20 March 2017 - A True Adventurer Knows their Priorities

[ForgetsOldName]

http://www.goblinscomic.org/03202017-2/

Oddly enough, it seems Thac0 (Thaco? Taco?) is still dying.

[BookWyrm17]

I agree, loot is awesome. New stuff is always better than old stuff.

Though it really would have been a downer if someone died

I'm a bit confused on what's going on in the couple panels with the dragonfly shield and stuff. Arm armor? Was there other armor? And what about that ring lying in front of Complains?

The Ring of Holding... now that's pretty cool. Obviously you can walk into it, but how do you shrink it down again? Can living things stay in it? If it's on your finger, do you look like you are missing your finger? Does everything shrink, or just the doorway? I'm imagining a massive finger taking up most of the space in the corridor.

And sure, Ears could use a warning. But does he keep his armor, is my question. I imagine that stays on, mostly? Is the axe fully broken yet? I've seen Ears with his armor for so long that losing it would be hard to get used to.

[Shardstorm]

Those rings are some sort of anklets that become leg armour for Complains.

This wasn't the page I wanted though. I want resolution for the guys on the ground, and getting something happening. Unless it's supposed to be Forgath arriving to heal them.

[0z79]

"Because you broke your last magic axe and ended the world, dooming all living things". Fucking BEAUTIFUL.

[Krulle]

Huh? Nobody commented on this here yet?Well, I saw the tweet before the comic, so I'll just paste it over:

aaannnnnnnd I just realized that I forgot the hellstrands. Sigh.

What about the nagative hit points? Are htey also missing?

edit: after having read the new page:
I want a ring of holding! Although it would always look like it swallowed my finger (as I would carry it as a normal ring).
But depending on how it works, I may need to be extremely careful to resize the ring only while my finger is not partly inside. I don't want tiny fingers, or a gigantic middle finger. Although that might come in handy to provoke s.o. who's afraid to acknowledge that he has tiny hands.

Edit: after having read the thread so far:

Oddly enough, it seems Thac0 (Thaco? Taco?) is still dying.

No. Just like Big Ears (-9) he has stabilised, but is still in negative hit points (-4). As such he is supposed to not talk, and not walk around.
At the beginning of the comic there was a joke about s.o. being in negative hit points and still talking...
But it's not the first time the negative hit points were missing. Last time they got added in a bit later.

I'm a bit confused on what's going on in the couple panels with the dragonfly shield and stuff. Arm armor? Was there other armor? And what about that ring lying in front of Complains?

Those rings are some sort of anklets that become leg armour for Complains.

Minmax has the best memory for loot, so he's saying what the things are. The bracelets lying in front of Complains, and which he puts on his ankles, are "arm armour", plating for your arms. That's why Minmax is complaining that Complains puts them on his legs to get shin armour.

I'll skip copying the transcription over, but it is ready and in the transcription thread.

[(^_^)]

Room/Ring of holding is going to come handy, sure.
But it could have been even more handy if someone got clever idea of trying to put explosion inside. Maybe even would have saved somebody hand.

[ForgetsOldName]

The shield and the bracers(?) and the ring of holding were not on the wall of loot page, so I think this is what BookWyrm meant.

I'm not up on my DnD variants, but I thought that stabilized characters would slowly die anyhow unless they could be healed to 0. This one has had a zillion variants though so I could be wrong about whichever Thunt is using. I think it's a 3.5 variant.

[WorldWarIV]

I'm not up on my DnD variants, but I thought that stabilized characters would slowly die anyhow unless they could be healed to 0. This one has had a zillion variants though so I could be wrong about whichever Thunt is using. I think it's a 3.5 variant.

I thought so too. Does it mean that they could just stay there forever between life and death?

[ForgetsOldName]

I'm not up on my DnD variants, but I thought that stabilized characters would slowly die anyhow unless they could be healed to 0. This one has had a zillion variants though so I could be wrong about whichever Thunt is using. I think it's a 3.5 variant.

I thought so too. Does it mean that they could just stay there forever between life and death?

As rules go, it's not a great one. No one can live unconscious for long without medical care (IV fluids at least).

[thinkslogically]

Yeah but real people aren't meat bags with HP, goblins don't exist and you can't go on a magical trip to hell either.

Also, isn't talking basically a bonus action? As far as time goes, they've probably only spent a few seconds (couple of rounds) going through this entire conversation and loot check.

[Guus]

Well, in 4e talking is a free action. Until the DM decides that you are spending too much time talking and drops a boulder on your head of course.
Of course, there are mechanics for starving and dehydration in D&D, so if you are stabilized but are unable to do anything, you will at some point die anyway. Unless you are one of those characters that doesn't need to eat (like Warforged). I guess those would just go into hibernation of sorts. Still, rust and other forces of nature would eventually get them, but they'd be able to survive. Goblins, they're doomed if they don't get up.

As I said in the other thread: HP is not just direct health. It's not the number of cuts/blows you can take before keeling over. Instead, it's the accumulation of different things that happen to a character that can make it go either unconcious, dying or otherwise rendered unable to fight or interact with their surroundings. The most standard variation used is that the character falls unconcious.

However, how we use it in my D&D group, if you are badly wounded and are unable to walk, use your weapons/spells, and properly respond to anything at all, that could also count as being in negative hitpoints. Par example: someone attacked with a fear spell that deals damage (it exists in 4e) could bring someone below 0 HP, but it would make sense that that person is simply paralyzed by fear, unable to do anything, instead of falling unconcious (although that too would be a logical event). Or someone being hit so badly that the person falls down screaming in agony, unable to do anything but focus on their wounds. I don't know how common that is in other campaigns and groups, but it does show that there are multiple ways to handle being at 0 or below 0 HP. Of course, turning damage to the psyche and body into numbers will always be an imperfect system, no matter how you look at it.

That being said, I don't think I know of any groups that allowed unconcious players to talk in character. At the most, the unconcious players could present ideas that other players would use, acting as if they came up with it on their own.

[Lightning Lance]

It seems like a bad idea to let Minmax have that ring! If he brings Oblivious into that Ring of Holding room, that would be bringing a pocket dimension inside another pocket dimension, like putting a Bag of Holding into another Bag of Holding. He's going to destroy them both, isn't he?

@Guus: that's lampshaded here: http://www.goblinscomic.org/11212005/

[CocoaNutCakery]

I'm not up on my DnD variants, but I thought that stabilized characters would slowly die anyhow unless they could be healed to 0. This one has had a zillion variants though so I could be wrong about whichever Thunt is using. I think it's a 3.5 variant.

I thought so too. Does it mean that they could just stay there forever between life and death?

No. Characters that stabilize heal slowly. I believe it's something like 1 hp per hour until they get to 0 or 1. Obviously not fast enough either to escape Kore or to prevent the end of the world. If you want, I can look up the rule and confirm how fast characters that stabilize heal and where they stop their stabilized healing.

[Arch Lich Burns]

I thought the explosion was supposed to destroy all the items?

[Sessine]

I thought the explosion was supposed to destroy all the items?

Well, yeah, but it was also supposed to kill everyone, and it didn't even kill Ears who took the brunt of the explosion. (The LOL Pearl might have been trolling them -- or maybe whoever set up the greed trap figured only first-level characters would fall for it.)

In any case, Ears also blocked some of the magic rays with his body, so that would be why some items survived.

[Guus]

That's good to know Coconut, thanks!

[Krulle]

Okay, the page has been updated with the negative hitpoints for Big Ears and Thaco, and the Hellstrands.

Furthermore, because it fits the discussion here:

@Thunt_Goblins question for you - do the goblins feel pain? If so, when? Latest page is a bit jarring.

The comic establishes early on that no one follows the "rules" and they all talk while bleeding to death. They're supposed to be unconscious

For comparison: the old page without hellstrands and negative hitpoints: http://www.goblinscomic.org/comics/20170320.jpg

[ForgetsOldName]

I thought the explosion was supposed to destroy all the items?

Well, yeah, but it was also supposed to kill everyone, and it didn't even kill Ears who took the brunt of the explosion. (The LOL Pearl might have been trolling them -- or maybe whoever set up the greed trap figured only first-level characters would fall for it.)

In any case, Ears also blocked some of the magic rays with his body, so that would be why some items survived.

Big Ears was wearing magical armor way overpowered for the party level. Overpowered "sophisticated adventuring tools" are a recurring theme in the comic, and I used to think that the comic would culminate in us meeting whatever was making them. I'm not so sure now--hints on the manufacture haven't been seen in a long time, while demons are everywhere.

[gd1]

Here's hoping the crit window survived. If you know you're going to nat 1, just make a whole bunch of attack rolls until you get a 1.

[Krulle]

Well, Big Ears and Thaco did throw some dice for their chance to stabilise.
http://www.goblinscomic.org/11182005/ (mechanic of stabilising in-comic)

Don't know if they threw a crit in that time, or whether that would matter at all.
Thaco seems to have self-stabilised, but on a D20 that's 19 or 20, so that may have worked without a crit.
But a 1 (in Ears' case) may not have had more effect than a 9 or even an 18, which still misses the 10% hurdle.

[BookWyrm17]

Those rings are some sort of anklets that become leg armour for Complains.

Minmax has the best memory for loot, so he's saying what the things are. The bracelets lying in front of Complains, and which he puts on his ankles, are "arm armour", plating for your arms. That's why Minmax is complaining that Complains puts them on his legs to get shin armour.

Oh right, that makes sense. I thought he was talking about the shield for some reason

The shield and the bracers(?) and the ring of holding were not on the wall of loot page, so I think this is what BookWyrm meant.

Yeah, that was a part of it. Though, actually, I do think I remember the ring, but maybe it was a coin of coin holding? That doesn't quite make sense....

[Arch Lich Burns]

I thought the explosion was supposed to destroy all the items?

Well, yeah, but it was also supposed to kill everyone, and it didn't even kill Ears who took the brunt of the explosion. (The LOL Pearl might have been trolling them -- or maybe whoever set up the greed trap figured only first-level characters would fall for it.)

In any case, Ears also blocked some of the magic rays with his body, so that would be why some items survived.

Then...why isn't ears dead from the explosion? Not that I want him dead, it just seems inconsistant.

[notimportant]

Does the pocket dimension resemble the corridor leading to the giant egg room, or is it just me?

[Sessine]

I thought the explosion was supposed to destroy all the items?

Well, yeah, but it was also supposed to kill everyone, and it didn't even kill Ears who took the brunt of the explosion. (The LOL Pearl might have been trolling them -- or maybe whoever set up the greed trap figured only first-level characters would fall for it.)

In any case, Ears also blocked some of the magic rays with his body, so that would be why some items survived.

Then...why isn't ears dead from the explosion? Not that I want him dead, it just seems inconsistant.

I like ForgetsOldName's idea better than either of the ones I suggested: Ears was indeed wearing really powerful magical armor, and that would do it.

It also seems that the "wall" page only gave us a sample of the things they took, not the entire list.

[Krulle]

The "wall page" ends with the impression of an overflow of information. It seemed likely that not all information could be conveyed, and it was so much at the same time, that most party members were not able to catch all the information. With Minmax's natural grasp of important battle information and focus on loot, it seemed likely that he would be the one who catched most information. At least the information which may be relevant to him and advantageous for his own stats. It also seems in-character that he remembers the positive sides, but not the negative sides of the loot, or at least does not give hints about it. The "wall page" hinted at every loot item having some positive but also at least one negative or discomforting side effect.
I guess the party will have to find out the hard way.

Also: OP link not working anymore: new permalink: http://www.goblinscomic.org/03212017-2/ (updated due to lack of negative health points and missing hellstrands)