January 25th, 2016
I didn't know what to do for a vote incentive this week so YOU GET SOME THOUGHTS ON XIRA'S D&D STATS, except I'm still back in 3.5 land and you'll just have to bear with me. xD Click the blue box for the extra doodle!
Vote Incentive for This Comic.
omg I love this comment bUT NO OF COURSE NOT, DONT BE SILLY, MIND MAGIC FIXES EVERYTHING
posted at 1:08pm on January 25th, 2016
Heck, I'm still stuck in 3.5 land with most of my friends, too. Because frankly another pile of sourcebooks are not currently in any of our budgets anymore. I'm still homebrewing the heck out of it, too.
posted at 1:15am on January 25th, 2016
Wait, is Jonan just charismatic to zombies or what.
posted at 1:21am on January 25th, 2016
It's a general force of personality thing in D&D - appealing to people, getting them to believe your lies, or intimidating them. And Jonan is definitely good at that last one.
posted at 1:25am on January 25th, 2016
Ahha, thanks!
posted at 12:14pm on January 25th, 2016
Yeah, Nerrin has it! Charisma isn't just being good-looking or likable, it's the ability to influence people, which Jonan can definitely do -- he just does it by making everyone around him feel small.
posted at 12:40pm on January 25th, 2016
I tend to go back and forth between being A) a little disturbed by how casually Xira uses his mind powers, and B) impressed that he doesn't use them more often, since it seems to be the only way that anyone ever lets him finish a sentence.
As always, I love how unique every single background character looks in the crowd scenes.
posted at 2:19am on January 25th, 2016
Ahhhh gosh thank you! CROWD SCENES ARE BOTH FUN AND VERY CHALLENGING xD
and this seems like a reasonable reaction xD The 50/50 split is definitely a simplification -- I think it's probably more like "34% - xira's so nice!" "36% - I don't trust him" "20% - I like u xira but sweetie please stop what ur doing" "10% - I don't trust xira and that's why he's my favourite"
posted at 1:16pm on January 25th, 2016
Ahahahaha!
I love the personalisation of the comment section in the incentive! :D
Poor Xira, no one is listening to him unless he uses his freaky mind powers. Oh well.
posted at 3:05am on January 25th, 2016
The fact that nobody could agree about Xira when he was introduced is still one of my FAVOURITE things that happened in the comment section. xD
posted at 1:18pm on January 25th, 2016
What is this 3.5 wizardry, and where is my good old fashioned THAC0?
posted at 4:11am on January 25th, 2016
So what level would everyone be? Or did Xira just roll intensely well? XD
posted at 10:12am on January 25th, 2016
I actually used Point Buy to assign these stats! Tareth is an "average" number of points, Xira is "above average" and Sev is "powerful." Jonan is the only one who'd have to be levelled here, since you can't get a 21 as a starting stat -- he's "powerful" with at least three stat increases.
If I had to give them 3.5 D&D levels based on their power/experiences, I'd probably say Tareth is starting level (she is a teen who has literally never left her hometown), Xira and Sev are probably close to the same level, where Sev might be a liiiiiittle higher level than Xira, maybe around 5-7ish where you start getting a good variety of spells and being considered powerful by NPCs.
Jonan would have to be at least 14th level?? though the number of undead he's been seen commanding is way too many for that level so IDK MAN.
So, yeah, the stats I'm guessing at for these guys definitely don't reflect the levels they would be, but the higher level you get the less and less D&D looks like reality. xD
posted at 1:07pm on January 25th, 2016
Jonan seems like the sort of character who's perfectly optimized for necromancy and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE. Since losing access to his runewriting abilities, he seems to have just about no useful skills except Intimidating Glare... And that only works because people still think he has his runewriting abilities, so I'm not sure even that counts!
To mix game metaphors, he has only one card in his hand. It's the trump card, but without it, all he can do is bluff.
posted at 8:35pm on January 25th, 2016
I LOVE THIS
posted at 1:39am on January 26th, 2016
Holy shark, that was absolutely brilliant! I had never thought of it that way!
posted at 2:03am on January 26th, 2016
Jonan obviously has a feat or class ability that lets him control more undead, that's all.
It might be fun to work out a tweaked version of the wizard, actually. One that's even more reliant on preparation, with a tighter selection of daily spells that all require material components and foci to cast, but with class abilities based on expanding the utility of some varieties of spells. Even more specialized than your normal specialist mage.
posted at 10:51pm on January 31st, 2016
Oooh wait, is Tareth gonna talk to the girl in the forcefield now?
HO WHAT IF FORCEFIELD LADY KNOWS HANDSIGN???
(How's she still alive in there anyway? If she can't get out and nobody can get in, what is she eating?)
posted at 6:20pm on January 29th, 2016
hmmmm yeah weird that's a good question! :>
posted at 12:20pm on January 31st, 2016
Suspended animation? Frozen pocket of time? She just doesn't need to eat for a completely separate reason?
posted at 12:18pm on February 8th, 2016
Oh! Jonan's lurking around in the first panel! I only just noticed him.
posted at 9:01pm on January 30th, 2016
(NICE CATCH I wasn't sure if anyone would notice him back there!! xD )
posted at 12:20pm on January 31st, 2016
The Vote Incentive has changed; is there any way to see this D&D Incentive?
posted at 8:55pm on February 4th, 2016
Not immediately, but they don't stay gone forever! It's mentioned in the FAQ -- but basically, vote incentives come back after two months. If you look back a few more pages, you'll see a "vote incentive for this comic" link right above the blue voting button -- those appear automatically once two months have gone by. : )
(Jonan, Sev, and Tareth's D&D stats were discussed in an earlier vote incentive though, so theirs are available for perusing!)
posted at 3:29am on February 5th, 2016
Oh, thanks! I shall wait patiently then.
I love this comic and was so excited to find out it came back!
posted at 11:04am on February 5th, 2016
The lady in panel 5 is maximally wedgied.
posted at 10:29am on March 9th, 2016
Gosh, in comparison to everyone else here, Sev looks practically beefy. He's just so much /broader/ than the kid trying to carry him.
This entertained me.
That, and Jonan's "ho-hum, no one will notice me if I hide my face under the Scarf of Invisibility" skulking. :)
posted at 7:44pm on September 18th, 2017
Comment by Why?!?!
It's so true, Xira has no charisma. It's all spells! I'm sure that's not going to come back to bite anyone in the butt in like three pages.
posted at 12:41am on January 25th, 2016