|
Yeah he specfically mentioned that hating other species is ok, and everybody hates mystic theurges anyway. They would be pretty useful in a war, though.Ferrinus posted:Oh yeah and only reinforce how totally overpowered they are god why did they even make "Xykon" a playable character class In fact I wouldn't be suprised if Xykon has a chat with him afterwards or during, kind of like he did with roy. In fact the more I think about it the more I wonder if Xykon's CHA is a big factor in the creation of his personality. He has this kind of flippant approach to things but still manages to comunicate well with people despite being kind of a ditz. He's an interesting take on a master'mind', and it makes more sense for him to be kinda of evil overlord-ey than somebody who's supposedly really smart or wise. Efreet saiid fucked around with this message at 07:53 on May 27, 2007 |
# ¿ May 27, 2007 07:50 |
|
|
# ¿ May 15, 2024 18:25 |
|
The Oldest Man posted:So I guess they are leaving Thog in that leprechaun outfit. Huh.
|
# ¿ May 29, 2007 20:56 |
|
MikeJF posted:Is Burlew developing a thing for sonic damage? Except for the Bentusi, aparently <v Efreet saiid fucked around with this message at 10:29 on May 30, 2007 |
# ¿ May 30, 2007 10:27 |
|
Big Ears is tearing poo poo up in the recent panels, too. I think they all the have "the person drawing me likes to do awesome detailed combat scenes" feat, wich is even better than toughness in NWN2. They're what, second level last time they mentioned it? Third maybe? Just more proof that low-mid level adventures are way better than uber-level bloat.
|
# ¿ May 30, 2007 16:04 |
|
Well i'd assume without an artist nothing would get drawn. Either way I think colaberation carries it's own risks of developing stupid ideas. It may be the strip is the result of two competing creative visions, or rather two competing creative mirages, the type where you dive into the pond and start drinking but you find yourself eating sand in a dry lake bed and bugs bunny is laughing at you from a nearby dune.
|
# ¿ May 30, 2007 22:27 |
|
RentACop posted:"Neither do I. I wasn't actually paying attention when I did it." Friggin , I love it.
|
# ¿ May 31, 2007 11:29 |
|
Also he still had overland flight that probably helped him manuver a fair bit.
|
# ¿ May 31, 2007 20:54 |
|
These aren't low level paladins, the real newbies are guarding the city.
|
# ¿ Jun 1, 2007 23:27 |
|
Nobody's getting upset. Well I think somebody could get upset if they really tried to read and enjoy erfworld, but it would more be that kind of upset where people get really stressed and tired and people are all "hey lay off that guy he's had a bad day".
|
# ¿ Jun 2, 2007 01:46 |
|
Ferrinus posted:I'm pretty sure the only paladin that isn't in the throne room right now is Hinjo. http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0413.html Hinjo sent the newbies to guard the city, although 'behind the wall' might mean they already got mastadowned when recloack stormed the wall. Efreet saiid fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Jun 3, 2007 |
# ¿ Jun 2, 2007 19:19 |
|
Bobulus posted:As an illustration of how a paladin can be played badly, she's pretty two dimensional. As a LE character who doesn't realize she's evil, I'd say she has a chance at development into something interesting. Robot Bastard posted:dangit, and it was such a great idea, too.
|
# ¿ Jun 5, 2007 07:40 |
|
Ferrinus posted:This brings us back to the age-old question of whether deluded is the same as evil. In reality she killed an old man and hosed up a bunch of poo poo for no good god-drat reason and that means she's at least neutral.
|
# ¿ Jun 5, 2007 09:38 |
|
Miko would actually do ok against a lich, if she's got a few monk levels. Not super-great but still she could knock him around for a panel or two. I'm wondering if instead Burlew is going to pull a switch, and suddenly have her "divine" good fortune reverse itself by crushing her with masonry or something.Ferrinus posted:But she doesn't have a player! quote:Honestly, I think she's the example of the only way that a (Lawful) Good character can serve as an antagonist for a Good (or maybe Neutral) party - the Good antagonist is not in possession of all the facts and somehow prevented from acquiring them. Anyway, i've lost track of the number of "neutral is the new good" plotlines and storylines wich centre around an ignorant do-gooder going up against pinfully cliche "moraly ambiguous" neutral protagonists. Ferrinus posted:Hey, I don't think Miko is misunderstood or shortchanged or treated unfairly - by real-world standards, she's a horrible monster. But she's still "Lawful Good" until such time as she decides to stop trying to serve justice and the gods and so forth. quote:Basically I see alignment as a statement of intentions, so there's no point in telling someone who (honestly, as far as they can tell) claims to be some alignment that they're really a different alignment. I find that alignment is not nearly as wierd and counter-intuitive as people claim. I mean it's not like it's V:TM's humanity/paths system or something. Efreet saiid fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Jun 5, 2007 |
# ¿ Jun 5, 2007 15:03 |
|
I'm wondering if Burlew is foreshadowing in order to gently caress with us, or wether he's just bracing us for the inevitable?Ferrinus posted:Well, yes, she's an egomaniacal lunatic, but she's still attached to the idea of thinking of herself as Lawful Good, which means she is. quote:If, for instance, a bunch of peasants came to her and begged her to save them from a marauding demon or something she would have to help them, because she thinks of herself as the good guy. Efreet saiid fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Jun 6, 2007 |
# ¿ Jun 6, 2007 04:44 |
|
Ferrinus posted:It's a convenient label, but it can't be a convenient label for the sum total of your past actions. Otherwise we have the silly Neverwinter Nights system where I remain Neutral by donating to charity on odd-numbered days and raping and murdering on even-numbered days. quote:A variant D&D ruleset where you have to explicitly earn any alignment beyond "true neutral" by adhering to stringent codes of behavior (and get cool bonuses for it and maybe Paladin becomes a hard-to-qualify-for and powerful prestige class) would be fun, but it's not how the game works now. You don't build up an alignment, you declare it. quote:Oh, certainly. There are strong guidelines in D&d for what constitutes Good and what doesn't (altruistic self-sacrifice concern for the dignity of sentient beings, yadda yadda) and it's up to the DM whether a given set of motivations or plans of action fall within it. For instance, I wouldn't call a ruler who just slaughters everyone infected with a certain disease in order to prevent it from spreading further Good in D&D terms, even though he would certainly describe his actions as being for "the common good". quote:But, if Miko's crazy delusions were true, her actions would still fall within the Lawful Good alignment as it seems to work in Order of the Stick. quote:After all, it's not like she wasn't a bloodthirsty slayer of men before she met the Order, and she still happily maintained Paladin status. quote:She fell for the same reason that a paladin who kills a bunch of imps who turn out to have been glamered children would fall from grace - the unknowing commitment of an inarguably evil act. quote:It's just occurred to me though that in the strip directly following that one, she appeared ready and willing to kill Hinjo before Roy smashed her into a wall. This kind of puts a dent in my position. I guess I could say she was just really angry and not thinking clearly...? She wasn't even toppling a ruler she felt was a threat, she was just killing whoever got in her way after she flipped the gently caress out. That was the whole point of the scene with Hinjo, he was giving her a chance to redeem herself, to step back from the precipice, and she threw it back in his face because she was to proud and fearful to accept her error. And in turn Hiro says "yep, you're loving done!" because she is.
|
# ¿ Jun 6, 2007 06:39 |
|
Ferrinus posted:That's not a "poor application", it's a demonstration of why making alignment literally consist of a summary of your past actions doesn't work. quote:The slightly less extreme example is one I've already brought up - the murderous psychopath whose alignment is True Neutral because he's been locked up in jail his whole life and unable to actually kill anyone. quote:I mean that saying (honestly) out-of-character that you are Good by D&D standards makes your character Good. There's a difference between "My character is willing to torture and murder but tells himself that it's for the common good" and "My character is actually, honestly committed to saving the lives of good people but is extremely hot-tempered and doesn't often stop to think before drawing a weapon". quote:If a character ostensibly works towards upholding the law and protecting innocents from harm at a personal cost, they are Good, even if greivous psychological flaws stand in the way of their accomplishing this! quote:Wait, you're right, Paladins can't fall for acting on incorrect information. quote:But, Miko had just heard Shojo describe the lengths he had gone to to break the big important Sapphire Guard oath thing and spy on the other gates and fake the Order's trial. She executed him because she thought that simply jailing him would be pointless since the entire legal system was obviously corrupt to start with, and she's definitely gotten away with overly-zealous and not-carefully-judged executions before. quote:I had figured that she had previously just been lucky and/or supported by technicalities ("Hey, those two bandits were beginning to attack me, I was totally justified in eviscerating them instantly and mercilessly") but Shojo represented her first serious blunder re: murdering someone who neither had the Evil alignment or was even any kind of immediate threat. But since she has to willingly and knowingly do evil in order to lose her powers, we can pretty neatly assume that her monologue about everyone being servants of Xykon was pretty much ad hoc bullshit. quote:The thing is, what about situations like a Good character finding his best friend in bed with his wife and killing them both in a fit of rage? It's definitely an evil act, but it doesn't mean an alignment change. quote:Wouldn't someone whose chief priorities are obeying the law and defending the good against evil be Lawful Good, even if there's an unambiguously Evil act in their past that they refuse to repent about? quote:Heck, even Miko was willing to put her insane and dishonestly-justified vendetta against the Order of the Stick on hold when saw that Azure City and the throne room were in danger.
|
# ¿ Jun 6, 2007 07:55 |
|
Yes I guess it was always going to come down to the gem smashing, but it was cool to see how close the badguys came to defeat. I am wondering if the ghost martyrs were a late inclusion, but in any event I liked how things turned out. Now it's just a matter of how big the boom is, assuming one is coming. I'm sure there will be some kind of climax, because this seems like a lead-up to one. I'm really wondering what will be left of the city after this, it's already on fire.Ferrinus posted:But really though, hot-headedness is not a feature of moral alignment. Heck, it's not even a feature of ethical alignment. It's a basic personality trait that any character can have. Good means that you are willing to make personal sacrifices to defend innocents against the depredation of monsters, not that you have good table manners and impeccable judgement. quote:No, I agree with you here, killing Shojo was definitely evil. But your alignment doesn't constantly change to match the last act you performed! quote:Oh, they'd definitely fall. But they'd still be Lawful Good. A single moment of weakness doesn't change your entire alignment if it doesn't change your basic intentions! quote:Well let's say the guy (he's a Ranger or something so leave the Paladin thing out of this) who killed his best friend/adulterous wife develops a huge obsession over the event and refuses to admit that he was in the wrong - but continues living as he did before as a Lawful Good character. He still donates to charity and protects villages from goblins and so on because he believes it's the right thing to do. He doesn't reconcile the wife thing with his other beliefs because he simply doesn't want to due to personal issues, even though it's obviously contradictory. What is he? quote:The point isn't that everyone thinks they're lowercase-g good. The point is that the personalities and motives of some characters are structured in such a way that they honestly want to uphold the details of the Good alignment in D&D, which means altruism and do-gooding and general civic service. Sorry, I missed this particular but of guff when skipping past robot bastard's post: Robot Bastard posted:You know, I think I see the fundamental problem here. Nobody is saying D&D alignment is like real world alignment, but it's not the bizzare impossible premise people claim, either. It's just a set of loving guidelines. There's no reason you can't use it as part of a 'morally grey' scenarion, that's bullshit invented by people who don't know anything about character motivation and ethics (real or fictional) anyway.
|
# ¿ Jun 7, 2007 11:45 |
|
Ferrinus posted:On the other hand, there's a huge difference between conscious acceptance of the premise "Everyone who insults me must die" and "Aw crap, now I'm holding my sword in the middle of a formal dinner again." quote:What? Why? The character's basic personality hasn't changed. His motives and aspirations haven't changed. He just slipped up due to a strong emotional response. quote:This sort of attitude treats alignment as though it were a special privelige to be taken away at any moment. quote:Alignment is one of the ways that a player gets to define his character, and a DM has no more power over your character's alignment than he does over your character's race or background. quote:(Which is to say that he can tell you to take a different alignment because the one you've chosen doesn't fit his game, but he can't tell you you're not allowed to play as a dwarf anymore because you saw some gold and didn't obsessively try to acquire it once.) quote:If I was the DM in a situation like that, I'd ask my player if his character has decided that it's now justified in general to murder people for romantic unfaithfulness, in which case I'd suggest he start calling himself Lawful Neutral because that kind of attitude simply doesn't fit within Good. But if he's instead intent on leaving the episode as something the character himself simply hasn't mentally dealt with yet, I'd leave him where he is. Because, ostensibly, he still wants to fight evil and protect innocents. quote:Really, if any alignment should be strongly restricted by DMs it's True Neutral because that's the only one that leaves you immune to pretty much every alignment-affecting magic there is [/quuote]Yes but true neutral people have the drawback of being loving boring.
|
# ¿ Jun 8, 2007 05:32 |
|
Ferrinus posted:Trying to act evil doesn't make you evil. Wanting to act evil makes you evil. If your physical actions overruled your basic intentions then you could turn someone evil by casting Dominate Person and making them commit murder. Both motive and actions matter. There's nothing to argue here. I don't get why you keep trying to make this more complex than it is. quote:At someone's throat, I guess? Miko came pretty close to killing the Order a few times and generally treated them like a slavedriver, but she remained a Paladin the whole time. And it's not like a hot-tempered Lawful Good character couldn't jump screaming into barroom brawls as opposed to instantly going for the kill every time. quote:Of course it makes a difference to him. It just doesn't make a difference to his alignment because alignment is neither a comprehensive summary of every one of a character's actions since his birth nor the sum total of someone's personality. quote:He did a bad thing that he wouldn't have done if he was thinking clearly and he still isn't thinking clearly about it, but it doesn't change the basic fact that he wants to protect the innocent and uphold the law. Like they said in that one comic, alignment is something you try to live up to. quote:Are there? I generally refer to the online SRD for all my actual hard rules, and I basically see this: quote:Aaarrrgh it's not a matter of a character just offhandedly saying they're good out loud! Cowcaster posted:So just as an extension of this conversation: During the crusades, were the knights attacking Jerusalem "Lawful Good" or "Chaotic Evil"? bgaesop posted:He is making fun of you because the people he's talking about were the original Paladins.
|
# ¿ Jun 8, 2007 10:21 |
|
That's a pretty nice boom. I assume Miko survived, and i'm wondering about o-chul and roy because their bodies are both helpless without aid. Despite how many people are around, I think it would be cool if a new group was introduced, like actual good guys, coming to the aid of the city, collecting roy and ochul along the way- that seems unlikely however. While these strips seem to be coming fast, they're not fast enough for me, I really want to see what happens next, and in particular what kind of status quo results from the outcome of the battle. I'm worried that along-dead roy might end up as the kind of prolonged sidetrack that is notorious in webcomics, especially since they've already been on one for so long. Now, back to the main event: Ferrinus posted:It's not complex at all to say that alignment is a matter of basic beliefs and intentions rather than a matter of beliefs admixtured in some bizarre way with past actions. quote:The only way actions matter to alignment is in the sense that they reveal your character's beliefs and intentions. But not every character acts in the way he would philosophically prefer himself to act 100% of the time! quote:Homocide would probably mean killing you specifically and that's not evil at all . . . of course, it would only take one terrifying reversal of fortune to see my high status utterly destroyed. Yes, they are fickle, always looking for weakness. . . Very well! I shall not make a helldump thread about you if your promise not to try and kill me. Shall we call this a gentleman's agreement? quote:But Miko was a valid paladin right up until the point when she wasn't, buddy. She just wasn't a very good (good in the sense of well-suited for her stated purpose) one. quote:You deny what I'm saying but then you support it in the same breath. quote:Obviously the guy who killed his friend in a fit of rage and isn't willing to mentally confront himself about it is "struggling", and of course he's LG with a big fat spotlight issue looming in his dark and retarded past. But he's not not-Good until he actually decides that killing people for some reason other than self-defense/defense of innocents is okay. quote:Of course you're not going to, because there aren't any rules in it about the DM forcibly changing a player's alignment. The whole idea is probably an artifact of earlier editions when DMs were supposed to micromanage their players more. Gumby posted:Not quite. Dragon and Dungeon have been published by a third-party publisher (Paizo Publishing) for a few years now. Wizards wanted to make their web site a one-stop place for all things D&D, so they yanked the license to publish Dragon and Dungeon from the people who had it. Wizards will soon unveil something called a "Digital Initiative," that's their updated D&D website. I agree that the move is a bad one though, I mean I can walk into a newsangency in a hick-town in queensland and find a copy of the dungeons and dragons magazines, that is not the kind of exposure you want to lose.
|
# ¿ Jun 9, 2007 08:42 |
|
She can't become a snarly death knight, I want her to wander off and re-appear by suprise as the leiutenant of elan's dad who may not ever even be mentioned again! Ferrinus, your idea is inferior to my own and I insist we debate our respective fanfiction predictions for the next ten pages.SuperKlaus posted:Maybe you should take it to another thread, Ferrinus and happyelf. Efreet saiid fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Jun 11, 2007 |
# ¿ Jun 11, 2007 09:18 |
|
Of course now that she's dead, will she end up meeting Roy? I loving hope not, I really want these guys to get back on the adventuring trail.
|
# ¿ Jun 12, 2007 08:05 |
|
Sick_Boy posted:*Que Return of the Jedi-like celebration*
|
# ¿ Jun 12, 2007 14:36 |
|
I'm hoping Hinjo will hang out with the OOTS but I doubt it.Shmafty posted:Burlew has actually stated in the OOTS FAQ that he has an 'uncontrollable urge' to do this:
|
# ¿ Jun 13, 2007 07:05 |
|
I'm happy with people talking about erfworld as long as we get to talk about how much it sucks. Also we can talk about Goblins, too. Notice how I capitalised "Goblins", but left "erfworld' in lowercase? Yeah, that was intentional
|
# ¿ Jun 21, 2007 21:44 |
|
Ferrinus posted:It took me a while to start reading Goblins because I just can't stand how that guy draws goblins - they're these weird blobby alien things whereas everything else is more or less normal. But hey, if you don't like your goblins all big-eyed and floppy, you can always go to the other extreme like pathfinder has. Efreet saiid fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Jun 23, 2007 |
# ¿ Jun 23, 2007 01:17 |
|
I can't beleive that people were bitching about us quibbling over D&D rules, and then once we stopped everyone sighed with relief and started talking about erfworld and miko porn.sakesniper posted:Those goblins are badass Ferrinus posted:The goblins in that link rule!
|
# ¿ Jun 23, 2007 07:25 |
|
|
# ¿ May 15, 2024 18:25 |
|
Fuego Fish posted:The thing is, when talk of Erfworld and porn comes up, it's not two people bickering back and forth with page-sized replies that make us want to gouge loving own eyes out.
|
# ¿ Jun 23, 2007 08:50 |