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The Order of the Stick/Headscratchers (view source)

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** It's been bugging me for weeks that Vaarsuvius is still able to cast spells, if he hasn't tranced (or at least hasn't tranced more than a couple of minutes every so often, considering the strip with his nightmare). I thought elves had to trance for a full four hours before they regained their used spell slots.
*** That's the joke. By the Rules As Written, an elf technically just needs "restful calm" in order to replenish his/her spells. Trancing has nothing to do with it:
{{quote| '''D20 SRD:''' To prepare her daily spells, a wizard must first sleep for 8 hours. The wizard does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but she must refrain from movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use, conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task during the rest period. If her rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time she has to rest in order to clear her mind, and she must have at least 1 hour of uninterrupted rest immediately prior to preparing her spells. '''If the character does not need to sleep for some reason,''' she still must have 8 hours of restful calm before preparing any spells.}}
** This troper assumed that the gods feel like they have more important things to do then to answer the questions of every pestering mortal who uses a certain ritual
** An important facet & motivation of V is that he wants to be all powerful, or failing that at least self-sufficient. He's pretty typically the prideful, "asking for help is weakness" kind of guy, even more so with his judgment fuzzied by PTSD and lack of sleep. Which, beyond the whole soul-damning, obvious con aspect was why it was so hard for him to accept help from the Fiends (even more so when their power nudge was external (giving him magical underlings) rather than internal (boosting him 70 levels)).
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** Well, the best buffs against Necromacy and Death Magic are Cleric spells, spells V can't replicate, and ze would refuse to get from Durkon, since ze wants to prove Arcane Power trumps all. As well, from what I saw, all this theoretical power V should have is based on unknowns, namely the actual power and abilities of the spliced souls. "If they didn't pick that, they're too stupid to be mages." Yes, because every character in [[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]] has been perfectly optimized for maximum effectiveness.
** Because [http://www.giantitp.com/FAQ.html#faq7 point #7 on the FAQ.] The relevant part:
{{quote| ''The strip is ABOUT the trouble these characters get in; if a tactic would result in an effortless solution to their latest problem, there would be little point in showing it, see? The characters are woefully inefficient as a result, and often take actions that are rarely seen in a real D&D game, like running away from moderate danger or .forgetting. major abilities for the sake of a joke. But their foibles are what fuel the humor.''}}
** "The Idiot Ball award goes to V." Well yeah, that was kinda the point. V was drunk on power and trying to batter Xykon to death (well, redeath) with the most powerful spells he/she had on hand. Xykon himself says so in his [[Hannibal Lecture]] immediately after crushing V.
** Remember, V's first attempted spell after teleporting in was "Time Stop," which he'd used in the battle with the dragon to give himself time for spell buffs and a little trap work. He was probably planning to do the same here, before he got zapped by the magic traps. So he certainly should have done it BEFORE teleporting in, but that's not the same thing as not planning for it. It's still a screwup, but a smaller one.
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*** Magic items are a valid claim, but not the Lich template. Purely mental increases with that one.
** Alternately, something else that is answered by the FAQ:
{{quote| '''Q: Hey, in Panel X, the character is doing Y, but in Panel X+1, the character is doing Z. What happened?'''<br />
''A: Between panels, the character moved/cast a spell/had a spell cast on him/etc. There are limited panels in each strip, and I give priority to panels that tell jokes first, then advance the plot, and then, only if I have extra room, do I show transitional panels that are not strictly necessary. Use your imagination when it comes to exactly how it happened.'' }}
*** Plus: Telekinesis while holding onto it.
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* Why, exactly did O-Chul try to destroy Soon's Gate during the battle when he must have known about Soon's Ghost Legion reinforcements? Given that the Paladins are all willing to defend the gate with their lives, wouldn't it have made more sense to charge Xykon, try do as much damage as possible, and then be revived as a Ghost-Martyr? I guess this one bugs me because Soon criticizes Miko for destroying the Gate when O-Chul was about to do the exact same thing. Destroying the Gate is an act of desperation; it didn't make sense for O-Chul to do it when he still knew about their ace in the hole that was the best, most realistic chance of defeating Xykon.
** What makes you think he did know about the ghost legion? Only Hinjo knew about that. He said so himself in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0449.html #449:]
{{quote| '''Hinjo:''' "There are some secrets that are only known to the ruling family of Azure City... until now."}}
*** Ah, okay. Never mind, I'd forgotten what that line was, I thought Hinjo had referred to the Sapphire Guard rather than the ruling family, implying that all of the Paladins knew about the Ghosts. Well then, wouldn't it have been a good idea to tell the Paladins about it going into the battle? Possibly Hinjo didn't want to mention to them the possibility of getting killed, regardless of how they'd rise afterwards...
**** Probably so they'd fight better, so they'd have a better chance to survive. When you're making a last stand, you're not going to hold anything back.
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*** She didn't. She dual-wielded the arrows against Sabine. However, Sabine was confirmed as a Succubus and therefore demoness by one of the IFCC.
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{{quote| '''MiTD:''' Wait, what gate?!<br />
'''[[Statler and Waldorf|Waldorf]]:''' It seems as though he hasn't been paying any attention through the whole existence of the comic!<br />
'''Statler:''' Well, I stopped paying attention to this comic a long time ago!<br />
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