The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So, I’ve been grinding in Kingdom of Loathing! This is so we can actually beat Hodgman now that he’s all… the way he is now that there isn’t a bug involved. So we need a really high Seal Clubber, and I was already a Seal Clubber and I didn’t have any time to play my turns anyway… so grind grind grind!

However, that means I can’t actually, you know, use this month’s IoTM until, you know, after this month. I picked one up, because it seemed neat, but I’m mostly just going off of the wiki for attempting to judge its value. I may have to write another one later, after I do a 100% run with it, or something.

Still! Frumious Bandersnatch! It’s a volleyball!

Well, it’s a little more than a volleyball.
It seems like this would be a fairly useful Volley for speed ascenders, due to it’s “tuning” mechanic. Basically, depending on which color equipment you equip it with, it gives all of its Volleyball boosted experience to a particular stat. So you can have the Bandersnatch give you all Mysticality points, for example. That seems useful! However, the fact that you have to run 10 turns in the arena to get the equipment in hardcore may put a damper on it. I don’t know how much of a setback that is. It’s very possible that, over time, the more focused stats would speed things up for it to be worth it, but then again, since you have to bounce between the Llama, probably, and the Green Pixie… I dunno.

Still, the part that I think is cool is mostly the other part! Which is the fact that the familiar does special effects in response to what standard combat skills you use in combat. That just seems like a lot of fun, and would seem to be a good reason for me to actually use combat skills more often! Because I often don’t, if I can help it. I save MP too much. But seriously, just look at some of these effects. They’re seriously useful… extending the duration when you cast Entangling Noodles… giving you MP when you use Saucegeyer… (as if Saucerors didn’t already get too much MP from Burning Soul and such!) adding a stunning effect to Lunging Thrust-Smack and Shieldbutt? Those are really strong effects! Well, to me, anyway. And since I understand that people use Shieldbutt like… all the damn time, surely that stun effect would be useful to them too, if nothing else. A lot of the rest just gives you extra damage, but extra damage is good, too! That just seems like a lot of fun. I can’t wait to try that for a whole run. I’ll probably be a Sauceror for that one.

The thing has one more effect that I will likely never use, but I’m sure people will like. If you have Ode to Booze on when you go into battle with the Bandernatch, it gets drunk. When drunk, it won’t give you any combat skill bonuses, but if you run away, you can get a “free” run away, not spending a turn for the combat, as you can with, say, a Divine Popper or a tattered scrap of paper. Speed runners find this extremely useful! Less turns spent on pointless combats! I, however, never use these things. So, you know, this doesn’t effect me. Still, it’s a nice bonus on top of everything else cool about the familiar, I suppose. It just seems like, most of the time, if you need that effect you’d use one of those items, or Creepy Grin, or the effect on a navel ring of navel gazing if you’re already, you know, loaded up with Mr. Store gear.

Still, overall? It seems like a pretty fun familiar. I’ll let you know when I actually get to, you know, try it out!