>>97444633
>tfw I realize that I've been reading this webcomic for nearly 10 years now

>>97444633
Sunny about to save the day?

Really wish the Order would be more consistently competent. Very annoying to just see them get rolled all the time.

Never played 3.5, I guess rapiers and bows have Strength requirements?
Roy's got that belt that either increases your Strength by 2 or sets it to some number, so he's got a guaranteed value floor, he's only dazed (can't take Actions, but can defend normally).

>>97445119
to be fair we did just get off months of them beating up a dragon with class levels and this page is an ambush round

>>97445208
Their dialgoue about this is more about the effects of the Blasphemy weakening them. In 3.X, Composite Bows commit to your Strength for use though.

>>97444633
>trying to backstab the one guy who has Improved Uncanny Dodge
Shit Belkar, get it together.

>>97445297
That was just his attack of opportunity

>>97444633
Why didn't you just jump into his crotch(daggers first) and bisect him from there while calling him a bigotted heighteist? Old Belkster would have done that

>>97444753
The paladins are out of focus.
also kitty kot is alive, hooray!

>>97444633
Consider all of the work it's gonna take to undo how fucked up the team is going to be after this.

Ain't no way the final confrontation of the dungeon is the Order, already half-spent, vs Team Evil in a direct fight. At least, that's not going to be what defines it.

>>97444661
fucking newfag

>>97445828
there's no need for curse words gramps

I guess the demons are also going to pull V into the green room to keep him out of the fight?

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upscale.

>>97445119
this does feel a bit like the miko fight(s) from way back when. Fated to lose.

>>97445857
They're more likely to pull V in to tell them Nale is going AWOL.

>>97445875
I don't think they care what Nale does, as long as the end result they want gets ticked. He wasn't given instructions on how he had to behave, just that he had to do the job. This scheme he's trying is his own idea, and he hasn't failed or fully derailed his ability to succeed yet.

>>97445875
But isn't Nale supposed to let the gate break? The order is specifically trying to stop that, so killing them is within the scope of what they would want.

>>97445861
Now imagine why they're so reluctant to get into a fight with Redcloak without a sufficiently stacked deck.

>>97445861
Only now did I get the gag with the bird and Durkon.

this situation would still be incredibly easily retrievable with any subset of items serini is supposed to have which means this will go on for 6-12 months and she will do nothing

>>97444633
Damn, imagine taking advantage of Minnah while she's like that.

>>97444661
faggot newfag

>>97444633
Wasn't Durkon already defeated like this? Feel like it's been more than several times with the energy drain and he was drained to death by the vampire. Is this also a part of the joke?

>>97445208
It's more like, in 3.5 if your attributes are drained or damaged enough you get basically crippled. And/or die, I think that was CON.

>>97444633
>Thog
>Powerful Charge
>Leap Attack
>Cleave
Thog doing Thog things.

>>97447798
Unlike Energy Drain and the like, Blasphemy does not inflict negative levels. Though, one of the effects that it inflicts is Weakened, which can drop one's Strength score pretty dramatically, but not actually for all that long.

Why did Belkar drop his protection from evil in the last panel? And he's neither surprised nor affected by the spell, why is he not doing anything?

>>97448550
He's not doing nothing. He moved, and he even actually got an attack in on Thog as he went by.

>>97448673
the attack was probably Belkar's free reaction as Thog ran past him
so that's not Belkar's doing as far as action economy is concerned

>>97445861
>miko fight
and this time we won't get a round by round breakdown from Rich...

>>97447993
Thog Thog and Thog OK
Thog Leap all night
Thog Cleave all day

>>97444633
Epic level rogues aren't worth shit

>>97445236
>the Order finally beats them and moves on
>next page
>Tarquin: "HEEEEEEEYYYYY WHAAAAAAAAT'S UUUUUUUUUP IIIIIIIIIIIT'S MEEEEEE"

>>97450177
>the final dungeon is a boss rush

>>97450210
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nHAde9X_D4

Sneak attack or whatever I guess.

>>97450210
>>97450264
>DRAGON MAN
>DEVIL MAN
>DAD MAN
>CLOAK MAN
>SKULL MAN
>COUNCIL MEN
>DR WIRY

>>97450210
>the last boss is the snail

>>97450210
Technically, they were running to set up to become Xykon's Final Boss encounter before he seizes the gate. Before the Nale shit

>>97451216
>the last boss has complex motives

>>97445119
It wouldn’t be Oots without Rich violently throwing us out of the story.

>>97450378
I can't not read this as a heavily distorted scream

>>97444633
post yfw rich dies right before he gets to the villains going through the killer dungeon

So Sunny was just banished, right?

>>97451556
Don't have an image with enough meh energy to convey it. I've been checking that site since 2006, and it's been steadily decelerating for so long I think oots is about to become its own prequel. At this point, I do an annual catchup and I swear they take less time with every pass.

>>97444661
>10 years
When I've first started reading it, Roy was still dead

>>97451792
To be fair, the pace was pretty decent prior to Rich's thumb injury.

>>97451859
Fair, and I totally get it. Decade isn't that long for healing most tendon injuries. Though, I'm not talking entirely release pace, but story pace too. What happened over the last, dunno, fifty pages felt like a decently-long session, you know?

>>97451312
I read it as that The Protomen song with the robot master names too, fuck

Did they finish fighting the dragon yet

>>97445119
This one isn't on them, this is them dealing with a completely busted spell.

been reading it since 2004. before the first linear guild reveal which was comic 43

>>97445208

>>97452131 is correct. The order is taking a beating rn, but dazing 5/6 of the party with no save is kinda bullshit. Anyways, the paladins and the beholder have yet to arrive, their resources haven't been drained by fighting a dragon, and I'm pretty sure they have no obligation to show mercy on fiends. So this is far from the one-sided gank it initially looks like.

>>97451718
Sunny is an abomination, not an outsider.

>>97451960
It has stretched out in terms of story things too, to some extent. The story was less complex way at the start, so it was probably much easier for Rich to write pages. But, I think there's also a reality to how complicated stories with lots of characters need time (in the telling of the story) to do it well. There are a lot of plot threads and character threads that he's put together, and it takes a while to go through all of them in the storytelling.

I think we'll have a much clearer understanding of what was bad pacing or was kind of superfluous when it's all over, but it seems to me like he does a fairly good job of staying on track with always putting down something that goes somewhere on any given page (minus that recent AI joke page).

>>97453264
If you own any of the main story books, you can see from Rich's commentary that he basically stopped self-editing his story structure during the fifth book. In the earlier books, he talks a lot about stuff he had to cut and ways to make the story shorter, and that stuff is basically gone in books 5/6. It's unfortunate because the plot is still pretty good when it's actually moving, it just has to be interspersed with several strips of the order & friends fucking around accomplishing nothing.

>>97452190
what do you think about the story?

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>>97452190
>ancientfag

>>97453264
>bad pacing
A very common comment from people binging to catch up is that the pacing is actually pretty OK when you don't have to wait for new ones

>>97444633
I do like that Belkar is completely oblivious to the blasphemy. He didn't just not get affected but even didn't notice the giant wave of red vile energies blasting the entire party.

>>97447227
You have no more than 10 minutes, possibly as little as 1.
I'm sure you could do it, anon. I have faith in you.

>>97445119
They handled the dragon pretty well, and this is the first round of ambush.
>>97445875
Nale's still on mission. Plan A was to join forces and have Sereni lead them to the gate, but this Plan B is to wipe out its immediate defenders and find it himself.

>>97453264
>>97453897
In some cases, yeah. Reading Blood Runs in the Family as one unit is almost butter smooth and a lot of the "wasted time" is actually foreshadowing for the vamp reveal and setting up Durkon's arc. On the other hand, there's a fair bit of fat that could be trimmed from Utterly Dwarfed- specifically the airship drama that adds multiple pointless pages about minor characters who have no story agency and Helga mercing Durkon immediately after resurrecting him. As much as I enjoy the resolution of the Darkon arc, actually reading through the book again is kind of a slog.

The book between Paladin Blues and Blood Runs (who's name I can't recall) is also really badly paced. Intentionally so and the pay off of power-mad V almost makes it worth it, but it's undeniably a slog.

>>97455284
It's two books. No Cure for the Paladin Blues goes into War and XPs, and then Don't Split the Party.

>>97455284
I can excuse the airship bickering because it's the same sort of low-level pettiness that the party used to run into all the time. People running off on their own, sabotaging each other, making big plays without agreeing on goals or methods. If you look at is as a foil to how seamlessly the party handles the encounter beyond that it's a nice benchmark of progress.

>>97452190
I think I've been reading since 2007 or there about. Was linked to it from VGCats I'm pretty sure.

thog when?

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>>97457097
be the change you want to see in the world
also, does anyone else think that the walls in this strip are oddly tilted in comparison to the floor or is it just me? is it the aftermath of the blasphemy or just an error?

>>97458654
I'd say it's intentional to try and add to the feeling of disorientation. Note that the panel that's centered on Belkar is completely normal, because he's unaffected.

>>97458685
but in the second to last panel, the brick lines align with the floor even though there are three affected characters

>>97458742
Yeah, cause Nale and Sabine are the main focus of the panel.

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>>97451289
The Nale shit, whatever happened there...

>>97455284
I re-read everything since #0001 last month in a couple days and I think you're full of shit.

>>97458654
>I can't even
>I think you accidentally your bow
Nice.

>>97459685
Explain yourself

>>97444633
Weakened? Are their levels lower than Nale's? Doesn't Nale also have Fighter and Rogue levels?

>>97462286
He's probably got some fucked up template now that put him a level or two above the party.

>>97462286
He's presumably got a bunch of HD from his new devil bullshit

>>97459877
Nale doesn't seem to agree.

>>97451840
When I first started reading it Roy was on a quest to get his sword repaired. I think V had just been turned into a lizard.

>>97462286
The soul juicero boost might just give him spell-like abilities at a set caster level.

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>>97444661
>https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0864.html
>2012
On the bright side coming in during the great droughts I learned the virtue of patience.

>>97462414
How's the back doing, gramps?

>>97462312
>>97462317
>>97462465
Pit Fiends get blasphemy as a SLA and may be using Nale's total character levels. Rich may also have mixed and matched the abilities of several devils since the soul fountain is a homebrew thing.

If Belkar is level 18 or higher Mr. Scruffy will have 6.5 HD meaning Nale can't have cast Blasphemy at anything higher than caster level 16 or the cat would be dead. Belkar is one character that hasn't died and been resurrected yet, so he's never lost a level. Then again, Haley, V, and Elan also never died and they have to be lower level than that in order to get dazed and weakened. Serini is probably unaffecte because she's higher level than Nale. V was able to cast Power Word: Stun back during the Tarquin arc, and has cast Mind Blank since then, so is at least level 15.

tl;dr The relative levels might make sense, but if so Belkar is 2 or 3 levels above the rest of the party.

>>97465399
We talked about Mr. Scruffy in a prior thread, there's definitely some weirdness there because a cat isn't on the standard list of Ranger animal companions. It's possible there's some weirdness going on with Wild Cohort, or Mr. Scruffy has class levels.

>>97465399
>>97465446

Druids and ranger can pick stronger animals as companions in exchange for a lower effective level in determining the companion's bonus features. It's not in the SRD but I think it'd be reasonable for a ranger who chose a weaker animal(in this case a literal harmless housecat) to treat his class level as higher for calculating bonuses. It'd explain why Scruffy is still alive with the fewest leaps in logic, too.

>>97465446
The cat is possibly also weird because it wasn't Belkar's companion, originally. But it could also just be that Rich is not counting the numbers exactly when they're inconvenient, so the cat just happens to not die because there's no reason to bother working that in.

>>97465399
Belkar's exemption comes from alignment, no? He can't be that much higher...
Anyway I suspect the caster level for this effect was calculated to be "whatever the plot demands", which is probably why this fight feels a bit silly.

>>97466146
The issue is that by RAW, a ranger's animal companion levels at half the rate as a druid's. Along with his barbarian multiclassing, with no tweaks that would put Mr. Scruffy's effective hit die well into the 'death' range of Blasphemy at every reasonable level spread.

Also Belkar is not only (probably still) Evil, but he's wearing a ring of protection from Evil as well. That's the yellow glow.

>>97466202
maybe this is one of those instances of a GM fudging the rules a little so the party doesn't have their mascot that they've had for ages get gibbed and ruin the mood

>>97466202
Forget RAW. Rich told us ages and ages ago to not try to account for every little fiddly detail of the game rules.

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>>97466284
>>97466235
>>97466202
I mean he could have written it so that Mr. Scruffy was like way behind the party or in a bag of holding and just drew a panel of him entering the scene after the spell went off but he just wanted to have everyone in the panel when the spell went off which I can understand and if sacrifices game accuracy then so be it. It's like in Andrea Mantegna's ‘The Dead Christ’ where the feet are purposely smaller and foreshorten to make the composition work.

Never read the comic. Only seen it now and then here, mainly in Thog form.
Is it any good? Should I read it from beginning?

>>97469436
I like it, read from the beginning. Starts off as weekly gag strips until a couple hundred pages in.
Then you can join the rest of us in (waiting for) the final arc!

>>97445208
There *are* rules for composite bows with Strength too low for its draw, but that's just -2 on attack rolls.

Rather the issue is that Strength determines carrying capacity, and if it drops low enough you can't carry the combined weight of your equipment.
Blasphemy dazes targets for 1 round, and inflicts a 2d6 Strength penalty for 2d4 rounds. Elan and Haley are both confirmed to have low Strength scores (Haley "doesn't do melee", and Elan relies on an ability which lets him use Cha on his attacks in place of Str). If you drop someone's Strength to 0 then they become completely paralyzed, but that's only possible through Strength damage, not a temporary penalty.

3.5 doesn't do "set Str to some number" outside of magical shapeshifting (it's one of the reasons druids are the do-everything class); Roy's belt is probably +4 or +6 to Strength.

>>97465399
>>97465895
>>97466202
>If Belkar is level 18 or higher Mr. Scruffy will have 6.5 HD meaning Nale can't have cast Blasphemy at anything higher than caster level 16 or the cat would be dead.

Housecats aren't valid animal companions, but they're valid for the Urban Companion alternate class feature - basically a familiar that gets 3/4 the master's HP instead of 1/2. In which case he counts as having the same number of HD as Belkar in situations like this.

>>97469436
It's very good, and you should start from the beginning. Like the other anon said, it starts off as gag strips before finding its rhythm and it can be a little jarring as it changes from standard 2000s webcomic into its current form, but also a gallery binge lets you avoid the main weakness of the comic which is its atrocious release schedule. The creator has had multiple serious injuries/illnesses that caused hiatuses and at this point there some months with two or three strips and some periods of two or three months with no strips.

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>>97466202
the cat is evil(with the little e)

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>>97470685
A tempting theory, but he's got the same mirror image as everyone else that got whammied.

>>97469436
Go for it. You'll finish it before the next strip drops.

>>97470702
he's just pretending

>>97470702
Why are O-Chul's scars protruding from his head?

>>97471628
probably just an issue with layers
I don't think we're dealing with a situation like The Boss where they're going to slither off and bite people

>>97471628
>>97471636
What if it is, like, part of the spell sfx?

>>97471636
Or perhaps those scars are his special paladin mount.

>>97444661
Ten years ago, I think that was about when the Vampire arc ended, right?

>>97471628
>>97471636
V also has their cloak with that effect so I assume it's just another way to show the disorienting effect of the spell.

>>97472315
Closer to seven years.

>>97469436
OotS is actually good. First hundred comics are just gag strips, then it gets serious. Once they hit the desert the words-per-page ratio increases drastically, but it's still good.

>>97444661
The first time I read OoTS the most recent comic at the time was #551, I had to look up the number but I remember it because it taught me the phrase "in media res." That was back in 2008, so I was already in college.

>>97479113
I always remember the blue city siege as the point OotS got really good
also everything that happened in Azure during occupation was interesting

>>97469436
>Is it any good?
It's good. We hate it performatively, but we really enjoy it.

>Should I read it from beginning?
I mean... it's gonna take a while.
Story-wise, if you read the desert arc and the vampire arc, you're pretty much up tp date.

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>>97470702
You're all missing the obvious answer

>>97485201
I misread that thumbnail egregiously. I've been here too long.

>>97485256
What the fuck did you read that as

>>97469436
It's worth reading yeah. Xykon is a legitimately great villain.

>>97485278
A cat is fine too

>>97485201
>nine lives
Eight vagánias! Maybe more.

>>97451840
When I started reading it there was less than 10 strips. I am in fact ancient & mouldering in an Egyptian tomb

>>97465399
Mr. Scruffy is a templated celestial creature of some sort & was an alternate mount/companion for Lord Shojo. So he's got plenty of power before Belkar even adopts him

>>97487402
Shojo wasn't a Paladin

>>97488195
He took it as a feat

>>97488195
Mr. Scruffy might be one though

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>>97487384

>>97465399
>tl;dr The relative levels might make sense, but if so Belkar is 2 or 3 levels above the rest of the party.
he does go out of his way to get kills, i wouldn't be shocked to learn he's got a level or two on them

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>>97487402
clearly finishing off that 1st level commoner gave him enough xp to cross over into the Epic range

>>97449805
Serini probably spent most of her Epic levels on building traps and preparing the dungeon rather than combat.

>>97491434
NAYRT but some games actually work this way. I think 2e AD&D did this BTB.

I can't wait for advanced oots based on ad&d!