Swallow Whole
Some hazards call for specific answers. You’ve got your freedom of movement or liberating command for the grapples. There’s the old standby of alchemist’s fire or acid flask for swarms. Ghosts get magic weapons, flyers get arrowed, and magic-immune golems gets the pits. Unfortunately, the “answer” for getting swallowed whole isn’t much of an answer. Especially if you have the misfortune of being a caster or a ranged combat specialist, a light slashing or piercing weapon isn’t going to do you much good. Only the beefiest of warriors are cutting their way out with a belt knife, and that’s assuming your presumably-great-weapon-loving meathead has remembered to put one on his character sheet.
Friends and minions? This is precisely the time to improvise.
Nowhere in gaming is there a more flavorful situation. You’re being crushed to death in a monster’s throat! You’ve got to do something! On the other hand, nowhere in gaming is there a more nebulously defined set of mechanics. So like… Is there any way to cast fireball so that it doesn’t hit me too? How long can I breathe in there? Can my buddies try and give the monster the Heimlich maneuver?
This is definitely one of those “expect table variation” moments. Nevertheless, as an exercise in adventurer preparedness, what do you say come up with a few ways to escape the belly of the beast? For today’s discussion, everybody propose a creative method for escaping from a “swallow whole” situation. Alternatively, I will also accept clever actions designed to harm your big-mouthed foe from the inside out. All clear? Alrighty then. See you down in the comments!
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Neat, Arcane Archer took the Superior Shapeshifting trait. Wait a second… How can he speak when he’s in his Fox Form? My immersion is ruined! Rui … No wait, Druid could be using Speak with Animals. Faith in humanity restored 🙂
As for escaping, I’d like to suggest summoning a bunch of Dretches straight into the beastie’s gullet. Think about it:
1) They’re size Small, so you should be able to conjure them without worrying about the spell failing on account of insufficient space.
2) Acid resistance should keep them alive for a while.
3) Between three natural attacks a round and a Stinking Cloud SLA they should be borderline impossible to stomach.
This of course assumes that you have enough space to be able to cast, which is hardly a given. In that case, I’m afraid you’re going to have to rely on the Universal Spellcaster Emergency Escape System: screaming like a little girl for your party to save you (works better for Bards, Sorcerers and Oracles, for obvious reasons).
Stickler GMs might quote the conjuration rules at you…
…But if you ready an action for when the beast is roaring, I bet you could get the dretches directly inside the mouth. In other words:
https://giphy.com/gifs/gene-wilder-d17nhnqHflmUM
If it’s stomach is big enough to fit me inside of it, it’s big enough to count as a location.
Agreed. Unfortunately, it also counts as ‘inside another creature.’
I tend to read the “inside another creature” rule as “no Alien shenanigans.”
By that logic you could design a whole world that exists inside the belly of a titan, and ban all conjuration on that basis. Or do the same in an underground campaign, since presumably the planet is an object.
RAW that’s technically correct, but common sense dictates that at a certain size the inside of an object or creature becomes an open location capable of receiving a summon.
“Look Mr. GM man, if you don’t allow me to summon an elephant inside this T-rex and insta-kill it, you’re being illogical.”
I once accidentally solved the problem.
Our party were 4 or 5 levels down the Temple of Existential Evil (a Hackmaster parody version of the classic Elemental Evil), and the DM, seeing us kicking several shades of preverbial out of everything the module could throw at us, decided to give us a scare, and emptied the entire floor of the dungeon onto us in one massive pitched battle. It was glorious, and exactly the moment my mage had been saving up the countless wands, scrolls, and one off trinkets he had been hoarding for. I have several other stories from this one pitched battle, but the one that suits this theme is the accidental neutering of the Purple Worm.
This floor had a Purple Worm, but the way the DM emptied the floor on us, it was stuck in a troll and ogre traffic jam a good distance from us, so we knew it was coming, and going to be a problem, but it was way down the priority list for the first dozen+ rounds.
What was an immediate problem was the enemy Battlemage. In Hackmaster, the Battlemage is a glass-cannon Wizard subclass that can cast multiple spells in a turn. In turn one he dropped to Lightening Bolts on us, and he came to the top of my priority list. Knowing he was an ultra glass-cannon, I whipped out a couple of Summon Animal and Moster scrolls and dropped several Dire Elks on him, which shut down his casting (good old spellcasting interrupt rules) and gored him to death in short order. This left a few rogue summoned beasts in the monster backlines, and the DM was eager to show off, and had the currently roadblocked Purple Worm chomp them in short order. Which worried us.
But it shouldn’t have, because unknown to us (and the DM until the Worm finally got through the pile of smouldering corpses to us, and he re-read the rules of the Worm), the Purple Worm (the Hackmaster version at least, no idea if the D&D one it is based off does) has a maximum swallow capacity. And it used it all up swallowing Dire Elks, leaving it suddenly no longer particularly hungry by the time it got to the party Fighter. Who carved it up fairly effortlessly to the simmering frustration of our dear DM!
I hope you all got “Feed the Worm” T-shirts. People would probably think it was a band name anyway.
As most of my dms still allowed casting while swallowed as long as you made a high concentration check roll, I’ve mostly seen people get out because they telleported out, or the goold old meathead method. My favorite case of getting out of swallowed was when my guy, who was seen in universe as sort of a mix between Rambo and Neo from the matrix, cut his way out of a trex in front of a crowd of impressed low level soldiers, only to get immediatey eaten again by the same trex, which was just hilarious. He did get out again, but i still love the humor of that moment. Another great swallowed hole moment was where a guy at low health decided to just stay in a monsters stomach for the remainder of the combat because, with his high acid resistance, he considered safer inside the stomach then out untill the other monsters were killed.
That’s the problem. According to the FAQ in Pathfinder 1e…
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Gamemastering/conditions/#Grappled
…That concentration check is DC 10 + the grappler’s CMB + the level of the spell you’re casting. I don’t know of many mages that are casting magic missile while they’re in a T-rex’s throat (DC 43), much less dimension door (DC 46).
I have had the fortune to never be swallowed while I still draw breath, thanks mostly to the low hit points of rogue classes and keen battlefield positioning with most other things. However, a good rogue survives on being prepared for everything, and a good Wizard has more options but also more planning involved.
Vials of Ingested type poison on your belt. Dexterity damage preferably, since large creatures tend to have low Dexterity. Then you climb out of the critter’s gullet and coup de grace with your staff. Admittedly vulnerable to high Fortitude saves.
Pathfinder’s Brewed Reek Alchemical Item specifically does not allow a save if ingested. Nauseated and Sickened are pretty hefty penalties.
Blink might allow you to just leave, depending on GM ruling. The spell doesn’t have anything about grapples, but does actually allow you to move through solid objects while ethereal.
Storm Step (Wizard level 3) allows you to teleport and deals damage to people who cross the line you teleport in. And it has only Verbal components, so you can cast it while grappled/Swallowed.
That qualifier is amazing.
For Pathfinder, there is also the Resisting grappler Feat, which makes the prospective swallower provoke an Attack of Opportunity unless it also has the Improved Grapple feat. You also count your damage as 5 higher for if your AO stops the grapple. I swear there is another feat that does something similar, but I can’t find it right now.
And i’ve played a lot of games. Not going to say I’ve never been killed by something that would eat me. >.>
Though I did amuse my party once by warning my partner that she was a gnome and therefore a small morsel to many monsters. Three sessions later, she was eaten by surprise from a Giant Frog in a lake.
Weird how they left out the “brawler only” part in the feat text on that one. 😛
I imagine the unfortunate Wizard casting Storm Step while shouting LET ME THE HELL OUT
Hilarious
I don’t care what you’re made from. Having a “furious, sizzling bolt of elemental electricity” in your gullet is a bad day at the office.
I’m guessing Arcane Archer has a Ring of Eloquence to be able to speak to his girlfriend in his Fox Shape? Or did he/Druid go for the exotic ‘talk to animals’ feats and/or spells?
Also, you missed a chance to have EA’s perfect hair transfer over into Wildshape (like with Druid’s braids).
Once it’s in an allosaurus’s mouth, no hair is perfect.
I object to that claim!
https://media.giphy.com/media/NaA840F7VJSHS/giphy.gif
Huh. I always thought he was in a city street. Didn’t realize it was raining in a dino mouth. 😛
Well if the dino is hungry enough, with enough mouth watering
except for sorcerer’s hair because of the ongoing prestidigitation…
Perfect hair while being mauled to death is a surprisingly disturbing image.
You’re not wrong!
https://youtu.be/kyJBTuAehBA
I’ve never had the chance to use it, but something I’ve thought of doing is to carry a bag of holding filled with something cheap like dirt, gravel, etc., that takes a while to dissolve in acid and turn it inside out inside of a monster that does this. Most of them would probably have something rupture or at least vomit you up as a result.
That’s hilarious and I love it a lot.
Chalk. Neutralize that monster with a bellyfull of Tums.
Weirdly, even though it’s not a spell, that maneuver comes with a verbal component: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEe76UwZDi8
Interestingly enough, my experience is almost the opposite. That is I have several times come across the situation that a swallowed character doesn’t want to get out (Yet. before the creature is dead that is).
Turns out that a lot of monsters do significantly more damage with a full attack (sometimes even with funky riders like poison or curses) than their stomach acid does. At the same time being swallowed puts you near all their vulnerable organs (as represented by a much lower AC which more of your iterative attacks are likely to hit).
All in all I have seen duel-wielders and natural attackers deliberately choose to not cut their way out and instead just stay inside cutting important things.
For this reason I really like the 5e variant of that ability where doing internal damage causes the monster to vomit it’s prey instead of them needing to cut their way out chest buster style.
Agreed. I’ve always been unclear on whether the 3.X “cut your way out” thing deals damage to the creature or just to the separate hp pool of its insides. I will point out that two weapon fighting isn’t an option though: “In addition, grappled creatures can take no action that requires two hands to perform.”
I think that “take shelter inside the monster’s belly” is a viable strategy. Good show!
I have never considered that it wouldn’t do damage to the creature (you are after all cutting your way out through it’s flesh and internal organs, similar to but in the opposite direction to normal attacks) but now that you mention it, it isn’t actually spelled out anywhere so the intention could very well be the other way around.
As for two-weapon fighting my group read that as allowed on the basis that neither the normal attacks nor the extra off-hand attacks need two hands themselves. This reading rest on interpreting the extra attacks as separate actions which I can see isn’t a given.
Similar to how a paladin could attack with one hand and heal himself with the other.
Even without dual-wielding through it’s still more likely to be a good idea for dual wielders since those normally fight with a light weapon and thus have a magical one-handed weapon available. Sword-and-boarders would of-course have the same advantage but those are rarer in my little corner of the world.
I’m very likely overthinking things with the “separate throat hp.” It just bugs me that it isn’t spelled out.
Even if you can’t use both hands, that’s why you should always have armor spikes and/or Improved Unarmed Strike, especially as a TWFer. Never be completely disarmed again!
https://giphy.com/gifs/angry-guardians-of-the-galaxy-stab-xUySTCy0JHxUxw4fao
Party rogue got swallowed whole by a tendiculos. I managed to kill it the next round. Rogue gets one turn before the other tendriculos swallows him. Thankfully he managed to squirm his way back out before we had to perform rescue-by-autopsy twice.
Of course, me, being the one with a potion of gaseous form in my belt pouch, was the one not targeted for omnommings.
Gather ’round, young adventurers! Let me tell you the tale of how I became a belch.
Better than a fart.
Oh no, the potion wasn’t for ME. Just think, what happens when you open a potion bottle inside something’s stomach?
That’s absolutely genius! Takes notes…
https://media1.giphy.com/media/2siBCzFMNsySRMJfuM/source.gif
Edit: Disregard. “Wiling” tag. https://media0.giphy.com/media/xT1R9Qj3X6KKyzEsqk/giphy.gif
Freedom of movement is enough to escape a monster’s gullet as well, right? If all else fails, one can simply teleport out of there. That’s what Still Spell is for.
Also, it’s strange how they specifically made it hard for players to have the Swallow Whole ability in PF, but in D&D, both 3.5e and 5e, it’s part of the Polymorph/Wildshape package. It’s like pulling a reverse Uno card on the monsters.
The ways of system-remediation are strange indeed.
But as I discussed in another comment, the concentration check in PF is a real bitch. Freedom of movement is therefore only a solution if it happens before you’re swallowed, and it takes a divination specialist to know when that shit is coming.
Minor Magic: Ray of Frost for any Sneak Attack style of character.
so far the DMs have been generous to allow it and it shortened the slaying of the monster by a few rounds.
also luckily not been swallowed by something cold resistant.
“Ach! Hans, run! It’s the Remorhaz!”
Hah. In 1E (and 2E), getting swallowed by a remorhaz was instant death. Unless you were protected from heat, which was unlikely in the cold climes where they like to live.
Makes me wonder whether rangers should have an ability that lets them look at the random encounter tables.
…
…
…
Shit, I actually like that idea a lot.
I had a Spheres character who was specialized in fighting larger foes.
I think him getting swallowed with his Climbing Picks and Athletic Sphere: Scale Foe would have been interesting…
He also had a lot of stuff for doing more damage while scaling them…
“You’re in its throat.”
“No, I’m climbing its throat!”
“But you can’t perform actions that require two hands while grappled!”
“But I’ve got climbing picks!”
https://imgflip.com/s/meme/American-Chopper-Argument.jpg
“They only grant a plus two!”
“I also have the Impale ability from the Lance Sphere so the hand holding it counts for the check!”
“Fine, but you have to make a climb check while you slide down it!”
“Fine, I have the Sure Grip Talent so I get a plus ten!”
“Wait a damn minute… How are you using a lance one-handed while unmounted?”
“I’m clearly riding an animal!”
“Your inside of it!”
“Yeah, I’m riding inside an animal. I should get to add my ride bonus to this climb check.”
I actually planned ahead for the possibility of a swallow whole with my Ratfolk wiz! We learned from an imprisoned NPC that we would have to face an Aghasura, which is effectively a giant snake fiend. My ratfolk is small and sucks in melee as wizards are oft to, so the possibility of getting swallowed whole was a threat… Thus, his countermeasure would be avoiding the grapple that leads up to it with liberating command, and protecting from the acid damage with resist acid. Funnily enough, with resist acid, the Asura’s belly would do no damage and thus be safer than being outside with his choppy bits! Delay poison further prevented the threat its venom posed. Ultimately his precaution was not needed, as the asura died in two rounds to our designated blender.
As for methods to deal internal harm whilst swallowed… The Firebrand spell makes you (and your allies you cast it on) immune to friendly fire from your own fire-tagged spells. So, with firebrand active, you can blast the stomach interior with fireballs, conjure a flaming sphere, summon a firewall, meteor swarm… All whilst taking no harm yourself, and your opponent getting no realistic method of making a reflex save.
In older D&D versions, I believe there is a specific item to help against getting swallowed – a jar full of vicious insects that you pour into the stomach and which force vomiting.
If you have druidic wildshape, turning into a porcupine or naturally hazardous-to-touch creature (e.g. an ooze, or a poisonous creature) can work wonders to get you ejected or deal grievous harm. Especially if your form is immune to acid.
One more trick you can do is empty out your bag of holding. If it’s a tight fit and you have lots of stuff in it, the monster might explode from the sudden implosion of loot in its belly.
Sadly, I think the liberating command solution is better for the caster’s buddies than for the caster, on account of the concentration check issues discussed elsewhere. If there’s a solution to better casting whilst swallowed, I’d love to hear it!
Love that jar of bees though. I’m sure Oprah would be proud:
https://giphy.com/gifs/oprah-bees-VhFps32TlNgsg
If stuck in a creature’s gullet, I propose casting “Cloudkill”. Oh sure, you’ll likely poison yourself in the process. But if you have a benevolent DM, you might activate some gag reflex in the critter whose belly you currently reside in.
Just be prepared to make liberal use of “Shape Water” or “Prestidigitation” afterwards to clean yourself up. Fellow teammates might insist.
I think that’s once case where I will fault no one for Prestidigi-Dry-Cleaning:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/prestidigi-dry-cleaning
I’m guessing that’s Druid’s home. Which begs the question – if Arcane Archer is comfy enough to shapeshift and catch some rays in her house, does that mean Arcane Archer moved in for the long term? Are there wedding bells (and/or ancient secretive druidic ceremonies he will bring to his grave, OR ELSE) in their future?
Let’s see. Prospective couples in the comic include:
— Thief / Wizard
— Magus / Inquisitor
— Warlock / Ninja (Handbook of Erotic Fantasy only)
— Druid / Arcane Archer
— Paladin / Necromancer
I could see doing a “My Big Fat Handbook Wedding” mini-arc. No idea who I’d pick though.
I’m surprised she hasn’t shacked up with Oathbreaker Paladin.
https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=379
I gather you haven’t been following the Handbook of Erotic Fantasy.
All of them, obviously, simultaneously.
https://media1.tenor.com/images/04fe14e317045bd0fc619cd97a957471/tenor.gif?itemid=5609024
I don’t need to tempt you, I just have to temp Lauren!
https://media1.tenor.com/images/d2a02149c690bae494f122a0bcb2900f/tenor.gif?itemid=12394100
Whoever may tie the knot, Elven Princess should catch the bouquet 🙂
Not Lumberjack Explosion? Presumably as a snack.
The illegality of their romance is a problem for the Lawful Good Horsepower…
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/secret-identity
…But the Chaotic Good Lumberjack Explosion is all manner of conflicted. Damn that dual alignment class feature!
I want it to be Magus and Inquisitor, so a certain individual who dual-wields scimitars can show up for ‘father of the bride’ jokes.
Drizzt drunk at a wedding sounds hilarious.
wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
Magus and Inquisitor are an item?! Is that why Barbie hangs around with Pug, because they don’t want a third wheel?
Naw. Barbie is straight.
But as for Inquisitor and Magus’s antics over on the Handbook of Erotic Fantasy… Let’s just say that drow females have a dominant streak, and that Magus has a thing for yarn.
I tend to play heavies or casters, and as such I have the option of killing it from the inside, or teleporking out. I’m not sure how sneaks and skirmishers would get out.
As a player my most notable examples of being eaten are both my Paladin. Once I was fighting a Froghemoth. I used Wrathful smite to Frighten it so it would have disadvantage on all attacks while it could see me. In response it swallowed me whole so I couldn’t see it. I made it regret eating me in the way that one regrets eating suspicious street-meat.
Later that adventure I ended up the chew-toy for a super-T-Rex. I was too injured to try and escape. The way out is through.
As that character was fond of saying “Idiots think the only solution is smashing. Educated idiots think that smashing is beneath them. Smart people know that smashing is one of many options.” If smashing your way out works, then why wouldn’t you?
As a DM I have yet to have a PC get eaten since I favor people as foes. The closest I came was when an Illithid got their tentacles around the player’s head but didn’t get to chow down.
A player was fond of Polymorphing into a T-Rex though. They decided to try and use the Duergar Despot (Cyborg Duergar with ro-butt arms, piston punches, and flamethrowers. Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes was rushed out so there’s no art for them) as a chew toy. They got a gullet full of fire. If I or the player had remembered that concentration saves were a thing they probably would have died.
Concentration checks are one of those issues that makes “swallowed whole” tougher than it seems on paper.
I can’t take credit for this idea, since I found it… somewhere on the internet (it is a vast and often trackless realm), but Heward’s Handy Spice Pouch lets you season an entire meal. You could season yourself with doomfire hellpepper flavoring, or ask the DM if ipecac counts as one of the available seasonings, or something like that.
As for how my hobo wizard would handle it… He’d resort to magic of some sort (because if magic can’t solve it, then he has no business being in that situation). If Dimension Door or Blink aren’t options for whatever reason, then probably he’d try to cast some sort of defensive spell like Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere and just wait until somebody else handled it.
If he’s already burnt all his higher-level spell slots or is not high enough level for such spells, he’d probably try to blow his way out/induce vomiting with stuff like Thunderwave, and then if that didn’t work, he’d poke ineffectually at the inside of the beastie with a dagger until he dissolved.
There is a slight problem with seasoning yourself. I think I’ll let this gentleman explain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO78wvoL_cc
Intense burning sensations are future, not-digested me’s problem.
A few interesting methods, from least cheesy to most cheesy:
1) Surprised this one hasn’t come up yet: contingency. Completely bypasses the need for a caster check and you can get a gtfo spell off. Dimension Door is of course a classic, but for 5e something like resilient sphere cast on yourself would also be fun; make the monster choke on the orb of force suddenly in its throat.
2) Decanter of Endless Water. Flood the monster’s gullet. It should dillute the acid inside of it, then as it fills the monster will have to vomit up the massive volume of water filling it up.
3) This takes a bit of foresight, but carrying an extra-dimensional space full of lye. Turn it inside-out when swallowed, and the lye will mix with the stomach acid, and we all know what happens when a strong acid mixes with a strong base…
4) Take a level of commoner, and the chicken-infested feat. One you are swallowed, start pulling out infinite chickens.
You laugh, but I once played a southern gentleman dandy in a Firefly campaign. It was a FATE campaign, so one of my abilities was aspects…
https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/character-creation
…Was something I called “yet another deringer.” He was a bit like the chick from Trigun in that he had functionally unlimited single-shot pistols hidden about his person. Last time he was in a fire fight, I believe he KO’d the last reaver by chucking an empty deringer at it.
I discovered while browsing the pfsrd that you can purchase boot-knives in pathfinder; so I picked up one for my next character, a dwarf barbarian. After that, I sort of looked forward to being swallowed.
Also a valid way to threaten adjacent while you’re wielding a polearm! The enemy never expects the low blow!
unfortunately, Paizo cracked down on this. I used to go for armor spikes & polearm, but according to rule, I have to have a free hand… to wield the armor spikes. same thing applied to boot knives.
So it’s down to bite attacks then. Sad times.
Have you got a link for that ruling btw?
offhand? not readily. It was a forum Q&A for the pathfinder society. I want to say 2 years ago? not sure exact date.
Make you pc eat the monster inside-out like a chest-buster. If something tries to eat you, you can try to eat it, is fair. Raw monster is a delicatessen in some places 🙂
Also, while i am not couple therapist, i dare to say that isn’t a good sign when your girlfriend makes a plushy-toy of your animal-form for his dinosaur pet to chew. And i talk from experience 🙁
And thus the legendary Ouroboros was born!
What about a legend about a monster, the Ouroboros? The BBEG is after him with the idea of wake up the monster and get eaten by it, since according to a legend he who devours Ouroboros will be Ouroboros. The BBEG then is trying to pull a Leto Atreides II and the heroes must stop him to not let the world’s fate hanging out on the fact that Ouroboros chews his food or not. May the heroes suceded they may still need to face an awaken monster that may have already pull that trick to gain power and then not being a good person; unless he is 🙂
What do you think of this plot-hook i made in five minutes? 😀
I think I want to know what kind of BBEG can eat a giant worm from the inside out. Maybe some sort of worm that walks?
I will not do all the job for you. Check this guy for inspiration:
https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Grendel
It could also be that the guy eats Ouroboros only until it kills it, then use the corps as cocoon for his metamorphosis. Using a monster corps as a Chrysalis Grotesque. Um… it could kinda work as a Exalted campaign. A group of warlocks need to stop a rogue Green Sun Prince from eating Ouroboros, a sleeping Primordial, and maybe take his power for their own going rogue and Devil-Tiger in the process… Not that bad idea.
If you want to use Kyuss, okey for you. Meanwhile maybe i have got my group next campaign 🙂
Our fighter Tyr got swallowed twice during the campaign. Both times while on a boat. The first time was by a Megalodon after he fell off the ship. He shot a cannon at the dino and the recoil made him lose his balance. We killed the things with a few more blows and cut him out. The second time was a giant squid. We managed to get it so low on health that it spat him out as a distraction so it could escape.
Heh. I guess cephalopods really do have big brains.
He refuses to get on a boat or go near any body of water bigger than a puddle now.
Regarding casters in this situation,, the Spiritual Weapon spell may have clerics covered, depending on their god
Which god has an ipecac as its favored weapon?
alrighty, this isn’t my story, so I can’t take credit for it. that said, it is amazing and worth sharing at every opportunity.
The party is a mid to high tier 3rd edition party, consisting of 2 sun elf wizards (Diviner & Evoker), 2 Clerics (mystra and eldath), an Elven fighter spec’ed for bodyguarding… and taffy dafadil, a gnome barbarian.
assigned to guard an artifact from theft, they were surprised when the red wizards of thay conjured an astral marauder, and took the entire temple with them to the astral plane, party included.
combat ensues, and a couple of rounds in, the astral marauder swallows taffy whole. there was a moment of silence, then the party starts laughing uproariously. the DM, thinking this is a minor mistake, laughs this off. The players soon correct them – they are skipping their next initiative pass because they are too busy pointing and laughing.
Taffy’s turn pops up. because of 3rd edition’s …ambiguous size usage rules, a small character could dual wield medium sized short swords with almost no penalty, and still get full power attack bonuses. within the first swing, she had dealt enough damage to burst out, and the DM announces that she can escape.
her reply? “why would I do that? He’s AC 10 in here!” the following 5 attacks reduced the creature to red mist, and taffy ended up taking more falling damage than acid from digestion.
Well, there is precedent for such tactics:
https://media.tenor.com/images/821a640f5abe551ee1fce4a0aca69266/tenor.png
Teleport shenanigans are obvious. Short ranged portals, dimensional step abilities, and even quick jaunts into the shadow plane can all aid you. Bonus points if it isn’t actually a spell, and doesn’t need concentration or anything to cast while… “Grappled”?
As a more clever option, the Shadow of the Demon Lord rpg has a spell that takes a creature out of time, literally shovong them into the next round. Might I posit that since it is magic that effects specifically one creature, this spell would leave the person swallowed to fall unceremoniously to the ground?
GM permission required, sure, but I think I have a solid case.
Does hurl through hell work? Or do you go with the creature since you’re part of its “equipment”?
http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/warlock:fiend
…This is funny right now because my character recently got polymorphed into a rabbit, and then quite literally eaten. I don’t mean in the Swallow Whole way, either. Truly, the Handbook of Heroes is the most accurate comic. Fortunately, divination wizards have good excuses for getting revived later, but now I get to playtest the upcoming Spheres of Power for 5E stuff for a bit… net win, really.
You know what my takeaway is?
“Truly, the Handbook of Heroes is the most accurate comic.”
–Rednal, 2020
A short time ago, a monk and my rogue ended up swallowed by a kraken. I simply dimension door’ed out using the caps of the mounts back I had for this situation, but our glorious monk, for this situation he had purchased Daern’s instant fortress. It should be remembered that Daern’s fortress has a door at the bottom, and a trapdoor on the roof. So he spoke the command word, sent a fortress punch out of the kraken’s chest, then causally opened the door and walked out.
Wait a minute… You capped your mount’s back? That’s animal cruelty!
My plan for when I get swallowed is to just keep whaling on that creature… by which I mean, polymorph into a blue shake and explodify it.
Ever see a snake try to swallow a porcupine? Shit’s unpleasant.
I think being swallowed is an excellent time to use the skill that never gets used. Medicine! What can you find in this monster’s belly that will cause it to decide you’re immediately leaving one direction or the other?
And of course there’s always polymorphing yourself into something of a higher size category than it.
(Really Polymorph is probably the most insane lower level spell in 5e. Sure I only know of a few CR 10 Beasts in all of the 5e content, but still that’s very strong.)
Personally I always found it a little silly to include swallowing mechanics in D&D. Yes, this is a thing not very large animals do to much smaller animals. But that’s because the very process of swallowing those things would injure or instantly kill any of them that could do any even minor damage from inside. But in the case of something large enough to swallow a human? If it doesn’t kill you, pretty much anything you do (such as just being there) should be so unreasonable uncomfortable and painful it wouldn’t try and keep you in there. Just think about how uncomfortable incredibly minor stomach/gut stuff is for humans. Sometimes we have stomach aches for no discernible reason.
So I just can’t see a giant frog thinking it’d make sense to eat a person with sharp pointy objects and probably also covered in indigestible (and impassable) metal armor.
Of course the exception here is if the creature is just fundamentally not supposed to be something that could experience stomach discomfort. Like an elemental, ooze, undead, or maybe fiends and aberrations. I thought about including plants, but no plants can “feel” well enough to sense internal damage too.
Ramsus old buddy, you always come up with the good ones. 🙂
As for the logic troubles, I do have one contender for a reasonable swallow whole monster:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/wickerman/
Animals tend not to care of swallowing logic. Just look at most bullfrogs, which can eat whole mammals like rats or birds alive. Or snakes that eat crocodiles and end up exploding. Couple that with the occasional magical creature or plant…
Saaayyyy… isn’t a Kitsune’s ‘natural form’ that of a fox? Who can turn into a humanoid form? Because if the rule is ‘no shapeshifting in the house’, then Arcane Archer actually dutifully followed it there…
Technically if he entered as a humanoid he did break the rule either way
Kitsune can have three forms, in fact! Their natural form is that of a humanoid fox (in this comic, it’s anime fox ears and tail on otherwise human body, but it can also be a full on anthro ‘furry’ fox. The same can apply to Catfolk).
Their disguise form is that of a specific human, with no clues that they are a fox – mostly for blending in with those who don’t like Kitsune. With a feat, they can shapeshift as other people as well, mimicking others.
Their third form requires a racial feat, and lets them turn into an ordinary fox, as an animal. Druid’s rules clearly apply to said animal form.
That’s bupkis. Everyone knows that Kitsune have five forms: Hitogata, Sambuhenge, Koto, Juko, and Kyubi.
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Kitsune
Oh okay, got that mixed up then. Thanks for the clarification. 🙂
It doesn’t get you out of the monster’s stomach, but an Immovable Rod is a great thing to have in this situation. Press the button, then get out (such as by teleportation), and the monster has to contend with the Strength checks for moving the rod.
Heh. I could imagine an intelligent dragon making some sort of acrobatics check to maneuver themselves around the rod, allowing it to travel up their throats. And that’s a show I’d want to see.
Assert your dominance, eat a smaller monster alive first. Alternatively, be into vore.
Monster turducken!
Obligatory mention of the 3.5 Assplomancer
As to creative ways out of the Swallow Hole situation, my first thought is actually pretty similar to how I beat an antigravity shrieking jellyfish. (That was an interesting day.) It had a poison that caused the target to levitate 10 ft. per round, and I was already thirty feet up, and out of range of my greataxe. However, I had a bunch of alchemical weapons, Alchemist’s Fire, Ice, and vials of acid, in a bandolier, so I unhooked it and tossed it down at the terrifying monster, causing all my remaining ‘ammo’ to detonate. Sure, it was a little pricey, but better poor than dead. So that seems the same sort of thing to do. Just smash any violently unstable thing you’re carrying, and hope you survive long enough to get retched up.
Oh, or if you have a portable hole and a bag of holding, you could put one in the other and really cause a case of indigestion.
Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/rocket-jump
Although Swallow While has its share of problems as a mechanic with very limited countermeasures, there is one particular mechanic in Pathfinder that I hate a lot: the slaver’s crossbow and its inescapable bolas bolts. Just getting hit by one entangles you and the only valid way out is to break free with a DC 20 Strength check, and on a crit the thing roots you in place as well. Small characters have a -4 penalty to Strengh checks, then even with 18 Strength you’re boned. Even specializing in Escape Artist will do nothing for you.
This is much scarier than a special ability exclusive to a few monsters, this is a weapon that can be used by many NPCs. Needless to say Cheliaxian slavers with these things must be terrifying for halflings.
It’s only on a crit though, right?
Is there seriously no way to cut the cords with an adamantine knife?
Been a while since I’ve seen anyone offer the Exalted solution to a handbook problem, so:
• Shapeshift into something too small or too big for whatever’s eating you to maintain the clinch
• Reflexively erupt in a violent corona of raw, elemental energy, and let them chew on that.
• Duck Fate- I’m sorry, causality missed, that whole ‘being eaten’ thing didn’t actually happen to me.
• Cracked Cell Circumvention- no cage can hold you, not even one wrought of flesh and bone
• Just dump a pile of motes into a strength or athletics excellency and shove your way out
Goddamn I love Exalted. 😀
That’s because only unthinking fortress sized undead are dumb enough to swallow an Exalt. And then it’s less an attack and more a set-up for cool stunts, like most things in Exalted. Also, you forgot remind reality that something this evil and weird cannot exist here. (Lunar Intelligence Charm “Withdrawal of Assumptions” )
I also forgot the Freedom Stone, or “it’s literally not possible to be physically restrained as long as you have this socketed”.
So, Froghemoths have a pretty big mouth.
The party’s trusty dwarven barbarian had just been swallowed by one such beastie, when the Wizard had an… idea.
He figured the froghemoth’s mouth was big enough that he could still see the feet of said enraged squat. As this Wizard was next in initative I thought, “sure, lets see where this is going”.
Well, where “this” was going was after the dwarf, and by this I mean the Wizard… “fastball special”-style (He couldn’t jump all the way to the monstrosity).
So, I allow them to try–and declare that it’s going to take a pretty high check for the Shield Guardian to hammer-toss its Wizard 20′ into the mouth past the teeth and tentacles…
Wizard: “Oh, I saw this coming! I have a portent for a 19 today.”
So, there he was, laying across the biggest tongue in the Monster Manual, with one hand free and the other hand on the toe of the barbarian.
I ruled that this situation would require a concentration check to cast from, of course, but the hot dice weren’t just from the Portent rolls.
Cue the Thunder Step. Ever had a belch so bad you actually died from it?
lol. Points for style.
Ima be honest though: I’m a little intimidated by this one. As a technique, this is the kind of recipe that has me looking at all the ingredients like, “I don’t even have a lemon zester! How the crap am I going to make this perfect souffle?”
OotS has gotcha covered: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0638.html
Also from Oots (one of the calendars) “I think ‘Chews Food Thoroughly Before Swallowing’ is a much more potent ability than ‘Swallow Whole’.”
Well sure, but the “bite” ability is well-documented. 😛
Cast immolate on self, deliberately fail save.
Bribe friends with pizza and thin-mints to resurrect you once they sift your ashes out of the crater where you, the monster, and everyone else nearby used to be.
Note: Poetically Psychotic Ideas is not responsible for the consequences of attempting this while pregnant, while under the effects of haste or other drugs, while suffering from ADHD, while one’s soul is bound to an infernal being who may collect it upon death, or while alive.
Sometimes I read back on these and something new has popped up in my own D&Ding that is immediately and obviously topical. But it’s been 2 years since you posted this, so I’ll keep it short 😀
Cavalier 3/Paladin X (probably 6 or 7 at this time), good old Sir Caleb DeSeuls. He got knocked off Goblincrusher the Warhorse and monched by a flying skull with wings. Not having any really good weapon besides a Transformative lance (which cannot turn into a light weapon), he opted to blow through 2 uses of Lay on Hands each round. Swift action LoH for him, Standard action LoH for the skull, all the while making fortitude saves vs. Slay Living. This happened *twice*, and both times he crawled out with single digit hit points, but victorious. The skulls stopped eating him after that.