Word of Recall’s a 6th level spell, and the people in the Class and Level Geekery thread at the OOTS forums had an educated guess that Malack was at the most a 12th level Cleric. So he didn’t have many 6th level spell slots to begin with. I just find it incredible that he wouldn’t have kept one of them available, or a scroll of it when he’s the high priest of an entire country, but w/e. It sure saved Redcloak’s bacon in the past, but RC’s a bit more prepared than the average adventurer.
IMHO, it’s crazy for an entity that’s been alive for 200+ years, adventuring for most of them, in an environment that’s the equivalent for us of scuba-diving 300 feet down in the ocean, to not be Very aware of where his escape routes are. He had been shown before in the strip to be pretty careless about where he’d left his staff, so maybe I can see him not having a death grip on it. With that in mind, I’m surprised he didn’t have a rune on the staff that would compel its retrieval to his hand. Guess he never felt that Nale could ever be a significant threat to him, despite the death of his spawns. Oh and what was that, “Since I was nine years old!” bit about?
But, returning to my scuba diving metaphor, I’m going to be extremely conscious of who and what is going near my air tanks, when I’m in a place where if I lose them, I die in less than 60 seconds. I’m curious how Burlew’s going to react to people pointing this out. In line with Inner Stickler’s observation above, I’m going with petulant and bitchy. At least it’s a fast-updating petulance… (Yay!)
I was going to wonder why Z didn’t burst the Greater Dispel Magic—he’s got every reason to fear Durkferatu trying to kill him too—but burst only affects one spell on each creature within the AoE. It’d be embarrassing if the GDM removed a higher-level buff than the Pro. Daylight spell…
Interesting moral dilemma for Roy & Co: do we stake our rapidly-heading-to-Evil friend, who will desperately want us to do it, and hope we can find a priest that can cast Resurrection? Or do we tell him to tough it out because there just aren’t many 15th level clerics running around, and we need all the help we can get to beat Team Evil? I wonder how Belkar’s going to handle being in the same party with someone that chowed down on him?
Nale has levels in rogue – I assume that means snatching and stealing stuff should come easy to him.
And as Durkon notes in 873, Malack has not spent a lot of time adventuring recently. He’s more of an evil scholar. So he may have forgotten to add Word of Recall to his spells, or simply panicked and forgotten it.
Agree with this I think it is a combination of things that led to his downfall but most of all he underestimated Nale - I don’t think he considered him a threat at all.
Where is the line between insight and petulant? If he drew this as the second or third comic, and then planned his story around it, how is that not insight? And since he had that particular thing planned so long ago, doesn’t that add weight to it?
And if you do think Durkon shouldn’t have been vamped, then where is your support from the actual work?
I also don’t understand the “The story is what matters, not his personal timeline” comment. This is his story and he is telling it and sharing with us. He has just shown us what happened to Durkon. So, I’m confused on that as well.
I’m not being snarky. I don’t understand how the author’s comments aren’t insight into what he had planned? Are you willing to explain that to me?
He said the criticisms weren’t valid because he’d planned to vamp Durkon since the very beginning. But that’s irrelevant. A poor storyteller could plan from the very beginning for a particular twist or moment but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t undermine the intent or thrust of the story.
Granted, the objections in this case are mostly variations of “I liked Durkon, this sucks” but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s chosen to rebut them with a spurious argument.
Burlew has a bad habit of choosing to attack people, especially in the GITP forums, who disagree with his take on things.
You don’t think he’s being a little testy in that final paragraph? To me, “not a valid criticism” implies that whoever these people are, they should have known better. But his rebuttal involved information that had not been shared yet. It’s a little unfair to judge people for not taking into account how long he’s been planning a plot point when they didn’t know how long he’d been planning it, no?
It’s been obvious for a long time that Rich Burlew has planned every major plot point far in advance, not just from that single example.
I don’t find anything objectionable about Rich’s posts, either. I personally probably wouldn’t dive into the arguments of the masses to defend my work, but I see nothing wrong with doing it, either.
LOL! No, this is not Rich. And I don’t read enough of the GITP forums to see his attacks but agree that he shouldn’t do that.
Okay, but isn’t that according to you and what you perceive to be the story? And isn’t this a case then of you not matching up with them?
I mean, I agree you might not like the story, where it’s going or how it got there. Of course, then I wonder why you are still reading that story. But just because it doesn’t match up with your expectations hardly makes it a bad story, right?
So, again, I have questions and I’m trying to be specific. What’s the intent or thrust of the story and how did turning Durkon ruin that thrust? According to you, of course.
Before I can answer your question, I’ll need you to identify where I’ve pointed to Durkon’s vamping as an example of bad plotting.
I’m not arguing that Durkon’s vamping was a bad decision. I’m arguing that telling people that he’d planned for Durkon’s vamping for a long time is a poor way of rebutting the people who don’t like Durkon’s vamping.
I’m not sure if there’s a usually involved, but Book Four ended on August 8, 2009, with a promised return on August 31 (a promise he kept, btw). I’m not really sanguine that he’ll be that quick to return this time. He’s a millionaire now, and he’s been going balls to the wall for the past couple of weeks. He might feel entitled to a good long break about now.
It’s amazing that we’ve been following this book alone for nearly four years.
He’s not actually a millionaire, is he? I thought most of the Kickstarter money went right back into paying for reprinting books and the like. Though I suppose he will presumably make a profit on each sale…
He might have made a million off the Kickstarter but having a million in the bank doesn’t give you much of an income. Plus he has medical issues, for which I very much doubt he has insurance.
The important thing is, he can continue writing OOTS, the most awesome webcomic ever. I for one am grateful; the man deserves every penny and then some. There are plenty of millionaires who have contributed tremendously less to humanity than OOTS has.
ETA: I won’t begrudge him a break, but of course will be waiting on pins and needles until he starts the next book!
Y’know, something just occurred to me. Yeah, Durkon has the staff now, so he can put Protection from Daylight on himself… But staves have limited charges, and you can never get more than 50 castings out of a staff (minus however many Malack used to make his mummies, or to quick-raise Durkon, or whatever he used off-screen or before he joined the story). So Durkon has at most 40-something days where he can be out and about, before either being confined to darkness, or following Malack’s lead. Belkar’s not the only one on a short clock any more.
I apologize if I put words in your mouth, so to speak, and that I misunderstood you.
Is your point that Rich just shouldn’t have said anything to defend himself? If so, I agree. Let your work speak for you. However, I can also understand that sometimes the criticism can get to a person.