Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Shadowshimmer 11-14-07, 01:26 PM	Does anyone have Jack The Gnome (The Orc King) stats or something they put together for him? I would like to use him as a villian in a new module.
Phelf_Der_Zemit 11-14-07, 06:03 PM	id go with something like 15wiz/2arch, id have to reread the book to look for any magic items. he also may have a ring of wizardry III, seeing as he uses a tremindous amount of lightning bolts.
Blibbering_Humdinger 11-15-07, 08:04 AM	Jack the Gnome: Dead 10/Diced 25/Unresurrectable 39/Mage 0.5 Str 0 Dex 0 Con 0 Int 0 Wis 1 Cha 0 This gnome is dead and therefore cannot be played. He was cut to bits and pieces and therefore cannot be resurrected. He has zero points in all stats because he is dead and can't do anything, though in death he has gained one point of Wisdom from the lesson that transforming into a flying snake in a combat situation is not particularly beneficial. Feats: Dead Gnome +21 (This gnome is dead.), Eternal Torment +35 (Because he deserves it! INNOVINDIL!!! :weep: ) Spellbook: His spellbook burns in the Nine Hells with him. Unfortunately, that means all the spells are burnt out. Possessions: Wounded Pride, Quite a Lot of Pain, and Several Severed Arms and Legs There ya have it. ;)
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 11-15-07, 06:58 PM	:rofl: I actually couldn't tell how powerful this character really was--he was barely in the story.
Purple Dragon Knight 11-15-07, 09:27 PM	Rinona: maybe the fact that his name was JACK could give you a hint as to how much thought was put into the character... ;)
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 11-15-07, 09:35 PM	Rinona: maybe the fact that his name was JACK could give you a hint as to how much thought was put into the character... ;) Oh, trust me, I certainly noticed the name...
Purple Dragon Knight 11-15-07, 10:52 PM	Why did he have to pick a GNOME! :mad: That infuriated me to no end... there's tons of loner-type monsters that would have filled his gaping plotline hole better than a gnome! Even making the orc/ogre shaman powerful in itself would have worked better in the plotline! (i.e. this orc/ogre tribe is strong, and could easily produce high-level Gruumsh clerics...) RAS must hate gnomes! (especially with Wulfgar fighting the coach driver gnome near Auckney... I hated that! with all the dwarves swarming in the North, he picked a GNOME to once again plug the "I need a lawful neutral creature here" sinkhole he had created... AAAAAAAAAARGGGGH! (even with Jack, I shamelessly enjoyed reading Orc King though... the plot/pace was not entirely predictable... will disregard this newly created "Days of Future Past" timeline but still, the stories are still good...)
Blibbering_Humdinger 11-16-07, 04:01 AM	Why did he have to pick a GNOME! :mad: That infuriated me to no end... there's tons of loner-type monsters that would have filled his gaping plotline hole better than a gnome! Even making the orc/ogre shaman powerful in itself would have worked better in the plotline! (i.e. this orc/ogre tribe is strong, and could easily produce high-level Gruumsh clerics...) RAS must hate gnomes! (especially with Wulfgar fighting the coach driver gnome near Auckney... I hated that! with all the dwarves swarming in the North, he picked a GNOME to once again plug the "I need a lawful neutral creature here" sinkhole he had created... AAAAAAAAAARGGGGH! (even with Jack, I shamelessly enjoyed reading Orc King though... the plot/pace was not entirely predictable... will disregard this newly created "Days of Future Past" timeline but still, the stories are still good...) He already has a decent hero gnome, though, in the form of Nanfoodle. And Belwar! Don't forget Belwar, the Deep Gnome of the Mining Hands, A.K.A. Most Honored Burrowarden of Blingdenstone. He doesn't hate gnomes. He just decided to make an evil gnome for a change--that so wrong? To be honest, I was getting a little tired of Nanfoodles and Jan Jensens. Someone finally gave me the gnome equivalant of an evil archmage, so I was happy... Until Drizzt diced him up with nary a wink, that is...
Purple Dragon Knight 11-16-07, 10:35 AM	Ok Blibbering_Humdinger... I will take a crack at making the stats for Jack, in honor of your love for him. When I am done with him, no amount of mid-teen fighter types like Drizzt will be able to dice him so easily! :D The only thing I need from you: what was the robe Jack wore? :cool:
Blibbering_Humdinger 11-16-07, 03:25 PM	I dunno... the Unstainable Robe of Zero Subtlety +8? I mean, most mages are sophisticated, but all Jack seemed capable of in that "final showdown" was an endless stream of Lightning Bolts. -_-' Light a magician battlerager... nix the results. That illusion trick he pulled off on Innovindil wasn't so bad, but I would have expected a more diverse grouping of spells than Lightning Bolts and Magic Missiles from a mage who's skilled enough to live for as long as Jack supposedly did. Then again, he was living under a rock for most of his life, so you can't expect him to be very smart, no matter how intelligent the guy was. FTR, I don't love him. I just liked him as a support villain. Jack could have become more of a character, mind (I for one would love to find out what Jack could have done to get Alustriel so ****** off way back when), but alas, his stats speak for themselves. (See above post.)
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 11-16-07, 03:42 PM	I for one would love to find out what Jack could have done to get Alustriel so ****** off way back when... I was curious about that myself.
dethmetal 11-16-07, 05:40 PM	I really liked the idea of jack, an evil gnome wizard manipulating a whole tribe of orcs. but lets face it. Jack was there to provide Cattie-Bree with her starting equipment set for a level 1 wizard.
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 11-16-07, 06:11 PM	I really liked the idea of jack, an evil gnome wizard manipulating a whole tribe of orcs. but lets face it. Jack was there to provide Cattie-Bree with her starting equipment set for a level 1 wizard. :rofl: I can't say I disagree!
Blibbering_Humdinger 11-17-07, 04:42 PM	I really liked the idea of jack, an evil gnome wizard manipulating a whole tribe of orcs. but lets face it. Jack was there to provide Cattie-Bree with her starting equipment set for a level 1 wizard. Well, Alustriel could've done that on her own... (*remembers the Wand of Fireballs*) but yeah, that's the basic result of Jack the Gnome. Of course, the last time Drizzt let Catti-brie have the spoils of one of his fallen enemies... well...
Straploknight 11-17-07, 05:56 PM	Well, Alustriel could've done that on her own... (*remembers the Wand of Fireballs*) but yeah, that's the basic result of Jack the Gnome. Of course, the last time Drizzt let Catti-brie have the spoils of one of his fallen enemies... well... Wow.... look at this really neat horned crown, I bewt it does something cool!
Purple Dragon Knight 11-17-07, 10:11 PM	Well, Alustriel could've done that on her own... (*remembers the Wand of Fireballs*) but yeah, that's the basic result of Jack the Gnome. Of course, the last time Drizzt let Catti-brie have the spoils of one of his fallen enemies... well...Yeah... you'd think they'd hire a 1st-level wizard with identify in Mithril Hall...
Blibbering_Humdinger 11-19-07, 10:39 AM	I suppose the logic behind keeping such items without doing so is based on the fact that neither Dantrag Baenre nor Jack the Gnome seemed to have been negatively effected by the items. Of course, in the case of Khazid'hea, the negative influence wasn't exactly visible. In the case of Jack, well, I doubt there's anything malign about his robe, but that's 'cause I'm the reader and got to read all of the Jack scenes in the book. Drizzt really has no idea, tho' with Alustriel on hand (and taking an active interest in Catti's magical education), I think the robe might have been identified behind the scenes. Who knows? Still doesn't excuse their stupidity in regards to "Cutter," though. I suppose they went as far as determining that it wasn't cursed by holding it in their hands one at a time and seeing whether or not they could let go of the thing, and then leaped ahead to the proclamation of "This blade's okay. Next!" -_-'
Craig C. 11-19-07, 11:08 AM	I dunno... the Unstainable Robe of Zero Subtlety +8? I mean, most mages are sophisticated, but all Jack seemed capable of in that "final showdown" was an endless stream of Lightning Bolts. -_-' Light a magician battlerager... nix the results. That illusion trick he pulled off on Innovindil wasn't so bad, but I would have expected a more diverse grouping of spells than Lightning Bolts and Magic Missiles from a mage who's skilled enough to live for as long as Jack supposedly did. Then again, he was living under a rock for most of his life, so you can't expect him to be very smart, no matter how intelligent the guy was. I rarely see novel-based arcanists fighting creatively or using optimized tactical arrays within the D&D game mechanics framework. So Jack's off selection of LBs and MMS doesn't surprise me. These simple spell selections and tactical uses may be used just to hurry the storyline along. Because good 3.5 D&D arcanists would use a more nuanced array or combo permutation of spells to get the same effect ... and at a lesser cost of character resources. Unfortunately, reflecting such mechanics within a novel would mean a considerable investment in additional paragraphs to explain all this stuff to the reader in layman's terms.
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 11-19-07, 01:40 PM	I never liked how it was left to our imagination how Cattie-brie "mastered" Khazid-hea. It felt like cheating to me.
Bonzai 11-28-07, 07:22 PM	Hmm... perhaps it's also an evil intelligent item, that Cattie Brie will have to deal with. One thing that bugged me though, was that it didn't resize to fit Cattie. Aren't magic items suposed to do that?
Phelf_Der_Zemit 11-28-07, 08:20 PM	I rarely see novel-based arcanists fighting creatively or using optimized tactical arrays within the D&D game mechanics framework. You are correct. The best use of a wizard ever was Pharuen from th WotSQ series. Good charactor concept, and great with his spells. Not to mention Gromph and the Dyr Liches spell battle was E-P-I-C. (ps. ya, im bringing epic back)
Blibbering_Humdinger 11-29-07, 12:16 AM	Hmm... perhaps it's also an evil intelligent item, that Cattie Brie will have to deal with. One thing that bugged me though, was that it didn't resize to fit Cattie. Aren't magic items suposed to do that? I suppose if one gets brutally technical, only magical items specifically enchanted to resize would actually resize, since it's not likely that a random enchantment will have a built-in resizing aspect simply because it's an enchantment. And if Jack the Gnome made those robes himself, I doubt he'd have made accomodations for anyone but a gnome (himself) to wear it.
Blibbering_Humdinger 11-29-07, 12:19 AM	I never liked how it was left to our imagination how Cattie-brie "mastered" Khazid-hea. It felt like cheating to me. *shrugs* I thought it was fine. I mean, battle of wills, getting to know one another, all pretty obvious stuff. It would have clogged up the book to have detailed descriptions of it all (and with the Time of Troubles and the drow march, along with everything that transpired around the two events, the book was quite packed enough). Granted, some pretty good writing could've come out of that situation, but oh well. It was fine the way it came out, even if it wasn't excellent.
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 11-29-07, 12:15 PM	*shrugs* I thought it was fine. I mean, battle of wills, getting to know one another, all pretty obvious stuff. It would have clogged up the book to have detailed descriptions of it all... I disagree, but I'll leave it at that.:) I will say, though, that if clogging up the book with detailed descriptions was a real concern (of either the author or WotC), then the battle scenes would have been trimmed a long time ago. To me, the combat scenes are usually overly detailed and "book-clogging".
Sylock 12-02-07, 11:28 PM	I disagree, but I'll leave it at that.:) I will say, though, that if clogging up the book with detailed descriptions was a real concern (of either the author or WotC), then the battle scenes would have been trimmed a long time ago. To me, the combat scenes are usually overly detailed and "book-clogging". I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic.
Andferne 12-03-07, 01:05 AM	I'm curious too as to what all Jacks robe is capable of. I don't see it being cursed or evil in any way (call it a hunch). It certintly didn't help him too much in the defense vs scimitar wielding drow. IDK I'm leaning towards something simple like resistance to fire 10 or something. Stat wise I don't see him being too high level. You do not have to be that smart or talented to trick majority of the orcs. Maybe Wiz or Sor 11-13 max with a ring of wizardry 3.
Blibbering_Humdinger 12-07-07, 01:40 AM	I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic. Ding-ding-ding! :D The only deathly serious part of that post was the last part, where I said it was fine, even if it wasn't excellent. And the parenthetical admission that a lot was going on in that book was partly serious. To be brutally frank, it would have probably been the work of five pages to flesh out the (semi-)mastering of Khazid'hea. Ten if it was done in multiple scenes. Bob got a bit lazy there, methinks. Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn are my least favorite Salvatore FR books for a reason.
Blibbering_Humdinger 12-07-07, 01:49 AM	I'm curious too as to what all Jacks robe is capable of. I don't see it being cursed or evil in any way (call it a hunch). It certintly didn't help him too much in the defense vs scimitar wielding drow. IDK I'm leaning towards something simple like resistance to fire 10 or something. I'm thinking it was more the transformation into a flying snake at an inopportune moment that laid Jack so vulnerable before Drizzt's dual-wielding fury, actually. The robe was untouched when Jack returned to gnome form. Stat wise I don't see him being too high level. You do not have to be that smart or talented to trick majority of the orcs. Maybe Wiz or Sor 11-13 max with a ring of wizardry 3. I see him being high-level but not epic level (as in, no higher than twentieth). Weak enough that Alustriel terrifies him, powerful enough to have an ego almost as large as Edwin's (and a Red Wizard's ego is nothing to sneeze at, sai).
Hanali-in-Love 12-07-07, 02:01 AM	He already has a decent hero gnome, though, in the form of Nanfoodle. And Belwar! Don't forget Belwar, the Deep Gnome of the Mining Hands, A.K.A. Most Honored Burrowarden of Blingdenstone. He doesn't hate gnomes. He just decided to make an evil gnome for a change--that so wrong? To be honest, I was getting a little tired of Nanfoodles and Jan Jensens. Someone finally gave me the gnome equivalant of an evil archmage, so I was happy... Until Drizzt diced him up with nary a wink, that is... Thanks for that spoiler
Hanali-in-Love 12-07-07, 02:12 AM	You are correct. The best use of a wizard ever was Pharuen from th WotSQ series. Good charactor concept, and great with his spells. Not to mention Gromph and the Dyr Liches spell battle was E-P-I-C. (ps. ya, im bringing epic back) I'd say the best use of a wizard ever with R.A was with Harkle Harpell and his many, many eccentric self made spells. The Mind Flayer scene during Siege of Darkness comes to mind.
Hanali-in-Love 12-07-07, 02:14 AM	Ding-ding-ding! :D The only deathly serious part of that post was the last part, where I said it was fine, even if it wasn't excellent. And the parenthetical admission that a lot was going on in that book was partly serious. To be brutally frank, it would have probably been the work of five pages to flesh out the (semi-)mastering of Khazid'hea. Ten if it was done in multiple scenes. Bob got a bit lazy there, methinks. Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn are my least favorite Salvatore FR books for a reason. The Mage duel from Passage to Dawn was excellent! Robilard and Harkle Harpell's scene was one of the best parts of the book.
msatran 12-07-07, 06:20 AM	I never liked how it was left to our imagination how Cattie-brie "mastered" Khazid-hea. It felt like cheating to me. Note the shape of Khadzid-hea's hilt and all will become clear.
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 12-07-07, 01:43 PM	Ding-ding-ding! :D The only deathly serious part of that post was the last part, where I said it was fine, even if it wasn't excellent. And the parenthetical admission that a lot was going on in that book was partly serious. To be brutally frank, it would have probably been the work of five pages to flesh out the (semi-)mastering of Khazid'hea. Ten if it was done in multiple scenes. Bob got a bit lazy there, methinks. Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn are my least favorite Salvatore FR books for a reason. Heh. Sorry, I tend to take things very literally.:)
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 12-07-07, 01:46 PM	Note the shape of Khadzid-hea's hilt and all will become clear. I have a feeling there's a joke buried in there... But I will also say I don't remember what shape the hilt was at the time.:) I read those novels a long while back, and don't plan on reading them again.
Purple Dragon Knight 12-08-07, 02:14 AM	I have a feeling there's a joke buried in there... But I will also say I don't remember what shape the hilt was at the time.:) I read those novels a long while back, and don't plan on reading them again.Word of the day: buried. Moving on: my new fave gal on these boards is.... HANALI-IN-LOVE! :D Why? QUOTE: "Last edited by WizO_Sinister : Today at 11:06 AM. Reason: vulgarity " UNQUOTE (This Purple Dragon Knight must have a soft spot for smoking, serial-dating Paris gals who managed to arouse the gods of censorship on their first trip to Disturbia... :P )
Blibbering_Humdinger 12-12-07, 12:57 AM	The Mage duel from Passage to Dawn was excellent! Robilard and Harkle Harpell's scene was one of the best parts of the book. Yeah, that was a nugget of gold, I agree. But it wasn't so much a duel, as it was a competitive slaughter--Harkle and Robillard trying to be more flashy and inventive than each other in wiping out the undead. ^_^'