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* [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us]]: Redcloak manages to successfully invade the base of the Azure City resistance {{spoiler|thanks to a polymorphed spy}}.
* [[All Your Powers Combined]]: The effect of Soul Splice.
* [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]]: [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Gets averted, subverted, inverted, doubly inverted, perverted, extraverted, and, just occasionally, played straight]]. Most often doubly inverted when a villain delivers a [[Break Them by Talking]] on how the hero is [[Not So Different]] and then immediately [[Kick the Dog|Kicks a Dog]].<br />[[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]], too: Goblins and other evil humanoids were declared by the gods to be [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]], designed only to be killed by player races. As sentient beings with their own society, they naturally feel persecuted by being forced into this role, {{spoiler|and are now executing a massive [[Rage Against the Heavens]] in order to change things.}} Though the deconstruction is more aimed at ''players'' who treat these races as such, despite the fact that most of their Monster Manual entries only list them as "''Usually'' X Evil"
* [[Ambiguous Gender]]: Vaarsuvius, and now his/her mate too... and their kids.... and his/her master... ah screw it: with a few exceptions, elves in general. [[Word of God|Word of the Giant]] is that any gender identification of Vaarsuvius (and other ambiguous elves) is strictly their own perception. And V's children are adopted. Make no assumptions; for all we know they could be a same-sex couple.
* [[Amplifier Artifact]]: Most common magic items are of this kind, like Roy's Belt of Giant Strength, Elan's Belt of Charisma or V's Ring of Wizardry. Lampshaded by Haley with a Potion of Glibness: she takes it from Elan to use herself, because while it would make him a good liar, she's already a good liar so it will make her an ''utterly amazing'' liar.
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* [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]]
** The paladins have an aversion to retreat because of their honor combined with their inability to feel fear, which, obviously, lands them up in trouble quite a bit.
** Lasts ''almost'' to the end in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0618.html strip #618].
* [[Attack! Attack! Retreat! Retreat!]]: [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0181.html Strip #181]. "Back into the darkness! BACK INTO THE DARKNESS!!"
* [[Avenging the Villain]]
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* [[Black Bead Eyes]]: Standard, although some characters do have colored eyes.
* [[Black Comedy]]: Since the comic has an overall humorous tone, the various atrocities committed by Belkar, Xykon, Nale, Tarquin/The Empire of Blood, and other villains tend to be depicted this way, including some jokes in these scenes, but not downplaying the cruelty being displayed.
* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: {{spoiler|Roy is the first main character to actually die}}. He got ressurected though, even if it did take [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0443.html 206] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0649.html strips] before Durkon could start casting Resurrection.
* [[Blatant Lies]]: Get your Bluff rank high enough, and people will believe '''[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0767.html anything]'''.
* [[Blessed Are the Cheesemakers]]: [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0463.html The hobgoblins and gouda].
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** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0714.html #714] to [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0178.html #178].
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0747.html "Do you need, like, 200-foot-tall flaming letters or something?"] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0759.html Apparently so.] Double-example considering [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0750.html what was being used for the fire.]
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0723.html When Elan meets his father,] note the ''[[Star Wars]]'' references. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0760.html When Elan] [[Calling the Old Man Out|calls out the old man]], note the ''Star Wars'' parallels.
** From [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0766.html #766] to [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0090.html #90] ("I've got a 4!") and to [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0130.html #130] with the "elveny boots".
** One would be a sort of Call Forward, since it shows up in a prequel book. In [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html this] comic, Roy makes a throwaway comment about only getting a C- in his Attacks of Opportunity class. In ''On the Origin of PCs,'' that's the class Roy is studying for when his dad shows up to tell him about the Blood Oath against Xykon.
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** The two old gladiators imprisoned along with Roy and Belkar turn out to be {{spoiler|Haley's missing father and uncle}}.
** Apparently, [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0065.html parody is] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0789.html protected speech].
** And we get another in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0801.html "Bound to Happen"] when {{spoiler|Elan happens upon Captain Amun-Zora's cell while running from Nale}}.
* [[Chekhov's Skill]]
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0017.html Stonecarving] with a [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0598.html rapier].
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*** Pompey -- violet;
*** Eugene -- pale green;
*** Samantha -- purple;
*** Tsukiko -- indigo ''and'' blue (due to her being able to, as a [[Prestige Class|Mystic Theurge]], cast both arcane and divine spells);
*** Sapphire Guard members and Azurite clerics -- standardized light blue;
*** Malack -- grey.
** It's implied (particularly in ''Start of Darkness'') that the hierarchal ranks of the Dark One's clerics are indicated by cloak color. For instance, white cloaks are issued to the newly-ordained.
* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Haley has no issues with ambushing and killing her arch-enemy Crystal, the assassin, while she's in the shower, unarmed and not wearing any armor or magic items. Followed, naturally, by looting all of said equipment. This scene comes off a lot less cold-blooded if you have read the prequel ''On the Origin of the PCs'' and the supplemental pages in ''Don't Split the Party'' that were cut out of the online comic for reasons of pacing but put back in for the printed edition. {{spoiler|The extra strips in ''Don't Split the Party'' reveal that Crystal was more than eager to hurt and kill Haley, and she and Bozzok were still planning to secretly murder Haley, despite the truce}}.
* [[Compelling Voice]]: Haley gets this when she consumes a potion a glibness, giving her already huge bluff score an extra +30. She tells a guard that he's actually a yellow-footed rock wallaby, and he immediately ''hops'' off to find a wizard to polymorph him "back".
* [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]]: [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0453.html "There's only one ninja left, that means I'm death incarnate!"]
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* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: Xykon; Daimyo Kubota; Tarquin
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0766.html Tarquin] probably takes the cake by issuing manuals intended to ensure that his soldiers are equally savvy. This amounts to instructions on how to avoid a [[Bavarian Fire Drill]], not having keys on overly obvious rings and not being fooled by [[Throwing the Distraction|strange sounds]], [[Mugged for Disguise|among other things]].
** Even worse, he understands that even if he dies, he will be a legend and that [[Evil Is Cool|the audience always loves the villains more.]] His scheme gets a [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0758.html triumphant] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html speech] explaining a continent-wide [[Evil Plan]] that involves repeatedly establishing [[La Résistance]] and the [[Evil Empire]] and letting the empire get "overthrown". He figures the [[Evil Empire]] must exist if heroic adventurers do, so why shouldn't he be the one ruling it?
** Also sometimes [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0596.html Vaarsuvius]
* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Sabine; Tsukiko; Crystal; Samantha... Haley notes a pattern of her fighting "airborne tramps."
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** Things have gotten a turn for the dark starting around comic #823. {{spoiler|The Resistance falls arc and three teams are headed for the same gate: Team Evil, the Order of the Stick and The Linear Guild. And then the entire Draketooth family turns out to be dead, and guess who's responsible?}}
* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: Invoked by Belkar after Haley assumes that V's new black robes, glowing eyes, and evil whispers mean that s/he's turned evil. Belkar, too, is convinced of that, but defends Vaarsuvius with this argument just to mess with everyone's heads.
* [[Darkness Vonvon Gothickname]]
** When she was a gloomy goth teenager, Haley called herself Dark Mistress Shadowgale.
** When Celia disguises herself as an evil necromancer, she uses the name Darkblood Gloomgloom.
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* [[Deconstructed Trope]]
** Miko, as she develops, touches on what a [[Lawful Stupid]] [[Knight Templar]] would be like realistically.
** ''Start of Darkness'' deconstructs the hell out of the assumptions underpinning ''D&D'' as a whole, particularly [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]].
** [[Token Evil Teammate]] is also deconstructed with Belkar, showing why a mostly good party would put up with someone like him.
* [[Defied Trope]]
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** Thog
** Celia has her moments, explained in part by her status as an Outsider and therefore someone not familiar with the customs of the Material Plane. She's also from the Elemental Plane of Air, making her an [[Stealth Pun|"airhead"]].
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0607.html Crystal]. She once asks a blind ex-rogue (one whom ''she'' had blinded, no less) if he has [[Exact Words|seen]] [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|who she's looking for]].
* [[Diving Save]]
** Played straight in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0451.html "Change of Direction"].
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* [[Drama-Preserving Handicap]]
** As Roy [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0834.html here], the Order is usually at some disadvantage when they fight their [[Evil Counterpart|Evil Counterparts]]. Despite Roy's [[Defied Trope|caution]], it happens ''again'' when Vaarsuvius gets himself incapacitated by a trap right before the Linear Guild attacks.
** Ultra-powerful soul-spliced Vaarsuvius is literally the most powerful mage to have ever existed...as long as he/she holds on to the splices. Good thing one of them slips away BEFORE the elf goes to fight the Big Bad, Xykon, or else the series would have ended in a curb stomp.
* [[Dramatic Curtain Toss]]: Somewhat parodied in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0701.html strip #701].
* [[Dramatic Necklace Removal]]: O-Chul to Redcloak.
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** The evil trio who tempts V takes on the role of [[Enigmatic Empowering Entity|Enigmatic Empowering Entities]], but subverts the role to snare the wizard. V is manipulated into accepting a price s/he doesn't understand and is tricked to believe that s/he has an excuse to let her more destructive tendencies run wild without accepting true responsibility for the havoc. Also, the power they give is tainted and fatally flawed in itself, not at all what V had imagined "Ultimate Arcane Power" to be.
* [[Episode Zero the Beginning]]: One of the ''Start of Darkness'' issues.
* [[Equal Opportunity Evil]]: The [[Lawful Evil]] Empire of Blood employs humans, lizardfolks and kobolds indiscriminately, from the lowliest foot soldiers or slave drivers to the upper echelons of society, including the Empress' main counselors (with a human general, a lizardfolk high priest and a winged-kobold chancellor).
* [[Escalating Brawl]]: The argument between Roy, Gannji and Enor ends up in a serious pub brawl.
* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]
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** "I'll take my chances... that the Afterlife... won't have any punishment worse... than not being with you..." {{spoiler|-- Therkla}}
** "Now come along, bring me to your master so we can begin the Trial of the Century." {{spoiler|-- Kubota, right before V disintegrates him.}}
** "No! No! You... [[You Monster!]]" {{spoiler|-- Black Dragon Mom, when V slaughters her entire family for attempting to slaughter ''his or her'' family.}}
** "Why don't... you love... me?" {{spoiler|-- Tsukiko, being killed by her own undead minions.}}
* [[Fandom Nod]]: Many, including Miko (not) becoming a Death Knight.
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** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html "Only the honor of a paladin is unbreakable] -- [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0449.html even by death itself."]
** Nale says, "[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0365.html This disguise won't work forever.] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0383.html Except maybe for the halfling.]"
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0131.html Look over here.] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0758.html Now look over here.]
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0189.html "Then I will die, but not today."]
** A minor one, but look at the hair belonging to the new aspect of Haley's personality in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0319.html strip #319]. Now go to any strips between #610 and #752 involving the party.
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