser
Extensively Logorrheic
Posts: 7225

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by SamWiser » Wed Jan 18, 2017 2:08 am

SuperVaderMan wrote:Ha ha, going from 4th wall breaking jokes to gory dismemberment and drama in the span of two pages. What's tonal consistency? Lol, idk man.

I do know I'd be pretty pissed at my DM if they pulled this kinda crap at the table.
True, but to be fair, tonal consistency has never really been THunt's strong suit. We've gotten lots of rapid tone shifts like this before. I mean, there was a stupid fourth wall breaking joke page in the middle of Fumbles getting tortured.
Thanks to Arch Lich Burns for the avatar, and Mnementh for the mustache.

ÔÇ£Shoot the dictator and prevent the war? But the dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot him and there'll be another one along in a minute. Shoot him too? Why not shoot everyone and invade Poland?ÔÇØ
ÔÇò Terry Pratchett

The_Colonel
Mutters to Themself
Posts: 35

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by The_Colonel » Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:13 am

Still, that may have done wonders for fixing the axe of Prissan, eh?

User avatar
LAYF
Discussion Moderator
Discussion Moderator
Posts: 7100
Location: 5 degrees to the north of the first point on the last square!
Contact:

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by LAYF » Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:55 am

Sadly no.

You can see it laying shattered, one blade fallen completely off now...
-Best regards LAYF

User avatar
Krulle
Transcribes Goblins
Posts: 8116
Contact:

Re: January 16th 2017 "All hands on deck"

Post by Krulle » Wed Jan 18, 2017 5:27 am

Amended page with hellstrands is up. Further change:
@[color=red]Thunt[/color]_Goblins wrote:
@LD_Larson wrote:@Thunt_Goblins Shouldn't Complains' blood be black?
... I... but... erm... o.O CRAP! I totally forgot to tell Cheyenne! Thank you for telling me.
Goblinscomic transcriptions
Collection of G:AR cards

Post Reply