Big fan, but am I ever jonesing for all this Roy-in-Heaven stuff to be over. I want to see Haley and Belkar, and know what happens to O-Chul.
Agreed – too much non-celestial-realm stuff going on that needs addressing.
…
Did you…did you shoot Roy’s corpse in the nuts?
You know, I am a little surprised that Roy hasn’t tried to find out what is going on back in the Prime Material. I understand the reason from the writer’s standpoint, of course, but Roy just doesn’t seem to be the type who’d meekly accept not knowing what’s up with his friends – or Xykon. And we know he’s looked back at least once, with he and Eugene on the cloud before his bureaucratic deva showed up.
Roy’s also not the type to fret about things he can’t change. He can’t affect Prime in any way, and he’s fairly confident he’ll be raised soon in any case, so why not take a chance for a short vacation while he waits? I’m sure he’s of the opinion he’s damn well earned it.
OK. Which makes me the bigger nerd here, the fact that:
-
I just read the entire strip in one sitting, after not having played a single game of D&D in 20 years, or
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I just read the entire strip in one sitting, after not having played a single game of D&D in 20 years, but I still understood all (or most of) the in-jokes about D&D foibles and rules?
So, I guess there are way more than 4 elemental planes that meet to make up the Prime Material, huh? Like 117 (unnilseptium being so far unaccounted for?) If you summoned an unnilhexium elemental, would it shrink to disappearance almost immediately? Could you make a chlorine elemental fight a sodium elemental and wind up with a huge pile of salt? Man, what a treasure trove you could get by killing a gold elemental, huh? I suppose it could be argued that the intersection of all those planes gives us all our atoms, and thus molecules. Spiritual Chemistry, huh? That could really throw a wrench in the D&D extraplanar canon. Are there Isotopic Paraelemental planes? Oooooh! Quantum Elemental Planes! Quark quark quark quark!
Sorry.
PS: I love Belkar!
…hmmm, the old “unnil-” convention for the later elements seems to have been dropped for “unun-”, as in ununhexium. Didn’t know that.
How about an unobtanium elemental?
I’ve never played DnD in my life, but I love the strip and get the vast majority of the jokes. Unless, I suppose, perhaps I don’t even notice something is supposed to be a joke…
It’s great that they have a chaotic evil halfling, Belkar AKA the Belkster AKA Death’s 'lil helper.
My favorite callback joke was that in the long line of southerners getting into heaven was the priest Redcloak killed in a magic duel. He’s looking at his own character sheet and realizing that his saving throw was actually a 22, not the 21 he thought he had at the duel.
Have you guys noticed:
I prepared explosive runes this morning.
Alas, you only get to correct overlooked bonuses if you declare them right away.
New OotS already. He’s on a roll these last few days.
Rich Burlew explains why (bolding mine):
You owe me a new monitor.
Apparently some people have been whining about the schedule slip. :rolleyes:
Geez, I’m not thrilled at the fact that OotS (and Erfworld) generally haven’t been updating as often as expected, but it hasn’t caused me to lose my basic sense of civility and personal boundaries.
Well, if he’s able to churn out new episodes this fast, then he’s probably feeling better. Which is good news.
OK, I noticed and chuckled at this strip in Dragon, but it really seemed to get a lot better when I read the “main” storyline. Anyone knows if anyplace has the Dragon strips together?
OK, so, alignments and stuff:
Roy - Lawful Good
Belkar - Chaotic Evil
Durkon - Chaotic Good?
Elan - Lawful Good?
Haley - Chaotic Good?
V - uh, Neutral Good?
Also, what do you suppose their levels are?
Also, why wouldn’t Belkar get the XP from slaughtering the horde of hobbos outside the Azure City walls?
“I’m the eighth dwarf - Stabby.”
Well…
Roy - Lawful Good
Recent strips make this plain.
Belkar - Chaotic Evil
There was debate on the OotS forums about this. The debate was stupid. He’s CE all the way.
Durkon - Chaotic Good?
According to the board game, he’s Lawful Bland. Given his behavior, I’d say he’s solidly LG.
Elan - Lawful Good?
Elan self-identifies as Chaotic Good in #445. Also, he’s wearing stolen clothes.
Haley - Chaotic Good?
I agree.
V - uh, Neutral Good?
Maybe. I’d actually guess true Neutral. All we know for sure is that (s)he’s not Evil, due to a demonstrated vulnerability to Unholy Blight (#11).
Best estimates suggest they’re around L12-13, based on the levels and numbers of spells used and lots of even more geeky analysis.
Roy apparently has lots of hit points for his level, has excellent saves, or had an incredible streak of luck in his fight with Xykon.
Individually, they were no threat to him. He killed one with every attack, and only about 1 in 20 of them even managed to scratch him. Their Challenge Rating is too low for him to get XP for the individual hobgoblins. The Encounter Rating, on the other hand, is evaluated as “Belkar vs. the hobgoblin army”. There’s a lot of funky math that relates the ER to the CR, but in the end, it means that Belkar will get XP for fighting the hobgoblins as a group, but not for individual kills.
He should also get roleplay XP for his “arrangement” with the EoFaF.
…and the kill! 
It’s my theory that Roy’s ‘player’ rolled no less than 16 for every single stat upon creation. It’s been heavily implied and demonstrated that he has high mental stats, and he’s a damn good fighter which means high physical stats as well. The only dump stat I can really see for him is Dex.