Dungeon Run: Flame On
Chapter: Comics, Season Five
There is a reason Phillip F. Dove is a champion gamer, folks. Sure, he could’ve used the muscle but when it comes down to it, he is a douchebag but he is a douchebag that can throw down.
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Also! I launched a Patreon page for d20Monkey!
This is about what I thought was going to happen. There was no way he was going to go down that easily. He was stunned for a moment, but managed to recover quickly.
Yeah… but what about the muscle? I admit, I am not well versed in Dungeons and Dragons and other RPGs as most but it seems he is now left to his own devices as his minions are either separated from him or dead and that looks like a lot of spells used. Now I’m guessing he has many tricks up his sleeve to give him an insane amount of magic such as scrolls and items but in the end magic is a renewable but finite resource. War is an act of attrition. It’s all about the long game.
Indeed it is. As for how much mojo he and the other players have at the starting gun of Dungeon Run: Not much. He did use most of his tricks to survive the lava flow. What will he do next? Wait and see…
Mage vs mage. He just did all of that. My first thought is one word and one continuation. “Grease. GG?” If one mage has the time to cast all of that, another mage has the time to cast one spell, and one, very simple, slip, or push if trevor was water, air, or earth aligned, means that buddy fire mage gets to take a dip. That said, that is neither dramatic nor interesting.
To Chameon, Trevor is not a mage. The only reason that Phillip doesn’t have the traditional mage features is Brian wanted to give us that glimmer of hope that he was dead, as well as his supreme self importance carrying over into the meta.
Just realized something else. If the muscle is now dead then everything that they were carrying is incinerated by lava. Hope he didn’t give them anything expensive or had them carrying most of his gear to reduce his own weight.
Dovedouche strikes again.
Eh, I have faith that he’ll get his sooner or later. I just hope Trevor survives somehow.
He left the DMs not because he was forced out, but because they weren’t badass enough for him…. I think he’ll be fine.
The dice can be unkind to anyone though, whether they’re GM or player, badass or meek, etc etc. The Dice Gods are fickle masters!
Well… we don’t know yet if he might still have the narrative.
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So just how many spells is Dove allowed to use in a turn? Is invocing your elemental a free action? Does Karthun have a more narrative take on action rounds? That fire blast and whatever that movement spell just seemed like a lot for one round is all I’m saying. Maybe a fire elemental increases your reaction rate? Is it an environmental thing since he’s near lava? ARGH so many variables.
“Movement” could be a reaction-spell like “Feather Fall” and summoning your elemental could be a free action so he could be well inside his limits action-wise. What I’m concerned of is the “one spell per turn”-rule.
Is one spell per turn actually a rule? I guess it depends on which system Karthun is running on. If it’s 4th Edition, I have no idea, since I’ve played maybe 5 sessions of that game. If it’s D&D3.5 or Pathfinder based, I don’t recall that rule, I thought it was just based on standard action economy (i.e. if you somehow had a spell that was a free action, one that was a move action, and one that was a standard action all ready to go, you can cast them in a turn), but there’s so much in those games that it’s practically impossible to be perfect on the rules, so I could easily be wrong.
I would guess that the fire blast is a standard action and the movement spell is a move action, therefore legit.
The good news (for everyone else if not Trevor) is that Dove is using up some of his (hopefully) precious daily resources.
We do not name the edition that can not be because it should not be.
“One spell per turn” is a optional rule, although I can’t recall in which supplement I’ve seen it.
There isn’t a rule like that as far as I know. I just thought it was a lot in a round. Both seemed to be fairly useful spells. However it raises the question of why doesn’t the fire mage have lava walk?
Allow me to clarify a few things:
Players have the standard action allowance we associate with RPGs: Standard action, Move action, Free actions.
Phillip used a standard to blast the stone, then he used his move action to jump/glide over to the stone. As a fire bound mage, he has a 1st level ability that allows him to boost his jump distance a bit. The ability is technically a spell that he is allowed to use as a move action.
This power is a precursor to more powerful abilities later (like Lave Walk, etc).
I see, just for the record I know the general amount of action allowed. I was just trying to work out what was being used and how. I like boost jump distance thing turning into more powerful forms of fire movement.
A nice move by Dove, but does he have any actions left to dodge that spear Trevor is carrying?
That’d be a nope. Unless Karthun added interrupt actions it should still be a flat to-hit roll, and I’d deny dex since you’re using that to surf currently.
In the immortal words of Jeff Lebowski, “That creep can roll”
… huh… well-played, good sir. Well-played. Now avoid the lava monster! XD
Good point, neither of them is aware of the beast living in the lava and Phillip has placed himself in a prime position to be eaten.
Fire elemental. Called it.
Ah, the alt text I miss that game.
I’m assuming Dove’s using one of his trained skills to figure out which stone to break up with his fire blast (via his quote “using my training as a master dungeoneer,”). I like these little hints regarding the game mechanics of Karthun.
Also, I’m really hoping Trevor is able to stay in the game somehow, since IIRC with Mel out he’s the only one of Sam’s regular players who is still playing in the Dungeon Run.
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) dc 20 to determine a structures weakness, some folks might rule that as a dc 15 given that the keystone of an archway is a fairly well known structural weak point of an arch.
I’m tempted to say “Phil actually seems kinda badass here”, but when I even THINK that I actually start to gag a little.
Honestly, if he was just “a narcissistic prick” instead of being “a racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and an all-around miserable piece of shit ON TOP OF being a narcissistic prick”, he’d be a downright (quasi-)respectable villain.
Was he ever shown to be racist or homophobic? I mean sure he has no love for Trevor but I’ve never seen him show actual anger at who the person plays his fiddle with so to speak. It’s been a while since I’ve read through the catalogue so I may have missed something.
I thought it was pretty clear he was both from the way Phil talked to/about Trevor and Donnie in the first few strips he appeared. Setting aside the derogatory/stereotypical comments he made about Trevor being gay, calling Donnie Trevor’s “ethnic valet” might not be as overt as just busting out the N-word, but that strikes me as being pretty damn racist.
I have to say, I really love the characters here in d20 monkey and Phil is no exception. He is a guy I LOVE to hate.
Serious, he is a great character and I’m very interested in seeing what he has up his sleeve and how things are going to pan out, but I hate him. I’ve gamed with people like this! In fact, almost everyone I know who games has gamed with a guy like this.
Great job in capturing the essence of guys like this.
(Former Lurker, now turned to active encounter)
“Former Lurker, now turned to active encounter” is a fantastic comment signature. I love it and welcome, Don!
Hmm, looking this scene and the previous where a foe got by I see the ‘villainous’ characters dueling it out over the final obstacles.
And personally Phillip is begging for trouble by keeping a bound fire elemental. They always escape eventually.
Contra every movie and video game, like, EVAR, stone actually sinks in lava.
(Lava is melted stone, and the only substance I know of which is less dense when solid is water – it’s freakishly weird.)
But, as I said, actually having it do that would seem weird to everyone.
To be fair his turn isn’t over yet. He just stated what he’s doing.
Not only that, but apart from, say, fire-bound mages, everyone in the Dungeon Run ought to have died from exposure to the heat the lava is emitting via their proximity.
(I only exempt fire-bound mages on the assumption that they have some fire/heat resistance. But would that pass on to their clothes? And at low levels would it really be enough to counteract the immense heat of lava/magma?)
I call BS, that thin stone would have melted right out from underneath him
Not all rocks melt at the same temperature, and if you think about it the dungeon that contains lava must be made out of a kind of rock that melts hotter than that lava.
A moment of awesome for dove, I must admit