The Order of the Stick

I would expect Belkar to have at least +3 daggers by now; he could at least inflict Scratch Damage on Crystal.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Belkar probably has magical daggers and has STR bonus, plus he is dual wielding. He definitely has better chances against the golem than Haley. Heck, even V with Magic Missile has a better chance.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

Dual wielding doesn't help here.

Yeah, that's actually part of the problem. Each attack is calculated against DR separately, so his net effectiveness is far reduced.

So, is Belkar the least optimized member of the Order?

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Probably. He's a spellcaster who can't actually cast spells. He pretty much just took ranger for the free dual-wielding feats, which is an unimaginably stupid reason to take ranger.

I once took Ranger just so I could have an animal companion. Is that more, or less stupid?

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

Belkar is exponentially more effective in battle than his build has any right to be.

That's another thing. Until he got Mr. Scruffy, he had no animal companion. No tracking, no spells, no companion. He was basically just a fighter.

>So, is Belkar the least optimized member of the Order?

Mechanically, yes he is. He only gets by on probability bending over in favour of comedic slaughter and by going after the mooks.

Belkar has a +5 collision dagger now, FWIW, as of the "Collision Testing" strip. The extra 5 damage from the collision property basically cancels out the golem's DR.

edited 20th Mar '15 9:17:49 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Darnit, ninja'd by one post. I was just about to ask if that new dagger would help.

Dual wielding gives a penalty to attack, and DR is reduced from damage, so given that Belkar has a big enough attack bonus already, the dual wielding definitely doesn't hurt against Crystal. So his new +5 collision dagger has 1d4+10+STR bonus damage (and Belkar probably has some STR bonus, even if not as much as Roy), and he has another attack with his other dagger, which is also probably magical, so that's another 1d4+?+STR bonus (say, 1d4+5 total). Still, it's probably Roy who is the most effective against Crystal. Let's say he has a STR of 18, that's a bonus of 4, which is counted 1.5 times because he wields his weapon in two hands, so that's a total of 2d6+11 damage, and it may also overcome Crystal's DR. If V casts Bull's Strength on him, then it becomes 2d6+14 instead. If she also casts Haste, he gets an additional attack too. So the best chance against Crystal would definitely be Roy buffed by V.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

You forgot Roy's Belt of Giant Strength. If we assume it's a +4, that brings him up to 22 Strength, with a modifier of +6. Count it by 1.5 because of the two-hander (which I forgot about) and we have 2d6+14, not counting buffs from V.

Does a Belt of Giant Strength and the Bull's Strength spell stack? Because that would be a total of 26 STR, giving him a total damage of 2d6+17.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

No, they're both enhancement bonuses, so you only get the bigger one.

IIRC those are actually the same category bonus so only the higher applies.

Dang. And since both give +4, Bull's Strength would have no use on Roy. It may be effective on Belkar though.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

Well, I am a pretentious hipster, so no fear of that.

It is a pretty pteripple name though.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Pterippus is in fact a trope page...

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

I just realized that we haven't seen Bloodfeast at all this book. I wonder if Rich is saving him for something special.

With a dinosaur as an animal companion Belkar is likely the most damage dealing member of the order now. He can't run out of bites or claws, and the allosaur probably outputs so much damage DR probably just calls it a day and goes home in shame

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

First panel, in the background.

a.k.a. Cly, that one girl who doesn't post here much anymore Something something YI = SMW 2 = SMB 5.

I missed that somehow. I think it's really cute how he's cuddling with Mr. Scruffy.

I been playing Pokemon Gen III and my first thought was Breeding at the Daycare

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you