Episode 596: I can't think of any good clowns.

[rogonandi]

I've got a new comic up. The battle with the circus tent continues, and we get to see Jack show off the 'destroy chaotics' version of Holy Smite. Grottor and Magotto are also faring a bit better.



Click this to go to the comic's archives: Click!
Click this to vote for the webcomic: Click pretty please!
Click this to go to my youtube channel: Because why not?

[memnarch]

Ah, so it's the same as www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/holySmite.htm except with [lawful] instead of [good]?

[rogonandi]

Jan 19, 2015 0:52:57 GMT memnarch said:

Ah, so it's the same as www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/holySmite.htm except with [lawful] instead of [good]?

Yes, in fact Order's Wrath is in the SRD as well.

[Naomi Li]

Preparing Order's Wrath? I guess that's because of their one melee fighter that's lawful neutral and thus would be harmed by the good variant. Rather dislike that spell, personally, and hope that he isn't free with using it.

Also, do those dwarves seriously not have ranged secondary weapons? Everyone should have a ranged secondary weapon if it's not their primary. Silly people and their lack of proper weaponry. They can't even claim that a sling (without ammo, even!) wouldn't be an easy thing for them to have picked up and kept around.

[oppyu]

Still really scary.

[rogonandi]

Jan 19, 2015 2:01:18 GMT Naomi Li said:

Preparing Order's Wrath? I guess that's because of their one melee fighter that's lawful neutral and thus would be harmed by the good variant. Rather dislike that spell, personally, and hope that he isn't free with using it.

I was going to say something, but it would be a possible character spoiler.

Jan 19, 2015 2:01:18 GMT Naomi Li said:

Also, do those dwarves seriously not have ranged secondary weapons? Everyone should have a ranged secondary weapon if it's not their primary. Silly people and their lack of proper weaponry. They can't even claim that a sling (without ammo, even!) wouldn't be an easy thing for them to have picked up and kept around.

They tried to get away from the Cirdadae so they could use ranged attacks, but it ended up calling them back with that 'Captivating Calliope.' If it wasn't for Jack's Silence spell, they'd be willingly getting into the clown's mouth.

[jssheridan]

Jan 19, 2015 0:52:57 GMT memnarch said:

Ah, so it's the same as www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/holySmite.htm except with [lawful] instead of [good]?

Order's Wrath

I'd rate the demon somewhere between Krusty from the Simpsons and Stephen King's 'It;.

[Naomi Li]

Well, yes, that's my point. They had the right idea earlier: move away from the melee murderbeast. Now that it's been silenced they can't be forced back into melee range. Thus them deciding to STAY in melee range for another round, trying to attack it, seems utterly insane. Either they don't have ranged weapons at all, think the silence will fail soon and absolutely need that extra damage per round to take it down in time, or they have a very, VERY bad sense of sane initiative when it comes to combat.

And if it's the latter, leader-cleric is failing miserably at leading. They wouldn't have these problems if they had a proper bard leading the party. Granted, this is 3.5 and not Pathfinder so the bards aren't as comparatively awesome, but they're still made of win.

[rogonandi]

Jan 19, 2015 3:52:55 GMT Naomi Li said:

Well, yes, that's my point. They had the right idea earlier: move away from the melee murderbeast. Now that it's been silenced they can't be forced back into melee range. Thus them deciding to STAY in melee range for another round, trying to attack it, seems utterly insane. Either they don't have ranged weapons at all, think the silence will fail soon and absolutely need that extra damage per round to take it down in time, or they have a very, VERY bad sense of sane initiative when it comes to combat.

And if it's the latter, leader-cleric is failing miserably at leading. They wouldn't have these problems if they had a proper bard leading the party. Granted, this is 3.5 and not Pathfinder so the bards aren't as comparatively awesome, but they're still made of win.

Good points indeed, but I would like to bring up that demons and other outsiders is that they usually have damage reduction to most weapons. The problem with ranged weapons is that unless they have something to bypass that damage reduction, hits from arrows or throwing weapons aren't going to do a whole lot of damage to them. Since Grettor and Magotto have specialization and full STR bonus with their standby weapons (Magotto's being 1.5x strength due to using a Halberd,) they're going to do a bit more damage.

There's also a chance they may have decided to stay in melee this time because Angelika and Jack did pretty considerable damage to the tent already (as you see how busted up it is.) Perhaps the Dwarf brothers think the Circadae doesn't have a whole lot of gas left, and since Jack is now closing to them they have melee back and healing now.

[rogonandi]

Jan 19, 2015 3:48:05 GMT jssheridan said:

Jan 19, 2015 0:52:57 GMT memnarch said:

Ah, so it's the same as www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/holySmite.htm except with [lawful] instead of [good]?

Order's Wrath

I'd rate the demon somewhere between Krusty from the Simpsons and Stephen King's 'It;.

Angelika: "Are there balloons in the tent? Do they float?"
Circadae: "They float...and when you're in here with me, YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!" XD

[Naomi Li]

If anyone had proper knowledge of that demon's capabilities, though, unless that silence is going to end it doesn't matter all that much how much damage they're inflicting each round. The demon can't hit them and they will wear it down over time.

Besides, slings add strength to damage, so invalid argument. Slings: The side-arm of champions.

Anyway, it could certainly make perfect sense in-universe and I am not at all saying it's bad writing. Just that these two dwarfs are woefully under-prepared, have extremely poor tactical sense without their leader telling them what to do (why aren't you telling them what to do, cleric with enough ranks in knowledge (planes) to identify the enemy), or MAYBE knowing something I don't about the situation.

As always, thank you for the comic. It's a fun read.

[rogonandi]

Jan 19, 2015 4:30:47 GMT Naomi Li said:

If anyone had proper knowledge of that demon's capabilities, though, unless that silence is going to end it doesn't matter all that much how much damage they're inflicting each round. The demon can't hit them and they will wear it down over time.

According to the SRD, Silence lasts one minute per found. Team Jack and Angelika have eight minutes before they have to worry about the Clown Circus speaking again. Since Jack has dimensional anchored it (lasting about 7 1/2 minutes), the Tent has nowhere to go. It can move on creepy insectoid legs, but only at about ten feet per combat round.

Jan 19, 2015 4:30:47 GMT Naomi Li said:

Besides, slings add strength to damage, so invalid argument. Slings: The side-arm of champions.

Well...yes and no. They're not specialized in sling combat, and even with their strength added a sling is still only going to do about 2-5 damage or so. Unless the sling's heavily enchanted or can bypass damage reduction it isn't going to as much good. Jack could cast Align Weapon on one or both of their ranged weapons, though.

Jan 19, 2015 4:30:47 GMT Naomi Li said:

Anyway, it could certainly make perfect sense in-universe and I am not at all saying it's bad writing. Just that these two dwarfs are woefully under-prepared, have extremely poor tactical sense without their leader telling them what to do (why aren't you telling them what to do, cleric with enough ranks in knowledge (planes) to identify the enemy), or MAYBE knowing something I don't about the situation.

As always, thank you for the comic. It's a fun read.

Don't worry, I ain't accusing you of anything.

...but do you think they were planning on fighting a psychotic clown tent today?

[Tiltowait]

Yeah, come on, characters aren't always going to make human-player-perfect tactical decisions. I think it's fine. They're stout melee characters and they want to bash things. They've got enough HP to take whatever the thing dishes out, and besides, they've got a cleric right there.   It's smarter to retreat and whip out some culturally bizarre non-dwarf ranged weapon?  Eh, not really in character for this lot.  

Good clowns: Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp", the Keystone Kops, The Three Stooges, Shaggy 2 Dope, Mr. Bean, Blue Man Group.     Yeah, come on, you totally have to do an ICP shout-out, how often do insane clowns appear in comic strips?  

[rogonandi]

Jan 19, 2015 15:34:33 GMT Tiltowait said:

Yeah, come on, characters aren't always going to make human-player-perfect tactical decisions. I think it's fine. They're stout melee characters and they want to bash things. They've got enough HP to take whatever the thing dishes out, and besides, they've got a cleric right there.   It's smarter to retreat and whip out some culturally bizarre non-dwarf ranged weapon?  Eh, not really in character for this lot.  

The more I think about it, the more I believe a sling would possibly be a good Dwarven cultural weapon. Since there are rocks everywhere in caves after all...but then again, I can see why Dwarves aren't much for ranged weaponry. There often isn't a whole lot of wide open spaces in caverns that occurs naturally, and it's often pitch black in the natural caverns too. Sure Dwarves have darkvision, but it's only 60 feet anyway.

[greatcleaveland]

How did he cast two level 4 domain spells?