Grrl Power #626 – The superhero handoff
Field testing your new super powers against a team of people who have had super powers for a while is probably not the best strategy, but that syringe was a one time thing, and Sciona just needs to buy time for whatever is going on in the next room to finish.
Fun fact, joint locks don’t work on Achilles. Well, I guess joint locks work, but joint, uh, twists don’t. You can twist all you like but all you’ll accomplish is flipping him over, but they don’t hurt him. It’s not like anyone can dislocate his shoulder or twist his wrist around so it pinches the stuff in there. The wrist meats. Sciona has hugely enhanced strength at the moment, but she’s had it for all of six seconds now. She’s thinking about strength in terms of punching and lifting, not grappling, at least not yet. Pressure strikes don’t work on him either, since that’s just someone briefly pinching a nerve to cause pain or numbing a muscle, and you could drive a sand crawler over his nerves and it wouldn’t hurt him. A taser wouldn’t hurt or immobilize him either, but ultimately he’s easy enough to deal with, just pin him to a wall with a car or punch him into the next county. Handcuffing him to a pipe won’t slow him down much because he can put all his strength and weight into yanking on them without risking injury.
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So, this is not going to be a 50 page fight scene? Heheheee
Dave has promised that this arc is nearing its end.
So maybe 40 pages, tops.
He could always for 49 3/4!
Is that some sort of harry potter reference?
Nah. It’s just “As close to 50 as you can get without going over”. I think. So, the same joke with “Platform 9 and 3 quarters”.
Wouldn’t that be 49.9999…. (repeating) to be as close as you can get to 50 without going over? Maybe it’s a reference that although smart, Sciona is missing some cents?
Math professor here…When you write 49.999… and add the three dots, that becomes an infinite series which, in this case, converges to 50. That’s right….repeating decimals aren’t really numbers. They are infinite series…
So you are suggesting that Sciona could be summoning the ultimate baseball team? The one that could not just win the world series, but the … ?
And are you suggesting that the newest, edgiest Sonic villain plays baseball in his spare time?
Uuummm … no. I have no idea who the ‘edgiest Sonic villain’ is.
Did Sonic the Hedgehog develop an evil twin recently?
Sonic the Hedgehog has no shortage of evil twins.
There’s Metal Sonic, Robo Sonic, Shadow, Nuckles and Tails can both be considered knock-offs…
49.999… isn’t 50. Infinitesimals exist for a reason. Otherwise, we could divide by zero until the cows come home, and it’s the difference between ‘approaching infinite’ and ‘infinite’.
I am so brave, saying that to a math professor. Debating law with lawyers, military matters with submariners, flag officers and specialists, science with physicists, chemists and so on. All in their own speciality fields.
Fun fun.
*wags tail proudly*
With all due respect to those who disagree but, that 50 page fight scene kicked serious booty! It was well drawn, action packed, both fun and funny, all the while it continued to expand what we knew of the entire cast of characters.
So by all means give us 50 pages of combat part two!
:-D
I think we will get a few pages, from whatever comes out of that gate. ;-)
That moment when you pull a combo Assist on someone who has no concept of teamwork. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Some things even
moneyselling-your-body-for-sex can’t buy.For everything else, there’s YorpieCard.
fill out the form today and get a lifetime supply of virtual Yorpie-Snax with no possible caloric content!
No possibility? Then why do I keep getting fatter whenever someone mentions them?
They have negative calories. Thus, by not eating them, you get fatter. :V
*digs up a stash and starts munching frantically*
Save some for me!
Love this fight scene, though max made a tactical mistake, instead of swatting the door aside, she should have batted it right back at Sciona, that would have ended her charge quickly.
But then Hiro may not have been able to intercept and make the long-pass to Achillies
Sleeper hold! SLEEPER HOLD!
>but she’s had it for all of six seconds now
D&D based sy-
I mean, Generic non-copyright-infringing-RPG-system based combat confirmed!
There’s nothing wrong with saying it’s a d20 based system. I played with a lot of d20 rule books that were addons to 3.5, although technically they could probably still work with 4 or 5.
This is why one big bad doesn’t work well against a party of four or more – Action Economy means that no matter how many hit points your baddie has, they’re going down quickly to teamwork. ;)
I had that argument with a DM.
DM: “The campaign said that fight was for 4 players at level 2 and that’s why I leveled both of you to 4. How did you still lose?”
Me: “Because it has to do with targets. More attacks go against us instead of having the attacks spread out more evenly, and more attacks more frequently on our side against the enemy.”
Yea, if it involved lots of lower level opponents (as opposed to focusing on traps, or other challenges, where raw level is the greater survival factor), then you called it right. The break point where that changes is from fifth level upwards (assuming a D&D setting), where wizards get access to fireball and lightning bolt.
For other classes it starts to come into play when they get multiple attacks and other means of exceeding the number of attacks that lower-level enemies can bring to bear.
Then you have to factor in the ‘being swamped’ factor. If you have a party of six, you can form a secure defensive perimeter even if you just have a wall. Four individuals could block off approach to the two most vulnerable members, if positioned appropriately.
Whilst in a tunnel wide enough that you can pass side by side, as few as two can keep an unlimited number of opponents off whoever may be behind them. Thus allowing healers behind to keep them healthy, plus affording spell casters a safe place to use decisive magics to shift the tide of battle. Whilst keeping any wounded, who cannot be healed, along with other squishies, out of harms way.
So, unless you were fighting in tunnels which only allowed a single character to fit down them, there is no way for two individuals to be able to protect their flanks and rears from attack. Not if fighting foes with similar, if weaker, capabilities.
Without a confining tunnel, or something similar, the most a pair of combatants can do is to fight back to back, or against a wall. Which just reduces the number of opponents who can attack them, but still leaves them with the advantage numbers wise.
Mind you there are ways to overcome this. But it involves avoiding open combat. So gaining access to invisibility is one way. However not all dungeon scenarios can be completed in stealth mode, or using focused commando tactics (picking off enemies when they are isolated, and other guerrilla tactics).
Hence a dungeon master has to carefully analyse the risks involved in a particular mission, when trying to compensate for a short-pawed team of players. I found that the safest way was to bump up the numbers with non-player characters. Although only once I had decided that other options were not viable. It is much more satisfying for players to overcome challenges without outside help.
However, if it is a long term issue (a small group of players, rather than folks just not turning up on the day), then it is best addressed by allowing hirelings. The only disadvantage being that players will need to keep track of more than just their own character. But they also get the fun of levelling up minions. Which I found more than compensated for that.
Although there may be the odd player who does not find that enjoyable (some like to just get into the mindset of their character, and not be distracted by other things, whilst others just don’t like the added bureaucracy). In which case the DM can run those characters. And have them go off, on other business, whenever there are challenges suitable to lower numbers. So long as that can be done in an organic way, which does not seem too contrived.
In D&D, stinking cloud is a pretty good area attack at level 3. But, if you have a party of only 2, you probably do not want one of the members to be a wizard. So, yeah.
Well, unless that wizard happens to have the planeshifter prestige class and is actually situated in his demiplane with a miniscule portal out held by his team member and he’s actually projecting an astral projection into the physical world and his ally carries a recall crystal of some time synced to the same demiplane.
Then the other character just needs to be a bard who plays “I get knocked down, but I get up again” on loop.
“Planeshifter prestige class” and “level 3” probably don’t belong in the same train of thought.
Oh derp, missed the ‘level 3’ part.
Well you could have a level 3 planeshifter. But not a very balanced party hanging around with a plain level 3 wizard. ;-)
Oh, and I should have mentioned I was a rogue, and my party member was a ranger. (No tank, no mage, no healer).
Well that is a good pair for stealthing. Rogue on point, with the ranger providing close support. Being sure to avoid any concentrations of enemies. Rigging up traps, to take out any that pursue you, is also a good technique. Both rangers and rogues should be mobile enough, both to stay ahead of pursuers, and to avoid triggering the traps. Jumping over them, for example.
Even better if you can set up one that will block off the main body of the enemy. So that you can turn and finish off whichever ones got past that point OK. Guerrilla warfare basically.
But with no healer, nor any other back-up, it is all too easy for such plans to go awry. Especially as the enemy have the numbers to soak up losses and still remain effective. Whereas if one of you falls (even just a literal trip) then it could all be over!
Usually the safest pair would be a cleric fighter combo. But, at second level, it could be worth going for a rogue/cleric and fighter/cleric. That way if either fell the other could cure them. Plus you can handle any dungeon traps, yet both characters would be front-line capable, if need be.
Without hirelings, they would need to be. With them though, the two party members provide the core adventuring capabilities, to make an effective party. Even with just basic warrior hirelings.
Reminds me of how you defeat a invunerable character bury them or launch them int space.
Or in dr strangers case put them in mirror land for eternity Thor’s latest movie would have ended in a heartbeat if dr strange was there.
So you recon Elon Musk had an invulnerable demon bound into his sports car?
It may explain some things.
I had a similar issue but the other way around.
I ran a game with a couple of last minute extra one-off players. I’d tried to readjust the final boss for the extra numbers but they steam rolled the thing.
Yea, that is the same thing, happening in reverse. It just takes practice to judge things well enough to make it suitably challenging. The key thing though is that there is no significant harm done, other than the anti-climax. As opposed to getting a total-party-kill, which gives everybody a downer.
Big bosses are tricky though, because, say, upping a dragon by an age category can push its capabilities out of the bell curve that is optimal to balance survivability vs TPK. Or, like your situation, it may stay within that range, thereby making weight of numbers the significant factor.
So, again, balancing it by evening out the numbers can do the trick. Give the dragon a horde of minions, for example. Then the extra wizard will be tied up fireballing that lot, rather than focusing on the dragon. Likewise the extra cleric will be busy casting mass cure spells, to counter the numerous minor wounds.
Or, if the layout does not suit adding in a tribe of humanoids, then consider giving the dragon offspring. One or two which would give a couple of adventurers, on their own, a suitable fight, should balance that nicely. Or other suitably themed underlings, for different types of big bad.
Plus, as DM, you are free to wing it, if it looks like the encounter will be unsatisfying, or if the dynamics of extra numbers prove to be a deadly combination with that particular big bad. You just need to see the way the wind is blowing before you risk wiping out the party.
Once you feel that the extras you added have more than done their job, you can ensure that the next well-placed fireball, or suitably impressive intimidation attempt, causes them to fail their morale checks. A perennial problem with large numbers of lower level foes, so the ‘tweaking’ does not feel contrived.
Likewise a subordinate demon or two might see an opportunity to betray their overlord. Or the dragon’s children might decide that now would be a good time to grab some of their parent’s choicest loot and flee!
The latter being a suitable balancing for you having to ‘go easy’ on the party. Hopefully they should now be able to pull back and overcome the big bad. Without the feeling that they steam-rollered it. But also knowing that they lost some loot. Thus incentivising them to up their game next time.
Irritatingly i was aiming for at least one player kill (ideally one of the single use players) as my players where starting to feel safe.
We where playing “planet mercenary” which is rather brutal with regard to player kills, on the other hand it’s designed to allow fast turnaround for players so they can have a new character quickly.
Lol. Players can be so pesky, about not co-operating with GM’s plans to kill them.
Heh. This reminds me of some of the things an indestructible character of mine did. His most effective attack was to jump off a building and land on someone. Though there was one adventure when he got knocked into an electrical substation. The bad guy found Adamant with a hand on the terminal of a transformer, body surrounded with a coronal glow, athletic shoes on fire, and smirking. “Go ahead. Hit me.”
Though, yes, he was still ticklish. :-)
Did he had some additional power which allowed him to target better? It’s hard to hit someone with free fall alone.
Parachuting and free fall experience would indeed be necessary to guide a jump from a great height.
But, as it was described as ‘a building’, rather than ‘a skyscraper’, the task would be a lot simpler.
Especially if the foe was taken by surprise. It is rare for people to be looking to the tops of buildings around them, unless they have a specific reason.
Of course if the foe was moving, that would make it harder. Although if just walking, at a steady pace, without a crowd, or other obstacles, complicating matters, then even that is fairly easy to compensate for, even with a jump from a modest height.
Obviously the higher the building the more the chance for missing. But also the greater the damage. Up until terminal velocity is achieved, of course. But that would take the jump height up to the realms where they would need the free-fall experience you are demanding.
don’t forget shock wave effect as well fall from high enough and they would make a large shock wave especially if they object survives becuase the energy from the fall could not pass through the object
(Personal experience talking)
It isn’t that hard to hit a moving target from a tall building.
A friend of mine (who has since been murdered) and I filled up a smaller version of this exeedingly large balloon with water and tossed it over the wall of my balcony on some kid walking by. We just judged his walking speed and the distance to the ground and how many seconds we’d need to wait to heave it over and it worked perfectly.
Landed on his head (and shoulders) almost in slow-motion. The rubber of the balloon expanded, nearly covering him, then rebounded and nearly lifted entirely off his head back into spherical form before exploding.
Heh. Sounds like fun.
Sad to have lost your friend since though, especially in such a manner.
…Oh my God…what happened?
His name was Stephen Parks Jr, and he was mixed heritage of Samoan and Russian. As far as I can tell (I didn’t get to go to his funeral since no one responded to me on his obituary page), he left Los Angeles county (where we’re from) to go to Colorado for writing inspiration. We were both writers, I had gone to Colorado with the “Big Brothers Big Sisters Program” to plant trees at an oxygen farm years before. Anyway, so what I can tell he went there for a change of pace for his writing.
While there, he saw a guy beating up his girlfriend in public, and like his dad, he wanted to use his massive size to intimidate someone into not being a monster. But the guy had a gun.
Now, his dad Steve was huge too. There was one time that he was in his garage and saw someone forcing someone else’s door open, which he yelled at the guy. The guy ran at him (guy was 5 foot 6 inches, Steve was 7 foot 1) and stabbed him in the upper arm. Six inch knife, didn’t even go in far enough (to the hilt!) to do real damage. That’s how big his family is. Was. Anyway, so Steve hits the guy once, he’s unconscious on the ground. Like a smart man, he leaves the knife in his arm (because bleedout everyone! Instinct says remove it but don’t) and called 911. Steve was fine. So I think that’s why Stephen tried to be like Steve.
This is all extrapolation from what very little and fragmented information I’ve been able to get. Extrapolating based on personalities and personal conversations beforehand.
wow. Sad. But thous people are seriously huge. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson huge. But probably not as heavy build.
In-story, he actually practiced jumping off buildings. :-)
Can I just say I love the phrase “wrist meats”? That’s the kind of comedy Maxima’s-skin super-gold I look for in this comic. Among all the other things that make Grrl Power great, but the comedy is a big factor.
Can i just say, I love that Achilles is trying to read her her rights.
Idle thought. Achilles and Hiro both seem to go through shirts fairly regular… I wonder what their daily shirt bill is like.
“Crap, I’m supposed to spar with Maxima today… hey take this 50 dollar bill and run down to *insert clothing store of choice here* store and pick up a dozen t-shirts for me would ya?”
It should be nothing, for damage sustained in the line of duty. Archon should foot the bill, even if Achilles does choose to shop for them, rather than drawing replacements from the quartermaster.
When Sydney got her first two-week check, she said it was more money than she had made the entire previous year. So conservatively saying she made $20,000 last year and now she gets 26 paychecks a year that are each more than that, then she is getting paid more than half a million dollars a year (after taxes, as mentioned in the comic) as a Recruit.
Totally worth it to the government, of course, as it is the same as 24 non-super junior enlisted and for what she can do, she is worth far more than that. Plus as mentioned, the government is competing with the private sector for her services, who would pay even more.
By comparison the median salary of an NFL player was $770,000 a year in 2011.
What I’m getting at is that the Major and #2 super in Archon is not going to have his budget stressed by replacing his tee-shirts regularly.
True.
I still stand by the principle though. Here Super Hiro is putting his life on the line, fighting a superior opponent. Whilst in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park ™ Brook lost her toe. It would not be nice for her to receive the following message:
Although I make this flippantly, I have seen news coverage of service personnel, and their relatives, having to cope far worse things, along those lines. I will not detail them though, due to it being too grim.
Whilst it is acceptable to issue a set of clothing, and allow replacement based on ‘estimated typical usage’, to cover normal wear and tear. With troops having to replace any items lost through carelessness or failing to care for the items properly. But not for battlefield damage, or otherwise caused in conducting their duty in hazardous conditions.
Not so much as one sock!
Plus do not forget that people have a tendency to spend whatever they have. So it does not matter what the salary is, people often raise their standard of living, and thereby outlays, in line with their salary. So even rich people can find money getting short at the end of the month.
You really do not want someone hesitating to leap in, and save someone’s life, whilst they do a mental sum to see if they can afford to replace the outfit they are currently wearing!
That doesn’t really matter though. eg) My budget is not going to be strained by buying a sandwich for lunch at a restaurant but if I’m on a business trip it’s still the business’s responsibility to pay for my meals.
Just because they are not the one paying the bill, does not mean it is zero. It would still exist even if Archon is paying it. So again, I wonder how much it actually is.
I imagine they just buy the shirts in extreme bulk loads from Hanes and let fate sort it out.
Mainly because they need to develop a new course, namely ‘Remote Super Fisticuffs 201″! Halo is well past the 101 stage, using her orbs. Given that, even untrained, she was able to take out the best martial artist, in Archon! Albeit that she will need to master 201, and maybe 901, before repeating that feat.
Likewise, in the life-or-death fight with Shadow Boxer, it was that skill which took her from glimpsing a backstab, to a decisive victory. Bearing in mind that this was a super phasing in through the ground, to attack from an apparently safe direction. Only demonstrating superb instincts and dodging, allowed her to reduce what should have been a fatal blow, with super-powered weaponry, to just a bruising hit.
Whilst her counter-attack used two, (highly brutal) precisely controlled, strikes, with split-second timing and perfect accuracy.
Even the best mundane boxer would have difficulty replicating an attack of that skill, with no practice, and under pain of death, if not performed right first time!
But it was established, almost immediately after her victory, that he ‘threw’ the fight, in hopes that she’d give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, out of guilt.
Did he or is that just what Math wants us to believe?
+1
SO i just realized who Sciona reminds me of now that she is all Juiced out.. She looks like a gender swapped Vegita.
Yup, that was a common thought when she revealed her final form.
Although, not having watched that series, mine was ‘troll!‘
Troll?
I can’t tell if your clip may have been from Troll (loved the music) or Troll Hunter (a very enjoyable movie)?
I think from Troll, given this buried comment I found on that link:
Achilles is fun in a fight, because the usually-trained methods are worthless because they almost always involve exploiting some structural vulnerability he he doesn’t have. You need to just peel him off, then either throw him into the far distance or pin him with something very heavy. Hmmm…imagine the fun he could have using super-glue as a “weapon”….
Lol.
*Remembers the ‘fishing’ episode of Brickleberry*
I can see Sydney using a ‘limbs superglued together’ Achilles as a club with the lighthook.
Would suffocating Achilles work? (Now that we’re on the subject, I can safely bring this up without being weird)
probably not since you would need to directly hurt him to do it. but drowning or launching him into orbit would neither directly arm him but still kill him.
Naa, the guy’s hobbies include deep sea welding and taking scientific samples from inside an active volcano. Whilst not stipulated, the former is almost certainly without a suit, otherwise it would be too boring to interest him. And there is no protective gear which would work against lava, so the latter would essentially be unprotected, regardless of what he was wearing.
Plus, if suffocation was a risk, even he would not expose himself to a location where being drowned in a lava eruption was not just possible but very likely.
Finally we saw him buried in rubble. None of his team mates were the slightest bit concerned. Yet people can die within a few minutes in situations like avalanches and collapsed buildings, even if they survive direct injury. If no one else did, his buddy Mr Amorphous would have been digging him out.
But they were unconcerned because this is not a risk for him.
The worst that may happen is that he may become unconscious, due to not having enough oxygen to carry on actively. However he would revive as soon as fresh air reached him again. Just like hibernating mammals return to activity after (mostly) shutting down for an extended period.
However I suspect that his super power would actually sustain him, even in such circumstances. So that he could gradually swim out, or dig his way clear, even long after his air has run out.
The only bit of evidence I can offer to support that supposition is that he is rated at six stars in defence. Whilst bearing in mind that these ratings reflect not just the raw power of an ability, but its overall utility.
Even in the same category (defence) we have Halo and Dabbler having force fields, which are actually of about the same strength. Yet Halo’s is rated at five stars, compared to Dabbler’s at a mere two stars! Due to the fact that Halo’s allows for much more versatile use in police enforcement and military action roles. It provides protection versus attacks from any direction, is proof against teleportation, magic and more.
Yet Achilles is even higher again. If it was just due to being invulnerable to any physical harm, but otherwise of limited use in practical situations (where foes could easily dispose of him by suffocating him, once they realised that problem), it would not be worthy of being the sole exception to the five point ceiling on ratings. Given that even Sydney’s shield provides enough air to keep functioning without having to hold her breath. And she also has the air orb to extend that indefinitely!
So, whilst it is not certain, I think it more likely than not, Achilles could keep being aggravating even in deep space. Playing ‘eye spy, with my little eye, something beginning with “s”‘.
When he gets out of the lava, does someone have to sledgehammer him out of a layer of cooling rock?
Heh, if he does not wipe himself off quickly enough, I guess so.
Still it would be easy to miss a spot. Like how sand gets everywhere, after you have been down the beach.
The pub, down the road from the volcano, probably has a sign up:
If they can break him out with a clean cut, they may get a mold of his chiseled body.
That pub may have multiple silly looking stone statues with realistic poses on their premises.
No if you use a hose that would just harden it quicker. You need to wash off with a blow-torch :D
Now you see the publican’s subtext. ;-)
At the end of the day Sciona right now is just the basic variation of super strong, tough, and fast.
The type of opponent Arc has probably trained rigorously for and have the most sparring experience with.
She still hasn’t used any other magic though, so don’t count her out yet!
Welp that was over fast, silly Sciona trying to hurt Achilles won’t work considering that he is so invincible you could probably throw him into a pit full of angry tigers and they would just get bored with trying to hurt him after so long. :P Anyway that magic portal thing I am wondering what she is summoning since when it was originally used summoned Trent, so what will this super powered version summon?
This? Or maybe this. Or, most terrifying of all, *drumroll*, prepare for nightmares!
Oh god not Korosensei! Then the whole world would be doomed!
Indeed. He could do everything Maxima can, only with more limbs. Plus create duplicates of himself. Not to mention being able to dissolve metal bars with his saliva!
Very, very slowly.
Oh and he can also blow up the world. Kind of a one-time deal though.
Fatal allergy to a rare form of plastic is barely even a problem when his base reaction times are on par with Maxima’s best.
Sciona, you sly dog. You’re getting them monolouging!
Seriously, though, she said she needed to buy another minute. She might be much more powerful than she’s letting on, but beating them directly isn’t her plan. I’m sure Max and team are thinking that if they’ve got her, she can’t be enacting her sinister plan. Her being out there, with them, is exactly what’s allowing her to due just that.
At least, that’s how I’d plan to do it if I was the villain. Even if she doesn’t have partners, she has constructs to carry out her bidding. As the “big bad”, being in front of the team keeps them focused on her, and not what else is going on.
The downside to this plan is, of course, Sydney. I forsee her getting bored with the beatdown (or being instructed to see if the has backup) and possibly being able to limit the damage done by Sciona’s plan.
Either way, we should be in for a treat over the next few pages.
Cunning line of thinking. And plausible.
Sciona sure know how to deal with supers. But so do Sydney as well.
Dabbler is currently not in camera, she could sense the Magic of the gate, and be checking that out.
Let’s hope so. However I suspect that we are going to see something nasty coming out of that, regardless of what she may be doing.
Depending on what comes out of the gate, the two of them might go do something nasty somewhere else too.
Although…. does Achilles still feel pleasure still? Heh…
We can see that he is ticklish, so his sense of touch works just fine. We do know though that he has lost enjoyment for some of the simple things in life. Like jumping out of a plane, without a parachute. Or standing in an explosion, created for some Hollywood blockbuster.
However he does still like exploring the mouthfeel of food that has fallen on the floor. So … well he is somewhat messed up mentally/socially, but does find pleasure still. For instance the rustic pleasure of roasting marshmallows in a nuke-like explosion.
Speaking of mouthfeels that Achilles enjoys: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-5KzJxyWA8M
The autopsies of professional eaters of household objects is interesting. Their stomachs and intestines are absolutely covered in lacerations and cuts! They are just good at pain management and heal well.
BAD DOG!
*lowers ears, and slinks off, looking guilt*
He still feels pleasure, but there’s likely a cut-off and such when the pleasure moves to ‘pain’. That, or he interprets ‘pain’ as “Mild tickling”. Similar to the sensory effects of Claire in Heroes. The lack of enjoyment, is likely due to the simple fact that certain pleasures, if over-used, get rather…mundane.
As Yorp explained. The simple fact that NOTHING CAN HURT HIM, has meant that any pleasure based on ‘Adrenaline’ tends to fade. Which means he’s kinda the guy who’s likely to have a “So this is what Pain feels like” speech if he actually got hurt. (That, or turn into a screaming baby).
Man… I should have been more blunt with what I was implying. :D This isn’t a porn comic or the like, but the man IS still grappling someone with tentacles… bladed energy tentacle things yeah, but tentacles nonetheless. :3 Wonder if that’s how Sciona will (if she does) disable Sydney (or more likely, Dabbler) by accident or not… pants get shredded, somebody thinks the wrong thing and gets conked over the head while distracted.
When Achilles says he’s invincible. He means HE IS INVINCIBLE. This isn’t “Armor of X rank”…this is “Immune to physical damage”.
Honestly, from what we’ve seen it appears to be immune to all damage, not simply physical. He isn’t worried about getting sick from dropped food, it has been discussed that he can’t be suffocated or poisoned, and he even doesn’t appear flinch at a series of insults from Sydney. The only death I can think of maybe working on him is old age, and I’m not certain of that. Not undefetable, but truly invincible.
Yup. And he has not aged a day in the last several decades. So he probably is immortal too.
A side note on Achilles, though – even if he can’t be harmed, what about really horrible tastes/smells, or dazzling/disorienting lights/sounds/vibrations? Another fun test is – doesn’t his body CONDUCT extreme heat/cold/electricity?
Mmm, astutely raised points. Pepper spray springs to mind. But as that operates by inflicting pain, he would likely be immune to that (although that is debatable). However there is another common one, which does not act via that mechanism.
I think Achilles’s mittens would be essence of skunk spray!
Pepper spray is, as you seem to have already grasped, not an inherently bad smell and we currently have zero indication of whether or not its chemical function would work on Achilles. We know that he is immune to all normal forms of pain, of course, but how?
Has his brain adapted to his power set, interpreting the signals differently? Do his nerves not send the same signals? Or does he simply not produce the usual response to harm chemicals that would trigger them?
If the latter is true, chilli (or novidamide, depending on the form of pepper spray) would bypass the need for any chemical production within the body and skip straight to triggering the nerves. If either of the others are, though, it’d probably strike him as a weirdly alcoholic summer breeze. I wonder if he could get drunk off having enough of it.
Personally, though, as an aspiring supervillain with more flavour-based expertise than anything else, I’d look into denatonium saccharide as a way to at least thoroughly distract him.
I just had an odd thought about Achilles.. How does he Cut his Hair .. Or Fingernails. Also how do you deal with the small bits that humans do slough off over time. ( skin cells hair cells. ) If he is still growing hair and nails and still shedding like a normal human does eventually there is going to be a Lot of Invulnerable waste laying around. Also how about things that pass through him. DO they come out containing bits of invulnerable cells. ? I guess the question is how did he gain this power. And if when he did did he just get frozen in the state he was in when it happened or does he still age
considering he is super and universe this sets into … he likely doesnt need to cut hair or fingernails
From what I remember, he does not (CAN not) change in any way. His hair, nails, skin, etc. are locked into whatever they where when ‘the incident’ happened. He does not need to eat, drink, or even breathe. I am not sure about sleep. It is almost like he was turned into (or swapped with) a high-functioning golem with all his memories. (The adamant-droid! patent-pending) No one has ever mentioned checking for a heart beat.
I periodically think about him that way too. He isn’t invulnerable. He’s time-locked. Just he can make new memories and move around and eat and such as a protective artefact like a few other supers have, like Varia granting fire immunity to normal humans she gains enflame from.
Why does Achilles’ face look weird? The structure and layout is all off.
And Hiro looks like Deus with black hair, for whatever reason.
Achilles looks like that shapeshifter dude.
And I’ve probably just exposed a major minor plot twist.
Mr. Amorphous?
Aggrivatingly invincibility is the best (or worst) sort.
No matter how tough someone is joints are joints pressure points are pressure points granted His are more durable than most but it’s not impossible that someone could dislocate them or actually do him damage via nerve strikes to his pressure points but anybody who could would be one scary mother effer picture ROYALLY pissed off superman somthing iveonly seen twice once was against Doomsday the other wasin the series finalle of JLU where he beat the crap out of darksied (i mean he beat him like he was a life size plushy madeof rags if it hadnt been akids sho i think hed have taken his arm off)
Achilles is not “tough”, he is invincible. He joints cannot be dislocated and his nerves cannot be pinched. He could be standing naked on the moon and be hit by a 50,000 ton meteor, and he would suffer absolutely no damage or pain. Although he would need someone to come dig him out of the bottom of the new lunar crater.
Be sure to read Dave B’s commentary under each comic, he often addresses things like this. Achilles can not effectively be damaged or even hurt it seems. It seems that anything that would induce pain in a normal human body stops just short of that for him. Plus this guy blocked a sword with his freaking eyeball! Just because he could. Now Sciona has more than enough strength at the moment to simply break his grip on her and fling him away but her instinct and likely muscle memory is to strike with her wings first in any given situation. Given that this is her natural form she is used to both attacking and defending with them as a matter of course. She’s not really applying her superstrength in the manner of someone who is experienced with such abilities yet.
+1
Since it is possible to overpower him still, his joint strength still comes into play, just not anything involving pain or damage.
Pretty clear that Sciona is not used to superstrength as she attempts to dislodge Achilles with slashing/stabbing attacks from her wings instead of just easily yanking him off of her (as he hasnt demonstrated any level of superstrength that I can recall).
Sciona is also learning the value of teamwork hear Id say. Might be a good idea to have some loyal allies around to help out instead of backstabbing the crap out of them when it suits you.
Nicely said.
Then there is the other message of “don’t become a villain”. After all, especially with all the talents Sciona has, she could lead a fulfilling life, on the right side of the law. Even her basic constructs are far more advanced than anything we could produce with robotics. So would command an astronomical sum, in various fields.
Japan would have paid billions, or even with the mecha of her choice, for constructs which could have gone into the reactor, in Fukoshima, and safely shut it down, before it became a catastrophe.
Then there is her ability to replicate super powers, with nothing more than a blood sample! That alone could leave her with wanting nothing for the rest of several lifetimes! Bartering would start with national treasures, and work their way up from there!
Panel 4 is so satisfying it hurts.
:-D
It does rather make the cheekbone and teeth ache, if looked at too long, or too often.
I could totally see Sidney doing a Bam Bam with the lighthook.
Reggae or Flintstone Jr?
:-O
Did you really have to ask?
If all you have to restrain Achilles is a pair of handcuffs and some nailed-down thing, then you also need something alive that can go in the other cuff. Pass it through the small opening you would otherwise have put the second cuff on, then put the cuff on Achilles. He can’t move because he will injure the other person (or kitty or puppy, if you’re the flavour of evil that goes that route.
This isn’t a new tactic; it got used in the Bionic Woman series.
I had a character who faced a similar dilemma. A friend had been kidnapped and taken into a tower, where monsters were about to eat him. Knowing the rest of the party would be unable to get through in time, my character stealthed in, to locate him. But found that he was chained with manacles which were too tough for her to break, by any means. And clearly the monsters were coming in, right then, to have him for dinner.
So she got his permission to chop his hands off, so that the manacles could be removed, and they could make good their escape! With the stumps quickly cauterised, and taking the hands with them.
The logic behind this being that fixing up severed hands would be something that they could get a local priest to do. But if eaten, and with no body to raise, there would be no way to save him!
I was talking to someone before that set up a “guaranteed Fallen Paladin trap” as a GM.
Something about innocent children and a kidnapped innocent woman. Everyone was a tether for a spell. The children were the tethers for a barrier. The woman was a tether for a self-completing ritual that would kill her, the children, and summon a demon. Paladin couldn’t break the spell tethering anyone.
So kill the children (killing innocents?) and then the woman (also an innocent) in order to save other innocent people living in the town nearby from possible attack? Not a Lawful Good thing to do, so…
Do nothing, wait for ritual to complete (hence allowing innocents to die) and kill the demon? Not Lawful Good, so…
That happens often in life. Sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils. Save as many as you can. Whatever happens some will die, so saving others is a good deed.
But, even if the powers that be consider directly killing an innocent, to save others, to trigger a fall from grace, that is why there is the atonement spell. Because it is better to become a fallen paladin than to let any die unnecessarily.
What kind of DM does this to a player anyway?
Not only is it the DM side metagaming equivalent of players using out of character knowledge which is a big no-no at most tables, but it’s adversarial and petty, out to ruin the character of a player arbitrarily.
I don’t ever want to find myself role-playing with anyone who would even consider doing that to anyone at a game I was involved with. If it’s some kind of petty revenge vs a player, then the DM should just ask the player to leave the game.
Mmm, I would not automatically attribute ill motive to that. If a paladin has been doing a good job, he will have angered demons and other evil sorts. So this is the kind of thing that they would dream up to get revenge.
And, of course, in actual play it may not go according to script. A cunning player might spot a way to subvert the trap and actually save them all. For which they should get a massive experience point bonus, not to mention a reputation boost! Amongst both good folks and evil.
Plus it does not end up with the character being dead. Rather it could be the springboard to a challenging adventure, as a fallen-paladin (i.e. without his divinely granted powers), whilst seeking atonement.
Of course if the GM was just doing that to be a dick, then that is a different matter. Especially as those sorts usually do not allow inventive ways to get out of the situation to work. They want the schadenfreude, and do not like someone wriggling out of the moral dilemma.
Incidentally any decent games master would have at least one loophole available, for players who are cunning enough to spot it. Nobody likes a game where their player has literally no choice (or only lose loose choices).
Panel 6: “Guess who?!”
Really, tickling is the only appropriate response to this game.
I’m actually a little concerned that even tickles him; suggests he isn’t infinitely indestructible.
It could easily be a defense that kicks in automatically against any contact ABOVE a certain threshold, so he can have normal physical contact and sensations of cold or heat but just not be stabbed, crushed, frozen, or incinerated.
Ah, duh, such a simple answer that the overthinker in me never would have come to that conclusion. Thank you. :)
Being ticklish has nothing about it which implies he can be damaged. It just indicates that he has a sense of touch, and that certain areas can be over stimulated.
Not to mention the fact that he might just be trolling her.
But I would prefer that he can feel touch, otherwise he is loosing out on some of the nicer ways to pass eternity!
In retrospect, when fighting a team of supers who were formed and trained specifically to take down supers, becoming a super might not have been the best strategy.
:-D
Oh, and Dave, you made a mystake. On Sciona’s thingy it says she’s an artificer and blood mage, but it should say ‘rag doll’.
Wait, wasn’t it already confirmed that the system that could be used to make these characters had something to do with column shifts? Way, way, back in the beginning during that fake-out opener.
Hmm, next step for Sidney should be wrapping the two of them in light hook to secure the grip with something else Siconia can’t hurt.
Good idea.
Whoo hooo! Monday is here at last!
Still half a day to go yet mind. But I figure I may as well celebrate the little things, whilst I can.
i have to say that i love the fight scenes, much more dynamic and interesting than 99% of comics (but not most mangas, its at a similar level thou)