25 August 2013 Beard and eye update

[Moroser]

An inappropriate joke, referring to an old comic page.

Our Minmax has got two purple worms now.

[Glemp]

Wait. There's been a change since last night. Sapphire no longer mentions Psimax. Forget half of what I said. A minor oversight elegantly fixed.

Hm, guess I wasn't as fast as I thought I was grabbing the new one; I did it sometime Sunday night, but maybe not at the earliest opportunity (I was at the State Fair all day, so the soonest I could have done it was about 7:30 local time, and possibly an hour or two later). Does anyone remember (or "remember") the original dialogue?

Not exactly. It was something like "But why did the psion make this?" or "But why did the psion put this here?"
It could have been removed because THunt decided it was too spoilery, or because he judged that the time it takes Sapphire to forget 'the dead' had expired.

On twitter, Duke told Thunt about that and he fixed it. So it was probably a mistake.

[willpell]

The arms were created from the machine I bet. He's going to come back 100% purple.

No need for that; he wasn't Disintegrated or anything. The only part of him which will require reconstruction is whatever MM squished, probably his eyes (and maybe his brain, but we likely wouldn't see whether that had turned purple.)

Sooo...what do you fine ladies and gents expect to be a bigger plot point, 'bullet proof eye/scar' or Bullet proof beard.
Or is it another Red helmet..

It would be pretty funny if Forgath goes up against Kore, Kore tries to behead him from the front, and the axe goes "clang" or "clunk" against an invincible beard. Alas, since the beard is IME-colored (and if that's where Minmax got his arms, there's no reason to assume the color ever changes - although I wouldn't bet on that, since Minmax's appendages were hardly the shape of normal arms), it won't be hard for opponents who've discovered its invincibility to aim for any other part of him, which would still remain squishy.

(Now I could see one of the Kins wanting to weaponize this machine, deliberately chopping off her own arm so that it can be replaced with an invincible one, and then trying the other side...maybe I read too much Knights of the Dinner Table back in the day....)

[Unlucky-for-Some]

Has Kin in fact already got her tail back? The way MinMax is holding her he could very easily have accidentally just swung her into the machine. And we can't see enough of her lower body in the panels we see to be able to tell. Are we about to get a shocked reveal on the next page?

[willpell]

Has Kin in fact already got her tail back? The way MinMax is holding her he could very easily have accidentally just swung her into the machine. And we can't see enough of her lower body in the panels we see to be able to tell. Are we about to get a shocked reveal on the next page?

We should have been able to see some reflection of a green flash from below the image if that happened.

[Krulle]

On twitter, Duke told Thunt about that and he fixed it. So it was probably a mistake.

Hmm. When you wrote Duke, I read Duke Igthorn... It was a different Duke though (Duke B. Garland)....
And thanks for the twitter link

[Changes_everything]

Oh hey, since the psionic device reconstructs injured body parts, our Minmax should now have sort of an armoured back of the head, where those rips were, eh?
Not visible in the last panel due to perspective.

[Krulle]

Ridcully Jack and raabr already replied to that here.
They could be explanations.
But I don't think it's just about perspective. These lacerations go pretty far to the front on Minmax's head. And where would the "purple" head stop because it wasn't "deep enough"...?

But in the end, the story will be about the purple eye. I am curious to find out what that will bring, plot-wise.

[ForgetsOldName]

Dnd makes a distinction between healing and regeneration. It isn't always meaningful in a biological sense. For example, Minmax's scalp would have healed but with lots of scars. But if he drank from the healing potion river, would that have left scars? And while you can't regrow an eyeball you can get cuts on the eyeball and have them heal.

Anyhow I would say that the eye regenerated but the scalp healed.

[Unlucky-for-Some]

Has Kin in fact already got her tail back? The way MinMax is holding her he could very easily have accidentally just swung her into the machine. And we can't see enough of her lower body in the panels we see to be able to tell. Are we about to get a shocked reveal on the next page?

We should have been able to see some reflection of a green flash from below the image if that happened.

Yeah, good point - neither Minmax nor Forgath were all that subtle in their restorations were they...

[willpell]

Today marks the first time when I visited the site and found a "Live Stream is On" link. So I got to take a quick look at the page being drawn, but because Justin.TV is a heinous lying bit.CH, I couldn't log in to post a comment, so I lost interest quickly.

[catchesafish]

I really need to catch one of those some time. I'm usually at work when he's doing them, though. Oh well. Can't wait for later today/tomorrow's update!

[Croabadrake]

...er... Minmax touched the pillar with his hand, right?
One of his two hands, both of which were in Psimax's skull just earlier, right?
And were previously covered in said 'Max's blood, right?

...I'm not seeing any blood left on his gloves... but...

[BuildsLegos]

You're probably right, the most plausible way for Psimax to come back is if his Med-pod (I saw Elysium last night) reacts to his DNA from Minmax's hand.

[willpell]

You're probably right, the most plausible way for Psimax to come back is if his Med-pod (I saw Elysium last night) reacts to his DNA from Minmax's hand.

DNA? Whoa, let's not go bringing science into D&D; that can only lead to the 100-Peasant Railgun and similar nonsense. It's the "essence of his life spirit" or somesuch.

[Unlucky-for-Some]

You're probably right, the most plausible way for Psimax to come back is if his Med-pod (I saw Elysium last night) reacts to his DNA from Minmax's hand.

DNA? Whoa, let's not go bringing science into D&D; that can only lead to the 100-Peasant Railgun and similar nonsense. It's the "essence of his life spirit" or somesuch.

you know ... I just had to go and google 100 peasant railgun ... that has made my day

[RedwoodElf]

You're probably right, the most plausible way for Psimax to come back is if his Med-pod (I saw Elysium last night) reacts to his DNA from Minmax's hand.

DNA? Whoa, let's not go bringing science into D&D; that can only lead to the 100-Peasant Railgun and similar nonsense. It's the "essence of his life spirit" or somesuch.

you know ... I just had to go and google 100 peasant railgun ... that has made my day

I always preferred my Push-Featherfall cannon (Take a 20 foot long wooden tube 3 feet in diameter, and enchant it so anything inside the tube is affected by Featherfall (Reduces the mass of the affected item to a very very low number) and is pushed from the end it entered the tube toward the other end. The original Push spell gave you the exact foot-LBS of force that push exterted..applying that to a tiny mass gave you massive accelleration, resulting in a magical mass driver capable of putting ANY object into a ballistic trajectory that puts a modern artillery piece to shame (Featherfall does NOT maintain momentum when it cuts off, velocity is the constant, or your feather falling wizard would die horribly when the spell ran out. Isn't magic wonderful?)

[AntMac]

lol. I fail to see how they could argue against its deployment too. You know, after the projectile landed, anyway.

[Velmoor]

I always preferred my Push-Featherfall cannon (Take a 20 foot long wooden tube 3 feet in diameter, and enchant it so anything inside the tube is affected by Featherfall (Reduces the mass of the affected item to a very very low number) and is pushed from the end it entered the tube toward the other end. The original Push spell gave you the exact foot-LBS of force that push exterted..applying that to a tiny mass gave you massive accelleration, resulting in a magical mass driver capable of putting ANY object into a ballistic trajectory that puts a modern artillery piece to shame (Featherfall does NOT maintain momentum when it cuts off, velocity is the constant, or your feather falling wizard would die horribly when the spell ran out. Isn't magic wonderful?)

Why would feather fall reduce its mass? A reduction in mass would not slow falling speed, does the spell say it reduces mass?

Sorry just not sure if I missed something obvious.

[Krulle]

And ain't featherfall meant toSLOW DOWN everything under the spell to non-lethal speeds?

And the arm pushing the object in the tube would have to accelerate too to maintain constant push force?
Having no counterpush-force by the featherfalled object anymore, the arm would have to accelerate beyond it's designed speed limits.
Roll a 1d20 for a save (saving means the push fails, not saving? roll 4d20*your_level for damage).
In both cases you will not be allowed to use your arm until it has (been) healed.

Did a quick search: featherfall indeed reduces speed, not weight or mass. According to this page, that is.
So, make your saving roll.

[RedwoodElf]

I always preferred my Push-Featherfall cannon (Take a 20 foot long wooden tube 3 feet in diameter, and enchant it so anything inside the tube is affected by Featherfall (Reduces the mass of the affected item to a very very low number) and is pushed from the end it entered the tube toward the other end. The original Push spell gave you the exact foot-LBS of force that push exterted..applying that to a tiny mass gave you massive accelleration, resulting in a magical mass driver capable of putting ANY object into a ballistic trajectory that puts a modern artillery piece to shame (Featherfall does NOT maintain momentum when it cuts off, velocity is the constant, or your feather falling wizard would die horribly when the spell ran out. Isn't magic wonderful?)

Why would feather fall reduce its mass? A reduction in mass would not slow falling speed, does the spell say it reduces mass?

Sorry just not sure if I missed something obvious.

Yes, the spell description explicitly states that it reduces the target's mass to that of a feathery piece of down. Thus, the Push spell would result in massive acceleration. When both spells cut off, the object (or person) returns to it's normal mass, but maintains it's current velocity.

[RedwoodElf]

And ain't featherfall meant toSLOW DOWN everything under the spell to non-lethal speeds?

And the arm pushing the object in the tube would have to accelerate too to maintain constant push force?
Having no counterpush-force by the featherfalled object anymore, the arm would have to accelerate beyond it's designed speed limits.
Roll a 1d20 for a save (saving means the push fails, not saving? roll 4d20*your_level for damage).
In both cases you will not be allowed to use your arm until it has (been) healed.

Did a quick search: featherfall indeed reduces speed, not weight or mass. According to this page, that is.
So, make your saving roll.

Nope. My Cannon was made during first edition rules, where the spell description explicitly states that it reduces the targets' mass.

What "Arm?" The push spell is a magical force, not an actual hand that pushes something.

[spiderwrangler]

And ain't featherfall meant toSLOW DOWN everything under the spell to non-lethal speeds?

And the arm pushing the object in the tube would have to accelerate too to maintain constant push force?
Having no counterpush-force by the featherfalled object anymore, the arm would have to accelerate beyond it's designed speed limits.
Roll a 1d20 for a save (saving means the push fails, not saving? roll 4d20*your_level for damage).
In both cases you will not be allowed to use your arm until it has (been) healed.

Did a quick search: featherfall indeed reduces speed, not weight or mass. According to this page, that is.
So, make your saving roll.

Nope. My Cannon was made during first edition rules, where the spell description explicitly states that it reduces the targets' mass.

I wonder if they change it because they later realized that reducing mass won't decrease the speed at which it falls...

[warrl]

I wonder if they change it because they later realized that reducing mass won't decrease the speed at which it falls...

Yes it will - provided that the thing is falling through air AND you reduce the mass ENOUGH relative to the surface area which isn't being changed.

You can invert the process, leaving the mass the same but changing the surface area. Take a flat sheet of paper and drop it. Then crumple the same sheet into a tight ball and drop it again. Or for a larger example consider a parachute jumper.

[Krulle]

@warrl: The problem is the range of the featherfall spell:
it's too short ranged to allow are braking to safe speeds if cast by someone trying to catch you from the ground.
Cast on yourself no problem.
But in any case, you'd need to use the spell early enough to have quite a way to fall for the aerobraking to work.
And it might never be sufficient.

@Redwoodelf:
double posting is considered to be unnecessary on most forums. But I should be quiet about it....

Ah, first edition. Who still plays with that? So, no. The push spell in later editions will do nothing for featherfalled objects in regard to accelerating.
And push as in "and is pushed from the end it entered the tube toward the other end." could just be an arm pushing. Didn't register that in the next instance you added push spell.

Googled a bit more: http://mouseferatu.com/index.php/blog/w ... -spelling/ tells us, that in 2^nd edition mass was reduced, but speed too.
more of it:
1^st edition rule, as on this page:

Feather Fall (Alteration)
Level: 1 Components: V, M Range: 1"/level Casting Time: 1/10 segment Duration: 1 segment/level Saving Throw: None Area of Effect: Special
Explanation/Description: When this spell is cast, the creature(s) or object(s) affected immediately assumes the mass of a feathery piece of down. Rate of falling is thus instantly changed to a mere constant 2' per second or 12' per segment, and no damage is incurred when landing when the spell is in effect. However, when the spell duration ceases, normal rate of fall occurs. The spell can be cast upon the magic-user or some other creature or object up to the maximum range of 1" per level of experience of the spell caster. it lasts for 1 segment for each level of the magic-user. The Feather Fall affects an area of 1 cubic inch, and the maximum weight of creatures and/or objects cannot exceed a combined total equal to a base 2,000 gold pieces weight plus 2,000 gold pieces weight per level of the spell caster. Example: a 2nd level magic-user has a range of 2", a duration of 2 segments, a weight maximum of 6,000 gold pieces (600 pounds) when employing the spell. The spell works only upon free-falling or propelled objects. It will not affect a sword blow or a charging creature, but it will affect a missile. The material component is a small feather or a piece of down somewhere on the person of the spell caster.

So, even in first edition speed is instantly reduced.