June 25th, 2013... Simplifying the equation...

[friedkitty]

Edit: We still haven't discussed the Screaming face on Ring-peg leg-max's shirt! Why is it so scared??

I thought it was a goblin face. That shirt is Complains. Ringmax made a shirt out of his hide after he killed him at the warcamp.

[spiderwrangler]

With a trick like that one, do you need any more?

Against a foe who is literally made of water, or else a foe made completely of stone and the like and thus cannot be "splished" into liquid parts, yes, you do need more.

I don't think that would help.... if he can splishk metal, I doubt stone would be a problem. It might be entertaining to see him playing with some water elementals though...

[Master TMO]

Well, a couple of questions we had from the previous comic were answered.
"What were those weapons the Forgath was dual-wielding?" - I think someone called them adzes?
"Is that the Axe of Prissan on the right?" - Nope, just a two-handed mallet polearm.

But both characters just got splished so both questions are now moot anyways.

[Product Placement]

He just instakilled, at very least, 5 people with a single action. All the while, he's maintaining a psyching barrier that's successfully blocking off all melee attacks.

That's not MinMaxing. That's full fledge, bona fide Gorgonzola territory.

Pretty much, yeah. The big weakness of Psions in 3.5E is that they run out of PP quickly. Even if you add the ridiculous, "Hey, in a very short time, I can construct a machine that gives me unlimited PP" cheese, that doesn't address the ridiculous, "Hey, I can instakill five people with a targeted power simultaneously" cheese.

I was pretty impressed with PsiMax as a villain when we first met him. Now, I just roll my eyes, because he's just so over-the-top.

And he hasn't even showcased the likely power of his Junior arms, yet...

Long before people started speculating about him drawing power from his oblivion machine, I've been thinking about when the hell he's gonna run out of Power Points, pretty much since he first encountered FMK.

He now has an unconfirmed, infinite source of PP and after pulling off a stunt like this, he's quickly moved from an intriguing villain to an annoying one. It's a shame, because he was a very interesting character. Now I kinda want to see him killed off as soon as possible.

Do you mind if I use that last line in any and all appropriate situations? Because that is an absolutely fantastic way to call out game cheese.

Sure. Knock yourself out.

[Baeronvonbleat]

It's funny, everytime I see a psion played, it always ends up like this. Just overpowered craziness, with lots of debate on why they're able to be that powered, and its "Limited power, he's actually very weak!" But when push comes to shove, that weakness never emerges. And they always just flat out blast through characters, npc's, bosses, big baddies which aren't supposed to be an easy take down, just with the power over their mind.

I've never met a psion I liked. And while I really dislike PsiMax, I have to say he truly epitomizes the character style of psions. Douche-baggery backed by really weak logic and "the awesome power of the mind!"

Mr Fingers, Kore, and Jr are all creepy powerful, but there's a certain amount of mystery and a debate of "What makes them tick and how will they get theirs?!" Psimax is just a "Please pulp him and in some embarassing way."

Now enough Psion Hate!

Things I've noticed - Without the "Gear upgrade" PsiMax was only splishing body parts (his Kin tail, head, forgath head, our Kin tail.) Now he's exploding full bodies, so I'd probably suggest that's from the gears. The gears are an aspect of the machination of the entire dungeon, breaking that machine (As the KinSquad are working to do right now) will depower him from demigod to depleted dink.

[Liesmith]

With a trick like that one, do you need any more?

Against a foe who is literally made of water, or else a foe made completely of stone and the like and thus cannot be "splished" into liquid parts, yes, you do need more.

If water elementals can be harmed with ordinary attacks (ie, a sword passing through their liquid body), then there's no reason that telekinetically scrambling them at the molecular level wouldn't also harm them.

[friedkitty]

With a trick like that one, do you need any more?

Against a foe who is literally made of water, or else a foe made completely of stone and the like and thus cannot be "splished" into liquid parts, yes, you do need more.

If water elementals can be harmed with ordinary attacks (ie, a sword passing through their liquid body), then there's no reason that telekinetically scrambling them at the molecular level wouldn't also harm them.

If the splishking of a solid makes liquids, then it stands to reason that the splisking of a liquid would turn it to vapor or steam. Either way it would still seem to me to have the desired effect.

[virgileso]

I have to wonder this. Why is it required that Psymax start out in this dungeon as 3rd level? Couldn't he have entered this place at high level?

[Jochi]

How many omnipotent antagonists does one web comic need?

I count three so far with Kore, Psymax, and Junior.

One per storyline. Interesting.

[Grumbles_Constantly]

How many omnipotent antagonists does one web comic need?

I count three so far with Kore, Psymax, and Junior.

One per storyline. Interesting.

Maybe they can have an Omnipotent Rumble in the Jungle!

The bad guys can all fight each other, using their "rules don't stick to me" powers, and then they can rules lawyer each other forever, since none of them will be able to harm or otherwise affect one another, but will be unable to leave until they have proven their superiority.

Win all the way around, and various story arcs continue.

[wmleighton]

Long time fan, joined just now to say "Thank you for another awesome update" and I'd like to add my thanks for the game as well, which I pledged to the other day. You, Tarol and Danielle, are both fantastic and prime examples of what creators of comics should be like, thank you for setting such a fantastic president.

[Jochi]

I wonder if ... his expression in the last panel is ... realising that GoldMax and BlueMax are going for the Cutting The Gordian Knot solution and trying to kill Minmax to prevent him from being able to summon the sword Psimax needs.

Could be, others have suggested that action, but the issue with the sword is how it is and CAN upset his calculations. While MM 156 lives, it is a disruption. If he dies, it isn't. Killing him is the opposite of what they should do, but they have no way of knowing that.

[ForgetsOldName]

I once played a Psion in a homebrew system where I was supposed to be super-weak and I went around heating a 1 cc area right behind the bridge of people's noses to boiling. The power points were minimal because it's only 1 cc of steamy brain. There are many other systems with similar issues. I've always suspected that the root of the problem is that people imagine psionics actually exist because people claim to have it in real life. Game psionics needs the restriction that it only works under conditions where the psion could cheat and only does things that could easily be faked. The mythos of magic has much more interesting limitations, like attracting demons and making you age 10 years each time you use it or requiring you to hunt for poisonous toads under a full moon.

[Master TMO]

You know, all I can think of now is that all the naming we did in the last thread just became kinda useless.

I was kind of wondering to myself why you people were bothering with it at all, personally. It's hardly like this was a surprising outcome.

Because it was fun.

[Rorrik]

But in the last panel, is that a "Now, I'm pissed look", or a "Now, I just shot my load and am running dry" look?

Probably "Now I'm pissed", but I wouldn't mind if it were a "what is that thing flying at my face?!" look.

Agreed that Psimax is way too powerful. Not sure how this could possibly end well.

[Rorrik]

I wonder if ... his expression in the last panel is ... realising that GoldMax and BlueMax are going for the Cutting The Gordian Knot solution and trying to kill Minmax to prevent him from being able to summon the sword Psimax needs.

Could be, others have suggested that action, but the issue with the sword is how it is and CAN upset his calculations. While MM 156 lives, it is a disruption. If he dies, it isn't. Killing him is the opposite of what they should do, but they have no way of knowing that.

If that were the case, Psimax would killed him rather than trying to convince him to draw the sword...

[Pablo]

Hi!

Is Psimax a "big boss" - yes, at the moment. Everyone in a good story has a weakness - we just haven't yet seen what it is yet. I personally think the deus ex machina that Psimax constructed amplifies his powers, and that if the Kinship can disable it then Minmax will have his chance.

Psimax is so arrogant that I think his downfall will be especially enjoyable to read.

Just my $0.02!

[stevedj]

How many omnipotent antagonists does one web comic need?

I count three so far with Kore, Psymax, and Junior.

One per storyline. Interesting.

Hmmm, let's think about that a bit more...

Kore was introduced almost from day one. Very early in the story, when there was but a single story line. Still a threat, and likely to be so for awhile...???

Junior was sorta introduced as a creature early on, but only late in the story did that 'transform' into a truly frightening antagonist. Haven't truly 'faced' him yet, so continues as a threat as well...

PsiMax on the other hand -- introduced only within the Maze of Many. And, likely will have to be resolved in the maze, as well. Because upon completing the MoM storyline, he will either be victorious (casting himself and who knows who else into oblivion), or he will be defeated. Perhaps a third option, where he doesn't die, but is cast out into our reality 156 - though that would suggest w/o all his powers (since the pocket universe where he could become so powerful is no more?). In the overall grand storyline, it would seem he will only be present for a small part of it...???

[stevedj]

But in the last panel, is that a "Now, I'm pissed look", or a "Now, I just shot my load and am running dry" look?

Perhaps a "Oops! Splishked MM 156 with all the others... before I got the sword... Now what?" kind of look?

[Jochi]

I wonder if ... his expression in the last panel is ... realising that GoldMax and BlueMax are going for the Cutting The Gordian Knot solution and trying to kill Minmax to prevent him from being able to summon the sword Psimax needs.

Could be, others have suggested that action, but the issue with the sword is how it is and CAN upset his calculations. While MM 156 lives, it is a disruption. If he dies, it isn't. Killing him is the opposite of what they should do, but they have no way of knowing that.

If that were the case, Psimax would killed him rather than trying to convince him to draw the sword...

Unless he doesn't know enough to be sure that would eliminate the sword, or he needs MM 156 for some future part of his equation, which WE don't know.

[virgileso]

It's funny, everytime I see a psion played, it always ends up like this. Just overpowered craziness, with lots of debate on why they're able to be that powered, and its "Limited power, he's actually very weak!" But when push comes to shove, that weakness never emerges. And they always just flat out blast through characters, npc's, bosses, big baddies which aren't supposed to be an easy take down, just with the power over their mind.

I don't think it's just a psionics thing, but a level thing in general. Judging by the powers being used by Psimax, it's not impossible for him to be level 15 or something. If he is and most of the other alts are level 3, they *should* be getting creamed like this. Not just psions, but spellcasters would be this unstoppable. In a standard fight, such as the one below, Psimax essentially doesn't have a chance of losing. Defeat will require force multipliers on MinMax's side that are not standard with the rules; such as the sword, the Unreality Engine, etc.

[Krulle]

But in the last panel, is that a "Now, I'm pissed look", or a "Now, I just shot my load and am running dry" look?

Perhaps a "Oops! Splishked MM 156 with all the others... before I got the sword... Now what?" kind of look? :lol:

Unlikely. He will still draw the sword at one time... (Panel 2 here),
and the armor is the wrong one if he draws it again (by accident) when he wants to grab a sword after restart of the MoM: first draw here, panel 10/11


Edited to add (about 2,5 hours later):

Long time fan, joined just now to say "Thank you for another awesome update" and I'd like to add my thanks for the game as well, which I pledged to the other day. You, Tarol and Danielle, are both fantastic and prime examples of what creators of comics should be like, thank you for setting such a fantastic president.

Danielle and Tarol for president!
I can get behind that!

(In case you meant precedent: I am soo disappointed by you! Keeping quiet for so long and then only speaking the basic of our hearts...)

[Arthric]

I believe he will attempt to block Oblivious in melee, and nothing can block Oblivious. I wonder if PsiMax could live without a few vital bits?

http://www.goblinscomic.org/02172012/

For once his insanely high INT works against him.

[Shazam]

For those complaining about Psimax being annoying and overpowered, I'd say give Thunt a chance. We've had similar instances where people got frustrated by seemingly uber villains or incidents (such as the stepping on Mr. Fingers' finger), and yet Thunt manages to make good story from it.

In this case at least we've had build up to expect Psimax to have some advantages. I'm not sure really what lvl he should be given he's preying on other low lvl types, and I dunno why he should be able to 'claim' Oblivious, but it's making for good build up. We still have the Three Kin-migos working on his source of power and can see from his arm shading he's depleted a lot of his own (at least I assume that's what we can read from it).

Personally, I still wonder what those arms represent. At first I thought they were some sort of corrupted version of Junior, though the darkened hands had me confused. On another thread someone mentioned psi crystals to store PP which seems accurate now given their fading and his flesh color underneath.

Overall, I liked this page, despite the quick splishing. It certainly knocked Psimax's badassery up one more notch.

[GriffinDWolf]

I think it is interesting Psimax splished everything except for the Forgath's ax head, I don't think that really matters to anything but interesting none the less.

If the machine is what is making Psymax so unstoppably powerful and oblivious is what is making our Minimax so powerful on his own; what if Obivious and the machine have some type of connection to Klick's race and they are the opposites of one another. Feeding off of the minimax'd stats of the wielders and or the maze itself. So, much like Die's arm or Klick, it breaks the normal rules but can and will probably have consequences. If that sword is the machine's opposite, it would defiantly mean Psymax should be very interested in learning all he can about the sword for it could obliviate irreversibly what he is trying to "accomplish."