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Post by rogonandi on May 7, 2015 1:34:23 GMT
We've got a next-day update this time! Things go quite south for Candesco, but three new challengers enter the scene with a mega-holy blast. Angelo feigned interest in that...well, he didn't even feign interest. Click here to go to the archives: Click!Click here to vote for the comic: Click!
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Post by Tiltowait on May 7, 2015 5:04:57 GMT
Wow, Candesco's dead.
Three big spells from three big outsiders, and Angelo just shrugs it off. This was the power of good's alpha strike...what have they got left now? And they're missing three heavy hitters.
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Post by ohqiuz on May 7, 2015 5:48:03 GMT
Named characters dropping fast, ouch. Next thing you know a misfired spell will fly off in the distance and kill Trevoricus or someone.
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Post by greatdane on May 7, 2015 12:06:44 GMT
This is BRUTAL! And I'm loving every second of it! Can't wait to see how this battle progresses...
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Post by jssheridan on May 7, 2015 14:18:08 GMT
Triple Kill!
Thanks Rogonandi!
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Post by greatdane on May 7, 2015 14:31:41 GMT
Oof, two spell failures due to no verbal components...Deafened causes a 20% chance of spell misfire. Literally, 9 times out of 10, one of those spells would have gone off. Bad luck, Candesco.
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Post by Naomi on May 8, 2015 1:56:16 GMT
Bit worse than that, actually; there was a measly .04% chance of them both failing like that, so 96% chance of at least one getting through. 64% for them to both work. I wonder how many of them have resurrection insurance... (This team divines whether the contractor has died. If they have, recover corpse within X timeframe and resurrection spell is cast... or reincarnate, or whatever they've paid for) The outsiders MIGHT have been summoned instead of called, though it seems unlikely. Bringing them back to life would be... tricky. They'd probably be better off pounding him with a bunch of archers or whatever instead of damage-dealing magic. Magical support would be invaluable, of course, but holy smite is relatively tame. This is a "grand" version, so presumably it's better, but I'd probably prefer some good old harm spells if I was out to inflict magical damage. Candesco, hope you've learned your lesson. Next time you have an emergency Word of Recall spell, remove as many component prerequisites as you can. If you'd just had a silent-spell word of recall this wouldn't have happened.
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Post by Guest on May 8, 2015 2:32:39 GMT
Is it just me, or does Angelo seem way too overconfident?
Pride goeth before the fall...
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Post by Byzantine on May 8, 2015 2:34:53 GMT
We already know that in this world you can be revived even from blood etc that was separated from you before you die, so frankly if any of the named good guys (or bad guys for that matter) stay dead they are suicidal idiots.
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Post by rogonandi on May 8, 2015 4:44:41 GMT
It's good people are remembering events from the past. I'm not going to be spoiling anything of course, but I will say that we're only about 4 pages into this huge confrontation and the battle's far from over. Oh, but I will reveal that those Angels each used a 'Grand Holy Smite' rather than a regular one. It's a more powerful version of the Player's Handbook spell these angels can do once a day. If successful, the three spells combined could potentially do 42d8 damage and blindness for 3 rounds to the target if it's evil.
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Post by Tiltowait on May 8, 2015 5:33:33 GMT
Is it just me, or does Angelo seem way too overconfident? Pride goeth before the fall... Well, as the story goes, the only way he'll be defeated is by the Magicant. The heroes have only gotten one piece so far, so there's a lot of story left. This is the "invasion of France" curbstomp battle that shows how far ahead the bad guys are. Heroes don't defeat the bad guys through military power, they defeat them through the power of love and friendship and blah blah blah. This is the sort of thing that made me quit playing D&D all those years ago.
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Post by Naomi on May 8, 2015 17:03:39 GMT
42d8 damage? That only averages out to 189 damage with all saving throws failed. It's... not particularly impressive, honestly. Three Harm spells where the target SUCCEEDS at every saving throw could have inflicted more damage. Blindness for three rounds is better, of course, but one could achieve similar results without allowing for a saving throw by using other abilities. If those Grand Holy Smites had been unleashed upon clusters of his troops they could probably have freed up enough of their own minions to unleash more hurt upon Angelo than they would have otherwise; his AC, while almost certainly very impressive, is likely a lot easier to get through than his saving throws. Especially his will save. To be clear, I'm not critiquing your decision to have Team Chaotic and/or Good and Friends follow this plan of action. I've merely noted that they're really not very good at the entire "plan a fight effectively" thing. Personally, I think that dealing with a world where magical solutions are readily available, at least to those with enough money, makes things more interesting. Strategies and tactics must be modified to account for them. Though I do lament that, canonically, blocking teleportation is significantly more difficult than using it.
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Post by rogonandi on May 9, 2015 3:49:12 GMT
42d8 damage? That only averages out to 189 damage with all saving throws failed. It's... not particularly impressive, honestly. Three Harm spells where the target SUCCEEDS at every saving throw could have inflicted more damage. Blindness for three rounds is better, of course, but one could achieve similar results without allowing for a saving throw by using other abilities. If those Grand Holy Smites had been unleashed upon clusters of his troops they could probably have freed up enough of their own minions to unleash more hurt upon Angelo than they would have otherwise; his AC, while almost certainly very impressive, is likely a lot easier to get through than his saving throws. Especially his will save. To be clear, I'm not critiquing your decision to have Team Chaotic and/or Good and Friends follow this plan of action. I've merely noted that they're really not very good at the entire "plan a fight effectively" thing. Personally, I think that dealing with a world where magical solutions are readily available, at least to those with enough money, makes things more interesting. Strategies and tactics must be modified to account for them. Though I do lament that, canonically, blocking teleportation is significantly more difficult than using it. Even if you were critiquing, I don't mind at all. However, they didn't use the Harm spell for two reasons: 1. None of them are 'Planetars' or 'Solars' so they can't prepare spells like a Cleric, so the Harm spell isn't available to them. 2. Even if they could prep spells like a Cleric, Harm requires you to actually touch the creature and they weren't close enough to do so when they finished their movement. When it comes to using their Grand Holy Smite ability on the shock troops instead, it probably would've killed some of them but the spell's only a 20 foot radius burst and they aren't that closely packed in together when they're fighting. They'd probably only take out 2-3 'mecha hornets' with each blast.
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Post by Naomi on May 9, 2015 4:34:12 GMT
If only there were scrolls, wands, staves, or other such magic items to help them out. Expensive, of course, but given the capability to hold the charge one could use a staff to place harm on the other hand, pass it onto an ally, and repeat until all viable troops have it applied. Then they go perform a flying charge attack. Still, there are resource constraints affecting them, which means that I should be critiquing their preparations for warfare instead. They should have been properly preparing once they knew about the lunatics involved and how powerful they were. As for taking out the troops... that's still a fairly decent alpha-strike, and every turn after they could probably kill off at least one every other turn, each. That could probably free up at least a dozen of their troops. Arrange for ones that are good with bows to be pelting Angelo at "greater than movement+spell range" range (or at least greater than movement + medium range). Either he ignores them to hunt down higher-levelled characters (which would probably drop down his kill rate/turn a fair bit, especially if they're making sure to run away as he approaches), he tries to wipe out the low-levelled troops (he almost certainly could, but he'd likely be expending more spells and time than he'd really prefer), or he could run. Either way, it seems likely that something else would do notable damage to the Empire's war effort rather than this piecemeal "hit him with spells he'll probably save against" plan. It's not like actually killing Angelo would be likely to actually derail the Empire's efforts much; a true resurrection spell (perhaps on a scroll?) is almost certainly well-within their capabilities and I don't think team chaotic and/or good have any real reason to believe that that spell wouldn't work. As such, the important thing is "keep Angelo from effectively interfering with the fight". What skill best reflects deliberately pissing somebody off so they focus on trying to kill you rather than anything effective?
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Post by rogonandi on May 9, 2015 4:47:08 GMT
It's not like actually killing Angelo would be likely to actually derail the Empire's efforts much; a true resurrection spell (perhaps on a scroll?) is almost certainly well-within their capabilities and I don't think team chaotic and/or good have any real reason to believe that that spell wouldn't work. The more you think about spells like that, the more incredibly depressing the imperial situation becomes. This must be why Mr. Burlew hates True Resurrection so much and (I'm fairly sure he's mentioned this somewhere) why the spell doesn't exist in his comic's universe.
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