Webcomic / The Handbook of Heroes

The Handbook of Heroes is a one-panel gag-per-day webcomic based on Dungeons & Dragons (more specifically, the 3.5^th edition Spin-Off Pathfinder, though D&D 5^th edition-themed characters and gags occasionally show up as well). Each panel begins with a line of advice from the titular "Handbook of Heroes", then shows player characters applying (or mis-applying, or failing to apply) that advice in a humorous manner.

Though each strip is mostly self-contained, the comic does maintain a loose overall continuity in the form of recurring characters. There are also occasionally story arcs that play out over multiple strips.

The primary protagonists of the strip are an adventuring party, consisting of Fighter, Cleric, Thief, and Wizard (their names as well as their classes). Also frequently featured are various rival parties, including the Anti-Party (Paladin, Sorcerer, Barbarian, and Oracle), Team Bounty Hunter (Inquisitor, Ranger, and Magus), and the Evil Party (Witch, Necromancer, Succubus, and Antipaladin).

The comic updates Mondays and Fridays, and can be found here. The first comic in the archive is here.

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The Handbook of Heroes provides examples of:

• Ahem: Witch catches Antipaladin baby-talking to a puppy.
  Antipaladin: Who's a good dog? Who's a good boy? Who...
  Witch: Ahem.
  Antipaladin: Who's a bad dog? Who's a dag nasty evil pup? Is it you? Yes it is.
• The Alleged Expert: Inquisitor's job is to investigate crimes and pursue the culprits. She is, however, regularly portrayed as having rather lackluster detective skills. (The rest of Team Bounty Hunter hardly helps.)
• Alt Text: Each strip has mouse-over text, usually containing an additional joke and sometimes providing additional information about the characters or world.
• Amazon Brigade: The various parties are more or less gender-balanced, but Team Bounty Hunter is entirely female. That is, until Antipaladin joins them.
• Animal Jingoism: The cats vs. dogs enmity also applies to beastfolks, as demonstrated when Magus (a catfolk) and Miss Gestalt (a vampire/werewolf) are put close to each other... at a hair salon.
• Annoying Arrows: Barbarian is introduced in "Barbarian vs. Thief" standing in front of a hail of arrows, unconcerned by them due to her high HP.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Fighter's player has a younger brother named Jeremy, who he finds annoying; he particularly dislikes Jeremy's insistence on playing a dragon character. After Fighter kills Jeremy's character, Jeremy switches to playing with his own group of friends in an all-dragon group of characters.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Wicked Uncle's torture options include a variety of horrific fates, but also "non-elven wine".
• Art Shift: "Style" is a one-shot panel done in an Animesque style. Complete with Bishie Sparkle for Wizard, which Thief would like to stay.
• Bad with the Bone: Barbarian manages to beat up Jeremy the Dracolich with his own femur.
• The Berserker: Barbarian, of course, can enter a berserk rage in combat. And sometimes out of combat, too.
• Best Out of Infinity: In "Friendly Contest", after getting trounced by Pugilist twice, Necromancer goes for best of five.
• Birthday Episode: Thief gets two, both posted on January 22nd, her official birthday. The first, "Throw Anything", she spent alone because she thought the title feat meant she could throw parties. The second, "Party Girl", is with her teammates.
• Blind Seer: Oracle has the Clouded Vision curse. This makes her not fully blind, but her vision is obscured past close range. And her class has oracular powers, of course.
• Born as an Adult: Warrior, who appears to be an adult man, actually came into existence that way; he spontaneously appeared out of nothing as a result of Fighter drawing the Knight card from a Deck of Many Things.
• Born Unlucky: Thief frequently suffers from bad luck. This is stated to result from her player rolling poorly, and is amplified by proximity to Warrior (who, having been born from a Deck of Many Things, is a creature of chance and chaos).
• Brutal Honesty: Wizard while wearing a headband of brutal honesty.
  Wizard: However, I can say with certainty that fighter is a chaotic stupid oaf.
  Cleric? You are a litigious bore.
  And Thief, my dear? You are shockingly incompetent. Thank the gods you got a great ass.
• Bulletproof Human Shield: In "Point Man", the party uses Fighter as a shield to block enemy arrows, as he has the highest HP.
• Calling Your Attacks: Spellcasters announce the names of spells as they use them. Arcane Archer also calls out the names of his magic arrows, which can get excessive.
• Came Back Wrong: Since her resurrection, Magus is apparently possessed by Demon Queen.
• Canary in a Coal Mine: "Gnomish Hireling" has Fighter using a gnome in a cage for this purpose.
• Captain Ersatz: Kineticist is an obvious serial-number-filed-off, Distaff Counterpart of Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender, despite The Rant's pointed disclaimer.
  Similarities to any popular animated franchise you might be thinking about are purely coincidental.
• Cardiovascular Love: Multiple:
  • In "Monster Adoption": Heart Symbol-style, with Ranger's affection to her new pet.
  • "Intra-Party Romance": Presumably the use of Thief's Heart Symbol tail in that strip.
• Cat Girl: Magus is a catfolk, with cat-like ears and tail, and some personality traits such as a short attention span. In "Cat Herding" she tries setting up a meeting of cat-like races, to little avail.
• Centipede's Dilemma: In "Handle Animal", Snowflake has more trouble with winged horseshoes than non-sapient horses do because she has to think about how they work.
• Chained to a Railway: "Railroad" has Fighter tie his fellow party members to a railroad track in front of a train as a metaphor for an attempt to derail railroading from the GM.
• Chest Monster:
  • Fighter has a history of running afoul of mimics and similar monsters.
    • He once falls victim to a mimic disguised as a toilet.
    • At another time, he misses his perception check on a sword-shaped mimic, thinking his own Talking Sword is just jealous.
    • He's more suspicious, though, when confronted by a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing looking like an innocent fawn.
    • And then there's the infamous "Living Room", a place made of nothing but mimics, stun jellies, lurkers above, and trappers.
  • There is also a cameo from Rusty and Co.'s Mimic (a.k.a. Boxford), where he ends up being Succubus's stool.
• Crossover:
  • The comic has one with Rusty and Co., which had the The Handbook of Heroes cast as background characters in one arc, and subsequently The Handbook of Heroes has a five-strip series featuring their characters interacting with members of Rusty and Co.
  • In-universe, one of the recurring characters is a Street Samurai, used to illustrate how fantasy and sci-fi RPGs have a... rough time mixing.
  • Another crossover is with the webcomic Dungeons & Doodles: Tales from the Tables, also reciprocated: first with Antipaladin, Patches and Witch, and later with Wizard and Thief.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: In "Behaving Intelligently", Magus's proposal of a "slow mouse and fresh cream" demiplane is used to illustrate her ditzy nature. In a later strip, she actually finds such a plane.
• Cutaway Gag: In the Alt Text of "Unconventional Mount", about events happening to Summoner and Rouge, the latter being "a cartoonishly proportioned clone of Thief":
  "I like to ride her until she works up a good sweat," said Summoner. "Giggle snort."
  Hundreds of leagues away, Thief began to wonder why she was suddenly angry.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist:
  • Adventurers die so often that Fighter's group has it as a rule that the money to bring you back from the dead comes out of your share of the loot.
  • Downplayed by Magus's death in the "To Catch a Killer" arc: While she eventually gets brought back, it's neither quick nor easy (mostly because Team Bounty Hunter is dead broke), and her girlfriend Inquisitor is left seriously traumatized by the ordeal. It also turns out she Came Back Wrong and got possessed by Demon Queen.
• Dracolich: After Jeremy the dragon is killed by Fighter, he returns as an undead dracolich.
• Dragons Prefer Princesses: "Off-the-Rack Adventuring": The Elven Princess has been captured by a dragon... And then a Monster Adventurers party, of just dragons, is rescuing her, when she says: "Won't you rescue me from this loathsome dragon?"
• Drinking Contest: "Save vs. Beer" depicts the aftermath of one.
• Dual Wielding: Thief with daggers, in some strips, like "Monster Lore".
• Eat the Rich: "Pastoral Ideal": Why one commoner wishes they were a monster.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Both Oracle and Assassin ends up blowing their saves vs. fear against Scabby the undead rat familiar, leaving them scrambling on top of a stool.
  Assassin: Aren't you a divine vessel?
  Oracle: Aren't you a cold-blooded murderer?
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Antipaladin's puppy is the first to notice that Magus is possessed by Demon Queen post-resurrection and reacts aggressively.
• Evil Uncle: Wizard's uncle, the appropriately named Wicked Uncle, who kills Wizard's father and usurps the Ivy Throne of the elves.
• Evil Weapon: Fighter's sword, Mr. Stabby. A black sword with a glowing red aura that constantly chants "blood blood blood" and tries to drive whoever wields it to violence.
• Exactly What I Meant to Say: From "Tools", when talking about Mercy, a Named Weapon:
  Paladin: Repent, or receive mercy.
  Villain: Don't you mean 'and' receive mercy?
  Inquisitor: Nope.
• Extra Eyes: Thief, a tiefling, has six eyes due to her Abyssal heritage. She usually keeps them concealed behind her bangs.
• Familiar: Some of the spellcasters have animals mystically linked to them; unlike their masters, they do receive proper names.
  • Wizard has two: Scabby, an undead rat holdover from Wizard's short Goth Phase, and Skitter, a centuries-old spider.
  • Witch has Brutus, a hedgehog with which she frequently discusses lethal pranks and mayhem.
• Fangirl: Apparently, Kineticist is one for Inquisitor, up to writing a Fanfiction about her called Spider-Ma'am. Worst, she's a Shipper — though not with Magus, Inquisitor's current girlfriend, but with Drow Priestess instead.invoked
• Fanservice Faux Fight: Subverted; Magus was expecting a "sexy pillow fight", but under Inquisitor's coaching, it still counts as martial combat training.
  Alt Text: "An object that bears no resemblance to a weapon deals 1d4 damage." Deal with it.
• Faustian Rebellion: When Demon Queen's ritual sacrifice of Antipaladin goes awry, BBEG takes the opportunity to forcibly swap bodies with her, usurping her rule of the Demonweb Pits and reducing her to a skull.
• Feigning Intelligence: Surprisingly, despite not being the sharpest claws in the kitten box, Magus manages to fool Wizard into believing she's much smarter than she truly is.
• Finger in the Mail: As seen in "Claiming the Throne, Part 3/5: Unsurprising", when Wicked Uncle is holding Aristocrat prisoner, he cuts off one of her ears and sends it to the heroes along with his villainous ultimatum.
• Flaming Hair: Antipaladin is a fire genasi, and as such the fiery red hair atop his head are actual flames. They happen to be doused by water after a shipwreck, making him look bald.
• Fluffy Tamer: Ranger tends to adopt dangerous creatures as pets despite her teammates' objections, including an aurumvorax, a cockatrice and a misplacer beast.
• Flying Broomstick: Bizarrely, not used by Witch but by Druid instead. Unfortunately, it doesn't accommodate her Allosaurus animal companion.
• Fur Against Fang: Parodied for all it is worth in "Vampire Werewolf", the result of a Patreon Poll on whether to introduce a vampire or werewolf as new character which ended up a perfect 50/50 split.
  BBEG: It says here that you are a "vampire werewolf".
  Miss Gestalt: I'm an abomination.
  BBEG: Don't be so hard on yourself. Sure, your backstory is a little extra, but—
  Miss Gestalt: You don't understand. In the World of Dimness, "abomination" is a technical term for a—
  BBEG: A really shitty backstory. I get it.
• Gender Bender: Wizard, who starts the comic as male, ends up being permanently transformed into a woman by a magic spell.
• Genius Ditz: Magus is an Intelligence-based class, which suggests that Magus used Wisdom as a Dump Stat, given her generally foolish behavior.
• Genre Refugee: Most of the characters fit the Medieval Fantasy setting (whether Western or Eastern-inspired), but Street Samurai is clearly from a much more Cyberpunk universe.
• Girl in the Tower: "Retro Evil": Elven Princess is captured in a tower, note, not even head-height, by Antipaladin, with Horsepower to save her. ... For the third time that week.
• Glove Snap: In "Guild Charter", the adventurer guild happens to have a mandatory annual alignment invokeddetection rule. While the guild attendant is putting on a magic white glove, Fighter and Thief (who are not exactly good-aligned) are seen fleeing in the background.
  Alt-Text: Don't worry. They disinfect the rubber glove of alignment detection between uses.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: In "Magic Weapon", Fighter uses Wizard as a club. Wizards are magic, so their bodies should count as magic weapons for overcoming damage resistance, right?
• Half-Human Hybrid:
  • From "Speed Dating": "Half-dragons happen."
  • Among the recurring cast, Sorcerer is a half-elf and Ranger a half-orc.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the "Face Turn" page, Antipaladin decides enough is enough with a simple declaration that cements the alignment change:
  Antipaladin: Smite Evil
• Heroic Sacrifice: Patches throws himself in the way of the possessed Magus's sacrificial knife, saving Antipaladin and triggering his Heel–Face Turn.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": This is the norm in the comic. For example:
  • The fighter is named Fighter.
  • The cleric is named Cleric.
  • Wizard's evil uncle is named Wicked Uncle.
  • The main villain is named BBEG, a.k.a. Big Bad Evil Guy.
• Holy Halo: Paladin is an aasimar, and the yellow halo hovering above his head hints of his celestial heritage. Although after his fall from grace, the halo tends to flicker.
• I Call It "Vera": Inquisitor owns a giant battle-axe which she calls "Mercy".
• If It's You, It's Okay: Thief is bisexual, which she casually reveals after Wizard is permanently gender-swapped.
  Thief: Sorry, hon, I'm neutral. My alignment goes both ways.
• If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Antipaladin's introduction sees him being asked to kick a puppy to prove how evil he is. Antipaladin refuses on the grounds that it's not only cruel but also pointless; he's evil, not Snidely Whiplash.
• Impossible Pickle Jar: In a spectacular case of overdoing it, Sorcerer manages to open Oracle's pickle jar... with a fireball.
• Indy Escape: Parodied in "Roll Hard", where the rolling boulder is... a giant 20-sided die. And it threatens not so much Thief and Cleric than their figurines. Used to illustrate the trouble with D&D players rolling their dice too hard and causing havoc on the gaming table.
• Inhuman Eye Concealers: Thief has bangs which cover the upper part of her face, hiding her eyes — specifically, the fact that she has six of them, as a result of her tiefling heritage.
• Interspecies Romance: Most of the Official Couples.
  • Wizard and Thief are a high elf and a tiefling, respectively.
  • Druid is a wood elf, while Arcane Archer is a kitsune.
  • Inquisitor is a drow elf, while Magus is a catfolk.
• Jackass Genie: "Wish Bound" has Summoner binding an evil efreet and extorting him for a wish. The efreet is looking forwards to screwing him over.
• Jeweler's Eye Loupe: Wizard offers his tiefling girlfriend a priceless heirloom cloak... and she pulls out an anachronistic eye loupe. (She's a Thief, so it's to be expected.)
  Thief: So... if you had to translate "value beyond measure" into gold pieces?
• Killed Off for Real: While most characters who die can be resurrected (it is a D&D comic, after all), the readers were allowed to vote on one character to kill off for real. The unlucky winner was Thaumaturge, who was killed off in "Cessation of Hostilities".
• Leeroy Jenkins: In "Stupid Deaths", just as Inquisitor is deeming that the bounty on a cloud giant doesn't cover the risks, Magus is seen in the background charging at its foot, rapier blazing with magic. The Alt Text lampshades it:
  Alt Text: As the leader of Team Bounty Hunter, Inquisitor relies on meticulous planning and careful cost-benefit analysis when picking her marks. Magus relies on shouting "Leeroy Jenkins."
• Mesodiplosis: "Bastard Sword": The caption talking about a blood-seeking sword, vs. a murderous person wielding a regular sword, using "some" Anaphora and "are" Mesodiplosis to connect the comparisons:
  Some swords are intelligent. Some adventurers are crazy. Learn to tell the difference.
• Minions Customized at Creation: "Waifudolon" commentary talks about the possible fun of a customizable minion:
  ... the true beauty of the eidolon is that it can be whatever you want it to be. As per the class description: "The eidolon's physical appearance is up to the summoner, but it always appears as some sort of fantastical creature." Just think about that for a second. That's a lot of creative power to put in the hands of a player! It means that Xenomorphs, Freddy Fazbear, and the freaking Kool-Aid Man are all on the table, not to mention creeping on your fellow party members.
  "Tut-tut! says the intrepid GM. "The rules stipulate that your control is not fine enough to make your eidolon appear like a specific creature."
  "Fine then. She's size Large and pink. Happy?"
• Morphic Resonance: As seen for example in "Tournament Arc, Part 5/8", Druid can wild-shape, but she keeps her braided hair and color scheme whenever taking an animal form (or plant form), as well as a tell-tale green leaf on her head.
• Munchkin: Fighter is the classic "I don't do shit unless it gets me loot and XP" player archetype, crossing over into the "Real Man" archetype at times. The author has explicitly used the word "Munchkin" to refer to him.
• Mushroom Samba: In "Psychedelic", Magus is tripping hard after licking a myconid sprout.
  Inquisitor: I don't care how your people groom their young. Put the sprout down.
• Numbered Sequels: The Never Split the Party strips: "Never Split the Party", "Never Split the Party 2", and "Never Split the Party 3". All of which use Punctuated! For! Emphasis! in the strips' text.
• Number of the Beast: Strip #666 ("Trojan Catgirl") is the one including The Reveal of the Demon Queen now occupying Magus' body.
• Official Couple:
  • Wizard and Thief are an item. Wizard flipping gender mid-comic doesn't change a thing. It's often used to contrast their respective, very different approaches to role-playing a relationship. They end up married later in the comic.
  • Druid and Arcane Archer are dating too, brought together by being both shapeshifters.
  • Summoner considers his Eidolon Rouge as his girlfriend, but since he summoned her, it's no healthy relationship. And he's a sleaze who will flirt with anything female anyway.
  • Inquisitor and Magus are also a couple, although for quite a while little attention is brought to it.
• Offstage Waiting Room: "Pastimes" sees a bunch of NPCs being interrupted from their marathon toke session when the player characters come back.
• One-Person Birthday Party: "Throw Anything" has Thief celebrating her birthday alone after discovering that her Throw Anything feat does not apply to throwing parties.
• One-Word Title: A few strips:
  • "Doppelganger": About a Spot the Imposter situation.
  • "Context": About the "willing teleport" rules, and how sleep plays into that.
  • "Style", a one-shot panel which focuses on an Art Shift to Animesque style.
  • "Trapsmith": Also a Portmantitle-style Job Title, about Thief disarming all the traps.
  • "Flighty": About Airborne Mooks.
  • "Consequences": About, well, consequences of actions.
  • "Dodgy": About Thief being very good at dodging.
  • "Alarming": About alarm spells.
  • "Decorum": About royals meeting.
  • "Awaken": About awaken spells.
• Our Angels Are Different: "Special Snowflake" mentions them as part of her Too Many Halves Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid of at least catfolk, angel, and dragon.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: From "Zero-Prep": The featured characters.
• Overused Copycat Character: As seen in "Family Ties", Inquisitor's father is a clear copy of Drizzt Do'Urden.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse:
  • Pugilist is a female kobold; despite her small size and strength penalty, though, she certainly kicks ass, to Fighter's complete puzzlement.
  • Even more embarrassing for Fighter is that one time he gets beaten up by a baby kobold.
• Pointy Ears: For multiple species, such as:
  • Elves, seen in "Babe Magnet".
  • Presumably an Elf, seen in "Early Detection".
  • Gnomes, seen in "Gnomish Hireling"
• Pooled Funds: In "All That Glitters", Thief gathers her loot into a pool and tries diving in like Scrooge McDuck. It doesn't work for her.
• Prehensile Hair: Witch is able to control her hair, and frequently forms it into extra arms. Rulewise, she has the "White-Haired Witch" archetype (her hair being usually blonde is a dye job).
• Prehensile Tail: Thief's tiefling tail is described as such by Wizard, who seems to appreciate its implication in the bedroom.
• Princesses Rule: No higher level of royalty has been mentioned in Elven Princess's lands.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In multiple strips:
  • "Sweet Haul": Oh. My. Gods.
  • The Never Split the Party strips, which say that with emphasis in the strips' text, though in different fonts for each:
    • "Never Split The Party"
    • "Never Split the Party 2".
    • "Never Split the Party 3".
• Raised by Wolves: Ranger's connection with nature and lack of speech are revealed to come from the fact that she was abandoned as an infant and reared by a pack of wolves.
• The Rant: Each strip has a rant underneath. It is usually discusses an issue raised by the subject of the comic or relates a gaming story, but sometimes introduces plot elements — most notably, Aristocrat's true identity and reason for disguising herself as a hireling, which eventually became central to an arc of the strip itself.
• Rebel Relaxation: Witch takes this pose and smokes a pipe while recruiting Necromancer to her Evil Party.
• Rocket Jump: Sorcerer proposes using "fireball fast-travel" in "Rocket Jump". His companions (and the alt text) are skeptical.
  Alt Text: According to the Tsiolkovsky rocket jump equation, the motion of TTRPG vehicles that follow the basic principle of a rocket jump can be described by the following equation: 8d6 fire damage.
• The Roleplayer: Wizard loves having a complex character backstory (and flaws). Leaning into the Drama Queen, as he's overjoyed when learning his evil uncle overthrew his parents and stole their kingdom. And after a Gender Bending incident, she insists this should lead to a tragic breakup with her girlfriend, Thief, despite the latter not giving a hoot.
• Rubber-Hose Limbs: Characters are always depicted without elbows (with some very rare exceptions), and frequently without knees either.
• Rules Lawyer: Cleric will interrupt combat to complain about the exact letter of the rules not being followed, even if it's to his allies' detriment. It's a trait which first appears in "Lawful Pedantic" and is used in a number of subsequent jokes.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Necromancer seems to have trouble with dry wit, to her teammates' misfortune.
  Necromancer: Do you need healing?
  Succubus: No. I prefer my blood to be outside my body.
  Necromancer: Oh good. I was getting worried.
• Secret Identity: Fighter's unicorn mount, Lumberjack Explosion, secretly fights crime without the party's knowledge in the guise of the masked vigilante Horsepower.
• Self-Made Orphan: "Tragic Backstory" reveals that Fighter killed his own parents at a young age, in order to become an adventurer (as everyone knows that all the best heroes are orphans).
• Shapeshifting Lover: A two-way case with Druid and Arcane Archer, whose shapeshifting abilities (Wild Shape and kitsune powers, respectively) are what bring them together.
• Shoot the Hostage: When Witch takes Elf Princess hostage in "Hostage Crisis", Inquisitor resolves it by simply stabbing through them both. Resurrection magic exists in this world, after all.
• Shout-Out: Aplenty.
  • To The Lord of the Rings in "Sharing Information", where Oracle is clearly holding a Palantir.
    Alt Text: Never have a staring contest with a Palantir.
  • To the origin of Peter Parker's powers in Spider-Man, with the Alt Text of "Advanced Recon":
    Alt Text: Skitters developed her extraordinary photography skills when she was bitten by a radioactive Peter Parker.
  • To Monty Python and the Holy Grail in "Subbing In", the monster awaiting in the cave being clearly the Rabbit of Caerbannog.
    Alt Text: 5 gp says there's a fluffy white rabbit in there.
  • To The Little Mermaid with "Zero-Prep", with Wizard as the mermaid and Witch as the Sea Witch.
    Wizard: Lost session notes?
    Witch: Yup. Pity us poor, unfortunate souls.
  • To Redwall in the Alt Text for "Monster Adoption":
    Alt Text: Unless its war cry is "Eulalia", I have a firm "no badgers in the party" policy.
  • Witch exclaims "I'm melting!" after her blonde dye job is ruined by seawater.
  • In "Back to Basic", Magus (actually Demon Queen possessing her body) tries casting, among other overpowered spells, spiked tentacles of forced intrusion.
• The Smurfette Principle: For the first three years of the strip's run, Thief is the only woman in the main party. Averted after Wizard is turned female too.
• Speak in Unison:
  • "Fearsome Foe" has Wizard and Thief both yell "Botch!"
  • "Internal Conflict" has both Paladin and Anti-Paladin agonizing over whether they should rescue Necromancer.
• Special Snowflake Syndrome: Played for Laughs. Every character is a different race and class, reflecting the sheer number of those available in D&D/Pathfinder.
• Spot the Imposter: "Doppelganger" has Fighter resolving one of these dilemmas by simply killing both Wizard and his Doppelgänger — after all, they can just resurrect the real one later.
• Square Race, Round Class: Pugilist, introduced in "Small Packages", is a kobold brawler. Despite her small size, though, she quickly proves to be a Pint-Sized Powerhouse.
  Fighter: [getting strangled] But you... Racial... Strength penalty...
  Pug: Say "dex is best stat." Say it!
• Standard Hero Reward: As "Always Choose Gold" says: that, over the standard.
• Sticky Situation: In "“Minor” Magic Items", Thief sneakily uses sovereign glue to stick a black knight to his toilet seat before stabbing him.
• Streaking: In "Save vs. Beer", Magus is apparently stripping and running outside the tavern after too much drinking.
• Super Gullible: Magus is described in the role call as "naive and trusting", and she is indeed easily fooled by Thief in disguise.
• Talking Animal: Multiple:
  • From "Origin Stories: Commoner": Luigi the cat gangster.
  • "Animal Cruelty": "Aid ye not the talking animal."
• Third Wheel: In "Third Wheel", Gunslinger to Druid and Arcane Archer's picnic date.
• Token Evil Teammate: Fighter is by far the jerkiest member of the protagonist party, committing vile deeds like slaying a good gold dragon for its hoard or killing a magical talking deer for food. "Chaotic Naughty" confirms that his in-universe alignment is Evil.
• Tongue on the Flagpole: Apparently, Magus thinks this trope is an urban legend, and she ends up trying to lick a frost giant, to Inquisitor's exasperation.
• Too Awesome to Use: "Phoenix Downs" has Oracle wanting to save an anti-venom potion for later, instead of healing her now.
• Too Important to Walk: Necromancer sometimes gets around on a divan carried by zombified arms.
• Too Many Halves: A character appearing in "Special Snowflake" proclaims herself to be half-angel, half-dragon, and half-catfolk (and maybe some other halves, her diatribe is cut short), to Thief's amusement.
• Totem Pole Trench: A bunch of small-sized characters (Oracle, Gunslinger, Monk and Summoner) resort to piling up and hiding under a cloak in an attempt to be allowed riding a griffon ride with a "You must be this tall" sign.
• Unicorn: Multiple. Also things that aren't:
  • From the very first strip, "Spider-Corn", a Mix-and-Match Critters named for a Spider + Unicorn, and as mentioned on "Early Detection", they reference the usual Only the Chosen May Ride, Virgin Power ability to detect said virgins.
  • "Disembodied Voice" has said voice say it's one, but it really isn't.
• Verbed Title: "Unconfirmed", about the need to confirm crits.
• The Voiceless: Ranger is the strong, silent type, on account of being Raised by Wolves. She's not entirely incapable of speech, however, having done so twice thus far.
• What Are You in For?: Parodied with two Talking Swords in a cell.
  Goldie: What are you in for?
  Mr. Stabby: Blood. Blood-blood.
  Goldie: Yeah. I've been rolling like crap too.
• What the Fu Are You Doing?: Ninja's assassination attempt on Elf Princess with a kusarigama solely results in a self-inflicted Groin Attack.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…:
  • Arcane Archer solves all his problems with magical arrows, even when it doesn't make sense.
  • Likewise, Sorcerer is a bit too fond of his Fireballs. Even if it's just to open an Impossible Pickle Jar. Or suggesting to use the explosion for a bonus to jump checks (his teammates stay unconvinced). Naturally, he's a bit at a loss on how to deal with a forest fire.
• Wild Magic: In ""Un-Wondrous", Sorcerer casting a spell in the "Wild Magic Testing Ground" (a place filled with ominous craters) results in the whole Anti-Party scorched black and smoking.
  Sorcerer: I was really hoping for the illusory butterflies and flower petals.
• Wingding Eyes: From "Hit Dice", a dead Wizard has X-es for eyes.
• Would Hurt a Child: "Command Performance": From the Alt Text: Fifty fearsome orcs he slew / Then their wives and children too / Someone fetch the sheriff please / Because he's in back of — OUCH!
• You Must Be This Tall to Ride: A griffon ride handled by a female orc is under such a condition. This forces a bunch of small-sized characters to resort to a Totem Pole Trench to be allowed.

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