Yeah - but IMO, he’s funnier than Xykon.
:smack: I missed your point completely.
Xykon? I thought you were talking about Belkar.
I was talking about Xykon. Belkar doesn’t really do it for me as much as he does for some people, and he’s not the main villain by any stretch.
Just wait until the strip finale in comic #1000, when it’s revealed that Mr. Scruffy was the main villian all along.
Whoosh?
If you say so. I don’t consider it a stretch that some folks would think Belkar is a villain.
If I’m not mistaken, disintegrate causes damage if the save is not made. Anyone want to guess what a Black Dragon’s save modifier is?
There are at least four ways the Disintegrate could fail to kill the dragon. First, Vaarsuvius could fail es attack roll. OK, that one’s not very likely, since an ancient dragon has a terrible touch AC, but it’s at least possible. Second, it’s subject to spell resistance. This may or may not be relevant, depending on what the splice did to V’s caster level: If it’s just the highest level of the four souls, then V has a somewhat better than even chance of beating it (d20srd.com is down at the moment, so I can’t look up the dragon’s spell resistance), but if es caster level is the sum of the levels of the four souls, then it’ll go through spell resistance as if it wasn’t even there. Third, the dragon could make her saving throw, taking only 5d6 damage: The Disintegrate probably has a save DC of 26 or less (6th level spell, 22 Int, Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus), while the dragon has a Fort save bonus of somewhere around +18 (again, can’t look it up right now), giving her a better-than-even chance of making the save. Fourth, even in the worst case scenario, Disintegrate maxes out at 40d6 damage, and while a dragon couldn’t just completely shrug that off, it’s still probably not enough to kill her.
This isn’t over yet, though. There’s a Chekov’s Gun still waiting to be fired. It’s absolutely certain, from a narrative standpoint, that someone is going to end up dying that Vaarsuvius doesn’t want to. Otherwise, the “no divine magic emulation” clause of the Splice would be irrelevant.
Dragons, scroll down to the Black Dragons by Age table. Depending on what age category she is – Mature Adult, at least – her Fort save is +18 or higher.
Of course, with three epic characters’ caster levels added in, V’s level is probably in the 70s now.
Someone on another forum pointed out that Disjunction has a chance of breaking an anti-magic field equal to 1% per the caster’s level - and V sure didn’t seem worried it wouldn’t work . . .
Anyone else think V looks really hot when evil?
And one of the top quotes is even from OOTS : "She’s wearing red leather. I mean, red leather?? Of course she’s evil! " - Haley
I think the big twist here is going to happen after the fight with the dragon. She’ll be able to defeat the dragon no problem. Maybe the dragon will say something about what she’s become, maybe she will say something un-Vish. V’s family’s reaction to her new look is a good bet. Because she can’t do divine magic, she’s going to have to get some help to heal her family, and I don’t think her former teacher/master/local healer/etc is going to react all that favorably to her choice. Or maybe the demons will call in their price immediately after she defeats the dragon, making it look like V herself kills her family. Lots of choices her, it all depends on how far the writer wants to take V down the path.
Vaarsuvius can’t heal their broken limbs, either.
Irregardless I’m sure that clause is going to frustrate V sooner or later though it might not be something that immediate.
Does “Quickened Disintegrate” make any difference in OotS? V seems to cast Disintegrate with a word, even using it twice in the space of a few seconds when dealing with the young black dragon. I would have thought a maximized disintegrate would have been a better option (and more fitting with the theme).
Qarr already stated that the dragon is Ancient, so +23, and another +1 from three levels of sorceror on top of that. So the dragon is literally at the point where she’ll only fail the save on a natural 1. Even if the caster levels from the four souls added (putting V at perhaps CL 80), save DCs don’t depend on caster level.
Dragons also have even more HP than I remember. Even on a hit attack roll, failed spell resistance, and failed save, she’s still going to lose less than half her HP to that Disintegrate. That’s still not bad for a quickened spell, though (equivalent of a tenth-level spell, confirming that the spliced souls are truly epic, not just metaphorically so), and it’s possible that V is planning, for reasons of personal revenge, on finishing the dragon off with nothing but suitably-metamagiced Disintegrates. Expect to see an intensified or maximized empowered Disintegrate in the next round, plus another quickened one.
EDIT:
That one was still under the effects of the Suggestion when the first Disintegrate went off, giving V two rounds to work with (and apparently e won the initiative roll on the second round). This fight, Momma Dragon apparently won initiative (casting the Antimagic Field), so V couldn’t have cast a non-quickened spell and the Disjunction before she got a chance to act again (and when you’re fighting an ancient dragon, you absolutely don’t want to give her any more actions than you absolutely need to).
The Cure spells from a Bard’s spell list are arcane. Under the rules laid out by the cloaks, V could use Wish to dupe them if V really wanted (and even thought of it).
V is holding onto the soul of an Epic necromancer and is of a high enough levle to be able to cast Clone (which is basically a very slow Ressurection for wizards). I personally think it would be hilarious if V uses his magic to murder a dramatic-death plot just as he did Kubota.
Clone requires a substantial tissue sample taken from the subject before death, and also requires months in a special laboratory which Vaarsuvius doesn’t have (unless he goes and borrows Grubwiggler’s). It’s pretty much useless compared with the divine dead-bring-back-ing spells.
Eschew Materials (theoretically) gets you past the tissue sample, and V can either Fabricate, Wish for, or simply commander one. (He can Wish for the tissue sample, come to that.)
Or the simple expedient of using his massive Conjuration sub-specialty to bring forth one of the many, many outsiders who can Resurrect or True Ressurect. That’s as simple as Greater Planar Binding a Planetar or similar.