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nimby posted:Y'know, it's been a while since we've seen Ian Starshine and his buddy... Roy could really use the backup right now, think they're going to show up as the high-level adventurers they're supposed to be? problem with that being Ian Starshines buddy is the reason he kept getting recaptured and is the one who convinced him to allow himself to be captured in the first place.
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Mar 23, 2013 03:39
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Dolash posted:Bets on Nale's intelligence rarely pan out, but I wouldn't be surprised if he knows that too and is just hoping to escape at the right moment and let his dad and his dad's killer lizard get vaporized. I can't tell if Nale just used Wis as his dump stat or what. For all the convolution his plans seem to have, he doesn't seem to be very good when it comes to execution or foresight.
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Mar 23, 2013 04:49
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NihilCredo posted:We've never seen him cast a Teleport spell, not even during the siege when it would have come really handy, and he's a sorcerer. Yeah, if those bounty hunters can get hold of a Teleport scroll than Xykon surely can as well, but we've never seen him use any scroll at all. As was mentioned, it's on the list of spells that O-Chul gave Roy. Also, if he can't teleport, then Xykon's being pretty drat optimistic when he tells Redcloak "I want you all to be ready to teleport out of here two rounds after we find my phylactery." Xykon can totally teleport. But even if he couldn't, he's currently Gated into the Astral Plane. He can Gate back to any place he knows about and that includes Windy Canyon. So whether or not he can teleport (though he totally can), he'll be using a Gate which will do the exact same thing...arrive instantaneously at Windy Canyon exactly when the plot calls for him to do so.
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Mar 23, 2013 06:35
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I can't really seem Team Evil stomping the Linear guild unless the Monster in the Dark finally shows himself and kicks rear end. If it's just Redcloak and Zykon then they're facing 6 characters. Unless Xykon can one shot a few of them the number of attacks and spells coming his and Redcloaks way are nothing to sniff at.
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Mar 23, 2013 09:22
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Xykon did one-shot an entire elite order of paladins. Of which admittedly none was a 200 year old vampire, but still, as good as the Linear Guild is right now, I think it's at least an even fight. Nale and Kilkil don't stand a chance, Zz'dtri may just scrape by, Sabine is out of the equation but might have as much of a chance as Zz'dtri unless I'm grossly underestimating her abilities, Tarquin would certainly find a way to spin the situation in his favour, including the offer of an alliance, and Malack (and by extension Durkon) probably has the best chances of survival of them all although how much he could actually hurt Xykon, who is already dead, is questionable. And then let's not forget that Xykon and Redcloak are going to be fully rested as well.
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Mar 23, 2013 09:38
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Apocron posted:I can't really seem Team Evil stomping the Linear guild unless the Monster in the Dark finally shows himself and kicks rear end. If it's just Redcloak and Zykon then they're facing 6 characters. Unless Xykon can one shot a few of them the number of attacks and spells coming his and Redcloaks way are nothing to sniff at. Numbers don't mean that much to Xykon.
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Mar 23, 2013 09:40
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Malack and Durkon are both quite depleted at the moment, regardless of which ruling you favor re: New-Vampire spells. Tarquin's probably the only person on all of Team Evil prepared to fight them -today-, and regardless of how geared he is, a fight vs a Sorcerer-Lich with Cleric backup won't end well for him.
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Mar 23, 2013 11:05
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That was with a plan in advance, though. And let's not forget that Soon basically fought Xykon to a halt by himself whilst Redcloak was distracted with the rest of the Ghost-Paladins.
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Mar 23, 2013 11:18
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MikeJF posted:That was with a plan in advance, though. And let's not forget that Soon basically fought Xykon to a halt by himself whilst Redcloak was distracted with the rest of the Ghost-Paladins. Soon was epic level, wasn't he?
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Mar 23, 2013 11:58
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sebmojo posted:Soon was epic. He was also an epic level character. e: ^^^ Curse you and your edits!  e2: This is why you shouldn't leave the reply window up for so long. my dad fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Mar 23, 2013 |
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Mar 23, 2013 12:13
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Not only was Soon Epic-level, but he was an Epic character with templated immunity to most of Xykon's spells. Most epics and near-epics wouldn't have quite as much luck.
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Mar 23, 2013 12:23
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Tarquin is a relentless planner. The most dangerous person around him on a daily basis is undead. He's acutely aware of narrative tropes to a positively bard-like level, and betrayal from one's closest confidant is a big one in that regard. What I'm saying is that Tarquin might have some sort of undead trump card on hand on the off chance Malack betrays him. He doesn't seem like the sort to just let an powerful undead caster into his inner circle without an insurance policy.
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Mar 23, 2013 15:46
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Cabbit posted:Tarquin is a relentless planner. The most dangerous person around him on a daily basis is undead. He's acutely aware of narrative tropes to a positively bard-like level, and betrayal from one's closest confidant is a big one in that regard. If this was so, though, he might just have stocked up on anti-vampire stuff. Makes sense and it's probably easier + more ubiquitous than hunting around for rare magic items like Roy's sword or taking obscure anti-undead feats.
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Mar 23, 2013 17:10
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It's way more dramatic, though, to have something more exciting and obscure like some bizarre ring no one's heard of.
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Mar 23, 2013 17:45
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Niton posted:Not only was Soon Epic-level, but he was an Epic character with templated immunity to most of Xykon's spells. Most epics and near-epics wouldn't have quite as much luck. Also Smite Evil appears to be REALLY effective in OOTS.
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Mar 23, 2013 19:58
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Android Blues posted:If this was so, though, he might just have stocked up on anti-vampire stuff. Makes sense and it's probably easier + more ubiquitous than hunting around for rare magic items like Roy's sword or taking obscure anti-undead feats. "You've probably wondered why I've ordered the pasta with garlic sauce for lunch for the last twenty years, old friend.."
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Mar 23, 2013 20:52
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Zerilan posted:Also Smite Evil appears to be REALLY effective in OOTS. I think it's more that its more painful to evil people, not necessarily that its that mch more damaging.
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Mar 23, 2013 20:58
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Who What Now posted:I think it's more that its more painful to evil people, not necessarily that its that mch more damaging. It's a damage bonus equal to your level against evil creatures (so at least +21 for an epic character on top of whatever damage Soon would normally do, plus the possibility of feat/class/item/template/whatever bonuses that could specifically impact undead), and liches aren't exactly swimming in hit points, as the lack of Con generally hurts them more than the d12 HDs help. So yeah, if you can actually get and stay in melee with a lich, Smite Evil's not a terrible way to dish out some pain.
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Mar 23, 2013 23:37
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A Big Dark Yak posted:It's a damage bonus equal to your level against evil creatures (so at least +21 for an epic character on top of whatever damage Soon would normally do, plus the possibility of feat/class/item/template/whatever bonuses that could specifically impact undead), and liches aren't exactly swimming in hit points, as the lack of Con generally hurts them more than the d12 HDs help. So yeah, if you can actually get and stay in melee with a lich, Smite Evil's not a terrible way to dish out some pain. Well, considering Paladin level 20 only grants you 5 smites per day, you'd only get one full attack worth of the damage boost.
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Mar 24, 2013 08:40
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I think the real reason is just that it's very dramatically effective to have a paladin shout "Smite Evil!" and then see the villain go "agggh!!". It's a moment of vindication where we see that the universe itself has invested the hero with the power to take a despicable character down a peg. It works even better because the paladin is just some well-meaning schmuck with a sword while the strip's villains tend to be powerful spellcasters. The Conan ethos, if you like, helpfully supported by the fact that the 3.5 paladin is a really crummy class in comparison to anything with a full caster progression.
Android Blues fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 08:50
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He could just zone of anti-magic the poo poo out of Xykon. (then get eaten by the monster in the dark)
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Mar 24, 2013 14:58
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Well, a paladin of Soon's level could one-shot Xykon barring some unusual spell defenses, provided he'd stacked charge multipliers to ridiculous levels and used Power Attack along with Smite Evil while a lance while mounted. He'd be doing somewhere around 600+ damage, when Xykon has maybe 300 hit points at most and probably closer to 150. Undead characters in 3e have glass jaws owing to the fact that they don't have a Constitution score on account of being dead. 3e math is weird. It wouldn't make for a very exciting story though.
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Mar 24, 2013 15:26
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LightWarden posted:Well, a paladin of Soon's level could one-shot Xykon barring some unusual spell defenses, provided he'd stacked charge multipliers to ridiculous levels and used Power Attack along with Smite Evil while a lance while mounted. In more caster supremacy news (as if we'll ever get tired of those jokes), Affi's post made me go check the list of epic feats to see if I had read him right, and he meant that there was a non-caster feat that let them create an anti-magic zone around themselves. The answer is no, of course - or rather, there is a Permanent Emanation epic feat that can let you project an anti-magic zone around yourself at all times, and even turn it on and off at will. Only, it's a caster feat (Spellcraft 25) that can be taken for any AoE spell they can cast 
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Mar 24, 2013 15:55
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NihilCredo posted:In more caster supremacy news (as if we'll ever get tired of those jokes), Affi's post made me go check the list of epic feats to see if I had read him right, and he meant that there was a non-caster feat that let them create an anti-magic zone around themselves. The answer is no, of course - or rather, there is a Permanent Emanation epic feat that can let you project an anti-magic zone around yourself at all times, and even turn it on and off at will. Only, it's a caster feat (Spellcraft 25) that can be taken for any AoE spell they can cast In fairness, that's the "balance" of anti-magic field, isn't it? It shuts down any casters in the area completely, but since you're a caster it also shuts down you, so you'd better have a good plan for how this is going to work out. I'm surprised you can't cast a wand of anti-magic field, actually; I expected there to be rules for putting powerful spells in wands at epic level.
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Mar 24, 2013 17:27
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There's a new retro-themed tabletop gaming magazine called "Gygax" that's just started publishing, and it's running an all-new Something for all you completists to consider. e: Arrrgh, brain cramp, mixed up my gaming comic strips. Apologies. FMguru fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 17:44
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What's KODT? e: oh, Knights of the Dinner Table. I thought you meant something by Rich, which puzzled me because thumb and all.
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Mar 24, 2013 19:16
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Android Blues posted:If this was so, though, he might just have stocked up on anti-vampire stuff. Makes sense and it's probably easier + more ubiquitous than hunting around for rare magic items like Roy's sword or taking obscure anti-undead feats. Tarquin's like an evil Batman, always prepared for everything. He probably has magic items giving him immunity to all kinds of spells in case of a scry-and-die attack. His evil adventuring life also got him topped up wit rare magic items and obscure feats. He's not going to beat Xykon, because that would make for a terrible plot twist, but he probably could take on Xykon with a surprise attack. But then he'd probably lose to Redcloak.
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Mar 24, 2013 19:40
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nrook posted:In fairness, that's the "balance" of anti-magic field, isn't it? It shuts down any casters in the area completely, but since you're a caster it also shuts down you, so you'd better have a good plan for how this is going to work out. High level wands are Staves. A Staff of Anti magic Field would allow the wielder to cast AMF fifty times using the Spell Trigger activation method (standard action for any Artificer, Cleric, Wizard, or Sorcerer, or anyone making a Use Magic Device check of DC 20) and provokes no attacks. A caster level 11 Staff of Anti Magic Field would cost 24,750 gold... or, to a properly built level 11 artificer, maybe six thousand gold and two hundred forty exp. Not expensive, and one of the traditional ways for a martial heavy team to take on casters.
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Mar 24, 2013 19:56
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Xykon doesn't use scrolls, but he's regularly shown using magic items/artefacts and twice (at the end of SoD and in his fight with V) has explicitly extolled their virtues.
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Mar 24, 2013 20:02
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Do anti-magic fields stop all epic magic, or can you add a 'can be cast even in an anti-magic field' effect to epic spells? Given that it would be such an obvious threat to both of them, I'd be surprised if Team Evil hadn't planned for the possibility of being trapped in an anti-magic field. Even if that plan is just 'set the MITD loose.'
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Mar 24, 2013 20:56
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nrook posted:In fairness, that's the "balance" of anti-magic field, isn't it? It shuts down any casters in the area completely, but since you're a caster it also shuts down you, so you'd better have a good plan for how this is going to work out.
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Mar 24, 2013 21:39
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Drakyn posted:I seem to recall that this made it a pretty good choice for older dragons in 3E - their abilities as spellcasters always end up being worse than any level-appropriate groups they fight, but if they can get a field up it becomes a bunch of clowns with nonfunctioning magical gear against something the size of a house with five really nasty natural attacks per round and hefty defenses. See also here.
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Mar 24, 2013 21:45
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DoctorTristan posted:Do anti-magic fields stop all epic magic, or can you add a 'can be cast even in an anti-magic field' effect to epic spells? Epic Magic and Antimagic Fields posted:Antimagic field does not automatically suppress epic spells as it does standard spells. Instead, each time an epic spell is subject to an antimagic field, make a dispel check as a 20th-level caster (1d20 + 20). The epic spell has a DC of 11 + the epic spell’s spellcaster level. If the suppression check is successful, the epic spell is suppressed like any other spell. If the dispel check is unsuccessful, the epic spell functions normally. That being said, an antimagic field has kind of a poo poo range. It's a 10' emanation from caster (which of course is pretty huge for a dragon, and pretty useless for a party of adventurers clustered around a mage) and can't be projected, which means that 90% of the time a caster can simply take a move action away and then cast. AMF is primarily defensive, not offensive... and it can't do much about a wizard using Flight/Windwall to immunize himself from your entirely mundane them, then cast Save or Dies at anyone who leaves the field to try to throw something more substantive. Or heck, use Telekinesis to throw rocks at them.
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Mar 24, 2013 21:54
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Antimagic Field, Golems, and every other "Magic Immune" thing in 3.5 suffers from the fact that a Wizard can still fire Large-Sized Adamantine Greatswords at it by the dozen or so at a time. Thankfully for the sake of the narrative V is, like everyone else in the Order except Elan, terrible at actually playing her class well.
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Mar 25, 2013 01:03
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Alchenar posted:Xykon doesn't use scrolls, but he's regularly shown using magic items/artefacts and twice (at the end of SoD and in his fight with V) has explicitly extolled their virtues. Xykon's also stated that since he doesn't sleep, he pretty easily has time to spend 8 hours a day crafting magic items and likely does so every day.
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Mar 25, 2013 08:39
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Zerilan posted:Xykon's also stated that since he doesn't sleep, he pretty easily has time to spend 8 hours a day crafting magic items and likely does so every day. Doesn't that cost tons of XP, though?
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Mar 25, 2013 13:21
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Hog Butcher posted:Doesn't that cost tons of XP, though? XP which he recoups by murdering entire civilizations (and random minions) in his spare time.
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Mar 25, 2013 13:27
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Hog Butcher posted:Doesn't that cost tons of XP, though?  aheadCrafting magic items takes 1 day per 1000 GP of the cost (with a minimum of 1-day for even the cheapest item), and the XP cost of each item is generally 1/25th of the GP cost. This means a crafter spends at most 40 XP per day while working on magic items; less if he makes cheap stuff such as potions or low-level scrolls, but that doesn't seem like Xykon's style. So given that his level is probably in the high 20s, he can have up to two years' worth of crafting XP available, depending on how much he gained since he last levelled up.
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Mar 25, 2013 14:29
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NihilCredo posted:Warning: hard Pathfinder removed this. Many home games also eliminated this in 3.5 days.
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Mar 25, 2013 14:39
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I wanna see Xykon versus a Dark Sun Sorcerer King
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Mar 25, 2013 14:42
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