Headscratchers / Goblins

New entries on the bottom.

Kore's Powers

• Why hasn't Kore demonstrated a paladin power? For someone who inexplicably keeps his paladin powers against the logic of the universe, he sure doesn't seem to use them, at all. He doesn't seem to have a paladin mount (since he walks everywhere), he doesn't seem to have Detect Evil, he doesn't seem to Smite Evil, and when he's pulling crossbow shafts out of himself, he doesn't seem to use any Lay On Hands to heal himself. I wouldn't be making the claim that he was a Fallen Paladin if he showed some evidence he retained his powers.
  • I believe that might be the point. They question how a paladin could commit such objectively evil acts and still remain a paladin. Maybe he isn't? Maybe his powers have been axed and he continues on his crusade, either oblivious or convinced it's for some other reason.
  • If he isn't a paladin anymore, then why Ears' axe cannot hurt him?
  • And no, the Speak With Dead effect does not count. Speak with Dead is neither a paladin spell nor has a material component (claim "custom Paladins" if you want, I want to see specifics)
  • Well, he might instead be a cleric of a neutral deity who simply acts Lawful Stupid enough to be confused for a pally.
  • My guess, he was never one in the first place, however a Lawful Evil (thanks to 4th ed) Paladin order is just using him when they want something dead
  • He has recently used Lay on Hands. Now to figure out how the hell he still has his powers, considering he commits murder. Hopefully Elli gives some sort of explanation for this, unless torture and murder are not evil acts in her world. Which could be considered to be worse than Minmax sprouting wings, breathing fire, and suddenly speaking Druidic.
  • Perhaps he's a Paladin (title), and some prestige class that has Lay On Hands etc., rather than being a Paladin (class). Miko Miyazaki of The Order of the Stick is a Samurai (title) Monk 3/Paladin 12+(class).
  • Possibly Kore isn't just a paladin, but a paladin who's been taken over by some implacable, merciless, genocidal force. It's not that he's committing evil acts and keeping his powers; it's that the force is committing evil acts, using his body and abilities, paladin powers included, to carry them out. If he's dominated by something else, then his deeds genuinely aren't his fault and his deity may not consider them grounds for a fall. In effect, Kore-the-true-paladin might be a glove puppet and human (well, dwarven) shield for Kore-the-slaughtering-menace.
  • I am suddenly reminded of Sir Zeliek from World of Warcraft who has EXACTLY this as his shtick.
  • He could also have taken the "Grey knight" Prestige Class from "Heroes of Horror". As long as he's able to keep justifying his actions to the Dungeon Master, he'd be allowed to keep all his paladin powers.
  • Possibly connected to this, Forgath called him "last of the Greyhill Paladins". Could be an adaptation.
  • The fortuneteller called him "cursed"; it's possibly that he is under some sort of imperative which overrules free will and thus may avoid any negative penalties for actions contraries to Paladin principles.
  • Occam's Razor suggests that rather than some convoluted explanation to justify Kore being a Paladin despite committing murder/other deplorable acts, that the DM's idea for what qualifies as 'Falling' for a Paladin is simply different than what is considered the standard presumptions by most players. Kore simply is Lawful Good, despite his actions - probably because the DM considers that as long as Kore truly believes what he is doing is good, or is simply a necessary evil in the name of The Greater Good, then he does not break his alignment or Code of Conduct. This kind of thinking implies the belief that Alignment is an internal, rather than external, condition (that is, you're Lawful Good as long as you believe it, regardless of your actions, as long as you can reconcile your actions with your alignment).
  • My theory is that he's a 4e paladin. Yes, I know it's a 3.5e world, but the Shield of Wonder is able to create a 4e monster (a Soulspike Devourer) in it, so other 4e beings may be possible by other means.
  • Kore is unnatural even by the rules governing the Goblins world. It's even implied that his powers only work due to stealing the souls of those he kills. Even Forgath called him a cursed scourge.
  • As of this page it seems that good and evil are subjectively defined with paladins. Big Ears damaged his axe through an act he personally saw as dishonorable even though no one else would think so, and Kore seems pretty adamant that what he does is good, so this seems to be the case. In short, Kore's status as a Knight Templar prevents him from falling.
  • Am I the only one who thinks he's simply absorbed enough Paladins that he can use them to count as one? A Parasitic Paladin, perhaps.
  • Turns out, his powers exist and are stolen from the souls he has taken.

Magic Fang on a sword

• How the hell did Goblinslayer cast magic fang on a sword? That spell only targets animals. Does his graft count as an animal companion or something?
  • Magic Fang can be used on any natural weapon, regardless the target's type. And since both of the Goblinslayer's weapons were grown from his plant-half, I'm guessing that means they count as natural weapons, and not manufactured ones.
  • In fact Elli at one point specificly points out that GS's wooden sword is a natural weapon...

Evil Random Guards

• Remember those two guards who almost caught Ears in the pipe? Ears said they were evil, despite them giving the impression of PunchClockVillains. That bugs me.
  • I think the idea might have been to make clearer that all the white-barred guards were extremely evil, and thus that the GAP was justified in killing them.
    • All the Elite Guards are specifically chosen because they're ruthless and like to make monsters suffer.

Thaco and Dellyn climax

• WHY DIDN'T THACO KILL DELLYN WHEN HE HAD THE CHANCE?!?! WHYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!
  • It wasn't about honor, it was about making him suffer.
  • As a certain other fantasy webcomic has said, the villain of a strip is a king if he wins, and a legend if he dies. Dellyn feels like his crimes deserve to be immortalized - that he should be a boogeyman to "monsters" for centuries to come. Thaco thinks he deserves to live in obscurity instead. It's about as close as a hero can come to invoking To the Pain.
    • Kin, on the other hand, doesn't think he deserves to live at all.

Comic Rules

• Why doesn't the comic obey consistent internal rules? It described itself as following the D&D system, similar to The Order of the Stick, but Thaco (Who at this point is a level 1 warrior with generic NPC stats) is able to go toe-to-toe with Minimax (A quote-brokenly twinked-unquote fighter) without being instantly killed. Even counting his magic gear, if Minimax was half-decently built he'd have skewered Nameless Goblin #027 instantly. There's also a few more examples similar to that, wherin level 0 NPCs go toe-to-toe with actual PC-strength characters and live for more than one combat round, for reasons that would make perfect sense in real life but none in a world that follows D&D stats like this one.
  • Maybe Plot Armor exists as unseen, unquantified modifiers to stats; so they only think they're level 1 while having much higher stats.
  • D&D characters really do miss very often, especially at low levels where armor is most significant. If Minmax's awesome starting stats gave him a total of +10 on his attacks (which is very high for a 1st-level character), he would still miss a standard goblin 1/5 of the time. Even that's in a stand-up fight where the goblins aren't using terrain or cover.
  • I've seen something like this myself. Level 1 half dragon raging barbarian charged at spear wielding goblin with no magical equipment nor cover, missed and DM rolled critical of 3x1d6+1 getting 6 on damage and dealing 21 damage total. It's worth mentioning that 1st level half dragon barbarian while raging has STR of 28 gving him +12 to attack. It didn't took many more encounters when our Half-Fiend fighter got the same treatment when fighting under Darkness SLA effect (this time it was bugbear with longsword making 20 damage in one crit). Note that no magical equipment was being used by monsters in that case.
  • A typical monster manual goblin would be tougher than a typical human peasant right? That is the base they've stacked their adventurer levels on top of. Expect them to be tougher for it. Probably their total level is quite a bit higher than their adventurer level.
  • The typical monster manual goblin is a warrior in a warcamp, defending his village; same as our heroes at the beginning of the story. Their equal would be a human city guardsman. And those could eat peasants for breakfast. And, while we're at it, a housecat could defeat a standatd Human Commoner. Point is, the Goblin template isn't stronger than the Human one, and especially not better than other LA 0 races (Elf, Dwarf, etc.)
  • Thaco wasn't necessarily level 1, just a generic NPC Goblin. Consider the monster manual entry on a goblin war band, taken from the SRD: band (10–100 plus 100% noncombatants plus 1 3rd-level sergeant per 20 adults and 1 leader of 4th–6th level.) Since Thaco was supposed to be the one to lead the clan, that would mean he was probably an unoptimized 4th level warrior, which explains why he was able to go toe-to-toe in combat with Minmax and ability to dual wield (non-standard for goblins, being at 4th level would give him an extra feat.) Note how it's mentioned that the chief gives off more XP, which implies there are goblins stronger than a generic level 1 warrior even in an NPC tribe.
  • Or he's a holdover from 1e or 2e, when humanoid chieftains were allotted more HD than the standard ones.

Thaco in the elder hut

• During the attack on the warcamp, why does Thaco sit in the hut taunting the elf when he's quite obviously needed out in the battle?
  • Because he's an elderly goblin explicitly barred from combat by Chief.
  • Thaco doesn't seem like the sort of person to sit by while his friends and family are brutally murdered, just because he was told not to fight.
  • Thaco was the one who was supposed to truly lead the Clan, but if he had been chosen instead of the chief (bloodline heritage) the clan would have torn itself apart in a feud. Now what would happen if he directly insubordinated the chief of that clan while flaunting his fighting prowess, possibly becoming a highly visible leading figure?
  • He's a holdover from an older edition with an incompatible combat system. :P

Dies Horribly's name

• What's the problem with Dies Horribly's name? If it was "Dies Young" I could see the problem. Everyone is going to die. His death will be more painful, but the bad part about dying is not being alive anymore. He's not significantly worse off than anyone else.
  • That may be true, but it is not what he thinks.
  • Why doesn't anyone else realize it and point it out to him?
  • Come to think of it, Saves A Fox mentioned a lot of stuff about the prophecy that isn't part of her name, so it's feasible that Young And Beautiful mentioned he'd die young afterwards. Though that leads to the question of why she didn't tell him a few more details.
  • Probably the fact that right now, he is in very real danger of dying. Though unless the goblins have a written alphabet, it could turn out he is very, very bad at coloring T-shirts...
  • The name comes from the vision a fortune teller from his future. I'm pretty sure if there were t-shirts involved, he would know.
  • "Horribly" is subjective. As dying is already a horrible thing on itself, it's due to interpreter that his death will be so horrible and tragic to earn him the name. Actually, in his shoes, I would charge in any mundane-looking battle, as dying in battle is not specifically bad for goblins. Ancient temples and cursed lands, instead, are a no-no.
  • Considering the comic he is in, I am willing to bet that any death worthy of the adjective "horribly" involves prolonged and agonizing torture.
  • So does he. Which means it will probably be of extreme old age, after 40 winters of waiting for it and 10 winters of advancing decrepitude as he passes the normal lifespan. Which is pretty horrible, when you think of it.
  • Name gets played straight as of the most recent update. He does die horribly when he is taken by demons to have his soul tortured for the foreseeable future. But, his interaction with Klik early in the story apparently meant his body now houses two souls. The demoness took more souls than she agreed to, and got dragged to hell, releasing Dies in the process.
  • This leaves the question of whether the prophecy is now fulfilled and he no longer has to worry.
  • "Horribly" going by the standards of the Goblin's universe. Now think, "Biscuit" didn't "Die horribly." K'sellis was slated to die in the dungeon crawl, but not to "die horribly." None of the deaths we've seen have been officially considered "horrible" by the standards of the setting. Now take a moment to absorb all of that, and then consider yourself prophesied to "DIE HORRIBLY" by those standards. Might you not be just a bit of a Nervous Wreck?
  • Though there's also a chance that his name actually means he's horrible at dying. Which, given that his death didn't stick, came true.
• Because he gets reminded of what is going to happen to him every time someone says his name. For his ENTIRE LIFE.

GAP Luck

• Why is the Goblin Adventuring Party so goddamned lucky? Characters are touted as high and mighty and then...defeated in solo combat. They keep getting such broken items. All tension is thus lost and the action scenes, which feel long due to the pacing, are all the more painful, as the conclusions are foregone. It feels like Elli planned out the entire story, realized just how much of the events rely on the laws of dramatic probability and thus stuck in Thaco and Chief's lecture on luck so no one has to worry why the unlikely events of the story are never addressed. To elaborate, my favorite action scenes (besides Kore's first slaughter) are the "PCs" versus the goblins and the "PCs" versus Dellyn. Both are good because they involved clever teamwork rather than Mary Sues rolling 20s against the unluckiest and most overhyped racists ever. The former is also good because the good guys are largely the losers in the fight (yes, the PCs lose 3 out of 5 people, but 2 of them died off comically so I let those pass), and it gave the impression that this could be a work where the tension will always be high and you won't always know the outcome. As I am writing this, Chief is fighting Kore, so hopefully I am proven completely wrong. However, I also fear that the threat of Kore will be greatly reduced after this in case the "real" danger is supposed to be the White Terror or someone else.
  • Chief lasted through a couple of attacks, but can't even apparently land a point of damage. So far, your fears are averted. Although this does lead to another headscratcher: in one panel, he says he took a crit that shattered his spine-can't walk or stand. Then he goes right ahead and does both. So what, did he just make that up so he could have his grand sacrifice exit?
  • Not so much so that he could have a "grand sacrifice exit," but so that the others would be willing to leave him behind. If they thought he might be able to continue, they would have stayed behind to help him and (probably) gotten killed themselves.

Fox's Speech

• What does Fox's "Reason You Suck" Speech towards Duv mean? Duv seems shaken by it, but it seems kind of vague. Is she saying that she's better than Duv because she could have killed her, but chose not to?
  • The one before that, yes, but Duv wasn't very impressed with that. Now it seems Fox's point seems to be more along the lines of Duv being a Goblin who kills other goblins just because she can, which is pretty much what player characters do.

Kore's crossbows, and associated Fan Dumb

• Those crossbows can't exist, for so many reasons that it would require a dedicated page. The only possible explaining out of magical items is that Kore is titan-level strong, enough to force down sixteen crossbows in a casual movement, and that there is a truly amazing engineering behind the recharge gizmo. Given that, metal quarrels so short, heavy and with no fletching are useful only at very short range, but that would be OK, as Kore uses them like shotguns.
  • This is a D&D World. Your complaints about items become irrelevant once I say the word "Homebrew."
  • Why WOULDN'T they be magical items anyways? Kore is freakishly high level and it's more than likely that he would have magical items. The bolts are probably self-regenerating. However, it is still perfectly possible that Kore may be titan-level strong.
  • Apparently, every magical items in Goblins world has a magic aura of some sort, especially when in use, and/or is of remarkable appareance. Kore's crossbows looks quite mundane, so I doubt them to be magical. And probably Kore is not titan strengh level, else he would not need keys to open a door, just a kick.
  • Just a note: Kin once obtained a magical crossbow with a magical quiver (the crossbow is range enhanced, while the quiver recharges its bolts). Both of them looks quite mundane to me...
  • My guess is that there's no trick. He simply slowly incorporated more and more equipment into his armament as he leveled up and grew stronger until it ended up like this. Are you saying no to those crossbows but not a head-to-toe suit of plate mail and a thick metal shield big enough that he can fully hide behind it from a standing posture, and a system to flip it in front of and behind him? Dungeons & Dragons may not be good about this little detail but that is mostly well-distributed weight, so it's not as if he's hauling 200 pounds of equipment in a backpack. And I do not get the impression that he moves very fast; to me Kore looks like an Advancing Boss of Doom who is only able to attack at a reasonable rate because he's primarily using spring-loaded weapons with a mechanical autoloader of some kind. If not for his ranged weaponry and lack of cover the entire goblin party could have EASILY outrun him, if not for having nowhere to run I bet half the orcs could have gotten away if they'd tried, and he's yet to move at more than a slow walking pace on camera (well, he got motion lines after Ears threw the axe but that's ambiguous). Hell, he mostly STANDS STILL during combat, turning as appropriate.
  • No one ever complained about Kore movement or agility, and the shield wall was just ignored because the argument is specifically about the crossbows. Problem is, the amount of strength needed to recharge them requires either impressive stats that Kore never displayed; or a spring mechanism that is clearly not there; or magic, but the crossbows and the recharge gizmo looks mundane. Hence the headscratcher.
  • As was already mentioned, Kin at one point had a magic crossbow that looked equally mundane. The argument that they can't be magic because they look mundane is null and void.
  • Being based in D&D, it looks like a modification of the "repeating crossbow" from the game, which while based on something that really did exist is a MASSIVE case of fantastical physics. To note, the repeating crossbow in game is clip fed, can be reloaded one handed and as a "free" action, and since dwarves are a medium size race, they can dual wield with limited penalties.
  • Going back to the original point. A far simpler solution is just that Kore's strength score really is titan level strong. This is D&D, player characters can have herculean strength scores of 20+ (which is as strong as hill giants, who can lift and throw half-ton stones).

GAP Moral Myopia

• The "hero" Goblins considered all adventurers as horrendous, souless monsters who kills and loot for Exp and levels. Then the Goblins themselves decide they had enough of that, so they decide to become adventurers... and they start doing the same thing they claimed to hate, but they justify themselves by saying it's OK. What the hell, guys? It gets lampshaded a few times during the comic and both good and bad people agree they are the worst, unnatural scum ever.
  • The goblins being called a perversion or unnatural by others have nothing to do with how they act, but from the simple fact that they took character classes, which is more along the way of going against every traditions, or what is widely considered the natural order of things. There's lots of hypocrisy in this position too.
  • Also, the goblins justify themselves by saying those classes and levels are used to protect their kind from adventurers. Basically, they're choosing to fight fire with fire.
  • I think I see the poster's point: the goblins were taught that 'taking classes' was taboo, on the same level that we consider child abuse. They're committing this 'sin' partly to expiate their guilt about the people who died because of their misjudgement. And they do seem to be exercising more discretion than most parties: they've killed plant-possessed orcs, the sadistic bigots of Dellyn's 'elite', various bugs, crawlies, living statues, and the like. Their judgement hasn't been perfect, but they're trying hard to stick to their standards. Even Minmax, who was specifically one of the reasons they set to adventure, was shown mercy because he was in too much distress to fight back.

Resurrection

• I can't be the only one who wonders why Dellyn didn't just get Saral Caine resurrected, instead of acting like his death was totally irreversible. I mean, he probably has the funds to afford a Raise Dead or Resurrection, and a cleric with one of those spells shouldn't be too hard to find. Is resurrection impossible in the world this comic takes place in?
  • I don't think it's impossible so much as high level clerics are hard to come by. Have we actually seen any 9th level clerics?
  • No, I don't think we have. Still, they probably exist somewhere. Though now that Dellyn is dead, it's something of a moot point.
  • Considering that the entire city was very, very pissed at him, I think it's likely that any clerics in the city were forbidden from helping him. And he died like two days later, so again, moot point.
  • Also, given that Elli has said that the Goblins universe has its own rules, and resurrection spells have never been brought up before, it could be they don't exist in this setting.
  • Considering Dies Horribly did in fact die, and returned to life, the magic does clearly exist, but it might be far more inaccessible in this universe. Likely because of the aforementioned lack of very high level clerics. Additionally, since Saral Caine was beheaded, Raise Dead would not have worked - Dellyn would've needed a 13th level Cleric to cast Resurrection (the spell) and that is simply not gonna happen.

K'Seliss Amputation

• About the story arc with Dies Horribly: why doesn't K'Seliss just cut off his hands? If biting off a finger is a way of casual greeting among his people, surely amputation would be a much more viable alternative than trying to suffer through whatever is happening to his hands?
  • There are possibly several reasons. First, K'Seliss doesn't have any kind of bladed weapon, and Grem's sword is too short to cut through K'Seliss's wrists. Second, it's kind of hard to cut off your melting hands when ...your hands are melting. Third, it's unknown what kind of regenerative power K'Seliss has (presumably some version of regeneration, or else his race wouldn't have incorporated cannibalism into their social greetings), so he might think it's worth it to try and salvage his hands rather than to lose them and attempt to regrow them.
  • Real lizards can only regenerate tails, and I'm pretty sure many species of lizard can't even do that (I think some species might be able to do claws, but mostly it's tails). Lizardfolk might be a bit better off with, y'know, being in a world with magic, but K'seliss explicitly stated that he can't do whole limbs. So he was kinda screwed from the start.
  • Also, would you kindly remember that THERE IS A HUGE FREAKING MONSTER CHASING THEM. And besides, there's an itsy-bitsy difference between biting off a finger and cutting off both arms. In the first case you just squeeze the stump. In the second, well, you most likely bleed to death.
  • Him biting off the female's finger wasn't a casual greeting, it was a heavy pass. Given how limited a supply of digits each of the lizardfolk has, they probably only do that during the breeding season or to establish a lasting pair bond, not just to say "Hi".

Every Class

• How can Fumbles be in every class at once? Paladins and monks both must be Lawful, while barbarians and bards aren't allowed to be Lawful. Also, paladins must be Lawful Good, while druids must be Neutral on at least one side.
  • He's 2/11 of each class, ergo all the requirements are 11/2 times slacker. Of course, should he ever reach level 11, than it will get interesting. Probably he'd be torn apart by the conflicting alignments.
  • Your arguement would be viable if he were the only curiousity in the Thuntverse; but right now we have a cleric worshipping the Game Master, another cleric worshipping a Chaotic Evil god while being neither Chaotic nor Evil himself, an obviously Evil Paladin, and Minmax. The Game Master(s) of this campaign obviously play along with anything the players throw at them. OTOH, the world doesn't pull any punches, either.
  • Another possibility is that Fumbles isn't a PC at all. The only thing he pulled that required a class level was his 1/11th Sleep spell, but even that didn't have the trademark IME effect. For him it's just make-believe, even though it worked for the rest of the GAP.
  • What if he IS getting levels ever since he declared himself as an adventurer, but those levels aren't active, and he needs to decide on a class for then to work?
  • Fumbles has taken no class at all. He's a loon, whatever he says about having 1/11th of every class is just mad ramblings that no-one would take seriously, least any sane GM.
  • I remember a prestige class that was quite interesting, where in you could masquerade as any class, effectively being able to "fake it", up to and including spells, both arcane and divine. You basically just had a limited pool of how many times you could use a class feature or ability. Maybe the GM made a base-class variant, where he has access to the abilities of all 11 class, just not all at the same time! (If so it's a weird variant of the 3.5 Prestige class called Chameleon from the Races of Destiny supplement)

Minmax nakedness

• Minmax is barely dressed, to the point that he should be considered armour-less. Now, in D&D and most fantasy RPGs, no armour is the worst condition ever, barred special skills or classes, none of which seems to apply to Minmax. Maybe he gave up the ability to make bowel movements in full daylight for a +2 AC when armour-less? Minmaxing-wise, even a simple leather mail is an inprovement in defence with almost zero drawbacks. I doubt Minmax trade in the ability to ever wear armouts, as it would prevent him to wear magical ones in the future, the second most wanted item for a fighter class.
  • I've been wondering about this myself, especially since most of the characters we see don't wear much in the way of armour, and thus should be being hit far more often than the story shows. Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that in this homebrew setting, you can use various ability modifiers to increase your AC, as long as you can justify it, and/or, armour is simply very rare.
  • Since all armor imposes a limit on the maximum dexterity bonus that can be added to AC, maybe Minmax's Dexterity score is high enough that wearing any armor at all and capping his bonus is always a drawback.
  • What we're forgetting here is that in a D&D setting it's entirely possible that he has gone one of two routes. Firstly he may have taken Mobility, Dodge and / or Spring and be using those with a high dexterity (18 sounds about right) to get himself a reasonably high AC score for a low level character. In addition he did have a shield at first to help him out. If that's not the reasoning then it might be a bit simpler - he might actually be wearing armor. Just because he isn't described as wearing it doesn't mean that he isn't wearing leather armor. He might describe his character as a half-naked warrior beast but actually be wearing armor on the character sheet. We did something like this in one of our campaign settings although we tried to at least describe ourselves in something close to what armor we had on. Even if either of these sound somewhat implausible it's easy enough to point towards all the homebrew stuff going on as a reason why it's just fine.
  • Could be considered a rare use of Chainmail Bikini on a male character. In his first appearance, the clothing he's wearing covers about as much area as your standard fantasy female barbarian's bikini armor (i.e. about the same as the Drow he's in a party with). So it could very well be that he's wearing armor that technically gives him an AC bonus but doesn't visually look like it's covering anything if the player doesn't want it to.
  • Minmax does eventually don magic armor (Kin has to dress him, since that's one of the abilities he traded for more combat bonuses), though that doesn't really eliminate curiosity about his resilience when he was unarmored.

Biscuit's Wisdom

• More of a question that a Headscratcher, but here it goes: Biscuit has an incredibly high Wisdom score, if he decided to take a level in, say, Cleric, just how very powerful he would be?
  • Given that Orcs have a short lifespan, Biscuit essentially hacks the Age bonus mechanic by receiving a +1 to Wisdom every 20 or so years (whereas an Elf would take Hundreds of years). Assuming he had a flat 10 to his ability score, he should have around a 40 Wisdom minimum, which would make any Cleric spells he cast have a stupidly high DC to roll against.
  • If that wasn't overpowered enough, 3.5 gives stat bonuses to every mental stat, so his Intelligence and Charisma should be close to the same (which would help explain how he so easily got the Viper Clan to stop attacking).

Psion Min Max

• It's been awhile since his debut, and his reasons for the whole screw the maze into oblivion was brought up, so bear with me... But if PMM wants to become one with oblivion so badly, and doesn't care about anyone else or anything else... why doesn't he just write himself out, and leave everyone else alone? He gets out of having to do the maze, and everyone else can go about their whole business...
  • Judging by his explanation to Forgath, he can only write himself out by writing out the entire maze.
  • OP again. What I gather from the explanation, the maze being written out is a afterthought. He just wants out himself, so the maze is getting screwed...which, if he is capable of writing something that massive out...and the writing out itself...he should be able to refine the machine to just take him, and possibly his 'group', out.
  • Well, considering that he screwed up removing the entire maze, I don't think he can refine anything.
  • Well, considering this is also the guy that evidently DIDN'T account for Reality 156's Min Max valuing Kin and the quest over anything else... fair enough.
  • Guys, seriously. Why does this question even exist? He already explained this. He doesn't just want to write himself out, he wants to write everything out, so that suffering etc. won't exist anymore.
    • It's sympathy, or the twisted remnant of it. In his view, existence is suffering, so obliterating as many others as possible 'spares' them.

Anymug utility

• Forgath could use the Anymug to create every nonmagical, non-corrosive poison, alchemical ingredient or liquid spell component imaginable. If he wasn't worried about the White Horror, he could just as well retire a wealthy businessman. Or open a bar with the slogan "You want it, we got it". So why does he keep up the dangerous lifestyle of the adventurer?
  • Pretty much explained in-series; Forgath and Minmax are out to stop the White Terror from basically destroying the world, as far as they know. They are The Chosen Ones — Forgath is far too goodhearted (not to mention sensible) to abandon his quest. Retiring and setting up a business with the Anymug is perfectly valid; stopping the world from being destroyed comes first, however.
  • The D&D universe doesn't make any economical sense anyways, the setting has never considered the real economical effects of magic items on business, or what happens when heroes retire. Maybe Elli will eventually get around to parodying it.

Goblinslayer name

• Goblinslayer may be a frightening name to our protagonists, but for a high-level ranger it would be more of an insult. We've seen him kill and capture far more dangerous creatures than mere goblinoids. One would consider that a man of Dellyn's ego would always update his name with his latest, greatest achievement.
  • He probably just particularly hates goblins. Or possibly they're the most common of the "monster" races so being a goblinslayer is actually significant to a disproportionate degree to how hard they are to actually kill. Or possibly it's just his real family name?
  • Maybe he hasn't reached Ranger Level 5 yet, and Goblinoid was his first (and so far only) Favoured Enemy? Either Dellyn took some levels of Druid or Fighter after the first four Ranger levels, or it's such a killer world that Level 5 is really hard to reach. Or maybe the GM let him stack Favoured Enemy: Goblinoid.
  • Remember that in the universe of this comic, goblins are believed (at least by the normal NPC peasants) to be dangerous menaces. Just one goblin wandering in Brassmoon was enough to spark fears of a mass invasion of bloodthirsty goblin monsters. Dellyn knows that goblins are sword-fodder for low-level adventurers, but the people of Brassmoon don't. The fact that he slays goblins seems badass to them, and that's all Dellyn cares about.
  • Consider that Dellyn only WANTS to be regarded as a hero rather than actually being one. He probably spread the stories about Goblins being dangerous to the populace to prop himself up as being better than he actually was so he could live it up in Brassmoon. Making him sort of Small Name, Big Ego and Big Fish In a Small Pond combination.

Monsters with class levels

• Why is the concept of humanoid monsters taking class levels so odd? It's the most common means of making tougher monsters than those listed in the Manual (who are usually level 1 Warriors).
  • The oddness is adventurer levels. Warrior is intended as an NPC class, whereas a PC would be a Fighter.

GAP vs Forgath and Minmax: Round 2

• After the first battle between Forgath/Minmax and the Goblin Adventuring Party, Forgath seems to have an epiphany when he heals Thaco and tells the other goblins he thinks his party has made a tragic mistake. Yet after the Maze of Many, he and Minmax teleport back to the same goblins and attack them on sight. What gives? Minmax is still an ignorant bigot who never learned the lesson, but Forgath has no excuse. Did he completely forget how the last battle ended?
  • They found some scrolls, and think the goblins are trying to conquer the realm.
  • No, Minmax thinks that. Forgath clearly still has doubts. It doesn't jibe that he would have nothing to say to Thaco, at least.
  • Minmax wants revenge against Complains and vice-versa, and the others are kinda dragged into the battle with them. They probably would've come to an agreement eventually, but the battle had barely started when Kore showed up.

Don't you think they're taking The Dreaded a bit too far with Kore?

• Yeah, he's most likely the single strongest character we've seen yet in the entire setting (except maybe Psi-Max) but don't you think they're giving him a bit too much respect? The goblins managed to wound him with the "rope through throat" stunt and during their epic one-on-one duel Forgath gave him a pretty good run for his money. Once the goblins and Minamax and Forgath agreed that Kore was a bigger problem than each other why didn't they just gang-rush him? Sure the goblins alone weren't enough to bring him down, but add in Forgath and Minmax (ESPECIALLY Minmax) and surely they would have overwhelmed him? Hell the fight between Kore and Forgath was almost bizarrely close considering how everyone just screams "no-one can beat Kore!" as soon as they see him.
  • It's implied that Kore is the most powerful adventurer in their entire world and if the characters are to be believed, he has single-handedly wiped out armies of orcs and ogres. A party of low level adventurers would be a breeze. Keep in mind that all the GAP manages to do combined is distract him long enough to not get killed and fuse a rope to his neck which is no more than a minor annoyance to Kore. He one-shots Thaco and hits Big Ears so hard that Big Ear's armor shatters. The only damage they do to him is with the rope and he shrugs that off after cutting it out of his throat and healing himself. Meanwhile, Forgath only appears to do as well as he does because of a combination of luck, a +4 ring vs missile weapons, and the +7 Axe vs your own race. Meanwhile, every blow Kore lands literally takes chunks out of Forgath while the only achievements Forgath got in were a single hit with the axe, pulling Kore to the ground, which he quickly recovers from, drawing blood with his last punch, and pulling Kore's helmet off. Kore definitively proved how tough he is through this whole sequence, and it's very likely that both the GAP and the adventurers would have been torn to pieces.
    • In third edition's experience system, a solo character of level 13 or so gets no experience for any number of CR 3 creatures (such as third level adventurers)... and the level counter goes up to 20. I'm not saying Kore is that high in level - just that Forgath, Min Max and the G.A.P. are Genre Savvy enough to know that there are fights in their world's "rules" that are unwinnable.

The Goblin Clan's Decline

• Chief's backstory. His father Kills-a-Werebear was the best Chief the clan ever had and made it feared enough to be safe from low-level adventurers. Ever since he died and Chief took over, the clan has been in a steady decline, which is squarely blamed on Chief being a bad chief. However, Chief was a newborn when his father died; he hadn't even had his naming ceremony yet. Someone must have led the clan between Kills-A-Werebear's death and Chief's coming to age, and the decline must have started during that time. No mention is ever made of that goblin and all blame is put on Chief.
• Tying into the above, the reason Chief is such a bad chief is that he wasn't meant to be chief in the first place. The fortune-teller named him Chief because she foresaw a civil war that would destroy the clan if the goblin actually fated to be chief would take over Thaco. The goblin fated to be chief would have led the clan to greatness. However, how can the same goblin both lead the clan to greatness and cause its destruction in a civil war that would start right after he comes to power?
  • They probably meant that he had the potential of leading the clan to greatness, but it would never be realized due to the civil war thing.
  • Or that the "greatness" he'd lead it to would be a great tragedy.
  • Or that it would be greatness, but END in tragedy...yet they would still be eternally remembered. Or he would gather the survivors.

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