New Order of the Stick Strip Up

[Andostre]

I legit laughed in my office when I read Roy's line, "Every part of this is hideously complicated."

[Fromper]

John Woodford wrote:

No one with good in their alignment can resist the awesome power of eleven* puppy-dog eyes!

*Thirteen, if you count Elan.

Actually, no. The 11 already included Elan. Beholders have 8 eye stalks, on top of the central eye.

[TriOmegaZero]

Checked my 3.5 Monster Manual, beholders have ten eye stalks in OotS.

[John Woodford]

Fromper's right, though, in that Sunny is drawn with eight. He's just special, I guess.

[TriOmegaZero]

Could be due to past injuries, indeed.

[Thomas Seitz]

In ANY case, we can thank Belkar for once again proving that halflings only trust other halfling because they are all consummate con-artists.

[John Woodford]

Thomas Seitz wrote:

In ANY case, we can thank Belkar for once again proving that halflings only trust other halfling because they are all consummate con-artists.

"She even incites betrayal the way Grannie Bitterleaf did!"

[Thomas Seitz]

Indeed.

[Fromper]

Mental Block

That might just be the greatest "last panel" gag Rich has ever included.

Yet, oddly, the more I think about it, the more I think Roy is wrong to be upset.

Spoiler:

The bad guys just split the party, by letting Xykon out by himself. This is the perfect time for the ambush Roy was hoping to execute.

[Thomas Seitz]

I love the fact you don't see the swearing Roy is doing right now....

[The Raven Black]

HILARIOUS !!! :-D

Thomas Seitz wrote:

I love the fact you don't see the swearing Roy is doing right now....

We can see enough to guess though.

[The Raven Black]

I hope everyone noticed the drawings. Not sure about the dragon, but that sure is the Snarl.

[Thomas Seitz]

It is indeed hilarious. And no I missed the drawings.

[Fromper]

The Raven Black wrote:

I hope everyone noticed the drawings. Not sure about the dragon, but that sure is the Snarl.

Of course it's the Snarl. What else would you draw with crayons?

[Thomas Seitz]

Ice cream? Trees? Stick figures?

[A highly regarded expert]

A super-cool sports car!

[John Woodford]

1258: Operational Security

O-Chul gets the best line this time.

[Thomas Seitz]

I give Belker points for him promising to forget if he ever got captured. But yes O-Chul has a great line.

[Dragonchess Player]

1259: By Size, Color, and Number of Holes

Several good lines in this one:

"We got knocked off track so many times, we're all the way back on track!"

"I guess a plan to plan a plan is as good a plan as any." (a masterpiece of redundancy)

Not to mention sending the "kids" off to play so the "adults" can have a serious talk.

[Thomas Seitz]

Yeah that last bit is classic. In any case, now we can get this thing moving. I think.

[Lord Fyre]

"Wait, is that what my Nana was doing?

[Andostre]

Roy took off his winter hat in the most recent comic. I know that I'll be watching to see if it, along with his scarf, disappears so that Roy can look more like his iconic self for the finale of the strip. Same with Haley and her jacket.

And I honestly thought Elan wasn't wearing anything specifically wintery, but it looks like his jacket has a hood, so I'll be watching to see what happens there, also.

[John Woodford]

1260: Stew You

Back to the villains! Note the spiffy new speech balloons for the demonic cockroaches (?).

[Thomas Seitz]

Once again, Xykon has no artistic flavor in his work, but still manages to pull of Evil POS with flair.

[Fromper]

Not a fan of the cockroach speech balloons.

[The Raven Black]

Fromper wrote:

Not a fan of the cockroach speech balloons.

I wonder why they had to change.

[Thomas Seitz]

Maybe Rich lost the font...

[John Woodford]

1261: Certain Doom

Redcloak once again demonstrates his dangerous cleverness, and Greyview and Oona as usual get the best lines.

[Phillip Gastone]

Still underestimating MiD.

[Fromper]

"Normally, yes, carelessness would be the most probable explanation for this. Or literally anything that happens to, near, or because of us."

LOL

Red Cloak proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has the highest wisdom on team evil.

[John Woodford]

1262: Two Villages

"Even in mind's eye, there is no escape from cruel flippers of entropy."

[Mark Hoover 330]

Oona only pawn, in game of life.

[Andostre]

Question:

Spoiler:

Is the Right-All-Along village supposed to align with Redcloak's justification of killing goblins (or letting them be killed) for "the greater good?" I'm a little lost with this metaphor.

[TriOmegaZero]

That is how I was taking it. Along with the plan that involves working with Xykon.

[Thomas Seitz]

All I know is that Wolf deserves his own series.

[The Raven Black]

Poor One-Eye. Already his ego is blinding him.

[A highly regarded expert]

"Intentions are sparkly, like fresh snow on mangled corpse."

They really are, aren't they? Deep.

[John Woodford]

1263: Assorted Situational Uses

I'm thinking the only reason that Redcloak doesn't notice that the MitD is hiding something is that he's busy keeping Xykon from noticing something else....

[Thomas Seitz]

Honestly I give Redcloak points for pulling that Bluff check out of his butt.

[Fromper]

Nobody on Team Evil has a Sense Motive to speak of. Except maybe Monster-San, who seems to finally be growing an int score.

[John Woodford]

Is Sense Motive an INT skill in 3.5?

In any case, I think Xykon probably dumped INT and WIS for CHA, and hasn't put any ranks into anything except maybe Spot, Knowledge (Arcana), and Intimidate.

[Thomas Seitz]

I thought he was a wizard...

[TriOmegaZero]

He doesn't seem like the studying type.

[John Woodford]

He's a sorcerer. In the villains origin stories collection, we get to see how he got his start, and how he became a lich.

[TriOmegaZero]

I also recall a discussion about power with V, where he talked about how he just hammers with the same spell over and over, versus V's multiple specific tools of lesser power. Which is the wizard vs sorcerer argument written in character.

[Thomas Seitz]

Ah. My mistake then. Regardless, I do agree, Xykon does have a dump Wis stat.

[A highly regarded expert]

It's easier for a wizard to become a lich, since they can have the library of spells to do it, but sorcerers can, too.

Arcanists don't exist in 3.5. They can do it, too.

[Thomas Seitz]

I am very much aware of these things, Expert. I just didn't realize.

[John Woodford]

In Xykon's case, I think Redcloak worked with him on the process. I haven't read it in some time, though, so I might be misremembering.

[Andostre]

I do look forward to the day where Xykon figures out all of the shady stuff Redcloak is doing. I mean, I'm sure he suspects something, because he's an evil boss who should never trust his allies, but I'm talking about the specifics of what Redcloak is up to.

The question I have is will he discover it too late for him to do something about it.