This is the thread for discussing Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules and how they may or may not apply to The Order of the Stick.
Discuss away, and please keep it civil. Discussion of the comic itself — plot, characters, and so forth — goes here
.
- OOTS is a webcomic set in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse based on Dungeons & Dragons version 3.5, with a custom setting and cosmology, using mainly Open Gaming License (OGL) and homebrew content.
- Tropers unfamiliar with D&D 3.5 may wish to visit http://www.d20srd.org/
to learn the details of the system or look up terminology. We will assume discussion to be about the D&D 3.5 rules unless stated otherwise.
- The author has specifically stated that, while he attempts to work within the letter of the rules as much as possible, OOTS is at heart a story and story trumps rules. This is a cautionary statement against overanalyzing.
- Any discussion of D&D cosmology should acknowledge that OOTS is entirely homebrew in this regard and nothing about it in any of the core rulebooks or supplemental material can be assumed to be canon.
Edited by wingedcatgirl on Feb 22nd 2024 at 11:46:50 AM
Found the strip, btw: [1]
I just wanted to make it clear that most other spells involve more than simply stating the words. It's a special word. A Power word, if you will.
Tangent: According to an explanation I read (everything after this could be dead wrong) the Power Word spells were grandfathered in from the older edition (AD&D?), where a slightly different system was used for action order.
As I recall each turn was divided into ten or so "ticks"(Segments?) and each action had a specific penalty as to how slow it was. Slower actions went on a later tick than quicker ones. You declared actions at the beginning of the turn; Most spells took a number of ticks equal to their level- Power Word spells were special because they were fast. Instead of a lengthy incantation, you could muster the effect with a single word.
Of course 3.5 doesn't have a similar system; many spells take the same action to perform.
Yeah, both AD&D and 2nd edition gave spells distinct casting times in terms of "ticks", each of which represented a pip on an initiative die. When your initiative came up in a turn, you would begin casting the spell, and it would complete casting X ticks later.
Let's say I roll a 4 for initiative and my opponent rolls an 8. My turn comes up and I start casting a 5th level spell (assuming that it has the default casting time). This spell will complete casting at initiative 9. My opponent acts on 8 and hits me, causing the spell to fizzle. These editions had no Concentration checks; if you were struck while casting, you automatically lost the spell, but that could only occur during the period of time between starting the cast and it completing.
Those systems also had no attacks of opportunity; the only way to guarantee disrupting a caster was to hold your action until their initiative.
edited 13th Feb '16 10:50:56 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"But wait, if you can hold your action (I don't remember that being a thing in pre-3E, but now that I think about it, the old SSI games did have delay as an option), then couldn't the weezard just wait until the end of the initiative round and then cast their spell? Initiative didn't "boil over" into the next round, right?
I vaguely recall the casting time rules, but the specifics of initiative evade me.
Also, I do think that attacks of opportunity existed, but only for movement, if only because that's how it works in the SSI games.
edited 14th Feb '16 7:21:42 AM by TheyCallMeTomu
I cannot recall offhand if there were free attacks when someone moved past your space. I do know that you could delay your initiative to act after another character if you wanted. It's been a while.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"At least in the SSI games, you got a free attack when someone left your melee reach. You could move around them without provoking, but if you moved out of reach ,BLAMMO stabbed in the back!
Again, same rules as 5E. Not sure if that was actual D&D or something magical and mystical created for the SSI games.
Well, my 2nd edition books are long gone (destroyed in a flood), so I cannot look the rules up to check, unless I go find some illicit online source.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!""I just wanted to make it clear that most other spells involve more than simply stating the words. It's a special word. A Power word, if you will."
Then again, we're dealing with a world where the verbal component for Holy Word is, er, "Holy
". If saying that word was all it took to cast the spell...
(Yes, I suppose the font suggests he's saying it in Celestial or something. But still, all you'd need is a good bilingual dictionary.)
edited 14th Feb '16 9:45:55 AM by johnnye
Someone mentioned Limited Wish on the other thread, so I went to check it out
, but I'm not sure I understand the wording about the XP cost: Does this mean the spell always costs XP, or only when duplicating a spell that has an XP cost?
According to the SRD, the spell always costs a minimum of 300 XP.
If you're duplicating a spell with a higher XP cost, you pay the higher cost.
edited 1st Mar '16 2:44:23 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.But most spells don't have any XP cost at all, right?
"When a limited wish duplicates a spell that has an XP cost, you must pay that cost or 300 XP, whichever is more."
So if it has an XP cost at all, you either pay that cost, or if that cost is less than 300, you pay a minimum of 300. If it doesn't have any XP cost, you don't pay any XP. That's how I read it.
edited 2nd Mar '16 9:11:01 AM by johnnye
XP is a Component of casting Limited Wish.
That means you always have to pay it. Limited Wish requires you to speak an incantation, perform a somatic gesture, and sacrifice a minimum of 300 XP in order to produce its effect. You can't skip components unless you have specific feats that let you, and I don't think there even is a feat for skipping XP components.
The If statement is simply clarifying that you don't have to pay the XP cost of a duplicated spell in addition to the 300, but you do have to pay it instead of the 300 if it's higher.
edited 2nd Mar '16 9:42:17 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.If you have a sufficient Fortitude save to ignore the lich's paralyzing touch, then grappling it is no more inherently dangerous than grappling any other creature.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Liches are bony undead; there's no flesh left to rot, which is what gives rise to the smell.

Correct; however, the preparation of the Power Word is as complex as any other high-level spell, the formulae for which take up the appropriate number of pages in a spellbook.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"