This is the thread for discussion of The Order of the Stick plot, characters, etc. We have a separate thread
for discussing game rules and mechanics. Excessive rules discussions here may be thumped as off-topic.
OP edited to make this header - Fighteer
edited 18th Sep '17 1:08:08 PM by Fighteer
Damn,
'd before I could post! Still this is a great Brick Joke!
I imagine that creating official D&D content gave him a working relationship with Wizards that made it relatively simple to ask for permission to use it
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.Yeah, there's a difference between "Hey, can I use a Beholder in this random webcomic I started recently?" and "Hey, can I use a Beholder in The Order of the Stick, massively popular almost two-decade old webcomic?"
Edited by Elfive on Jun 28th 2021 at 3:17:13 PM
However, I absolutely expect the lawyers to appear to make that joke again. It's just dangling there.
Edit: Oh, and Serini's one ally is a mimic
.
Edited by Fighteer on Jun 28th 2021 at 10:19:08 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Mimic makes a lot of sense.
I was wondering what kind of Epic shenanigans Serini would pull to make one Rogue threatening to a group of adventurers. I didn't think about the fact that she's basically Queen of the High-End Monster Dungeon. Of course this wouldn't be a 6.5v1.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 28th 2021 at 7:51:12 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.She is a boss, in more than one sense of the word.
Fjón þvæ ég af mér fjanda minna rán og reiði ríkra manna.Also, she planned well. Taking out Roy at the start of the fight is arguably more devastating to the Order's chances than the antimagic cone is. Serini is not making the mistake of underestimating the "stupid meatshield" Fighter.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 28th 2021 at 8:01:24 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub......so....not the Holey Brotherhood then?
I've held on for so long. What do I do now?
True, but I'm guessing this is where Elan's Neutralize Poison finally comes in.
It's hard to find specs because the Wizards legal team joke wasn't actually a joke. Wizards considers beholders to be their intellectual property and cracks down on people publishing the stat block online. Stat blocks for tons of other things are fine, but not beholders.
So the most I know is that their central eye emits an antimagic cone while the other eyes fire various spell rays, one of which is Disintegrate. The cone from the central eye blocks the rays from the other spells, of course. There are basically two sides to a beholder: the antimagic side and the sides that get disintegrated.
Based on Sunny's angle (above, looking down), I don't expect the disintegration rays to come into play. I'm pretty sure Serini picked that position to blanket the entire room beneath her in the antimagic cone, which means Sunny's whole job will be to float there and keep the magic turned off.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 28th 2021 at 9:28:10 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Beholders are among the most dangerous monsters a typical adventuring party can fight because of that anti-magic ray. It's like a hand of DM fiat negating all the flashy spells and shiny magic items your party has acquired.
The rest of the eyes are pretty standard save-or-die stuff, including charm person, disintegrate, flesh to stone, and some poison and damage effects if I remember correctly.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Here's a link to the WOTC
article on their monster. Each of its eye stalks has its own power, in addition to the anti-magic cone from the main central eye.
The powers are charm, paralysis, fear, slow, enervation (lose character levels), telekinesis, sleep, petrification, disintegration and death.
Note that the anti-magic cone also suppresses any eye stalk beams, which the beholder is quite alright with, as it also possesses a big mouth filled with sharp teeth.
Edited by Kayeka on Jun 28th 2021 at 7:03:44 PM
Right. Six of the ten stalks cast save-or-die effects and the rest are save-or-suck. Fighting a beholder is a sacrifice to the gods of luck. "Fortunately", a beholder can only use a few of its eyes on any given target per round.
Edited by Fighteer on Jun 28th 2021 at 12:38:39 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Don't expect the beholder to do anything else than keep the room covered in anti-magic. Serini will have all the time in the world to poison the rest of the order with no one being able to do anything about it (unless Haley manages to make extremely lucky shots with her bow).
Assuming she doesn't have more monster allies with darkvision on the sidelines ready to get on the field and fight.
Edited by Resileafs on Jun 28th 2021 at 1:01:57 PM
Actually I'd give Belkar even odds in a toe-to-toe fight. Beholders can't really be sneak-attacked. But this isn't about that. As noted, the Beholder is Serini's insurance policy. It keeps the Order nice and docile while she talks to them or picks them off one by one.
Edited by Fighteer on Jun 28th 2021 at 1:01:29 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"So, I've been thinking about Serini lately, and I was wondering - if the likes of Miko represent the worst aspects of the Law alignment (without being full-on Evil, mind you), would you say that Serini might represent the worst aspects of the Chaos alignment?
Like, if Lawful extremes are a Knight Templar, "the law must be followed, no exceptions", then Chaotic extremes are a Cowboy Cop, "I'll do what I think is right, screw what everyone else thinks"?
In other words, Serini is Not So Different from the rigid Paladin types she holds in disdain.
Oh God! Natural light!

Is the Giant trying to dethrone Eight-Bit Theater for the longest Brick Joke in the history of webcomics? Because that's what it feels like...