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->'''Yeagar:''' Oh, what do '''you''' know? You're only a henchman.
->'''Nodwick:''' Yeah, I was '''overqualified''' for an adventuring job.
-> The story of Nodwick is a classic tale of [[BoyMeetsGirl boy meets]] party, boy hires on with party, boy becomes injured, crushed, punctured, smelted, flattened, stapled, eaten, and occasionally used to carry stuff.
--> -- Nodwick's [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090406090325/http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/NodwickStats/roguesgallery.html Rogues Gallery]]
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/ Nodwick]] was a print-and-webcomic by Aaron Williams, (author of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' and ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'') starting as a standalone comic strip in Dragon Magazine in 1998 before diversifying into an arc-based print comic while moving its standalone comics into a webcomic format. It focuses on what can only be called a misadventuring group in a fantasy world based loosely on 'classic' ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' settings: The party consists of a [[DumbIsGood less than worldly cleric named Piffany]], a [[TheSmartGuy power-hungry wizard named Artax]], a [[TheBigGuy dim brawler named Yeagar]] and Nodwick, [[ButtMonkey a completely expendable henchman whose job it is to carry the loot, distract the monsters and disarm the traps (by stepping on them)]]. The print comic followed a story arc concerning the party's battle with an evil god called Baphuma'al, while at the same time the online variant and its apperances in Dragon Magazine provided shorter a-gag-a-week stories that were unrelated to the goings-on of the print story.
After having completed its bimonthly print run in 2008 after 36 issues, the comic is currently on hiatus as Mr. Williams focuses on ''[=PS238=]'' and ''Full Frontal Nerdity''. The author instead uploaded the story from the print comic into the website for free in lieu of new strips. The last page of the print comics was posted on April 5, 2013.
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?cat=5 Here's old issues]], from {{Dragon Magazine}} and {{Dungeon Magazine}}.
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?cat=14 Here's newer web comics.]]
----
!!''Nodwick'' provides examples of:
* AbnormalAmmo: Henchmen. Yeagar also develops a stone thrower that requires the discs to be saucer-shaped. One strip features a crank-powered sword-shooting gun.
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Justified in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-12-14 #1255]] when the sewers drain into caves.
* ActionGirl: Rowen in the print comic.
* AllJustADream: One strip featured the characters as ordinary people who happened to be playing a game of D&D with Aaron Williams as the DM. Nodwick's player wanted a new character, but Williams insisted that despite being a ButtMonkey, his role was vital to the party's success. Cue Nodwick waking up and looking confused.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted. They encounter a [[{{Mook}} Kobold]] accountant.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2010-02-12 You'd be surprised]]..."
** And a down-on-her-luck Drow squatting in the party's basement due to a housing crisis.
* AmusingInjuries: Verbally. Half the fun of Nodwick suffering a severe injury comes from statements such as "I can't feel my kneecaps...oh wait, yes I can, they're in my shoes."
* AnArc: The print comic.
* AnachronismStew: Plenty. References are made to things that are centuries ahead of the apparent technology level, such as one storyline where magic is treated in the same way as a PC system. Other small examples include references to Daylight Savings Time and modern technology like submarines.
* AppealToTradition: the wizard Liam Geakes tries to rework magic to make it easier to use, and know other magicians down a peg or two. One problem: the new system is awfull, and full of {{Weaksauce Weakness}}es. Naturally, the magical community is not happy with him.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: A certain [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield Sword in the Stone]], which if pulled out too early, will curse the land with fire raining from the sky. It adds additional curses if someone is dumb enough to put it back in... And additional ones if you pull it out again, and so on and so on. These curses get increasingly silly, such as every firstborn child becoming a lawyer, demons building mini-malls, incontinent pelicans, "reagonomics", and ''market-researched sit-coms''.
** Curiously, for such an extensively planned curse, it doesn't have any dispensation for what happens when someone gets fed up with the bullshit and ''breaks the sword''.
*** None ''that we see''. The guys with the book listing the curses are still searching when the party leaves.
** And then there are the rumored consequences for circumventing established spellcasting procedures:
--> '''Artax:''' We are sooooo '''dead.''' I hear that anyone who even '''thinks''' about challenging [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Liam Geakes]] meets with an '''unfortunate "accident,"''' usually involving perforation... decapitation... having your credit rating '''trashed...'''
** There's also the angry viking chieftain challenging the sea serpent that has been terrorizing their settlement...
--> '''Chief:''' You sank our ships! You killed our brethren! But worst of all...*gestures at Nodwick and company*...you made me hire these morons!
* ArtEvolution: The artwork and character designs have gradually become more streamlined and exaggerated since the beginning. Given a LampshadeHanging in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-01-31 one strip]], where Artax observes that Nodwick's nose is much larger than it used to be, and Nodwick offers the hypothesis that it's developed as a counterweight for all the treasure he's made to lug around.
* ArtifactOfDoom: Half the group's income derives from hunting for these. Usually with some [[strike:lying]] spin doctoring to make them more palatable to Piffany.
* BackFromTheDead: Nodwick. And he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-08-08 required by law]] to fill out a new birth certificate every time. [[DeathIsCheap On a busy week]] it's rather inconvenient.
* BadassAdorable: Piffany. For all her childlike mannerisms, she's ultimately the lynchpin keeping Baphuma'al from taking over the world. Major demons and Infernal lawyers fear her.
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: When Piffany is recalled to her abbey, she's [[BreakTheCutie deliberately]] given the "difficult" class by the AlphaBitch, populated with demons, children of villains and the possessed.
* BasementDweller
* BerserkButton: Curse enough around Piffany, and she can apparently kick her way through prison bars to deliver an indignant scolding. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-04-05 Don't]] suggest giving up and going home when there's evil to be smote, either.
** If you hurt Piffany in any way or damage her happy optimistic outlook on life, expect [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-04-23 Artax, Yeagar, Nodwick]] and the ''[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-28 Powers What Is themselves]]'' to get pissed off with you. This [[CaptainObvious tends to have rather unpleasant outcomes]].
--> '''Powers What Is''': Leave the cleric alone. If you do anything that keeps her from doing her nice-thoughts-and-fluffy-kittens work, we'll bust you so far down that an army of theological scholars won't be able to find mention of you in a million years! You got that?
* BewareTheNiceOnes: When Piffany gets upset, she gets pretty fantastically upset. During the jousting tournament story, Artax suggests that she has a lot of repressed aggression she channels into her enthusiasm for such a violent sport, and at another time she actually kicks a prison cell door off its hinges and lock when angry at Yeagar. Or one time when Baphuma'al abducts Nodwick:
--> '''Piffany''': "If that evil stinky-head hurts our friend, I will give you religious literature every day for the rest of your life... as a suppository!"
* BigBad: Baphuma'al in the print comics, Count Repugsive in many of the shorter strips.
* BoisterousBruiser: Yeagar, when he's being nice.
** JerkAss, when he's not. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-02 Case in point]].
* BreatherEpisode: Once Baphuma'al is on the scene, most serious stories are immediately followed by a silly one. Baphuma'al's introduction is followed by a {{Superman}} parody, "A World Without Piffany" by several (mostly) standalone issues, the Gauntlet of Supremacy story by a mixed-up fairy tale story, and so on. Several of the Breather Issues still have bits of the main plot threaded through them, but mostly just to set a few [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Guns]] for later.
* BringMyBrownPants: Invoked when Artax, Yeagar and Nodwick wind up on an [[ItMakesSenseInContext accidental camping trip]]:
--> '''Nodwick:''' ''(seeing stick-figure people hung up in the trees)'' Well ''this'' is ominous.
--> '''Yeagar:''' If "ominous" means "something that makes you need to change your shorts", then I've learned a new word today.
--> ''(later)''
--> '''Yeagar:''' I just ''ominoused'' myself.
* BrokeTheRatingScale: Once, when Yeagar gave up the seven deadly sins, '''he invented an eighth'''. Suffice to say, they don't make him try to give them up any more.
--> '''Yeagar:''' I think we called it '''blasphitrociterra-o-rama''' or something. It was pretty fun, actually.
* BrotherhoodOfEvil: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-22 The Brotherhood of Evil Henchmen]]
* ButtMonkey: Nodwick, whose ''job description'' involves carrying extreme weights, suffering abuse, and being completely expendable.
** To put this in perspective, Nodwick is hired ostensibly to provide someone who can carry things. However, the less morally constrained members of his party put him to other use:
---> [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-30 It was Yeagar]] who pioneered many of the techniques in henchman use that adventuring parties use today. Far from relying on hirelings as mere human shields, he demonstrated their employ as projectiles, bait, door-jammers, and flotation devices.
** ... not to count battering ram, trap disarmer (as Artax at one point puts it, "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-06-27 In the same way stick disarms a bear trap]].") and an all purpose tool, with the only person with any moral decency at all in the party being too clueless to stop this. Said uses, more often than not, result in his death, only to Piffany to conveniently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-04-15 patch him up]] with [[DuctTapeForEverything Duct Tape]], so that said abuses can be heaped upon him all over again. And all of this takes place on top of the fact that he is frequently expected by his employers to haul several metric tons of "loot." To make matters worse, his guild is manipulated by the Adventurers Guild so that the president is a hamster and his health plan consists of a bottle of poison (The exact type of poison changes periodically). His contract is utterly impossible to get out of and at one point, he finds out that it is cosmically infeasible that he would ever get out of his current situation. This is so bad that when he dies, he is reduced to [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-01-22 begging the powers that be to let him stay dead]], only to find that he was due for resurrection yet again.
** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-14 Nodwick tried to turn it down immediately]]. (The reason being every time they tried to help him it either made matters worse for him or somebody else. If he died permanently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-28 Piffany would have a nervous breakdown]] and that goes against all of reality for her to angst. It doesn't help that he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-09-09 contractually obligated to stay with the party.]])
* TheCameo: Nodwick makes a few brief appearances in the live-action independent film ''The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising''.
** [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death of the Endless]] appears briefly in one issue of the comic when Yeagar temporarily dies. She asks him if he's seen "the henchman" (meaning Nodwick), saying that she "keeps missing" him.
** Open the official D&D supplement, ''Book of Vile Darkness'' to the Monsters chapter. Look very carefully at the party of adventurers those two skeleton monsters are about to attack. Familiar?
** Nodwick and the party also appears in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' as part of an elaborate time-travelling/dimension-hopping plot.
* CannotTellALie: Piffany not only lacks the ability to lie, she [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-07-11 can't even keep her mouth shut]] while others do so.
* CaptainErsatz: The god Tharizduuhm is a pretty obvious [[EldritchAbomination ersatz Tharizdun]], himself something of an ersatz Lovecraftian Old One. However, [[DemonicSpiders Lolth]], {{Spider-Man}}, and [[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Count Strahd]], among others, all appear as themselves.
* CataclysmBackstory: The world used to be a technological paradise right up until a scientist destroyed everything when his Time Machine spectacularly misfired.
** Actually he brought the equivalent of a high tech palm pilot with him and that was enough to cause the Cataclysm.
* CerebusSyndrome: in the print comic; with Baphuma'al as KnightOfCerebus.
* CharacterAlignment:[[invoked]] Not surprisingly, since it's inspired by ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. They actually have official character sheets (for 2nd Edition) that were published in DragonMagazine and then later added to the online archive. Then again, the dissonance between their sheets and how they act is a deliberate part of the humor.
** For those interested, Piffany and Nodwick are LawfulGood (to no-one's surprise), Yeagar is apparently ChaoticGood, and Artax is NeutralGood (though gods know how, considering how they treat most of their fellow beings -- and Nodwick). Or, as the ''first'' strip says:
---> '''Nodwick''': I guess the "LawfulGood" in your want ad was a typo, right?
---> '''Yeagar''': Our cleric placed the ad; she's a bit of an idealist.
** Presumably it's a joke at the expense of those roleplayers who end up playing good alignments as neutral -- certainly Artax ''acts'' TrueNeutral and Yeagar is textbook ChaoticNeutral.
* ChekhovsHobby: Sort of. The weapon that can kill Baphuma'al is an arrow, but this leaves the heroes with a small problem - none of them are any good with a bow. [[spoiler: Fortunately, Rowen (who has just joined them) is an expert with it. She doesn't actually use her archery skills until the FinalBattle, but it does come in ''very'' handy then.]]
* ChekhovsGun: In one of the first Nodwick strips, Yeagar remarks that the party really needs a thief; Artax reminds him that their last one is still in therapy. [[spoiler: Years later, we discover that Artax and Yeagar are the ''reason'' said thief was in therapy...]]
** In the print comic, [[spoiler:Piffany's FirstKiss.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: The series ''loves'' these:
** First of all, [[spoiler:the hamster gets superpowers]] at the end of ''Last Son of Xenon''. No mention is made of them again until the final confrontation with Baphuma'al.
** Another example: [[spoiler: In an early issue of the print comic (the first appearance of Baphuma'al, in fact) the party breaks the curse of a pixie who is cursed to work as a tooth fairy. Again, this storyline is not mentioned again until Piffany asks for her help before the final battle against Baphuma'al.]]
** The most important one, [[spoiler: was a prophecy that Piffany mentions in one episode, how her first kiss will unleash great holy power that can smite the greatest of evils. This is forgotten about until the FinalBattle, where Nodwick tricks Elonan into trying to kill her and Yeagar with an unholy version of a wedding, which enables her to unleash this power, defeating Baphuma'al once and for all.]]
* [[TheChewToy Chew Toy, The]]: once again, Nodwick.
* CloningBlues: More than once, Artax has tried out his clone spell on Nodwick. The results have ranged from simple leftover heads to ''legions of Nodwick zombies''.
* CloudCuckooLander: In the print comics, this is the fate of [[spoiler:Elonan]] after overspending her power. A rather dark example altogether, [[spoiler:given that she starts treating the undead as her family and [[ItMakesSenseInContext tries to kill off our heroes with a wedding ceremony]]]].
* [[ClusterFBomb Cluster K Bomb]]: KRUTZ!
* ComedicSociopathy: Yeagar and Artax
* CosmicPlaything: "The Powers What Is" have stated that Nodwick is a "destiny sponge". If he doesn't suffer, the rest of the world suffers instead. Which makes Nodwick something of a martyr...who comes back to life to be martyred again...and then comes back to life to be martyred again...I'm gonna stop right there.
* CrapsackWorld: Society has devolved to a feudal system, none of the sentient races get along, the gods argue all the time, and there are far too many carnivorous monsters for Nodwick's tastes.
** Then their attempts to help the creation of a perfect world turn out even ''worse'' with the creation of a world occupied entirely by absurdly muscular fairies who talk like Piffany, do all-night magic research sessions, and then have to cope with 200 proof water.
** It's still a picnic compared to the parallel world in ''A World Without Piffany''. Baphuma'al runs the place.
* {{Crossover}}: Several with ''FullFrontalNerdity'', the author's other ''D&D''-based comic.
** ''A World Without Piffany'' includes a sequence where Nodwick is rapidly zapped into various other universes, which include ''{{PvP}}'', ''ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie'', and ''DorkTower'' ([[LampshadeHanging the last just as one of the characters is ranting about gratuitous crossovers in comic books]]).
** And [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-08-28 speaking of Phil...]]
** As well as [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of their characters in the "[=Q4orce=]" side stories, set in the ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' universe.
** [[ComicBook/{{PS238}} Atlas]] makes an appearance in [=Q4orce=] as well, and issue 39 of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' is a cross-over with ''{{Nodwick}}''.
** An annual issue of ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' featured a three-way crossover between the magazine's three comic strips, with each cartoonist taking over another's strip (Creator/JohnKovalic did ''{{Nodwick}}'', Phil Foglio did ''DorkTower'', and Aaron Williams did ''[[Creator/PhilFoglio What's New?]]'') and inserting in-jokes from his own comic.
* CyanidePill: The Henchman union's health plan is a vial of poison, the first month it was literally cyanide, another time it was hemlock.
* DeadpanSnarker: Nodwick. Artax takes over the role if Nodwick isn't around, and his EvilCounterpart Ildomir in the print comics gets rather sarcastic when things aren't going his way.
* DeathIsCheap: Nodwick has to file a new birth certificate with his union every time he dies. His file holds ''eight trees'' worth of paper.
** In one issue of the comic book, he dies 10 times ''on one page'', and many many more times in the rest of the issue. He dies so often that the compilations have a "Rest Index Peace," an index of which pages he dies on, and in what manner. (Which itself was discontinued after the second book or so because it just became TOO MUCH to keep track of.)
* DisproportionateRetribution: In ''A World Without Piffany'', someone was left to rot in a dungeon for ''littering''.
* DistaffCounterpart: Rowen turns out to be ''very'' much alike Yeagar, only one with breasts and a bow. (And Orville, though you know that Yeagar would steal a pet dragon if given half a chance.) It's very evident in the ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' crossover where they're introduced arguing over both of them squandering the party's money on carousing that they were supposed to put towards the latest round of damages to the Fang and Flagon tavern.
* TheDitz: The Evil Henchman Beobor from the print comic. Nodwick's constant bamboozling of him makes Yeagar look smart by comparison.
* {{Doppelganger}}: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-02 Though not a very in-character one]].
* DuctTapeForEverything: The favoured healing method of our party's cleric. She has a holy HumongousMecha that shoots duct tape to [[DeathIsCheap resurrect]] Nodwick.
* DumbIsGood: Both played straight with Piffany (good, but naive and either ''very'' [[SelectiveObliviousness selectively oblivious]] or has a real problem with [[FailedASpotCheck failing spot checks]]) and Artax (smart, but utterly amoral), and subverted with Yeagar (dumb as a stump and not very nice) and Nodwick (smart and good, making it a wonder he ever became a henchman in the first place).
** It should be noted that Piffany is usually very perceptive when it comes to everything ''except'' Artax and Yeagar's antics. (One of the earlier comics showed that Piffany is intentionally ignoring it.)
* DragonMagazine: One of its longest-running comics, going unbroken once introduced all the way to the final print issue.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Baphuma'al gets introduced pretty early on. However no one would suspect that it is [[spoiler: The head of the Evil Henchman Guild.]]
* ElephantGraveyard: The Henchman's Graveyard. Whenever a henchman reaches the point where he is about to die of old age, he takes all the loot he can carry and goes to this sacred place, which can only be found by henchmen. [[spoiler:There isn't any treasure there. Only one henchman has ''ever'' died of natural causes, and he died bankrupt due to his party robbing him blind.]]
* EmpathicWeapon: The (now defunct) AD&D character sheets from long ago detailed how Yeagar's sword was an intelligent [[InfinityPlusOneSword Holy Avenger]], a powerful sword meant for paladins, but being stuck in Yeagar's service has rendered it traumatized and catatonic. A later strip showed it chatting telepathically with another sword (wielded by Yeagar's opponent) as they both commiserated over being stuck with idiotic owners to whom they refuse to reveal their true natures.
* EndOfTheWorldSpecial: [[spoiler:Yeagar]] of all people get the opportunity for this near the end of the print comic.
* EveryoneHasStandards: In one early strip, Nodwick was going over the contents of the haul, and found a ''Ring of Protection +7''. Naturally, all three of his employers wanted it (in the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game, +5 is usually the limit, making such a thing priceless) until he told them it was a ''Nipple'' Ring of Protection + 7, at which point they all said they'd pass.
* EvilCounterpart: In the print comic Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan are this for Yeagar, Artax and Piffany respectively.
* EvilSorcerer: The party faces these on a regular basis in the webcomic. Ildomir from the print comic is perhaps the most pronounced example, although he's technically a wizard.
* EvilTwin: Inverted, [[spoiler:Yeagar]] ends up developing a good twin in the print comic after enough smacks to the head with the clue-by-four.
** [[spoiler: Well is less Good Twin and more Enlightened Twin. Regular Yeagar is rather dumb.]]
* EldritchAbomination: So ''very'' many.
* ElvesVsDwarves: A brief war ended because A) the ArtifactOfDoom both sides were looking for would have killed both sides if it was used, and B) they decided the humans needed careful watching, since the stuff in their tavern cellar is clearly an explosive siege weapon - it can't possibly be drinkable (see GargleBlaster below).
* [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Even Henchmen Love Their Mamas]]: Nodwick's helmet is a gift from his mother, and he demands to know which is the original when he gets [[CloningBlues cloned]].
** This is subverted with Orville. Apparently, his species is driven by instinct to kill their mothers, and this works to the heroes' advantage at one point. [[spoiler: Elonan uses a spell that causes the heroes to perceive her zombies as their parents or former mentors, intending to fool them into being vulnerable to their attacks, and this almost works. However, because Orville regards his mother as an enemy, he becomes enraged and incinerates them.]]
* FailedASpotCheck: Piffany repeatedly fails to spot Athax and Yeagar's more egregious abuses of Nodwick. It's implied it may be more SelectiveObliviousness.
* FairyTales [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2010-08-04 One stand-alone story in the print comic]] has Nodwick and crew reenacting several classic fairy tales.
** FracturedFairyTale: HilarityEnsues as the characters start rebelling against their roles and act like themselves instead of the characters they're supposed to be, which epically messes up the fairy tales.
--->'''Narrator:''' OnceUponATime, there was a beautiful princess. Her beauty was so that it outshone the queen. The queen grew jealous, and exiled the princess to the forest, in the hopes that she would be felled by the beasts living there. The princess was found by a kindly troupe of seven dwarves, five of which were on vacation and one of which had a hyperactive thyroid condition...\\
'''Yeagar (as Disney/SnowWhite):''' This is really starting to get old.\\
'''Nodwick (as dwarf):''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Wow. If the queen exiled]] '''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny you]]''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny for being]] '''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny pretty]]'''...\\
'''Yeagar:''' Can it, Dopey.\\
'''Artax (as dwarf):''' Ugly jokes and men in dresses. Two '''dead horses''' that can't avoid being '''beaten'''...
* FighterMageThief: Subverted, as the group mirrors the classic D&D party - a cleric, a wizard, a fighter, and a thief -- but they don't have a [[strike:thief]] [[strike:[[RougeAnglesOfSatin rouge]]]] rogue. Instead, Nodwick disarms traps... the way a stick disarms a bear trap.
** They used to have a rogue. They fired him for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin stealing from them]].
*** Only after Nodwick caught him (see CrowningMomentOfAwesome); the first time they had to force a cursed helmet on him that drove him insane for a few years.
* FluffyTheTerrible: "Naughty furry thing with slimy tentacles, [[EyeBeams death ray eyes]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking cute, fluffy tail]]! [[AC:whack!]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The later Gauntlet of Supremacy and Orb of Omniscience storylines were [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-21 hinted at]] during "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."
** The items themselves were also used by Yeagar and Artax respectively in ''A World Without Piffany.''
** "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" also introduced the Powers What Is, who would later prove instrumental in the final fight against Baphuma'al.
* ForWantOfANail: The multi-part "World Without Piffany" storyline features an AlternateReality which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. [[spoiler: Without Piffany, Nodwick was KilledOffForReal shortly after Artax and Yeagar hired him, neither of them were able to rid themselves of two [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]] that they later found, both became CoDragons to Baphuma'al, and he ended up ruling the world. Nodwick witnesses this horrible reality and escapes, and the knowledge he brings back is able to convince Piffany's abby to let her continue her adventuring career.]]
* FourthWallMailSlot: Though it [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-09-19 just doesn't end well]].
** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Oh yes it does.]]
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Piffany, whose most terrible crime is that she once smooshed a bug. And she did a week's penance just for that!!!
* FunetikAksent: Master "Franswa," a recurring bit character who speaks with an exaggerated French accent. (Or whatever this world's equivalent of France must be.) He's the only one who ever speaks with it, too.
* FutureBadass: Nodwick, thanks to the power of {{Save Scumming}}. To elaborate, Nodwick touched an artifact that basically created a {{Save Point}}, sending him back in time every time he dies. Nodwick's companions being their usual competent selves meant that Nodwick had to go back to the start of the loop repeatedly, eventually becoming a Fighter/Mage/Cleric of greater power than any of them. His enhanced abilities don't last past the end of that comic, [[StatusQuoIsGod of course]].
** Both Artax and Yeagar get a very negative version of this in some of their alternate futures. In ''A world without Piffany'' and ''It's A wonderful afterlife'', we find out that without Piffany or Nodwick around, Yeagar and Artax get ensnared by (respectively) [[ArtifactOfDoom The Gauntlet of Supremacy and the Orb of Omniscience]]. In ''A World Without Piffany'' they also end up as dual [[TheDragon Dragons]] to BigBad Baphuma'al. That said, Artax still tries to oppose Baphuma'al when he can. Not that he can often, when the guy's literally a [[PhysicalGod god]] that rules the world.
* GambitPileup: Played with in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-08-20 this strip]] and the following ones, in which LITERALLY everyone in the country is trying to take the throne for themselves.
* GarageSale: The party has to hold a yard sale to sell off the excess junk they'd been looting from dungeons when they learn that Nodwick had been forced to build an extension to their house out of looted junk to store the ''rest'' of their looted junk.
* GargleBlaster: Skullwhomper Ale. Apparently the stuff is so volatile that the elves and dwarves thought that it was some kind of high explosive (Which can potentially cause a fireball 15 miles across). [[spoiler: It was actually invented by a dragon as a doomsday weapon - he was really embarrassed when he learned that humans were drinking the stuff]].
--> '''Nodwick:''' [[spoiler: Why is this recipe labeled "Liquid of Fiery Vengeance"?]]
* GenreBlind: Most adventurers, villains and non-henchmen.
* GenreSavvy: Quite a lot of the characters. Often at the same time as being GenreBlind about a lot of other stuff.
* GhostlyGoals: Parodied. Nodwick stays around in ghost form whenever he's killed (until Piffany inevitably resurrects him) because his henchman contract makes him contractually obliged to not pass on as long as there's even a chance of revival at some point.
** The party also ends up assisting ghosts with their final requests a few times. One of them needed to return his neighbor's rake.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Baphuma'al and Ildomir in the print comic.
* GlurgeAddict
* GodOfEvil: Baphuma'al.
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Zigzagged. The gods have periodic manifestations and open conflicts, but more often work through mortal agents and prophecy. As well, while Baphuma'al gets to intervene directly, the various gods of good hang back and do nothing. [[spoiler:When they learn that Baphuma'al managed to cheat the system by learning the prophecies and actively circumventing them, the good gods get involved in helping the party prepare. This culminates in one of the higher gods and minor Power What Is Ranoa openly manifesting on the field of battle to create a distraction for the party's benefit]].
* GoodNewsBadNews: "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-09-03 I've got some bad news and some good news and some bad news...]]"
* GoofyPrintUnderwear: Artax wears blue boxers with gold stars and moons on them. It's an occupational obligation, apparently.
* HeelRealization: If you consider Yeagar to be a Heel, then he has a ''big'' one during the FinalBattle against Baphuma'al. [[spoiler: After receiving the power of Piffany's SacredFirstKiss, the PowersThatBe give him the ability to reshape the universe ''any way he wants to'', literally. His use of this power - which could have easily been abused if he had gotten it sooner - surprises even the PowersThatBe. He asks for one thing for himself, that the wedding he had been forced into be changed so that Rowen was the one marrying him (something she had wanted in the first place). Everything else he requested involved giving himself and his friends the edge they needed to defeat the villains, including giving Rowen the previously-misplaced weapon she needed to slay Baphuma'al.]]
* TheHecateSisters: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-09-25 Here]].
* TheHero: Yeagar. Nodwick may be the protagonist, but in the print comic the plot really rotates around Yeagar. He gets the most CharacterDevelopment, the deepest exploration of his issues, and takes center stage on a lot of important events. Several issues establish both Nodwick and Piffany as irreplaceable to saving the world, but ultimately it's because they're necessary to enable Yeagar to be the real hero of the story.
* HeroismIncentive: If Nodwick ever gets too tired to lug around all the junk the party loots, they give him Hench Snax, H-shaped biscuits with "enough amphetamines to make a dead mule do warp seven."
* HornyVikings: The heroes dealt with Vikings like these in one story, who wanted them to slay a sea serpent. In fact, that led to this interesting exchange after Yeagar tried using a cow as bait, which Piffany naturally objected to:
-->'''Piffany''': Now let's try a plan that doesn't get anyone hurt, especially cows!
-->'''Yeagar''' ''(aside, to Artax)'': Does she not know where Vikings get the horns for their helmets?
-->'''Artax:''' Let's not burst her bubble just now...
* HumansAreBastards: Played pretty straight most of the time, with the exceptions of Piffany and Nodwick. Artax at one point explains the origins of all the world's ruins as being a result of a human quest for experience points; while [[spoiler: Heathwick gleefully sells out to the Adventurer's Guild (themselves rather bastardly) when appointed President by Nodwick after the Hench Games. Within two seconds]].
* HumanPackMule: The main job of henchmen such as Nodwick. They have the ability to carry a much heavier load than their strength would otherwise allow.
* HumiliationConga: The final fate of [[spoiler:Ildomir]] in the print comic. [[spoiler:Unlike all the other villains who get killed, Ildomir survives and ends up doing community service shoveling dung for Krutzing Hollow.]]
* HumongousMecha: At one point, Piffany.
* ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere
* ImpossibleThief: The party's ex-thief, [[MeaningfulName Bezzler]], who apparently once stole all the tips from a bunch of strippers while they were in the middle of a striptease. During his brief re-stint in the party, he makes off with most of the party's loot and Nodwick's pants.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Someone on that page has suggested that that trope could be renamed The Piffany.
* InformedAttribute: The power of This One Ring. It didn't do anything for the dark sorcerer who made it, it didn't do anything for the king who killed the maker for it, and it didn't provably do anything to the halfling who found it later. Despite this (And [[OnlySaneMan Nodwick's attempts to point this out]]), the party insists that it is an incredibly evil and powerful artifact that must be destroyed.
** It even causes a DistantFinale. Nodwick claims that This One Rock (A randomly selected stone from the volcano where This One Ring was made) had just as much power as This One Ring - meaning none at all. A hundred years later, [[IdenticalGrandson an adventuring party that bears a considerably resemblance to Nodwick's party]] finds This One Rock, [[FromACertainPointOfView believing that since it is just as powerful as This One Ring, it must also be an incredibly potent evil artifact]], and seeking to destroy it.
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: Deeply subverted to the point that [[PowersThatBe The Powers What Is]] have to intervene.
* ItsPopularNowItSucks: InvokedTrope. Being a henchman is such an undesirable career that they're able to kill ''any'' annoying fad by making people think ''they'' like it. They claim to have done so with handlebar moustaches and Nehru tunics (bellbottom pants died on their own, but they were preparing to get rid of those), and were able to make people stop saying "krutz" within an hour.
* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Even Nodwick's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-12-24 happiest dreams]] are doomed to be interrupted by plot, destiny, or whatever else is at hand.
* {{Jerkass}}: Yeagar, frequently. Artax gets in on it too frequently.
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Both of them get shown rather more sympathetically in the print comic's storyline; mostly because they've got some genuine evil to thwart and inter-party ComedicSociopathy really kills the 'team spirit'. Especially Yeagar, who gets genuine CharacterDevelopment and a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to explain some of his inner demons.
* JokerJury: The Council of Three and a Half, composed of geeks Yeagar bullied in school. They shrink him and use him in one of their miniatures games.
* JustThinkOfThePotential: everyone wishes that Artax would stop doing this.
* KillItWithWater: Piffany's answer to sneaky undead: "H2oly Sacred Soaker".
** One time they eliminated a giant demon by getting Piffany to bless ''an entire lake'' and splashing the demon with it.
* KleptomaniacHero: The absurd amount of worthless junk that the party loots during quests and forces Nodwick to carry home has to be seen to be believed.
** At one point, Nodwick ''builds a new wing'' onto their house out of junk - to house the ''rest of the junk''.
* KnightInSourArmor: 'Knight' is pushing it, but Nodwick is an altogether nice and loyal person (almost overly so) while at the same time being extremely cynical and resigned to a life of pain as a henchman.
* {{Ladette}}: Rowen. She's basically a gender-flipped (and saner) Yeagar.
* LampshadeHanging:
--> "It makes your clothes grow, too?" "This version does. There were some ''major problems'' with the first version when-" "THANK YOU! That's enough information."
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The Clergy In Black have a ring that induces this. For some reason it has no effect on Piffany, so she went for years wondering why they make a point of showing her that ring every time they meet.
* LethalChef: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-03-16 Yeagar]], [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-01-30 whose idea of a special treat involves ingredients a month past their use-by date]].
* LetsGetDangerous: What happens whenever Piffany cries to any males in the area. At one point the very possibility of her crying caused an army of mercenaries that been hired by a Orc Lord to destroy the Orc Army, retake their home lands and rebuild all the destroy villages.... in a week.
** Actually ''hurting'' Piffany is likely the easiest way to make Yeagar, Artax, AND Nodwick fly into a rage. Nodwick usually gets killed in these situations, naturally, but this is one of the few times where Yeagar and Artax will risk their own lives.
* LongRunner: Lasted 10 years. Still isn't 'finished' so much as 'on hiatus' while ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' gets the limelight.
* LoveMakesYouEvil:/LoveRedeems: When Yeagar describes his history with Rowen it sounds like he became a jerk because things didn't work out between them. When Rowen describes the past it sounds more like he only acted nice sometimes for her.
* LovePotion: Gets slipped into Piffany's lemonade.
* MeaningfulName: Piffany is a cleric. She probably had an epiphany at some point that sent her down this path.
* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: The party. Implied to be [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-10-22 repeat offenders in this regard]].
* MoralityChain: Piffany and Nodwick, albeit unintentionally, turned out to be the only thing able to save Artax and Yeagar from a life of evil in the print comics.
* MoralityPet: Piffany. What's more, she can take on this role for anyone but the most [[AlwaysChaoticEvil abjectly evil people and gods]], not just her own friends. Her ''cookies'' are so good that gods will threaten (and then back down from) holy wars over them, and legions of amoral mercenaries will fight evil monsters for free because she might cry if they took the side of evil.
* MusicalEpisode: The print comic story "Phantom of the Way, Way Off-Broadway Musical" ([[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-02-28 now uploaded]]). Artax casts a "spell of thespia" on Yeagar without checking its spell description, which turns out to be to turn the adventure into one "until end of production or until first tomato is thrown". The entire rest of the story is spend with both villains and heroes belting out {{Musical Pastiche}}s of 80ies rock and pop with new lyrics.
-->'''Utharr:''' (To the tune of "Enter Sandman") [[BreakingTheFourthWall We're all right/with copyright!/Parody!/Keeps the lawsuits far from me! ]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Yeagar and Artax have this moment when they [[spoiler: throw Nodwick into a Dimension Rift in attempt for Piffany to stay with the party. When it said that Nodwick is coming back and Piffany cries they don't take it well.]]
* NegativeContinuity: The ''Dragon'' magazine and online-only comics. Some went on to get referenced in the comic book, but others have never been brought up again. A lot of the early ''Dragon'' comics involved the characters going through some classic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventures and giving them the {{MST}} treatment from within the adventure, for example - something that wouldn't fit well into the continuity of the later print comic.
* NerdGlasses: Piffany.
* NiceGuy: Nodwick himself. One story arc has him impress a [[NaughtyNuns pleasure cult "nun"]] by looking her in the eye and listening intently while she talked about her feelings for four hours straight.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The villains started a chain of events that eventually led to their final defeat. [[spoiler: They created a golem to use in the Hench Games; the golem's actions resulted in the hamster gaining super powers. In turn, the hamster - due to his powers - was instrumental in defeating Baphuma'al. Of course, they could never have forseen this chain of events, but they started it nonetheless.]]
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-08-04 Like so]].
-->'''Yeagar:''' You don't understand! He's a ninja '''and''' a pirate!\\
'''Artax:''' That's a level of '''awesome''' you just can't beat without '''high explosives''', maybe.
** CoolVersusAwesome: They eventually settle on "Cannibal Vikings".
* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-11-26 Defied]] on at least one occasion, played straight myriad other times.
* NonActionGuy: Nodwick is lethally bad at combat. Yeagar tries to teach him the bow, and his first shot nails their neighbor through the head. At another point the party sends him to "join" the monsters in a dungeon, with the story that he's turned evil and betrayed the party - because as soon as Nodwick tries to help the monsters fight, he screws up so much he kills all the monsters (and himself) by accident, something that Artax and Yeagar were counting on to make everything easier.
* NoNameGiven: Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan weren't given names until long after their first appearance. This was even lampshaded by this exchange:
-->'''Nodwick:''' Hey, it's the evil-warrior-guy who used to hang out with the evil-wizard-guy and the evil-cleric-gal!
-->'''Piffany:''' We really need to get their names the next time we see them.
* NoodleIncident: A lot all around: There are many references to (mis)adventures the group have been on (and their aftereffects on Nodwick) scattered around the pages. A RunningGag and recurring source of fear for Yeagar in his backstory is something "Suzie Klopman" (we never learn who it is) did to him on his fifth birthday.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-02-13 ...so unspeakable, it is merely referred to as 'The Cheese Incident'.]]"
** And with [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-02-20 some]] incidents [[TooMuchInformation it would be best]] to leave them un-narrated.
** Yeagar once took holy orders (He was drunk at the time). He was kicked out after an incident involving [[NoodleImplements a sheriff, a cow, two tavern wenches and a chandelier]].
** One attempt to rescue a DamselInDistress resulted them accidentally turning the kidnapper's entire family into wereferrets.
* [[OhCrap Oh Krutz]]: Things often go to Yeah That Place in a handbasket.
* OnlySaneMan: Nodwick. Henchmen in general, actually, but especially Nodwick. (Nodwick once told the rest of the party that the reason he didn't become an adventurer was because he was overqualified.)
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame / OurGnomesAreWeirder: According to an old ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' strip, both races are just [[{{Hobbits}} halflings]] wearing fake beards and platform shoes. They get more money from {{Sourcebook}} royalties that way.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: In the FutureBadass strip, upon hearing that Nodwick has become a competent, powerful adventurer in his own right as a result of constant time-looping, Yeagar expresses the opinion that he's not sure if he likes the idea of Nodwick being better then all three of them, and Artax agrees to wipe his memories of his true power once he gets them out of this mess. Not only do they say this out loud and in front of Piffany, Piffany quite blithely encourages them to do so by telling them to keep an eye out for a spare left hand she can use to replace the hook the Adventurer-Nodwick has.
* PaperThinDisguise: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-03-04 Artax's Illithid disguise]]. At least he keeps his acting (relatively) believable.
** A RunningGag is how Piffany's order uses [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-11-30 a painfully fake moustache]] and nothing else as a valid disguise... And it always works.
** Even better than one may think. In one story, Nodwick was able to fool Baphuma'al himself with a simple fake moustache, along with Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan, even though they were ''specifically'' trying to keep him out of the caves where they were building their citadel.
* PayingForTheActionScene: At least once, Yeagar ended up with the tab for damages after a bar brawl — he was the last guy standing.
* PeepingTom: There's actually a goddess devoted to this in this reality (who, ironically, is often a victim of them).
* PhosphorEssence: We never actually see it (possibly because the [[PowersThatBe Powers What Is]] hide just how good she is), but as a child Piffany apparently kept her parents awake with her halo of purity.
* PoweredArmor: When Piffany messes with an old spell meant to summon angels, [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-05-05 she gets this.]] She is also shown in a [[Film/{{Aliens}} Power Loader]] in the Metal Dungeon story arc.
** The July 31st 2001 strip has a dwarf engineer who was "trying to invent a way to have hot tea on the battlefield, and it kinda snowballed". He is shown in a steam engine-assisted suit of superheavy platemail.
* PowersThatBe: The Powers What Is. (And in this reality, they actually have a sense of humor.)
* PowersViaPossession: Failing one check vs. [[EmpathicWeapon a sentient item]]'s Ego usually sucks. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-03-13 On the other hand]], having one's wits run over by ''three'' artifacts at once may work ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes wonders]]'' on some meek henchman.
* PowerTrio: Yeagar (id), Artax (ego), Piffany (superego). Nodwick is a henchman and gets no say in the matters, but is a superego.
** Amongst their evil counterparts in the print version, Utharr (id), Elonan (ego), and Ildomir (superego). Elonan and Utharr end up switching places [[spoiler:after Utharr becomes fully sentient as an undead and Elonan goes AxCrazy.]]
* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: "I've heard tell of a [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-10-22 silk hat that produces an endless supply of rabbits...]]"
* PunchClockHero: This party [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-04-18 definitely]] is.
* RealityWarper: They once got an artifact that allowed them to have something happen intantiously while remember what happened. The problem is that is when someone used it to attempt something that would never happen causes damage to reality. They wound up causing all of reality to break.
* RefusalOfTheCall: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-01-22 This]] strip right here is pretty much the trope's platonic ideal.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Artax. He has a very bad habit of thinking of all the PotentialApplications and wanting to try them out, often without fully thinking about the consequences. Generally he's not too bad - apart from repeatedly blowing himself and Nodwick up. However, he can veer ''very'' close to MadScientist on occasion, and there's an implication that if Piffany and the gang weren't around to stop him from ''concentrating'' on ways to blow up his lab, he'd probably end up JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. Indeed, his "Giants in the Earth" profile says that most of his ancestors/family wound up eventually killing themselves as a result of some magical experiment going wrong at some point in their lives.
* ReluctantWarrior: Piffany.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Played with in one story where Nodwick is given a growth potion to repel an army of invading orcs. The potion doesn't increase his mass, so he floats away in the breeze like a balloon.
* RiddlingSphinx: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-11-12 Fortunately, the Sphinx is flexible about the form in which it will accept the answer.]]
* RingOfPower: Parodied by This One Ring.
* RobeAndWizardHat: Artax
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The Legion of Princesses. (''Most'' of the time. In the issue where they appeared, however, they had to be rescued, much like other princesses. But even so, they weren't helpless.)
* SacredFirstKiss: Piffany, literally. Her first kiss will bestow a major blessing upon whoever she kisses (On the order of rewriting reality to suit the desires of the kissee), so she has made a conscious effort to avoid giving away her first kiss until such time as that blessing is needed, onto a person worthy of that blessing. [[spoiler:In the last issue of the print comic she kisses Yeagar, who rewrites reality to give the party a much-needed edge against Baphuma'al's forces.]]
* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: Countess Repugsive]]
* SarcasmFailure: It takes a ''lot'' to make Nodwick drop the snark. When he does, it's usually a sign that things have gotten ''really'' serious.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Yeagar starts talking like this after some exposure to the Clue-By-Four. After a few wallops more, he stops (having either evolved beyond 'language' or just realized smart people don't need to use big words to explain things).
* ShipTease: More than you'd expect between [[spoiler:Piffany and Nodwick]]. A lot between Yeagar and Rowen once she joins the cast.
* ShouldersOfDoom: Yeagar's shoulderpads are huge, (and their SpikesOfDoom are actually practical!), but even he can be cowed by shoulder pads with ''blades''.
* ShoutOut: Regularly.
** The four ancient magic-users who created the Orb of Omniscience are the [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1098 Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors, plus Romana]].
** In the ''LordOfTheRings'' parody, the Gollum character is [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1163 Smeagor]], who bears a striking resemblence to ''DorkTower'''s Igor "It must be MINE!" Olman.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=104 Get away from him]], [[Film/{{Aliens}} you birch!]]"
** [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death of the Endless]] shows up in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1510 issue 33]] when Yeagar dies, looking for Nodwick.
** [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1465 This page]] is a two-layered one: first, all the characters referenced in the different panels; second, the page format itself is lifted directly from several scenes in ComicBook/{{Powers}} when the main characters are canvassing various superpowered contacts for information relating to their current case.
* SlidingScaleOfFourthWallHardness: Has slid from one end to the other over the comic's history. The strip was introduced at the tail end of Williams' previous ''Dragon'' magazine work ''Floyd'' as [[AnimatedActor Animated Actors]] promoting their upcoming work. The early ''Dragon'' strips involved a lot of MediumAwareness, especially in strips where they were put through classic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventures or lampooning fantasy game tropes. As the series progressed - especially once Williams started the comic book version - the fourth wall breaking became much less common but never completely went away.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan, seriosly. No matter how many times the heroes defeated and humiliated them, they refused to ''ever'' consider for a minute that they were worthy adversaries. (Baphuma'al was like this too, but this was more of a case of StupidEvil on his part, seeing as he was someone with a Big Name and a Big Ego)
* SpontaneousChoreography: Yeagar asks Artax to cast a spell to make him more charming. The resulting spell makes Yeagar (And anyone around him) spontaneously go into song and dance routines.
* StatisticallySpeaking: Either Inverted or played straight. Nodwick, whose stats say he's weaker than Artax, can lift an impossibly heavy object and move it across the room because somebody decided it would look better there, but if he were to lift it on his own it would surely snap his spine. RuleOfFunny at work, which one character even lampshades when he suggests that this distinction between whether or not Nodwick can carry an object indicates something worrying about the universe. Eventually, the print comic published a special Henchman class for 3rd Edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' that got ridiculous bonuses to Strength ''only'' for the purposes of carrying stuff (up to +100 Strength at 20th level). Meanwhile, when they got statted for 2nd ed in Dragon Magazine #270, this was explained as being a function of ridiculously high Non-Weapon Proficiencies in various forms of hauling crap substituting for his lousy Strength.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Due to RuleOfFunny, the party's power level fluctuates wildly in the stand-alone strips, with the party going hunting for ancient dragons one week and doing interplanar travel and in the next are right back to being chased by a band of goblins. The print comic's MythArc makes them (slightly) more consistent, but the comic never directly involves the ruleset in its canon and their exact character levels are unknown outside some (now outdated) character sheets published in Dragon.
* SupremeChef: Piffany, whose cooking skills are so incredible that Nodwick was able to use her brownies and punch as part of a scheme to convince a mercenary army to fight off an orc horde and rebuild every single town destroyed by said horde (this having beaten the orc chief's offer to the mercenaries of allowing them a portion of the loot and their pick of the women of the conquered territory for not trying to stop them). Piffany's cooking was also at one point used to buy off an entire pantheon of deities who were jockeying to get Piffany to sign on as the avatar of one of them. She successfully dissuades them by giving up her COOKIE RECIPE. Heck, her cooking is so good, it's practically an in-universe Meme.
** Nodwick's being allowed to be lick the bowl whenever she bakes may be the only perk he gets from his job.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Baphuma'al wants to do this, [[MemeticMutation of course]].
* TakeThat: [[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Strahd von Zarovich]] [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=30 vs.]] AnneRice (he's ''so'' not a vampire). [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=43 The good side]] of [[TheWheelOfTime a certain]] DoorStopper. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=222 The D&D Movie]].
** [[{{Munchkin}} Certain sorts]] of gamers.
** The whole Macroscoff[[superscript:[[{{Microsoft}} TM]]]] [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=721 arc]].
--> '''Banner''': [[PeaceAndLoveIncorporated Innovation through overwhelming intimidation!]]
** "A Kind of Tragic" [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=744 arc]]
--> '''Jumping Nut with a Sword''': "[[ThereCanBeOnlyOne There will be only me!!]]"
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=797 The Last Son of Xenon]]. Complete with infamous "Super [[strike:Weaving]] Speedy Stitchery".
* [[TalkingIsAFreeAction Flashbacking Is A Free Action]]: Subverted. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=763 "Excuse me, but while the two of you were busy with this charming flashback, the lummox you were fighting de-meloned you both."]]
* TalkToTheFist: The party are naturals at this.
* ThemeNaming: All henchmen have "wick" at the end of their names.
* TheMerch: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=683 One example here]].
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Surprisingly, this Trope seems to be Inverted in this world; Artax claims Nodwick was in therapy after their exploration of the Temple of Elemental Evil. (And it seemed to take, although Artax's idea of a replacement for him was to use all the ''Clone'' scrolls he had lying around...)
* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: The point of the ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' parody issue "[[Music/{{Queen}} It's a Kind of Tragic]]".
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Overlapping a hair with NoManOfWomanBorn.
* [[TheyKilledKenny They Killed Nodwick]]: Multiple times per issue. The aforementioned ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' parody had about eight times on ''one page''. A few issues actually averted it because there was no means for Nodwick to be restored to life (such as in "A World Without Piffany"), so even he had to be more careful with himself than he was used to.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Nodwick has long since grown too abused and cynical for mere 'OhCrap' moments. Ildomir also gets into the spirit at times after a few run-ins with the party.
* TokenEvilTeammate: No, not Yeager; ''Artax'' is portrayed this way in the "Giants in the Earth" article dedicated to the crew in Dragon Magazine. Highlights of his past include the fact he left his last adventuring party specifically because he thought they were ''too heroic'', his blatantly implied role in murdering their former fighter (who was "mysteriously struck dead by lightning on an open field in the middle of a cloudless day"), and the fact he deliberately took up with Yeager because said former party rejected Yeager for not fitting their standards of behavior.
* TokenGoodTeammate: Piffany was this before they hired Nodwick, caught between Yeagar, Artax and their kleptomaniac rogue team-mate.
* TooMuchInformation: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=99 Here]].
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=223 Piffany]].
* UndignifiedDeath: Well, sure, it happens to Nodwick a lot, but he doesn't really mind. For a couple of other major characters, it was worse. In the finale, [[spoiler: Elonan fell into her own vat or necrotic fluid and was dissolved into goo. Not very dignified at all.]]
** Even worse was what happened to [[spoiler: Baphuma'al. After he was hit by Rowen's arrow, leaving him powerless, he made an attempt to escape by turning into a fly... But was swallowed by Orville. As if his career up to that point wasn't humiliating enough for a dark god of evil...]]
* Unsound Effect: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=389 Ka-Dimensional-Rift!]]
* UnusualEuphemism: "KRUTZ!"
** In reality, not so much a euphemism as a [[spoiler:literal "curse word" created by the evil wizard and cleric to power a resurrection spell for their comrade.]]
* UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: The wizard Liam Geakes creates a new magic system so that people can use magic without actually learning how it works. Problem is, he didn't do it so well, sure, anyone can cast a spell, anyone, with the proper knowledge, one of his books, the money to pay him, and of course, the resources of a flea market. Needless to say, the traditional system wins.
** "...you [[AC:[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=104 BIRCH]]!]]"
* VitriolicBestFriends: The party in general, especially Yeagar and Artax. The two bicker and insult each other routinely but clearly respect each other in their own way and consider each other equals. Artax and Nodwick also have a dynamic like this at times since Artax considers Nodwick an intellectual equal even though he frequently abuses him for his own gain. [[MoralityPet All three of them are also united in defence of Piffany]].
** In the print comic, [[spoiler:Yeagar]] is revealed to have an attitude like this towards [[spoiler:Nodwick]]. [[spoiler:When pressed by his good counterpart he goes on an irate rant about how Nodwick's intelligence makes him feel stupid and the constant snark, insults and smugness gets on his nerves, only to reply mumbling that "[[BlatantLies Piffany would miss him]]" when asked why he puts up with him.]]
* WeaksauceWeakness: Ildomir went to a school for wizards called the [[AcademyOfEvil Heractium Dark Arts Academy]], where teachers punished students with a song called "I Write the Spells" (a SongParody of the pop classic ''I Write the Songs'') which also made them more evil. Unfortunately, this punishment was too much for Ildomir, and ever since, simply hearing the song drove him to the brink of madness. And the E-13 magic system is filled with these, one of which being total magic failure near anyone thinking of "w".
* WeirdTradeUnion: There's the thieves' guild and adventurers' guild, of course, which are pretty standard fare. The henchmen union, however, really takes the cake. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=883 The employment contract is so draconian it prevents the henchmen from passing on]].
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Played straight, lampshaded, and played with frequently. A lot of the random monsters the party slays are given little regard, unless it would be funnier otherwise. But the king of this in the comic is the treatment of henchmen in general and Nodwick in particular. They are so poorly regarded they are effectively disposable. This would be horrifying if it wasn't for how easy it is to raise them, or that they seem to be MadeOfIron (again, unless it's funnier otherwise). This is derived from ''numerous'' stories of gamers treating NonPlayerCharacter hirelings as similarly disposable while playing games like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Ten foot poles and other trap-disarming tools cost money, but a dead hireling no longer needs to be paid...
* YourVampiresSuck
----
->'''Nodwick:''' Yeah, I was '''overqualified''' for an adventuring job.
-> The story of Nodwick is a classic tale of [[BoyMeetsGirl boy meets]] party, boy hires on with party, boy becomes injured, crushed, punctured, smelted, flattened, stapled, eaten, and occasionally used to carry stuff.
--> -- Nodwick's [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090406090325/http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/NodwickStats/roguesgallery.html Rogues Gallery]]
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/ Nodwick]] was a print-and-webcomic by Aaron Williams, (author of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' and ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'') starting as a standalone comic strip in Dragon Magazine in 1998 before diversifying into an arc-based print comic while moving its standalone comics into a webcomic format. It focuses on what can only be called a misadventuring group in a fantasy world based loosely on 'classic' ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' settings: The party consists of a [[DumbIsGood less than worldly cleric named Piffany]], a [[TheSmartGuy power-hungry wizard named Artax]], a [[TheBigGuy dim brawler named Yeagar]] and Nodwick, [[ButtMonkey a completely expendable henchman whose job it is to carry the loot, distract the monsters and disarm the traps (by stepping on them)]]. The print comic followed a story arc concerning the party's battle with an evil god called Baphuma'al, while at the same time the online variant and its apperances in Dragon Magazine provided shorter a-gag-a-week stories that were unrelated to the goings-on of the print story.
After having completed its bimonthly print run in 2008 after 36 issues, the comic is currently on hiatus as Mr. Williams focuses on ''[=PS238=]'' and ''Full Frontal Nerdity''. The author instead uploaded the story from the print comic into the website for free in lieu of new strips. The last page of the print comics was posted on April 5, 2013.
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?cat=5 Here's old issues]], from {{Dragon Magazine}} and {{Dungeon Magazine}}.
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?cat=14 Here's newer web comics.]]
----
!!''Nodwick'' provides examples of:
* AbnormalAmmo: Henchmen. Yeagar also develops a stone thrower that requires the discs to be saucer-shaped. One strip features a crank-powered sword-shooting gun.
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Justified in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-12-14 #1255]] when the sewers drain into caves.
* ActionGirl: Rowen in the print comic.
* AllJustADream: One strip featured the characters as ordinary people who happened to be playing a game of D&D with Aaron Williams as the DM. Nodwick's player wanted a new character, but Williams insisted that despite being a ButtMonkey, his role was vital to the party's success. Cue Nodwick waking up and looking confused.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted. They encounter a [[{{Mook}} Kobold]] accountant.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2010-02-12 You'd be surprised]]..."
** And a down-on-her-luck Drow squatting in the party's basement due to a housing crisis.
* AmusingInjuries: Verbally. Half the fun of Nodwick suffering a severe injury comes from statements such as "I can't feel my kneecaps...oh wait, yes I can, they're in my shoes."
* AnArc: The print comic.
* AnachronismStew: Plenty. References are made to things that are centuries ahead of the apparent technology level, such as one storyline where magic is treated in the same way as a PC system. Other small examples include references to Daylight Savings Time and modern technology like submarines.
* AppealToTradition: the wizard Liam Geakes tries to rework magic to make it easier to use, and know other magicians down a peg or two. One problem: the new system is awfull, and full of {{Weaksauce Weakness}}es. Naturally, the magical community is not happy with him.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: A certain [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield Sword in the Stone]], which if pulled out too early, will curse the land with fire raining from the sky. It adds additional curses if someone is dumb enough to put it back in... And additional ones if you pull it out again, and so on and so on. These curses get increasingly silly, such as every firstborn child becoming a lawyer, demons building mini-malls, incontinent pelicans, "reagonomics", and ''market-researched sit-coms''.
** Curiously, for such an extensively planned curse, it doesn't have any dispensation for what happens when someone gets fed up with the bullshit and ''breaks the sword''.
*** None ''that we see''. The guys with the book listing the curses are still searching when the party leaves.
** And then there are the rumored consequences for circumventing established spellcasting procedures:
--> '''Artax:''' We are sooooo '''dead.''' I hear that anyone who even '''thinks''' about challenging [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Liam Geakes]] meets with an '''unfortunate "accident,"''' usually involving perforation... decapitation... having your credit rating '''trashed...'''
** There's also the angry viking chieftain challenging the sea serpent that has been terrorizing their settlement...
--> '''Chief:''' You sank our ships! You killed our brethren! But worst of all...*gestures at Nodwick and company*...you made me hire these morons!
* ArtEvolution: The artwork and character designs have gradually become more streamlined and exaggerated since the beginning. Given a LampshadeHanging in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-01-31 one strip]], where Artax observes that Nodwick's nose is much larger than it used to be, and Nodwick offers the hypothesis that it's developed as a counterweight for all the treasure he's made to lug around.
* ArtifactOfDoom: Half the group's income derives from hunting for these. Usually with some [[strike:lying]] spin doctoring to make them more palatable to Piffany.
* BackFromTheDead: Nodwick. And he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-08-08 required by law]] to fill out a new birth certificate every time. [[DeathIsCheap On a busy week]] it's rather inconvenient.
* BadassAdorable: Piffany. For all her childlike mannerisms, she's ultimately the lynchpin keeping Baphuma'al from taking over the world. Major demons and Infernal lawyers fear her.
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: When Piffany is recalled to her abbey, she's [[BreakTheCutie deliberately]] given the "difficult" class by the AlphaBitch, populated with demons, children of villains and the possessed.
* BasementDweller
* BerserkButton: Curse enough around Piffany, and she can apparently kick her way through prison bars to deliver an indignant scolding. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-04-05 Don't]] suggest giving up and going home when there's evil to be smote, either.
** If you hurt Piffany in any way or damage her happy optimistic outlook on life, expect [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-04-23 Artax, Yeagar, Nodwick]] and the ''[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-28 Powers What Is themselves]]'' to get pissed off with you. This [[CaptainObvious tends to have rather unpleasant outcomes]].
--> '''Powers What Is''': Leave the cleric alone. If you do anything that keeps her from doing her nice-thoughts-and-fluffy-kittens work, we'll bust you so far down that an army of theological scholars won't be able to find mention of you in a million years! You got that?
* BewareTheNiceOnes: When Piffany gets upset, she gets pretty fantastically upset. During the jousting tournament story, Artax suggests that she has a lot of repressed aggression she channels into her enthusiasm for such a violent sport, and at another time she actually kicks a prison cell door off its hinges and lock when angry at Yeagar. Or one time when Baphuma'al abducts Nodwick:
--> '''Piffany''': "If that evil stinky-head hurts our friend, I will give you religious literature every day for the rest of your life... as a suppository!"
* BigBad: Baphuma'al in the print comics, Count Repugsive in many of the shorter strips.
* BoisterousBruiser: Yeagar, when he's being nice.
** JerkAss, when he's not. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-02 Case in point]].
* BreatherEpisode: Once Baphuma'al is on the scene, most serious stories are immediately followed by a silly one. Baphuma'al's introduction is followed by a {{Superman}} parody, "A World Without Piffany" by several (mostly) standalone issues, the Gauntlet of Supremacy story by a mixed-up fairy tale story, and so on. Several of the Breather Issues still have bits of the main plot threaded through them, but mostly just to set a few [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Guns]] for later.
* BringMyBrownPants: Invoked when Artax, Yeagar and Nodwick wind up on an [[ItMakesSenseInContext accidental camping trip]]:
--> '''Nodwick:''' ''(seeing stick-figure people hung up in the trees)'' Well ''this'' is ominous.
--> '''Yeagar:''' If "ominous" means "something that makes you need to change your shorts", then I've learned a new word today.
--> ''(later)''
--> '''Yeagar:''' I just ''ominoused'' myself.
* BrokeTheRatingScale: Once, when Yeagar gave up the seven deadly sins, '''he invented an eighth'''. Suffice to say, they don't make him try to give them up any more.
--> '''Yeagar:''' I think we called it '''blasphitrociterra-o-rama''' or something. It was pretty fun, actually.
* BrotherhoodOfEvil: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-22 The Brotherhood of Evil Henchmen]]
* ButtMonkey: Nodwick, whose ''job description'' involves carrying extreme weights, suffering abuse, and being completely expendable.
** To put this in perspective, Nodwick is hired ostensibly to provide someone who can carry things. However, the less morally constrained members of his party put him to other use:
---> [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-30 It was Yeagar]] who pioneered many of the techniques in henchman use that adventuring parties use today. Far from relying on hirelings as mere human shields, he demonstrated their employ as projectiles, bait, door-jammers, and flotation devices.
** ... not to count battering ram, trap disarmer (as Artax at one point puts it, "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-06-27 In the same way stick disarms a bear trap]].") and an all purpose tool, with the only person with any moral decency at all in the party being too clueless to stop this. Said uses, more often than not, result in his death, only to Piffany to conveniently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-04-15 patch him up]] with [[DuctTapeForEverything Duct Tape]], so that said abuses can be heaped upon him all over again. And all of this takes place on top of the fact that he is frequently expected by his employers to haul several metric tons of "loot." To make matters worse, his guild is manipulated by the Adventurers Guild so that the president is a hamster and his health plan consists of a bottle of poison (The exact type of poison changes periodically). His contract is utterly impossible to get out of and at one point, he finds out that it is cosmically infeasible that he would ever get out of his current situation. This is so bad that when he dies, he is reduced to [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-01-22 begging the powers that be to let him stay dead]], only to find that he was due for resurrection yet again.
** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-14 Nodwick tried to turn it down immediately]]. (The reason being every time they tried to help him it either made matters worse for him or somebody else. If he died permanently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-28 Piffany would have a nervous breakdown]] and that goes against all of reality for her to angst. It doesn't help that he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-09-09 contractually obligated to stay with the party.]])
* TheCameo: Nodwick makes a few brief appearances in the live-action independent film ''The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising''.
** [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death of the Endless]] appears briefly in one issue of the comic when Yeagar temporarily dies. She asks him if he's seen "the henchman" (meaning Nodwick), saying that she "keeps missing" him.
** Open the official D&D supplement, ''Book of Vile Darkness'' to the Monsters chapter. Look very carefully at the party of adventurers those two skeleton monsters are about to attack. Familiar?
** Nodwick and the party also appears in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' as part of an elaborate time-travelling/dimension-hopping plot.
* CannotTellALie: Piffany not only lacks the ability to lie, she [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-07-11 can't even keep her mouth shut]] while others do so.
* CaptainErsatz: The god Tharizduuhm is a pretty obvious [[EldritchAbomination ersatz Tharizdun]], himself something of an ersatz Lovecraftian Old One. However, [[DemonicSpiders Lolth]], {{Spider-Man}}, and [[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Count Strahd]], among others, all appear as themselves.
* CataclysmBackstory: The world used to be a technological paradise right up until a scientist destroyed everything when his Time Machine spectacularly misfired.
** Actually he brought the equivalent of a high tech palm pilot with him and that was enough to cause the Cataclysm.
* CerebusSyndrome: in the print comic; with Baphuma'al as KnightOfCerebus.
* CharacterAlignment:[[invoked]] Not surprisingly, since it's inspired by ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. They actually have official character sheets (for 2nd Edition) that were published in DragonMagazine and then later added to the online archive. Then again, the dissonance between their sheets and how they act is a deliberate part of the humor.
** For those interested, Piffany and Nodwick are LawfulGood (to no-one's surprise), Yeagar is apparently ChaoticGood, and Artax is NeutralGood (though gods know how, considering how they treat most of their fellow beings -- and Nodwick). Or, as the ''first'' strip says:
---> '''Nodwick''': I guess the "LawfulGood" in your want ad was a typo, right?
---> '''Yeagar''': Our cleric placed the ad; she's a bit of an idealist.
** Presumably it's a joke at the expense of those roleplayers who end up playing good alignments as neutral -- certainly Artax ''acts'' TrueNeutral and Yeagar is textbook ChaoticNeutral.
* ChekhovsHobby: Sort of. The weapon that can kill Baphuma'al is an arrow, but this leaves the heroes with a small problem - none of them are any good with a bow. [[spoiler: Fortunately, Rowen (who has just joined them) is an expert with it. She doesn't actually use her archery skills until the FinalBattle, but it does come in ''very'' handy then.]]
* ChekhovsGun: In one of the first Nodwick strips, Yeagar remarks that the party really needs a thief; Artax reminds him that their last one is still in therapy. [[spoiler: Years later, we discover that Artax and Yeagar are the ''reason'' said thief was in therapy...]]
** In the print comic, [[spoiler:Piffany's FirstKiss.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: The series ''loves'' these:
** First of all, [[spoiler:the hamster gets superpowers]] at the end of ''Last Son of Xenon''. No mention is made of them again until the final confrontation with Baphuma'al.
** Another example: [[spoiler: In an early issue of the print comic (the first appearance of Baphuma'al, in fact) the party breaks the curse of a pixie who is cursed to work as a tooth fairy. Again, this storyline is not mentioned again until Piffany asks for her help before the final battle against Baphuma'al.]]
** The most important one, [[spoiler: was a prophecy that Piffany mentions in one episode, how her first kiss will unleash great holy power that can smite the greatest of evils. This is forgotten about until the FinalBattle, where Nodwick tricks Elonan into trying to kill her and Yeagar with an unholy version of a wedding, which enables her to unleash this power, defeating Baphuma'al once and for all.]]
* [[TheChewToy Chew Toy, The]]: once again, Nodwick.
* CloningBlues: More than once, Artax has tried out his clone spell on Nodwick. The results have ranged from simple leftover heads to ''legions of Nodwick zombies''.
* CloudCuckooLander: In the print comics, this is the fate of [[spoiler:Elonan]] after overspending her power. A rather dark example altogether, [[spoiler:given that she starts treating the undead as her family and [[ItMakesSenseInContext tries to kill off our heroes with a wedding ceremony]]]].
* [[ClusterFBomb Cluster K Bomb]]: KRUTZ!
* ComedicSociopathy: Yeagar and Artax
* CosmicPlaything: "The Powers What Is" have stated that Nodwick is a "destiny sponge". If he doesn't suffer, the rest of the world suffers instead. Which makes Nodwick something of a martyr...who comes back to life to be martyred again...and then comes back to life to be martyred again...I'm gonna stop right there.
* CrapsackWorld: Society has devolved to a feudal system, none of the sentient races get along, the gods argue all the time, and there are far too many carnivorous monsters for Nodwick's tastes.
** Then their attempts to help the creation of a perfect world turn out even ''worse'' with the creation of a world occupied entirely by absurdly muscular fairies who talk like Piffany, do all-night magic research sessions, and then have to cope with 200 proof water.
** It's still a picnic compared to the parallel world in ''A World Without Piffany''. Baphuma'al runs the place.
* {{Crossover}}: Several with ''FullFrontalNerdity'', the author's other ''D&D''-based comic.
** ''A World Without Piffany'' includes a sequence where Nodwick is rapidly zapped into various other universes, which include ''{{PvP}}'', ''ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie'', and ''DorkTower'' ([[LampshadeHanging the last just as one of the characters is ranting about gratuitous crossovers in comic books]]).
** And [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-08-28 speaking of Phil...]]
** As well as [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of their characters in the "[=Q4orce=]" side stories, set in the ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' universe.
** [[ComicBook/{{PS238}} Atlas]] makes an appearance in [=Q4orce=] as well, and issue 39 of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' is a cross-over with ''{{Nodwick}}''.
** An annual issue of ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' featured a three-way crossover between the magazine's three comic strips, with each cartoonist taking over another's strip (Creator/JohnKovalic did ''{{Nodwick}}'', Phil Foglio did ''DorkTower'', and Aaron Williams did ''[[Creator/PhilFoglio What's New?]]'') and inserting in-jokes from his own comic.
* CyanidePill: The Henchman union's health plan is a vial of poison, the first month it was literally cyanide, another time it was hemlock.
* DeadpanSnarker: Nodwick. Artax takes over the role if Nodwick isn't around, and his EvilCounterpart Ildomir in the print comics gets rather sarcastic when things aren't going his way.
* DeathIsCheap: Nodwick has to file a new birth certificate with his union every time he dies. His file holds ''eight trees'' worth of paper.
** In one issue of the comic book, he dies 10 times ''on one page'', and many many more times in the rest of the issue. He dies so often that the compilations have a "Rest Index Peace," an index of which pages he dies on, and in what manner. (Which itself was discontinued after the second book or so because it just became TOO MUCH to keep track of.)
* DisproportionateRetribution: In ''A World Without Piffany'', someone was left to rot in a dungeon for ''littering''.
* DistaffCounterpart: Rowen turns out to be ''very'' much alike Yeagar, only one with breasts and a bow. (And Orville, though you know that Yeagar would steal a pet dragon if given half a chance.) It's very evident in the ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' crossover where they're introduced arguing over both of them squandering the party's money on carousing that they were supposed to put towards the latest round of damages to the Fang and Flagon tavern.
* TheDitz: The Evil Henchman Beobor from the print comic. Nodwick's constant bamboozling of him makes Yeagar look smart by comparison.
* {{Doppelganger}}: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-02 Though not a very in-character one]].
* DuctTapeForEverything: The favoured healing method of our party's cleric. She has a holy HumongousMecha that shoots duct tape to [[DeathIsCheap resurrect]] Nodwick.
* DumbIsGood: Both played straight with Piffany (good, but naive and either ''very'' [[SelectiveObliviousness selectively oblivious]] or has a real problem with [[FailedASpotCheck failing spot checks]]) and Artax (smart, but utterly amoral), and subverted with Yeagar (dumb as a stump and not very nice) and Nodwick (smart and good, making it a wonder he ever became a henchman in the first place).
** It should be noted that Piffany is usually very perceptive when it comes to everything ''except'' Artax and Yeagar's antics. (One of the earlier comics showed that Piffany is intentionally ignoring it.)
* DragonMagazine: One of its longest-running comics, going unbroken once introduced all the way to the final print issue.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Baphuma'al gets introduced pretty early on. However no one would suspect that it is [[spoiler: The head of the Evil Henchman Guild.]]
* ElephantGraveyard: The Henchman's Graveyard. Whenever a henchman reaches the point where he is about to die of old age, he takes all the loot he can carry and goes to this sacred place, which can only be found by henchmen. [[spoiler:There isn't any treasure there. Only one henchman has ''ever'' died of natural causes, and he died bankrupt due to his party robbing him blind.]]
* EmpathicWeapon: The (now defunct) AD&D character sheets from long ago detailed how Yeagar's sword was an intelligent [[InfinityPlusOneSword Holy Avenger]], a powerful sword meant for paladins, but being stuck in Yeagar's service has rendered it traumatized and catatonic. A later strip showed it chatting telepathically with another sword (wielded by Yeagar's opponent) as they both commiserated over being stuck with idiotic owners to whom they refuse to reveal their true natures.
* EndOfTheWorldSpecial: [[spoiler:Yeagar]] of all people get the opportunity for this near the end of the print comic.
* EveryoneHasStandards: In one early strip, Nodwick was going over the contents of the haul, and found a ''Ring of Protection +7''. Naturally, all three of his employers wanted it (in the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game, +5 is usually the limit, making such a thing priceless) until he told them it was a ''Nipple'' Ring of Protection + 7, at which point they all said they'd pass.
* EvilCounterpart: In the print comic Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan are this for Yeagar, Artax and Piffany respectively.
* EvilSorcerer: The party faces these on a regular basis in the webcomic. Ildomir from the print comic is perhaps the most pronounced example, although he's technically a wizard.
* EvilTwin: Inverted, [[spoiler:Yeagar]] ends up developing a good twin in the print comic after enough smacks to the head with the clue-by-four.
** [[spoiler: Well is less Good Twin and more Enlightened Twin. Regular Yeagar is rather dumb.]]
* EldritchAbomination: So ''very'' many.
* ElvesVsDwarves: A brief war ended because A) the ArtifactOfDoom both sides were looking for would have killed both sides if it was used, and B) they decided the humans needed careful watching, since the stuff in their tavern cellar is clearly an explosive siege weapon - it can't possibly be drinkable (see GargleBlaster below).
* [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Even Henchmen Love Their Mamas]]: Nodwick's helmet is a gift from his mother, and he demands to know which is the original when he gets [[CloningBlues cloned]].
** This is subverted with Orville. Apparently, his species is driven by instinct to kill their mothers, and this works to the heroes' advantage at one point. [[spoiler: Elonan uses a spell that causes the heroes to perceive her zombies as their parents or former mentors, intending to fool them into being vulnerable to their attacks, and this almost works. However, because Orville regards his mother as an enemy, he becomes enraged and incinerates them.]]
* FailedASpotCheck: Piffany repeatedly fails to spot Athax and Yeagar's more egregious abuses of Nodwick. It's implied it may be more SelectiveObliviousness.
* FairyTales [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2010-08-04 One stand-alone story in the print comic]] has Nodwick and crew reenacting several classic fairy tales.
** FracturedFairyTale: HilarityEnsues as the characters start rebelling against their roles and act like themselves instead of the characters they're supposed to be, which epically messes up the fairy tales.
--->'''Narrator:''' OnceUponATime, there was a beautiful princess. Her beauty was so that it outshone the queen. The queen grew jealous, and exiled the princess to the forest, in the hopes that she would be felled by the beasts living there. The princess was found by a kindly troupe of seven dwarves, five of which were on vacation and one of which had a hyperactive thyroid condition...\\
'''Yeagar (as Disney/SnowWhite):''' This is really starting to get old.\\
'''Nodwick (as dwarf):''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Wow. If the queen exiled]] '''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny you]]''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny for being]] '''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny pretty]]'''...\\
'''Yeagar:''' Can it, Dopey.\\
'''Artax (as dwarf):''' Ugly jokes and men in dresses. Two '''dead horses''' that can't avoid being '''beaten'''...
* FighterMageThief: Subverted, as the group mirrors the classic D&D party - a cleric, a wizard, a fighter, and a thief -- but they don't have a [[strike:thief]] [[strike:[[RougeAnglesOfSatin rouge]]]] rogue. Instead, Nodwick disarms traps... the way a stick disarms a bear trap.
** They used to have a rogue. They fired him for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin stealing from them]].
*** Only after Nodwick caught him (see CrowningMomentOfAwesome); the first time they had to force a cursed helmet on him that drove him insane for a few years.
* FluffyTheTerrible: "Naughty furry thing with slimy tentacles, [[EyeBeams death ray eyes]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking cute, fluffy tail]]! [[AC:whack!]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The later Gauntlet of Supremacy and Orb of Omniscience storylines were [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-21 hinted at]] during "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."
** The items themselves were also used by Yeagar and Artax respectively in ''A World Without Piffany.''
** "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" also introduced the Powers What Is, who would later prove instrumental in the final fight against Baphuma'al.
* ForWantOfANail: The multi-part "World Without Piffany" storyline features an AlternateReality which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. [[spoiler: Without Piffany, Nodwick was KilledOffForReal shortly after Artax and Yeagar hired him, neither of them were able to rid themselves of two [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]] that they later found, both became CoDragons to Baphuma'al, and he ended up ruling the world. Nodwick witnesses this horrible reality and escapes, and the knowledge he brings back is able to convince Piffany's abby to let her continue her adventuring career.]]
* FourthWallMailSlot: Though it [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-09-19 just doesn't end well]].
** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Oh yes it does.]]
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Piffany, whose most terrible crime is that she once smooshed a bug. And she did a week's penance just for that!!!
* FunetikAksent: Master "Franswa," a recurring bit character who speaks with an exaggerated French accent. (Or whatever this world's equivalent of France must be.) He's the only one who ever speaks with it, too.
* FutureBadass: Nodwick, thanks to the power of {{Save Scumming}}. To elaborate, Nodwick touched an artifact that basically created a {{Save Point}}, sending him back in time every time he dies. Nodwick's companions being their usual competent selves meant that Nodwick had to go back to the start of the loop repeatedly, eventually becoming a Fighter/Mage/Cleric of greater power than any of them. His enhanced abilities don't last past the end of that comic, [[StatusQuoIsGod of course]].
** Both Artax and Yeagar get a very negative version of this in some of their alternate futures. In ''A world without Piffany'' and ''It's A wonderful afterlife'', we find out that without Piffany or Nodwick around, Yeagar and Artax get ensnared by (respectively) [[ArtifactOfDoom The Gauntlet of Supremacy and the Orb of Omniscience]]. In ''A World Without Piffany'' they also end up as dual [[TheDragon Dragons]] to BigBad Baphuma'al. That said, Artax still tries to oppose Baphuma'al when he can. Not that he can often, when the guy's literally a [[PhysicalGod god]] that rules the world.
* GambitPileup: Played with in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-08-20 this strip]] and the following ones, in which LITERALLY everyone in the country is trying to take the throne for themselves.
* GarageSale: The party has to hold a yard sale to sell off the excess junk they'd been looting from dungeons when they learn that Nodwick had been forced to build an extension to their house out of looted junk to store the ''rest'' of their looted junk.
* GargleBlaster: Skullwhomper Ale. Apparently the stuff is so volatile that the elves and dwarves thought that it was some kind of high explosive (Which can potentially cause a fireball 15 miles across). [[spoiler: It was actually invented by a dragon as a doomsday weapon - he was really embarrassed when he learned that humans were drinking the stuff]].
--> '''Nodwick:''' [[spoiler: Why is this recipe labeled "Liquid of Fiery Vengeance"?]]
* GenreBlind: Most adventurers, villains and non-henchmen.
* GenreSavvy: Quite a lot of the characters. Often at the same time as being GenreBlind about a lot of other stuff.
* GhostlyGoals: Parodied. Nodwick stays around in ghost form whenever he's killed (until Piffany inevitably resurrects him) because his henchman contract makes him contractually obliged to not pass on as long as there's even a chance of revival at some point.
** The party also ends up assisting ghosts with their final requests a few times. One of them needed to return his neighbor's rake.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Baphuma'al and Ildomir in the print comic.
* GlurgeAddict
* GodOfEvil: Baphuma'al.
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Zigzagged. The gods have periodic manifestations and open conflicts, but more often work through mortal agents and prophecy. As well, while Baphuma'al gets to intervene directly, the various gods of good hang back and do nothing. [[spoiler:When they learn that Baphuma'al managed to cheat the system by learning the prophecies and actively circumventing them, the good gods get involved in helping the party prepare. This culminates in one of the higher gods and minor Power What Is Ranoa openly manifesting on the field of battle to create a distraction for the party's benefit]].
* GoodNewsBadNews: "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-09-03 I've got some bad news and some good news and some bad news...]]"
* GoofyPrintUnderwear: Artax wears blue boxers with gold stars and moons on them. It's an occupational obligation, apparently.
* HeelRealization: If you consider Yeagar to be a Heel, then he has a ''big'' one during the FinalBattle against Baphuma'al. [[spoiler: After receiving the power of Piffany's SacredFirstKiss, the PowersThatBe give him the ability to reshape the universe ''any way he wants to'', literally. His use of this power - which could have easily been abused if he had gotten it sooner - surprises even the PowersThatBe. He asks for one thing for himself, that the wedding he had been forced into be changed so that Rowen was the one marrying him (something she had wanted in the first place). Everything else he requested involved giving himself and his friends the edge they needed to defeat the villains, including giving Rowen the previously-misplaced weapon she needed to slay Baphuma'al.]]
* TheHecateSisters: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-09-25 Here]].
* TheHero: Yeagar. Nodwick may be the protagonist, but in the print comic the plot really rotates around Yeagar. He gets the most CharacterDevelopment, the deepest exploration of his issues, and takes center stage on a lot of important events. Several issues establish both Nodwick and Piffany as irreplaceable to saving the world, but ultimately it's because they're necessary to enable Yeagar to be the real hero of the story.
* HeroismIncentive: If Nodwick ever gets too tired to lug around all the junk the party loots, they give him Hench Snax, H-shaped biscuits with "enough amphetamines to make a dead mule do warp seven."
* HornyVikings: The heroes dealt with Vikings like these in one story, who wanted them to slay a sea serpent. In fact, that led to this interesting exchange after Yeagar tried using a cow as bait, which Piffany naturally objected to:
-->'''Piffany''': Now let's try a plan that doesn't get anyone hurt, especially cows!
-->'''Yeagar''' ''(aside, to Artax)'': Does she not know where Vikings get the horns for their helmets?
-->'''Artax:''' Let's not burst her bubble just now...
* HumansAreBastards: Played pretty straight most of the time, with the exceptions of Piffany and Nodwick. Artax at one point explains the origins of all the world's ruins as being a result of a human quest for experience points; while [[spoiler: Heathwick gleefully sells out to the Adventurer's Guild (themselves rather bastardly) when appointed President by Nodwick after the Hench Games. Within two seconds]].
* HumanPackMule: The main job of henchmen such as Nodwick. They have the ability to carry a much heavier load than their strength would otherwise allow.
* HumiliationConga: The final fate of [[spoiler:Ildomir]] in the print comic. [[spoiler:Unlike all the other villains who get killed, Ildomir survives and ends up doing community service shoveling dung for Krutzing Hollow.]]
* HumongousMecha: At one point, Piffany.
* ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere
* ImpossibleThief: The party's ex-thief, [[MeaningfulName Bezzler]], who apparently once stole all the tips from a bunch of strippers while they were in the middle of a striptease. During his brief re-stint in the party, he makes off with most of the party's loot and Nodwick's pants.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Someone on that page has suggested that that trope could be renamed The Piffany.
* InformedAttribute: The power of This One Ring. It didn't do anything for the dark sorcerer who made it, it didn't do anything for the king who killed the maker for it, and it didn't provably do anything to the halfling who found it later. Despite this (And [[OnlySaneMan Nodwick's attempts to point this out]]), the party insists that it is an incredibly evil and powerful artifact that must be destroyed.
** It even causes a DistantFinale. Nodwick claims that This One Rock (A randomly selected stone from the volcano where This One Ring was made) had just as much power as This One Ring - meaning none at all. A hundred years later, [[IdenticalGrandson an adventuring party that bears a considerably resemblance to Nodwick's party]] finds This One Rock, [[FromACertainPointOfView believing that since it is just as powerful as This One Ring, it must also be an incredibly potent evil artifact]], and seeking to destroy it.
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: Deeply subverted to the point that [[PowersThatBe The Powers What Is]] have to intervene.
* ItsPopularNowItSucks: InvokedTrope. Being a henchman is such an undesirable career that they're able to kill ''any'' annoying fad by making people think ''they'' like it. They claim to have done so with handlebar moustaches and Nehru tunics (bellbottom pants died on their own, but they were preparing to get rid of those), and were able to make people stop saying "krutz" within an hour.
* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Even Nodwick's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-12-24 happiest dreams]] are doomed to be interrupted by plot, destiny, or whatever else is at hand.
* {{Jerkass}}: Yeagar, frequently. Artax gets in on it too frequently.
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Both of them get shown rather more sympathetically in the print comic's storyline; mostly because they've got some genuine evil to thwart and inter-party ComedicSociopathy really kills the 'team spirit'. Especially Yeagar, who gets genuine CharacterDevelopment and a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to explain some of his inner demons.
* JokerJury: The Council of Three and a Half, composed of geeks Yeagar bullied in school. They shrink him and use him in one of their miniatures games.
* JustThinkOfThePotential: everyone wishes that Artax would stop doing this.
* KillItWithWater: Piffany's answer to sneaky undead: "H2oly Sacred Soaker".
** One time they eliminated a giant demon by getting Piffany to bless ''an entire lake'' and splashing the demon with it.
* KleptomaniacHero: The absurd amount of worthless junk that the party loots during quests and forces Nodwick to carry home has to be seen to be believed.
** At one point, Nodwick ''builds a new wing'' onto their house out of junk - to house the ''rest of the junk''.
* KnightInSourArmor: 'Knight' is pushing it, but Nodwick is an altogether nice and loyal person (almost overly so) while at the same time being extremely cynical and resigned to a life of pain as a henchman.
* {{Ladette}}: Rowen. She's basically a gender-flipped (and saner) Yeagar.
* LampshadeHanging:
--> "It makes your clothes grow, too?" "This version does. There were some ''major problems'' with the first version when-" "THANK YOU! That's enough information."
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The Clergy In Black have a ring that induces this. For some reason it has no effect on Piffany, so she went for years wondering why they make a point of showing her that ring every time they meet.
* LethalChef: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-03-16 Yeagar]], [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-01-30 whose idea of a special treat involves ingredients a month past their use-by date]].
* LetsGetDangerous: What happens whenever Piffany cries to any males in the area. At one point the very possibility of her crying caused an army of mercenaries that been hired by a Orc Lord to destroy the Orc Army, retake their home lands and rebuild all the destroy villages.... in a week.
** Actually ''hurting'' Piffany is likely the easiest way to make Yeagar, Artax, AND Nodwick fly into a rage. Nodwick usually gets killed in these situations, naturally, but this is one of the few times where Yeagar and Artax will risk their own lives.
* LongRunner: Lasted 10 years. Still isn't 'finished' so much as 'on hiatus' while ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' gets the limelight.
* LoveMakesYouEvil:/LoveRedeems: When Yeagar describes his history with Rowen it sounds like he became a jerk because things didn't work out between them. When Rowen describes the past it sounds more like he only acted nice sometimes for her.
* LovePotion: Gets slipped into Piffany's lemonade.
* MeaningfulName: Piffany is a cleric. She probably had an epiphany at some point that sent her down this path.
* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: The party. Implied to be [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-10-22 repeat offenders in this regard]].
* MoralityChain: Piffany and Nodwick, albeit unintentionally, turned out to be the only thing able to save Artax and Yeagar from a life of evil in the print comics.
* MoralityPet: Piffany. What's more, she can take on this role for anyone but the most [[AlwaysChaoticEvil abjectly evil people and gods]], not just her own friends. Her ''cookies'' are so good that gods will threaten (and then back down from) holy wars over them, and legions of amoral mercenaries will fight evil monsters for free because she might cry if they took the side of evil.
* MusicalEpisode: The print comic story "Phantom of the Way, Way Off-Broadway Musical" ([[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-02-28 now uploaded]]). Artax casts a "spell of thespia" on Yeagar without checking its spell description, which turns out to be to turn the adventure into one "until end of production or until first tomato is thrown". The entire rest of the story is spend with both villains and heroes belting out {{Musical Pastiche}}s of 80ies rock and pop with new lyrics.
-->'''Utharr:''' (To the tune of "Enter Sandman") [[BreakingTheFourthWall We're all right/with copyright!/Parody!/Keeps the lawsuits far from me! ]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Yeagar and Artax have this moment when they [[spoiler: throw Nodwick into a Dimension Rift in attempt for Piffany to stay with the party. When it said that Nodwick is coming back and Piffany cries they don't take it well.]]
* NegativeContinuity: The ''Dragon'' magazine and online-only comics. Some went on to get referenced in the comic book, but others have never been brought up again. A lot of the early ''Dragon'' comics involved the characters going through some classic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventures and giving them the {{MST}} treatment from within the adventure, for example - something that wouldn't fit well into the continuity of the later print comic.
* NerdGlasses: Piffany.
* NiceGuy: Nodwick himself. One story arc has him impress a [[NaughtyNuns pleasure cult "nun"]] by looking her in the eye and listening intently while she talked about her feelings for four hours straight.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The villains started a chain of events that eventually led to their final defeat. [[spoiler: They created a golem to use in the Hench Games; the golem's actions resulted in the hamster gaining super powers. In turn, the hamster - due to his powers - was instrumental in defeating Baphuma'al. Of course, they could never have forseen this chain of events, but they started it nonetheless.]]
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-08-04 Like so]].
-->'''Yeagar:''' You don't understand! He's a ninja '''and''' a pirate!\\
'''Artax:''' That's a level of '''awesome''' you just can't beat without '''high explosives''', maybe.
** CoolVersusAwesome: They eventually settle on "Cannibal Vikings".
* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-11-26 Defied]] on at least one occasion, played straight myriad other times.
* NonActionGuy: Nodwick is lethally bad at combat. Yeagar tries to teach him the bow, and his first shot nails their neighbor through the head. At another point the party sends him to "join" the monsters in a dungeon, with the story that he's turned evil and betrayed the party - because as soon as Nodwick tries to help the monsters fight, he screws up so much he kills all the monsters (and himself) by accident, something that Artax and Yeagar were counting on to make everything easier.
* NoNameGiven: Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan weren't given names until long after their first appearance. This was even lampshaded by this exchange:
-->'''Nodwick:''' Hey, it's the evil-warrior-guy who used to hang out with the evil-wizard-guy and the evil-cleric-gal!
-->'''Piffany:''' We really need to get their names the next time we see them.
* NoodleIncident: A lot all around: There are many references to (mis)adventures the group have been on (and their aftereffects on Nodwick) scattered around the pages. A RunningGag and recurring source of fear for Yeagar in his backstory is something "Suzie Klopman" (we never learn who it is) did to him on his fifth birthday.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-02-13 ...so unspeakable, it is merely referred to as 'The Cheese Incident'.]]"
** And with [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-02-20 some]] incidents [[TooMuchInformation it would be best]] to leave them un-narrated.
** Yeagar once took holy orders (He was drunk at the time). He was kicked out after an incident involving [[NoodleImplements a sheriff, a cow, two tavern wenches and a chandelier]].
** One attempt to rescue a DamselInDistress resulted them accidentally turning the kidnapper's entire family into wereferrets.
* [[OhCrap Oh Krutz]]: Things often go to Yeah That Place in a handbasket.
* OnlySaneMan: Nodwick. Henchmen in general, actually, but especially Nodwick. (Nodwick once told the rest of the party that the reason he didn't become an adventurer was because he was overqualified.)
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame / OurGnomesAreWeirder: According to an old ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' strip, both races are just [[{{Hobbits}} halflings]] wearing fake beards and platform shoes. They get more money from {{Sourcebook}} royalties that way.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: In the FutureBadass strip, upon hearing that Nodwick has become a competent, powerful adventurer in his own right as a result of constant time-looping, Yeagar expresses the opinion that he's not sure if he likes the idea of Nodwick being better then all three of them, and Artax agrees to wipe his memories of his true power once he gets them out of this mess. Not only do they say this out loud and in front of Piffany, Piffany quite blithely encourages them to do so by telling them to keep an eye out for a spare left hand she can use to replace the hook the Adventurer-Nodwick has.
* PaperThinDisguise: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-03-04 Artax's Illithid disguise]]. At least he keeps his acting (relatively) believable.
** A RunningGag is how Piffany's order uses [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-11-30 a painfully fake moustache]] and nothing else as a valid disguise... And it always works.
** Even better than one may think. In one story, Nodwick was able to fool Baphuma'al himself with a simple fake moustache, along with Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan, even though they were ''specifically'' trying to keep him out of the caves where they were building their citadel.
* PayingForTheActionScene: At least once, Yeagar ended up with the tab for damages after a bar brawl — he was the last guy standing.
* PeepingTom: There's actually a goddess devoted to this in this reality (who, ironically, is often a victim of them).
* PhosphorEssence: We never actually see it (possibly because the [[PowersThatBe Powers What Is]] hide just how good she is), but as a child Piffany apparently kept her parents awake with her halo of purity.
* PoweredArmor: When Piffany messes with an old spell meant to summon angels, [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-05-05 she gets this.]] She is also shown in a [[Film/{{Aliens}} Power Loader]] in the Metal Dungeon story arc.
** The July 31st 2001 strip has a dwarf engineer who was "trying to invent a way to have hot tea on the battlefield, and it kinda snowballed". He is shown in a steam engine-assisted suit of superheavy platemail.
* PowersThatBe: The Powers What Is. (And in this reality, they actually have a sense of humor.)
* PowersViaPossession: Failing one check vs. [[EmpathicWeapon a sentient item]]'s Ego usually sucks. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-03-13 On the other hand]], having one's wits run over by ''three'' artifacts at once may work ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes wonders]]'' on some meek henchman.
* PowerTrio: Yeagar (id), Artax (ego), Piffany (superego). Nodwick is a henchman and gets no say in the matters, but is a superego.
** Amongst their evil counterparts in the print version, Utharr (id), Elonan (ego), and Ildomir (superego). Elonan and Utharr end up switching places [[spoiler:after Utharr becomes fully sentient as an undead and Elonan goes AxCrazy.]]
* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: "I've heard tell of a [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-10-22 silk hat that produces an endless supply of rabbits...]]"
* PunchClockHero: This party [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-04-18 definitely]] is.
* RealityWarper: They once got an artifact that allowed them to have something happen intantiously while remember what happened. The problem is that is when someone used it to attempt something that would never happen causes damage to reality. They wound up causing all of reality to break.
* RefusalOfTheCall: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-01-22 This]] strip right here is pretty much the trope's platonic ideal.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Artax. He has a very bad habit of thinking of all the PotentialApplications and wanting to try them out, often without fully thinking about the consequences. Generally he's not too bad - apart from repeatedly blowing himself and Nodwick up. However, he can veer ''very'' close to MadScientist on occasion, and there's an implication that if Piffany and the gang weren't around to stop him from ''concentrating'' on ways to blow up his lab, he'd probably end up JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. Indeed, his "Giants in the Earth" profile says that most of his ancestors/family wound up eventually killing themselves as a result of some magical experiment going wrong at some point in their lives.
* ReluctantWarrior: Piffany.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Played with in one story where Nodwick is given a growth potion to repel an army of invading orcs. The potion doesn't increase his mass, so he floats away in the breeze like a balloon.
* RiddlingSphinx: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-11-12 Fortunately, the Sphinx is flexible about the form in which it will accept the answer.]]
* RingOfPower: Parodied by This One Ring.
* RobeAndWizardHat: Artax
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The Legion of Princesses. (''Most'' of the time. In the issue where they appeared, however, they had to be rescued, much like other princesses. But even so, they weren't helpless.)
* SacredFirstKiss: Piffany, literally. Her first kiss will bestow a major blessing upon whoever she kisses (On the order of rewriting reality to suit the desires of the kissee), so she has made a conscious effort to avoid giving away her first kiss until such time as that blessing is needed, onto a person worthy of that blessing. [[spoiler:In the last issue of the print comic she kisses Yeagar, who rewrites reality to give the party a much-needed edge against Baphuma'al's forces.]]
* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: Countess Repugsive]]
* SarcasmFailure: It takes a ''lot'' to make Nodwick drop the snark. When he does, it's usually a sign that things have gotten ''really'' serious.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Yeagar starts talking like this after some exposure to the Clue-By-Four. After a few wallops more, he stops (having either evolved beyond 'language' or just realized smart people don't need to use big words to explain things).
* ShipTease: More than you'd expect between [[spoiler:Piffany and Nodwick]]. A lot between Yeagar and Rowen once she joins the cast.
* ShouldersOfDoom: Yeagar's shoulderpads are huge, (and their SpikesOfDoom are actually practical!), but even he can be cowed by shoulder pads with ''blades''.
* ShoutOut: Regularly.
** The four ancient magic-users who created the Orb of Omniscience are the [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1098 Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors, plus Romana]].
** In the ''LordOfTheRings'' parody, the Gollum character is [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1163 Smeagor]], who bears a striking resemblence to ''DorkTower'''s Igor "It must be MINE!" Olman.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=104 Get away from him]], [[Film/{{Aliens}} you birch!]]"
** [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death of the Endless]] shows up in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1510 issue 33]] when Yeagar dies, looking for Nodwick.
** [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1465 This page]] is a two-layered one: first, all the characters referenced in the different panels; second, the page format itself is lifted directly from several scenes in ComicBook/{{Powers}} when the main characters are canvassing various superpowered contacts for information relating to their current case.
* SlidingScaleOfFourthWallHardness: Has slid from one end to the other over the comic's history. The strip was introduced at the tail end of Williams' previous ''Dragon'' magazine work ''Floyd'' as [[AnimatedActor Animated Actors]] promoting their upcoming work. The early ''Dragon'' strips involved a lot of MediumAwareness, especially in strips where they were put through classic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventures or lampooning fantasy game tropes. As the series progressed - especially once Williams started the comic book version - the fourth wall breaking became much less common but never completely went away.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan, seriosly. No matter how many times the heroes defeated and humiliated them, they refused to ''ever'' consider for a minute that they were worthy adversaries. (Baphuma'al was like this too, but this was more of a case of StupidEvil on his part, seeing as he was someone with a Big Name and a Big Ego)
* SpontaneousChoreography: Yeagar asks Artax to cast a spell to make him more charming. The resulting spell makes Yeagar (And anyone around him) spontaneously go into song and dance routines.
* StatisticallySpeaking: Either Inverted or played straight. Nodwick, whose stats say he's weaker than Artax, can lift an impossibly heavy object and move it across the room because somebody decided it would look better there, but if he were to lift it on his own it would surely snap his spine. RuleOfFunny at work, which one character even lampshades when he suggests that this distinction between whether or not Nodwick can carry an object indicates something worrying about the universe. Eventually, the print comic published a special Henchman class for 3rd Edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' that got ridiculous bonuses to Strength ''only'' for the purposes of carrying stuff (up to +100 Strength at 20th level). Meanwhile, when they got statted for 2nd ed in Dragon Magazine #270, this was explained as being a function of ridiculously high Non-Weapon Proficiencies in various forms of hauling crap substituting for his lousy Strength.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Due to RuleOfFunny, the party's power level fluctuates wildly in the stand-alone strips, with the party going hunting for ancient dragons one week and doing interplanar travel and in the next are right back to being chased by a band of goblins. The print comic's MythArc makes them (slightly) more consistent, but the comic never directly involves the ruleset in its canon and their exact character levels are unknown outside some (now outdated) character sheets published in Dragon.
* SupremeChef: Piffany, whose cooking skills are so incredible that Nodwick was able to use her brownies and punch as part of a scheme to convince a mercenary army to fight off an orc horde and rebuild every single town destroyed by said horde (this having beaten the orc chief's offer to the mercenaries of allowing them a portion of the loot and their pick of the women of the conquered territory for not trying to stop them). Piffany's cooking was also at one point used to buy off an entire pantheon of deities who were jockeying to get Piffany to sign on as the avatar of one of them. She successfully dissuades them by giving up her COOKIE RECIPE. Heck, her cooking is so good, it's practically an in-universe Meme.
** Nodwick's being allowed to be lick the bowl whenever she bakes may be the only perk he gets from his job.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Baphuma'al wants to do this, [[MemeticMutation of course]].
* TakeThat: [[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Strahd von Zarovich]] [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=30 vs.]] AnneRice (he's ''so'' not a vampire). [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=43 The good side]] of [[TheWheelOfTime a certain]] DoorStopper. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=222 The D&D Movie]].
** [[{{Munchkin}} Certain sorts]] of gamers.
** The whole Macroscoff[[superscript:[[{{Microsoft}} TM]]]] [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=721 arc]].
--> '''Banner''': [[PeaceAndLoveIncorporated Innovation through overwhelming intimidation!]]
** "A Kind of Tragic" [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=744 arc]]
--> '''Jumping Nut with a Sword''': "[[ThereCanBeOnlyOne There will be only me!!]]"
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=797 The Last Son of Xenon]]. Complete with infamous "Super [[strike:Weaving]] Speedy Stitchery".
* [[TalkingIsAFreeAction Flashbacking Is A Free Action]]: Subverted. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=763 "Excuse me, but while the two of you were busy with this charming flashback, the lummox you were fighting de-meloned you both."]]
* TalkToTheFist: The party are naturals at this.
* ThemeNaming: All henchmen have "wick" at the end of their names.
* TheMerch: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=683 One example here]].
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Surprisingly, this Trope seems to be Inverted in this world; Artax claims Nodwick was in therapy after their exploration of the Temple of Elemental Evil. (And it seemed to take, although Artax's idea of a replacement for him was to use all the ''Clone'' scrolls he had lying around...)
* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: The point of the ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' parody issue "[[Music/{{Queen}} It's a Kind of Tragic]]".
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Overlapping a hair with NoManOfWomanBorn.
* [[TheyKilledKenny They Killed Nodwick]]: Multiple times per issue. The aforementioned ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' parody had about eight times on ''one page''. A few issues actually averted it because there was no means for Nodwick to be restored to life (such as in "A World Without Piffany"), so even he had to be more careful with himself than he was used to.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Nodwick has long since grown too abused and cynical for mere 'OhCrap' moments. Ildomir also gets into the spirit at times after a few run-ins with the party.
* TokenEvilTeammate: No, not Yeager; ''Artax'' is portrayed this way in the "Giants in the Earth" article dedicated to the crew in Dragon Magazine. Highlights of his past include the fact he left his last adventuring party specifically because he thought they were ''too heroic'', his blatantly implied role in murdering their former fighter (who was "mysteriously struck dead by lightning on an open field in the middle of a cloudless day"), and the fact he deliberately took up with Yeager because said former party rejected Yeager for not fitting their standards of behavior.
* TokenGoodTeammate: Piffany was this before they hired Nodwick, caught between Yeagar, Artax and their kleptomaniac rogue team-mate.
* TooMuchInformation: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=99 Here]].
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=223 Piffany]].
* UndignifiedDeath: Well, sure, it happens to Nodwick a lot, but he doesn't really mind. For a couple of other major characters, it was worse. In the finale, [[spoiler: Elonan fell into her own vat or necrotic fluid and was dissolved into goo. Not very dignified at all.]]
** Even worse was what happened to [[spoiler: Baphuma'al. After he was hit by Rowen's arrow, leaving him powerless, he made an attempt to escape by turning into a fly... But was swallowed by Orville. As if his career up to that point wasn't humiliating enough for a dark god of evil...]]
* Unsound Effect: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=389 Ka-Dimensional-Rift!]]
* UnusualEuphemism: "KRUTZ!"
** In reality, not so much a euphemism as a [[spoiler:literal "curse word" created by the evil wizard and cleric to power a resurrection spell for their comrade.]]
* UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: The wizard Liam Geakes creates a new magic system so that people can use magic without actually learning how it works. Problem is, he didn't do it so well, sure, anyone can cast a spell, anyone, with the proper knowledge, one of his books, the money to pay him, and of course, the resources of a flea market. Needless to say, the traditional system wins.
** "...you [[AC:[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=104 BIRCH]]!]]"
* VitriolicBestFriends: The party in general, especially Yeagar and Artax. The two bicker and insult each other routinely but clearly respect each other in their own way and consider each other equals. Artax and Nodwick also have a dynamic like this at times since Artax considers Nodwick an intellectual equal even though he frequently abuses him for his own gain. [[MoralityPet All three of them are also united in defence of Piffany]].
** In the print comic, [[spoiler:Yeagar]] is revealed to have an attitude like this towards [[spoiler:Nodwick]]. [[spoiler:When pressed by his good counterpart he goes on an irate rant about how Nodwick's intelligence makes him feel stupid and the constant snark, insults and smugness gets on his nerves, only to reply mumbling that "[[BlatantLies Piffany would miss him]]" when asked why he puts up with him.]]
* WeaksauceWeakness: Ildomir went to a school for wizards called the [[AcademyOfEvil Heractium Dark Arts Academy]], where teachers punished students with a song called "I Write the Spells" (a SongParody of the pop classic ''I Write the Songs'') which also made them more evil. Unfortunately, this punishment was too much for Ildomir, and ever since, simply hearing the song drove him to the brink of madness. And the E-13 magic system is filled with these, one of which being total magic failure near anyone thinking of "w".
* WeirdTradeUnion: There's the thieves' guild and adventurers' guild, of course, which are pretty standard fare. The henchmen union, however, really takes the cake. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=883 The employment contract is so draconian it prevents the henchmen from passing on]].
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Played straight, lampshaded, and played with frequently. A lot of the random monsters the party slays are given little regard, unless it would be funnier otherwise. But the king of this in the comic is the treatment of henchmen in general and Nodwick in particular. They are so poorly regarded they are effectively disposable. This would be horrifying if it wasn't for how easy it is to raise them, or that they seem to be MadeOfIron (again, unless it's funnier otherwise). This is derived from ''numerous'' stories of gamers treating NonPlayerCharacter hirelings as similarly disposable while playing games like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Ten foot poles and other trap-disarming tools cost money, but a dead hireling no longer needs to be paid...
* YourVampiresSuck
----
to:
->'''Nodwick:''' Yeah, I was '''overqualified''' for an adventuring job.
-> The story of Nodwick is a classic tale of [[BoyMeetsGirl boy meets]] party, boy hires on with party, boy becomes injured, crushed, punctured, smelted, flattened, stapled, eaten, and occasionally used to carry stuff.
--> -- Nodwick's [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090406090325/http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/NodwickStats/roguesgallery.html Rogues Gallery]]
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/ Nodwick]] was a print-and-webcomic by Aaron Williams, (author of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' and ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'') starting as a standalone comic strip in Dragon Magazine in 1998 before diversifying into an arc-based print comic while moving its standalone comics into a webcomic format. It focuses on what can only be called a misadventuring group in a fantasy world based loosely on 'classic' ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' settings: The party consists of a [[DumbIsGood less than worldly cleric named Piffany]], a [[TheSmartGuy power-hungry wizard named Artax]], a [[TheBigGuy dim brawler named Yeagar]] and Nodwick, [[ButtMonkey a completely expendable henchman whose job it is to carry the loot, distract the monsters and disarm the traps (by stepping on them)]]. The print comic followed a story arc concerning the party's battle with an evil god called Baphuma'al, while at the same time the online variant and its apperances in Dragon Magazine provided shorter a-gag-a-week stories that were unrelated to the goings-on of the print story.
After having completed its bimonthly print run in 2008 after 36 issues, the comic is currently on hiatus as Mr. Williams focuses on ''[=PS238=]'' and ''Full Frontal Nerdity''. The author instead uploaded the story from the print comic into the website for free in lieu of new strips. The last page of the print comics was posted on April 5, 2013.
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?cat=5 Here's old issues]], from {{Dragon Magazine}} and {{Dungeon Magazine}}.
[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?cat=14 Here's newer web comics.]]
----
!!''Nodwick'' provides examples of:
* AbnormalAmmo: Henchmen. Yeagar also develops a stone thrower that requires the discs to be saucer-shaped. One strip features a crank-powered sword-shooting gun.
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Justified in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-12-14 #1255]] when the sewers drain into caves.
* ActionGirl: Rowen in the print comic.
* AllJustADream: One strip featured the characters as ordinary people who happened to be playing a game of D&D with Aaron Williams as the DM. Nodwick's player wanted a new character, but Williams insisted that despite being a ButtMonkey, his role was vital to the party's success. Cue Nodwick waking up and looking confused.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted. They encounter a [[{{Mook}} Kobold]] accountant.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2010-02-12 You'd be surprised]]..."
** And a down-on-her-luck Drow squatting in the party's basement due to a housing crisis.
* AmusingInjuries: Verbally. Half the fun of Nodwick suffering a severe injury comes from statements such as "I can't feel my kneecaps...oh wait, yes I can, they're in my shoes."
* AnArc: The print comic.
* AnachronismStew: Plenty. References are made to things that are centuries ahead of the apparent technology level, such as one storyline where magic is treated in the same way as a PC system. Other small examples include references to Daylight Savings Time and modern technology like submarines.
* AppealToTradition: the wizard Liam Geakes tries to rework magic to make it easier to use, and know other magicians down a peg or two. One problem: the new system is awfull, and full of {{Weaksauce Weakness}}es. Naturally, the magical community is not happy with him.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: A certain [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield Sword in the Stone]], which if pulled out too early, will curse the land with fire raining from the sky. It adds additional curses if someone is dumb enough to put it back in... And additional ones if you pull it out again, and so on and so on. These curses get increasingly silly, such as every firstborn child becoming a lawyer, demons building mini-malls, incontinent pelicans, "reagonomics", and ''market-researched sit-coms''.
** Curiously, for such an extensively planned curse, it doesn't have any dispensation for what happens when someone gets fed up with the bullshit and ''breaks the sword''.
*** None ''that we see''. The guys with the book listing the curses are still searching when the party leaves.
** And then there are the rumored consequences for circumventing established spellcasting procedures:
--> '''Artax:''' We are sooooo '''dead.''' I hear that anyone who even '''thinks''' about challenging [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Liam Geakes]] meets with an '''unfortunate "accident,"''' usually involving perforation... decapitation... having your credit rating '''trashed...'''
** There's also the angry viking chieftain challenging the sea serpent that has been terrorizing their settlement...
--> '''Chief:''' You sank our ships! You killed our brethren! But worst of all...*gestures at Nodwick and company*...you made me hire these morons!
* ArtEvolution: The artwork and character designs have gradually become more streamlined and exaggerated since the beginning. Given a LampshadeHanging in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-01-31 one strip]], where Artax observes that Nodwick's nose is much larger than it used to be, and Nodwick offers the hypothesis that it's developed as a counterweight for all the treasure he's made to lug around.
* ArtifactOfDoom: Half the group's income derives from hunting for these. Usually with some [[strike:lying]] spin doctoring to make them more palatable to Piffany.
* BackFromTheDead: Nodwick. And he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-08-08 required by law]] to fill out a new birth certificate every time. [[DeathIsCheap On a busy week]] it's rather inconvenient.
* BadassAdorable: Piffany. For all her childlike mannerisms, she's ultimately the lynchpin keeping Baphuma'al from taking over the world. Major demons and Infernal lawyers fear her.
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: When Piffany is recalled to her abbey, she's [[BreakTheCutie deliberately]] given the "difficult" class by the AlphaBitch, populated with demons, children of villains and the possessed.
* BasementDweller
* BerserkButton: Curse enough around Piffany, and she can apparently kick her way through prison bars to deliver an indignant scolding. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-04-05 Don't]] suggest giving up and going home when there's evil to be smote, either.
** If you hurt Piffany in any way or damage her happy optimistic outlook on life, expect [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-04-23 Artax, Yeagar, Nodwick]] and the ''[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-28 Powers What Is themselves]]'' to get pissed off with you. This [[CaptainObvious tends to have rather unpleasant outcomes]].
--> '''Powers What Is''': Leave the cleric alone. If you do anything that keeps her from doing her nice-thoughts-and-fluffy-kittens work, we'll bust you so far down that an army of theological scholars won't be able to find mention of you in a million years! You got that?
* BewareTheNiceOnes: When Piffany gets upset, she gets pretty fantastically upset. During the jousting tournament story, Artax suggests that she has a lot of repressed aggression she channels into her enthusiasm for such a violent sport, and at another time she actually kicks a prison cell door off its hinges and lock when angry at Yeagar. Or one time when Baphuma'al abducts Nodwick:
--> '''Piffany''': "If that evil stinky-head hurts our friend, I will give you religious literature every day for the rest of your life... as a suppository!"
* BigBad: Baphuma'al in the print comics, Count Repugsive in many of the shorter strips.
* BoisterousBruiser: Yeagar, when he's being nice.
** JerkAss, when he's not. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-02 Case in point]].
* BreatherEpisode: Once Baphuma'al is on the scene, most serious stories are immediately followed by a silly one. Baphuma'al's introduction is followed by a {{Superman}} parody, "A World Without Piffany" by several (mostly) standalone issues, the Gauntlet of Supremacy story by a mixed-up fairy tale story, and so on. Several of the Breather Issues still have bits of the main plot threaded through them, but mostly just to set a few [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Guns]] for later.
* BringMyBrownPants: Invoked when Artax, Yeagar and Nodwick wind up on an [[ItMakesSenseInContext accidental camping trip]]:
--> '''Nodwick:''' ''(seeing stick-figure people hung up in the trees)'' Well ''this'' is ominous.
--> '''Yeagar:''' If "ominous" means "something that makes you need to change your shorts", then I've learned a new word today.
--> ''(later)''
--> '''Yeagar:''' I just ''ominoused'' myself.
* BrokeTheRatingScale: Once, when Yeagar gave up the seven deadly sins, '''he invented an eighth'''. Suffice to say, they don't make him try to give them up any more.
--> '''Yeagar:''' I think we called it '''blasphitrociterra-o-rama''' or something. It was pretty fun, actually.
* BrotherhoodOfEvil: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-22 The Brotherhood of Evil Henchmen]]
* ButtMonkey: Nodwick, whose ''job description'' involves carrying extreme weights, suffering abuse, and being completely expendable.
** To put this in perspective, Nodwick is hired ostensibly to provide someone who can carry things. However, the less morally constrained members of his party put him to other use:
---> [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-30 It was Yeagar]] who pioneered many of the techniques in henchman use that adventuring parties use today. Far from relying on hirelings as mere human shields, he demonstrated their employ as projectiles, bait, door-jammers, and flotation devices.
** ... not to count battering ram, trap disarmer (as Artax at one point puts it, "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-06-27 In the same way stick disarms a bear trap]].") and an all purpose tool, with the only person with any moral decency at all in the party being too clueless to stop this. Said uses, more often than not, result in his death, only to Piffany to conveniently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-04-15 patch him up]] with [[DuctTapeForEverything Duct Tape]], so that said abuses can be heaped upon him all over again. And all of this takes place on top of the fact that he is frequently expected by his employers to haul several metric tons of "loot." To make matters worse, his guild is manipulated by the Adventurers Guild so that the president is a hamster and his health plan consists of a bottle of poison (The exact type of poison changes periodically). His contract is utterly impossible to get out of and at one point, he finds out that it is cosmically infeasible that he would ever get out of his current situation. This is so bad that when he dies, he is reduced to [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-01-22 begging the powers that be to let him stay dead]], only to find that he was due for resurrection yet again.
** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-14 Nodwick tried to turn it down immediately]]. (The reason being every time they tried to help him it either made matters worse for him or somebody else. If he died permanently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-28 Piffany would have a nervous breakdown]] and that goes against all of reality for her to angst. It doesn't help that he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-09-09 contractually obligated to stay with the party.]])
* TheCameo: Nodwick makes a few brief appearances in the live-action independent film ''The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising''.
** [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death of the Endless]] appears briefly in one issue of the comic when Yeagar temporarily dies. She asks him if he's seen "the henchman" (meaning Nodwick), saying that she "keeps missing" him.
** Open the official D&D supplement, ''Book of Vile Darkness'' to the Monsters chapter. Look very carefully at the party of adventurers those two skeleton monsters are about to attack. Familiar?
** Nodwick and the party also appears in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' as part of an elaborate time-travelling/dimension-hopping plot.
* CannotTellALie: Piffany not only lacks the ability to lie, she [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-07-11 can't even keep her mouth shut]] while others do so.
* CaptainErsatz: The god Tharizduuhm is a pretty obvious [[EldritchAbomination ersatz Tharizdun]], himself something of an ersatz Lovecraftian Old One. However, [[DemonicSpiders Lolth]], {{Spider-Man}}, and [[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Count Strahd]], among others, all appear as themselves.
* CataclysmBackstory: The world used to be a technological paradise right up until a scientist destroyed everything when his Time Machine spectacularly misfired.
** Actually he brought the equivalent of a high tech palm pilot with him and that was enough to cause the Cataclysm.
* CerebusSyndrome: in the print comic; with Baphuma'al as KnightOfCerebus.
* CharacterAlignment:[[invoked]] Not surprisingly, since it's inspired by ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. They actually have official character sheets (for 2nd Edition) that were published in DragonMagazine and then later added to the online archive. Then again, the dissonance between their sheets and how they act is a deliberate part of the humor.
** For those interested, Piffany and Nodwick are LawfulGood (to no-one's surprise), Yeagar is apparently ChaoticGood, and Artax is NeutralGood (though gods know how, considering how they treat most of their fellow beings -- and Nodwick). Or, as the ''first'' strip says:
---> '''Nodwick''': I guess the "LawfulGood" in your want ad was a typo, right?
---> '''Yeagar''': Our cleric placed the ad; she's a bit of an idealist.
** Presumably it's a joke at the expense of those roleplayers who end up playing good alignments as neutral -- certainly Artax ''acts'' TrueNeutral and Yeagar is textbook ChaoticNeutral.
* ChekhovsHobby: Sort of. The weapon that can kill Baphuma'al is an arrow, but this leaves the heroes with a small problem - none of them are any good with a bow. [[spoiler: Fortunately, Rowen (who has just joined them) is an expert with it. She doesn't actually use her archery skills until the FinalBattle, but it does come in ''very'' handy then.]]
* ChekhovsGun: In one of the first Nodwick strips, Yeagar remarks that the party really needs a thief; Artax reminds him that their last one is still in therapy. [[spoiler: Years later, we discover that Artax and Yeagar are the ''reason'' said thief was in therapy...]]
** In the print comic, [[spoiler:Piffany's FirstKiss.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: The series ''loves'' these:
** First of all, [[spoiler:the hamster gets superpowers]] at the end of ''Last Son of Xenon''. No mention is made of them again until the final confrontation with Baphuma'al.
** Another example: [[spoiler: In an early issue of the print comic (the first appearance of Baphuma'al, in fact) the party breaks the curse of a pixie who is cursed to work as a tooth fairy. Again, this storyline is not mentioned again until Piffany asks for her help before the final battle against Baphuma'al.]]
** The most important one, [[spoiler: was a prophecy that Piffany mentions in one episode, how her first kiss will unleash great holy power that can smite the greatest of evils. This is forgotten about until the FinalBattle, where Nodwick tricks Elonan into trying to kill her and Yeagar with an unholy version of a wedding, which enables her to unleash this power, defeating Baphuma'al once and for all.]]
* [[TheChewToy Chew Toy, The]]: once again, Nodwick.
* CloningBlues: More than once, Artax has tried out his clone spell on Nodwick. The results have ranged from simple leftover heads to ''legions of Nodwick zombies''.
* CloudCuckooLander: In the print comics, this is the fate of [[spoiler:Elonan]] after overspending her power. A rather dark example altogether, [[spoiler:given that she starts treating the undead as her family and [[ItMakesSenseInContext tries to kill off our heroes with a wedding ceremony]]]].
* [[ClusterFBomb Cluster K Bomb]]: KRUTZ!
* ComedicSociopathy: Yeagar and Artax
* CosmicPlaything: "The Powers What Is" have stated that Nodwick is a "destiny sponge". If he doesn't suffer, the rest of the world suffers instead. Which makes Nodwick something of a martyr...who comes back to life to be martyred again...and then comes back to life to be martyred again...I'm gonna stop right there.
* CrapsackWorld: Society has devolved to a feudal system, none of the sentient races get along, the gods argue all the time, and there are far too many carnivorous monsters for Nodwick's tastes.
** Then their attempts to help the creation of a perfect world turn out even ''worse'' with the creation of a world occupied entirely by absurdly muscular fairies who talk like Piffany, do all-night magic research sessions, and then have to cope with 200 proof water.
** It's still a picnic compared to the parallel world in ''A World Without Piffany''. Baphuma'al runs the place.
* {{Crossover}}: Several with ''FullFrontalNerdity'', the author's other ''D&D''-based comic.
** ''A World Without Piffany'' includes a sequence where Nodwick is rapidly zapped into various other universes, which include ''{{PvP}}'', ''ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie'', and ''DorkTower'' ([[LampshadeHanging the last just as one of the characters is ranting about gratuitous crossovers in comic books]]).
** And [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-08-28 speaking of Phil...]]
** As well as [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of their characters in the "[=Q4orce=]" side stories, set in the ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' universe.
** [[ComicBook/{{PS238}} Atlas]] makes an appearance in [=Q4orce=] as well, and issue 39 of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' is a cross-over with ''{{Nodwick}}''.
** An annual issue of ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' featured a three-way crossover between the magazine's three comic strips, with each cartoonist taking over another's strip (Creator/JohnKovalic did ''{{Nodwick}}'', Phil Foglio did ''DorkTower'', and Aaron Williams did ''[[Creator/PhilFoglio What's New?]]'') and inserting in-jokes from his own comic.
* CyanidePill: The Henchman union's health plan is a vial of poison, the first month it was literally cyanide, another time it was hemlock.
* DeadpanSnarker: Nodwick. Artax takes over the role if Nodwick isn't around, and his EvilCounterpart Ildomir in the print comics gets rather sarcastic when things aren't going his way.
* DeathIsCheap: Nodwick has to file a new birth certificate with his union every time he dies. His file holds ''eight trees'' worth of paper.
** In one issue of the comic book, he dies 10 times ''on one page'', and many many more times in the rest of the issue. He dies so often that the compilations have a "Rest Index Peace," an index of which pages he dies on, and in what manner. (Which itself was discontinued after the second book or so because it just became TOO MUCH to keep track of.)
* DisproportionateRetribution: In ''A World Without Piffany'', someone was left to rot in a dungeon for ''littering''.
* DistaffCounterpart: Rowen turns out to be ''very'' much alike Yeagar, only one with breasts and a bow. (And Orville, though you know that Yeagar would steal a pet dragon if given half a chance.) It's very evident in the ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' crossover where they're introduced arguing over both of them squandering the party's money on carousing that they were supposed to put towards the latest round of damages to the Fang and Flagon tavern.
* TheDitz: The Evil Henchman Beobor from the print comic. Nodwick's constant bamboozling of him makes Yeagar look smart by comparison.
* {{Doppelganger}}: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-05-02 Though not a very in-character one]].
* DuctTapeForEverything: The favoured healing method of our party's cleric. She has a holy HumongousMecha that shoots duct tape to [[DeathIsCheap resurrect]] Nodwick.
* DumbIsGood: Both played straight with Piffany (good, but naive and either ''very'' [[SelectiveObliviousness selectively oblivious]] or has a real problem with [[FailedASpotCheck failing spot checks]]) and Artax (smart, but utterly amoral), and subverted with Yeagar (dumb as a stump and not very nice) and Nodwick (smart and good, making it a wonder he ever became a henchman in the first place).
** It should be noted that Piffany is usually very perceptive when it comes to everything ''except'' Artax and Yeagar's antics. (One of the earlier comics showed that Piffany is intentionally ignoring it.)
* DragonMagazine: One of its longest-running comics, going unbroken once introduced all the way to the final print issue.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Baphuma'al gets introduced pretty early on. However no one would suspect that it is [[spoiler: The head of the Evil Henchman Guild.]]
* ElephantGraveyard: The Henchman's Graveyard. Whenever a henchman reaches the point where he is about to die of old age, he takes all the loot he can carry and goes to this sacred place, which can only be found by henchmen. [[spoiler:There isn't any treasure there. Only one henchman has ''ever'' died of natural causes, and he died bankrupt due to his party robbing him blind.]]
* EmpathicWeapon: The (now defunct) AD&D character sheets from long ago detailed how Yeagar's sword was an intelligent [[InfinityPlusOneSword Holy Avenger]], a powerful sword meant for paladins, but being stuck in Yeagar's service has rendered it traumatized and catatonic. A later strip showed it chatting telepathically with another sword (wielded by Yeagar's opponent) as they both commiserated over being stuck with idiotic owners to whom they refuse to reveal their true natures.
* EndOfTheWorldSpecial: [[spoiler:Yeagar]] of all people get the opportunity for this near the end of the print comic.
* EveryoneHasStandards: In one early strip, Nodwick was going over the contents of the haul, and found a ''Ring of Protection +7''. Naturally, all three of his employers wanted it (in the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game, +5 is usually the limit, making such a thing priceless) until he told them it was a ''Nipple'' Ring of Protection + 7, at which point they all said they'd pass.
* EvilCounterpart: In the print comic Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan are this for Yeagar, Artax and Piffany respectively.
* EvilSorcerer: The party faces these on a regular basis in the webcomic. Ildomir from the print comic is perhaps the most pronounced example, although he's technically a wizard.
* EvilTwin: Inverted, [[spoiler:Yeagar]] ends up developing a good twin in the print comic after enough smacks to the head with the clue-by-four.
** [[spoiler: Well is less Good Twin and more Enlightened Twin. Regular Yeagar is rather dumb.]]
* EldritchAbomination: So ''very'' many.
* ElvesVsDwarves: A brief war ended because A) the ArtifactOfDoom both sides were looking for would have killed both sides if it was used, and B) they decided the humans needed careful watching, since the stuff in their tavern cellar is clearly an explosive siege weapon - it can't possibly be drinkable (see GargleBlaster below).
* [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Even Henchmen Love Their Mamas]]: Nodwick's helmet is a gift from his mother, and he demands to know which is the original when he gets [[CloningBlues cloned]].
** This is subverted with Orville. Apparently, his species is driven by instinct to kill their mothers, and this works to the heroes' advantage at one point. [[spoiler: Elonan uses a spell that causes the heroes to perceive her zombies as their parents or former mentors, intending to fool them into being vulnerable to their attacks, and this almost works. However, because Orville regards his mother as an enemy, he becomes enraged and incinerates them.]]
* FailedASpotCheck: Piffany repeatedly fails to spot Athax and Yeagar's more egregious abuses of Nodwick. It's implied it may be more SelectiveObliviousness.
* FairyTales [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2010-08-04 One stand-alone story in the print comic]] has Nodwick and crew reenacting several classic fairy tales.
** FracturedFairyTale: HilarityEnsues as the characters start rebelling against their roles and act like themselves instead of the characters they're supposed to be, which epically messes up the fairy tales.
--->'''Narrator:''' OnceUponATime, there was a beautiful princess. Her beauty was so that it outshone the queen. The queen grew jealous, and exiled the princess to the forest, in the hopes that she would be felled by the beasts living there. The princess was found by a kindly troupe of seven dwarves, five of which were on vacation and one of which had a hyperactive thyroid condition...\\
'''Yeagar (as Disney/SnowWhite):''' This is really starting to get old.\\
'''Nodwick (as dwarf):''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Wow. If the queen exiled]] '''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny you]]''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny for being]] '''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny pretty]]'''...\\
'''Yeagar:''' Can it, Dopey.\\
'''Artax (as dwarf):''' Ugly jokes and men in dresses. Two '''dead horses''' that can't avoid being '''beaten'''...
* FighterMageThief: Subverted, as the group mirrors the classic D&D party - a cleric, a wizard, a fighter, and a thief -- but they don't have a [[strike:thief]] [[strike:[[RougeAnglesOfSatin rouge]]]] rogue. Instead, Nodwick disarms traps... the way a stick disarms a bear trap.
** They used to have a rogue. They fired him for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin stealing from them]].
*** Only after Nodwick caught him (see CrowningMomentOfAwesome); the first time they had to force a cursed helmet on him that drove him insane for a few years.
* FluffyTheTerrible: "Naughty furry thing with slimy tentacles, [[EyeBeams death ray eyes]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking cute, fluffy tail]]! [[AC:whack!]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The later Gauntlet of Supremacy and Orb of Omniscience storylines were [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-21 hinted at]] during "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."
** The items themselves were also used by Yeagar and Artax respectively in ''A World Without Piffany.''
** "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" also introduced the Powers What Is, who would later prove instrumental in the final fight against Baphuma'al.
* ForWantOfANail: The multi-part "World Without Piffany" storyline features an AlternateReality which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. [[spoiler: Without Piffany, Nodwick was KilledOffForReal shortly after Artax and Yeagar hired him, neither of them were able to rid themselves of two [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]] that they later found, both became CoDragons to Baphuma'al, and he ended up ruling the world. Nodwick witnesses this horrible reality and escapes, and the knowledge he brings back is able to convince Piffany's abby to let her continue her adventuring career.]]
* FourthWallMailSlot: Though it [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-09-19 just doesn't end well]].
** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Oh yes it does.]]
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Piffany, whose most terrible crime is that she once smooshed a bug. And she did a week's penance just for that!!!
* FunetikAksent: Master "Franswa," a recurring bit character who speaks with an exaggerated French accent. (Or whatever this world's equivalent of France must be.) He's the only one who ever speaks with it, too.
* FutureBadass: Nodwick, thanks to the power of {{Save Scumming}}. To elaborate, Nodwick touched an artifact that basically created a {{Save Point}}, sending him back in time every time he dies. Nodwick's companions being their usual competent selves meant that Nodwick had to go back to the start of the loop repeatedly, eventually becoming a Fighter/Mage/Cleric of greater power than any of them. His enhanced abilities don't last past the end of that comic, [[StatusQuoIsGod of course]].
** Both Artax and Yeagar get a very negative version of this in some of their alternate futures. In ''A world without Piffany'' and ''It's A wonderful afterlife'', we find out that without Piffany or Nodwick around, Yeagar and Artax get ensnared by (respectively) [[ArtifactOfDoom The Gauntlet of Supremacy and the Orb of Omniscience]]. In ''A World Without Piffany'' they also end up as dual [[TheDragon Dragons]] to BigBad Baphuma'al. That said, Artax still tries to oppose Baphuma'al when he can. Not that he can often, when the guy's literally a [[PhysicalGod god]] that rules the world.
* GambitPileup: Played with in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-08-20 this strip]] and the following ones, in which LITERALLY everyone in the country is trying to take the throne for themselves.
* GarageSale: The party has to hold a yard sale to sell off the excess junk they'd been looting from dungeons when they learn that Nodwick had been forced to build an extension to their house out of looted junk to store the ''rest'' of their looted junk.
* GargleBlaster: Skullwhomper Ale. Apparently the stuff is so volatile that the elves and dwarves thought that it was some kind of high explosive (Which can potentially cause a fireball 15 miles across). [[spoiler: It was actually invented by a dragon as a doomsday weapon - he was really embarrassed when he learned that humans were drinking the stuff]].
--> '''Nodwick:''' [[spoiler: Why is this recipe labeled "Liquid of Fiery Vengeance"?]]
* GenreBlind: Most adventurers, villains and non-henchmen.
* GenreSavvy: Quite a lot of the characters. Often at the same time as being GenreBlind about a lot of other stuff.
* GhostlyGoals: Parodied. Nodwick stays around in ghost form whenever he's killed (until Piffany inevitably resurrects him) because his henchman contract makes him contractually obliged to not pass on as long as there's even a chance of revival at some point.
** The party also ends up assisting ghosts with their final requests a few times. One of them needed to return his neighbor's rake.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Baphuma'al and Ildomir in the print comic.
* GlurgeAddict
* GodOfEvil: Baphuma'al.
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Zigzagged. The gods have periodic manifestations and open conflicts, but more often work through mortal agents and prophecy. As well, while Baphuma'al gets to intervene directly, the various gods of good hang back and do nothing. [[spoiler:When they learn that Baphuma'al managed to cheat the system by learning the prophecies and actively circumventing them, the good gods get involved in helping the party prepare. This culminates in one of the higher gods and minor Power What Is Ranoa openly manifesting on the field of battle to create a distraction for the party's benefit]].
* GoodNewsBadNews: "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-09-03 I've got some bad news and some good news and some bad news...]]"
* GoofyPrintUnderwear: Artax wears blue boxers with gold stars and moons on them. It's an occupational obligation, apparently.
* HeelRealization: If you consider Yeagar to be a Heel, then he has a ''big'' one during the FinalBattle against Baphuma'al. [[spoiler: After receiving the power of Piffany's SacredFirstKiss, the PowersThatBe give him the ability to reshape the universe ''any way he wants to'', literally. His use of this power - which could have easily been abused if he had gotten it sooner - surprises even the PowersThatBe. He asks for one thing for himself, that the wedding he had been forced into be changed so that Rowen was the one marrying him (something she had wanted in the first place). Everything else he requested involved giving himself and his friends the edge they needed to defeat the villains, including giving Rowen the previously-misplaced weapon she needed to slay Baphuma'al.]]
* TheHecateSisters: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-09-25 Here]].
* TheHero: Yeagar. Nodwick may be the protagonist, but in the print comic the plot really rotates around Yeagar. He gets the most CharacterDevelopment, the deepest exploration of his issues, and takes center stage on a lot of important events. Several issues establish both Nodwick and Piffany as irreplaceable to saving the world, but ultimately it's because they're necessary to enable Yeagar to be the real hero of the story.
* HeroismIncentive: If Nodwick ever gets too tired to lug around all the junk the party loots, they give him Hench Snax, H-shaped biscuits with "enough amphetamines to make a dead mule do warp seven."
* HornyVikings: The heroes dealt with Vikings like these in one story, who wanted them to slay a sea serpent. In fact, that led to this interesting exchange after Yeagar tried using a cow as bait, which Piffany naturally objected to:
-->'''Piffany''': Now let's try a plan that doesn't get anyone hurt, especially cows!
-->'''Yeagar''' ''(aside, to Artax)'': Does she not know where Vikings get the horns for their helmets?
-->'''Artax:''' Let's not burst her bubble just now...
* HumansAreBastards: Played pretty straight most of the time, with the exceptions of Piffany and Nodwick. Artax at one point explains the origins of all the world's ruins as being a result of a human quest for experience points; while [[spoiler: Heathwick gleefully sells out to the Adventurer's Guild (themselves rather bastardly) when appointed President by Nodwick after the Hench Games. Within two seconds]].
* HumanPackMule: The main job of henchmen such as Nodwick. They have the ability to carry a much heavier load than their strength would otherwise allow.
* HumiliationConga: The final fate of [[spoiler:Ildomir]] in the print comic. [[spoiler:Unlike all the other villains who get killed, Ildomir survives and ends up doing community service shoveling dung for Krutzing Hollow.]]
* HumongousMecha: At one point, Piffany.
* ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere
* ImpossibleThief: The party's ex-thief, [[MeaningfulName Bezzler]], who apparently once stole all the tips from a bunch of strippers while they were in the middle of a striptease. During his brief re-stint in the party, he makes off with most of the party's loot and Nodwick's pants.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Someone on that page has suggested that that trope could be renamed The Piffany.
* InformedAttribute: The power of This One Ring. It didn't do anything for the dark sorcerer who made it, it didn't do anything for the king who killed the maker for it, and it didn't provably do anything to the halfling who found it later. Despite this (And [[OnlySaneMan Nodwick's attempts to point this out]]), the party insists that it is an incredibly evil and powerful artifact that must be destroyed.
** It even causes a DistantFinale. Nodwick claims that This One Rock (A randomly selected stone from the volcano where This One Ring was made) had just as much power as This One Ring - meaning none at all. A hundred years later, [[IdenticalGrandson an adventuring party that bears a considerably resemblance to Nodwick's party]] finds This One Rock, [[FromACertainPointOfView believing that since it is just as powerful as This One Ring, it must also be an incredibly potent evil artifact]], and seeking to destroy it.
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: Deeply subverted to the point that [[PowersThatBe The Powers What Is]] have to intervene.
* ItsPopularNowItSucks: InvokedTrope. Being a henchman is such an undesirable career that they're able to kill ''any'' annoying fad by making people think ''they'' like it. They claim to have done so with handlebar moustaches and Nehru tunics (bellbottom pants died on their own, but they were preparing to get rid of those), and were able to make people stop saying "krutz" within an hour.
* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Even Nodwick's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2008-12-24 happiest dreams]] are doomed to be interrupted by plot, destiny, or whatever else is at hand.
* {{Jerkass}}: Yeagar, frequently. Artax gets in on it too frequently.
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Both of them get shown rather more sympathetically in the print comic's storyline; mostly because they've got some genuine evil to thwart and inter-party ComedicSociopathy really kills the 'team spirit'. Especially Yeagar, who gets genuine CharacterDevelopment and a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to explain some of his inner demons.
* JokerJury: The Council of Three and a Half, composed of geeks Yeagar bullied in school. They shrink him and use him in one of their miniatures games.
* JustThinkOfThePotential: everyone wishes that Artax would stop doing this.
* KillItWithWater: Piffany's answer to sneaky undead: "H2oly Sacred Soaker".
** One time they eliminated a giant demon by getting Piffany to bless ''an entire lake'' and splashing the demon with it.
* KleptomaniacHero: The absurd amount of worthless junk that the party loots during quests and forces Nodwick to carry home has to be seen to be believed.
** At one point, Nodwick ''builds a new wing'' onto their house out of junk - to house the ''rest of the junk''.
* KnightInSourArmor: 'Knight' is pushing it, but Nodwick is an altogether nice and loyal person (almost overly so) while at the same time being extremely cynical and resigned to a life of pain as a henchman.
* {{Ladette}}: Rowen. She's basically a gender-flipped (and saner) Yeagar.
* LampshadeHanging:
--> "It makes your clothes grow, too?" "This version does. There were some ''major problems'' with the first version when-" "THANK YOU! That's enough information."
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The Clergy In Black have a ring that induces this. For some reason it has no effect on Piffany, so she went for years wondering why they make a point of showing her that ring every time they meet.
* LethalChef: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-03-16 Yeagar]], [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-01-30 whose idea of a special treat involves ingredients a month past their use-by date]].
* LetsGetDangerous: What happens whenever Piffany cries to any males in the area. At one point the very possibility of her crying caused an army of mercenaries that been hired by a Orc Lord to destroy the Orc Army, retake their home lands and rebuild all the destroy villages.... in a week.
** Actually ''hurting'' Piffany is likely the easiest way to make Yeagar, Artax, AND Nodwick fly into a rage. Nodwick usually gets killed in these situations, naturally, but this is one of the few times where Yeagar and Artax will risk their own lives.
* LongRunner: Lasted 10 years. Still isn't 'finished' so much as 'on hiatus' while ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' gets the limelight.
* LoveMakesYouEvil:/LoveRedeems: When Yeagar describes his history with Rowen it sounds like he became a jerk because things didn't work out between them. When Rowen describes the past it sounds more like he only acted nice sometimes for her.
* LovePotion: Gets slipped into Piffany's lemonade.
* MeaningfulName: Piffany is a cleric. She probably had an epiphany at some point that sent her down this path.
* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: The party. Implied to be [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-10-22 repeat offenders in this regard]].
* MoralityChain: Piffany and Nodwick, albeit unintentionally, turned out to be the only thing able to save Artax and Yeagar from a life of evil in the print comics.
* MoralityPet: Piffany. What's more, she can take on this role for anyone but the most [[AlwaysChaoticEvil abjectly evil people and gods]], not just her own friends. Her ''cookies'' are so good that gods will threaten (and then back down from) holy wars over them, and legions of amoral mercenaries will fight evil monsters for free because she might cry if they took the side of evil.
* MusicalEpisode: The print comic story "Phantom of the Way, Way Off-Broadway Musical" ([[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-02-28 now uploaded]]). Artax casts a "spell of thespia" on Yeagar without checking its spell description, which turns out to be to turn the adventure into one "until end of production or until first tomato is thrown". The entire rest of the story is spend with both villains and heroes belting out {{Musical Pastiche}}s of 80ies rock and pop with new lyrics.
-->'''Utharr:''' (To the tune of "Enter Sandman") [[BreakingTheFourthWall We're all right/with copyright!/Parody!/Keeps the lawsuits far from me! ]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Yeagar and Artax have this moment when they [[spoiler: throw Nodwick into a Dimension Rift in attempt for Piffany to stay with the party. When it said that Nodwick is coming back and Piffany cries they don't take it well.]]
* NegativeContinuity: The ''Dragon'' magazine and online-only comics. Some went on to get referenced in the comic book, but others have never been brought up again. A lot of the early ''Dragon'' comics involved the characters going through some classic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventures and giving them the {{MST}} treatment from within the adventure, for example - something that wouldn't fit well into the continuity of the later print comic.
* NerdGlasses: Piffany.
* NiceGuy: Nodwick himself. One story arc has him impress a [[NaughtyNuns pleasure cult "nun"]] by looking her in the eye and listening intently while she talked about her feelings for four hours straight.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The villains started a chain of events that eventually led to their final defeat. [[spoiler: They created a golem to use in the Hench Games; the golem's actions resulted in the hamster gaining super powers. In turn, the hamster - due to his powers - was instrumental in defeating Baphuma'al. Of course, they could never have forseen this chain of events, but they started it nonetheless.]]
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-08-04 Like so]].
-->'''Yeagar:''' You don't understand! He's a ninja '''and''' a pirate!\\
'''Artax:''' That's a level of '''awesome''' you just can't beat without '''high explosives''', maybe.
** CoolVersusAwesome: They eventually settle on "Cannibal Vikings".
* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-11-26 Defied]] on at least one occasion, played straight myriad other times.
* NonActionGuy: Nodwick is lethally bad at combat. Yeagar tries to teach him the bow, and his first shot nails their neighbor through the head. At another point the party sends him to "join" the monsters in a dungeon, with the story that he's turned evil and betrayed the party - because as soon as Nodwick tries to help the monsters fight, he screws up so much he kills all the monsters (and himself) by accident, something that Artax and Yeagar were counting on to make everything easier.
* NoNameGiven: Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan weren't given names until long after their first appearance. This was even lampshaded by this exchange:
-->'''Nodwick:''' Hey, it's the evil-warrior-guy who used to hang out with the evil-wizard-guy and the evil-cleric-gal!
-->'''Piffany:''' We really need to get their names the next time we see them.
* NoodleIncident: A lot all around: There are many references to (mis)adventures the group have been on (and their aftereffects on Nodwick) scattered around the pages. A RunningGag and recurring source of fear for Yeagar in his backstory is something "Suzie Klopman" (we never learn who it is) did to him on his fifth birthday.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-02-13 ...so unspeakable, it is merely referred to as 'The Cheese Incident'.]]"
** And with [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-02-20 some]] incidents [[TooMuchInformation it would be best]] to leave them un-narrated.
** Yeagar once took holy orders (He was drunk at the time). He was kicked out after an incident involving [[NoodleImplements a sheriff, a cow, two tavern wenches and a chandelier]].
** One attempt to rescue a DamselInDistress resulted them accidentally turning the kidnapper's entire family into wereferrets.
* [[OhCrap Oh Krutz]]: Things often go to Yeah That Place in a handbasket.
* OnlySaneMan: Nodwick. Henchmen in general, actually, but especially Nodwick. (Nodwick once told the rest of the party that the reason he didn't become an adventurer was because he was overqualified.)
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame / OurGnomesAreWeirder: According to an old ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' strip, both races are just [[{{Hobbits}} halflings]] wearing fake beards and platform shoes. They get more money from {{Sourcebook}} royalties that way.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: In the FutureBadass strip, upon hearing that Nodwick has become a competent, powerful adventurer in his own right as a result of constant time-looping, Yeagar expresses the opinion that he's not sure if he likes the idea of Nodwick being better then all three of them, and Artax agrees to wipe his memories of his true power once he gets them out of this mess. Not only do they say this out loud and in front of Piffany, Piffany quite blithely encourages them to do so by telling them to keep an eye out for a spare left hand she can use to replace the hook the Adventurer-Nodwick has.
* PaperThinDisguise: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-03-04 Artax's Illithid disguise]]. At least he keeps his acting (relatively) believable.
** A RunningGag is how Piffany's order uses [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2011-11-30 a painfully fake moustache]] and nothing else as a valid disguise... And it always works.
** Even better than one may think. In one story, Nodwick was able to fool Baphuma'al himself with a simple fake moustache, along with Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan, even though they were ''specifically'' trying to keep him out of the caves where they were building their citadel.
* PayingForTheActionScene: At least once, Yeagar ended up with the tab for damages after a bar brawl — he was the last guy standing.
* PeepingTom: There's actually a goddess devoted to this in this reality (who, ironically, is often a victim of them).
* PhosphorEssence: We never actually see it (possibly because the [[PowersThatBe Powers What Is]] hide just how good she is), but as a child Piffany apparently kept her parents awake with her halo of purity.
* PoweredArmor: When Piffany messes with an old spell meant to summon angels, [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-05-05 she gets this.]] She is also shown in a [[Film/{{Aliens}} Power Loader]] in the Metal Dungeon story arc.
** The July 31st 2001 strip has a dwarf engineer who was "trying to invent a way to have hot tea on the battlefield, and it kinda snowballed". He is shown in a steam engine-assisted suit of superheavy platemail.
* PowersThatBe: The Powers What Is. (And in this reality, they actually have a sense of humor.)
* PowersViaPossession: Failing one check vs. [[EmpathicWeapon a sentient item]]'s Ego usually sucks. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-03-13 On the other hand]], having one's wits run over by ''three'' artifacts at once may work ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes wonders]]'' on some meek henchman.
* PowerTrio: Yeagar (id), Artax (ego), Piffany (superego). Nodwick is a henchman and gets no say in the matters, but is a superego.
** Amongst their evil counterparts in the print version, Utharr (id), Elonan (ego), and Ildomir (superego). Elonan and Utharr end up switching places [[spoiler:after Utharr becomes fully sentient as an undead and Elonan goes AxCrazy.]]
* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: "I've heard tell of a [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-10-22 silk hat that produces an endless supply of rabbits...]]"
* PunchClockHero: This party [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-04-18 definitely]] is.
* RealityWarper: They once got an artifact that allowed them to have something happen intantiously while remember what happened. The problem is that is when someone used it to attempt something that would never happen causes damage to reality. They wound up causing all of reality to break.
* RefusalOfTheCall: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2004-01-22 This]] strip right here is pretty much the trope's platonic ideal.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Artax. He has a very bad habit of thinking of all the PotentialApplications and wanting to try them out, often without fully thinking about the consequences. Generally he's not too bad - apart from repeatedly blowing himself and Nodwick up. However, he can veer ''very'' close to MadScientist on occasion, and there's an implication that if Piffany and the gang weren't around to stop him from ''concentrating'' on ways to blow up his lab, he'd probably end up JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. Indeed, his "Giants in the Earth" profile says that most of his ancestors/family wound up eventually killing themselves as a result of some magical experiment going wrong at some point in their lives.
* ReluctantWarrior: Piffany.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Played with in one story where Nodwick is given a growth potion to repel an army of invading orcs. The potion doesn't increase his mass, so he floats away in the breeze like a balloon.
* RiddlingSphinx: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2003-11-12 Fortunately, the Sphinx is flexible about the form in which it will accept the answer.]]
* RingOfPower: Parodied by This One Ring.
* RobeAndWizardHat: Artax
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The Legion of Princesses. (''Most'' of the time. In the issue where they appeared, however, they had to be rescued, much like other princesses. But even so, they weren't helpless.)
* SacredFirstKiss: Piffany, literally. Her first kiss will bestow a major blessing upon whoever she kisses (On the order of rewriting reality to suit the desires of the kissee), so she has made a conscious effort to avoid giving away her first kiss until such time as that blessing is needed, onto a person worthy of that blessing. [[spoiler:In the last issue of the print comic she kisses Yeagar, who rewrites reality to give the party a much-needed edge against Baphuma'al's forces.]]
* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: Countess Repugsive]]
* SarcasmFailure: It takes a ''lot'' to make Nodwick drop the snark. When he does, it's usually a sign that things have gotten ''really'' serious.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Yeagar starts talking like this after some exposure to the Clue-By-Four. After a few wallops more, he stops (having either evolved beyond 'language' or just realized smart people don't need to use big words to explain things).
* ShipTease: More than you'd expect between [[spoiler:Piffany and Nodwick]]. A lot between Yeagar and Rowen once she joins the cast.
* ShouldersOfDoom: Yeagar's shoulderpads are huge, (and their SpikesOfDoom are actually practical!), but even he can be cowed by shoulder pads with ''blades''.
* ShoutOut: Regularly.
** The four ancient magic-users who created the Orb of Omniscience are the [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1098 Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors, plus Romana]].
** In the ''LordOfTheRings'' parody, the Gollum character is [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1163 Smeagor]], who bears a striking resemblence to ''DorkTower'''s Igor "It must be MINE!" Olman.
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=104 Get away from him]], [[Film/{{Aliens}} you birch!]]"
** [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death of the Endless]] shows up in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1510 issue 33]] when Yeagar dies, looking for Nodwick.
** [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1465 This page]] is a two-layered one: first, all the characters referenced in the different panels; second, the page format itself is lifted directly from several scenes in ComicBook/{{Powers}} when the main characters are canvassing various superpowered contacts for information relating to their current case.
* SlidingScaleOfFourthWallHardness: Has slid from one end to the other over the comic's history. The strip was introduced at the tail end of Williams' previous ''Dragon'' magazine work ''Floyd'' as [[AnimatedActor Animated Actors]] promoting their upcoming work. The early ''Dragon'' strips involved a lot of MediumAwareness, especially in strips where they were put through classic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventures or lampooning fantasy game tropes. As the series progressed - especially once Williams started the comic book version - the fourth wall breaking became much less common but never completely went away.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Utharr, Ildomir and Elonan, seriosly. No matter how many times the heroes defeated and humiliated them, they refused to ''ever'' consider for a minute that they were worthy adversaries. (Baphuma'al was like this too, but this was more of a case of StupidEvil on his part, seeing as he was someone with a Big Name and a Big Ego)
* SpontaneousChoreography: Yeagar asks Artax to cast a spell to make him more charming. The resulting spell makes Yeagar (And anyone around him) spontaneously go into song and dance routines.
* StatisticallySpeaking: Either Inverted or played straight. Nodwick, whose stats say he's weaker than Artax, can lift an impossibly heavy object and move it across the room because somebody decided it would look better there, but if he were to lift it on his own it would surely snap his spine. RuleOfFunny at work, which one character even lampshades when he suggests that this distinction between whether or not Nodwick can carry an object indicates something worrying about the universe. Eventually, the print comic published a special Henchman class for 3rd Edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' that got ridiculous bonuses to Strength ''only'' for the purposes of carrying stuff (up to +100 Strength at 20th level). Meanwhile, when they got statted for 2nd ed in Dragon Magazine #270, this was explained as being a function of ridiculously high Non-Weapon Proficiencies in various forms of hauling crap substituting for his lousy Strength.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Due to RuleOfFunny, the party's power level fluctuates wildly in the stand-alone strips, with the party going hunting for ancient dragons one week and doing interplanar travel and in the next are right back to being chased by a band of goblins. The print comic's MythArc makes them (slightly) more consistent, but the comic never directly involves the ruleset in its canon and their exact character levels are unknown outside some (now outdated) character sheets published in Dragon.
* SupremeChef: Piffany, whose cooking skills are so incredible that Nodwick was able to use her brownies and punch as part of a scheme to convince a mercenary army to fight off an orc horde and rebuild every single town destroyed by said horde (this having beaten the orc chief's offer to the mercenaries of allowing them a portion of the loot and their pick of the women of the conquered territory for not trying to stop them). Piffany's cooking was also at one point used to buy off an entire pantheon of deities who were jockeying to get Piffany to sign on as the avatar of one of them. She successfully dissuades them by giving up her COOKIE RECIPE. Heck, her cooking is so good, it's practically an in-universe Meme.
** Nodwick's being allowed to be lick the bowl whenever she bakes may be the only perk he gets from his job.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Baphuma'al wants to do this, [[MemeticMutation of course]].
* TakeThat: [[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Strahd von Zarovich]] [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=30 vs.]] AnneRice (he's ''so'' not a vampire). [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=43 The good side]] of [[TheWheelOfTime a certain]] DoorStopper. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=222 The D&D Movie]].
** [[{{Munchkin}} Certain sorts]] of gamers.
** The whole Macroscoff[[superscript:[[{{Microsoft}} TM]]]] [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=721 arc]].
--> '''Banner''': [[PeaceAndLoveIncorporated Innovation through overwhelming intimidation!]]
** "A Kind of Tragic" [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=744 arc]]
--> '''Jumping Nut with a Sword''': "[[ThereCanBeOnlyOne There will be only me!!]]"
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=797 The Last Son of Xenon]]. Complete with infamous "Super [[strike:Weaving]] Speedy Stitchery".
* [[TalkingIsAFreeAction Flashbacking Is A Free Action]]: Subverted. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=763 "Excuse me, but while the two of you were busy with this charming flashback, the lummox you were fighting de-meloned you both."]]
* TalkToTheFist: The party are naturals at this.
* ThemeNaming: All henchmen have "wick" at the end of their names.
* TheMerch: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=683 One example here]].
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Surprisingly, this Trope seems to be Inverted in this world; Artax claims Nodwick was in therapy after their exploration of the Temple of Elemental Evil. (And it seemed to take, although Artax's idea of a replacement for him was to use all the ''Clone'' scrolls he had lying around...)
* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: The point of the ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' parody issue "[[Music/{{Queen}} It's a Kind of Tragic]]".
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Overlapping a hair with NoManOfWomanBorn.
* [[TheyKilledKenny They Killed Nodwick]]: Multiple times per issue. The aforementioned ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' parody had about eight times on ''one page''. A few issues actually averted it because there was no means for Nodwick to be restored to life (such as in "A World Without Piffany"), so even he had to be more careful with himself than he was used to.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Nodwick has long since grown too abused and cynical for mere 'OhCrap' moments. Ildomir also gets into the spirit at times after a few run-ins with the party.
* TokenEvilTeammate: No, not Yeager; ''Artax'' is portrayed this way in the "Giants in the Earth" article dedicated to the crew in Dragon Magazine. Highlights of his past include the fact he left his last adventuring party specifically because he thought they were ''too heroic'', his blatantly implied role in murdering their former fighter (who was "mysteriously struck dead by lightning on an open field in the middle of a cloudless day"), and the fact he deliberately took up with Yeager because said former party rejected Yeager for not fitting their standards of behavior.
* TokenGoodTeammate: Piffany was this before they hired Nodwick, caught between Yeagar, Artax and their kleptomaniac rogue team-mate.
* TooMuchInformation: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=99 Here]].
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=223 Piffany]].
* UndignifiedDeath: Well, sure, it happens to Nodwick a lot, but he doesn't really mind. For a couple of other major characters, it was worse. In the finale, [[spoiler: Elonan fell into her own vat or necrotic fluid and was dissolved into goo. Not very dignified at all.]]
** Even worse was what happened to [[spoiler: Baphuma'al. After he was hit by Rowen's arrow, leaving him powerless, he made an attempt to escape by turning into a fly... But was swallowed by Orville. As if his career up to that point wasn't humiliating enough for a dark god of evil...]]
* Unsound Effect: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=389 Ka-Dimensional-Rift!]]
* UnusualEuphemism: "KRUTZ!"
** In reality, not so much a euphemism as a [[spoiler:literal "curse word" created by the evil wizard and cleric to power a resurrection spell for their comrade.]]
* UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: The wizard Liam Geakes creates a new magic system so that people can use magic without actually learning how it works. Problem is, he didn't do it so well, sure, anyone can cast a spell, anyone, with the proper knowledge, one of his books, the money to pay him, and of course, the resources of a flea market. Needless to say, the traditional system wins.
** "...you [[AC:[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=104 BIRCH]]!]]"
* VitriolicBestFriends: The party in general, especially Yeagar and Artax. The two bicker and insult each other routinely but clearly respect each other in their own way and consider each other equals. Artax and Nodwick also have a dynamic like this at times since Artax considers Nodwick an intellectual equal even though he frequently abuses him for his own gain. [[MoralityPet All three of them are also united in defence of Piffany]].
** In the print comic, [[spoiler:Yeagar]] is revealed to have an attitude like this towards [[spoiler:Nodwick]]. [[spoiler:When pressed by his good counterpart he goes on an irate rant about how Nodwick's intelligence makes him feel stupid and the constant snark, insults and smugness gets on his nerves, only to reply mumbling that "[[BlatantLies Piffany would miss him]]" when asked why he puts up with him.]]
* WeaksauceWeakness: Ildomir went to a school for wizards called the [[AcademyOfEvil Heractium Dark Arts Academy]], where teachers punished students with a song called "I Write the Spells" (a SongParody of the pop classic ''I Write the Songs'') which also made them more evil. Unfortunately, this punishment was too much for Ildomir, and ever since, simply hearing the song drove him to the brink of madness. And the E-13 magic system is filled with these, one of which being total magic failure near anyone thinking of "w".
* WeirdTradeUnion: There's the thieves' guild and adventurers' guild, of course, which are pretty standard fare. The henchmen union, however, really takes the cake. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=883 The employment contract is so draconian it prevents the henchmen from passing on]].
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Played straight, lampshaded, and played with frequently. A lot of the random monsters the party slays are given little regard, unless it would be funnier otherwise. But the king of this in the comic is the treatment of henchmen in general and Nodwick in particular. They are so poorly regarded they are effectively disposable. This would be horrifying if it wasn't for how easy it is to raise them, or that they seem to be MadeOfIron (again, unless it's funnier otherwise). This is derived from ''numerous'' stories of gamers treating NonPlayerCharacter hirelings as similarly disposable while playing games like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Ten foot poles and other trap-disarming tools cost money, but a dead hireling no longer needs to be paid...
* YourVampiresSuck
----
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* MeaningfulName: Piffany is a cleric. She probably had an epiphany at some point that sent her down this path.
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* CaptainErsatz: The god Tharizduuhm is a pretty obvious [[EldritchAbomination ersatz Tharizdun]], himself something of an ersatz Lovecraftian Old One. However, [[DemonicSpiders Lolth]], {{Spider-Man}}, and [[{{Ravenloft}} Count Strahd]], among others, all appear as themselves.
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* CaptainErsatz: The god Tharizduuhm is a pretty obvious [[EldritchAbomination ersatz Tharizdun]], himself something of an ersatz Lovecraftian Old One. However, [[DemonicSpiders Lolth]], {{Spider-Man}}, and [[{{Ravenloft}} [[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Count Strahd]], among others, all appear as themselves.
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* TakeThat: [[{{Ravenloft}} Strahd von Zarovich]] [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=30 vs.]] AnneRice (he's ''so'' not a vampire). [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=43 The good side]] of [[TheWheelOfTime a certain]] DoorStopper. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=222 The D&D Movie]].
to:
* TakeThat: [[{{Ravenloft}} [[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Strahd von Zarovich]] [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=30 vs.]] AnneRice (he's ''so'' not a vampire). [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=43 The good side]] of [[TheWheelOfTime a certain]] DoorStopper. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=222 The D&D Movie]].
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--> -- Nodwick's Rogues Gallery (original site now defunct, alas)
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--> -- Nodwick's [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090406090325/http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/NodwickStats/roguesgallery.html Rogues Gallery (original site now defunct, alas)
Gallery]]
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* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Justified in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1255 #1255]] when the sewers [[spoiler:drain into caves.]]
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* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Justified in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1255 com/?comic=2011-12-14 #1255]] when the sewers [[spoiler:drain drain into caves.]]
Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=952 You'd be surprised]]..."
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** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=952 com/?comic=2010-02-12 You'd be surprised]]..."
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* ArtEvolution: The artwork and character designs have gradually become more streamlined and exaggerated since the beginning. Given a LampshadeHanging in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=566 one strip]], where Artax observes that Nodwick's nose is much larger than it used to be, and Nodwick offers the hypothesis that it's developed as a counterweight for all the treasure he's made to lug around.
to:
* ArtEvolution: The artwork and character designs have gradually become more streamlined and exaggerated since the beginning. Given a LampshadeHanging in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=566 com/?comic=2001-01-31 one strip]], where Artax observes that Nodwick's nose is much larger than it used to be, and Nodwick offers the hypothesis that it's developed as a counterweight for all the treasure he's made to lug around.
Changed line(s) 40,41 (click to see context) from:
* BerserkButton: Curse enough around Piffany, and she can apparently kick her way through prison bars to deliver an indignant scolding. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=658 Don't]] suggest giving up and going home when there's evil to be smote, either.
** If you hurt Piffany in any way or damage her happy optimistic outlook on life, expect [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=666 Artax, Yeagar, Nodwick]] and the ''[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=878 Powers What Is themselves]]'' to get pissed off with you. This [[CaptainObvious tends to have rather unpleasant outcomes]].
** If you hurt Piffany in any way or damage her happy optimistic outlook on life, expect [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=666 Artax, Yeagar, Nodwick]] and the ''[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=878 Powers What Is themselves]]'' to get pissed off with you. This [[CaptainObvious tends to have rather unpleasant outcomes]].
to:
* BerserkButton: Curse enough around Piffany, and she can apparently kick her way through prison bars to deliver an indignant scolding. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=658 com/?comic=2008-04-05 Don't]] suggest giving up and going home when there's evil to be smote, either.
** If you hurt Piffany in any way or damage her happy optimistic outlook on life, expect [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=666 com/?comic=2008-04-23 Artax, Yeagar, Nodwick]] and the ''[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=878 com/?comic=2009-08-28 Powers What Is themselves]]'' to get pissed off with you. This [[CaptainObvious tends to have rather unpleasant outcomes]].
** If you hurt Piffany in any way or damage her happy optimistic outlook on life, expect [[http://comic.nodwick.
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** JerkAss, when he's not. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=131 Case in point]].
to:
** JerkAss, when he's not. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=131 com/?comic=2002-05-02 Case in point]].
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* BrotherhoodOfEvil: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=134 The Brotherhood of Evil Henchmen]]
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* BrotherhoodOfEvil: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=134 com/?comic=2002-05-22 The Brotherhood of Evil Henchmen]]
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---> [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=879 It was Yeagar]] who pioneered many of the techniques in henchman use that adventuring parties use today. Far from relying on hirelings as mere human shields, he demonstrated their employ as projectiles, bait, door-jammers, and flotation devices.
** ... not to count battering ram, trap disarmer (as Artax at one point puts it, "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=29 In the same way stick disarms a bear trap]].") and an all purpose tool, with the only person with any moral decency at all in the party being too clueless to stop this. Said uses, more often than not, result in his death, only to Piffany to conveniently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1146 patch him up]] with [[DuctTapeForEverything Duct Tape]], so that said abuses can be heaped upon him all over again. And all of this takes place on top of the fact that he is frequently expected by his employers to haul several metric tons of "loot." To make matters worse, his guild is manipulated by the Adventurers Guild so that the president is a hamster and his health plan consists of a bottle of poison (The exact type of poison changes periodically). His contract is utterly impossible to get out of and at one point, he finds out that it is cosmically infeasible that he would ever get out of his current situation. This is so bad that when he dies, he is reduced to [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=557 begging the powers that be to let him stay dead]], only to find that he was due for resurrection yet again.
** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=872 Nodwick tried to turn it down immediately]]. (The reason being every time they tried to help him it either made matters worse for him or somebody else. If he died permanently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=878 Piffany would have a nervous breakdown]] and that goes against all of reality for her to angst. It doesn't help that he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=883 contractually obligated to stay with the party.]])
** ... not to count battering ram, trap disarmer (as Artax at one point puts it, "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=29 In the same way stick disarms a bear trap]].") and an all purpose tool, with the only person with any moral decency at all in the party being too clueless to stop this. Said uses, more often than not, result in his death, only to Piffany to conveniently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1146 patch him up]] with [[DuctTapeForEverything Duct Tape]], so that said abuses can be heaped upon him all over again. And all of this takes place on top of the fact that he is frequently expected by his employers to haul several metric tons of "loot." To make matters worse, his guild is manipulated by the Adventurers Guild so that the president is a hamster and his health plan consists of a bottle of poison (The exact type of poison changes periodically). His contract is utterly impossible to get out of and at one point, he finds out that it is cosmically infeasible that he would ever get out of his current situation. This is so bad that when he dies, he is reduced to [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=557 begging the powers that be to let him stay dead]], only to find that he was due for resurrection yet again.
** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=872 Nodwick tried to turn it down immediately]]. (The reason being every time they tried to help him it either made matters worse for him or somebody else. If he died permanently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=878 Piffany would have a nervous breakdown]] and that goes against all of reality for her to angst. It doesn't help that he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=883 contractually obligated to stay with the party.]])
to:
---> [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=879 com/?comic=2009-08-30 It was Yeagar]] who pioneered many of the techniques in henchman use that adventuring parties use today. Far from relying on hirelings as mere human shields, he demonstrated their employ as projectiles, bait, door-jammers, and flotation devices.
** ... not to count battering ram, trap disarmer (as Artax at one point puts it, "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=29 com/?comic=2001-06-27 In the same way stick disarms a bear trap]].") and an all purpose tool, with the only person with any moral decency at all in the party being too clueless to stop this. Said uses, more often than not, result in his death, only to Piffany to conveniently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1146 com/?comic=2011-04-15 patch him up]] with [[DuctTapeForEverything Duct Tape]], so that said abuses can be heaped upon him all over again. And all of this takes place on top of the fact that he is frequently expected by his employers to haul several metric tons of "loot." To make matters worse, his guild is manipulated by the Adventurers Guild so that the president is a hamster and his health plan consists of a bottle of poison (The exact type of poison changes periodically). His contract is utterly impossible to get out of and at one point, he finds out that it is cosmically infeasible that he would ever get out of his current situation. This is so bad that when he dies, he is reduced to [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=557 com/?comic=2001-01-22 begging the powers that be to let him stay dead]], only to find that he was due for resurrection yet again.
** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=872 com/?comic=2009-08-14 Nodwick tried to turn it down immediately]]. (The reason being every time they tried to help him it either made matters worse for him or somebody else. If he died permanently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=878 com/?comic=2009-08-28 Piffany would have a nervous breakdown]] and that goes against all of reality for her to angst. It doesn't help that he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=883 com/?comic=2009-09-09 contractually obligated to stay with the party.]])
** ... not to count battering ram, trap disarmer (as Artax at one point puts it, "[[http://comic.nodwick.
** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.
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* CannotTellALie: Piffany not only lacks the ability to lie, she [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=31 can't even keep her mouth shut]] while others do so.
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* CannotTellALie: Piffany not only lacks the ability to lie, she [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=31 com/?comic=2001-07-11 can't even keep her mouth shut]] while others do so.
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** And [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=175 speaking of Phil...]]
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** And [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=175 com/?comic=2002-08-28 speaking of Phil...]]
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* {{Doppelganger}}: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=131 Though not a very in-character one]].
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* {{Doppelganger}}: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=131 com/?comic=2002-05-02 Though not a very in-character one]].
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: The later Gauntlet of Supremacy and Orb of Omniscience storylines were [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=875 hinted at]] during "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."
to:
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The later Gauntlet of Supremacy and Orb of Omniscience storylines were [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=875 com/?comic=2009-08-21 hinted at]] during "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."
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* FourthWallMailSlot: Though it [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=41 just doesn't end well]].
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* FourthWallMailSlot: Though it [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=41 com/?comic=2001-09-19 just doesn't end well]].
Changed line(s) 145 (click to see context) from:
* GambitPileup: Played with in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=717 this strip]] and the following ones, in which LITERALLY everyone in the country is trying to take the throne for themselves.
to:
* GambitPileup: Played with in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=717 com/?comic=2008-08-20 this strip]] and the following ones, in which LITERALLY everyone in the country is trying to take the throne for themselves.
Changed line(s) 157 (click to see context) from:
* GoodNewsBadNews: "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=217 I've got some bad news and some good news and some bad news...]]"
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* GoodNewsBadNews: "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=217 com/?comic=2003-09-03 I've got some bad news and some good news and some bad news...]]"
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* TheHecateSisters: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=221 Here]].
to:
* TheHecateSisters: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=221 com/?comic=2003-09-25 Here]].
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* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Even Nodwick's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=773 happiest dreams]] are doomed to be interrupted by plot, destiny, or whatever else is at hand.
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* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Even Nodwick's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=773 com/?comic=2008-12-24 happiest dreams]] are doomed to be interrupted by plot, destiny, or whatever else is at hand.
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* LethalChef: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=103 Yeagar]], [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=96 whose idea of a special treat involves ingredients a month past their use-by date]].
to:
* LethalChef: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=103 com/?comic=2002-03-16 Yeagar]], [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=96 com/?comic=2002-01-30 whose idea of a special treat involves ingredients a month past their use-by date]].
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* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: The party. Implied to be [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=226 repeat offenders in this regard]].
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* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: The party. Implied to be [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=226 com/?comic=2003-10-22 repeat offenders in this regard]].
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* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=290 Like so]].
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* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=290 com/?comic=2004-08-04 Like so]].
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* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=231 Defied]] on at least one occasion, played straight myriad other times.
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* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=231 com/?comic=2003-11-26 Defied]] on at least one occasion, played straight myriad other times.
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** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=98 ...so unspeakable, it is merely referred to as 'The Cheese Incident'.]]"
** And with [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=99 some]] incidents [[TooMuchInformation it would be best]] to leave them un-narrated.
** And with [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=99 some]] incidents [[TooMuchInformation it would be best]] to leave them un-narrated.
to:
** "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=98 ...com/?comic=2002-02-13 ...so unspeakable, it is merely referred to as 'The Cheese Incident'.]]"
** And with [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=99 com/?comic=2002-02-20 some]] incidents [[TooMuchInformation it would be best]] to leave them un-narrated.
** And with [[http://comic.nodwick.
Changed line(s) 226,227 (click to see context) from:
* PaperThinDisguise: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=257 Artax's Illithid disguise]]. At least he keeps his acting (relatively) believable.
** A RunningGag is how Piffany's order uses [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1249 a painfully fake moustache]] and nothing else as a valid disguise... And it always works.
** A RunningGag is how Piffany's order uses [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1249 a painfully fake moustache]] and nothing else as a valid disguise... And it always works.
to:
* PaperThinDisguise: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=257 com/?comic=2004-03-04 Artax's Illithid disguise]]. At least he keeps his acting (relatively) believable.
** A RunningGag is how Piffany's order uses [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1249 com/?comic=2011-11-30 a painfully fake moustache]] and nothing else as a valid disguise... And it always works.
** A RunningGag is how Piffany's order uses [[http://comic.nodwick.
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* PoweredArmor: When Piffany messes with an old spell meant to summon angels, [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=276 she gets this.]] She is also shown in a [[Film/{{Aliens}} Power Loader]] in the Metal Dungeon story arc.
to:
* PoweredArmor: When Piffany messes with an old spell meant to summon angels, [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=276 com/?comic=2004-05-05 she gets this.]] She is also shown in a [[Film/{{Aliens}} Power Loader]] in the Metal Dungeon story arc.
Changed line(s) 238,239 (click to see context) from:
* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: "I've heard tell of a [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=226 silk hat that produces an endless supply of rabbits...]]"
* PunchClockHero: This party [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=19 definitely]] is.
* PunchClockHero: This party [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=19 definitely]] is.
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* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: "I've heard tell of a [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=226 com/?comic=2003-10-22 silk hat that produces an endless supply of rabbits...]]"
* PunchClockHero: This party [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=19 com/?comic=2001-04-18 definitely]] is.
* PunchClockHero: This party [[http://comic.nodwick.
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* RefusalOfTheCall: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=251 This]] strip right here is pretty much the trope's platonic ideal.
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* RefusalOfTheCall: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=251 com/?comic=2004-01-22 This]] strip right here is pretty much the trope's platonic ideal.
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* RiddlingSphinx: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=229 Fortunately, the Sphinx is flexible about the form in which it will accept the answer.]]
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* RiddlingSphinx: [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=229 com/?comic=2003-11-12 Fortunately, the Sphinx is flexible about the form in which it will accept the answer.]]
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* BackFromTheDead: Nodwick. And he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=35 required by law]] to fill out a new birth certificate every time. [[DeathIsCheap On a busy week]] it's rather inconvenient.
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* BackFromTheDead: Nodwick. And he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=35 com/?comic=2001-08-08 required by law]] to fill out a new birth certificate every time. [[DeathIsCheap On a busy week]] it's rather inconvenient.
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Changed line(s) 294 (click to see context) from:
* UpgradeVs.PrototypeFight: The wizard Liam Geakes creates a new magic system so that people can use magic without actually learning how it works. Problem is, he didn't do it so well, sure, anyone can cast a spell, anyone, with the proper knowledge, one of his books, the money to pay him, and of course, the resources of a flea market. Needless to say, the traditional system wins.
to:
* UpgradeVs.PrototypeFight: UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: The wizard Liam Geakes creates a new magic system so that people can use magic without actually learning how it works. Problem is, he didn't do it so well, sure, anyone can cast a spell, anyone, with the proper knowledge, one of his books, the money to pay him, and of course, the resources of a flea market. Needless to say, the traditional system wins.
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* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Played with in one story where Nodwick is given a growth potion to repel an army of invading orcs. The potion doesn't increase his mass, so he floats away in the breeze like a balloon.
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** As well as [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of their characters in the "[=Q4orce=]" side stories, set in the ''CityOfHeroes'' universe.
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** As well as [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of their characters in the "[=Q4orce=]" side stories, set in the ''CityOfHeroes'' ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' universe.
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*** ... not to count battering ram, trap disarmer (as Artax at one point puts it, "[[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=29 In the same way stick disarms a bear trap]].") and an all purpose tool, with the only person with any moral decency at all in the party being too clueless to stop this. Said uses, more often than not, result in his death, only to Piffany to conveniently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1146 patch him up]] with [[DuctTapeForEverything Duct Tape]], so that said abuses can be heaped upon him all over again. And all of this takes place on top of the fact that he is frequently expected by his employers to haul several metric tons of "loot." To make matters worse, his guild is manipulated by the Adventurers Guild so that the president is a hamster and his health plan consists of a bottle of poison (The exact type of poison changes periodically). His contract is utterly impossible to get out of and at one point, he finds out that it is cosmically infeasible that he would ever get out of his current situation. This is so bad that when he dies, he is reduced to [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=557 begging the powers that be to let him stay dead]], only to find that he was due for resurrection yet again.
*** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=872 Nodwick tried to turn it down immediately]].
**** The reason for that is every time they tried to help him it either made matters worse for him or somebody else. If he died permanently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=878 Piffany would have a nervous breakdown]] and that goes against all of reality for her to angst. It doesn't help that he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=883 contractually obligated to stay with the party.]]
*** Later, a representative of "The Powers What Is" offered just that. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=872 Nodwick tried to turn it down immediately]].
**** The reason for that is every time they tried to help him it either made matters worse for him or somebody else. If he died permanently [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=878 Piffany would have a nervous breakdown]] and that goes against all of reality for her to angst. It doesn't help that he's [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=883 contractually obligated to stay with the party.]]
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**** The
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*** Presumably it's a joke at the expense of those roleplayers who end up playing good alignments as neutral -- certainly Artax ''acts'' TrueNeutral and Yeagar is textbook ChaoticNeutral.
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** In one issue of the comic book, he dies 10 times ''on one page'', and many many more times in the rest of the issue. He dies so often that the compilations have a "Rest Index Peace," an index of which pages he dies on, and in what manner.
*** Which itself was discontinued after the second book or so because it just became TOO MUCH to keep track of.
*** Which itself was discontinued after the second book or so because it just became TOO MUCH to keep track of.
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** In one issue of the comic book, he dies 10 times ''on one page'', and many many more times in the rest of the issue. He dies so often that the compilations have a "Rest Index Peace," an index of which pages he dies on, and in what manner.
*** Whichmanner. (Which itself was discontinued after the second book or so because it just became TOO MUCH to keep track of.)
*** Which
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** It should be noted that Piffany is usually very perceptive when it comes to everything ''except'' Artax and Yeagar's antics.
*** One of the earlier comics showed that Piffany is intentionally ignoring it.
*** One of the earlier comics showed that Piffany is intentionally ignoring it.
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** It should be noted that Piffany is usually very perceptive when it comes to everything ''except'' Artax and Yeagar's antics.
*** Oneantics. (One of the earlier comics showed that Piffany is intentionally ignoring it. it.)
*** One
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* ThereAreNoTherapists: Surprisingly, this Trope seems to be Inverted in this world; Artax claims Nodwick was in therapy after their exploration of the Temple of Elemental Evil. (And it seemed to take, although Artax's idea of a replacement for him was to use all the ''Clone'' scrolls he had lying around...)
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* HeelRealization: If you consider Yeagar to be a Heel, then he has a ''big'' one during the FinalBattle against Baphuma'al. [[spoiler: After receiving the power of Piffany's SacredFirstKiss, the PowersThatBe give him the ability to reshape the universe ''any way he wants to'', literally. His use of this power - which could have easily been abused if e had gotten it sooner - surprises even the PowersThatBe. He asks for one thing for himself, that the wedding he had been forced into be changed so that Rowen was the one marrying him (something she had wanted in the first place). Everything else he requested involved giving himself and his friends the edge they needed to defeat the villains, including giving Rowen the previously-misplaced weapon she needed to slay Baphuma'al.]]
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* HeelRealization: If you consider Yeagar to be a Heel, then he has a ''big'' one during the FinalBattle against Baphuma'al. [[spoiler: After receiving the power of Piffany's SacredFirstKiss, the PowersThatBe give him the ability to reshape the universe ''any way he wants to'', literally. His use of this power - which could have easily been abused if e he had gotten it sooner - surprises even the PowersThatBe. He asks for one thing for himself, that the wedding he had been forced into be changed so that Rowen was the one marrying him (something she had wanted in the first place). Everything else he requested involved giving himself and his friends the edge they needed to defeat the villains, including giving Rowen the previously-misplaced weapon she needed to slay Baphuma'al.]]
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* MusicalEpisode: The print comic story "Phantom of the Way, Way Off-Broadway Musical" ([[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1127 now uploaded]]). Artax casts a "spell of thespia" on Yeagar without checking its spell description, which turns out to be to turn the adventure into one "until end of production or until first tomato is thrown". The entire rest of the story is spend with both villains and heroes belting out {{Musical Pastiche}}s of 80ies rock and pop with new lyrics.
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* MusicalEpisode: The print comic story "Phantom of the Way, Way Off-Broadway Musical" ([[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=1127 com/?comic=2011-02-28 now uploaded]]). Artax casts a "spell of thespia" on Yeagar without checking its spell description, which turns out to be to turn the adventure into one "until end of production or until first tomato is thrown". The entire rest of the story is spend with both villains and heroes belting out {{Musical Pastiche}}s of 80ies rock and pop with new lyrics.
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* PowersViaPossession: Failing one check vs. [[EmpathicWeapon a sentient item]]'s Ego usually sucks. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=101 On the other hand]], having one's wits run over by ''three'' artifacts at once may work ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes wonders]]'' on some meek henchman.
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* PowersViaPossession: Failing one check vs. [[EmpathicWeapon a sentient item]]'s Ego usually sucks. [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=101 com/?comic=2002-03-13 On the other hand]], having one's wits run over by ''three'' artifacts at once may work ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes wonders]]'' on some meek henchman.
