I just assume everything that the characters wear will fit into their colour scheme, except for joke items like Haley’s boots.
Well, y’know, he kinda did. And then one of his stretch goals on his Kickstarter (a week’s worth of daily updates, IIRC) used the buffer up.
Do you have any cite that he ever drew strips ahead of time and had a buffer? Fairly sure he drew that week’s worth (actually 9 days worth) one per day. He couldn’t do that anymore. With the latest art upgrade, it takes more than a day to draw a strip.
Is he though? The belt he’s wearing in the last few panels of this strip looks different (no belt buckle) than the belt he was wearing when we last saw him in his priest’s robes.
I’d have liked it if we also saw a belt in the drawer with the hammer and gauntlets, but I’m ok with assuming he’s got a strength belt like Roy.
Yeah, but he also got a whole new set of armor and a new shield. I’d think that the belt is just part of that.
Good point. I wonder if him getting a strength belt or not will be covered in a bonus strip? Maybe the same one where he picks up the armor suit from wherever he got it?
I thought the Hammer of Thunderbolts didn’t have all of its abilities unless you knew it was a HoT and you had all the components (hammer, belt, gauntlets)? The knowledge part is covered about as conclusively as possible. It looks like it does return w/o having all of the pieces; it’s just a +3 hammer of returning, but you can’t stack gauntlet and belt bonuses.
Does it thunderclap when it hits the LDW? I can’t tell with how Burlew drew that panel. And it doesn’t matter against undead, anyway. One thing this hammer should have from the artwork, that the RAW HoT doesn’t, is some sort of electrical damage on top of the usual bonuses. And unlike the vamps, electricity should have full effect against the worm.
Thinking about the worm some more, the Order’s really lucky the monster seems to be fighting as indifferently as the Order does. Finger of Death at DC 21 has a really good chance of killing a rogue like Haley, and then following up with a quickened cone of cold stands an even better chance of chunking her. Which’d be a real downer. Although any remaining frozen bits would be enough for resurrection, unlike a lot of D&D video games.
I’m still shaking my head that V not only survived 15d6 to the face, but still got the spell off. Must have saved.
Part of me wants the Exarrrgh to get away with it, and get the dwarves to cast a vote to destroy the world, as it’d be so unexpected, and I think Burlew’s a good enough writer to write his way past that problem.
I dn’t know what effect Burlew will choose for a great stunning clap of thunder but I assume it’s not “WHAM!” written about as the same size as “SLASH!” 
V has taken one of Xykons lessons to heart. She didn’t blow the spell despite an enormous distraction.
Power is power, and V has earned a lot of hir power honestly, by this point in the strip.
Speaking of power, the worm is basically Xykon with a much smaller spell list and spells/day, different defenses, and a much better melee setup. 25th caster level! Int 20, Wis 20, Chr 18, Str 48: the thing is basically one of the smartest, wisest, and definitely the strongest creature they’ve faced yet. MITD a possible exception. The Pit Fiend was both smarter and wiser, and probably better in melee if the worm couldn’t grab and swallow you, but this worm is no slouch.
I’d expect to lose a party member if I had to take the Order against it in a game, especially with the condition that it has to be ignored in favor of stopping the vote.
Nope, no cite. I just don’t find it plausible for him to have drawn one strip per day, even at that art level.
For my part, I’m amazed Durkon actually hit 35 AC using that thing. It’s not like dorfs or clerics are renowned for their Dex.
Just pondering how a worm would cast Finger of Death…
Thrown weapons use Str, not Dex. He has +9 from BAB, a likely +5 from the hammer, +2 from the gloves, +2 to +4 from base Str, and +1 from Weapon Focus before any other adjustments. That’s +19 to +21 right there. And he likely only has -2 or -4 for range.
Huh ? What ? No. You add your STR to *damage *with thrown weapons, but they’re still ranged weapons so use dex to hit (unless you have the Brutal Throw feat)
They use it to calculate damage, but I thought thrown melee weapons were classed as ranged weapons, which use Dex to calculate hits? Weapons :: d20srd.org
I think Burlew is playing this critter as ‘death worm light.’ I didn’t even think when I was writing earlier, about the thing’s crazy AC to go along with the rest of its bonuses. Really, they need to knock a hole in the roof and let some daylight in to both nerf this thing’s stats, as well as induce it to go somewhere else.
And ninja’d. So it goes. Those of you who actually played 3.5, what do you think would happen with this situation in a game?
I was going to say, “Just treat it as a gaze attack,” but looking at it…yeah.
You are, of course, quite correct.
It’s a summoned monster ordered to guard a fixed point. Just stand back and wait 2 to 5 minutes until it poofs out of existence, while readying another Force Cage to launch at any vamp trying to cross the portal.
Alternatively it has no ability to fly or teleport, so just knocking it into the chasm (with Bigby’s, or disintgrating the platform) solves the problem.
That was a Gate spell, not Summon Monster. It’ll take a lot longer than 2 to 5 minutes to wait it out. Depending on which version of Gate was used, it’ll be somewhere between the next day, and whenever it feels like leaving.
But knocking it into the chasm does seem like a viable option.
I had a brief exchange with him on the GitP board during that time. After about 3 of those daily strips, I pointed out to everyone that it looked like he was doing the week’s worth of strips he’d promised in the Kickstarter. Note, this was only 4 or 5 months after his hand injury. He chimed in and said something like “if my drawing hand holds out, this was going to fulfill that promise; if not, I’ll stop it and do it later and everyone would just enjoy a few rapidly posted strips.” So it sure sounds like he was drawing them one per day.