The Order of the Stick

New comic, again.

This looks bad for Roy. But good for the fan theories above?

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

Yowch. I can't see what's going to fix this situation, so obviously it'll be something to do with this flashback that Durkon seems so intent on showing Durkula. Man, though...

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

Now, Rich might just be screwing with us, but I can't be the only one who noticed the large amount of emphasis put on Belkar's unconscious body right? Would he really have Belkar die via Roy mistakenly killing him would he?

One Strip! One Strip!

Yeah, that would be uber-sucky-tragic-ironic and lots of other compound adjectives. And I had the very same thought.

Edited by Fighteer on Jul 16th 2018 at 12:40:00 PM

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

That doesn't make much sense. Setting aside that you can choose to hit for non lethal damage from what I've heard, he doesn't have Xs in his eyes and no visible wounds either. Also, it would be really unsatisfying.

Well, I don't think he's dead now... no X's, as you observed, and Roy seems to be hitting for nonlethal damage. But Roy being forced to kill him... man.

Edited by Fighteer on Jul 16th 2018 at 12:48:18 PM

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

It doesn't strike me as a death. Just didn't seem big enough. I thought it would be foreshadowing for some kind of Percursive Maintenance, paving the way for Belkar to not be mind-controlled anymore.

Also, why would Elan start doing puns now? He wasn't before, and there doesn't seem to be any indication that whoever's controlling him figured out his fighting style.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Jul 16th 2018 at 1:50:02 PM

Where'd Haley's dagger come from? Does she normally carry one?

^^ They don't need to. Domination doesn't function like puppet strings, it just lets the vampire tell the person what to do. Elan is still the one fighting, he's just taking his orders from Durkula instead of Roy right now.

What matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. - F. Rogers.

It's her adamantine dagger, the one she bought fighting Crystal.

What is happening with Hailey at the end there? I assume it has something to do with her boots, but what exactly?

I was wondering the same thing too, but I think she's using the speed to stab Roy over and over. And Elan is also making some real hits since he made a successful pun attack.

The Boots of Speed give the user a Haste effect, which lets them move and jump faster, and also get another attack using the Full Attack action (Haley would normally get three, and you can see four fresh wounds on Roy). Normally using a Full Attack means you can only move one square, but since Haste increases all your modes of movement by six squares^* Or double your max speed, whichever is lower, maybe she can move up to seven squares and still Full Attack? I wouldn't rule that it works that way, but I guess Rich did.

Edited by shigmiya64 on Jul 16th 2018 at 2:45:51 PM

Irony: When Durkon chose to face Malack alone, it was to avoid this exact scenario.

"Don't suppose you can fetch JUST ROY for me, can you?"

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 16th 2018 at 12:35:57 PM

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Haley has had a set of Boots of Speed for a while, but never used them because they were lime green. They were mentioned in a throwaway gag all the way back in the third strip and then in this one right before Celia took Roy's body to Greysky, first seen and then dyed at the same armorer (and comic) where she got her new outfit right before the desert arc here, and then first used during her fight with flesh golem Crystal in order to keep away from her (Crystal mentions them here as a call back to the start of their initial rivalry and then Haley starts using them here).

Edited by tclittle on Jul 16th 2018 at 1:48:26 PM

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."

Nice catch

Jeez how many hitpoints does this dude have?

I watched Outside Xbox play Dn D and more often than not, a successful hit meant the character dies. Multiple successful hits in succession like that would have pulverized the target.

They depended on having fairly massive AC to stay alive, and so did their enemies.

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

Considering how close this update was to the last, I get the feeling those three weeks were a result of Rich drawing the reveal page. Which would mean it's about to happen.

Huh, you can see that same blond dwarf and treasure chest in the strip where we found out the backstory. Neat.

Good point, although it's worth noting that if that rule's in effect, it equally rules out the story we've been told about it just being a lock Sigdi'd always had. She's using quite evasive language in the latest strip too; "after the troll... after yer Pa passed on". (Is there a disease trolls can induce that might have killed him?)

Edited by johnnye on Jul 16th 2018 at 2:15:59 PM

Low-level characters in 3.5 are infamously squishy, but high-level characters are infamously impossible to kill. Not only do they have a lot of HP to play with, but keep in mind that damage usually doesn't scale with level, especially for straight weapon effects. Hayley's Sneak Attacks do scale with her level, though, so Roy just got hit very hard. It's probably more damage than he's taken in the rest of the combat combined.

Roy is a pretty tanky character, with both his class and his Constitution working to give him a hefty HP, not even considering any feats or magic items he might have to boost him further.

Plus, Roy's sword sometimes heals him when it activates, doesn't it? That might be helping him out as well.

The rules of what counts for Resurrectible remains are not necessarily going to be the same as a church's rules for what counts as remains for a proper burial.

15-17 d10, I believe. Barring any feats or enchanted items or stuff that might increase his HP total.

Fighters are tanks.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Plus level * CON modifier, which should be pretty high for Roy.

And Haley. Without an extra y in the middle.

Edited by petersohn on Jul 17th 2018 at 9:08:22 PM

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