The Order of the Stick

They're also sold as PD Fs at Gumroad for cheaper prices than physical copies.

Yeah, I’ve got the PDF files for Book 3 onwards.

I'm in Ireland and last I checked the international postage was eye-watering; if I was going to buy a pdf copy of one of the main books, which one comes with the best additional content?

EDIT: Actually everything except book 4 is available from Amazon UK at the moment, in case this information is of interest to anyone else.

Edited by johnnye on Dec 1st 2020 at 4:38:41 AM

Book 4 (DSTP) has two small multi-strip sections (“Elan’s Underwater Adventure”, and Haley, Belkar, and the Thieves’ Guild getting Roy’s body back from Grubwiggler) that were omitted from the online comic.

Whereas in most other books, the bonus strips are mainly just scattered joke strips.

I’ve got books 3-6 on PDF, mainly because I enjoy Rich’s commentary on the characters and plot (there books are usually divided into about 6-7 sections, with commentary on each section).

Edited by Galadriel on Dec 1st 2020 at 8:26:55 AM

Trouble Approaching:

Seems Redcloak has started to figure out MitD scheme. But now I wanna know what the skull does.

Edited by jjjj2 on Dec 4th 2020 at 9:27:27 AM

This is always an interesting part of Xykon and Redcloak's dynamic. Xykon isn't stupid, but he consciously decides not to think too hard about all of his decisions. If Xykon listened to Redcloak more, they'd be taking a systematic approach to clearing the doors, and the Monster in the Darkness's scheme wouldn't have even gotten off the ground.

Will they Redcloak figure out that the Monster is betraying them? I don't know, the Monster can always play dumb because dumb is what Xykon and Redcloak always expect from him.

But is the MitD Beneath Suspicion here? Neither Redcloak nor Xykon has any idea that he's been starting to think independently.

Given that we know Xykon's not stupid, he does seem to be taking his who-cares attitude a bit far here. I would have expected any evidence that his goal is getting further out of reach—if it's even possible that they can't rely on their marks, then they have to search yet more caves—to make him angry and suspicious, after what happened in Azure City.

Meanwhile, since Haley made a point of noting that the trap is active again, the gist of the next strip seems fairly clear: Greyview will track the Order to the door, the Order (standing on their yellow floor) will get set to fight—and Team Evil, seeing only a green floor from their perspective, will stroll in and vanish as they cross the trap line. Cue revelations and further mystery.

(Oh, and the trap definitely didn't Plane Shift anyone.)

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Dec 4th 2020 at 10:03:25 AM

I'll put money on that happening.

Xykon's getting too distracted dungeon-delving. Remember, he's a bored sociopath constantly looking for stimulation. Dungeon delving is pretty much a perfect gameplay loop for him.

Edited by M84 on Dec 5th 2020 at 12:08:08 AM

Also isn't he pretty much type of player who doesn't literally care what is happening in table as long he is getting to kill something?

Wouldn't Team Evil notice the rat skull?

Xykon is the spellcaster equivalent of Belkar, yeah.

Haley is picking it up, although it did leave a scorch mark.

Haley picked it up, so presumably she's stowed it away again. And if she didn't, well, a rat skull probably isn't too rare a sight in a moldy old dungeon of monsters. Edit: Neither is a scorch mark. Fire breath and all.

I was thinking about "what happens if we sit on our lazy ASSES and rearrange the furniture in a ruined city instead of moving on to the next target." But that concerned a threat to Xykon's existence, the only thing he really cares about. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that he hasn't learned to apply the lesson to his other goals. As long as he remains immortal, he doesn't care how long it takes.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Dec 4th 2020 at 10:22:23 AM

Xykon is not stupid, but he is still being careless. He only uses his brain (or what undead substitute he has) when he thinks there is a danger. As of right now, he doesn't seem to have come that far.

Oh Xykon.

Your Wisdom isn't quite high enough today is it?

Good INT and poor WIS make for bad decision making. And I'll also put money on a seeming vanishing act.

Also, Heroine-ism? Elan, you goober, you.

Xykon has low scores in both Intelligence and Wisdom compared to his Charisma, although all of his mental ability scores get a significant boost for being a lich.

Given Xykon's usual behavior, I'd think he already has an idea what he wants to do about it that Redcloak doesn't realize (or believes that what he intends to do will win the day regardless), and is just having fun because he can at this point.

Xykon is currently in the process of underestimating his enemies. In the past we saw that he could afford being lazy, because he is so much more powerful than anything that was thrown at him. This almost came back to bite him in the ass back in Azure City, and it most likely will be his downfall at the end.

Xykon is smart but he isn't perfect. And he is a bit arrogant him underestimating the situation seems par for the course. Also don't forget Xykon intentionally does what he considers the most fun not the smartest thing.

Kinda makes that fact he hates a lot of other mages (I think he's a Sorcerer, and he hates Wizards?) for underestimating him when he himself is underestimating the situation.

Xykon hates Wizards for their condescending classism, specifically. The chip on his shoulder is the "Wizards automatically superior to Sorcerers in every single way possible, always" argument.

Xykon's philosophy is that there's no such thing as an objectively correct character class that is fundamentally better than all other classes and is the one true class that you should play. As he puts it, power equals power, but what power is can come in a wide variety of different forms, bonuses, features, abilities, etc.

This makes him an effective foil for Roy, who has a similar chip on his shoulder about condescending Wizards looking down on him for his character class. Roy, too, respects the notion that power can come in many forms, including skill checks not commonly considered to be combat abilities.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 4th 2020 at 2:48:06 AM

Xykon believes that three things matter for winning: Force in as great a concentration as you can manage, style (and style can slide), and how far you're willing to debase yourself before feeling bad.

And as Xykon noted to Redcloak, he's willing to rip off his own flesh to win.

Edited by M84 on Dec 4th 2020 at 8:55:22 PM