I think it was just Roy’s way of getting his attention, so he could call Thog out properly.
I’m with Kobal2 on Roy’s blow being a non-lethal strike. It explains the sound effect and the lack of a slash line, plus it fits Roy’s alignment. Roy’s lawful good. In a one-on-one duel, I don’t see him stabbing the other guy in the back. It’s not a fair blow, and as a lawful person, he’d likely be concerned about that sort of fairness.
I completely agree.
I also agree that this was a non-lethal attack, designed to get Thog’s attention and make him quite playing to the crowd and get into the fight. Also, as my father always said, “where there’s no sense there’s no feeling.” Basically, it’s impossible to damage Thog by hitting him on the HEAD.
Both are armoured. The thing about fighters is that they get lots of feats. Say they’re both 15th level. Thog has 5 feats total; Roy has 14 feats, of which 8 must be fighter feats. This is probably going to be a war of attrition. We’re going to see if Roy’s +4 damage for Weapon Specialisation and Weapon Mastery are enough to counter Thog’s Barbarian Rage. Given his high Int, Roy’s probably got Expertise and Improved Expertise too.
Hmm… do we actually know that Thog’s a Barbarian? Sure he dresses like one, but have we actually seen him Raging?
Thog only took two levels of fighter. Fighter level three is stupid level, Thog not take.
He’s in their guild.
The answer is no. When Thog rages, he’ll also get +3 to hit and +4 damage for his higher strength, as well as the extra 45 hit points.
I dunno–Thog has irregularly burst out with surprising vocabulary, even though his grammar is uniformly atrocious. Here, for instance: “thog reluctantly forced to agree!”
As I look at that quote, I realize that his capitalization leaves a lot to be desired as well. I’m not sure exactly what verbal behavior this is supposed to represent. Or are the word-balloons part of the OotS universe too? That could explain a few things …
They can see if someone is talking in black and red.
thog only pawn in game of life.
I think the lack of capitalization harkens back to Calvin and Hobbes, when Moe the bully would always talk in boldface lowercase. It’s become standard for dumb, musclebound characters in comics since then.
Okay, raise of hands: who saw that coming?
crickets chirping
No, me neither.
I’ve gone through all the strips since we met “Polozius”- and sure enough, he’s never spoken until now. Not once. Just glaring at V.
Nope, I was totally blindsided.
V may have changed a lot over the past few hundred strips, but he still takes his time getting to the point, huh?
It’d be just like Nale to intentionally place Thog in the arena for some byzantine plot, but since he’s been there for a while, it can’t have been related to Elan’s presence. He’s up to something.
Most likely, Nale just doesn’t give much of a damn about Thog. Nale likes him, a bit, but not enough to risk himself in any kind of rescue. He’s just perfectly happy to abandon Thog. It’s no plan at all.
He also let his/her hair grow long - so Z got a haircut. Opposites!
Interesting point made on the OOTS forum; we now can guess who was spying on the Order earlier. Compare the colors of the magic auras.
Or even earlier.
It’s one of the things I love about this story. Burlew actually plots out little details like this.