Dragon Shamans and Energy Shield

[Karui_Kage]

I've been thinking about this question for a while, but have been neglecting to ask it. The Dragon Shaman's energy shield is, arguably, one of the better auras that they possess. At my current player's level, she has her Auras at +2, which means everytime a creature attacks someone with the energy shield on, they take 4 fire damage.

While this is fine against single targets with single attacks, I wonder about unique circumstances.

For example:

Swarms - When a swarm enters a players space, it deals damage. Does this qualify as an attack to trigger the fire damage? I don't believe it counts as an area effect, so no extra damage, but would it trigger anyways? I had been basing my assumptions off the trigger from the keyword "Attack", and as a swarm does damage when it moves into an enemy's square, that doesn't seem to fall under attack for me.

Grappling and Damage - When a creature attacks a PC under this aura and deals damage, of course the energy shield applies. Let's say this creature has Improved Grab and gets the opponent grappled. On subsequent turns, if this creature makes another grapple check, they can deal damage. Does this count as an attack? I ruled No at the time, as I'm still looking at anything that goes in that "Attack:" field in a monster's layout. Abilities like dealing damage when maintaining a grapple don't seem to fall under an Attack.

Creatures with Multi-Attack - At higher levels, when basic fighters begin having multiple attacks, I'm perfectly fine with the energy shield applying each time someone attacks. Some monsters that have multiple natural attacks would also have this apply to them, but again, at high levels they have the HP to deal with it. What I'm concerned about is low level (5 CR and lower) creatures that have multiple natural attacks. Let's take a creature with pounce, like a lion. When this thing charges and does it's pounce attack, it not only gets its two claw and one bite attack, but two rakes. Let's assume they all hit (and that our Dragon Shaman is appropriate for the level, so aura of 1). That lion then takes 10 fire damage, a substantial amount. While not half its HP, it still seems rather cripping, and unfair to lower CR monsters that are balanced for their multi-attacks by other things, like lower AC and HP.

That one I'm less worried about, as we're past the point. The other two I'm still curious about, and I'm sure others will crop up. The main question is, what exactly triggers the energy shield?

 

[krupintupple]

i would imagine that should a wild creature bite something that turned out to be more flammable than tasty (energy shield), it would abort its attack routine or something of a similar nature.

however, in the example you just gave, the dragon shaman caused 10 points of fire damage, but could've easily taken multiple dice worth of damage to himself, so it's not really the greatest trade-off, as it would likely leave him with significantly less health.

 

[roguerouge]

You're over-thinking things. If it's a grapple and a constriction, of course it's an attack: you physically hurt the PC. If it's a pounce, of course it gets applied to each separate attack, including the rake damage, which is a separate die roll.

As krupintupple pointed out, the Dragon Shaman's taking more damage than he's giving out in these scenarios. I hardly think that this is a game balance issue.

Frankly, I'd also consider the energy shield to be a big bug zapper that destroyed swarms.

 

[Karui_Kage]

Dealing damage to the PC is only part of the issue. The text says "any creature striking you or your ally with a natural attack or a nonreach melee weapon is...." It seems pretty specific.

I also said that the pounce issue was the least of my worries, and I only noticed it's craziness in that one scenario. And, like you have pointed out, it's probably fine because of the crazy damage they dished out.

I do disagree that it would trigger off a constriction, and I'm still on the fence about swarms. A constriction is neither a 'natural attack' (that is defined in the back of the MM) nor a nonreach melee weapon. You might think of the swarm moving into someone's square as a 'natural attack' as well, but again, it doesn't seem to fall under the definition in the back.

Regardless of my own feelings about whether these fit into the two qualifications for the aura or not, balance issues notwithstanding, I'm asking if they fit by RAW or have been clarified by WotC. Thanks for the responses so far though.

 

[freyar]

Constrict is usually listed under "special attacks" in the original 3e statblock format, so I'd say it counts.