The completely unofficial "The Order Of the Stick"-thread (SPOILERS!)

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Vaarsuvius's gender is undetermined and has been deliberately kept vague since quite early on. Some people refer to him as a he, others as a she, but whenever V talks about him/her self he/she always uses neutral words ("my mate" when talking about his/her marriage). It's a running joke at this point.

 

Let's see -- Meteor Swarm inflicts 6d6 points of damage per sphere, at 4 spheres that's 24d6 points worth of damage. At an average of 3.5 per roll, that's 84 points of damage from the metero swarm, assuming that each sphere hit and O-Chuul therefore didn't get to make a saving throw for half damage for any of the spheres. Then the maximized lightning bolt, the maximum is 10d6, so there's another 60 points of damage for a grand total of 144 points of damage -- assuming he didn't make a save against the lightning bolt.

O-Chuul is pretty tough, so we'll give him a Constitution score of around 19, which is a +4 bonus. That means that every hit dice beyond first he averages 9.5 hit points. Assuming that he took the Improved Toughness feat that raises it to 10.5 hit points per level. The fact that he's still alive shows that he must be at least 14th level. But even if he is 20th level, with over 200 HP, he can't take much more damage like that. Some other force has gotta intervene -- I'm hoping for the MITD.

 

Just a general compliment:
I'm continually amazed by the awesome quality of the storyline, and plot development in OOTS. It's a continuous storyline, but much of the story has been carefully planned and thought through in advance. It's not like many continuous storylines I'm used to on TV, where they kind of run out of momentum after a while. And the way that drama is used in it, it absolutely perfect. This guy is a great writer. He must have a whole team of geeks who create this comic, with perfect taste and sense for atmosphere. I can't put into words how impressed i am.
Give this guy a TV show!

 

OotS is doing great, too, but somehow I find myself missing the older strips' sense of humor. Also, I don't know if the style would translate that well into a TV show, though South Park isn't exactly a graphical masterpiece either. Now, Foglio's Girl Genius... I'd love if they made this into a TV series. It looks gorgeous in strips, and the story is simply great - I never was a fan of steampunk but I love every strip..

 

Who wants to bet that the spell cast on the amulet is Explosive Runes?

 

It would be fairly obvious... but that might be the exact same reason it might be something else. Heh.

BTW, this should be made into a demotivator, don't you think?

Spoiler

 

The last 2 strips are the best in a very long time.

I'm starting to really like this comic again. This is the type of humorous and exciting happenings that got me into it in the first place.

 

Sooooo, any more thought on what kind of creature it is now?

 

And at an acceptable speed.

 

You know, I am starting to wonder what V's level is. Failing a will save that an effective fighter (O-chuul has said charisma was originally his dump stat, so we are looking at a very minor/no bonus from divine grace) passed is something that should not happen to a high-level wizard.

 

He's not a high-level wizard, Xykon even calls him "mid-level". We never do find out what his level is exactly. It must be at least 11 to cast Disintegrate, but I don't think he ever casts any 7th level spells or higher (not counting the splices). Considering how much he loves Disintegrate, I would expect him to spam Finger of Death as well if he could.

 

I've always got the impression that V was a bit higher than that -- (s)he offered Meteor Swarm (and Time Stop, and Wish) to the drow wizard (Zz'dtri) from the Linear Guild in exchange for a house ruled 3.0 Fly. Of course, that could simply be an example of the Giant not thinking things through for the sake of humor.

Edit: It was comic #49, for those who wish to review.

Edit #2: I suppose (s)he could theoretically have added those high level spells to his/her spellbook as automatic spells at level up that (s)he has no need to roll for, but V doesn't strike me as the type who would forgoe a usable spell of the appropriate level for a spell that was not usable until later.

 

Judging by hisher expression in that strip (#49) and the fact heshe wasn't even looking at hisher spellbook, I think these 9th level spells weren't offered as such, but V was simply testing if any spells would elicit another reaction from Zz'dtri, with the implication that V knew Zz'dtri would just say "no" no matter how powerful the spell. Or I'm reading too much into what was at the time a simple webcomic with no overarching plot

 

And to return to the venerable origins of this thread...

ROY.IS.BACK!

 

The last two panels in #671 were hilarious

 

I love the faces in the comic. For stick figures I feel like there's a lot of depth

Yes, those last two panels were very good. Sloooow updates though.

 

I love Durkon giving pregnancy advice to the girl, especially the paralysis comment. Even the lamer strips are still pretty blasted good.

 

I'm not so sure. I definitely wouldn't call the latest one of the lamer strips. OotS has its ups and downs, but when it goes down it's downright mediocre. IMHO of course. It's been back on the up for some time though and there's finally signs that the plot is on the move again, hopefully this is the preliminary to some great strips.