# Order of the Stick - Book 6 Discussion Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755 "2014-03-03T16:07:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 104
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2061 "2015-11-09T02:35:48Z")
The problem with ranged attacks isn’t hitting, it’s that Durkula ignores the first 10 points of damage of each arrow. Which is all of it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2062 "2015-11-09T15:39:11Z")
Only if they’re nonmagical. At this point, even Roy’s backup weapons should be magical. If he had any backup weapons, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2063 "2015-11-09T15:47:55Z")
And really what self respecting high priest of Odin is going to have a mundane spear? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2064 "2015-11-09T16:04:24Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Tarquin was certainly of the opinion that Roy and Durkon could be easily replaced if he forced Elan to become leader of the OOTS. > [@Chronos](#): > > Which is true, but it doesn’t mean that those high-level characters would exist if Elan didn’t ditch the others to lead his own party. That’s an example of the laws of dramatic necessity re-shaping reality, like [Probability sneaking into a back alley to service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0584.html). Which goes back again the quest to _Resurrect_ Roy. Finding a cleric who could do it proved difficult (in fact, they never did find one) and Haley doubted there was a cleric in the world who could cast 9th level spells (min cleric lvl 17) – except perhaps Redcloak. Narratively though, we’re essentially reading a D&D campaign and from a dramatic sense you would need to replace a lost high level cleric with a like-leveled healer for the party to have a chance at success. Which is what Tarquin was saying. In a sense, said healer wouldn’t exist until they were actually needed. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2065 "2015-11-09T16:13:50Z")
The way XP awards work in 3.5E is that if you place a low-level character in with high-level ones, the low-level character gets an increased share of the XP and so is power-levelled. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2066 "2015-11-09T16:15:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Only if they’re nonmagical. At this point, even Roy’s backup weapons should be magical. That’s not good enough. The weapon has to be both silver and magical. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2067 "2015-11-09T16:59:53Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Tarquin was certainly of the opinion that Roy and Durkon could be easily replaced if he forced Elan to become leader of the OOTS. Tarquin could be wrong or flat-out lying. After all, he had a vested interest in persuading Elan to abandon Roy and Durkon. My guess is they would be a lot harder to replace than that. Tarquin also said something like “when a party of high-level adventurers show up, I assume they’re all working together.” That presumes high-level adventurers showing up is a more singular event than his attempted persuasion of Elan might suggest. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2068 "2015-11-09T17:16:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Only if they’re nonmagical. At this point, even Roy’s backup weapons should be magical. > [@Grumman](#): > > That’s not good enough. The weapon has to be both silver and magical. Not wooden? I thought silver was for werewolves. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2069 "2015-11-09T17:42:52Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Not wooden? Not wooden. Driving a wooden stake into a vampire’s heart completely incapacitates it, but that doesn’t mean it’s _easy_. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2070 "2015-11-09T19:29:55Z")
Ah, right, I forgot that they needed silver, too. Still not a problem, especially with a bow: You get a +1 bow, and then you get a variety of arrows of different materials. It’s a lot easier than the “golf bag” problem of melee weapons. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2071 "2015-11-09T21:01:27Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > That’s not good enough. The weapon has to be both silver and magical. Or starmetal apparently. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2072 "2015-11-09T21:04:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > ‘E’ is my own preference-- It’s one of the [Spivak pronouns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun). I can’t use “he” or “she” either one for Vaarsuvius, because my pet theory is that es gender is intermediate between the two (more precisely, I believe that Vaarsuvius’ and Inkaryius’ genders are mutually-orthogonal superpositions of male and female). It may be your own preference, but it is also used in the comic. I stumbled upon it in my aforementioned reread. [It’s how Durkon refers to V](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0468.html). And, no, I can’t get V’s voice to not sound noticeably female. Normally I barely can hear the voice of characters, but the ones in this comic are really strong, with V’s being the strongest. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2073 "2015-11-09T21:07:23Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It may be your own preference, but it is also used in the comic. I stumbled upon it in my aforementioned reread. [It’s how Durkon refers to V](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0468.html). Well, that’s Durkon’s accent conveniently upholding V’s ambiguous gender. Not Durkon choosing to use a genderless pronoun. Note the apostrophes on both sides of the E. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2074 "2015-11-09T21:16:41Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Or starmetal apparently. I imagine Roy is doing enough damage that he doesn’t have to worry about the DR/10 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2075 "2015-11-09T21:19:13Z")
I think Durkon refers to Vaarsuvius as “he”, but his accent elides the H. Not that that proves anything, because Durkon doesn’t know es gender, either. Heck, even Sabine can’t seem to make up her mind, and if there’s anyone in the strip who knows about humanoid sexuality, it’s her. And most of the characters in the strip don’t have a strong “voice” to me, but oddly enough, V is one of the ones that does. And the voice I “hear” for V is just as gender-ambiguous as everything else about em. (Incidentally, the other character for whom I hear a strong voice is Roy’s grandfather, who (to me) sounds very gruff and gravelly, sort of like he needs to clear his throat.) ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2076 "2015-11-09T21:20:05Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Note the apostrophes on both sides of the E. One of those—notably, the one on the right—is for a contraction. Og, why am I so picky about stuff like this? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2077 "2015-11-09T22:31:26Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It may be your own preference, but it is also used in the comic. I stumbled upon it in my aforementioned reread. [It’s how Durkon refers to V](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0468.html). [That’s how Durkon pronounces “he.”](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0872.html) He doesn’t have any problem with [pronouncing female pronouns.](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0865.html) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2078 "2015-11-10T00:05:27Z")
You know, I re-read the strips surrounding Durkon’s turning, and I think I found a plot hole. Look at [this strip here.](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0879.html) Malack turned Durkon because he wanted to “once again engage as peers” with Durkon. He also speaks about his desire for siblings and the seven brothers he had before he was turned. If the souls of vampires are trapped and their bodies are just piloted by demons, none of Malack’s actions or motivations make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2079 "2015-11-10T03:09:56Z")
[From the first strip where we learn what’s really going on in Durkon’s head:](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0948.html) “But it’s really all the same to me. The sooner I absorb all your memories, the sooner I can stop talking to you. Usually, the process takes a few months, but it’s not a problem if you want to start your eternal dormancy earlier.” So, my fanwank is that Malak, having been a vampire for centuries by the time we meet him, has not only absorbed all of the original Malak’s memories, but it’s been so long that he no longer really remembers where Malak-the-Lizardman ended, and Malak-the-evil-spirit began. From his vantage point hundreds of years later, they’ve blurred into essentially the same person. Also, Durkon is a lawful good priest engaged in a quest of cosmic importance, and Malak was a backwater shaman of unknown alignment and religious affiliation. Who knows how the vampirization process works if you’re already an evil worshiper of a death god? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755/2080 "2015-11-10T05:51:24Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It may be your own preference, but it is also used in the comic. I stumbled upon it in my aforementioned reread. [It’s how Durkon refers to V](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0468.html). Kinda off-topic question here: In Panel 21, where Elan and Haley are having a goodbye grope, is it ever established what the tattoo on her back says? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755.md?page=103) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-book-6-discussion-thread/682755.md?page=105)