Who Is Ellen - 66 - HD
Added 2022-12-01 04:00:02 +0000 UTCThe first suspect.
Commentary
It's entirely possible George is just suggesting Larry the Bard handle questioning because Larry's high charisma might be good for that, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Considerate Guard
I hadn't originally written the bit about the mask, but writing this in 2022, this character being out and about with a cold just made me want to give him a mask.
And it's MY comic, so... I did.
Missing Spell
Once again, I'm curious if this is a spell one might actually have in most Tabletop RPGs (particularly at a low level). It seems overpowered (narratively, if nothing else), but so does throwing around magic fireballs, so your guess is as good as mine.
Comments
The hair fairies are getting into the story too...
David Fenger
2022-12-03 17:40:26 +0000 UTCIntelligence as well - someone who isn't good at puzzles just isn't going to be as good at playing the Sherlock Holmes character.
Crissa Kentavr
2022-12-03 14:00:33 +0000 UTCMeanwhile, thinking back to the original reason they're playing this game: It seems like Rich and Larry are having fun, and I am wondering if Ellen may have accidentally worked herself into GMing a regular game.
Brooks Moses
2022-12-02 09:06:41 +0000 UTCYup, that's how my groups have generally done it as well. Then again, we're not heavy on the acting; "I try to convince the shopkeeper to lower his prices" is as common as "'Three gold? Does anyone fall for that? I'll give you one.'" It's a similar issue with intelligence, to some extent, though IME that's harder -- "I think my character is smart enough to come up with a good plan here, even though I personally don't have any ideas" is something you could roll on, but then you're sort of stuck with what to do if you roll a success. The GM could maybe give you a plan, but that's less fun, and what if the GM doesn't have a good plan either?
Brooks Moses
2022-12-02 09:01:22 +0000 UTCRight, that all makes sense as a possible world-condition ... but if all that's the case, then why would the random cleric spend a spell on healing all the PCs from falling down the stairs?
Brooks Moses
2022-12-02 08:54:30 +0000 UTCYou just have to have a DM that is willing to imagine you delivered that line much better than you actually did. We typically gave a circumstance bonus for a particularly well acted bit, because our table valued that sort of thing, but if you're hella socially awkward? Just convey what you want to say and roll.
Daryl Sawyer
2022-12-01 16:53:34 +0000 UTC"I can cure disease two times a day, if I devote all my 3rd level spells to that. I should use one for your cold? Or I will use it for that girl suffering from pneumonia?" D&D and similar games are at the technological level of late Middle Ages or early Renaissance. Mortality from disease is rampant, depending on period and location, 1/3 to 1/6 of the children die before being 5 years old. A cleric of a wealth or greed good could cure a cold and leave someone to die, but he would require a lot of money. Even more important, Create food and water is a 3rd level spell in D&D and Pathfinder, and famine is a even worse killer than disease. Most good priest will prepare Create food and feed orphans.
Diego Rossi
2022-12-01 16:43:58 +0000 UTCTo me, charisma is the funniest stat in a tabletop RPG. It's one thing for a pipsqueak to play a brawny warrior or for a klutz to play a dexterous archer, but if you suck at tactful talk in RL, that's going to be reflected in your character no matter how high the alleged charisma.
Stephen Gilberg
2022-12-01 16:20:55 +0000 UTCFYI: Cure Disease is a standard clerical spell, but it is not a low level one, in the older D&D versions at least.
William Green
2022-12-01 15:13:10 +0000 UTCEllen's getting good at DMing very quickly if she can make her hair change based on an NPC's appearance. :)
M.
2022-12-01 12:45:07 +0000 UTCWait, what about the friendly cleric that mysteriously appeared in the last strip? Doesn't he have "cure disease"? If there are clerics who are willing to just randomly cure "I fell down the stairs and got hurt" things like that, why do people have colds in this setting (or most D&Dish settings) at all? This seems a bit strange, unless cold germs come with their own magic that resists healing -- and that seems like just the thing they would do -- that makes them rather harder to cure than falling-down-stairs bruises and damage.
Brooks Moses
2022-12-01 08:47:50 +0000 UTCHonestly it would be a tossup between the Bard and the Sorceress for any charisma based checks, but it is true that Bards are somewhat stereotypical for having absurd persuasion and/or deception skills. And yes, every group I know that can learn something equivalent to Cure Disease (the modern DnD equivalent is "Lesser Restoration"). More often than not because such a spell also gets a 2 for 1 in curing poison as well, and poisons in TTRPGs poisons are abundant
KC
2022-12-01 07:24:41 +0000 UTCI was in a game that had Warlocks with a cure disease spell that was basically "sickening blast" backwards. It had a 50/50 chance of working for a ChaG alignment or a 1 in 20 chance for all other alignments. basically a d20 throw with crits curing completely for ChaG or pretty much everything for everybody else. Glitches were exactly like casting "Sickening Blast" for all alignments. One of the prerequisites of the spell was having used "Sickening Blast" successfully at least once before trying to learn "Healing Blast".
Opus the Poet
2022-12-01 06:14:39 +0000 UTCOTOH 5e has "Lesser Restoration", a mere 2nd level spell that could be cast at I assume 3rd level, removing one disease. If it were prepared, and if the party had a 3rd level cleric, or any clerics. OTOH again, as mentioned a paladin could do it. But I figure Ellen's game is a mishmash of stereotypes about AD&D and 3e.
Damien
2022-12-01 05:58:20 +0000 UTCStill mostly stick to Pathfinder these days so I was not aware of that. Good to know.
davidraziel
2022-12-01 05:51:17 +0000 UTCSo, disease falls into 4 categories in games: Random bad luck. "You rolled a 2 on a d100 after waking up, now you have the sniffles and a -5 to Cha checks". This isn't fun and few games ever do it. Enemy-induced. Mummy Rot, vile sorcerer's Curse of Plague, etc. This is a debuff and both the effect and the removal should be balanced against other debuffs. Plot-relevant, targeted. "The king is ill, no healing magic works on him, go on a quest for the Saint's Used Kleenex." Plague. "Oh, you have 10 Cure Disease castings? Cool, we have 150 smallpox victims coming in each day. Which ones do you save?" Problem is, the ease of disease removal for each of those needs to be balanced differently. Some of them can be roughly close to each other, but not always. Most games decide (correctly) that disease is annoying, and err on the side of making it easy to get rid of, but that can mess up times when DMs want to use disease in their story.
Viktor
2022-12-01 05:12:25 +0000 UTCIf Dan would like some reference material, here is the D&D 3.5 spell list: http://dndsrd.net/spellsAtoZ.html The SRD is a completely free online resource for D&D 3.5. Though it's not the latest edition, a lot of the same spells carried over to 5th Ed. Both Remove Disease and Heal can accomplish this effect, but they're both higher level spells the party wouldn't have access to at first level.
wargrunt42
2022-12-01 04:44:28 +0000 UTCYay masks! :) Mine keeps my nose nice and warm in winter.
Inahc
2022-12-01 04:36:56 +0000 UTCAt the same time, in 5e, a Pally can use 5 points of Lay on Hands to cure a single disease or neutralize a single poison affecting a single person… an ability given at first level with a pool of points equal to Paladin level x 5. 😅
Haunted Hermit
2022-12-01 04:24:55 +0000 UTCIn most D&D versions I’m familiar with a paladin would actually never have access to the remove disease spell. Clerics, Druids and Rangers are usually the only ones who can cast it, and even then they need to be 5th level or higher to manage that. Also I’ve almost never had it come up that someone who is just sick with the flu or similar need to have it cast on them, its mostly something you use to deal with specific debuff effects that are given by specific monsters, like mummy rot.
davidraziel
2022-12-01 04:08:42 +0000 UTC
