It’s women’s leather armour. It protects her all over.
And now: 1058 is up.
Sometimes, Delayed Action is just the right action.
Does V have an unlimited number of counterspells? Why is this a better strategy than attacking the cleric and keeping him so busy (or dead) that he can’t attack the ship?
No, V does not. However, the cleric used a powerful spell and it’s doubtful the cleric has any more, so V doesn’t need a lot to stop the cleric’s spell abilities.
If the only need is to get past them, with the rest of the giants not attacking, the cleric can’t take the ship down himself. So, negating the spells at this point gets them their goal, rather than take a chance that the giants do take someone out, such as Haley.
Thanks to the Improved Counterspell feat, V can do quite a bit of counterspelling.
Counterspelling in D&D and Pathfinder is woefully underpowered. It’s a great tactic, but compare the two possibilities:
- Use “Improved Counterspell” for a guaranteed counterspell. Costs a feat and a seventh level spell in order to certainly cancel an enemy spell.
- Cast a sixth-level spell like “Chain Lightning” to do 16d6 damage to the caster (assuming V is 16th level)–around 56, or 28 on a successful save–and half that to any enemy w/in 30’. IN ADDITION, this forces a concentration check, low end being 38 (10+damage dealt)–13th-level frost giant would have a +21 on this check, meaning it needs a 17-20 to succeed IF it made its reflex save.
In general, you’re much better off casting a damaging spell than you are counterspelling.
How does the presence of the Suggestion affect those tactics? If V does something to damage the affected Frost Giants, do they snap out of it?
I don’t know D&D rules. But if your goal is to prevent a spell from being cast isn’t a guaranteed counterspell a better tactic than an attack that will probably succeed? V correctly saw what the true goal was.
V knows that he can’t actually defeat all of the giants, and he doesn’t have to - this whole fight is just a holding action to ensure the ship’s safety in the first place.
A 20% chance of the cleric doing damage to the ship is way too high considering the objectives of the battle. V did the right thing.
This is a fair point. In this specific situation, counterspelling might be best. Note that the chance of clerical success isn’t 20%. On the one hand, that cleric might have a feat increasing his chance; on the other hand, if the cleric fails that Dex save (which is pretty likely–clerics and giants both have low reflex saves), the check becomes 68, no way of passing.
The nice thing about damaging spells is that eventually the caster stops casting altogether. With counterspelling, the cleric is free to make more attempts until out of spells entirely.
They’ll get another save if V doesn’t affect them, and break out of it if it does. And V has already used Chain Lightning. And note that Burlew is using the old 1e/2e version of Chain Lightning, not the 3.5E version.
Agreed.
This. And we’re assuming that V has a suitably damaging spell to cast. V has already cast a Maximised Fireball and may be out of high-level damage spells.
Let’s hope V has Bugsby’s Expressive Digit memorized for the clerics after the ship has passed.
I haven’t seen any evidence that this is the case, nor do I see how the difference would be relevant. Both do full damage to their primary target, and lesser but nonzero damage to multiple other targets.
See the first panel of #1055 for both: many of the giants are more than 30’ away from the first target. See also #921 and #652.
That’s not true. Although other spells in the enchantment school have similar provisions, that doesn’t appear in Suggestion.
That’s almost a regular lightning spell, with a single giant out of alignment. I’d sooner suspect an entirely different spell than suspect it’s 2E chain lightning. (Edit: looked at 921, and you’re totally right on this one).
True. Again, I’m saying that counterspell is in general a poor choice, compared to casting a damaging spell. On the off chance that he’s got a seventh level evocation prepped that’s nondamaging (bigby’s interposing hand or something), and already has the feat, counterspelling is good for this instance.
Strip #921 is conclusive evidence that the spell was not the 2nd edition version of Chain Lightning. V hit all of the riders and none of their mounts, which would have been impossible with the 2nd edition version.
Well that’s ominous.
How far behind the ship is Death’s Little Helper?
<Elan>Dun-dun-DUUUUUUUUUN!</Elan>
Well, he can’t fly, and he’s chasing an airship and two flying wizards. So…really far?