April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Reads_Forums » Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:31 pm

As for psimax can't be above level x as he'll stop getting exp when he's 8 levels above the environment. Not Walter would seem a source of greater than CR 3 experience.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Moroser » Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:38 pm

@Reads_Forums
I wouldn't call Kin's attempt to sufficate Psymax that hopeless. The chance to success was low, but not =0. Anyway, what other options did she have? Biting her tongue off you say? Oh, come on! Not an easy thing to do. And Psymax will just make her write her answers (should she bite off her hands?). I also remind you, that when holding the leash Psymax can't be harmed by Kin.
Kin may be intelligent, but Psymax has this stat pumped up with all the minmaxing. That ain't easy to beat him with his own weapon.

I do agree that Kin killing Psymax would be totally anticlimatic, so kersplish was, yeah, inevitable. But it has nothing to do with deserving to succeed. These are two different things.

Scorpikin has nothing to do with Kin's psychological trauma and Psymax is an ugly male human, who already abused her once (remember him grabbing her boobs?). Similar thing with the forest - it brought back the most traumatic memories.

Kin will most likely probably die. That will make me very sad (she's one of my fav characters). But looking back at all the deaths we saw I'm sure this one will also be one of the most awesome moments of this comic. Thunt knows what he does.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Matney X » Mon Apr 29, 2013 1:23 pm

Didn't Thunt say we'll find out what's up with Psymax's arms? Perhaps they're a magical prosthetic, of sorts, and that's how Kin will get her tail back, so to speak. (I traded my arms for the ability to Splish.) Or the alternate Klik, since it's already in the Maze.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Verz » Mon Apr 29, 2013 2:17 pm

I don't see a reset happening, Kin will likely get her tail replaced or find a way to live without it... or maybe die, that would suck, but it wouldnt be the first time we lost a great character here. It would be all too karmic to have PsyMax dropped into one of his own oblivain holes, but even more sadistic to force him to win and exit the maze with less than he had started (given his bleek outlook on the world).
Unlike most people here, I actually quite enjoy PsyMax even if he is a dink, he is an interesting(even if he has a bit of an annoying 'take everyone with me' attitude') character and great antagonist; I can not be the only one who wonders how a throwdown between him and Kore would go, even if Kore is a bit more psycopathic and better equiped than he is.
All that being said, he will most likely die here or be forgtten to one of his own oblivion holes, in which case he will have still one in his own way.

This would be a painfully dramatic time to switch back to one of the other story arks, but I can't wait to see what happens to the GAP; Thunt is a sadistically profficient writter that way.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Greg » Mon Apr 29, 2013 2:49 pm

Edit: Upon reflection, unsure if sociopath, psychopath, both or just plain rat fink would work there[/quote]


I vote for rat fink.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by BeanDip » Mon Apr 29, 2013 2:56 pm

Verz wrote: I can not be the only one who wonders how a throw-down between [PsyMax] and Kore would go, even if Kore is a bit more psychopathic and better equipped than he is.
It'd go like this:

SPLISHK!
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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Pjerrot » Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:15 pm

My first post, and I loose it when hitting the wrong key!
I revealed how this is all part of a romantic plan of Thunt.

Oh well, now you just have to wait and see for yourself.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Corpsificus » Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:25 pm

SuperVaderMan wrote:
Alarikun wrote:
SuperVaderMan wrote:Why would you put a Prince Adam/He-Man lookalike here of all places?

The humor in this cameo is misplaced given the tone of the rest of the strip :?
I believe it is intentional.
That's the problem
After the initial shock of seeing this comic for the first time and re-reading it I can see the humor. You see, Prince Minmax is being punched in the face by "our" Minmax in a sense saying "screw you Prince Adam cameo" which, with Kin's predicament, becomes "screw you Prince Adam cameo, Kin's in danger!"


It is hard to tell whether he SPLISHKED her whole tail, most of it, or part of it. She is shown to have adjusted position so it is possible that he only hit the part after the lighter arrow scales down the front. This may mean that it is not a fatal wound because the organs may be located within the arrow scale portion of her tail. It also seems to me that killing her outright would necessitate the recalculation of at least fourty four relevant variables. Either that or we draw an X over her face and curse Thunt's name.
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Last edited by Corpsificus on Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Greg » Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:30 pm

WearsHats wrote:Kin is s multiple rape survivor. That collar is the thing that made that rape possible. It's the thing most closely tied to that rape (and so knows what else). Using it takes away her ability to control her own body and mind. Psimax knows all this. Taking that leash would have been tantamount to rape.

Given all that, I am deeply disturbed to see the comment "She deserved what she got" in response to her attempts to defend herself at all costs.

(All that aside, defeating Psimax is their only chance to win and to save Minmax's life.)

If your argument is that it'll be worse for her now, I'd day that he would have killed her no matter what. Even if not, I don't think she could have lived with herself if she hadn't at least tried to fight him off. She promised herself that she would never run away again. Never back down, never give in. Never let someone take control of her again, no matter what.

YOU SAID IT!!!!

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Corpsificus » Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:40 pm

Greg wrote:
WearsHats wrote:Kin is s multiple rape survivor. That collar is the thing that made that rape possible. It's the thing most closely tied to that rape (and so knows what else). Using it takes away her ability to control her own body and mind. Psimax knows all this. Taking that leash would have been tantamount to rape.

Given all that, I am deeply disturbed to see the comment "She deserved what she got" in response to her attempts to defend herself at all costs.

(All that aside, defeating Psimax is their only chance to win and to save Minmax's life.)

If your argument is that it'll be worse for her now, I'd day that he would have killed her no matter what. Even if not, I don't think she could have lived with herself if she hadn't at least tried to fight him off. She promised herself that she would never run away again. Never back down, never give in. Never let someone take control of her again, no matter what.

YOU SAID IT!!!!
She did imply that she'd rather die than have her will taken again.
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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Glemp » Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:51 pm

BeanDip wrote:
Verz wrote: I can not be the only one who wonders how a throw-down between [PsyMax] and Kore would go, even if Kore is a bit more psychopathic and better equipped than he is.
It'd go like this:

SPLISHK!
Nope.
KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK
KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK
KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK
That's enough to break Psimax' concentration at least.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Your.Master » Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:57 pm

@Reads_Forums

Kin had no reason to believe Psimax could annihilate her tail. IIRC the only time she's seen anything be annilhilated is the keys just now, and the wall-staples earlier. There's no reason for her to believe he could do that to something that's both much larger and also alive (which in D&D is a very relevant difference).

Also, you seem to be vastly overestimating how easy it is to bite off your tongue, and how effective that would be at preventing both trauma and communication (heck, even if she got her whole tongue instead of just the tip, her intact tail could probably communicate letters to spell out sentences for communication). Not even clear it's anatomically possible in a snake person.

She also had no reason to believe she couldn't kill Psimax in one shot. He is emaciated so he <i>looks</i> like he might be low-HP. He's seen him splish small objects, and move inanimate objects, and one time he vanished as our Minmax tried to attack him, which could be something far simpler (lower-level) than teleportation. I'm don't think she even has good reason to connect Psimax to the oblivion holes. It's *only* because of storytelling that it would be anticlimactic for his neck to just snap. In the context of her perspective, it was a reasonable shot, and probably the most reasonable shot they had.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Glemp » Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:03 pm

Your.Master wrote:I don't think she even has good reason to connect Psimax to the oblivion holes.
Point of order: http://www.goblinscomic.com/12212012/
Also, she wasn't exactly in a clear frame of mind at the time, what with 'helpless and about to be forced into submission'.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by willpell » Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:37 pm

Rooks wrote:Side note: have any theories been thrown out for what level PsyMax actually is? I never played a psion, but good lord. Were they this over-powered in real 3.5? I remember reading the rules for attacking in-animate objects like doors or walls, and the amount of damage reduction they had was enormous. To be able to just go "I don't like your mace." KER-SPALT! Crazy. Anyway, I digress.
The sound effects don't really match, but a good way for a psion to destroy objects is by manifeting an Energy Something power and choose the "Sonic" energy type. The most basic such power, Energy Ray, hits one target for Xd6-X damage which ignores hardness (costing X pp, with your manifester level as the highest allowable value), so if the HP of a mace were, say, 20, you'd only need a manifester level of 8 to have an average chance of destroying it. And gaining manifester levels above your class level isn't too hard, thanks to the Overchannel feat and probably a few others.

My guess, though, is that "splishk" is something like a psionic version of Shatter which can damage creatures that aren't Constructs.
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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by RocketScientist » Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:55 pm

WastesTime wrote:About the prophecy - I get the feeling that it will not come true in this maze.
I think you're right about that. We're probably all miles off the mark of what it even means. As far as we know, the wizard who made K'Seliss and Saral Caine has a serpent staff, and he's the prey. The friends who become enemies could be the repeatedly killed former Drow, and the love fueling hate could be someone we haven't even met yet. Maybe Forgath gets a girlfriend, breaks up with her, and she kills him. :shrug:

I don't think the wall ever confirmed the whole prophecy, though. IIRC it only agreed that Forgath was going to die in battle with another dwarf.
Reads_Forums wrote:I still believe kersplish was an inevitable consequence of her choice of actions. She chose to be violent against someone who can kersplish her, her violence led to kersplish, I don't think she deserved to succeed, it would have been a much worse story if she had. I stand by she deserved kersplish as a consequence of her actions. I didn't mean it in any karmic use of the word deserved, just as a consequence of her immediate actions.
Dude, you're just digging your hole deeper. Maybe you ought to stop trying to explain.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Reads_Forums » Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:46 pm

Your.Master

I think it was pretty clear psimax was a very powerful opponent to directly take on. The outcome wasn't disproportionate tto the size of the error she made, just like a level 1 character who chooses to charge at a dragon, "You want to fight the dragon barehanded?" ends up super crispy, the player has no room for complaint, it was a reasonable outcome.


Trying to argue that because she was justified in her actions, it should increase her odds of success because of the nice warm karmic glow is a fallacy. She let herself make a rash decision, and went kersplish. If forgath isn't able to retrieve his symbol and do something more useful than bless water, it was completely in vain too. All the other major deaths so far have been heroic in their way, if she dies, hers seems pretty pointless as in whatever outcome occurs was almost certainly unaffected by her actions. Chances are she will be questioned with the leash anyway, I don't see she has done anything but delay it a page and pissed psimax off a bit, but he's too preoccupied with his goal to take it out on kin, he's nice like that. Any other antagonist would have been much crueler.





That's the disappointing thing for me, she died resorting to anger and violence in an utterly futile manner.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Reads_Forums » Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:53 pm

Rocket scientist

Hole? what hole? You seem to think I regret my choice of words. I don't. They weren't offensive.


It's hard to take any advice that starts with "dude" seriously, for future reference.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by currently_awake » Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:15 pm

Minmax's ability to teleport the sword should allow him to attack psimax from a distance, or possibly teleport to him.
Or more fun, teleport psimax to him- in the tower room. That would leave forgath with the healing potion and a badly wounded kin.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by BeanDip » Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:23 pm

Glemp wrote:
BeanDip wrote:
Verz wrote: I can not be the only one who wonders how a throw-down between [PsyMax] and Kore would go, even if Kore is a bit more psychopathic and better equipped than he is.
It'd go like this:

SPLISHK!
Nope.
KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK
KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK
KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK
That's enough to break Psimax' concentration at least.
I don't want to derail the thread anymore with this scenario but I'm going to do exactly that. :P

Nothing is stopping PsyMax from just SPLISHKing Kore's bolts as they fly toward him. SPLISHK EX MACHINA!
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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Godbot » Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:41 pm

Reads_Forums wrote:I still believe kersplish was an inevitable consequence of her choice of actions. She chose to be violent against someone who can kersplish her, her violence led to kersplish, I don't think she deserved to succeed, it would have been a much worse story if she had.
You're right. That was inevitably going to happen, and it was probably pretty stupid of her to try it.

But people don't react to everything logically and pragmatically, especially around delicate issues with a lot of emotion tied to them, like personal trauma.

So yes, it wasn't the smartest decision, but she had reasons for what she did besides what the smartest course of action would be. Try and understand that instead of jumping right to saying that she got what she deserved by not being as pragmatic as possible at all times, to the point of biting her own tongue off instead of putting up a fight.

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by RocketScientist » Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:49 pm

Reads_Forums wrote:Rocket scientist

Hole? what hole? You seem to think I regret my choice of words. I don't. They weren't offensive.


It's hard to take any advice that starts with "dude" seriously, for future reference.
I was trying to politely point out that you're being a blithering jackass, and that you might want to reconsider that. Also, pulling the passive aggressive bullshit you just pulled on a moderator is a bad idea. For future reference. :meh:

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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Liesmith » Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:13 pm

Reads_Forums wrote:Your.Master

I think it was pretty clear psimax was a very powerful opponent to directly take on. The outcome wasn't disproportionate tto the size of the error she made, just like a level 1 character who chooses to charge at a dragon, "You want to fight the dragon barehanded?" ends up super crispy, the player has no room for complaint, it was a reasonable outcome.

Trying to argue that because she was justified in her actions, it should increase her odds of success because of the nice warm karmic glow is a fallacy. She let herself make a rash decision, and went kersplish. If forgath isn't able to retrieve his symbol and do something more useful than bless water, it was completely in vain too. All the other major deaths so far have been heroic in their way, if she dies, hers seems pretty pointless as in whatever outcome occurs was almost certainly unaffected by her actions. Chances are she will be questioned with the leash anyway, I don't see she has done anything but delay it a page and pissed psimax off a bit, but he's too preoccupied with his goal to take it out on kin, he's nice like that. Any other antagonist would have been much crueler.

That's the disappointing thing for me, she died resorting to anger and violence in an utterly futile manner.
You're right: her reasons for reacting as she did shouldn't improve her odds of victory; and they didn't. It was foreshadowed back at Psimax's introduction that he was capable of performing this kind of attack. However, her reasons for attacking him are sound: if he touched that leash, they lose. Period. The end. She cannot take action against him while he touches the leash, but she *could* be forced to call to Minmax, or reveal any potential strategies Forgath might be cooking up. If he touched that leash, she was worse than dead: she was a tool of the enemy, locked in her own head and devoid of any capacity for resistance.

Do you really think she could yell "boo" and startle Psimax to escape from that situation?
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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by Corpsificus » Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:05 pm

I believe that it is a relevant complement to mention Thunt's exceptional writing capability.
I find interesting the fact that whether Kin survives or not we will keep reading.
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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by willpell » Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:44 pm

RocketScientist wrote:Also, pulling the passive aggressive bullshit you just pulled on a moderator is a bad idea. For future reference. :meh:
Is it not possible that you see passive-aggression where none exists?
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Re: April 26th 2013 - Its Better To.

Post by HeWhoAsksQuestions » Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:54 pm

How cruel could this comic get? Personally, I think what would be really cruel is if the whole situation is resolved via oblivion hole: both Kin and Psi-Max end up in an oblivion hole, and Minmax & Fogarth never remember Kin. That's right, all that love and Trueseeing? Gone, without Minmax being any wiser for it.

If that does end of happening, then this comic will have taken a true page from GOT.

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